08.31.07
No rest for weary laborers
Yay for Friday before long Labor Day Weekend! Does anyone really do any work on the Friday before a long weekend? Yes, yes they do, but really it’s mostly just David and myself. Campus is a ghost town right now. I’m pretty sure we are the only two people still working. Which of course doesn’t faze him in the least, despite my whiny exhortations to leave early.
But it’s okay because I have to go to the gym today. I have 5.4 more miles until I reach the completion of my August 120-mile challenge! Woo hoo, yeehaw, and other non-word exclamations! Assuming I manage to make it through the run this evening, I will in fact have finished the challenge a day early because technically I have until tomorrow, it’s really a four-week challenge, Sunday through Saturday. But I’m going to just knock out the five wee miles and get the thing over with. Then I’m going to take a rest because my legs are about beat.
Otherwise this weekend we are going to the Decatur Book Festival. Longtime readers will remember that I volunteered last year and ended up working for about 8,000 hours when I had signed up for a 3 hour shift. While I enjoy being helpful and giving to the community, I chose not to volunteer this year thinking that I have done enough from last year. Next year, I will probably volunteer again. Then on Sunday we’re going to the Braves-Mets game. After the Mets’ poor showing against the Phillies recently, it looks like this series might be a fight for which team is worse than the other. The good news is: it’s a Smoltz vs. Glavine matchup! That should make for some good baseball watchin’. Let’s just hope it’s not too scorching hot. Forecast says 83 degrees, which, if true, is perfect. Monday I plan to rest my labored body all day and watch TV or something. It IS Labor Day, after all. Rest for the weary laborers. Laborers who sit on their ass in their office all day, typing away at a computer. Hey, it’s not Manual Labor Day, fer cripes sake!
But first: cheese dip! And a giant bucket o’ margarita! Hallelujah!
Challenge ticker: 114.6/5.4.
08.30.07
Foodie
Loyal readers and anyone who’s ever met me know that I love food, and I especially love going out to eat. I love to go out to eat anywhere, but I reeeeeally love going out for fancy, fancy dinner. If you gave me the choice of any activity, money no object, I would choose going out for the fanciest dinner ever (uhh, in Paris, natch). So you can imagine that the Most Wonderful Time of the Year for me are not the holidays, but in fact Midtown Restaurant Week. Yes, folks, it’s a week during which some of the most luxurious restaurants in town (and they do this in every big city) offer a three course prix fixe for just $25 per person. Oh heavens! It’s magical!
Last night we went to Dolce with the Canadians to take advantage of Midtown Restaurant Week. Dolce is owned by the Dolce Group which boasts Ashton Kutcher as one of its partners, and their location in Los Angeles is frequented by big stars (in fact, just a few days ago I was reading People magazine and there was a picture of Hayden “Save the cheerleader, Save the world” Panettierre at the LA Dolce! I squeal in pre-teen girlish delight!) and rich people in general. It was super fancy, and generally delightful. Kudos to the waitstaff who made us feel perfectly welcome even though it was quite obvious that we would never darken their doors if it weren’t for the absurdly cheap special prix fixe. For the interested foodies here is what I had: I started with the caprese salad which featured a surprise fried green tomato as well as a fried wedge of cheese along with the usual components. Perfectly done, very tasty, perfect herbs. Then I had the gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce with sundried sweet peppers and peas. Since I am a pasta fanatic this was the highlight of my meal, and I could have eaten a bucketful (and have on various and frequent occasions, in fact) but of course since it was a fancy restaurant they only give you, like, 8 gnocchi. Sigh. I understand, and it’s actually better that way because otherwise I would seriously gorge myself. Moving on: my main entree were jumbo scallops with a lobster risotto. The scallops were perfectly done, and the lobster risotto was actually fried into a patty-like portion, so it resembled a crabcake, only with chunks of lobster and perfumed rice inside. Alongside I had an Italian sauvignon blanc. David had the caprese also, an orange sweet pepper bisque, and chicken parmigiana. And Peroni. Then they treated us to a free lemon sorbet with fresh strawberries and blackberries which was very refreshing.
My reflections are thus: while usually I disparage high end restaurants that force their superiority on you such that it comes off pretentious, I didn’t get that feeling here. It was a high end restaurant that knew its worth and didn’t make a big deal about it. The food was done to perfection, the portions were small in that way that high end restaurants do so well and pretentious restaurants do only to skimp and to be pretentious. I was pleased with my meal and I wasn’t bloated afterwards. Our waitress treated us like normal people, and the manager even stepped over to say hi after I complained that it was too cold (I was right under a very powerful air conditioning vent, and it was set on Meat Locker). The ambiance was luxurious. They did stick us in the corner, which was annoying, but I can overlook that in light of the preceding awesomeness. Yes, “awesomeness” is the best word I can come up with here, so it’s just going to have to do.
Oh, and the company was good, too. Heh.
Challenge ticker: 108.1/11.9
08.29.07
Controversy makes the total eclipse of the heart grow fonder.
So, I may alienate some readers by today’s post, but I would hope that readers will keep an open mind, see where I’m coming from, and disagree civilly if one disagrees.
First off, I am not marking the second anniversary of Katrina for the same reason why I did not mark the second anniversary of the tsunami off the coast of India. There are a lot of tragedies that happen in this world, and it’s impossible to mark all of them. I wish no human lives would be lost from gigantic storms, but it does happen and marking all of them would be impossible. However, I’ve pointed out before that while the 1400 people who lost their lives to Katrina are tragic, the fact that NO ONE mentions the 200,000 people who lost their lives to the tsunami EVER and yet bemoans the Katrina losses, simply because they are American, is a study in hubris. I’m not saying that the people who lost their lives from Katrina are better or worse than anyone else who died in a nature-related event, I’m just pointing out that Americans think the tragedies that happen to them are more dramatic. I’m an American, and I honestly feel that the 200,000 people who lost their lives, and the MILLION people who are still affected by those deaths, deserve some attention. Not that the Katrina victims don’t deserve attention, just that the others do as well.
And yes, I am aware of the irony of mentioning the second anniversary of Katrina by saying that I’m not going to mention it. There was just no other way to make a point of it! I’m a fan of teh ironical!
My next topic was spurred by my morning commute (carpool!) this morning. We were following a truck that was obviously driven by a man who had served and protected our country in the Army, and appeared to have been a prisoner of war, and received a purple heart (from the Army Retired stickers, the POW-MIA stickers, and the Purple Heart license plate). I applaud our troops and respect and revere what they do for us as a country and for me personally by protecting my freedom. My brother was in the 82nd Airborne (hmm, or was it 101st?) just after Desert Storm and I know that he did his part for our country and I respect him and his fellow troops for that. But this particular guy was driving an ENORMOUS truck, spewing emissions, 8 miles to the gallon, and even though it was only 70 degrees out, dripping condensation from the AC unit. Now my first thought was, after obviously doing everything you could to protect and serve the U.S. in the Army, wouldn’t you want to do your part to ensure that it continues as healthy as it was when you entered this world? I mean, why protect a country and then shit all over it? The fact that many people do not make the connection between these two very important priorities galls me, and is yet another piece of evidence that 99% of people choose selfishness and ignorance over the well-being of our planet and other people. And I am still, always, constantly enraged and concurrently depressed by this evidence. He demands my respect (which I would give him anyway simply for 1. being human; and 2. putting his life on the line for my benefit) by plastering stickers all over his truck, but he would not (and I am assuming due to evidence already put forth) extend the same respect towards me if I were to plaster all of my environment-saving actions on my car. Which is his right, which he fought for, which no one can dispute. But why is my war less important than his?
In other news: we did not go to cheese dip last night. The reason we had been planning to go fell through, and we successfully fought the urge. Yay for self-discipline! It is a triumph. Instead we stayed home and watched the Braves lose AGAIN. Like this is news, folks. However, in a real tragedy the Red Sox lost to the frickin’ Yankees which puts them only 7 games ahead. Grr! It’s one thing for the Sox to lose, but to the Yankees?! I grumble under my breath.
This week is the last week in my 120-mile August challenge! I only have about 16 more miles to go by Saturday, and assuming I don’t break my ankle I should have no problem. Whee! The best part about it is that I end on a low mileage week, so I won’t end the challenge by straining my body to its limits. It makes me think that the challenge was easy. Easy enough to come up with something tougher for September! Heh.
Challenge ticker: 103.55/16.45.
08.28.07
The environmentalist worships AC
I forgot to mention yesterday that our air conditioner stopped working on Sunday. It would blow out air, but the air was not cool, more like the temperature of the air outside. Which is hot. So we spent a very warm night, which to be fair probably wasn’t any warmer than the 8,000 summer nights I managed to sleep through living up north without any AC at all. But now that I am spoiled it felt very uncomfortable. But the guy came last evening and spent approximately 23 seconds fixing a knobby thingie-bob that had come loose. Thank goodness for the sweet, sweet smell of freon.
In other news, the Braves finally won! And Franceour actually got on base for the first time in 8 years! David has a theory that the reason why Franceour is hitting so badly is because Teixeira stole his mojo. Because Franceour’s been hitting approximately nothing since the Braves acquired Teixeira, while Teixeira’s been on fire. So he must have stolen the mojo. It’s the only explanation.
My gastro-week continues. I went to lunch with a couple of friends today, and because we were short on time we went to Wendy’s. I love Wendy’s, I used to work there while I was in college and ate it every day, and still have a fondness for the junior bacon cheeseburger. But since I don’t eat stuff like that anymore I can only gaze longingly at the air-brushed pictures and eat a salad instead. A warning to those who think getting a salad in a fast food joint is better than getting a burger: most fast food salads contain more fat and calories than a burger with everything. Don’t make the mistake of getting a ceasar salad and thinking you’re being virtuous. If you really, truly want to be smart about it, get the salad with the least amount of cheese and meat on it, and skip the dressing entirely. I mean, if you really, truly care what you are eating stay as far away from any fast food restaurant as you can. But if you are willing to compromise with friends who have more pressing issues, and you are willing to work at it, you can have a semi-healthy meal. Although they will try to sabotage you in ways you can’t even imagine. McDonald’s in the past would make their salads and then spray them with liquid preservatives so that they stay fresh-looking all day. I’m not sure if they still do that (probably not considering all the heat on them for their evil, obesity-inducing ways), but this just shows the level of confabulation that fast food restaurants put into food that, without these tactics, might actually be healthy for you. Somewhat.
There’s a possibility of cheese dip tonight. To be honest, I fear that because the possibility has been mentioned, that even if it doesn’t pan out David will still want to go. I will try to talk him out of it, but I will probably lose. Darn it.
Challenge ticker: 98.3/21.7.
08.27.07
It finally rained.
This drought is really taking a toll on me. I was pleased to see all the rain this weekend: first Friday evening and then again yesterday. It’s a mystery to me how it can be so humid here all the time, and yet never rain. I’m used to living in areas where it rains enough to make the trees and grass lush and green for the three weeks of summer, and yet here it’s hot, humid, and dry for, like, 8 months of the year. It’s disturbing.
So I had a good weekend. Friday night we went to beer club at Brewhouse, skipped out early and went to dinner at the Glenwood just the two of us. Saturday morning Ray, Michael and I ran the Grant Park 5K. I didn’t even come CLOSE to breaking my personal record, but I honestly didn’t care. Basically I just wanted to get the 3.1 miles over with to complete my rather grueling 35 mile week. Afterwards David and I opted to skip the festival because it was so hot outside. Then that evening Ray and I went out for girls’ night out. We got all prettied up and went out for drinks and dinner and had a fabulous time.
Sunday morning we got up at the crack of dawn for the Formula 1 meetup, which was successful as always. Good group of people there. On the way home we got all of our grocery shopping done for the week and then cleaned the house. After that we felt so proud of ourselves that we went to the Glenwood with the Handitards to watch the Braves game (they lost AGAIN) and have drinks, which was awesome. Despite the poor Braves showing yet again. My prediction is that they are definitely out of the playoffs. So yeah, a pretty good weekend.
This week is going to be a gastro-week. Let’s just say if I had been planning to lose any weight this week I would be foiled at every meal, and therefore I will just give in. Some weeks are like that, I’ll have no social engagements for a month and then in one week I’ll have lunch and dinner dates back to back. Ironically, during a week when I am running a higher mileage I will have fewer food dates because 1. running that much simply takes up more time, so there’s no time left to go out to dinner; and 2. if you know you are running 35 miles in a week, you want to feel as well as you can, so you eat well and try to get enough sleep on purpose so that you aren’t miserable on every run. Anyway, I will try to eat as healthily as I can this week, but mostly I’m just going to give in to the necessity of being flexible. Yeah, like eating delicious meals with friends is SUCH torture. Heh.
Challenge ticker: 95/25.
08.24.07
Chipper can barehand like nobody’s business!
You would not believe all the crapola I’ve got going on this weekend. Somehow, someway I managed to fill up the entire weekend with social and other obligations. It just snuck up on me until yesterday I realized that I’ll be busy all weekend until about noon on Sunday. At which point I will, predictably, collapse in front of the TV.
Tomorrow morning I’m running the Adams Realtor’s Run for the Park, a 5K race that I ran last year. I like to repeat races, that way I can say, “oh, I’ve run that 5K for years.” Yes, it DOES make me special. Shut it.
There’s also beer club tonight and F1 on Sunday. Sometimes I feel like I overextend myself, but in reality we haven’t had an F1 meetup in three weeks, so it’s not like it takes up too much of my time.
The Braves are almost beyond redemption. It’s actually painful to watch the games. Last night’s game against the Reds was like a study in frustration, because as soon as the Braves would pull ahead, the Reds would match it in the bottom of the inning. Until they finally lost in the 12th. It feels like this happens a lot, and yet I can see how well the Braves can play the game. Chipper can barehand like nobody’s business! I’m going to cross my fingers and hope for the best against this upcoming series against the Cardinals. Go Smotlzie!
Challenge ticker: 88.6/31.4
08.23.07
Fire! PANIC!
Yesterday I had to go to Fire Safety and Evacuation training as my departmental representative. The training consisted of this: If you see a fire, call 911 and get the heck out! Helpful. The session was topped with a real fire which we each had to put out with a wee fire extinguisher. The only reason why this was helpful to me is now I know how to work the one we have in our kitchen at home.
On a completely unrelated topic, I have not mentioned the poor miners trapped in a mine in Utah for the past 17 days on purpose, although I’ve been thinking a lot about them. I have an incredible, irrational fear of being buried alive, so what those miners are/were experiencing is pretty much my own personal hell. I don’t like subways, but I trust in modern engineering enough to use them (Minneapolis bridge notwithstanding), but a cave or a mine? It’s not really a choice with me, I simply couldn’t do it. It’s like very strong, invisible hands hold me back. It really feels like a physical force keeping me back. So I have been feeling for those poor men who are probably never going to be dug out, and most likely already died a horrible, painful, crushing death. Has anyone read 1984? The rats? Yeah, that’s me.
In baseball news, the Braves are sucking magnificently. Why they would put Renteria back in when he obviously is still healing is beyond me. They spent enough money to acquire him, and now they are messing with the playoff chances? They probably pushed him thinking he would have a good chance at getting a hit off the Reds’ Bronson Arroyo (also a former Red Sox) but if it was that easy to re-sprain (or whatever)? Then he wasn’t ready to play. Also, they just keep losing. Almost as much as the Orioles lost to the Rangers last night. 30-3! 30 runs! That’s the most runs since 1887! That’s 120 YEARS! And then they won again in the second game of what must have been a miserable double-header for pretty much everyone involved. Incredible.
Challenge ticker: 83.5/36.5
08.22.07
You mean I have to think up TITLES now? I’m not creative enough.
And dat’s the truth.
I have nothing more to say on the new site except to say that the content might look prettier, but it won’t be any more interesting.
Last night we went for cheese dip with the Canadians. They are going on an extravagant three-week tour of Greece soon, so we wanted to get some visiting time in with them before they go. And honestly, WHO can say no to cheese dip? Ummm, certainly not me, that’s for sure. Although I hate to say anything bad about my beloved CLC, I just have to complain slightly about the fact that they always get my order wrong. And I order the same thing every time! My biggest beef about it is that they don’t write the order down. I HATE this. So much. I despise this pseudo-chic practice that waitstaff have been doing the last few years of simply remembering the orders. Just write it down, and the occurrence of wrong orders will go down, and the number of happy diners will go up! Grrr. At cheese dip they never get the order so wrong that I won’t eat it, but there’s always just one (or two) little things which I request specifically that are conspicuously absent. Or present, as the case may be.
Challenge ticker: 78.85/41.15
Migration is for suckers.
That’s right folks, I’ve finally gotten around to using a real bog site rather than the trumped up kiddie version I had been using over at Yahoo! I do love Yahoo! for all of its capabilities in almost every other genre, but as a blog tool it was really meant for 12 year olds. So while I’ve had this WordPress domain for a while, I’ve been too lazy to set it up and migrate everything. And guess what? I’m still too lazy to migrate. Heh. So if you’re interested in reading the archives, you’ll have to click on over to the link that says Total Eclipse of the Heart, Version 1 and read through it there. Good luck, suckas!
