February 2004

Prey

We set out on a Saturday afternoon to conquer the wilds of the furniture stores, a few days after Misty and I had performed our scouting mission for sectionals. I consider furniture shopping an occasional, horrific necessity, similar in scope and pain threshold to car shopping.

Do not mistake me: like the purchase of my car two years ago, I will celebrate the purchase of this sectional once it is completed. We are both looking forward to the furniture shuffling that will take place once the purchase is made, but the process....Well, the process of getting there, I could really and truly do without. Okay, perhaps not the entire process, but I think I'd be happier if I were at least allowed to superficially wound the furniture salesmen that annoy me.

Let them eat kale!

So, as justification and completion of the half-torture, half-improvement that is this new exercise regimen, I've been poring over Misty's copy of Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone, and shaking my head at the amusement that inevitably follows.

If you ask me, I'll tell you that I'm not a picky eater. Really. As long as you don't try to feed me anything with cucumbers, that is.

Don't get me started on cucumbers. The smell: vile. The taste: vile. Texture? Vile. Net effect on salads? Vile. They have that nasty green skin, and ... ugh. Pickles are worse. Pickles are an abomination not to be tolerated on this planet. As someone who lives with me can attest, I may not like the smell of cucumbers, but the smell of pickles can make me flee a room.

See, I told you not to get me started on cucumbers. Nothing good comes of it!

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Regimen mambo #2

According to today's measurements, we've seen progress. I received my periodic sniping from Laura-the-trainer today about my wanting to weigh myself once a week. Actually, come to think of it, I think I got a finger waggled at me. I haven't had that happen in a while.

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Do the dance of joy!

As commanded, the Huntsville geeken shall do the dance of joy today: Elijah Clark Granade 7 lbs., 5 oz. Born oh, right around an hour ago - 8:13 a.m. Central time. No photos yet. Something about the parents wanting time to spend with their newfound kidlet before just handing him over to the local geeks. (Who knew?

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The quads take a union break

It's hard to justify saying "I won't go into the gym today because I'm in pain," when you know that, at that very moment, one of your friends is in labor at a nearby hospital. It tends to put your pain in a bit of perspective. Suffice it to say, Friday morning, I grabbed my gym equipment, coaxed myself into a standing position, and got myself to the gym.I've had to learn a good bit about quadriceps since Thursday night's gym class. Laura had encouraged me to try it, saying that she thought I was ready for it, but I wasn't entirely sure. Since the first few weeks had gone so well, I agreed. Why not see if I could add in something new and interesting to my routine?

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Zero to you both

With twenty minutes left to go on the elliptical machine this morning, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was time for us to purchase a new mp3 player. Our current one, bought for $30 off of Heather some time ago, has developed the electrical equipment of Alzheimer's; it no longer remembers that it's supposed to play mp3s as well as audio CDs, and only plays audio CDs when it gets up on the right side of the bed that morning.

Still here, still going.

I've managed to heal up after last week's rather pitiable mishap with an extra Thursday night class; my quads have returned from union break and my hamstrings, while grumpy, have indicated a willingness to play along for the time being.

I have a couple of hours left to decide if I want to attend tonight's class or not; like last week, I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I know that the extra midsection work wouldn't kill me.There are apparently two types of exercisers: the gregarious, and the lone wolves. The gregarious ones flounder when pointed to machines, alone; without others to push them, they fall. The lone wolves like their headphones and their solitude, and would rather battle a set of weights one-on-one than figure out what kind of chatter would be best to get through a class.

I'm the latter.

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A geek's approach to workouts

There's a special place in hell for people like us. In this case, 'Chris' is Mr. Lanphear of retrospecticus.org non-fame.

Are you a nun?

Ok, gents, let's review! While the desperation of humanity is often palpable on the holiday this year known as Black Satur….er, Valentine's Day, just because a depth is there doesn't mean you should sink to it.

Jody's Vaguely Moroccan Chicken

This recipe is highly modified from Jody's original recipe, which included many notes like this:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (i wanna know where the skank ho olive oil is)

While I realize that cutting out his commentary ruins the reading of the recipe a bit, I'm hoping that it doesn't ruin the taste of the finished dish. This is one of several recipes he's fired out to me lately, in an attempt to help me liven up the Many Forms Of Low-Fat Chicken Cooking we're doing these days.

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Jody's Less-Vaguely Moroccan Veggie Dish

While we're on the Moroccan theme tonight, here's another from the vast set of recipes that Jody sent me a couple of weeks ago - good for those of us who are trying to up our veggie counts by whatever means are necessary. He calls this his Moroccan version of "veggie delight."

I have to admit, I don't even know what "veggie delight" is. I'm somewhat afraid to ask. Asking questions like that always seems to get me in trouble...

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Willful stupidity and a 20-pound EZ curl bar

"I have a feeling we'll be getting "train wrecks from the gym" as often as we get "train wrecks from IM'ing" here soon." - Kat

Dear God. I'm supposed to be cooling down, prepping my lunch, and contemplating errands, but right now I'm sitting here unable to do anything besides laugh and shake my head in horror. I can only describe this morning's workout as somewhere between a Lewis Black comedy special and a train wreck.

blood orange

"You are a source of wisdom and strength to those around you."

- fortune cookie with a twisted sense of humor

I'm not sure if all this is scaring me or if it's giving me hope, or if this sudden feeling is what it's like to recognize my own backbone for the first time in a couple of years.

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they get done.

Weights regimen #2 began 4 February, and for those of you doing the mathematical home game, that means I'm in my third and final week of this regimen. After the débâcle that was the first aerobics class, Laura-the-trainer informed me (with much glee, I might add) that I now had a very good idea of just how much my body could take, and that she wanted me to raise my weights as appropriate.

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Jody's Caribbean-flavor turkey

Yet another from the Jody Vault, in his attempts to provide me more interesting ways to serve up the healthily-cooked poultry we seem to be consuming a bit of these days. (Reminds me. I need to do a Penzey's order soon. Mmmm, Penzey's...my personal crack dealer. Any of the locals want to go in on an order?)

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To Elijah on his First Week Anniversary

If you aren't on Misty and Stephen's "Sprout Updates" list, it's unlikely that you'll get a link to what Stephen wrote:

"To Elijah on his First Week Anniversary"

:D

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Today, February 24

  1. My current read, Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons," is proving to be one of the most delightful literary exhibitions of schadenfreude I've ever had the pleasure to read. I'm about a third of the way through, and I know that the lead character is going to get everything he deserves: to wit, nothing at all.
  2. While we'll miss Sex And The City, we'd like to note that the characters depicted in the show, despite protestations to the contrary, bear as much resemblance to the rest of humanity as a soap opera about mutant Prada-wearing cockroaches.

extracurricular eating

The phone rang.

"Hey, can I get you to do something for me?"I put down my cereal. "Sure," I said. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Edmund this morning?"

My mind raced. Oh, dear, had Edmund gotten himself stuck in a closet again? This could be bad. He tends to get destructive if he gets shut in somewhere. "Yeah, he's right here in front of me, looking at me. Why?"

"Would you ... would you take a look and see if there's something still dangling from ... his ass?"

To which I responded with the only possible reply: "What?!?"

ant(i)bodies

It's unfortunate that ants won't die if you just swear at them. After yesterday's scrubfest, I have airtight scientific proof of this fact. While ants will die if you spray them with orange-scented cleanser (is it the fact that it's a cleanser or that it's orangey that does the killing, I wonder?) and swear at them, swearing alone does not seem to do the trick.Ants are difficult to squish.