Category: daily tedium

What do you do when you’re driving in a thunderstorm? Why, take pictures, of course!

My knee hurts. I know for most people this would be minor annoyance probably caused by banging the joint on a wall, desk, another human being, etc. For me, it’s cause for dread, fear and intense frustration. My right knee is twice surgically repaired. Once when I was ten and tore up my meniscus and a bunch of other cartilage dislocating my knee in the backyard. The second was three years ago this month with a complete ACL reconstruction using the middle third of my patella tendon to replace the completely disintegrated ligament. It was no fun.

My right knee has been a problem since that first surgery almost twenty years ago. It’s always giving me trouble. Now, I’m trying to get in shape and exercise, and here it is again, misbehaving. I spent the weekend completely hobbled with sore thighs and a swollen knee. Now, my thighs are fine, but my knee is still unpleasantly sore. It’s dauntingly bone-achingly sore. I know I should go to the doctor and have it looked at, but honestly, I really don’t want to know what’s wrong with it.

So, I’m going to wear my brace when I work out from now on, and pout some more. Don’t mind me.

Oh my aching ass. I got a new workout from Madam Trainer yesterday. I worked muscles I don’t think existed before yesterday. Today, I’m in pain. I walk like a duck. I grimace every time I take a step. I didn’t sleep well last night because every time I moved in my sleep, I was jerked into wakefulness by my aching ass, hips and legs.

Why am I doing this to myself? Well, I don’t want to die, first of all. I don’t want to be fat my whole life, and I’d like to be able to coach Max’s tee-ball team in a couple years without having to catch my breath after every pitch. Yeah, that’s it. But why does it have to hurt so much?

Ass, I command thee to stop hurting!! Thighs, stop being like that! You’re fine, now just stop screaming at me. I took some Exedrin, now shut up and let it work.

Jon Morris strikes again. The story is great, and Jon’s wonderful art complements it perfectly. My pal Jon, that kid’s got talent (and knack for swearing in new and creative ways). Go check it out, and don’t forget to tie yourself down.

I went to Fat Bastard’s House Of Circus Tent Clothes last night to get some new shirts for church. My current stock of Sunday Shirts have 22-inch necks, and are lookin’ a little (ok, a LOT) baggy. I went in, got measures, and to my surprise, I can fit into an 18.5!! It just plain amazes me.

My favorite purchases were the two Hawaiian shirts I picked up. I just couldn’t help myself.

There’s something insidious about working twelve hours days. I’ve done two this week, and they’re absolutely draining. I don’t know what it is about that extra hour and a half at work, but it just kills me. Let’s hope this is the last one for a while.

Oh, and Jen took some really funny pictures of Max that I’ll try to get up on the site here in the next couple days!

My friend Jon is the bestest comic maker I know. Popnuts had me rolling and almost doing the same thing to myself. Funny funny stuff.

I woke up at six in the AM today, a whole two hours early, after not being able to sleep last night. I spent all day in Chantilly, in a hotel conference room, coming up with crazy crazy ideas that I can’t tell you about. But, man, did I have me some fun. I adore brainstorming. I’ll go to meetings all day if I know there’s gonna be some good brainstormin’ going on. I got to play with cool toys, pretend I was Mae West and come up with some hopefully revolutionary stuff that you’ll see in the semi-near future. If any of my ideas actually make it to the public arena, I will definitely point them out.

Now, I think I’m gonna go to bed. Yes, I know Max isn’t even in bed yet, but I am exhausted.

Here I am staring at a blank page while the world collapses around me. Work has been hellacious this week. Tomorrow I get a nice break and get to sit in an hotel conference room and expound on all my crazy theories about “the way things outta be”. Right now, I’m waiting around for an e-mail I have to reply to tonight that was supposed to show up an hour ago, and which I’m still waiting for.

While waiting, my boss sent me this fun geography quiz. I was surprised how well I did. I only missed six countries, and of that, two of them I just flip-flopped (Yemen and Oman, go figure). Go try it for yourself.

So this is what it’s like to spend twelve hours at work? It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It could be easier. I should have brought reading material.

I swear, if that e-mail doesn’t come in the next five minutes, heads are going to roll!! I mean it. I may leave the bodies on for effect, but there will be rolling, I mean it!

In honor of my 1000th post, I’ve decided to do a “best of” the last 1000 posts. There are a lot to choose from – unfortunately, most of them are crap. But, here are the ones I think rise slightly above the level of poopy:

• The Bees

• The Long Walk To School in Iceland

• Sigur Ros at the Lincoln Theater

• No Doubt in Concert

• Max, King of the TP

• The Conspiracy Theorists

• The Anniversary

• Married In America

• That’s Not Fair!

I hope you enjoy them…

This site has been a lot of fun, I don’t see it becoming drudgery anytime soon. I plan on trying some different things around here in the near future, when I can spare a few hours to start playing. I’m fascinated by the information people put on their front page, how much of it is actually worth putting there, and how to provide better navigation in blogs in general. For the most part, the standard Blogging UI is OK, but it’s not great. Some of the great designers out there have done a good job at presenting information, but I think it can get better. As things evolve, we’ll see new and interesting things, and I want to be a part of it.

What a day. My muscles are crying still, especially my quads, biceps, lats and delts (see, I was going to be a medical illustrator and wanted to draw comic books when I was younger, so I took anatomy). I’m not completely immobile, which I thought I would be. I am walking a little funny – I think the look I’m going for is “saddlesore cowboy”. The funniest part is I’m going to do it all over again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, thanks to several well-intentioned comments, I am going to get new pants. After using the facilities (taking a leak if you’re not following), I checked out my butt in the mirror. Why didn’t anyone tell me it was that bad? It looks like I’m carrying around a meatloaf back there!! Ok, maybe you did try to tell me, but come on people, you’re my friends: I can take it. They’re all poochy and baggy and damn un-sexy. I will be getting new Not So Fat As He Used To Be pants and shorts tomorrow, rest assured. I was going to try to wait until I got down to 250, but it’s just too sad not to go out and get new ones now.

And for those of you who have posted encouraging comments both here, in e-mail and in person, you have no idea how much they help. It’s funny how great it feels when someone else notices how much weight I’ve lost. I’ve known friends over the years who’ve done the same thing, and I never knew what to say, “Hey, you don’t look like a fat disgusting mess anymore. Good job!” My first thought is always that they’ve got cancer or something and I’ll just embarrass them by saying something. But hey, shouldn’t they know that the cancer looks good on ’em? Now, speaking from experience, it feels great when people notice. So from now on, I’m sayin’ something. People need support. I need support. It’s only fair to give it after receiving so much. Thanks everybody.

I’ve got a loaner laptop… it’s a PC… running Windows 98. I think I’m in hell. It’s about 18-months behind on updates and other tomfoolery. It’s crashed three times in an hour, once giving me the blue screen of death. It’s short on RAM. It’s ugly. They still don’t know when/if I’ll get a new Powerbook. If the stupid thing had landed on the carpet, everything would be fine. I would be using it and all would be happy happy. Now, I’m in Windows Update hell (Windows Update is evil, if you didn’t already know, but I haven’t installed anything yet and the machine really needs it).

In other news, I think I’m going to die. I had my first workout with my Personal Trainer (who is a woman, but we will call Bob to protect her anonymity). It was tough, but I made it all the way through without having an asthma attack, passing out or dying. It’s a start. Tomorrow may be a different story. Already, my body parts are screaming profanities unfit for polite or even impolite company. My shoulders are tied up in gigantic knots. They feel like Delta Burke’s shoulder pads in the first couple seasons of Designing Women. My calves feel like those two loaves of bread I made last week, stones. I am committed though, and I will go buy new sneakers, because hiking boots do not make good workout footwear. I will walk for 45 minutes on the C&O trail this weekend with Max (and Jen if she’ll go with us). I will come in to work on Saturday to use the gym. I will do my squats, push ups, bicep curls and ride the bike while reading CNN on the TV. I will sweat and smell bad and use a communal shower. Not because I want to, but because I have to. I will be a shape other than round and blobbish, and if I’m not, I will at least not be as round and blobbish, and I will be able to keep up with Max and play volleyball, and maybe even basketball again. I now see an excuse to get an iPod… one can only read CNN on TV for so long before diving through the nearest window.

In good news, I think I have the menu all worked out for next week. Jen invited some folks over, and I’m going to make something yum-tastic. Maybe not the soup from last weekend, but maybe. You never know. I’ll post the menu when it’s final and I’ve purchased all the goods.