Friday, August 15, 2008

Megan Gets Married


Megan
Originally uploaded by donXfive.
Congratulations!

This is a photo from 2005, before she moved out to Seattle and became "West Coast Megan;" in fact it's from her going away party. I saw Judy at Christian's spring Hotel last night, Judy whose daughter Erica was Megan's best friend growing up: Erica just got back from Seattle, where she was maid of honor -- practically the whole bridal party, apparently it was a small, nontraditional wedding -- and we got the story of how it all went down.

Moving to Pennsylvania was one of the best things I ever did, and so many other "best things I ever did" were really just consequences of that original move; I think Megan's really thrived out there from all reports, and this is one more consequence of a really good move. Go Megan!

Last Day Of The Week

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 166.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 165.5#, 11.5% BF

UPDATE: This was a post from yesterday that I forgot to submit. The future parts of it came true pretty much the way I said.

Nothing much to say. Went out to Sette Luna with Anne last night, split a pizza (pepperoni and some exotic sausage) and an appetizer (figs stuffed with goat cheese, amazing taste/texture juxtapositions). Nice place, we sat in the main room. Tonight I'm hitting the gym, then meeting Anne and a few others at Christian's Spring.

By the way, I'm back on the population dynamics kick; I picked up that Matrix Methods book again.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Porky's XXXIV

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 11% BF

Rode at Jordan Park last night. I got there at around 5:45 and the place was a mob scene: the VMB ride (maybe 20 people) had just left, and what I think was the Blue Mountain Ski Club's weekly mountain bike ride was getting ready to go out (there was also a pretty big contingent of Dirt Devils in the lot and on the trails, though I'm not sure if that was a group ride or not). I got literally the last space in the parking lot. Needless to say, the woods were pretty busy too. I rode with Rudy and Dave, and we were constantly ruinning into other riders, as well as hikers and a few frisbee golfers. Trails are twisty there, and turn back on themselves a lot, so you could be far from someone via the trail, but see them only a few dozen yards away as the crow flies -- we were joking about the "Blair Witch" parody on Saturday Night Live, where the kids were running around in circles, "lost" and panicking about 10 feet from their car...

Long meeting afterward, but productive as always, and that was followed by a trip to Grumpy's BBQ for dinner. Pretty awesome, never been there. You could smell the pork and beef smoking from down the road -- they do it themselves out back -- and it tasted as good as it smelled. Decent beer selection too.

Tonight I'm skipping yoga, and going to Sette Luna for someupscale pizza with Anne.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Get-R-Done

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 4.5% BF
 
Think I'm all caught up on my sleep, it's been "good sleeping weather" as the saying goes, and the past few nights I've been doing just that, like a log. Of course the Sunday party, and the Monday night laundry/Porters thang, might have something to do with that, as well as those morning numbers... Laundry's done though, and so are a few other chores/errands that I had hanging over me; all I have left now is some shopping and housework, and I should finally be caught up to my weekend agenda.
 
Tonight is a trip out to Jordan for the VMB meeting, heading there straight from work, and I brought the bike for the pre-meeting ride. I'll be later than the regularly scheduled ride but I should be able to hook up with the others, it's not a big place.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Monday Morning Quarterback

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 10% BF
 
Seems like such a long time...
 
Time Flies: Wednesday I went to Christian Springs after yoga, to hang with Anne and also Kelly-Jo. We were having such a nice conversation that time started to slip by... I realized it was sort of late, thinking "oh it must be 11:00 already" and checked the time -- it was 1:00 AM. Ouch! Needless to say, Thursday morning was a tough sell.
 
Too Old To Rock & Roll? I saw Jethro Tull at Musikfest on Thursday night. I was there with my friend Bob McF (from the Which Brew crowd) who'd basically bought tickets to all the shows, and arranged for different people to join him on different nights. Pretty decent plan actually, he saw a bunch of good shows and managed to hang with the old crowd too... Unfortunately, while the show was good and we had a blast, Ian Anderson's vocals were not up to snuff -- his voice seemed unable to hit the higher notes, and while his flute playing was as forceful as ever his breathing, while singing, was like he was trying to talk and jog at the same, all breathless and wheezy/panting. Something was up, and you could tell they knew it: though they played many of their hits, the majority of the songs were instrumentals from earlier in their career, or obscure things from like the late eighties. Still, it was a decent enough show, they did rock, and like I said they played most of their hits -- except not "Aqualung," which ticked Bob off no end, since I think that was his favorite, and the reason he was there...
 
Return Of The Son Of The Fun Ride! Friday night was a Sals ride, actually starting with dinner at Tulum (a burrito place in Southside Bethlehem) and riding over to the St Luke's Hospital trailhead behind the dialysis center. Our plan was to ride through the woods and listen to the Stone Temple Pilots concert -- the acoustics for the pay shows are actually very good in some parts of the woods, since Sals is just across the river -- but there were three flats, a broken chain, snafus with lighting systems etc, and we were out a lot longer than we expected; when we got back within earshot of the concert, all we heard was talking, but they played "Plush" just as we got back to the dialysis center. Oh well, I guess we missed it... After that I hit the Tally Ho, but it was crowded and I didn't know anyone there. Burger, beer, and gone. (Got a report from someone who saw the show: they showed up like an hour late, seemed drunk and spent a lot of time yakking, and their voices were off. At least we had fun biking!)
 
Reading: Saturday I skipped morning yoga but did the coffee shop thing (saw Judy there) and then hit the gym, and that night I went to Christian's Spring Hotel to hang with Anne and her sisters . It was a beautiful day, so of course I spent a good portion of the afternoon, between the gym and dinner out, at home reading -- I finished Gods Behaving Badly, and am now back on Blindness, both loaners from Anne.
 
My Little Chickadee: I heard some birds chirping rather loudly while I was hanging at home Saturday, didn't think anything of it but when I went to the bathroom I passed the kitchen and saw two little finches or something, sparrows, in the kitchen, on the windowsill, cheeping at about a dozen of the same kind of bird right outside. I opened the window as my new friends flew around the room, then eventually got one of them to fly out -- the other one hit the window and fell to the ground, stunned, and scooted under the fridge when I tried to grab it. It hid itself up in the works, behind motor/compressor etc, I could barely see it with a flashlight and couldn't get it out (I tried a broomstick), so I opened the window and left the room, figuring he'd calm down and eventually find the window on his own.
 
I went in about an hour later and he seemed gone, so I shut the window and went back to reading, but just as I was about to hop int the shower (passing the kitchen again on the way to the bathroom) I heard loud cheeping and found my friend back on the windowsill -- apparently he took longer to calm down than I thought. This time he managed to find the window when I opened it, and so I was only a little late to dinner.
 
Yesterday I went on a breakfast ride, rolling down to the Quadrant for brunch (where I saw Kirk and also Michele) before doing the towpath. My plan was to hit Sals, but I only got to Freemansburg when the sky started looking ominous, so I turned around. Home, shower during the storm, and out to Emmaus for Heath's surprise party -- he's relocating to Utah, and his brother Hans threw a going-away party for him. Only a few peeps there I knew but it was nice. I was whooped when I got back, so I hit the sack early last night. So now I'm essentially caught up here...
 
Tonight is drycleaning, yoga, laundry, and shopping.