Category Fitness

So as I explained on Friday, my game plan to attend the pull up event in South Beach, despite my dog sitting for the weekend, was to leave around noon and hopefully get back around 8, rolling the dice that there would be no excrement waiting for me when I got home.

I was surprised when Friday night I got a call from my mom.  She said she wouldn’t mind driving out to the house after she was done working on Saturday so the dogs would be ok.  I hadn’t even bothered pitching this idea to her since I assumed she would not want to do it.  Of course I was thrilled with the offer, it will eliminate the poop potential.  Mom said she would just stay the night and get up early Sunday to head to work.  Sounds good to me.

Saturday morning I was up and working early.  I had the girls ride with me in the van to Ali’s place to go pick up the Camry.  Ali mentioned it was due for an oil change so I told her I would do it while she was gone.  I left the van there and took the Camry back out to the house to do the work.  In addition to changing the oil and filter I added coolant and air to the tires.  The car really could use a bath but that is an extra cost service.

I spent the rest of the morning getting as much done as I could before I was to leave for South Beach.  When I have the dogs I don’t even bother worry about cleaning until after they are gone, especially now.  Very recently, seemingly to me since Nicki started on some thyroid medicine a month ago, her coat has rapidly transformed.  It has made her fur very long, much longer than ever before.  In addition, her shedding is non-stop.  In no time at all the carpet had various black spots where Nicki had been laying down, her hair just falls out.

I also noticed that Nicki’s level of thirst since being on the thyroid medicine is drastically increased.  She was constantly at the water bowl.  I really think this is all related to the meds.  I haven’t seen positive signs from the meds, Nicki still is moving slow and obviously has joint related pain.

So I got ready to pull out for South Beach.  I packed a small bag with various items, unsure exactly what I would be doing once I got there.  I included a towel, some water, a rubber resistance band, a change of clothes, my Flip camera and some deodorant.  That should cover most foreseeable circumstances.

I fired up the SSR, dropped the top and after filling the gas tank was off to South Beach.  I had the top down for the majority of the drive.  I actually drove through a period of significant rain with the top down.  I was on a section of highway with no real place to pull off to put the roof up.  Actually, as long as you are moving at a decent speed, the wind rushing on top of the truck shields the cabin from getting soaked too badly.

I had asked Luis, one of the Barstarzz members that invited me to the event about where the best place was to park.  He said the parking garage at the building which includes a Publix, Best Buy and Staples was a good choice if you don’t mind walking a bit.  The first two hours are free and the hourly rate after that is very cheap.  Cheap parking in South Beach is non-existent normally.  Since I only had the small bag to carry I didn’t mind the walk.

I did exercise some caution with my wallet.  I opted to leave it in the truck and just carry some cash and my credit card in a velcro pocket.  I had some concerns about some shady person snatching my bag when I wasn’t paying attention at the beach.  I figured if I kept my money, credit card and truck keys on me at all times that would be the safest bet.

The walk to the beach was pretty lengthy, maybe 6 or 7 blocks.  In my flip flops it took me about 15 minutes to get to the event, which was scheduled to start around 2PM.

By the time I got there it was probably close to 2:45.  There was a big crowd gathered around the bars watching people take turns on the 15 foot tall pole mounted in the sand.

The first thing I did was look for Luis.  Luis is an older guy like me that got into bar work outs late in life.  He is the one that invited me to attend the event.  I spotted him and introduced myself.  It was cool to finally meet someone I only knew virtually up until that point.  He kind of gave me the lay of the land as far as the event goes. Mixed in with the casual exhibitions there was going to be a pull up, muscle up, dip and free style competition, cool.  I figured I should at least give the pull ups a shot.

I wore my Bar-barians shirt to the event after verifying with Luis ahead of time that it wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t know if it would be weird to be wearing Bar-barians clothing at a Barstarzz event.  Luis assured me it was fine.  I actually didn’t leave the shirt on for very long.  95% of the guys there were shirtless so I decided to join them.  If there is ever a place to show of the fruits of your calisthenics labor, it is South Beach.

As I was walking around I saw someone I recognized.  I knew I saw a video about him on YouTube a little while ago.  He goes by the name Raven (real name Ray)

I went up to him and introduced myself. Raven is a very unique individual and not a very young man, he recently turned 62 years old.  To say Raven believes in regimens would be an understatement.  For the last 42 YEARS, he has run 8 miles, everyday, on the beach.

He started doing this in January of 1975.  From what I saw on his website, he originally made a New Years resolution to run 8 miles a day for an entire year.  Well, he never stopped from that point on.  About 5 years into his running regimen he added pull ups and other body weight exercises into his daily routine as well.

To date he has run a total of over 100,000 miles in total, just an incredible feat. However what is really amazing is when you think in detail about the reality of what this man has done.  He LITERALLY has run that 8 miles every single day since 1975.  He has run through injuries, illness, horrible weather and just about any other adversity you can imagine.

As I talked to him I asked what was his biggest injury issue.  He said it was his back, at certain points he could barely get out of bed but he still put his 8 miles in.

Raven actually invited me to join him, a lot of people now run with him, at 5:30 at the 5th street lifeguard station.  If I knew about it ahead of time I may have packed some running gear and done it.  Instead I took a rain check and filed it away under the “to do’s” the next time I am in South Beach.

Raven was there because he wanted to take part of the pull up competition.

So the pull up contest eventually started.  As others made their attempt I tried my best to get loose.  Raven went before I did and knocked out 21 pull ups although his elbows were at 90 degrees at the bottom of his reps, a less than ideal range of motion.  There were varying degrees of correctness in the form many people used.  Some even used chin up grip for some reps. No one made a big stink though since they weren’t doing enough reps to win anyway.

Finally it was my turn to go, I might have been the 8th or 9th person to get on the bar.  At that point the most amount of reps was 22, which I knew on a good day was within my wheel house since my PR is 25.  I grabbed on to the highest of the three bars and started pulling.

I tried to keep my form very clean with my legs straight, feet together and using good extension at the bottom while making sure I was getting chin high at the top.  My pace was pretty quick and explosive early on, I got to rep 18 before I had to pause.  I managed to squeeze out 5 more reps to become the temporary leader with 23 reps.  It was kind of cool to have a big crowd cheering me on as I squeezed out the last few reps. I wish I gave someone my Flip to shoot video of the reps.  There was someone filming the entire event so I know my set is on film somewhere.  Hopefully I can find it.

As I was there a tall young guy came up to me and said hi.  His name is Max.  Max reminded me that a couple years ago he and I were communicating back and forth about exercise stuff.  Once he described the communication I remembered him but I still would have blanked on his name.

Max is almost the exact same height as I am, he is also 22 or 23 years younger than me.  Despite his long build he has been able to really do some high level stuff as far as body weight movements go, much more advanced than I have gotten.

Unfortunately Max also has had a ton of injuries along the way, despite his young age.  He actually was currently suffering from what sounds like a pretty serious shoulder injury.  In addition, during our talks he described a myriad of other injuries he has gone through.  Max is real focused and intense when it comes to achieving a goal once he sets it in his mind.

I talked to Max quite a bit, he seems like a real cool kid.  He lives in the Miami area, we exchanged email and phone numbers.  We agreed we should get together and work out once he heals up.

One of the other people I was looking for at the event was a woman I know primarily as “Low Bar”.  She is one of the few women that are actively involved in bar exercise.  She is from NYC and is familiar with the various bar groups there, including the Bar-barians.  She had flown down for the event.

I was periodically scanning the crowd for her but she was nowhere to be seen.  She showed up a little later.  I gave her a hug and welcomed her to Florida.  From the picture you can see why she is nick named Low Bar as she is less than 5 feet tall.

I sat next to her while the freestyle competition was going on.  I shot most of the video I took during the freestyle part of the competition.  You can see it below.

So the event started winding down around 6:30.  I was planning to simply walk back to the SSR and start the 2 plus hour drive home.  Low Bar asked me if I wanted to grab food with her cousin and her.  Since I had mom in place to tend to the dogs I said sure.

Before I left I found Luis and thanked him again for inviting me to the event.  It was a lot of fun to be around that kind of positive energy.  I should invite the Barstarzz guys to hit my backyard bar park, that would be quite the scene.

I got in on the group picture before I left.

So we walked towards Ocean Drive and picked a spot to eat, thinking we would just eat out in the sidewalk seating area.  Instead the hostess directed us inside to eat, um ok.  Well this place, called Mangos, evidently is also a night/dance club.  We were seated directly underneath a speaker that was blaring loud dance music.  It didn’t take long until I got up and asked the hostess if we could eat outside instead because of the noise.  She accommodated us but let me know there was a certain line in the sidewalk that I had to keep my chair behind.  No problem.

We had a good dinner.  Even with being outside it was still kind of loud, I had a hard time making out what Low Bar’s cousin was saying at times because of the noise and her strong Fillipino accent.

One thing that is nice eating outside is you get a nonstop stream of “interesting” people to look at.  Some of the fashion decisions that were on display were pretty mind blowing. After our meal we walked back towards the hotel they were staying at.  Once we hit 5th street I peeled off and started the long walk to the parking garage after giving them both hugs goodbye.

The drive back across the alley was a bit treacherous at times with some torrential downpours, including one I walked through to get to the front door of the rest stop.  You can see my level of drenching in the picture.

I  pulled into the driveway about 10:30.  After letting the dogs out (mom was already in bed), I took a shower and crashed into bed.  I was quite tired.

You can imagine the joy I felt when at 2:20 am I hear Nicki crying by the door.  I assumed that meant she had to go to the bathroom.  Well at least she is letting me know.  Well the funny thing was the first thing she did when I opened the bedroom door was go lay in front of my mom’s door.  I called her over and went out back.  She did a number two and a one so I despite my being delirious with exhaustion, I preferred that to waking up at 7am to the smell of shit on the floor. Unfortunately afterward I had a very difficult time falling back asleep.

Mom was up early, crazy early to get ready for work.  She wanted her alarm set at 5AM.  Well it didn’t take long for the dogs to realize there was something going on in the main living area.  They decided to wake me up a little after 6am, oh well.

So I told mom about my time on the east coast.  As we were talking I realized this was the first time mom has set foot in the house since Ali and I separated.  In fact, mom said it was the first time she has been at the house since last CHRISTMAS.  When she first said that I was sure she was wrong but as I thought about it I couldn’t remember any other visits.  It seemed impossible that so much time had passed so quickly.  My life does feel like a bit of a blur the last 6 months or so.

Mom was the first person to sleep in the bed Jeremy donated to me.  She said the bed was comfortable although she said she slept terribly.  I wouldn’t credit that to the bed though, almost every time mom stays at the house she reports poor sleeping results.  The deviation from her routine must through her for a loop.

So mom got ready and headed out around seven for work.  I thanked her again for her dog sitting, it was nice to not have to be constantly checking my watch when I was over in South Beach.

So despite a severe lack of sleep I decided I needed to get some running in for Mudder training.  I drove to the now closed for the season water park to run around.  My initial hope was to do four laps around the outside of the park which would add up to 8 miles.

The skies were overcast which made running early on pretty bearable.  As I got to the halfway point my right knee was feeling pretty shitty.  Each stride had an accompanying ping of soreness associated with it.  I decided to only do 3 laps instead of 4, finishing the 6 miles in 55 minutes and change, not a great pace but ok.  I figured running the last 2 miles wasn’t worth it if I was really hurting.  When I got home I iced the knee and it actually doesn’t feel too bad today.

Well that Eagles game was a bummer.  I actually was so tired I was half asleep for nearly 3 quarters of the game.  I was awake when Vick fumbled another two times.  His turnover problems are a real big deal.  Obviously opposing teams realize that the best way to beat the Eagles is to pressure Vick.  When this happens he makes a lot of poor decisions and he’s not good at protecting the ball.

Despite the turnovers the Eagles actually grabbed their first lead late in the game.  The drive that got them the lead had the opportunity to be a HUGE fail for Andy.  For some reason he decided to go completely against the book and go for it on 4th down with over 10 minutes left in the game on his OWN 30 yard line, a huge risk.  Luckily the Eagles converted by a few inches but man, he would have been crucified if they didn’t.

So anyway, the drive was very long, covering 17 plays resulting in a 14-13 lead.  All that was left was for the defense to hold the Steelers with a couple minutes left on the clock and the game could be secured.  Well obviously it didn’t happen.  The biggest fail was when the Eagles had the Steelers pinned back on their side of the field facing a 3rd and 12.  Instead of dealing the knockout blow, they played a soft zone that allowed a 20 yard completion.  Once that happened I knew they were done.

The Steelers proceeded to march down the field easily and kicked a game winning field goal with three seconds left.

It was a disappointing ending for sure but I think the bigger news is Mike Vick’s torrid turnover pace. The amount of times he has turned the ball over thus far this season is staggering.  He will obliterate the league record at this pace. Hopefully Andy is smart enough to eventually realize that either Vick has to take care of the ball better or someone else has to start taking the snaps.

Ali ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday, the reason I was watching the dogs for the weekend.  She had much cooler temps to run in this year, hovering around 50 which for me, would be ideal.  Ali prefers warmer air.  She managed to finish a couple minutes ahead of last year’s time but had a lot of struggles, especially the last 10 miles of the race.  She said her entire lower body was just in severe pain.

The good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it, is she gets to take another whack at the marathon distance in a month as she is signed up for the NYC marathon.

After the Eagle game I had enough daylight left to go out and hop on the tractor.  Once again it was not running smoothly, acting like there is still some ethanol slime in the fuel system.  I will need to find some additive that will dissolve the shit.  I never like doing chores at the tail end of the weekend but it felt good to get the grass done.

You know when I run, at least when I run by myself, lots of random thoughts go through my head.  As I was running Sunday my mind drifted to to the topic of people that spend a lot of energy screaming about “entitlements” and how they are ruining the country.  I then thought about the hypocrisy that many of these exact same people are responsible for parenting the most “entitled” generation in US history.

These people that are so eager to cut seniors medical or social security benefits are the same people that think it necessary to equip their child with a one digit age with the latest and greatest iDevice.  They feel it is important that they have some sort of video screen stimulation in front of their child’s face  most waking moments of the day.  Their child should not be made to suffer the cruel punishment of having to actually look out a window during a road trip and look at scenery.

These are the people that see nothing wrong with their child receiving a medal when their soccer team gets last place.  After all, children should be taught early on that no matter how hard they do or don’t work, they will be rewarded.  I mean wtf, how can parents complain about an entitled society when they parent in such a manner that does nothing but encourage that mentality?

I literally laugh out loud when I see bumper stickers were parents proclaim their child had a perfect dental check up.  Good job Sally, way to go Petey!

Their children are being raised in a bubble.  No one is allowed to yell at them, nobody should ever treat them unfairly, they are not allowed to endure hardship or struggle to attain a goal.  It is just handed to them.

You see, as much as failure hurts, it is an absolutely essential part of life.  If you are never allowed to fail you don’t ever appreciate or even know what true success is.

Maybe more people in the country need to go on solo runs so they can come to these type of revelations on their own.  Don’t talk it if you don’t walk it.

I saw this quote floating around Facebook and it struck me as so true.

So after leaving work early I headed to the site of the race.  When I got there I unloaded and set up what I could and once the club’s truck arrived  we dug into setting up everything else.  I fully expected a lot of headaches with this race on my end based on history.  History did indeed repeat itself.

The registration area got very chaotic, very quickly.  We had problems with teams coming up with email confirmations showing they registered for the race yet for some reason I did not have them in the system.  We also had teams that supposedly mailed in entries with checks that were MIA.  There was a long period of time where Ali and I were just slammed non-stop with problems.  We did the only thing we could do, handle them one at a time.

I had to leave Ali alone to handle the mess for the last 15 minutes before the start of the race so I could set up the timing equipment at the start and finish lines.  This was the first time I used the four new timing mats the club bought for the start line, they seemed to do a better job at detecting the huge volume of runners at the start than the 5 year old mats they replaced.

The actual timing of the race went smoothly after getting past the hectic pre-race scene.  I found myself developing a rather large headache towards the end.  I am not sure of it was from the race or from being dehydrated, I was sweating my ass off.

I worked on all of the post race duties right up to bedtime, I wanted it all done and put away.

So yesterday I was browsing Facebook and I saw mention of a pull up event in South Beach on Saturday held by Bar Starzz.  Bar Starrz is another body weight enthusiast group, like the Bar-barians.  When I looked closer I saw that I actually had been invited to the event awhile back by Luis, a fellow 40 + year old that is part of their group.  I somehow missed the invite.

Well anyway, I saw the event actually has people coming from quite a distance to attend, including some people from NYC that I am FB friends with.  Wow it would be cool to meet all these people.  I saw Luis on FB chat and told him I was going to try to make it over there.

Later in the day I realized there was a complication.  I totally forgot that Ali was gone this weekend.  She is doing the Chicago Marathon again.  That means I have dog duty.

Well after initially thinking it would cause me to miss this opportunity I reconsidered.  It doesn’t start until 2pm which means I can leave around noon, spend 3-4 hours there and get back around 8-9. Worst case scenario is I have a smelly welcome home present and I will have the Spot Bot on hand in that event.  The dogs would be given a free poop pass in that situation.

My left wrist and elbow are both injured to varying degrees but I think I am willing to just pop some Advil and deal with it.  It should be a fun time. The SSR will be utilized for the coast to coast and back again trip, adding to the fun quotient.

I am sure the rest of the weekend will have plenty of more mundane items to consume what is left of it.

Ali forwarded this to me.  It seems that the general consensus is that Mitt was the winner of the first debate based on his aggressive attitude and one liners that seemed locked and loaded almost before Obama would even stop speaking.  Now what would you think if I told you that part of reason was because Mitt had a cheat sheet in front of him?

One of the rules of these debates are candidates are not allowed any aids in front of them.  They are given a blank sheet of paper to make notes on once the debate begins, that’s it.  Otherwise they are supposed to rely simply on their command of the issues.

Well the video makes it clear as day that Mitt pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket as he approached the podium, perhaps thinking that all of the cameras in the room were facing him and would not be able to catch his trickery.

I find this funny and pathetic at the same time.  Wonder if he will fess up to this one or not?

I watched episode one of this season of Dexter last night.  Damn, I have no idea where the story can go from here, the way it ended you would think it was a season finale, not a premiere.  It’s awesome to be able to watch shows like this in real time courtesy of  Xfinity online.  Shows like this (Showtime) can’t stream through the Xbox though, I need to watch them on my laptop or pc.

My property has once again transformed into swamplands after a day of rain that included several periods of intense downpours.  Yeah it’s annoying but dry season is right around the corner where we can flip pages on the calendar without seeing hardly a drop.

Last night I also got on the Homeland bandwagon, another show that people rave about.  I only watched the first episode but I can already see I will be into the show big time.

Yesterday I migrated my fitness blog, Dufisthenics off of WordPress.com onto my private hosting space.  Hosting the site on WordPress.com is convenient but it also is somewhat limiting.  You aren’t able to do much customization as plug ins aren’t allowed.  They also want to charge you to allow certain things to be done which can be done for free if you host it yourself.  They also do not allow you to run Google ads on their site.

In addition to the move, I installed a new theme.  I find the new lay out more visually appealing.

Unfortunately my exercise routines have been a bit sidetracked lately due to injury.  In addition to my right knee being always problematic to some degree, my left wrist is becoming a long term problem.

A wrist is a hard thing to let heal since it is used in so many ways and so often.  For now I am trying to avoid things that blatantly cause pain but at least thus far I am not seeing/feeling any significant healing taking place.

Speaking of blog facelifts, I think I will be bolting a new skin onto this blog as well.  The skin that is in place is admittedly boring and was hurriedly put in place when my site was hacked awhile back.  There are bunch of good looking free alternatives out there.

Tonight is the first presidential debate.  I really have no need to watch the debates as I don’t need to be convinced either way.  Even if I did need convincing, if I thought that anything either candidate SAYS in a debate really means that much in the end I would be sadly mistaken. If a candidates debate performance is the deal breaker for you I would suggest you do more research.

So after a ridiculous amount of waiting, unanswered phone calls, and emails, I finally got the paperwork for the extended warranty on the SSR sent to me.   After receiving them I was reading through the plan outline.  One thing that caught my eye was the “Maintenance Requirements” .   It said in there that you had to have receipts for certain maintenance items (like an oil change) and the receipts had to include the date and VIN number of the vehicle.

Well I have changed my own oil for years, not only to save money but also so I know it is done right after I had a Quick Lube place try to get away with not replacing the filter.  Plus who knows what type of oil they dump in your vehicle in a place like that, they dispense it from giant vats, it can’t be very good.

Anyway, I wanted to clarify that if I changed my own oil, I could be setting myself up for a fight if I submit a claim, so I called the customer service number for the warranty company.  I explained to the guy that I typically change my own oil.  I asked if I kept the receipts for the oil/filter if that would be sufficient to indicate proper maintenance was performed.

The answer I got back was annoying.  He basically said it may or may not be.  He said that it would only become an issue if they asked for proof of oil changes if an engine related problem was submitted.  It sounded like he was saying if I change my own oil I am rolling the dice as far as coverage goes, great.

So now for my next oil change I hope to find a place that will do the work for me and provide the proper documentation if I provide them with the oil and filter.  It’s an annoying hoop to have to jump through.

I was up in the air regarding if I should go run again with the club Saturday morning.  All week my right knee had some degree of soreness deep inside as a result of my 7 mile run the week before.  So although Friday I still was not free of this sensation I decided I was going to push ahead and hit the pavement once again.  The driving force behind the decision in the end is the Tough Mudder which is about 2 months away.  I feel like I need to be able to do a few 10 mile jaunts to be in Mudder cardio shape.

This time I had different running partners for each half of the 7 mile run, Matt heading out and Bob on the way back.  The combo pushed my pace up a few notches to where I averaged 8:40 for the 7 miles, about the same pace I ran my 1:55 half marathon at last year.  My knee didn’t feel particularly awful or good during the run.

Ali had something going on Saturday so she asked if I could pick up the dogs.  I had plans to be busy around the house all day so I didn’t mind.

I handled the myriad of normal outdoor maintenance items and then worked on a couple other things. One of those things was to apply water sealant to my bar park and other wood items in the landscape like the ramp to the small shed and the frame of the dog deck. The deck and ramp only got one coat of sealant, the bar park got two as it gets a much higher priority in the yard.

I also set the live traps back up and baited them with sardines, trying to catch the lone remaining armadillo that has resumed his random excavation of the yard.

On Sunday morning I woke up in an absolutely awful mood. I opened my eyes, looked out the window and my first thought was (insert anything here) “sucks…..”

I was originally thinking about doing a biking/swimming brick but my knee was feeling pretty shitty at that point.  I would be walking around and all of a sudden get a stab or two that instantly turned me into a limper.  I instead decided to use the couple hours before the water park opened to do more chores and then go do some swimming since it was the last weekend the pool is open.

I arrived at the park a few minutes after it opened.  The one woman there knows me well enough that she has my wrist band ready to hand over before I approach the window.  She even took notice I wasn’t in my biking garb that day.

I set a mental goal of swimming 2000 yards, farther than I have gone this year. (only did 1200 so far) The goal was set for a couple reasons.  First, since I didn’t pre-fatigue with a biking session, more distance in the pool seemed reasonable.  Second, I was hoping that beating myself in the pool would help break up the mental cloud in my head.

The pool water had heated up a bit from last week, I would have liked it to be a few degrees cooler since I was swimming for close to 42 minutes.  I broke the 2000 into five 400 segments, taking a brief break in between sets.

As I was in one of those breaks a guy jumped into the lane next to me.  We talked for a bit.  His accent lead me to ask where he was from.  Turns out he was visiting from Romania, I think he said his name was Claudio or something that sounded similar.

Claudio was a good swimmer, much faster than I was.  Just having him in the pool helped push my slower pace.  I wound up averaging under 8:30 400’s for the entire 2000, which for me, is pretty good.  I emerged from the pool pretty damn tired.

Ali was working on Sunday so I volunteered to pick up the dogs once again to hang with me.

I mentioned last week about Nicki’s drastic change in appearance of her coat, it has become long and shaggy.  When I was outside with her I was petting her and was amazed at the amount of hair that she was shedding.  I took both hands and started rubbing her back vigorously and in seconds I had piles of hair coming off, it was insane.

Nicki is also still acting like physically she is just breaking down.  She won’t jog more than a few strides, despite Sadie’s best attempts to rile her up.  It makes me sad.

One of the things I did during the afternoon was to spray the front yard with Weed B Gone.  I have treated the weed infested trouble areas in the yard repeatedly with weed and feed in a bag.  It would generally knock out dollar weed, at least temporarily, but leave a lot of the other nuisance weeds unscathed.

Weed B Gone is a more direct approach.  You spray it on with a hose end attachment and the weeds bite the dust.  Of course one of the things the directions say is to apply it on a day where no rain is expected.  Of course on cue, it poured three or four hours after I applied it so I may be repeating the process shortly.

I installed Windows 8 on my work laptop on Friday,  I have messed around with it a little bit.  There is a moderately steep learning curve with the new tile based front end the OS uses.  The absence of the START button and other items that have been in Windows operating systems for the last 20 years is pretty disorienting.

As I played around I figured out how to do many of the things I used to do intuitively.  To be honest, although it may sound good on paper to roll out a user interface that is identical on phone, tablet and pc platforms, in practice I don’t think it is quite so rosy.  Granted I need to spend more time in the OS to give it a fair shake.  Right now it sort of feels like the tiles just get in the way.

So the Eagles played Sunday Night.  I really dislike night games, I consistently have a hell of a time staying awake for them.  Last night was no exception.  I raised the white flag with about 10 minutes to go last night, I simply could not keep my eyelids open.

Up until that point the game was very tight with both defenses playing well.  I was quite relieved when I flipped on the computer this morning to see the Eagles pulled out the game 19-17.  It sounded like I missed an exciting finish with the game ending when a 54 yard Giants field goal attempt was short.

Not only was the game good in the NFC East real life standings, it helped my fantasy football outlook as well.  Both Lesean McCoy and Desean Jackson pumped some big numbers into my point total.  I have a 35 point lead with Tony Romo yet to play.  My opponent has Jay Cutler and the Bears kicker.  The win should be pretty secure but you never really know until the fat lady sings.

Jeremy turned me onto a new ABC drama called Last Resort which debuted last week.  ( I watched the first episode online)  It was a GREAT series premiere.  It sucked me in almost immediately and has me anxious to see what happens next.  I highly recommend you check it out.  I also need to jump on the Homeland bandwagon.  PLUS I should have an episode of Boardwalk Empire and Dexter ready to go via Xfinity on Demand.

Shows like these (and WoW) are one of the escape mechanisms I use to detach from whatever is troubling me at that moment.

Yesterday Ali asked me if I could pick up the dogs from daycare since she was going to be tied up at work until later.  Luckily I didn’t have plans last night so I could do it.  This was the first time I set foot inside the place.  I told the girl at the front desk I was there to pick up Nicki and Sadie. She headed into the large area that holds most of the dogs.

As I looked around the place it seemed nice enough.  The only thing I didn’t like was what my ears were hearing.  The area where the girls were kept was very noisy with dogs barking non-stop.  I mentioned to Ali that the noise level reminded me of a kennel.  To be fair, employees were walking around in the room at the time which may have been prodding the dogs to bark more for attention.  But the idea that Nicki particularly (Sadie adapts to anything) could be exposed to that noise for long periods of the day did not give me the warm and fuzzies.

Ali said that the dogs are interacted with and in different areas of the place throughout the day.  When Nicki and Sadie were brought out they were excited of course and seemed fine, not overly stressed out.  I took them back to Ali’s place and walked them quickly before heading out.

Last night I made a continuous push up attempt and posted it on my new YouTube channel.  In related news I also created and posted my last video on my old, Google AdSense banned channel.  The video is intended to steer my nearly 200 subscribers to my new channel.  It seems to be working as I woke up this morning with over 25 notifications of people signing up for my new YouTube home.

I have been working diligently on moving and relabeling my video library over to the new channel.  I moved everything I had in one spot on my system over but that only totaled 230 videos, my old channel had 356.  I have some OLD stuff that I will either have to download from the old channel and re-upload or find it in whatever directory it is hidden in.  Much of it is old volleyball and RC hobby stuff that I cut my YouTube teeth on years and years ago. I also don’t have any of the epic animated Jmo’s World on the new channel.

Doing this migration has exposed some of the weird ways that YouTube tries to flag video content on the fly.  For instance, when I uploaded my Tough Mudder and latest head shaving video (both large view grabbers on my old channel), they were both flagged as “needing more information” in order to monetize them.  Normally everything I upload is enabled for monetization because I have it turned on as a default.

Well obvious things can flag a video as not being defaulted to making cash like having a music track in the video.  Hell they will flag a video even if there is faint music playing on a radio in the background.  Well evidently they also will flag a video simply based on keywords in the video title.   As I mentioned above, these two videos were not turned on for ads.

So I did an experiment.  I deleted both of these videos, renamed them to something generic and shipped them back up to YouTube.  Monetization for both of them worked just fine.  I then went in and changed the name, added descriptions and meta tags as I normally would and everything all was still well.  Hopefully it stays that way.  My new channel just crossed 1000 total views, now it’s only 324,000 behind my old home.

Today is the release of the new WoW expansion.  Long time blog readers may have noticed that I talk about WoW very infrequently anymore.  That is because I play it much less.  Hell I didn’t play it at all for between 4 and 5 months.  With the new expansion coming out I started to play a bit within the last 2 weeks, trying to get the last of my 10 characters up to max level of 85 before the hamster wheel is once again reset. (new cap is 90)

I haven’t even purchased the expansion yet, until I get my last virtual self to 85 I won’t bother.  Of course this expansion promises a multitude of improvements, changes and new content to explore, just like all of the previous expansions to the game have promised.

My excitement level for the “new” game is mild at best, just as my overall interest in video/computer games has consistently declined as I inch closer to half a century on the planet.  I just have a lot of other stuff to do, most of it much more productive than building up a virtual self to be the best he can be.  I have enough things to improve in my real existence as is.

I got so many things done this weekend I literally can’t remember it all, so I will touch on what I DO remember.

Saturday morning I had my first race to time in a couple months.  The race had a huge swell in registration in the last three days, over half of the people signed up in that compressed time period.  We wound up with right around 550 people signed up.

Before the race we had some lighting problems.  The club has several high power halogen light sets.  They throw a nice amount of light.  The problem is they also pull huge amounts of power.  Over the years we have had issues with the lights popping circuit breakers.

Well Saturday the lights kept popping my power strip that we were also using for the laptops so it was a major pain in the ass. One of the things I have wanted to look into is getting some fluorescent lights to replace them to eliminate this problem.

It was so humid Saturday morning.  Even before the sun popped it’s head out my shirt was thoroughly soaked from the massive moisture in the air.  Race timing went ok, any issues I had were human error related and easily corrected.  I was out of there around 9:15 or so.

Ali was scheduled to do a long run for her marathon training so she asked if I could pick up the dogs on the way home so she didn’t have to worry about bathroom breaks.  The girls were quite surprised to see me pull up in the party van to take them out to the house.

After getting all of my post race processing completed I started on my long list of to do’s.  Later in the afternoon I turned my attention to the two ripped pool screen sections.  It seemed like almost on queue, as soon as I started working on hanging the first replacement section, the wind started kicking up.

The wind was blowing towards the house.  A section of loose screen catches wind like a sail.  I went inside and got some of my paint masking tape.  My hope was I could use it to temporarily hold the screen in place until I could get some spline in.  I used a bunch of tape and it worked, briefly, until a strong gust would break the screen loose again.  After repeating this process 5 or 6 times I was getting pissed, yelling at the wind like it had a set of ears.

Finally I had enough, I texted Ali and asked her if she wanted to be a screen holder.  She said she didn’t mind coming out.  While she was in transit I wasted no time, super setting in cleaning the master bathroom.  Like I said, I had a monumental list of things to get done.

Once Ali arrived we got to work on the screens, her role being keeping the screen taut I as I sunk in the spline.  Her job was not exactly fun as these sections were right in front of rose bushes with sharp and abundant thorns.  I got both screens replaced in about an hour with Ali’s assistance.  I was quite glad she was able to help.

We had talked about taking a few items to Ali’s place so I suggested we get that taken care of as well.  Among those items were one of the two desks in the hobby room, some rolling storage things and a spare shelf from the shed.  We loaded all the stuff in both the Camry and the Tacoma and headed back to Ali’s place along with the girls.

The shelf will be put to good use in the storage area in Ali’s garage and we lugged the desk upstairs to her spare bedroom/office to be used to hold her sewing machine and various other items.  I had brought my cordless drill and drill bits to hang some stuff for Ali.  Unfortunately the thing she wanted me to hang didn’t come with drywall anchors and I didn’t bring any along.  I told her I would hang it in the next day or two.

Ali heated up some of the leftover fantasy football pizza I gave her for us to eat for dinner.  By the time I left I was a zombie.  I had been literally on the go all day long since 4:15 AM.  I was done.

Sunday morning I was up and busy by 7:30 am, continuing on various things I wanted to get done.  My goal was to have my Labor Day completely free of labor, so I could do whatever I wanted to do.

Mid-morning I shot back over to Ali’s to hang up the stuff I couldn’t the night before.  I also picked up the girls again to hang with me since Ali was going to work.

I actually got the time to finally give the SSR a bath.  I had not gotten a chance to do so since I took the truck across the state to visit Randall and Tracy.  Before I started washing the truck I threw it up on my ramps.

I wanted to crawl underneath to see if I could spot any obvious cause of the P0420 error (catalytic converter issue) I was reading.  All the wires looked intact but I did see something else.

Since I had all that work done on the truck (Vette clutch installed, both cats replaced), I noticed I heard a new vibrating type of noise under hard acceleration.  Well as I was under the truck I noticed the heat shield right above the rear weld on the new passenger side cat had been burnt and split, an obvious by product of the rushed replacement of the cats, the installer was in a severe time crunch.

Anyway the slice created a flap of heat shield that could very obviously rattle against the pipe, so I simply bent it upward.  In my subsequent test drive I no longer heard the noise.  I also used my code reader to clear the CEL code, curious to see if it would immediately reappear.  It didn’t, so I guess I am on a wait and see pattern with that issue.

The truck looked great after it’s bath.  I even took the time to clean the tail pipe extensions.  When all the work was done I also had bigger, stainless steel exhaust tips put on the SSR.  However they were already covered in black soot/carbon, totally negating the coolness factor.

I read on SSRFantatics that the best way to clean them up is using plain old oven cleaner.  I sprayed some on, let it set for a few minutes and then scrubbed it out with a brush.  It worked like a charm.  My tips were back to being an eye catcher instead of an eye sore.

Mid-afternoon Sunday I headed over to my mom’s place with the girl’s in tow.  She had asked if I could run the steam cleaner in her two bedrooms as well as help her flip over her mattress.  She hadn’t had the carpets cleaned since she moved in.  I told her it was no problem.  She was worried about my having time to get it done before she had to leave to meet some friends for dinner.

Well compared to the time I spend when I clean the carpet at the house, mom’s condo was a piece of cake.  I don’t think it even took me a half hour to finish both rooms.  She was surprised.  I told her whenever she wants it done to let me know since it is so easy to do.

When I got back home I finished up whatever chore related items needed to be done.  Finally, I was done.  So what did I do next? Relax?  Of course not.  Instead I headed outside to shoot some work out videos.

I actually produced a total of 5 videos out of the footage.  3 of them were BB forum related, depicting what is and isn’t considered good form for the monthly challenges.  It seems every month there is a question on what is good form.  I am hoping instead of typing it out time and again I can simply link these videos.  The two other videos were my attempting to do muscle ups with my legs tied together with yoga bands and another funny one where the dogs get involved as I do dragon flags.

Ali came and picked up the dogs Sunday night after she was done working.  It was odd having both her and the dogs out at the house two consecutive days.

So Labor Day arrives, the day I was busting my ass for so I could have a a day free of must do’s.  I woke up on my own around 6:30 and was out the door before 8 am to go do a bike/swim training brick.  I have done very little endurance training over the last month or so because of blowback knee issues after playing in the KOB volleyball tourney.  My knee is still not 100% well but I deemed it good enough to at least do some non-impact work.

My trusty Forerunner 201 seems to have finally bitten the dust.  It stopped working a couple weeks ago so I was without a GPS.  I improvised by firing up MapMyRide on my Iphone a storing it in my seat bag.  I did a long ride, for me, approximately 24 miles.  My average pace was about 17 mph but that was with a number of lengthy stops at traffic lights.  My actual riding pace felt much stronger than that.  I was pooped when I pulled back into the parking lot.

It was then into the water park for the swim portion of my brick.  I was not pleased when I jumped into the lap pool and it felt like a hot tub.  I bet the temperature was just under 90 degrees, a terrible temperature to swim distance in.  I scaled back by original goal of 1600 yards to 1200 solely because of the high temps.

I want pleased to see that the water park was only going to be open for weekends until the end of September.  I thought last year it stayed open until sometime in October although I could be mistaken.  The swimming weather easily could extend into November but I guess this is purely a monetary decision.  Bums me out none the less, swimming definitely helps my aching shoulders.

When I got home I was starving so I slammed down lunch.  Early in the afternoon for some reason, despite already getting in a significant amount of exercise in the AM, I decided I wanted to go out and do a Ray’s Way circuit.  In layman’s terms this is doing 5 sets of dips, pull ups and push ups within certain time constraints.  It’s tough.

I actually failed to complete the sets successfully.  The combination of my morning exertion, outdoor hot and humid conditions and a less than positive mental disposition all contributed to my failure.  It was still a good workout.

I didn’t really get off the treadmill until late Monday afternoon when I sat down to play some WoW.  There is a new expansion coming out in 3 weeks which may finally get me back into the game that I basically had stepped away from for 4 or 5 months.

I have yet another busy week laid out in front of me.  Some night this week I need to get the grass mowed.  Next Saturday I will be timing a large invitational cross country meet and then Sunday I may be heading back to the east coast to pick up a desk and queen size mattress that Jeremy and Mandy are graciously donating to me.  I plan to trade them my old pressure washer in exchange.

Did I mention how badly I feel for Clint Eastwood?  He made himself out to be basically a stumbling loon in his RNC speech.  I actually heard some people say that the thought he “killed it”.  Yes I agree he did kill it, but in the literal sense.  I like the guy too much to see him turned into a laughing stock, it’s a shame.

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…

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.

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.