All posts by Duf

Even though I joined Powerhouse gym on Thursday I still went to JFZ on Friday.  I was doing back and abs and could still do that reasonably well with what equipment is left there.  It’s entertaining seeing all the people coming in with bewildered looks on their faces.  The transformation and prejudice against physically fit people was never more apparent than Friday.  Instead of playing music off their satellite system they now are playing canned easy listening type music off a cd.  The CD includes little ad for the gym that goes something like this – “JFZ gyms, no pressure, no judgement and NO BODYBUILDERS” WTF is their problem? The hypocrisy of a “fitness center” discriminating against people that take fitness seriously is overwhelming.  If you have nothing better to do go to www.planetfitness.com and tell them how full of shit they are. Listen to this radio ad off their website, it gives you a clear idea of their mindset. Today will be my first workout session at Powerhouse, wish me luck.

We had a nice weekend.  I spent a lot of time still working on getting the pool swimmable.  It’s a cycle of cleaning the filters, dumping chemicals, skimming, sweeping, etc… that doesn’t seem to end.  The rain we got last week was enough to kick start the grass so we mowed and weed whacked the patches that started to grow.  It looks much better now.

  Three years ago I bought a Magicolor 2200 color laser printer that has served us well.  However a few weeks ago it came up with a “Replace OPC Drum” error that prevented it from working.  I looked into the price of a replacement opc drum and after seeing the 100-125 dollar price tab I decided to just replace the printer since it also would start needing toner cartridges as well.  I tried listing it in the paper for 75 bucks and indicated it needed an opc drum and got zero calls in a week.  So I did some digging and found out that the OPC drum error is simply caused by a fuse popping that is designed to fail after a certain amount of time.  It doesn’t mean the opc drum is bad.  So I bought the fuse for 5 bucks, installed it this weekend and it’s back in business.  I’ll try to sell it again, this time with no disclaimer.

My video card in my home pc went out this weekend.  It locked up in a game of WoW and then was causing the pc to lock up, black out and just be generally disagreeable.  At first I saw this as a reason to finally replace the pc which I have had for I bet close to 4 years which is an eternity for me.  I told Ali I could either spend 300 on a video card or just buy a new pc.  Ali was not thrilled with either idea and asked if I could get less expensive card to get by until xmas time when she could get me a pc as a present.  I did some digging and checked prices and saw I could get a decent card for less than 150 bucks.  So we compromised and I went out and snagged a card at Best Buy, installed it and all is good with the world again.  It would have been a huge pain in the ass to reinstall all of my applications/games anyway.

Saturday night Ali and I had a nice time out.  First we went to an early showing of Mission Impossible 3.  It had some good action although there were some holes in the story that made little sense.  During one scene where Tom’s objective is to steal an item that is in a building with supposedly impenetrable security, they show him running in the door on the roof and then the next shot is him breaking out a window and parachuting to safety with no details about how he managed to steal the item.  That was lame.  Of course the plot went far above the line of remote reality and bordered on ridiculous at times.  I walked away from it feeling lukewarm.  I’d give it a B-.

After the movie we wnt to Carraba’s for dinner.  While we were waiting for a table we were talking to two older ladies whom were friends.  One was from Spain the other was from Venezuela.  Their thick accents coupled with the background noise made it hard to understand them but we did the best we could.  One thing we did understand was how they both viewed America as too worried about work and money.  They said in both of their home countries people are much more laid back, much more interested in enjoying life in the here and now and less worried about working like a dog for 30 years so you have adequate retirement funds to “enjoy” when you are too old to have much fun.  It was interesting hearing their perspective and made me think how right they were.

Sunday morning Ali and I went to the track.  My knee was in no shape to run so I brought my rollerblades to use while Ali ran.  The oven has been turned on down here and even at 9:45 in the morning the heat was oppressive.  As we went around the track, two mexican soccer teams showed up to get ready for their 10am game.  The heat sucked Ali’s energy quickly but her first interval run started very fast.  She really has great speed for short bursts.  She could stay with me stride for stride if I was going all out.   Rollerblading is definitely much easier than running, other than my feet hurting in the blades, I was hardly winded after rolling for a half hour.

I downloaded Pirates of the Caribbean which we watched Sunday night.  Both Ali and were very tired.  I was dozing off repeatedly during it so it’s hard to give it an accurate review however what I saw was decent.  C+ to B- We saw the preview for the next one that is due out soon and the trailer looked awesome.

I’ve been reading a lot of horror stories about people and their WoW addictions.  These stories make me seem like a casual player.  Some lose it all as a result of their single focus of this game. 

I went to JFZ yesterday at lunch and entered a gym that had been gutted of most of the equipment I used.  I laughed as I walked in and saw the sloppily scribbled sign they had up front that said “Franchise rules, new equipment coming in June”  Luckily I was doing biceps and triceps so I was able to make do with what was left.  It was amusing to see people come in and look around in bewilderment as they saw the carnage.  So after work yesterday I stopped in at the shithole Powerhouse and signed back up.  As I glanced around I saw a few faces that used to go to JFZ only a few days prior. Oh well, it will have to do.

Last night I ran with Ali.  Even before I started my knee hurt a bit but I was going to run anyway.  Every stride of the 5k we ran hurt a bit but I didn’t care.  My elevated body temperature did a good job of masking the pain.  I iced the joint last night but this morning it felt like shit again.  I am supposed to play volleyball next weekend with the ultimate goal of playing the Pottstown Rumble at the end of June.  I think I am going to have to just not run if I want to be able to do these events.  It really frustrates me.  I’m pissed at myself.  I was at the point where I could run without issue and now my one month creatine binge set me back miles. 

Last night at the gym Ali noticed that some of the equipment had blue tape on it.  We quickly figured out that blue tape = equipment that is getting pulled out.  It’s amazing that they are removing this stuff that you see people constantly using.  The owner is just ignorant.  Not only are they removing the dumbells over 55 pounds, they are removing curling bars over 50 pounds as well.  I mean what the hell?  I have never seen such hypocrisy in a gym I was a member of.  This place is called the “Judgement Free Zone” yet if you are an individual that can lift more than 50 pounds you are judged as being too threatening for the facility.  I also found out that the Lunk Alarm is something that they install at all JFZ gyms.  That idiotic device is reason enough to write off this place.  I just wish I had a more viable option than returning to the dirty dungeon of a gym that I went to before.

Ali and I didn’t get home last night till 9pm.  We both were tired from the long day.  Imagine my anger when the first thing I spot after cleaning up half a dozen barf spots early that morning was another 4 fresh spots, including a nice vomit coating on the legs of my computer chair.  I was so angry.  Again I ranted how I just wanted the diabetic cat to die.  After Ali and I cleaned up the mess, I punished the cat by refusing to put down any wet food that evening.  At 2:30 in the morning  I woke up to the sound of the cat once again getting ready to throw up.  Ninja style I quickly grabbed and launched a pillow in her direction, scaring her out of the room.  However all it did was relocate the barf pile to outside our bedroom.  At this point I have my hopes up that the cats GI system is failing.

Last night after work Ali and I walked into the gym and I immediately did a survey.  Gone was a squat rack, decline bench, flat bench and a bunch of the plates.  The owner was still there and I approached him and asked where the benches were (even though I knew what was in the works)  He told me they were gone and in addition they were removing all dumbells heavier than 55 lbs, the weighted curling bars and all plate based benches and equipment.  With a look of disbelief on my face I asked him why in the world would he want to do that. I asked if they were trying to turn the gym into a rehab center?  He said it was being forced upon him by corporate, he said that they are mandating that these changes be made (which is a lie)  I told him he was going to lose a ton of members as a result of this.  He said he figured on losing 150 to 200 members.  He apologized and that was it.  I was pissed.  I talked to a few guys there and filled them in on the deal as there was nothing posted about it, no letters to the members, he just is pulling stuff out.  Some already knew and were super hot about it as well.  The one guy who is a real big dude said that he heard that the owner already had a cancellation agreement made up with his name on it, as he is exactly the type of person that is being discriminated against.  He said he is going to remain a member to spite the owner and come in there on his light days so he can continue to “scare the old people”.  The others I told had no idea what was going on and were equally angry. 

So on our way back to pick up Nicki I stopped at the old shithole gym and found out their rates.  It looked as shitty as ever and we saw a guy we knew from our last go round there hanging around the counter like he always did.  We related the bullshit going on at JFZ which they said they had heard about as many people have already jumped ship.  So I think what will happen is I will join the shithole and Ali will stay at the old place since she has no need for the stuff they are pulling out.  I’d like to make a statement by pulling both of us out of JFZ but I don’t feel right making her work out in the shithole as well.

The whole drive home last night I was griping about how ridiculous the gym situation was. Then after getting home I got another treat as I looked out into the pool and saw something floating in it that was definitely bigger than a leaf.  I went out and found a dead field mouse who evidently drowned.  I felt bad for the thing and disgusted at by the sight the same time.  I initially scooped him out with the pool skimmer and just chucked him towards the one landscaped area.  Ali thought it was a bit cold of me to just chuck him like that.  So I went down and retrieved his rigamortis afflicted body and put him in the ditch under some freshly cut palm fronds.  Poor thing probably was looking for a drink and fell in.

After a restless night sleep where I had a bad dream involving Nicki, an alligator and my subsequent fight with the alligator, I stumbled out to the kitchen.  Every morning I scan the floor for dark shadows which almost always mean our wonderful cats have decided to vomit at that spot.  Well this morning was especially vomitous.  In total I cleaned up 6 different spots of vomit.  I was besides myself with anger.  I am yelling at the diabetic cat about how I would love to grab her f’in neck and snap it.  My threatening tone of voice scared the dog and she cowered thinking I was mad at her.  I continued with various outbursts about yearning for the cats demise whenever they came into my view. I’m just so sick of it.  The idea of putting the cat to sleep without her being on her deathbed seems cruel to me during most waking moments but between the vomit and the ass wiping stains on the carpet, at times I am literally inches from breaking the cat’s neck with my own two hands.    

Yesterday afternoon the pain in my lower left back had worsened and started to wrap around my side a bit.  Most of the time it was just a dull ache but if I moved the wrong way I would get intense stabbing pain.  I started to wonder if I had a kidney stone thing going on.  Years back I had what they thought was a small one.  I told Ali about it and she thought maybe I should head for the doctors but I told her I would let it ride.  Last night I drank a lot of water and went to bed early.  I woke up today with less pain and feeling better.  Hopefully I can avoid a doctor visit. 

If you haven’t checked out youtube.com yet, you need to.  They have and endless supply of short videos spanning any and all categories you can think of.  I contributed my 2 cents by uploading some of my volleyball videos. It sucks that they have to be compressed to make them suitable for web viewing, it really hammers the video quality.  I may try to resample them at a higher rate since my youtube videos can be up to 100 meg big.

This morning I woke up to no water in the house.  Our well pump is flaky, sometimes it will kick out if it is used too much.  Well evidently it did just that last night while the water cleaner was going through it’s recharge cycle.  So I went outside with the flashlight this morning, in the rain and reset it.  The tank started to fill.  However when I turned on the faucet in the bathroon, dark brown muddy water flowed out.  It continued to flow even after letting it go for 5 minutes.  The toilets were filled with the same nasty water.  Finally after 15 minutes or so it started clearing up.  It’s part of the joy of living out in the sticks with a well and septic system.

Man I feel like shit today.  The weekend was a rough one.  It started out well enough. Friday night we went over to our neighbors house for dinner.  They also had some friends of their’s over so it was a nice little group.  Saturday morning Ali and I went to the track for “speed work”.  The object of speed work is to improve your overall cardiovascular conditioning by running fast intervals.  I had not run since my knee started hurting almost 2 weeks ago so I was nervous about starting up again.  So we ran 2 slow laps and then did our first interval lap.  I let Ali set the pace and she was fast, fast enough that I doubt I would have been able to go much faster if I wanted to.  I was really surprised she had that sort of speed in her.  Well by the time we finished the lap we both were sucking major wind.  We ran 3 slow laps, another fast, 3 more slow and then one more fast one.  It was a good change of pace from our normal running routine.  My knee that felt ok during most of the run had that deep burn by the time we were done.  So when we got home I iced it up.  It felt tender for the rest of the weekend but feels somewhat better today. 

After I got done icing it was time to dig into my outdoor projects.  My primary mission was to get the pool cleaned up and suitable for swimming.  I started dumping chemicals in it earlier in the week so the deep nasty green was now only a pale green.  I had the pool cleaner in there but it kept getting clogged by the pile of debris that had settled in the corner of the deep end.  So I decided to don my swim mask and manually clean the crap out.  Ali thought I was nuts going into the greenish water but I assured her I would be fiine.  Visibility was very limited, I could only probably see 3 feet in front of me.  I came to the pile of junk and grabbed at it but discovered that the movement of my hand stirred up the water, launching the twigs, leaves and other assorted flotsam into the water.  So after grabbing a couple small handfuls of junk and sending the majority of the rest of the junk back up into the water I abandoned my underwater mission.  I instead grabbed the skimmer and scooped out whatever I could.  Then I pulled off the dirty, disgusting pool cover, hosed it off and stuck it into the shed.  Then I clumsily jammed the pool cover reel, which is a good 15 feet long up into the rafters of the shed.  Getting it up there required some creative pulling, pushing and jamming.  I pulled out the shop vac and vacuumed up some of the crap on the pool deck and that was the end of it.  As the weekend progressed the green faded and now the water is just cloudy which should clear in a few days. 

After I got out of the pool I never bothered to put my shirt back on the rest of the afternoon.  I don’t really know why I didn’t put it on, my recent skin cancer incidents makes me more often than not chose to leave clothes on than off.  So for 4 or 5 hours I was out in the yard watering, trimming and putting stuff away.  I could feel my back starting to sting yet I did nothing about it, stupid. 

So by the time Saturday evening came around I was a mess.  My knee hurt, my lower left back hurt, my skin stung from sunburn and the moon was at it’s fullest, shining overhead. It was miserable. 

Sunday was Mother’s Day but Ali had to work.  We made plans with my mom to take her to Cheesecake Factory.  She had never been there.  The pain in my back/side had gotten worse.  Even though I didn’t feel like it, I told my mom the last time I saw her that I would haul out her computer and computer desk that she never uses the next time I came over.  So we took the party van to pick up my mom so we would have room to haul the stuff back.

I had the bright idea that if we got to Cheesecake Factory early, like 5pm, we would miss the big crowd.  Well evidently everyone else had the same idea.  I was surprised when the hostess told me it would be a 10-20 minute wait.  45 minutes later we hear our names being called, yes called.  Cheesecake Factory recently changed their procedures for people waiting.  They used to have the pager system that has become very popular.  You check in, they give you a pager and when your table is ready it lights up and buzzes.  When they first opened they used this system and it worked fine.  However the last two times we have gone there they have abandoned the pager system.  Instead the for some reason think it is better to have someone walk around the lobby, outside and to the bar yelling someone’s name, hoping they hear them.  It is so stupid.  The last time we were there we missed our calling.  I had to go up and ask what the deal was to which they said they called for us.  I told them that we heard nothing.  Some genius must think it is more “personal” to have someone screaming your name.

The meal itself was very good and our waiter was first class.  He was well spoken, attentive and made our meal much more enjoyable.  The menu at CCF is huge, it is at least 15 pages long and the portions are huge.  If you clean your plate you are a first class pig. I like CCF but Carraba’s still is the leader in my favorite restaurants clubhouse.  We took mom home and loaded up the stuff in the van.  My back pain made it very difficult to load the furniture into the van.  If I turned a certain way I would get a stabbing pain that made me wince badly.  Ali had to give me more than a little of a helping hand.

I woke up this morning feeling horrible.  My back still hurt, my sunburn still stung, my mood was still dark and to top it off my stomach felt like it was jumpping through hoops.  I feel old and broken down.

Last night we watched all three hours of the Survivor finale.  Again it was a disappointment.  I was glad that Danielle lost.  She flat out lied to Terry three times.  Terry deserved to go to the finals, he kicked ass like no other Survivor I saw.  Other people have had good fortune with winning a lot of challenges but Terry did it with his back against the wall.  The second he screwed up they were going to get rid of him and he just kept winning.  I don’t know why but it seems far more often than not, the person at the end that gets to choose who they go to the finals with makes the wrong decision and winds up losing.  I think Danielle would have had a better shot against Terry.  The final tribal council was very lame.  Everyone threw out softball questions except for Shane, who was great.  He was brutally honest and said what Ali and I were thinking, Terry was the one who deserved to be there, not them.  Overall this cast was not great, I would probably rate this season in the bottom third of all of them.  We’ll still be watching next season. 

I put an Epic quality rifle up on the auction house in WoW (Precisely Calibrated Boomstick – http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=2100).  I stole it from someone for 95 gold and have it listed for 350 gold. As you can see the median price is 300g so I am going for a homerun. I was debating equipping it on my 44 hunter but the stats while good (+14 agility) weren’t enough to make me not try to flip it for a 250 gold profit. Yesterday I got into an argument with another hunter in Zul”Furak when he told the group to roll NEED on an epic pair of gloves that would have been perfect for my feral druid.  At first I let it slide but then I got more and more angry.  I eventually hearthed out of the instance which hurt them since I was the healer.  I then totally f’d them when I disbanded the group (I was group leader) which caused them to get booted out of the instance and have to redo it.  I told the hunter I was going to write about him on the WoW forums telling everyone what a ninja he was. (which I didn’t) but then I logged into my other characters and told the guy that how I just read about him on the forums and how he was an ass for stealing the stuff.  He kept asking where it was so he could read it.  Eventually he logged off after I badgered him 3 or 4 times.

I guess my chest twinge I felt on Monday was a false alarm.  I was able to do my max bench day without incident today.  I loaded up 275 and pressed it out, I think.  I have a guy I know from the gym spot me.  The only problem is he is the type of spotter that keeps his hands right by the bar throughout the movement.  He said he had zero weight but I never quite count a max if there is even a chance that the spotter took an ounce of the weight.  The way I like to be spotted is if I say “a little help” help me, otherwise I want to strain and grind it out.  However it still is the first time I had 275 on top of me in maybe 8 years so it’s an accomplishment, sort of. 

 I think the writing is on the wall as far as my gym converting over to a psuedo geriatric wellness center.  They have removed all of the protein drinks and now only sell water and Gatorade.  It’s a shame, when the new ownership took over, after some initial skepticism, I thought they were doing a nice job with the place.  However now they have mutated into almost a condo-cop mentality that makes me sick.

My weekend has a big list of to do’s.  Ali said something about how it would be nice to be able to start using the pool, even if we don’t have a cage yet.  So earlier in the week I pulled the pool cover off to reveal a nasty green mess underneath filled with twigs, toads and various organic matter.  So I started treating it with chemicals and will continue trying to clean it up this weekend.  If I have some success it may be swimmable by the following weekend.  My 2 new water tractors have been a big success, they do a great job and don’t need to be baby sat as much as my older ones. The new tractors and the fact that we actually got a half hour of rainfall this week should make my watering duties slightly less time consuming.

My Roomba robot floor vac has been getting less and less work lately.  Although I love it, there are some realities I have come to accept that have made it more of a novelty and less of a mainstay in our floor upkeep routine. First and most importantly, it just can’t do as good of a job as a regular vacuum.  A battery powered device just can not generate even a decent percentage of the amount of suction as a conventional vacuum cleaner.  As a result, although the rug looks cleaner from a distance, a closer inspection reveals there is still plenty of dog hair on the surface.  Second it requires regular maintenance and cleaning.  They recommend you do a thorough cleaning every 5 uses or so.  This involves removing all the hair, and fibers that wrap themselves around the brushes, gears and wheels, knocking out the furballs that find their way into every corner of the unit and blowing out the sensors with compressed air.  To put it plainly, it’s a pain in the ass.  Finally, the battery life goes downhill very quickly.  Brand new you can get close to 2 hours of run time out of it.  However after 8 months I barely get a half hour out of it.  I have had many calls into IRobot tech support for various problems I have had with my Roomba and even got a replacement unit out of them eventually, all for free.  But even with the good support I don’t think it is a great investment for someone that has big time pet hair issues like we do. 

I used to think Priscilla Presley was a good looking woman.  If anyone else saw her on this week’s American Idol you will see she has mutated into a botox frozen, cheek implanted, face pulled too tight, joker mouth looking, freak show.  It is so disturbing looking at her face.  I can identify with wanting to stay youthful and young looking but damn, how can she look in the mirror and think she looks good?  Her face is so still from all the botox it almost looks like a mannequin. It’s a shame. 

Speaking of American Idol, it is an outrage that Chris was voted out.  I mean c’mon, throughtout the entire show he has been the best performer by far.  Taylor may be more entertaining with his dancing antics, Elliot may be a more flexible singer, and Katherine is cute as a button and looks the part, but none of them came close to Chris as an all round performer. I never heard him sound bad.  I think he is right up there with Kelly Clarkson as the best contestant ever to come out of American Idol. It really is a shame he went last night. No, I am not gay. 

I may be forced to switch back to that shithole gym I used to go to.  There is a rumor going around our gym that they are pulling out all of the dumbells heavier than 60 pounds and remove all of the bench press benches except one.  Supposedly this is to curtail the “gangs” that have been there.  The bigger muscleheads evidently are scary to the geriatric gym goers that the ownership seems interested in catering to.  It’s total bullshit and if it happens I’ll be out of there the same day.  I mean give me a break, first they install a lunk alarm and now they want to castrate anyone with even an average amount of strength.  If the people are doing things that are causing issues, warn them and if the actions continue, cancel their membership, don’t penalize the vast majority of people that come and go without incident.  I paid my up front intiation fees based upon the equipment that was available to me.  If they decide to transform the gym into a sterile box only fit for senior citizens and chubby housewives I will be sure to do my best to make my opinion known.

Yesterday on my lunch hour I went out on a search for replacements for my 2 broken water tractors.  Without the water tractors my lawn will turn to sand.  The one tractor I had was a Craftsman model so I figured I would go to Sears and see if they had them on the shelf.  I was disappointed to find only conventional stationary sprinklers available.  I figured I would check out Home Depot.  I had little hope because I never remembered seeing water tractors there before.  I was thrilled to discover they had the Nelson RainTrain in stock!!

I saw these on ebay and it turns out that I wound up paying less just getting them at the store, they charge outrageous shipping on these.  I grabbed two of them.  After work I put them both together and hooked one up to give it a try.  It works great!

I went to the gym after work.  It was chest day.  I started my chest day like I always do, with the bench press.  Even though I have been off creatine for a week, my strength is still there.  I pressed 225 lbs for 8 reps, something I never ever did before.  I went as high as 265 and then for my last set I went back to 225.  Halfway through my 4th rep I felt an abnormal pull in my left pec, followed by pain.  I racked the weight and tried to assess what just happened.  The area felt warm.  Did I rip my pec? Did I strain it?  I had no idea.  I tried to stretch it out.  I hopped on the fly machine to see how that felt and couldn’t even do one rep.  It felt bad.  I was pissed off and had thoughts running through my head about this being a serious thing that could really throw a wrench into my training.  So I hopped on the cross trainer and just did cardio for the rest of the hour. 

I picked up Ali and told her about the incident.  It was sort of just a dull ache by that time.  However as the night went on it felt better and this morning it is stiff but not overly painful.  I’ll have to be very careful.  I really thought I ripped something initially.

If you want to see the handful of pictures I took while I was in Orlando go here.

Nicki and I pushed out the door around 8 am on Friday.  The GPS has us going a more direct route up the center of the state instead of up I-75 to route 4.  Although it is more direct it also went through many small towns with slower speed limits and traffic lights so I don’t know that it was any faster, in fact it may have been slower.  It took me all of 3 and a half hours to get there.  Nicki repeatedly wanted me to roll down the windows so she could stick her head out.  At first I wouldn’t do it because I figured I was going too fast.  She kept waiting and waiting for the windows to magically open so I eventually relented and let her stick her head out.  I figured she would figure out it a few seconds.  Nope, she seemed to have her head blowing in the hurricane force wind.  She would sit down for a few minutes and then go right back to sticking her head out.  Dogs are weird.

 I warned Ali we were arriving so she could come out and greet us outside.  If Nicki’s first sight of Ali occurred indoors she would pee all over the floor for sure.  After almost a week of not seeing Ali, Nicki was besides herself with excitement.  When we got up into the tiimeshare it was more or less a subdued scene.  Ali’s Dad was napping and everyone else was sitting around with some cartoon on the TV for the two kids.  My neice Lauryn had developed a fear of dogs since we saw her last so she grexxed and whined when she saw Nicki.  Nicki despises children and was equally scared of my neices.  My other neice Laiken had no such fear of dogs and was very interested in Nicki.  Nicki wanted nothing to do with it. I had not seen my neice Laiken since she was a few months old.  Now she is walking, talking and is basically a holy terror that wants to get into everything. She didn’t really know what to think of me.

After I had been there 10 minutes or so, my brother, sister and mother-in-laws along with the girls were out the door on their way to downtown disney, leaving Ali, Nicki, Ali’s dad and me.  I thought it was a bit odd that everyone took off right after our arrival but soon found out that it was pretty much the norm.  A lot of hurrying up to get places and not a whole lot of enjoying the being there part.  So while Ali’s dad watched fishing shows on ESPN, Ali and I ran out to Subway and brought back sandwiches for the three of us. 

The timeshare was nice.  We had 2 units, one 1 bedroom unit and one 2 bedroom unit connected by a door.  I was worried it would be less than advertised but for 450 bucks for a week you couldn’t beat it.  It was literally 5 minutes from the Disney parks so you could not beat the location. 

After we ate lunch we decided to go to downtown Disney and try to catch up with the others.  Ali’s dad was fine with dog sitting.  After we got there we tracked the others down via a cell phone call.  Then the whirlwind tour started.  We went from store to store in quick succession.  They snapped a few pics of the kids and then in about an hour or so they were ready to head out.  Ali and I opted to stick around and look around a bit.  I assume part of the fast pace of my in-laws was because of having two children there that may have been too young to enjoy the experience.  I think being close to double digits in age is probably the optimum age for kids to enjoy disney.  I doubt they will even remember their time there.

It was very hot in Orlando for May, it was in the lower 90’s.  Ali and spent maybe another hour walking around seeing the sights.  We went into a huge Virgin record store where I got to see my first Xbox 360 in person.  They had 6 of them set up, each with a different game.  You know games today all pretty much have outstanding graphics, it’s just a given because of the technology out there. But damn, the 360 took it to another level. You have to see it first hand to appreciate just how good the graphic quality of the games are.  For a few moments I felt the need to have one, but quickly I reminded myself how since my WoW addiction started, my playtime on my XBox has dwindled down to practically nothing.  Those graphics were sooooo good though.

We got back to the timeshare around four.  Ali had done some homework about restaurants that had outdoor seating and allowed dogs.  She made reservations at some italian place.  She was nervous because she didn’t want to be the fall guy if the place sucked.  The place was 20 something miles away so we allocated 40 minutes to get there.  Thanks to gridlock on I-4 it took 60.  On the way over I discovered that although the AC now did a fine job of keeping the passengers in the front of the van cool, with temps in the lower 90’s the people in the back were uncomfortably warm.  So in an effort to keep them cooler my father-in-law had his window down and they had the sliding windows in the back open which totally eliminated any benefit of the AC.  I felt bad that they were hot back there.  I knew that my brother-in-law had to be wishing that they just rented that full size SUV they were going to get.  But hey we saved them the 700 bucks they were going to have to spend on the rental.  The party van was cumbersome fully loaded down with seven people.  At highway speeds any movement was exagerrated and hitting the brakes hard resulted in a strong pull to the right and a pulsating brake pedal that screamed for attention.  I need to get the brakes fixed sometime. 

The GPS got us to the restaurant just fine although it had the side of the road for the establishment reversed.  The place was nice, right by the lake.  It was windy outside but otherwise very nice.  The place was right by a lake where jet ski’s were pulling guys on those big inflatable discs that get airborne.  It was fun to watch them.  Dinner was fine and after a couple hours we were on our way back.  Luckily the traffic had subsided.  When we got back there it was time for everyone to pack.  They wanted to leave at 5:15am to give them 2 full hours to get on the plane.

Our bedroom had two double beds.  Ali and I slept in one bed and Nicki slept in the other.  It was not a good nights sleep.  If Ali or I moved an inch we would wake the other up.  Needless to say we both felt like death when the alarm fired off at 4:30 am.  Ali’s parent’s alarm did not go off and they didn’t wake up till shortly before 5 so they had to hurry, hurry, hurry up.  We piled in the van and I drove them to the airport.  We gave our hugs and goodbyes and went back to the timeshare.  We had all of our shit to pack up yet as well as all the kitchen junk to clean up.  I originally had the idea that we could pack it all up immediately and get on the road nice and early so we could get home before lunch.  However Ali said there was no way she would be able to follow me home in the car if she didn’t sleep a little.  So Ali laid back down and slept and I packed up little odds and ends the best I could but many things I needed some input from Ali before packing so I couldn’t do it all.  So after I did what I deemed I could I flipped on the TV.  For some reason I found myself glued to an infomercial for Appliance Direct.  The guy and woman that do these commercials are hilarious.  The infomercial simply repeated the same clips over and over.  In a half hour I probably saw the same clips 4 or 5 times but I kept watching.  It’s that funny.  You HAVE to see this for yourself.  Go here and view the commercials on the right side. 

After a couple hours Ali woke up and we got all the junk together.  Ali’s obsession with recycling meant we were filling the Sentra’s trunk with 6 bags of recyclable materials. I don’t even bother to suggest that it isn’t very practical to haul trash 200 miles so we could dispose of it at home, I guess I’m just used to it by now.  I drove the van and Ali followed in the car.  The drive back was long and more than afew times I found myself extremely drowsy.  I battled it one time by stopping and grabbing a cup of nasty coffee from a gas station.  Later in the trip after the coffee wore off I would stay awake by holding my breath.  Oxygen deprivation does a fine job of keeping the brain alert.

Finally we rolled into the driveway sometime around 1:15.  It felt good to be home but I was already gnawing at the bit to get stuff done, put away and back to normal.  After I unloaded everything from both vehicles I was off to the grocery store while Ali put away stuff inside.  After returning I ripped into the list that I created while at the grocery store.  I was outside until after 6pm doing chore after chore.

One of the big chores is watering.  We have had basically no rain for a couple months.  Our grass is a brown mess.  Last week I broke one of our two travelling sprinklers through some stupidity.  I needed to adjust the one sprinkler but it was running.  Instead of turning off the water source or simply grabbing the hose and pinching it I decided to walk up to the sprinkler and stick my foot out to stop the spinning arms.  The sudden stop was enough to break the sprinkler arm.  I cursed myself for my dumb move.  It left me with one sprinkler to cover the rest of the yard.

Well on Sunday my second travelling sprinkler died.  It was an old Thompson unit that I had gotten from our old neighbors.  The nylon worm gear had stripped, leaving it incapable of movement.  I could hardly believe that both of my sprinklers had bit the dust in the space of a week.  So now I need to find a replacement after not being able to find any replacement parts online for either unit. 

We had to wake up to the alarm once again Sunday morning for a race.  Because of my still ailing knee I was unable to run so I was relegated to being a cheerleader / picture taker.  I felt like a schlub not being able to run.  Ali finsihed in just under 31 minutes, a slow time for her but she said even though it was 7:30 am, the course was VERY hot.  I saw more than one person throw up after they crossed the finish line.  Being a spectator allowed me to closely watch the various running styles of people.  Some were quite odd.  One guy grunted loudly with every breat the ENTIRE race.  There is no way I would have been able to run close to the guy, it was so annoying.  He also carried his hands very high and made a motion that almost looked like he was rubbing his nipples.  Another old guy held his hands even higher and almost looked like he was waving bye bye to people.  A runner in his 70’s actually went down twice as he approached the finish line and had to literally be helped across the line.  I was worried he had a heart attck but he was just dehydrated.  I guess it was hot.

The rest of the day was fine with me knocking out a few more chores and playing WoW for the first time in 3 days.  I convince myself that my addiction to WoW isn’t too dangerous because I have the ability to push it away if need be, if I go a day without playing it isn’t the end of the world. 

Ali was playing this video last night.  It was a comedian who did an impromptu roast of W AS HE WAS SITTING THERE.  I mean it was cutting stuff, viciously brutal and honest about how much of a boob Bush is.  I could not believe he was present for the berating.  Once again you have to see this to believe it.