"We Exist And Thrive At The Mercy Of Others"

Morning weigh-in: 168.5#, 8% BF

Well I'm back, got home last night. Interesting (and fruitful) trip, work part of it went very well. Some other highlights:

1. Flying there, reading Ghostwritten (again!), and occasionally looking out the window to see amazing sights, like the afternoon shadows of Chicago's lakefront skyline spreading across the lake.

2. Climbing around inside the boiler, like a giant set of monkey bars, in pitch darkness.

3. Getting a glass of wine spilled on me at dinner. (Got a free dinner out of it, but big deal -- I was eating on the corporation's dime anyway.)

4. Not one, but two fire alarms that night at the hotel.

5. My luggage taking a different route to Allentown, arriving before me, and being put in storage where they took forever to find it again -- and I still made Last Call at Which Brew.

Date With A Vampire Girl: Went down to the garlic festival today, after breakfast at the coffee shop and a trip to the gym. There was actually a girl dressed as a vampire there, but there was also a bloodmobile -- donor registration was inside the coffee shop. Purely on impulse, I decided to give blood. A few minutes of pleasant conversation with the nice ladies while my blood drained away... Pretty easy, quick & painless, and now I know that my blood pressure (I have long since stopped taking those pills) is 110/70. After that I went out to eat garlic -- protection you know, I'm already a pint low.

The fest was nice, but as always, it seemed a little on the small side.

(By the way, the title of this post is a quote from a VASS brochure I saw at last week's race, basically about how they help people, and we help them.)

Parting shot: A strange and interesting blog.

And Speaking Of Photos...

Morning weigh-in: 170#, 10.5% BF

 

Some "official" photos of me from Sunday's race can be found here, and here, and here.

 

Hit the gym last night, first strength workout of the post-season. It actually felt easier than some of the endurance ones. That'll change... I'm leaving for Litchfield IL in a few hours, getting back Friday night; I'll probably do some hotel-room yoga/calisthenics while I'm there, but that's the extent of it until I get back in the game.

 

Catch y'all on the flip side.

My Other Most Popular Photo

Exxon Demolition
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

As rated by "interestingness" -- a patent-pending algorithm that counts numbers of comments, notes, and times people chose the photo as a favorite, as well as number of views -- this is my most popular photo.

Friggin Finally!

My Shiny New Toy
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This is my most popular photo on Flickr, based on number of times viewed. I've been waiting for it to be my first photo to reach 500 views, but it's been parked at 499 for about a week -- and then three more people looked at it today. Woo hoo!

I'll probably be getting the x-rays and posting them soon as well.

And Back Again

Morning weigh-in: 172#, 5% BF

 

Got back yesterday afternoon, laundry, nap, uploaded trip photos (check 'em out now), Which Brew Mug Club dinner, now back at work. For some reason I'm pretty down in the dumps, like a bringdown from the weekend's fun.

 

And it was fun, a great weekend. Course and weather were both the best I'd ever seen there, and I did well in the race (actual rolling time was 6:27, official time counting rests was 6:51). Some of my friends did really well, like atomically fast, beating me by more than an hour. (A season-long rivalry finally came down to this weekend. Joe and Greg were training all summer for this, and when the time came they went all out.) Our place was awesome, by the way, and the non-race part of the weekend was also really pleasant.

 

Now here I am, listening to Snot Boy sniff, snort and cough, over and over, basically picking his nose from the inside. I think I'm going to snap...

 

Biz trip later in the week, southern Illinois.