Archives 2005

As I was at the gym doing behind the head, dumbell tricep extensions I thought to myself “Elbows In” This came about years ago from the one and only time I worked out at a gym with my brother’s ex-girlfriend. She was a gym rat, more hardcore than I was back then. We were on the last “family” vacation we had in Rehoboth. On the boardwalk there is a small, hot little gym that I always wanted to work out in but never did. I wanted to do it for no reason except the novelty of working out on the boardwalk, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Well when I brought up the idea she was gung ho about it so she, Ali and I went to the gym one morning. The gym had a handful of people going about their routines. I did pretty much the same routine week after week back then and I was trying to duplicate it the best I could. Then as I was doing my first set of the same dumbell tricep presses I was doing today, Kristen said “Keep your elbows in, otherwise it’s cheating” I was a bit taken back after getting workout advice from a female. However I knew damn well that she knew more about working out than I did so I pulled the elbows in and verified that it was indeed much more effective for the muscle group doing it that way.

Don’t ask me why it stuck with me but every single time I am doing that exercise I am back in the tiny, steamy boardwalk gym with Kristen saying “Elbows In…”

2 finales last night and thanks to Tivo we caught both of them. Well American Idol was the final performance but tonight is the final voting if you want to be specific. To me, the AI performance was a slam dunk for Bo. He’s a better performer and did a much better job on the original songs than Kerry did. For the first time this season Ali actually picked up the phone and threw in a few votes for Bo. He deserves to win.

The contender 2 hour finale was action packed. Surprisingly, there was a prelim fight for third between Jesse and Alfonso, which Alfonso was yet again the upset winner. That kid is something else. In the final it was a bruising battle with Peter trying to basically tie up Sergio but it just didn’t work. Sergio’s fast hands never slowed down and he won a convincing decision. It was a good fight but I would have preferred if Peter won. I felt bad for him, you could see the disappointment on top of him like a boulder.

After watching the series I think the smartest thing boxing could do is make boxing matches shorter. In a 5 or 7 round fight the fighters are able to unleash for the majority of the time instead of having to pace themselves to go a grueling 12 rounds. Every single fight in contender was good and I think the short format had a lot to do with it.

Ali started feeling sick on Friday morning. By the time she got home she was really feeling crappy. Worse yet, I started to feel sick as well with a developing sore throat. Since I was supposed to play volleyball the next day, I was concerned I too would wake up the next day feeling like hell. The first thing I did was go gargle with listerine, I have no idea if it helps but I figure it can’t hurt since listerine burns like a mother and hopefully also kills the little bugs that make you sick. I still was pretty sure my condition would degrade so I called my vball partner and left a message, saying if he knew someone else available to play, it may be a good idea to call them. I hoped to hear back from him during the night so we could talk about it.

I went to bed late, unsure of what the next day would bring. Ali and I were startled out of our sleep at 4:30 in the morning by the phone ringing. I instantly assumed it was the automated system from work calling to say the power was out or something. So just as Ali picked it up, I told her to not answer it and she hung it up. As I lay there, annoyed, I thought to myself about the outside possibility that my vball partner could have been the one on the other line. Nah, can’t be, why would he call so early…

So I got up with the alarm at 5:15 am, feeling extremely sleepy but without the feeling of illness I had the prior night. Cool. As I went out to the kitchen to start prep work, I checked the caller id and was surprised to see the 4:30 am caller was indeed my vball partner. Oh geez. Well I waited a bit and then called back but got his voicemail and told him I would be ok to play. I didn’t understand why he would have called me at 4:30 but later found out he was up all night dealing a poker tournament. Not good.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed across the state. The drive was a bit more manageable than last week. I like the beach at Hollywood, it’s old fashioned, small and has a very simple appeal to it. I was suprisingly energetic and pumped up to play considering the prior 24 hours. I really wanted to do well. I expected to do well. We didn’t do that well.

Our first match was against two younger kids. (I must be getting old when I call people in their early 20’s kids) I think they were both brazillian. One kid was tall and lanky. They were good players but we should have handled them. They were frustrating because they were constantly going over on one and two even though they were quite able to use 3 hits. I never saw young kids with talent play this way, it is the sort of thing normally old players or guys with little skill resort to. We lost a close game. Yet another bad start.

The next two matches were tough. We squeaked out wins in both of them but is was far from easy. We were unable to have a consistent period of good play to build a sizeable lead. We would make a great play but follow it up with unforced errors, giving the team a point and keeping them in the game.

But after 3 games, we were in the same position as the prior week. If we won, we would be in the playoffs, if we lose we were done. Just like the other games, it was close, there were great plays, but there were even more miscues causing us to drop the game and be eliminated. I was frustrated and let loose with an obscenity and whipped my hat towards the sidelines after we lost on yet another unforced error. The frustration was building from the errors and me not getting a chance to hit enough to get into a good rhythm. I just had to let a little steam release. Afterwards , after a few minutes of silence, I relaxed and it was done with.

Throughout my vball playing days I have almost always been the one that got served less, if for no other reason, I was almost always the taller player. That is why I really enjoyed playing triples or quads because it didn’t matter who got served, I still would have the opportunity to hit. Hitting is the best, most enjoyable part of the game for me. I enjoy making a good dig. a strong serve or giving my partner a good set that he hammers for a point too, just not nearly as much.

However the bottomline is volleyball holds a much lower rank in my life than it once did. It used to be commonplace for me to play 3 or 4 times a week. My performance during play was extremely important to me. I felt like if I didn’t play twice during the week, and had a tournament that weekend, I would be rusty. Now the only time I play is during a tournament. There is no interim practice, no excessive worrying about the results, so I shouldn’t expect all that much. I’m 7 or 8 years, 2 knee surgeries and 1200 miles removed from those days. However there still is a part, a small part of me that burns inside when I don’t acheive what I want to during the competition. I don’t think that is a bad thing.

On Friday I had a nice customer service moment. My dress watch has had a dead battery for a few months. On Friday I skipped the gym at lunch to give me a day of rest before the tournament. I decided to go to the mall to get the battery replaced. I went to the fast fix jewelery repair place. He said it would take 45 minutes, which was longer than I expected. So I walked the mall a bit and spent 2 twenty dollar gift cards I had in my wallet forever. I bought some clearance shirts at Old Navy and some hot wheels stuff at the toy store. I returned to the shop 5 or 10 minutes early, hoping it was done. Yep it’s done, ahead of schedule. He handed me the watch and I noticed he set it to the correct time and date. Wow. That simple, little act made a big difference on my perception of the transaction. It’s so easy to provide good customer service, it is sad that more people can’t do it.

You haven’t heard any updates on the diabetic cat because she has made more or less a full recovery. She gets more canned food and gets different insulin now. She has been acting normal, the vomiting issues have been greatly reduced and she seems content as a pig in mud to still be among the land of the living. She hasn’t used 9 lives yet but there were 3 or 4 near misses so far.

I really didn’t enjoy the Apprentice finale. It had sooo many commercials, the 2 finalists were both weak candidates and they only talked to a handful of the original 18 contestants. Trump would ask the 2 women a question and then continuously cut them off before they completed their answers, probably because it was time for another commercial. It was annoying. The jobs that they had to choose from were less impressive than years past, probably because the candidates were less impressive. Kendra won, not a surprise but I doubt she will do very well.

Last night I was going out on the lanai and jumped a bit when I spotted this hanging on the wall. I got him down onto the plant stand and then just carried it outside. It had some interesting markings and a diamond shaped head so it could have been a baby version of a nasty snake. I sent the pics to my resident snake expert, Tim for identification. Of course Ali is a little freaked out.

I normally try to not play volleyball tournaments on consecutive weekends to minimize the injury potentital but I am making an exception this week. I will be going to Hollywood, FL to play on Saturday. After missing the playoffs last week I feel the need to get right back out there and perform well. I’m hoping the end result is better this time. It’s a nice venue with a cool little “boardwalk” area. (shops along the beach with a macadam strip in front)

You can imagine that Baby V fever was high around here since this is her home area. It was disappointing that she got the boot. I think she is as good as Carrie and has tons more personality. That being said, I think Bo is the best contestant hands down. I expect him to win it all.

Nothing all that exciting going on. I’ve been increasing my food intake a bit to allow for me to put some weight (and hopefully strength) back on. I am still limiting my WoW at night. I haven’t had a post midnight bedtime for a couple weeks now.

Yesterday in the local paper there was an article saying that Collier County has the highest average single family home price in the state! Not only was it the highest at a median price of $469,000 the second highest county was more than 100,000 less!!!! If I moved here now there is no way I would have been able to afford it. We were very fortunate in that regard.

I forgot to mention some more oddities regarding the vball tournament. The guy that looked like a middle aged woman when he wore his big hat had more weird things going on. Like I said before, instead of setting conventionally, he would but his hands in the shape of an A and then bounce the ball off them. He wore torn up, indoor kneepads, he had his tank top neatly tucked into his shorts and funniest of all, he had a white towel tucked into his shorts in the front, hanging down. He used this towel to clean the ball of every last particle of sand before every play. He was obsessed with it. I never saw anything like it.

There was also a team that exhibited some of the craziest matching outfits I ever saw. They had matching shaved heads, matching white shorts and matching tight, white, long sleeve spandex shirts. I have no idea how they could think that was a good idea, it looked soooooooo dumb.

We watched the contender last night. Everytime you think it can’t get better, it does. It is the semi-finals now so they have stretched the fights to 7 rounds. The fight was between two guys that fought before. The guy that lost the first time (Peter)was previously unbeaten. The guy that beat him is a mexican (Alfonso) who is just tough as nails. He doesn’t look like a physical specimen but he just fights hard and never gives up. The fight was amazing. It looked like the mexican kid was going to win again for awhile. However as the fight progressed Peter took control and just started to pepper Alfonso. Peter won the decision. By the end of the fight, Alfonso’s face looked like he stuck it in a jar of bees, it was that swollen. It was an awesome fight. On Sunday is the other semi-final and then next Tuesday is the live final. You have to check this out. These guys are really good people. It is quite the contrast to the typical stereotype I had of boxers prior to seeing this show.

I think last night at the gym finally made my mind up. I prefer weighing a few pounds more in exchange for being stronger. The moment that convinced me was as I was benching last night. I had 225 on the bar, something that at my peak I could do 6 or 7 times. When I had to ask Ali to assist on rep number 2 I had had it. I’ve been pushing hard at the gym yet losing strength so I have to assume it is something to do with not giving my body enough fuel to build up. It seems like carrying an extra 5 or 6 pounds seems to make a huge difference in my strength. Plus since I have been holding at this lower weight my joint issues have been constant. My shoulders, elbows and wrists all hurt to varying degrees most of the time. Time for a change.

Today I didn’t go to the gym at lunch (going after work) and instead went out to get dog food for Nicki. On my way back as I am almost back to the office when an older guy, mid 50’s maybe goes driving by me in a convertible Lotus ($$$)with the top down. I see his arm out the drivers side and his hand moving all around, at first I assumed he was gesturing, being an ass, who knows. As he goes past I notice not only is his hand moving but his entire arm and body as well in a Dr Roboto/Hand Jive/Snake Charmer/I just hit the lottery, kind of way. He has his arm fully extended out the side, wiggling it all around. He obviously was quite content about something. I can only imagine what that might be.

Tiger Woods and I had something in common this weekend. We each had strings of success broken. Although mine was much shorter and concerns absolutely noone but myself, it still is a parallel. For the first time since the very first tournament Randall and I played together, we missed making the playoffs. It was a disappointing volleyball day.

I got up at 4:30 in the morning for the nearly 3 hour drive to Singer Island. Originally we discussed staying at the ratty Days Inn right next to the tournament site again, since they allowed dogs. I found out they were closed for hurricane damage, whatever that meant. Well when I got there I saw a big pile of sand where the hotel once was. I would guess that the owners took the insurance money, sold the property and now it appears that a big condo tower is going to be erected there. Bummer.

Our first match was a discouraging loss. We played some guy that when he wore his oversized straw hat, looked like a middle aged woman. His partner looked like a smaller version of Andy Reid. This team played very unconventional volleyball. The womanish guy would “set” balls by putting his hands together and bouncing the ball of his hands above his head. It was very odd. He also attacked most balls by just poking at them. By poking at a ball you really had no idea where it was going and more times than not the pokes were landing right inside the boundry lines. Mini-Andy rarely used 3 hits, most of his shots were over on 1 or 2, again an unconventional method that kept us constantly guessing. It was like someone pulled them off the church picnic court. They got repeated breaks and we were unable to adjust to their unconventional style and wound up losing to them by 3 or 4 points. It was emabarrassing.

It cast a shadow on the day right out of the gate. With only 4 games in pool play, losing your first match hurts, especially when you lose it to a team you shouldn’t have. Our next two matches were against 2 younger teams that were physically gifted but seemed like indoor players first, beach players second. They would make some great plays, great hits but then follow it up with 2 mistakes. During those games I made some really good defensive digs, something I rarely do. I dug about half a dozen hard hits into playable balls on our side. We handled both of these teams pretty easily and despite our opening f up, were in position to make the playoffs if we won our last game.

Our last game was going to be our toughest. We were playing the undefeated team. The team also happened to be an old nemesis of mine (even though they probably don’t even remember me) Rich and I played them during our first ever volleyball tournament in Florida. We were playing them in the playoffs and had a big lead. There was a play where we thought the guy had terrible double contact (which after the fact we found it is ok in Florida beach ball) that we stopped playing for and argued loudly about. After the incident, the guys were dicks and we lost our cool and allowed them to come back and win the match. It was about as angry I can ever remember Rich being at another team. This incident has always stuck in my craw and I looked forward to finally getting some revenge after so long. They further fueled my fire when earlier in the day they spent a good 10 minutes working on the net because they thought it was too low, then they wanted to adjust the boundry lines and then finally they unilaterally proclaimed that we should play with the same ball for every match to be consistent. They said 3 of the 5 teams agreed to it. (a vote we were not told about or involved in) Oh yea, it just so happens that the ball they wanted to use was their ball, which was unusually light and was getting blown around quite a bit in the gusty beach wind. Annoying.

The match started out back and forth for about 2 thirds of it. Neither team could generate more than a point or two lead. During the breaks in action, our opponents would huddle up with some buddy of theirs and discuss strategy which was annoying. It’s not the f’in olympics, it’s bb amateuer volleyball. Well apparently the outcome of these strategy talks was to start almost exclusively serving to my partner which proved to be successful. When I don’t get served it frustrates the hell out of me, plus it forces me to try to become a precise setter, something I am not good at. We were unable to make them pay for not serving me and they pulled away for a 6 point victory. The loss sealed our fate and excluded us from the playoffs. It was a double dagger because we lost to a team that I wanted to beat badly. The early elimination meant I got to start my 3 hour drive back sooner than expected. I grumpily motored back across the state. I was extremely drowsy during the drive and decided to combat it by singing out the name and spelling of different vehicles as they went by. It was about as ridiculous a thing as you can imagine but it kept me awake.

On Saturday night we watched Episode 1 of Star Wars. Ali wanted to see the first 2 again in prep to see the new release. She has a thing about wanting to know the storyline of these multi-part movies since after time has passed, she forgets many of the details. I was dozing on and off throughout the movie. Watching what I saw of it again reminded me of how bad it was.

Sunday I had a big list of things I wanted to do even though after driving 6 hours and playing in a depressing vball tournament the day before made me feel less than motivated to accomplish much. Before the chores started, Ali and I took our little more than 4 mile walk to E’s store. It was summer hot and humid on Sunday, making the walk more than a little bit of a challenge. By the time we got back I was feeling it. Then my day started, in no particular order this is what I did from 1pm to 5pm. Went to the neighbors to install memory in her pc, took apart the water cleaning equipment to see why the clock was resetting (found dead small frogs on the circuit board), refilled the fish pond, set up the water tractor to water the front and side lawns, washed the truck and the car, cleaned the bird cages, cleaned up the laundry room, and finally installed the second of the 1 dollar ceiling fan set in our bedroom I got at that flea market months ago. It was a whirlwind.

During the trip over to the neighbors I found out that their house was sold. They got full asking price which floored me. Their sale sets the bar even higher on our property. We are now sitting on top of a staggering amount of equity. (staggering for me at least) Of course to buy anything else in our area requires you to sink that equity right back into another property to afford it, so it is a bit of a catch 22. Anyway, it is sad that they will be moving. They are great neighbors and have been our pet support plan in many cases. It is a shame to lose them but at the same time, financially it really was a necessary move for them.

Last night we stayed up late to watch the Survivor finale. I was happy that Tom won. He busted his ass and performed incredibly well in the challenges. Considering he is over 40 makes it all the more impressive. I would rank him right up there with Colby and Rupert as one of the best all time contestants. The woman he was going up against in the final was a lazy snake who did nothing but ride coat tails the entire game. The final immunity challenge was nothing short of incredible, with Tom and the dutch boy kid hanging up on a buoy with a small disk for their feet for just short of 12 hours, the longest time any challenge has ever gone. Tom just has an iron will. The final vote was a landslide 6-1 win for Tom. He deserved it.

I actually had a successful aerial photography sortie yesterday. I haven’t had a plane in the air forever. The flight was almost a dreadful failure. On the launch toss the plane veered hard left and was heading for the pool cage and trees near by. I quickly pulled up and right and clipped the tree, just barely avoiding a nasty crash. Once I was up in the air it was a juggling act. The plane wanted to constantly pull left, I was wearing flip flops, trying to make sure I didn’t step in fire ants, I was covered in gnats since I forgot to spray down with OFF and then I was trying to flip the switch to fire off the camera in air. Since the plane was so squirrely it was very hard to have much control of what I was shooting, so I just kept firing off pics, figuring I would get some decent ones by luck. I got some decent pics, just none of our house. 🙂 I’ll post the pics soon. I need to tweak the controls to make in air flight a bit more stable.

Last night on Survivor that skinny, dutch boy haircut looking kid, Ian won a new Corvette Convertible as a prize. I hate him and hope he loses.

This weekend I am playing volleyball at Singer Island on the east coast. Last year this tournament was hot as hades and it is looking like it may be again this year. Last year we drove over the night before and stayed which made it much easier. The dog friendly hotel we stayed at is closed because of hurricane damage so I am just going myself this time. It is going to require me getting up disgustingly early and driving around 2 and a half hours. Sometimes I ask myself, why do I do this to myself? Oh well, in the endi, t should be fun. My new more relaxed attitude while playing has been working so far. This weekend is the Rehoboth shore tournament that I attended for so many years. I’ll be thinking of it as I am playing.

I got the tv bracket set up out on the lanai and have the TV in place. I can’t wait to have some down time to give it a try.

Not many gym stories lately as all has been calm. The gym is clean, cool and a bit boring. Today I was happy to see one of my old buddies from Powerhouse come strolling in. He was one of the few people I could talk to on a regular basis. He had said he was going to join the new gym awhile ago but he never did, so I sort of wrote it off. He told me he finally had it with the old place. The last straw was the only water fountain in the place being broken for a month with no repairs in sight. Of course the owner was happy to SELL you kiddie sized bottled water. That place sucks.

I was doing stretching at the end of my workout, something I normally do religiously before I am going to play volleyball that weekend. I figure if I have an extra 1/2 inch range of motion, that could be the difference between ripping something or not. On the other side of the partition some younger woman is on her cell phone, no more than 4 feet from me so I can hear everything she is saying. I assume she is talking to her boyfriend or significant other and he asked her where she was. “I’m at the mall” she said, for some reason unknown to me. I guess the sounds of weight plates being slapped around didn’t sound very convincing as she repeated it 2 more times and then made an excuse to get off the phone. Why would you need to hide the fact you were at a gym? Weird.