February 2004 Archives

Always check for toilet paper. Especially when using a public bathroom. For females, you're reaction is, "Duh. Like everyone knows that." Well, I failed to do so last night and my pride paid dearly.

I ran again today, risking injury to my stomach still recovering from the festivities from the night before.

We shot poorly. They shot well. The refs suck, as usual. We lost.

It's getting much easier to run and I feel my stamina hanging around longer. With the nice weather approaching, I just might be in shape for Crazylegs. Believe it or not, there was one year I woke up completely hung over, if not still tipsy, bought and ate an elephant ear while waiting for the race to start, and ran.

On a recommedation by The Morning News, I was visting Wrecked Exotics when the phone rang. Imagine my surprise when she says that our car was hit and there was significant damage. Irony? Or just bad coincidence?

Pictures Update:

The red light brightly shown on the digital cable box as I settled into the couch for a lazy dinner of Hot Pockets. "Ooh...a message from the cable gods. There must be a fight on pay-per-view this weekend." I quickly navigated through the menu and discovered that it was not boxing, but HBO OnDemand. HBO OnDemand was teasing me with the entire fourth season of The Sopranos. Funny, as I was just thinking, "Now Sex and the City is over with, how do I catch up on the Sopranos?" Seems like the gods can read minds, but of course it's going to cost me. Great things like this aren't free. But wait...it's included in our normal HBO fees. WOW! Finally, they got something right. I can watch every gripping episode from the blow-me-away fourth season at my leisure. All from the comfort of my own home. Not only that, but they have movies, documentaries, comedy specials and all of the other great programming that HBO offers - right at my fingertips. You can pause, forward and reverse any show. It's like having a TiVo for HBO only, except that you can watch only what they offer, and it has to be complete within a given window, and once you start it that window shrinks considerably. (So close, yet so far.) But still, it's very cool to the non-TiVo user. I think I'm going to have fun with this.

Playing the team in our last-second victory from the first half of the season. They were without a key player that has true old school talent with wondrous finger rolls that seem to fall. Without his shot making and our Tenacious D, we pulled out a convincing win, a la Dick Bennett ball.

Professor resigns after student takes challenge of an A for anyone to take their clothes off in class.

Although not as extreme, when I was a freshman at RPI, my own sociology class professor offered the males the option to write a report about wearing a dress for a day. (She also included $20.) I took her up on it, wanting to do it more for the subject of paper than the money. (That was icing.) It was a cold winter day when I wore the dress, which I borrowed from a guy down the hall. The long johns may have been a bit much, but wearing a dress wasn't all that different than the speedos I wore in the pool every day. I don't have the report anymore, but I do remember getting an A.

My first real effort in running on my own and my shins hurt with the first step. My ankles were sore all night, and will be tomorrow. Let's hope they hold up through basketball.

I ran ten minutes twice with a five minute walk halfway through.

I finally found a spot to enjoy my Coke Classic while waiting to board the final leg of my trip home. Next to me sat two women, enthralled with a crossword puzzle magazine, and they shared it with everyone within earshot. Every clue was read aloud twice, the letters already in place were noted, and the clue reread-just to make sure. The old man on the other side was ocassionally consulted, but his lack of hearing requiring another announcement of the clue and letters prevented satisfacory help. They maintained this feverish effort for every clue, but rarely filled in a word.

It was hard not to hear them. They invaded every unwritten rule of airport terminal staging areas. But, their exuberance and determination were contagious, and the dialouge was entertaining. Over and over again with each clue. I was lucky enough to end up across the aisle, next to the old man, but still within earshot of their efforts. The gentleman in front of them was under full attack of each clue. Unable to resist, he helped with "barage" and a few others. Knowing he was unable to resist caused me to smile knowingly at the exchange. We both laughed heartily. One of the women looked up with a big smile of thanks. Her eyes excitedly twinkled behind octagon lenses that faded from navy blue to rosey pink. Priceless.

I was feeling dandy until I stood up ten minutes into the workout. Then my head exploded. As I picked up my brains from the adjacent lanes, I decided to finish out the set and see how I felt. But it still hurt. I went home. This is what I got through:

• 200, 250, 300, 300, 250, 200

I got this in an e-mail:

What the "presidents" did after the Super Bowl:

• President Bush called the Patriots and complemented them on a great game.
• Al Gore called the Panthers and said he thought they were robbed.
• Bill Clinton called Janet Jackson.

The second half of the season started against the team we beat with a phantom win. This time we had to go to overtime, but still got the big W. Knowing our luck, it will come back to bite us in the ass and be a loss in the paper. (That's how we got the win the first time around. Whatever the newspaper says goes.) We ended up winning the first half of the season because of it.

This whole week I've sometimes felt like I'm not in my body. Weird vertigo-type sensations and voices support this. Tonight, the pool felt foreign. Like I didn't belong there. Maybe because it's been so long, but I can't remember feeling so much not like a swimmer ever. I was able to fight through it and get somewhere though, covering about 2200 yards.

• 6x75, 6x50, 6x25 warm-up
• 6x75 on 1:15
• 6x50 on 1:00
• 6x50 kick on 1:10
• 100 warm down

The scale was nice at 209.3 pounds.

While watching Anderson Cooper's 360°, Anderson was interviewing her about the nipple effect, including tape delay broadcasts of award shows, rescheduling of halftime shows, and her absence from the Grammies, when the following was exchanged (emphasis mine):

COOPER: Are you going to watch the Grammies?
WILLIAMS: No.
COOPER: Is it like a protest or are you just not interested?
WILLIAMS: well, award shows just aren't my thing, but I also won't be watching, making a conscious effort not to watch, because it's a black thing. Do you understand what I'm saying?
COOPER: You think in part it's racial.
WILLIAMS: I think this has turned into a black thing. At first I did not want to believe that. People are quick, African-Americans to make this into a black thing, but this is a black-white thing in my opinion. And this is also a Jackson thing most definitely.
COOPER: In your opinion?
WILLIAMS: The crazy family, the brother Michael. Let's get at them any way we can.
transcript

I hope Wendy is alone on this issue. It's disappointing to not only see the overblown reaction to the boob, but to play the race card when it's not even an issue is taking it too far.

Seems that I missed posting about this game after it happend. We won. Barely. With the win, we cliched the title for the first half of the season, but only we earned a "phantom win" which we really lost. But the paper printed it in our favour, and what the paper says, goes. So we win.

The gym. Those words strike fear into the hearts in nearly two-thirds of americans who are overwieght. I braved it with the wife, who is world-renowed at scoping and obtaining workout equipment. She was kind enough to teach me the art. The key is (as it is with everything) location, location, location and timing. A half of an hour on a elipitcal machine, which was a much different work out than I am used to, and another 12 minutes on the 'erg' (a.k.a. rowing machine) lead to a nice alternative workout.

With all clothing but shoes I'm at 211.9 lbs. (Usually, it's just a wet towel.)