Archives August 2012

Yesterday was a busy day so I didn’t have time to post.

Wednesday after work I did my second yoga class.  We had a young guy teach the class this time.  Well not that I was looking for more torture but this class was even tougher than the week prior.  For the most part I was able to hang but there are certain moves/holds I simply can not approach doing.

Part of the problem is my bad right knee.  After two arthroscopic surgeries I simply can not bend the joint back all that far before pain starts burning through it.  I am sure there are various hunks of scar tissue in there that are the culprit.  I also have very tight hips.  I can’t sit indian style, the hips and the right knee again are roadblocks to that position.

Once again I looked like I stepped out of a pool by the end of the class.  My mat felt like an ice rink from all the sweat.  Despite all the sweat and difficulty in not looking like a stiff, I am finding I enjoy the challenge of yoga and recognize the long term benefit if I stick with it.

So Thursday morning was my dermatologist appointment.  When I described the stinging sensation on my back when taking a shower he immediately zeroed in on a small area on my upper back that is red and scaly, one of the various ways basal cell skin cancer can appear.

He took a small sample to get biopsied to verify the diagnosis.  If it comes back positive then I head back in there to get the area “scraped and burned” , I can hardly wait.

Last night was my fantasy football draft party.  My boss, whom is as nice as they come, let me leave early so I could get home to do party prep which there was a lot of.

After moving a shitload of furniture around I tended to the numerous other small items that contribute to a well run party.  I ran out and picked up 5 pizzas, arriving back at the house right about 6, the time that I expected some people to start showing up, since the draft was supposed to start at 6:30.

Well no one showed up until about 10 till 7, and basically it was everyone at the same time.  They came bearing gifts of food and drink.  In no time my kitchen area was jammed with stuff.

Once again I used Skype to connect remote owners to the draft and once again I had some issues.  The ideal would be to get all 5 remote owners connected in via video feed.  However we wound up with only having two owners with video and the rest come in via an audio only connection due to bandwidth problems on their end.  It still worked out ok for the most part.

For whatever reason, the NFFL draft seems to consistently be my worst day of the year when it comes to absolute gluttony.  I ate so much food, none of it containing any significant nutritional value.  Pizza, chips, spanikopita, cookies, brownies, you name it, I shoved it down my mouth in large quantities.

Part of this behavior I know is triggered by alcohol.  I am convinced if I was a regular drinker I would be a huge fat ass.  For whatever reason if I drink, it turns off whatever part of my brain controls my normal eating meters.  It seems like I never feel full and I don’t give any thought to what type or how much food I am eating.  The day after this goes down I always feel awful and today is no exception.

As far as my draft goes, I think I have a decent team but, I always think I have a decent team.  I was excited to get LeSean McCoy as my  first pick.  As always, injuries and luck will play the biggest roles in my success this year, much more than skill as I put all of 30 seconds into my draft prep.

There was so much food/beer left after the draft and the guys basically left all of it for me.  I have two and a half pizzas and other smaller food items as well as at least two cases of various beer.  I have no idea how long it will take to go through all of it.  This morning I dropped off one of the pizzas and some other non-meat items to Ali to cut down on the pile.

After the draft was over I tried to get the lionshare of the clean up done, leaving only a few large dishes to clean tonight.  Unfortunately that meant I didn’t collapse into bed until almost midnight.

Instead of sleeping solidly through the night I woke up in the wee hours of the morning from a disturbing dream.  I was somewhere outside with Tommy, the cool guy that hooks me up with Eagles memorabilia.

Well he was by his vehicle, but there was also a large bear by his vehicle.  Tommy decided to reach out to the bear and try to pet it like you would a dog.  Well the bear did not find the action pleasing.  It stood up on it’s back legs,  making it taller than Tommy.

At first it looked like the bear was play wrestling, pulling at the sleeve of Tommy’s long sleeve shirt.  I yelled to Tommy to move away from the bear.  He just laughed and assured me the bear was just playing.

Well the bear was getting more and more aggressive, ripping the sleeve of the shirt clear off.  I knew this was not going to end well.

Tommy then did finally try to move away from the bear but he couldn’t, the bear was now basically attacking him.  As I started seeing blood appear on Tommy’s arm I grabbed a Lousiville Slugger that happened to be close by.  The dream ended as I was wailing on the bear and I woke up.  However for a long period of time every time I closed my eyes I was right back in the middle of the mauling, despite my attempts to mentally change the channel.  Moral of the story, don’t pet bears.

Unfortunately I get no break from my lack of sleep anytime soon.  Tomorrow morning I will be out of bed at 4:15 am to time a race.  The race also will retard my start to whatever I need to do this weekend.  On top of normal chores I need to attend to the two screen sections in the pool cage that were finished off by Isaac.

I am going to be running to my mom’s place sometime during the holiday weekend to do a few things for her as well.  I would like to get some cardio work in , maybe a bike/swim combo.  After eating like a pig last night I feel like a fat ass.

I don’t have any official Labor Day celebration plans and honestly that is fine.

Well I would have been quite thrilled to simply double my Google AdSense dollars from the prior month.  Doing so is an amazing bump.  Well I smashed through doubling July’s revenue of almost $33.  I am now getting in the range of TRIPLING that total, right now I am sitting at $82 in ad dollars for August with a day to go.

It really is amazing.  One thing I did notice looking at the numbers is evidently a lot of you are actually nice enough to click the harmless banner ad at the end of each post.  These clicks actually pay out at a higher rate than YouTube embedded ads so I thank anyone who has done this.

Every time I think I have seen it all at the gym someone proves me wrong.  Today there was a new individual there.  If I was to guess he was probably in his mid to late 50’s.  He had a very short and stocky build.  Based on his arms I would estimate that despite his age he was still quite strong and probably a beast in his heyday which was probably in the 80’s.

Well it seemed like he had managed to keep his 80’s wardrobe intact some 30 years later.

The guy was wearing jeans that looked like a denim version of Zubaz, they were that big and baggy.  He held up the pants via a black and white belt with a zebra stripe pattern on it.

His upper body was adorned by a bright orange t-shirt with a tie dye looking stripe down the side.

He had those big long elastic wraps that you see power lifters use on their elbows and knees.  He had them on his arms while doing light reps on the Cybex tricep machine.

But the crowning achievement to this look was his backwards baseball cap, half of which was adorned in gold sequins.  It was really something to see.  I tried to not stare.

Hey above all, I give the kudos to the guy for still putting in the time at the gym at his age. I admire that sort of determination to not go down looking at strike 3 as old age is bearing down on you. But damn, that was some funny looking shit…

So when I was in the middle of flood insurance fiasco, communicating with a rep from Firserv-Lereta, I told him that if he managed to get the flood insurance requirement dropped I would be happy to send him a case of beer.  I was somewhat surprised when he actually seemed interested in my offer.

Well he got my flood insurance requirement dropped so I had to follow through on my end.  I bought three 6 packs of made in Florida beer and will be shipping them out to him today.  Did I mention how ridiculous UPS ground rates are at this point? Holy shit….

So my neighbors dropped off their two live trap cages to assist me in capturing the armadillo(s) that are turning our yards into a crater filled mess.   After backfilling the latest series of tunnels the bastard dug out I went about setting up the cages.  It took me a little while to figure out how to set each trap, each one was different.

I didn’t have any rancid meat, fruit or sardines handy so I baited the traps with slightly soggy celery, hoping I might get lucky.

So this morning I checked the traps and saw no wildlife inside them, both traps were still armed, meaning nothing even ventured inside.  However, like a big fat FU to me, the armadillo had dug a fresh hole about a foot from one of the traps.

That little shit.

So this week at the grocery store I plan to buy a pack of sardines and try baiting the traps with those instead since it seems armadillos have an appetite for anything disgusting.

This is shaping up to be a long and epic battle.  I will prevail however.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  In the morning I have my routine dermatologist appointment, something necessary based on the five or six spots of basal cell skin cancer I have had removed in the last several years.

I don’t have any suspicious spots that I am aware of although I do have a weird thing that happens now and then.  I develop these little red spots one my back/chest that are sensitive.  When taking a shower if one of the water streams hits a spot it feels like I am getting poked with a needle.  Obviously this isn’t normal but like I said, these spots come and go.  I will mention it to the doc and see what he says.

Then tomorrow evening I am hosting the draft for our fantasy football league.  I will be rearranging the furniture, preparing food and playing the role of party host for the third or fourth year in a row.  Team owners don’t seem to mind the long drive out to my place because of the accommodations and the tech I utilize, connecting remote owners via Skype and displaying them on my 73 incher.

The first year I went crazy in the food prep, preparing a ton of items, requiring a ton of work.  Each year I have been trying to trim back on my food commitment.  This year I will be just heating up a pan of spanikopita and buying some pizzas, relying on other owners to provide some food items.

I actually have a favorable draft position this year, getting the second pick.  The past two years I was either the last or second to last to pick.

Last night the main objective was to de-hurricane the property, putting everything back that was put away.  Ironically it was actually quite windy last night, possibly the most wind I have seen from Isaac.  My trash bins blew over a couple times.

I noticed the storm did a nice job of finishing off the sections of pool screen that had tears on the spline, they are now ripped to the point where I HAVE to replace them in the near future, yay.

The process was straight forward although certain items that were put away wound up staying in the shed, such as the three plant stands that have sat on the pool deck, plantless, for a couple years, only seeing use as a pool barrier when I have the Dirt Dog out there.  I also tossed some old footwear of Ali’s, after getting her permission to do so, that had been sitting on the table out there. The act of tossing them out pulled on some emotional strings briefly.

The emotion shifted however as I walked up towards the fence and saw the fcking armadillo has been busy putting more craters and tunnels in the yard.  They can be VERY destructive.  My neighbor across the street has had the same armadillo(s) wreaking havoc on his property.  He said he actually saw one of them early one morning and it was HUGE.  The size he illustrated with his hands looked big enough to be a small pig.

I need to get these bastards off my property.  My neighbor has a more violent plan than I do, hoping to spot one in his backyard where he can use his rifle to end the problem.  I am hoping to catch the pest in a live trap cage and then release it far, far away.

My neighbor actually has a live trap cage that I am going to try first, although he is skeptical if it is big enough to hold these monster armadillos.  Also, apparently it is difficult to tempt an armadillo to even go into a live cage.  I looked on the net for what to bait the trap with and came back with disgusting menu items like, meal worms, maggots, spoiled meat, sardines, overripe fruit and fish.  Evidently armadillos like nasty smelling items.

If the neighbor’s cage proves to be too small I will have to invest in a bigger one.

When I had the armadillo problem a few years back they just sort of went away eventually.  However back then they just made a shit load of small holes.  This time there is some major tunneling taking place.  I am not looking for my yard to become an armadillo apartment.

Friday night I dressed up my unhealthy Digiorno frozen pizza with some healthy kale from the garden.  Somehow it makes me feel slightly better about stuffing my face with an otherwise totally unhealthy food.

Friday night I tried to take a bite out of my weekend work by doing all of the weeding.  Since it hadn’t been done in two weeks it was a rather lengthy session.

Saturday morning I picked up the girls early so they could hang out with me for the day.  Ali was working and was worried about the dogs recent unreliable bathroom habits.

I spent a large portion of Saturday giving the grounds a complete manicure, mowing everything inside the fence line and weed whacking.  In total I bet I spent around 5 hours out there.  My thought was I better do it then since Isaac was predicted to drop between 5 and 10 inches of rain in our area which would turn my property into an insta-swamp.

I also put a big dent into the various other things I wanted to get done including getting my tech in order for this week’s fantasy football draft, working on various race timing items, and a few other things.

Both Nicki and Sadie seemed to be feeling better.  Nicki definitely had more spring in her step and was playing with Sadie quite a bit in the yard, even running around a bit, slowly.  It was good to see her acting more normal.

I did some hurricane prep on Saturday  including moving a few things out of harms way.  I decided to go fill up the tank on my Tacoma and fill one extra 5 gallon container with potential generator gas.  By that time the hurricane panic was fully in place as the only gas left was the ridiculously priced premium grade.

I still hadn’t cleared out the items on the pool deck.  Ali actually offered to stop out Sunday morning with the dogs to help me move stuff which was nice of her.

By the time Sunday morning rolled around the effects of Isaac were starting to be felt with gusty winds and wind swept light rains.  Ali was out a little before 10.  With her help it didn’t take long at all to get stuff put away/moved around.  I also moved the stuff at the neighbors house (they live in Michigan) so it would be protected from the storm.

After we were done Ali went through the house a bit to grab a few more things.  There are still a lot of things at the house that are awaiting Ali’s decision if she wants it or not.  The process has been a slow one.  Ali and I talked about how awful it will be come the holidays, trying to split Christmas ornaments. Talk about depressing…

As far as I am concerned, I’d just as soon give it all to her.  I can’t imagine any scenario where I will be doing any official celebration of Christmas this year.

So as Sunday progressed the forecast path for Isaac continued to track further and further west.  The weather outside never really crossed over the “mildly unpleasant” threshold.  Yea it was windy and rained all day but we have plenty of days like that as is.

I slept through the night, not once being awakened by roaring wind or pounding rain.  When I walked outside to the truck this morning I was amazed just how little the property was affected.  Hell it wasn’t even raining and I didn’t have any standing water.

A lot of places jumped the gun with the storm.  All local schools are closed as are a couple pieces of local county government.  It looks pretty silly at this point.

It’s an odd thing that happens with storm false alarms.  There is this huge build up and panic amongst the people, so much so that when the storm doesn’t pack the punch that was predicted there is a perverse sense of disappointment that is just under the surface.  I remember the same scenario taking place up north when winter storms are predicted but do not come to fruition.

I think deep down people kind of like being part of a “disaster” as long as it isn’t too personally disastrous.

So I have had a couple weeks with my Neato so I have a broader scope of experience to rate it.  The Neato is still quite “neat” in my book although there are a few things that are less than perfect.

As I mentioned before, scheduling the Neato is very easy. However after having the Neato miss a scheduled cleaning session I discovered the robot somehow had it’s internal clock reset.  After setting the time again it was back to work.

The Neato is not quite as adept as the Roomba is when it comes to backing out of tight spots.  More than once I had to rescue the Neato from the legs of my bar stools.  It would get under the stools and then be unable to get back out, getting wedged in between the legs.  It also was getting wedged under the back of the sofa.  I also had the Neato stop inexplicably in the middle of the bedroom, indicating it’s path was blocked, a quick push of the start button set it back on it’s way.

The Neato comes with a strip of magnetic material which is used to create a virtual wall to keep the Neato out of whatever area you choose.  Unfortunately I used my entire strip to cover the sofa.  I may need a little more to rope off the bar stools.

So despite these small warts, overall I still really like my Neato.  It’s increased suction has really reduced the amount of crud the Roombas are left to pick up.  The systematic way it maps a room and avoids most obstacles (except bar stools) is really quite amazing.  The design of the the robot also seems to virtually eliminate all of the pain in the ass cleaning maintenance that is necessary with a Roomba.  I have now let it do 4 or 5 full house cleanings and have not had one issue with stuff getting wrapped around the brush.  So far all I had to do is empty the dust bin and tap the filter out.

This week looks to be a busy one.

I had hoped to get the grass mowed last night.  Unfortunately some strong storms washed those plans away.  I was inside working on other chores when Ali called, she was clearly very upset.  Evidently she came home to a dog shit fiesta last night.  She asked if I could come over and pick up some chicken breast on the way to make the typical dog diarrhea dinner of boiled chicken and white rice.  I said I would be over shortly.

I was surprised when I went to the meat counter, somewhere I never visit, and saw the prices.  Wow meat is really expensive.  The boneless chick tenderloins were $5.99 a pound, holy shit.  I grabbed 4 packs, figuring it was enough to get the dogs through a couple days.

When I got to Ali’s place she had the door to the deck wide open to help air out the place from the stench.  Luckily for me most of it had dissipated by this point.

Ali explained to me how she was only at work for something like 6 hours and still came home to 3 piles of shit.  The odd thing is Ali suspects both dogs are shitting.  Either they have a similar ailment or Sadie is doing a sympathy shit so Nicki doesn’t feel alone.  It’s weird.

If there is any “good news” regarding them using the condo as a toilet it is the geography of the deposits.  All of them have been on things that could be thrown in the washing machine, Nicki’s bed, and the rugs in a bathroom and kitchen.

Of course I could tell Ali was stressed to the max about the problem.  She is supposed to receive back results from the extensive testing that was done at the vet earlier in the week today which will hopefully shed some light on what is wrong.  Ali was talking about doing stuff like putting the girls in doggie day care so they could be let out more often, a VERY expensive option.

I assured Ali that I didn’t think this was a behavioral issue but instead a health issue.  Once she hears back from the vet we should hopefully have a clearer picture.  So for now she said she would close off the doors to both bedrooms so if a mess happens it will be on the tile surface which is easy to handle. Maybe if, until this gets sorted out, Ali gives herself a lunch hour on days she works where she can shoot home to let them out mid-day it would also help avoid the piles problem.

I brought along some pilenta frozen meal from Trader Joe’s that I heated up for us for dinner as Ali made the dogs bland meal.  It was quite good, we both agreed.  After both the dogs and we ate I offered to walk the dogs with Ali.  Of course Nicki didn’t have to do much since she emptied her tank on the floor during the day.

Ali thanked me for coming over, she was really rattled when I got there and seemed better by the time I left.  Despite my various flaws, one thing I am relatively good at is being a rock when need be.

This weekend I have a TON of things to do.  Thankfully it looks like one of those things won’t be having to hurricane prep the property since Issac seems to keep tracking further and further west.  That would have sucked trying to batten down the hatches myself on top of everything else I want to do.

On top of the big list of to do’s is I need to get the prep done for the fantasy football draft that is once again happening at my place next Thursday night.  We are now starting to ramp up for the teeth of the race/timing season as well.  I have a number of things to address there as well.  Of course the extra dollars that brings in will be very welcomed in my current financial situation.

Speaking of finances, I have made more than 53 bucks in advertising dollars on my YT videos this month.  There is a good chance I will wind up doubling my total from July.  Business is booming!

Since my separation I have adopted an attitude where I was going to be very open to stepping outside my box of comfort, doing things I have never done before.  Basically if an opportunity presents itself to me and I have never done it before, that is the indicator that I need to do it.  Some of these ventures out of my safe zone have been good, some have been bad, but they all have provided learning opportunities.

Well last night’s outside the box experience was taking my first legit yoga class.  My buddy at work had started going to yoga over the past year and has sung it’s praises regarding how it has helped his overall wellness.  He encouraged me to go to try it out.  So last night I did.

Now I have done some yoga poses on the Wii Fit so I was not a total noob.  I also do a few stretches on a regular basis for my running, primarily stuff for my quads and hamstrings.  Of course neither of these things prepared me for what was to come.

The first thing I noticed was the yoga studio was warm.  Before we did our first stretch I was already breaking into a sweat just because of the temperature of the room.  Once the class got underway I quickly realized I was going to be in for a rough hour.

I was the only first timer in the class so the instructor really couldn’t worry about my inexperience, she started into the holds rapid fire.  I was very surprised with the quick pace between the holds.  Not only did she call out the holds, she also called out if you should be inhaling or exhaling during them.  I discarded any breathing instructions, I was just trying to keep up with the poses/holds, many of which had names I was not familiar with from my Wii Yoga world.  I used the other people in the room as a visual reference.

Well as you can imagine, if I was sweating before we even got started, once we got actively rolling into non-stop movement the sweat output was increased, I was soaked in no time.

Movements that relied on flexibility in the hamstrings I could do relatively well.  Anything that focused on hip, shoulder or knee flexibility was extremely tough for me.  My swollen right knee made it even touchier in certain holds.

I was surprised that there was some hand balancing in the class, something I already work on with my calisthenics training.  People were surprised I could hold a frogstand with relative ease.  They also did wall handstands which I made sure to hold longer than anyone in my vicinity just because I am a competitive jerk.

I was quite glad when we finally arrived at the last section of the class where you basically just lay flat on your back while the instructor talks you through various visualizations to calm your inner self.  To be honest I had a hard time doing the visualizations, I was just glad to be able to lay there for a bit.

After cleaning off my sweat covered yoga mat I stood up, thoroughly spent from the session.  I was tired but in a good way.  My appreciation of yoga went to a new level.

I enjoyed the class enough to consider possibly working it into my routine once a week.  Yoga would compliment all of the other fitness activities I already participate in.

This was one of those out of the box steps that definitely is chalked up in the “win” column.

Both Nicki and Sadie are having some health issues lately, seemingly GI related.  Ali is taking them both to the vet today.  I felt bad since I didn’t get to see them this weekend.  I stopped by Ali’s place on my way to work this morning to say hi to the girls. Both of them seemed pretty subdued. It will be the first time Ali gets to try out the new comprehensive pet insurance plan we are now paying for.

Last night after another one hand handstand attempt, I headed out to the steamy garage to do a couple things to the SSR.  First I wanted to replace the clutch spring that broke way back in April or May.  I read it was ok to not replace it as there are two springs involved in clutch return but it seemed like the safe thing to minimize clutch wear was to replace it.

Replacing the spring was not much fun.  Because of it’s location and the narrow footwell in the SSR, I had to contort myself in an uncomfortable manner to access the clutch pedal.  I eventually got my arm wedged up there and after some confusion on how to both orient the spring and get it snapped in place, I was successful.

Project number 2 was to find out what code was being thrown to the check engine light.  I hooked up my kick ass code reader and pulled a P0420 code which has something to do with the catalytic convertor system.

When I had all that work done on the SSR in Plant City, one of the things done was to replace both catalytic convertors.  I can’t help but think the problem is related.

Even before the check engine light came on, the truck felt like it had less power than normal and there was a different type of engine sound.  If it is something with the cats, I am not sure if my new bumper to bumper warranty will cover it or not.  I guess I will find out.

I have been feeling like I am falling behind the curve lately.  As hard as I work at keeping things up to snuff I seem to be at a time deficit.  When Ali and I split, for some reason I assumed my free time would actually go up, although looking back I am not quite sure what brought me to that conclusion.  I need to do a thorough analysis of my time management.

Yesterday was my first day of using aluminum free deodorant.  It was uneventful and odor free.  It always feels good to live smarter, one step at a time.

I neglected to mention that on Friday I got word back that I had won my battle regarding flood insurance. I will not be required to purchase it. I was dealing with a guy from Fiserv-Lereta, the company that provided my credit union with the erroneous info regarding my flood zone status.  Last week I told him if he could get this mess straightened out I would be happy to send him a case of beer. Well he delivered on his end so I intend to deliver on mine.  I just need to find some Florida branded beer to ship out to his office in California.

My right knee is in pretty bad shape after this weekend’s volleyball action.  As a result I dusted off my trusty knee ice wrap, something I haven’t had to use in a very long time.  I strapped it on last night and left it there for a long time as I was editing more volleyball video.  Speaking of that…

So when I posted my volleyball video from Siesta Key I just dumped the raw uncut video on YouTube which is very easy for me but results in a big, long video that has way too much dead time in it.

So with the video from this weekend’s King of the Beach event I have been doing the tedious job of cutting out the footage between plays.

Last night I was working on the longest file I had.  It was 43 minutes uncut and less than 16 minutes edited.  I spent upwards of 90 minutes cleaning it up.

So I go to publish the file and MovieMaker hangs….  I groaned out loud, knowing I had not done any intermediate saves and that all that work was just flushed.. FCK!  Now I should know better.  I have had MovieMaker barf before when editing big files.  I should have saved along the way based on past experience.  Oh well, hopefully I will have some time to get the remaining 3 or 4 games on tape out there.

I did snip out one funny moment I forgot about after I hit a ball into the net.  Sometimes I get really frustrated when I mishit a ball.  Over the years I have found all sorts of ways of expressing my frustration when this occurs, here is the latest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-gQuWksrQ

I also posted the awards ceremony.  Jeremy (and Mandy) actually took the time to make awards for the event which was a funny way to end the festivities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5n3pCn8g4

Last night I received my new anti-deodorant.  It actually is a brand I heard Howard raving about on his show.  It contains no aluminum which a quick Google search will reveal as a very bad substance to have interact with your body.  I have known about this for eons but never acted upon it.  That is no longer the case.

So last night I watched some of the Eagles pre-season game.  When I tuned in Vick was already out of the game.  I could not believe when I heard for the second game in a row he was knocked out, this time taking a shot to the ribs.

The good news is the ribs aren’t broken.  The bad news is this is a very bad sign for the upcoming season.  Mike Vick has a history of getting injured, largely in part to the way he plays the game, running and scrambling to try to extend plays which opens him up to take additional shots.  Well he is no spring chicken anymore.  When you get older, you get hurt more, not less.  Unless they find a way to keep him on the field the Eagles offense could have problems this year.

Although with that being said, the Eagles rookie QB had a very strong showing against the Patriots, throwing for over 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns.  Still, that was a preseason game.  If the Eagles are going to return to their past success they are going to need to keep Vick upright somehow.

So I left work a bit early on Friday so I could get everything packed up and ready to go for my weekend trip to visit Randall and Tracy.  I was out on the road with the SSR shortly after 5.

The drive across Alligator Alley went ok.  I had the top down for the first 40 miles or so of the trip before storms forced me to pull over and hit the transformer button.  The remainder of the trip was through storms of various intensity.

I pulled into Tracy’s place a few minutes after 7.  Tracy had actually just gotten home herself a few minutes prior. Randal actually was not back yet.  He rode his bike to work on Friday and the storms had slowed him down during the ride home.  He pulled up no more than 10 minutes after I got there, wet but intact.

Tracy gave me a tour of her place which is very cute.  It is an older place that had a number of renovations on it including a beautiful kitchen and the epic backyard with a beautiful pool.  The back yard literally looks like a tropical oasis with plush tropical landscaping bordering the fence line.  There also is a sweet outdoor covered bar area.

I also got to meet Tracy’s roommate and her girlfriend, they both seemed very nice.

Originally Randall was going to grill salmon for us for dinner but because of the wet weather the plans changed. Instead we went out to the local California Pizza Kitchen.

By the time we got there it was pretty late, something like 8:45.  In Naples if you go to dinner at the time of night you are going to be hitting the clear downhill of the dinner crowd.  Well the east coast is a bit different, the place was still packed at that time.  I was surprised.

We had a good dinner with each of us getting a different pizza variety.  Tracy is very easy to hang with, she always has something to talk about which works perfectly for me.  By the time we got back to their place it was getting pretty late, and we were supposed to start our King of the Beach volleyball tournament the next day at 8, so we hit the sack somewhere between 11-12.

I slept on an air mattress in their spare room.  It wasn’t too uncomfortable but I had a restless nights sleep.  I utilized my Iphone to provide the white noise I need to fall asleep.

Randall and I were up on time and after powering up with Pop Tart breakfasts we were off in the SSR to the beach.  We pulled into 16 th street sans top.  We were the first ones there.

As we walked up to the beach I was impressed what a nice area it was.  Down the beach a way was a beautiful lighthouse, it was a very scenic backdrop to play against.  Tabby arrived on site a few minutes after Randall and I did.  All we needed now was Jeremy.

Randall and I saw that Jeremy was up and posting on Facebook at 6AM so we knew oversleeping couldn’t be the excuse.  Probably about 10 after 8 I got a call from him asking for clarification on where to go.  I handed the phone over to Randall for directions.  Jeremy was still probably 10-15 minutes away.

So Randall and I started bumping around as Tabby grabbed an onsite rake used to smooth out the courts. Jeremy came shuffling in somewhere close to 8:25, already knowing he was going to get his ass busted for once again being late.  At this point we assume he will always be late so any ass busting was good natured.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlje7YMn1bs

You can hear his official excuse in the video above.  Something about smoothies and the kids.

So we finally got underway.  I immediately was mindful of the heat.  Even though it was still early in the morning, it felt stifling hot.  My skin was drenched before the first point was even played.

We went through a total of three rounds of play, to be honest I was ready to call it quits after two rounds.  Everyone had won a total of 3 games so it was virtually a tie which was fine with me.  Beside the searing heat my knee was hurting.

The sand at this beach was much tougher to navigate than the nice packed sand that adorns Siesta Keys, the only place I have played beach vball the last couple years.  Not only was the softer, deeper sand harder to jump out of, it made any movement more difficult.

My knee actually had been hurting a bit before Saturday for the better part of two weeks.  It was odd because I had not done any serious impact activities over that time period, yet the pain/swelling was there.  The combination of trudging through the sand and a number of awkward  impacts that put the knee in bad positions multiplied the problem.

I had a good time playing with the guys but overall I wasn’t very happy with my play.  I had two or three games where I was involved in losing leads towards the end of games, a scenario that always irritates me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZqVMGLIb0

The irritation came to a head in the last game we played where Randall swung wildly at a low ball that wound up somehow rolling over the net and costing us a point.  After I retrieved the ball I slammed it angrily into the boiling sand.  The anger dissipated quickly though, for the most part I had a casual attitude about the whole thing, I was just happy to be out there playing with the guys.

In the middle of the tourney Tabby and I wound up playing one extra game against some of the locals that normally play there on Saturday.  I certainly didn’t need the extra court time but neither Randall or Jeremy seemed very excited about the prospect of playing.  We were all really wilting from the intense heat.

It was a pretty intense volleyball session when all things are considered.  Tabby and I played a total of 10 games, at least twice what you would play in a normal Florida vball tournament.  The majority of the games were back to back with minimal breaks,  instead of the 45-60 minutes break you will get in normal tournaments between games.  Throw in the temps/humidity along with deep sand and it is no wonder I felt like shit by the time it was all over with.

If you take all 3 rounds into consideration, Jeremy actually won the most games, something he was proud of.  Overall the level of play that we put on the court was not really all that impressive, except for Tabby’s setting.

After the tourney we headed out to grab some lunch.  Jeremy came walking in the restaurant with a grocery bag of stuff.  He actually had made some awards (with his wife’s help).  Tabby got an Olympic style medal and Randall and I were presented with StB (shit the bed) certificates for our part in losing a couple big leads in games. Randall also was given the “Story Book Ending Award”, which looked like a Xmas tree topper, for his game ending block in the final match of the day.  It was a funny way to end up the event and we appreciated Jeremy’s efforts.

By the time we got back to Tracy’s place I was beat, I could already feel my knee swelling up.  We had plans to go to the movies later that night.  I was glad to be able to sneak in a close to 90 minute nap before we left.  I really needed it.

The movie we were seeing was Expendables 2.  Randall and I had seen the original at Silverspot a year or two back.  We went to see it at a very high end theater in Boca.  It had a layout that was new to me.  On the first level was the regular theater for “common folk”.  Randall splurged for seats in an upper balcony.  They were expensive, $20 a pop, but for that you had a perfect vantage point in huge, comfortable chairs.  They even threw in a complimentary small popcorn with the price of admission.  It was similar to Silverspot in that you had a full menu/bar at your disposal which you could enjoy at your seat.

I had to laugh when I saw a text message on my phone about 15 minutes from the start of the movie.  It was from Jeremy, asking what the plan was (for the movies).  When I first mentioned to Jeremy about seeing Expendables 2 on Friday he had no interest.  Then at lunch I asked him again and he said MAYBE he would go.  Well evidently I was supposed to ask him a third time if he wanted to go and didn’t realize it.

I told him we were already at the theater.  He acted like he was offended that we made plans without him but I reminded him he didn’t commit to going, maybe is different than yes.  We made arrangements to stop by his place after the movie.

Another thing I liked about this movie theater was not only did it advise people to silence their cellphones, it also warned them to not text, else face being asked to leave the theater.  That’s awesome.  I had first hand experience with this when I saw Batman.  A few seats away from me there was a girl that was literally texting through out  80% of the movie, it was ridiculous.

Expendables 2 was great as long as you take it for what it is supposed to be, brainless, violent, fun with lots of action.  It relies on the characters and good old pyrotechnics to provide the entertainment instead of CGI effects.  The only CGI I saw in the movie were the obvious enhanced blood spurts.

They upped the ante in this film adding more old school action heroes like Chuck Norris and Claude Van Damme.  Arnold and Bruce Willis also had larger roles than they did in the first film which was a good thing.  I enjoyed the film through out.  If you like action movies you absolutely need to see it. I give it an A.  Sorry if that makes you think less of me.

After the movie we headed to Jeremy’s place which was very close by to visit him, Mandy and the kids.  I realized just how long it has been since I have been to Jeremy’s place when I saw how big their youngest daughter, Ainsley has gotten.  The last time I saw her she was a little baby.

Ainsley was scared of me initially for some reason but later warmed up.  By the end of the visit she was sitting on my lap as we flipped through a super hero pop up book.  Their son Connor was as outgoing as ever, wanting to show me one thing after another.  He’s very funny.

We still had not eaten dinner at this point.  Jeremy was ok to come join us while Mandy stayed home with the kids.  We went to a restaurant I was at with Jeremy and Randall once before although the name is escaping me at the moment. Once again, even though it was getting late in the evening, there were a lot of people there.  We actually had to wait a few minutes to be seated.  We all enjoyed some of their in house brewed beer and had good dinners to go along with it.

After dinner Jeremy headed one direction and we the other.  It was nice to be able to spend some non-virtual time with Jmo.

Once we got back to Tracy’s house I almost immediately went to bed, I was BEAT.

Saturday night I did not sleep soundly at all.  I woke up on a regular basis not only because of my stiff and painful knee but also a painful left shoulder that came out of nowhere.  I didn’t have any “oh shit that hurts” moments with my shoulder playing volleyball so I am not sure where it originated from.  So even though I didn’t roll out of bed until 8:30 am on Sunday, I definitely was not well rested.

Even though I jammed my bike in the back of the SSR for the trip my feelings would not have been hurt at all if Randall said he didn’t feel like going for a bike ride.  My right knee looked like someone pumped it up with air and I had very limited mobility in it.

Well we eventually decided to go out on two wheels, albeit a shorter route than the 25 miler Randall was originally thinking about.  The route we took went up A1A, the main drag in Fort Lauderdale along the beach.  Wow that was definitely a road I would not look to go riding on again anytime soon.

You literally had to keep your head on a swivel and your brakes on a hair trigger.  There were constant hazards from space cadet drivers, no look pedestrians, veering runners and casual beach cruiser riders.  I didn’t enjoy that segment of the ride much at all.  Luckily there was also some time spent in residential areas that allowed you to actually enjoy the scenery.  In total we did a little more than 15 miles in an hour.

When we got back we were dripping wet so we hopped in Tracy’s pool to cool off.  As I have said before her pool area is incredibly nice, a perfect place for get togethers.  Unfortunately Tracy had to head off to work a little after noon.  I thanked her for her hospitality.

After she left Randall put his grilling skills on display, preparing an extremely good tasting and healthy lunch of grilled salmon, asparagus and zucchini.  I watched the entire process, trying to absorb some of the technique.

After lunch I packed up and got ready to head out for the long drive back.  I thanked Randall for the invite.  It was a very busy but fun couple of days and a nice break from my normal weekend routines.  I reminded Randall he and Tracy are always welcome to visit me.

The drive back across the alley was smooth and enjoyable in the SSR.  The truck is just great for road trips, as long as you only have two people and limited luggage of course.  The enjoyment faded a bit when the check engine light came on during the last 20 miles of the drive.  I can hardly wait to figure out what is wrong this time.

Last night was spent mostly just tying up a few loose ends at home, doing the bills, laundry and whatever else needed tending to.  I was was very tired from two nights of spotty sleep and collapsed into bed before 10pm.