Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas!

Morning weigh-in 176.5#, 14.5% BF

All I want for Christmas is some health... missed all of yesterday -- literally, went to bed thursday night, only got up for bathroom & medicine breaks until this afternoon. Now I'm up and about, sort of, but still not feeling much better.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Happy Festivus! I'm So Disappointed...

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 13.5% BF

Well it might not be the flu for Christmas, but I will definitely have sinus/bronchitis for Festivus. I sure won't be going to the Which Brew party tonight... I'm expecting a call back from the doctor any moment, get my prescriptions phoned in (I'm guessing Astelin spray, some antibiotic, and a decongestant/expectorant) -- I may skip out of the rest of work today, especially if the doc sez start the meds ASAP.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Stupid Magic Cauldron

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10.5% BF

Well, I have a sinus infection, guess all that healthy herbal magic couldn't quite stop it. Tonight will be Janna's party and run/bike through the Christmas lights down in Bethlehem. I'll probably blow it off, at the very least the run part (I would have biked), which is too bad because I have a really good "grab bag" present... If this cold gets any worse I'll schedule a trip to the doctor, get a prescription for some antibiotics and that nasal spray.

Hit Which Brew last night for dinner, saw Heath & Hans there, as well as Scott, and Jessica, and Mike & Carole who were just leaving as I arrived. Bartender Maura's off on her honeymoon -- or at least, post-wedding vacation -- and her sister was there in her place. Reasonably big crowd, all of people that know each other, lots of conversation which actually got loud at times but it was still a mellow night. They have a "Festivus Party" planned for tomorrow night, I might have to blow that off as well -- and I have a great present for that one too.

Reading: I recently re-read Neuromancer and I just finished Count Zero; now I'm in the middle of Mona Lisa Overdrive. That'll give me something to do for the next couple of days, sigh...

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Drive A Stake Into The River, Cap It With A Bone

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11% BF

Obligatory Pynchon quote:

"He was my good health," she often says. "Since he passed away I've had to become all but an outright witch, in pure self defense."
Like good old Mrs Quoad, I've been hit with disease, and resorted to a magic cauldron of herbal remedies & potions (teas, oscillococcinum aka "duck sauce," echinacea, vitamin C, etc etc) to hopefully beat it back. That and last night's early bedtime should save me. It's probably just the low humidity messing with my respiratory system -- very cold out, relative indoor humidity at home was 25%, which is bad. (Meanwhile, props to any of my faithful readers who can discover the meaning of this post's title. Hint: they were out of Olympia, and Google probably won't help.) I still feel a little under the weather, respiratory system is stressed out but the "I'm sick" feeling is not there.

Ring out, Solstice Bells!
It's the first day of Winter. Io Saturnalia! "The very bottom of the year," as old T.P. might say. Will probably hit Which Brew for dinner tonight, no workout until I'm sure I have no chest infection. (BTW, I usually have a song stuck in my head when I'm riding. Back in 1998 -- my best year -- I always raced to the instrumental part of "The Whistler.")

Monday, December 20, 2004

Flowing Underground

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11% BF

Drove along the Muskenetcong River on the way in today, and it had that "glowing green" look about it -- schweet! I also saw some info (on the web, while looking up some info about Mithraism and its underground temples) about the rivers in London, tributaries of the Thames that have been covered over and now flow as sewers; they're starting to recover (rather, uncover) them, and have even been able to stock a few with fish...

-- anyway --

Friday night: I got home planning to ride, but instead worked on that shell script which builds static HTML photo galleries (my photos, the non-yahoo ones, were made by an earlier version). I recently decided to revamp it, using unordered lists and CSS rather than tables for the index page, and also I decided to use "here documents" in the script, rather than loads of echo statements. Anyway, I started playing, never got around to riding, and only left the house at 11:00 PM for the VMB Christmas Party... things were in full swing when I got there: beer pong, a fog machine, bike videos, etc. I made a valiant effort to play catch-up, and ended up sleeping in Doug's basement -- but only after we drunkenly made some of the worst music ever, with some cool new software he got.

Saturday was "selfish day," when I hit the coffee shop, then the gym, then the natural food store, then the other coffee shop (got one to go), then the farmer's market in the square... After that I drove out to Emmaus to that new bike store, did some more Christmas shopping and got an espresso while I was there. Ran into Hans whose bike was being repaired, also Selene who was just enjoying the bike store / coffee shop scene; Selene & company were riding French Creek on Sunday, but I talked Hans into joining us for an Allamuchy ride. I just made it home in time to get my drycleaning, then worked on the bike, got cleaned up and went to Joe G's party. I just stopped in to say hello, had a beer and then left for Gary & Gina's party. Both parties were pretty cool, but I was kind of partied out (and I really didn't know many people at Gary's) and left early, was home by 11:30.

Sunday I met Hans (who lives in Salisbury I think) at the Easton Perkins; we had breakfast --talked bikes with the manager as well as some guy I've seen at Jacobsburg, doing post-church breakfast with the wife -- then caravanned out to Allamuchy. Ten miles over there in slight drizzle/flurries with Brian and Bob, short & sweet & done before the bad weather, then home, laundry, more online xmas shopping and my weekly afternoon nap.

Now it's today. I have one more "real" gift to get, and two gag gifts (for parties Wed & Thurs), then I'm done, and not a moment too soon.