There’s not all that much horrible going on in my life, but Mondays are Mondays. I had to sit patiently for an hour while an IT dude in the Philippines (I’m guessing) moved my mouse remotely. A known issue with Microsoft Outlook is what I’m guessing because there was a locally written program to fix the problem I had. So after getting my silly computer back (and it rebooted several times today because it does that rather than sleeping) I suppose I got on with my day.

I keep thinking about my fitness level and how I was able to do certain things before that I can’t do now. Not the “when I was younger” kind of things but more the “before I had that cold a few months back I was able to do this a bit faster” sort of thing. I wish I could say I was constantly improving, but it’s more like slowly improving. Then again, when I actually think of my fitness goals it’s just to maintain some level of fitness amongst all the cheeseburgers and the beer I wish I was drinking. I’m too lazy to go out and get any. The cheeseburgers just seem to find me.

Oh, and I did pay bills tonight, the only thing I really had on my short to-do list. It’s not short because I don’t have anything to do, it’s short because I’m disorganized and a little lazy. I mean, come on, I’d actually have to START A LIST to have a list and then I’d have to keep from losing it. Pfft.

My brain’s not running on all cylinders today. I got to Café Allora in the Pearl to watch the World Cup Final game between Spain and the Netherlands and the only reason I was rooting for the Netherlands is because I didn’t want that game-predicting octopus to be right. I wasn’t very vocal about it, because I was in the middle of a lot of Spain supporters. In any case, Spain won, and the octopus was right.

It being Portland, of course, I saw a guy I’ve gone to for Sports Massage, Michael Bilyeu. I was just thinking of calling him last week because I was all knotted up. I’m not sure why he was down in the Pearl to see the game because he lives in NE and works in SE. I did get to ask him if I still had the right number and address for him.

The Pearl, being the Pearl, had a lot of wealthier seeming people around. Across the street from the café was a BMW Alpina. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I bet it cost more than I make in a year. Two years, probably. My buddy Matty suggested I get one, but I reminded him that I am neither a drug dealer nor a record producer and he told me it was never too late for a career change.

What I can afford is to finally get my sorry ass to Violetta to try their sustainable slow-food hamburger. I’ve heard mixed reviews, and I have to say it’s a very good burger but not the best I’ve had. Plus, it’s kind of a fast food/slow food establishment. Tacky interior but expensive prices. The staff was super-nice and even gave me a rare hamburger, but it needed a little more sweetness in the relish. But it was tasty, the meat was tender, and I was full of cheeseburger and crispy truffle oil fries. I’d certainly not dissuade anyone from getting it, but still there was something missing.

I wondered why I wasn’t hungry at dinnertime and I realized that I had my burger at 2:48PM after my first bite. Late lunch. I also forgot to get my free Slurpee today. I kind of figure I can afford to buy a Slurpee, so I’m not out too much, but do I need to get as much as I can from the faceless holding corporation that owns 7-11? These are the kind of philosophical questions I can handle today, nothing much harder though. I think the sun fried my brains.

I am trying to post from my new iPhone 4 now. I was going to see if my old iPhone 3GS can be used as an iPod Touch of sorts and post with that but the battery was completely flat. So now I’m playing with the new hotness yet again.

I heeded the advice of my friends who suggested that I try closing all the heater vents downstairs which did make it much cooler upstairs, but it’s still too hot to sleep. I think my mattress has picked up residual heat and I like it a little on the chilly side when I’m sleeping. Ah well it is supposed to be about twenty degrees cooler tomorrow and be in the low 80’s instead of the high 90’s.

I took my mom to Slabtown Ribs for dinner and I had way too much barbecue tonight. My blood is slowed by the barbecued goodness and I don’t think I have much more to say. Andiamo.

My old boss asked me if I was going to ask EVERYONE to remind me never to walk to Subway (1.25mi) when it’s going to be over 90°F. I wanted to make sure that SOMEONE would remind me next time since I nearly melted on the way back. Fortunately, I was able to watch the end of the World Cup soccer match in the cafeteria from the time that (not going to spoil it for people who haven’t seen it) scored the first goal on (the other team). I’m really getting sucked into some of the games.

I also had a small cramp in my leg during the walk, which was great because it’s now in the other leg. In between cramps I got to see Helen at the gym (two laps around the building, 21 24kb kettlebell swings, 12 kipping pullups, three times). The first lap around the building in the 90+°F heat and I had cottonmouth so bad that I had to stop and get a drink of water. Not only don’t I do well in the heat, but I keep telling myself that I don’t do well in the heat and that probably makes things worse. I think, however, that age probably has something to do with it. That plus the walk to Subway. Plus I couldn’t count and I did 6x med ball cleans with 60#, 80#, 90#, 100#, 90#, and 100#.

Heck, I’m a native Portlander. 50’s and cloudy is the ideal weather for athletics, and the 70’s are hot.

I’ve been ignoring writing anything down, except for some stupid iPhone code that doesn’t really work. Holy hell it’s driving me nuts. I should know better than to try to dive into the middle of something so messy. All while sitting in a room that’s in the upper 80’s while it’s really much cooler outside. I’m not a huge fan of the heat and I’m in one of the hottest rooms in the house. Of course it’s silly, but that’s just where my office is now. It’s supposed to be in the 90’s (F) this week and that’s way too hot for me.

Other than that, today (Tuesday) felt a lot like a Monday. Forgot my badge, brought the wrong DVD with the wrong version of Linux to work, forgot my headphones, and now the electrical room at the end of my row is buzzing quite loudly. They say it’s working fine, but there are a dozen people who aren’t going to be able to work while it’s buzzing like that. Hooray for that.

So, once again, a boring day for a boring guy. A boring guy who should be asleep but isn’t. Boring with no common sense.

That was a fairly successful 4th of July. I kind of got my iPhone app working a little better. It’s still broken, and I’ve still spent a hell of a lot more money than I ever should have writing an app I could have purchased for 99 cents, but whatever. We also invited ourselves to my sister’s house for a barbecue, and I watched my neighbor set off hundreds of dollars of legal fireworks without getting injured.

I also reconfigured my web server in a panic, late at night, which is the way I usually do it. I’m hoping it’s working correctly now. We’ll see.

I went back to Belly because I couldn’t stay away. Plus, it’s 4th of July weekend and I think most people are either out of town or off their regular schedules, so some restaurants are empty while others are overfull. Belly was empty on Friday so I took a chance.

My mom and I were the only two there, and I got a burger. Not as rare as I like, but tasty nevertheless. They must have grilled it over wood, because the meat had a smoky taste. The only downside, again, was a bun that wasn’t perfect. I’m not sure why I’m so picky about the bun, but this one was also a bit gummy. Not chewy, but just a little gummy.

The burger could have used a bit more relish or something.

My mom got the pizza. Not as crisp as I’d like, but tasty.

I went to Belly today because I was working from home and one of the advantages is that I get to go to different places for lunch. (In case you think I didn’t do anything, I did almost destroy a hard disk while trying to get something work-related running.) Also, Belly announced their new lunch menu and it sounded meattastic.

Oddly enough, I didn’t have the burger. I had the Belly dip instead, which was:

crisp roasted pork belly, melted leeks and watercress aioli on toasted hoagie with bacon jus

It was tasty but not executed perfectly. The roll needed more toasting (it was too chewy) and the meat was cut into small chunks that fell out of the roll and made it impossible to dip. I’d still recommend it, but it’s one of those “hard to eat” things.

My mom had tasty asparagus with a poached egg fritter which she said was kind of bland but pretty. Remind you of anyone?

I think I may go back tomorrow for the burger.

Earlier this week I had to get up at a ridiculous time so I could be in the office for a 7AM meeting. I was just kind of listening in on that, but tomorrow I have to be in for a 6:30AM meeting and I’m the main event. Fortunately I think it’ll just be a nice question and answer sort of meeting, but sometimes the answers just mean a lot more work for me. But enough about that. Not talking any more about work, and how people live in other, more inconvenient, time zones.

I tried for a 340# deadlift today and I didn’t make it. This means that if I’m going to pretend that I can deadlift twice my body weight, I’m going to have to pretend that I only weigh 165#, which is sort of what I weigh. I’d say I go from 164# to 168#, so I’m going to have to deadlift more next time, or lose some weight. Either one is going to be kind of hard. I did get 340# up and about to my knees, but I just didn’t have it in me to get it all the way up. I started out thinking that I wasn’t going to make it and that didn’t help much. I should probably get more sleep, but the heat earlier in the week didn’t help much.

OK, so I have to get up at a ridiculous time, so that’s about it for today. Life could be more interesting, but then would it be my life?

Most days I would say something about my tedious day and, according to the stats, 20 people would read it. I think 19 of those 20 are actually just google and yahoo and whatever other search engines are still out there. I wonder if altavista is still out there?

But I really have very little to report. And I even missed Sunday and Monday. Sunday was a beautiful day and I spent it inside. I started out by finally putting marmoleum sealer on my bathroom floor (after more than a year of just thinking about it) and then paying my bills. But then I spent the rest of the day trying to write an iPhone app. I was successful in writing an app, but it did not work the way I wanted it to. Back to the drawing board.

I think the main reason I haven’t been writing as much is because I’ve been busy at work, and I still have stuff to do in the evening because i’ve been busy at work. Pretty pathetic but whatever. Anyway that’s the happy haps. Time to read the entertainment news.

I did very little actual work today and it just involved filling a garbage can with some more of the ivy my awful neighbor left in my yard. It’s just as well, I’m not a big fan of ivy. I also had some fun trying out some chemical means of controlling the weeds in my yard. Other than that, though, it was all about sitting inside and trying to get my computer to do what I wanted it to do. I wasn’t quite successful.

We went to a Japanese curry restaurant called Kale that my mom and my sister have been talking about for a while and it was pretty good though they don’t have a lot of things on the menu. Beef curry, non-beef curry (semi-vegetarian), and curry doria. I had the doria, which must be phonetically transliterated from something else, but it’s rice, curry, and cheese which is baked. It was quite tasty. The name of the restaurant is also the transliteration of curry in Japanese.

Japanese curry is not like other curries, but it was pretty tasty if you ask me. The menu is pretty limited and the location is in a café in SW Portland near Lincoln High School and I think I’ll be going back.

Oh, and I went and bought a Zagg screen protector for my iPhone 4 after being all paranoid about scratching it and I’m much happier now. I’m waiting for the bumper to actually ship and I think then I’ll be even happier. I finally made a couple of phone calls with the thing but so far I’m just using it like my last iPhone 3GS, maps, texting, and iPod. And so far I really like it.

I used Facetime today. The heat, however, is melting my brain. 85°F is too much too soon for me. So I got nothing else. Time to pass out.