The Gym

Part II: Why Going to the Gym is Good

There are as many reasons for going to the gym as there are days in a month. For me going to the gym helps balance both my perspective and my patience for things. I can be in the worst mood and of the narrowest mind. Yet, once I'm working out at the gym things balance out and I feel great. Plus for $51 a month it's a lot cheaper than therapy. Which, without my gym membership, I would need a lot of these days. I'm experiencing some serious self-doubt and frustration while at work. And how many times have I been to the gym this week? Once! That's what I get for being truant

The Gym

Part 1: Why Skipping the Gym is Bad

Last Friday I skipped out on the gym. I didn't plan of skipping out; it just happened. And I nearly paid a steep price for doing so. Before I hit the gym I made a stop at CVS. I needed something, anything that would measure liquid in milimeters so I could give out our sick Bean the appropriate amounts of his medicine. CVS does not have these things on the shelf. However, they have great pharmacists. After walking up and down aisles in vain, I asked a pharmacist where I could find such a device. Instead of simply telling me that CVS doesn't sell anything like that (which I later learned), she went the extra mile and gave me a 1 ml. syringe from behind the counter.

As great as that was, the drive to the store and my wondering with in consumed 25 of 60 minute lunch break. I got back in the car, debating the up's and down's of an abbreviated workout. The debate consumed so much of my attention that I sailed through a red light at a four-way intersection, much to the horror of the other driver's and nearby pedestrians. Lucky and fortunately, I did not cause an accident.

I have learned an important lesson from this experience. That any amount of working out is good, and skipping the gym is very, very bad for your health.

Love & Marriage

This weekend, and Monday, held many love and marriage related events. Friday night I had my first 'bachelor' night as a married man. I downed burgers and beers with another married man, an engaged man, and another fellow deep into a serious relationship. This night also was my 7 month + 1 day wedding anniversary.
Saturday and Sunday saw valentine's day preparations by both the wife and I. However, Saturday night held the best news of all: my sister got engaged to her beau of 6 years. We are still gathering details but so far Dan - the fiance - played all the right cards. He provided a weekend away at a B&B, an endless supply of flowers, and a box of chocolates in which the ring was hidden. Kudos to you, Daniel; Kudos to you both.

Since the wife is busy polishing the high school musical at her job we postponed a Valentine's Day trip out of town. We did, however, exchange gifts. She got two tickets to the upcoming Finn Brother's concert and I got a 8 x 10 picture (one of my favorites) of us at our wedding.

Of Wax & Dust

Prior to the Super Bowl the wife and I went treasure hunting at a local thrift store. Her mission was to find stuff for her school play. My mission: comb through ever LP in the store. In the past I had terrible luck with record hunting in thrift stores. My best excursion netted me 'Bare Trees' by Fleetwood Mac, pre-Buckingham/Nicks, and 'Tunnel of Love' by the Boss. Both are decent records, however as thrift store finds I feel they are pedestrian catches. This Sunday's trip was an overdue bonanza. I found 'The Bix Beiderbecke Story' by Bix & Tram, 'Conversations with Myself' by Bill Evans, and 'Jazz a la Creole' by the Sidney Bechet Trio. LPs that were issued in the '30's, '40s and '60s.
Also, I purchased Tom T. Hall's "Songs of Fox Hollow' on LP (we already own the CD). The LP came with a full-size book of color drawings that accompany each of the songs. Definitely, worth a $1.

Fish got to swim

And birds got to crap. But do they have to do it on my car? Taking advantage of the nice weather this weekend, the missus and I washed our cars. However, two days later my car has 10-15 'direct hits' all over it. That's the last time I park it under the telephone wires at work. It looks just plain awful. Hopefully we will have more nice weather this weekend and I can wash my car...yet again.

Fire! It's what's for dinner

I was grilling a delicious bass on the deck last night when the whole grill pan erupted into flames. More precisely the marinade I was using, which at this point thinned out and coated the grill pan, caught on fire.

So when I opened the grill lid the whole grill pan bursts into flames. It was really, cool. As in, wow, that's a lot of fire cool. That is why I simply stood there watching the flames while gas continued to vent from the tank. Eventually I reached down and closed the tank's valve, then rescued our bass from the flames. So this story has a happy ending - the bass was delicious, the deck is still standing, and I still have my eyebrows.

Au revoir

Goodbye to football. I felt the Super Bowl – with its see-saw scoring, big plays, and nail-biting ending – was a great way to finish another exciting football season. To add to the excitement, our household routed for different teams. The wife routed for Philly, I routed for the Patriots and Bean routed for more commercials.
No more football until August. The absence of highlights and blocking schematics must be the secret ingredient that makes draft day so exciting. Well, at the first couple of rounds. Really, there is only so much drafting that I (and the wife’s tolerance) can take.
Fortunately, the 2005 football season will live forever, thanks to Madden NFL 2005. Over the weekend I figured out enough of the game’s controls to orchestrate a respectable showing on the digital gridiron.

Stated

We watched the State of the Union last night. I never expected to agree with anything said. However, the broad outline for the privatization of social security piqued my interested. I've read a lot of articles about how the system simply will not support future retirees'. I was glad to hear that someone is offering a solution to the problem, rather than just lamenting it's status. Then I started to read articles. I read this but dismissed it as sour grapes. Then, I read this and began to think differently.

So now I'm back to zero. Zero things that impressed me about last night. Furthermore, I was severely disappointed that the president used a historical event to further an agenda of hatred and segregation. His views on homosexuals invalidates his claim of respecting a 'culture of life'. You can not segregate people in and still value life. That makes your a hypocrite.

For more hypocrisy, read this.

Raging In The Streets

Like most metropolitan places, traffic around here sucks. There's gridlock, unexplained traffic jams and driving attitudes that resemble war crimes. It's the latter trait that gets my goat the most. I've seen some amazing things happen on my route to work. Over the past months, I've tried not to flip these people the bird or talk smack about them (mostly to myself) as they perform some reckless maneuver. In honesty, what's the point? Since these people have so little regard for themselves and those on the road I doubt they care if I wag my finger or tongue at them.

I should also try to curb my silent wishing. For the more shocking bastards on the road I wish that I find them further up the road pulled over by the police, or upended in a ditch. However, it's not good karma to wish ill on other people. Plus, there are usually innocents involved. tragically, it would seem they bear the worse punishment of their driver's mistakes.

There is also this article in the Wash.Post today. I plan on reading it but have yet to do so. If you beat me to it let me know if it is any good.