Friday, December 15, 2006

Semi-Rest

Morning weigh-in: 185.5#, 9% BF

WEnt to the gym last night, then to the Which Brew "re-gifting party." I ended up with a bottle of wine, which I'll be bringing to Fred & Lara's party tomorrow night. Early night despite everything, but I skipped running this morning -- I was too tired, figure I needed the sleep...

Hitting the towpath tonight, then tomorrow is a busy day.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Healthy Stuff

Morning weigh-in: 184.5#, I forget the BF

Last night didn't work out quite as planned: I rode the towpath with Doug & Eric, but we didn't actually finish (late start, slow pace) until almost 11:00, then went out to get some food, ended up at Shruty's after exhausting all other possibilities -- I didn't get home until almost 1:00 AM. Needless to say, I didn't bother getting up early to run this morning. Chili, cheesesteak, two pints o' Guiness and skip the exercise...

By the way, new photos at Flickr.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Echoes? Reflections?

Morning weigh-in: 184#, 10.5% BF

Still nibbling away at Against The Day, up to maybe page 85-90 or so. Just went through some stuff involving the Michelson-Morley experiment, bar-room cabals of aether-enthusiasts growing despondent, waxing philosophical, & speculating on double refraction and alternate identities/realities, as rumors of the experiment's results start seeping out of the lab... Next was stuff about a traveling photographer ("alchemist") and his young daughter, who ends up getting a job in Cripple Creek, where we run into labor agitator and dynamite junkie Webb Traverse blowing up a railroad bridge on the Fourth of July -- that's where I closed the book the other night.

"Echoes" brings to mind "resonances," as in "harkening back to the mystic chords of memory etc," but maybe the more sterile but light-oriented "reflections" will have to do... there is a lot here that I'm picking up: Speculations on the Luminiferous Aether like those on the Soniferous Aether in Gravity's Rainbow and that whole 19th-century vectors-vs-quaternions thing, the father and daughter with missing mother mirrors Zoyd and Prairie in Vineland (ditto the Traverse family thing), and now shades of The Monkey-Wrench Gang.

Anyway, it's tomorrow and I didn't finish this post, so what-EVAH...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

There Are No Ghosts, Only Monsters

Morning weigh-in: 182.5#, 13.5% BF

I was going to say something about Pinochet's death the other day, but better writers beat me to it: here's a little something from Sadly, No!, and here's where Steve Gilliard weighs in (he got that here, also very good -- but notice the trolls in the comments). It's really too bad I don't believe in Hell, now's a time I could use it -- I wonder what Isabel Allende is thinking right now?

Anyway, yoga last night, running this morning, dinner (and breakfast) in between was the last of the GoLean Crunch (aka Crack-In-The-Box, my favorite but extremely gassy cereal) that I bought the other day.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Naptime!

Morning weigh-in: 185#, 10.5% BF

Tough weekend...

Friday night I went to the Long Valley Pub to meet some friends for a holiday dinner. Good place: pretty decent brewpub beers and excellent food, and much closer to where I work than I realized -- I arrived early because of that, and got to check out the bar. The people I met there for dinner were my new friends Joe and Dawn, with a number of their Piccatinny Arsenal co-workers and similar folks, all people they ride with, maybe a dozen all told. (I'd met most of them from Allamuchy this year: Chris, Lenny, Tony and Beth all raced.) Dinner was a Philly cheesesteak wrap, washed down with some of the local Porter, appetizers were some hot wings and calamari -- the only calamari I've ever liked. Conversation was good but a bit confused, I talked mostly with Beth (sitting next to me) and pick up bits and pieces of stuff from further down the table. Big group, lotsa stuff going on.

I left there about 9:00 and was home by 10:00; I was tempted to go to Which Brew for a nightcap but decided to go to bed instead.

Saturday is supposed to be my "selfish day," when I get most of my chores done, but it seems to be turning into an exercise day. I started off with an early morning yoga class, then went to the Coffee Exchange for breakfast before going to the gym.

I've been taking a lot of beginner yoga classes (naturally), but felt that the time was right to start moving up, which is where Saturday comes in: the class is listed as "mixed level," as in intermediate, "previous experience strongly recommended." The last time I took a Saturday class it seemed to be run at a higher level (and pace) than I expected, and though I felt like I was OK and not totally lost there, I was left wondering if there wasn't some level between the beginner levels and this class -- and this Saturday's class fit that bill exactly.

Anyway: yoga, coffee, gym, then I went to take those pictures of the Christopher Columbus statue. They didn't turn out as nicely as I would have liked, but I will post them anyway. Shopping, lunch at the Quadrant, then home and it was time for a nap.

I got up, went out but my Saturday night was pretty abbreviated: corned beef & cabbage dinner at Which Brew, caught one set of the band and I was home by 10:30, to finish my nap...

Sunday was another early morning, and another workout chasing Bob and friends around Allamuchy. I caravanned down with John C after meeting him for breakfast, and the ride (two rides: a "fast group" comprising me, Bob, John, Joe C, Joe G, Cindy, a Brit named Alex and Steve F, and a "slow group" of the people I saw Friday night). About four and a half hours of hard riding, cool but dry and very pleasant, and we were back at the cars. I was whooped once again. Home, another nap, and then I caught the first half of the Cowboys game while eating a steak sandwich w/ Magic Hat #9 at Porters, before going back to bed.