Category: daily tedium

According to one of the Ops guys at work, I’m Da MAAAAN. I’m not sure what I should do to cement my status as DA MAAAAAN, but I’m open to suggestions.

Mary Chen is back! She used to work here at AOL, and she’s dang funny. It looks like she’ll be posting regular, so you can start keeping up with daily Chen goodness… and until then, you can go catch up.

I don’t feel like working at the moment because I’m in the throws of a novacaine headache (last one for a few weeks, thank goodness). I’ve tried Motrin, Exedrin and closing my eyes. Now, I’ve resorted to a brownie and a Dr. Pepper to see if that’ll snap it. I had the impression taken for my crown, and have to go back in three weeks for the final. Remember kids, brush your damn teeth. This sucks.

My boss took us all to Legal Seafood in Tyson’s for lunch today. It was awesome. Now, you remember me telling you about my allergy to shrimp and later to crab (maybe I didn’t tell you, because I can’t find the post now)? Well, you can add scallops to that list. I got the assorted grill, which was this amazing sample of three grilled scallops, and three small fillets of salmon, arctic char and tuna. I loved it. But now, I have that same headache I had when I got crab at Red Lobster, and am feeling nauseous. Why me?! I love shrimp; I love crab; I love scallops. What’s next, chocolate?!

Wow. I never thought fajitas could have such a punch. We went to our local Mexican chain last night before my sister’s play (which I’ll talk about later). I got the lovely and tasty chicken and steak fajitas. Everything was fine until we were on the way back to my parents’ house. The pain in my belt area was like a kick from a small child. It gravitated south until I figured I needed to get back to their house, and more specifically their toilet, a little faster. Needless to say, I was incapacitated for the rest of the evening, and most of this morning. I think I’m better now, but I’m not trying fate. It’s rice and maybe chicken for me tonight.

Now, on to the play. It was the Sterling Playhouse’s One Act Play Festival, with (I think) all the plays written by members of the playhouse. My sister was fine, better than the rest of the people in the play she was in, and I’m being completely objective here. They put these little skits (they definitely didn’t rise to the level of a one-act play) on in a little rotunda outdoors, a decent distance from their audience without any sound amplification. We were in the fourth row, and I had a hard time hearing most of the actors. I won’t even go into the actual material, because it’s better to say nothing at all sometimes. I had three more paragraphs here I just deleted because I’m not feeling mean today. Support your local theater group – they need all the help they can get.

Jen bought a new digital scale on Saturday and we had a morbidly fun time weighing ourselves (Max included, although he wouldn’t stand still on it long enough to be accurate, he’s around 34 pounds). The most astounding thing to me was that I’ve lost over twenty pounds since my last doctor’s visit. While it makes me feel good that I’m headed in the right direction, it’s depressing in a way that I lost twenty pounds and barely even noticed.

I’m a fat guy. I’ve come to accept it. I’m not longer bordering on “delightfully fluffy”. I can no longer buy my clothes at Target. I have to go to Tubby Bastard’s House of Vertical Stripes now to buy porno-rated shirts and pants with waist sizes almost eligible for the senior citizens’ discount at Denny’s. The trend started after I got married. I’ve noticed it’s happened to even my most active friends. There’s something about getting married that makes you gain weight. Maybe it’s the “OH, thank goodness I don’t have to try anymore, she’s stuck with me” theory. I don’t know… I gained a couple dozen pounds after the wedding. I was up to 260 by the time we left Tucson. I no longer played volleyball and basketball every week like I was. I hovered around 260 for a good long while until the accident happened. Yes, my knee. I had my ACL replaced in May of 2000, and the recovery was a pain. I didn’t commit to Physical Therapy like I should have, and well, it solidified my indentation on the couch. Since, I’ve slowly expanded around the middle to my high of 326 early this year. Thankfully, my doctor laid out the risks and well, I’ve been slowly but surely trying to cut down since May. So, I’m almost back under 300 pounds (307 this morning), and am not about to give up until I can wear clothes bought at Target (or some other store, I’m not stuck on it, but they don’t have anything larger than XXL and 40″). I figure I have to lose about 80 more pounds. That will get me back to my pre-wedding weight. I have a big-guy build (6′, broad shoulders) and wore 220 pretty well. I’d love to get down to 200, which I haven’t been since my freshman year of High School. My short-term goal is to be at 270 by Christmas and 250 by my birthday in March. Then, it’s down to 220 by the start of the NFL Season next year.

Jen’s got us on this Carb Addict diet, and it seems to be working. The no bread thing is bugging the crap out of me, but I’ve lost 5+ pounds in two weeks, and it’s not that hard to stick to other than the complete lack of soda (and everyone knows about my caffeine addiction… I’m really grumpy in the mornings now).

Wish me luck.

It’s huge! We got our new big TV on Friday (through an employee discount, I didn’t pay that much really) and spent the weekend ogling its friggin’ huge perfect picture. Watching football will never be the same. I can see everything now. It’s easier to track the ball, and there’s less confusion about what’s happening on the field now that the picture’s so large (can you tell, it’s big!).

Things are a little crazy today, so I won’t be posting at my normal Monday rate unless things calm down. We’re going to the Redskins game tonight, and I can’t wait! It’s supposed to be clear and in the mid-sixties – perfect football weather!

I resolved not to watch anything on TV with “9/11” in the title. That left me with very few options, which was fine with me. I played with Max, cleaned up, waited for Jen to get home, and played some Jak and Daxter (beat the big robot at the end… now I have to go get 100 stupid power cells). I feel hungover almost, kind of like September 12th of last year. I’m sure that eventually, whatever it is I felt yesterday, and what I’m recovering from today, will fade away like Pearl Harbor did for my grandparents.

I don’t have anything funny or important to say right now, just that it’s the day after the year after, and we’re all still here. One year down, who knows how many to go. We made it, and life goes on, and that’s enough for this morning.

I’ve linked to my friend Mike’s climbing stories before. Mike has deigned to grace us with his presence in the wonderful world of blogging. Mike’s a great guy (my former boss) and an excellent writer. Be on the look out for great things (no pressure, Mike, no pressure at all).

For a day with no meetings, today has been insane. I’ve rewritten a document that took me two weeks the first time in less than three hours. I’ve fixed a dozen problems with a dozen different products. I’ve tried to find an answer to an “urgent” question that apparently has no answer (because the people who can answer it are on vacation, and this stupid thing has no documentation).

During my writing marathon, I discovered something important: Never write an important technical document while listening to Radiohead. It makes the document extremely dour and depressing. I don’t think I wrote one positive thing. Oh well, tomorrow’s all about rewrites.

Pretty much everyone I work with went home early. I’m all alone here stressing over this document, but trying to get out of here at a reasonable hour so I can see Jen and Max and go have dinner at my folks’.

Ok, this is pointless, but I’m going to post it anyway.