Tonight: Busy, Busy, Busy

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 11.5% body fat

It was rainy last night, so I blew off riding & worked a little late, then played with the computer. Two miles running this morning, easy pace.

Computer: I started playing with Perl again, turning the little program, that I copied from Learning Perl, into a more useful tool. The program basically takes a bunch of files and renames them -- say, all the "*.new" files into "original_filename.old". This isn't too hard; the code snippet they provide uses regular expressions and string substitution on the filenames. Their example is hardcoded though, so you have to rewrite it for every new use; what I did was set it up to take the "old" and "new" patterns, and the files to change, from the invocation arguments. My next step I think is to add some switches to control behavior (more or less verbose output, confirm filename changes or not, copy rather than rename), plus more effective error handling.

In other news, I think I just need to get some kernel modules and I'll be able to get sound again. I still can't get the mouse wheel to work, messing constantly with XF86Config but no dice. Maybe I'll just buy a new mouse; the mouse I have is some cheap Chinese no-name brand, and that may be the cause of the problem.

Tonight I have to burn two CDs: one of my vacation photos for the parents, and one of my Mike photos for Joann. I will probably stop by her house & drop it off tomorrow. It'll be nice to see her, but I'm still not looking forward to this visit.

Bike: rear tire had a slow leak so I replaced the tube last night, which is when I noticed that the brake pads are pretty worn & need replacing. That plus generic Michaux prepping is tonight.

Not A Happy Camper

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12.5% body fat (doh!)

Looks like my buddy Joe "jumped the shark" last night, bringing Creepy Dave to the meeting.

Dave is a wierd-looking guy with a reputation as a stalker, and he has said things to me -- and other people I know -- that creeped me/us out, basically involving what he'd like to do to some of our (married, female) friends. He also has a habit of finding out what you're doing and inviting himself, or showing up various places (mostly Bethlehem) and insinuating himself into whatever's going on, and he's expressed an interest in joining the Chain Gang... He also smells. I avoid him, and if I see him somewhere I'm pretty evasive about any future plans (also, I do not talk about any women I know, & especially don't mention their names, in his presence).

But Joe seems to think he's an OK guy, hangs out with him and, if Joe knows what I'm doing, may bring him along or even tell him so ol' Dave can show up on his own. Joe knows how I feel about Dave, and how others feel about him (the nickname "Creepy Guy" didn't come from me). I have to think at this point that bringing Dave along last night was, consciously or unconsciously, a hostile act on Joe's part. Looks like the best way to keep Creepy Guy out of the picture is to avoid Joe, and all of a sudden I don't seem to have a problem with that.

Except... last night was also the night where we distributed hard copies of our membership roster, which is more like a phone tree. (As an aside, we don't have membership info -- phone numbers, home & email addresses etc -- on the web, because several [female] members have expressed strong opinions on privacy issues.) Last thing I saw last nite, I could have sworn Dave had a copy of one of our membership rosters in his hands...

Other than that, the meeting was really cool: we had dinner, a few beers, looked at pictures from the trip, & just had a lot of fun though the meeting itself wasn't all that productive.

In other news: ran this morning, 2 miles slow pace.

Moving Forward While Backsliding

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11% body fat (woo hoo!)

I felt like I was on fire last night at the 'burg, riding really well and fast, though I was with Brian and he doesn't ever really open the throttle (he lost quite a bit of weight lately, but he's still a big guy, and he doesn't get competitive on "pleasure rides"), so it's hard to make a judgement. Still, we rode almost every trail there, 14 miles in just under 1:30. Bike needs a little TLC: a few creaks & squeaks have developed and the bushings on the rear shock need to be replaced. I think I'll also get that brake lever replaced soon.

Some old faces: we ran into ex-Chain Gang member Dave Jones (in a team jersey!), riding with Rick Hauser last night. We exchanged pleasantries, then went our separate ways. They both looked like they're doing pretty good, though Dave said he's just getting over a bad sprained ankle (screwing around while coaching boy's wrestling).

As for backsliding: when I got home, I burned a CD of my Moab photos, then did a whole lot of other fooling around (backslide #1: didn't eat dinner during the "glycogen window") before realizing it was getting late (backslide #2) and I had to take my wet laundry to the laundromat -- dryer is still not fixed. So at 10:30 I head out, then decide to check out Which Brew (backslide #3) while the dryers did their thing. Before picking up my laundry I stopped and ordered a pizza, ate half of that for dinner (backslide #4), while staying up late reading (backslide #5). I was a little afraid to get on the scale this morning...

Between the late bedtime, the speedy ride and yesterday's run, I was feeling pretty tired this morning, so I only ran a mile, at an easy pace. It was drizzling, but still pretty pleasant. Right now it's beautiful out; my plan was to stay a little later here tonight, then go to the Chain Gang meeting (at Which Brew), but I think now I might do a quick road ride after work.

Finished Uncle Sam, now reading Maus: My Father Bleeds History and Persepolis. I have a feeling Maus is going to mess with my head.

Time's Running Out

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 14% body fat

Ran "for time" this morning: 16:44 for a little over 2 miles (I think). Not bad for my somewhat hilly route, but I still have to get the speed up -- and I was pretty spent afterward, overheated too. Two weeks to go until the race...

Tonight is Jacobsburg, probably with Brian, maybe others; for me it's a dry run (equipment-wise, anyway) for Michaux this weekend.

Back to Reality

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 9.5% body fat

Nothing much to report. Skipped running this morning (way too tired, got up early but body really needed a recovery day), picked up & built bike this afternoon. I'll hit Jacobsburg tomorrow after work.

Got home tonight and found a pleasant surprise: a package from Mom & Dad, full of Amazon wishlist goodies for my birthday. The new Bill Bryson book, plus a whole bunch of comics er, graphic novels... Maus, Persepolis, a whole bunch of others I wanted. Thanks Mom & Dad! Already finished one, no big words to slow me down...

Nice Ride!

I usually weigh myself at the same time every day, and under the same circumstances: immediately after getting up, no clothes, before eating, using the bathroom or exercising. This "official" weight should have most day-to-day variations at least partly nullified, but the downside is that if I forget to do it (like this morning), any weight measurement I take will not be "official."

Last night I went out to dinner, stayed out a little late (and I think you know what I mean), and woke up this morning tired, headache-ey and running late for a ride. Breakfast was a Clif bar and some water, then I was off to ride with the Cycle Funattic crew down to "The Baker" in Milford (coffee & muffin break, thank God) and back. These guys are hard, fast road riders, and the pace was blistering for almost all of the 35-40 mile ride -- the roads we took were very suitable for fast smooth flying. It was a great ride, and I felt pretty strong after I warmed up (major feeling of "this day is wonderful" while eating a blueberry-cheese croissant in the sunny MIlford street, sitting on the stoop at the Ship Inn, feeding the ducks in the stream), but it was a hard ride.

When I got home I did some reading in the bathroom (and I think you know what I mean) then got ready for a shower. Just for laughs I got on the scale: 173.5#. Like I said, not official weight, probably dehydrated and in a different part of my food input/output cycle, but so what? For one brief shining moment I was under 175#!! WOO-HOO!!

Just an observation: I did notice on the ride, that all these guys and gals have their roadie technique and interpersonal riding skills down pat -- unlike me, and I stuck out like a (possibly dangerous) sore thumb in the tight pacelines...