Bob Blabla, Frog standing, Step above, Diet Coke death, tide shift in my brain

So yesterday I followed through on my intent to get multiple estimates on replacement of our home AC. I contacted another local place.  I called a couple minutes after 8 and was told some woman would call me back within a few minutes.  Instead I got called back mid-afternoon by some guy named Dwayne, which already cost them a few points before we even got started.

It only took me a few seconds to categorize Dwayne as first class blabber mouth.  All I wanted was to schedule an appointment to have someone give me an estimate.  Somehow this morphed into a 15 minute conversation where Dwayne rambled on.

Dwayne asked me if I heard their radio show.  I said no, I have heard their ads on the radio.  Evidently this place runs a half hour AC Q&A show every Saturday on a local station.  Dwayne said that people LOVE it and he strongly encouraged me to listen.  I said “cool” in a very weak attempt to display interest.

Dwayne then went into a sales pitch on the phone, basically already making excuses for their higher prices by pointing out the excellent service they offer and how they automatically cover everything they sell for 10 years parts and labor.  Of course, you pay for that additional coverage it is just included in what they quote you.

I was in two different sales positions in my illustrious adult work career.  I immediately thought to myself “this guy is a terrible salesman”  He was laying it on much too thick and trying to sell me something before he even knew what I needed.  I finally was able to steer him away from the bullshit long enough to actually get an appointment set up for Tuesday morning.  I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn’t buy from these people just based on that phone conversation, Dwayne totally turned me off.  Instead whatever quote they give will be just used as a tool to negotiate a lower price with someone else.

Last night I did my third entry for this month’s Bar-barian challenge which is max continuous push ups.  I did this attempt on my new push up handles. There were far fewer people that did the challenge on handles so I thought it would give me an opportunity to represent better.  I squeezed out 33 reps which was a decent number.  Earlier in the day Jeremy had hinted he thought he could compete with me doing push ups on handles.  I am eagerly awaiting his video response.

Later I worked on some more static holds, most notable was the frog stand. The frog stand is a balance movement that engages your muscles in a unique manner to maintain an upright position.  You basically assume the position and then hold it.  Once you can hold a frog stand for 60 seconds it is time to try an advanced frog stand where your arms are straight and your knees are not resting on your elbows.

I also utilized our bar stools for another hold.  Basically you put your hands in between your legs and press.  As you do you raise your body off the stool and at the same time you try to raise your knees as high as possible.  I had Ali try both exercises, she failed at frog stands but was able to do the other hold.

I had a funny moment when after doing a frog stand normally with my fingers pointed forward I thought it would be a challenge to try one with my hands reversed.  That was a mistake.  With no fingers to resist my forward momentum I promptly tipped over and banged my head into the floor.

Ali was excited last night to receive her Vibram Five Fingers.  Their arrival was a complete surprise to me, she didn’t even mention that she was getting them.

The theory with these things are they allow you simulate barefoot walking/running which some “experts” say is a benefit to developing the lower extremities in a way that today’s modern, ultra-cushioned, ultra supportive sneakers don’t allow.

I don’t know if they work or not, all I know is the look funny.  It makes you look like a character from the Flintstones.  Ali was walking around in them all night last night and said they were comfortable.  It will be interesting to see what her running experience in them is.  I’ll take my ultra padded, shock absorbing to the max running sneakers, thank you very much.

I spent much of last night doing more testing of the various tech I am going to be using at this year’s fantasy football draft that is going to be held at our house next Wednesday night.  You may recall last year I had a live video stream of the event and the remote owners connected in via AIM.  I had the computer with their AIM windows displaying on the 73 incher.

Well this year we are taking it a step further.  We are going to try to connect the remote owners via Skype video calls which will give us full, real time, two way interactivity.  In my research into this I discovered that the production version of Skype does not support group video calls however the 5.0 beta client does.

So last night we gave it a test.  I connected myself, Ali and one of the other guys in the league into a three way video call.  It worked great.  You can connect up to 5 people in this manner.

In addition to the Skype connection I still plan to have the video stream, AIM client and my Trendnet Webcam up and running for those that don’t have Skype access running.  My biggest concern is swallowing up the bandwidth coming into the house with all of that going on simultaneously.  It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Yesterday my buddy Hoyt sent out several email forwards.  One in particular caught my eye, it was a long article about the evil of artificial sweeteners, specifically aspartame.   It attributes high intake of artificial sweeteners with a variety of physical ailments.  One product in particular that was mentioned by name was Diet Coke.

I drink Diet Coke.  Whenever I am going to have a soda it would be Diet Coke. I also consume various sugar free products.  I wouldn’t consider myself a heavy Diet Coke drinker.  On average I have 2-4 per week.  I know a lot of people though that drink the stuff like water.

I guess it really is common sense.  How many times in this world do you really get something for nothing? It sure sounds great to get the sweetness of sugar without the calorie hit doesn’t it?  But if the true cost of that is poisoning your body then obviously it isn’t a good trade off.  If nothing else, reading the info is going to make me reevaluate some of the decisions I make when it comes to what I am consuming.  Case in point, this morning I used real sugar packets instead of the Splenda I would typically add to my coffee.  Read the information and make your own choices.

I heard an interesting quick explanation of why a full moon affects certain people’s behavior/personalities.  Everyone knows that a full moon affects the tides in the oceans due to increased gravitational pull. Well the brain is composed of many things but most of all it is made of water.  The change in gravity can also change the composition in your brain temporarily.  The shift in water can change the way the electrical pathways in your head fire, affecting different people in different ways.

It just so happens that in my case the pathways that seem to be most affected are connected to the mood section of my brain.

This weekend will be typically busy although due to a week of heavy rain I may just say F cutting the grass and wait till the various ponds dry up so it can all be done in one session.  We are also skipping the gulf training swim tonight.  Ali has a busy day and I could do without an hour of swallowing salt water.  I’ll get my swim time in our pool this time around.