Activities Checklist

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 8.5% BF

 

Another day, another trip to the gym followed by a birthday party at Which Brew... It was alterna-workout night last night: no legs, but I did run first on the treadmill: 10 minutes, 1.25 miles for an 8 minute average pace (I passed the mile mark at 7:44), or a 7.5 mph average. Not a bad warmup, but for reasons of my own I need that to be more like a 7 minute pace.

 

I didn't get to talk to Lee until the end of the night, he was sitting in with that pickup band of bluegrass enthusiasts, the "Frost Hollow Rounders," that plays there on the last Thursday of the month. Just a bunch of guys, whoever brings an instrument gets up and jams, it's pretty cool. Anyway, beer and conversation with the people sitting next to me; dinner was a "Mini Me" salad with chicken, fairly healthy if you don't count all that mozzarella -- but that's what makes it good! I did manage to give Lee a "Happy Birthday" shout-out as things were winding down, and he told me he's now officially old enough to retire. He looks maybe 10 years older than I am, so I took that to mean he's about 55 rather than 62-63, either that or he's remarkably well preserved...

 

I'm riding the towpath with Larry tonight. The Rabies are playing at the WB and I'll be there, but I'll probably make it an early evening. Tomorrow morning is the VMB ski trip to Blue Mountain and I want to do the morning session, getting there as early as possible so I can split right after lunch.

Continuing On My Primrose Path

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 169#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 168#, 10.5% BF

 

So I hit the gym Tuesday night immediately after work, then went directly to Which Brew for Michele's birthday. Pretty cool if low key, just a bunch of peeps hanging out: her present from me was a beer, though many others were more socially adept and got her real presents & cards too. I sat next to her old boss, the Cosmic Cup coffee shop guy (whose name I forget but who bikes), and we talked bikes for a while until he had to abscond.

 

Oops! It was good while it lasted, but I think I put the bullet through my "successfully chatting up the young cuties" streak that night: pretty girl sat next to me at the bar, we got to talking and it was cool to talk to her, especially because she had a really neat laugh. Until... out came the birthday cake and I mentioned that wow, Michele was finally, like, an adult -- my twentysomething conversational partner was gracious enough to roll with it, but that part of the room got a little cooler after that.

 

Speaking Of Kids These Days: Take it away, Roy. Well, he can say it, he's the one with the street cred.

 

Back at the party, I started talking with this guy in the seat to my right. He'd originally relocated from Brooklyn, went to Ft Hamilton HS and I remembered just enough Brooklyn (Cortelyou Road, Holy Cross, Bay Ridge) to keep up my end of that part of the conversation. It was kind of neat, the guy was good at reminiscing. Only downside to the night, other than that it was a school night and I couldn't really let hang too late, was the hit I took next day on the scale. Beer and birthday cake and two kinds of hot wings, sigh.

 

Last night was yoga, where I was the only student in the class, which was pretty neat, individual instruction, but it also felt kind of weird at times. There was no hiding/slacking in the back of the class, luckily the teacher catered things to my needs a bit, and backed off when I started to fade. Dinner afterward was pasta/tuna & wilted greens. (By the way, I posted pics last night of a recent winter walk.)

 

Tonight I'll either be riding Jacobsburg with my friend Joe, or, if he can't make it (he may have to study for a test), I'll just hit the gym. I was going to avoid WB until the weekend, but I got an email that another friend is having a birthday party tonight there, complete with his band playing, so I expect I'll stop in for at least a few minutes.

An Army Of Dorks To Burn The World

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10% BF

 

"If you truly believed in the Constitution you'd let me build a nuclear reactor in my mom's basement." -- saw it somewhere once

 

Last Night: Went skiing last night, after a bag-o-salad dinner. I got there kind of late, say just before 8:00, and only got in about eight runs before calling it a night. The conditions were OK if not perfect, icy in some areas and slushy in others but generally acceptable, and it was warm enough out that I was skiing with my jacket opened. The place was quiet but not empty, at least not until just before closing. I scrammed around 9:45, about when everyone else did too.

 

Reading: Got back into Male Fantasies, and it seems to be getting more compelling, maybe because the author is getting around to agreeing with me: enough of this red nurse, white nurse, sister/prostitute psychobabble, these guys were basically just dorks, and in a lot of ways they were angry that the proletarian women they encountered, instead of admiring them for the shiny dorkitude they were into, regarded them as the dorks they were. Unfortunately, the dorky thing they were into was weapons.

 

This Night: Hitting the gym tonight, then going to Which Brew for a friend's 30th birthday, former barmaid . I am not the only one in Swan Song Mode, and like in the closing months of Weyerbacher, there will likely be a lot of parties and theme nights at Which Brew.

Regression Weekend Report

Well, as I said earlier, it was a good weekend in terms of night life, though somewhat in the opposite direction to where I want the rest of my life to be going. (I think I am in "get as much Which Brew as you can before it's gone" mode.) Nothing spectacular, just the usual "Which Brew followed by Porters" scene, but it was way fun.

 

Treacherous ice-walk down to Which Brew Friday, where I saw my friend Gary, back from a 6 week vacation on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. I later ended up in a cool conversation with yet another cutie over at Porters (oh man if I were 20 years younger) which caused me to stay up a little later than I expected...

 

I overslept the next morning and missed Saturday morning yoga, but I made it to the gym, then went snowshoeing along the Lehigh in the afternoon. That was beautiful; I took the singletrack on the water's edge from Riverside Park to about where Bad Andy's house is, maybe 4 miles total out and back, and every step was a wonderland. I took pictures (stay tuned), but as always they don't do it justice.

 

Saturday night was "Goth Night with Wrong" at Which Brew, and I was there on foot again. I spend far too much time breathing fresh air and being cheerful to make a very convincing goth, so I just went as myself. Sat between Jason and Dave, yakked with Jason about art & literature, then we all absconded one by one to Porters and ended up sitting together again; I yakked with Dave about girls for the rest of the night. (Disquieting news about a mutual friend who was in a car crash: she wasn't hurt but her car was totaled. A lot of the "bar scene" girls I know are younger, and they are all making a life for themselves on their own terms -- very cool, and more than I can say for myself at that age -- but many of them seem just one or two steps ahead of disaster. Living on the edge, it doesn't take much -- a hospital stay, the loss of a car -- to push you over.)

 

Got up Sunday and did a road ride around town on the mountain bike, just fooling around. Alleyways, stairs, a few pieces of the towpath, I was out for about an hour or so. After that came a trailwork day over at Sals, cutting out a lot of downed trees from the ice storm, plus some miscellaneous brush cutting. Huge crew, maybe fifteen people in all, so we split into 3 or 4 crews to deal with the rather widely-dispersed trouble spots. Lunch/dinner was at JP McGrady's in Bethlehem. Again, huge crowd. Went home, and treated myself to an early bedtime.

 

Tonight I will probably go skiing.

 

 

Well Whadda Ya Know, Another Milestone

Bandages
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 11% BF (not bad, considering)

This is my second most popular photo on flickr, according to number of views. It's been sitting at 399 views for about a week, but just got two more hits and is now over 400. (My most popular photo is at 542, and #3 is down around 200 views.)

Good weekend. More on that some other time, plus more photos -- sorry, winter walk & trail maintenance shots. You know, the photos I like, as opposed to the people's choices: my broken flesh & Which Brew hotties...

By the way, I got up early and ran this morning; it felt really good -- I think I might do that more often. Anyway, that's the reason for the early morning post, and now I'm off to work.