November 2005 Archives

it's been nearly 7 years and i still don't have a coffee table.

i went and looked at the (big) furniture store downtown. nothing. i finally sort of have an idea of what i want but as usual, it can't be found.

sigh.

there may yet be a wheelchair in my future, but not today.

whatever i did to my back last night seems to be mild. i've got slightly sore glutes and lower back, as if i'd done a nice set of deads the night before.

i probably shouldn't but i probably will be back in the gym by tomorrow evening.

meanwhile, if i can remember, i'm going to do pushups every morning. and then expand that into a short, body-weight morning routine.

well, i guess it really is lame duck month.

i tweaked my back during deadlifts.

i had warmed up with sets of 135 and 205 and i'd moved on to a work set of 255 when something (lots of somethings) in the lower back went POP a couple inches off the floor of rep #2.

i put the weight down right away and tried to figure things out. i stretched, i lay down, i stretched some more. i stripped the bar to 135 and did a few careful reps. i wasn't in pain but i was sore, the same sort of lower-back soreness i'd expect the day after a set of deadlifts. the workout was over. i took a shower and some advil and here i am.

this was my first set of deadlifts in a lot of months. i dont think i did enough warmup sets to re-acquaint myself. this is the first time that i've been injured during a workout. i've had week-long back/glute injuries that came out of nowhere (once while retrieving something under my desk). i dont know what happened here but i have a hunch i wont be lifting this week.

ugh. just what i need.

i get to deadlift tonight!

sweet!

back from TG vacation.

it's lame duck month. i hate the month of december because i can't make any long term plans (i.e. weight cycles, work schedules). the month begins and ends with travel, chaos, and eating too much.

this year might be a little different, but i doubt it.

it's 3 hours after i got into work today. off to a slow start but i now officially feel "back in the swing of things". huzzar.

i haven't felt like blogging (not that i've had time) and that makes me feel bad. so here's a crappy "here's what i been doin" post. worse than a simpsons clip show, but a simpsons clip show is better than an episode of king of the hill, so there you go.

- did two holy beach walks in slo (one tandem, one solo), plus a bw minor in pismo. neat.
- now i'm into whisk(e)y. i thought i was just into whisky, but i tried some bourbon and some rye and i like those too, so there you go.
- went back to mecca where some months ago i panicked and made an ass of myself, thinking i was in trouble. it was much cooler this time and i found the grotto i couldn't find last time, but, maddeningly, i could not find the junction between today's hike and the first one (they were supposed to form a loop).
- had the first thanksgiving without grandma. it was not as awful as i would have guessed, but she was missed.
- that's it.

barg!

i cleaned my fridge.

i think (based on the looks of things) that this is the first time i've cleaned this fridge. and i think i'm sliding into my third year at this apt, so that's kinda... gross.

i left the crisper for next time.

it looks nice. roomy. time to buy more milk and beer.

i tried the beer. it's supposed to be "smoked scottish ale" but compared to the other smoked beer i had once upon a time, it's not very smokey.

for that matter, it's not very scottish either: it tasted to me much more like belgian than scottish.

it was well carbonated but didn't hold much of a head. no disgusting off-flavors or freaky aftertastes. it was deep and malty and not hoppy at all. i'd say that compared to a good belgian trappist ale it was a little bland, but compared to a boring pyramid hefe (for example) it was pretty good.

we weren't able to take final gravity readings and our OG readings were probably off anyhow. so i don't know the ABV but I'd guess it's in the range of 5-8%, according to the st-toad-o-meter.

all in all, a rather pleasant first experience: it worked out despite some minor glitches, and left plenty of room for improvement.

neat.

so for some reason i've moved on to "hard liquor".

it wasn't difficult once I removed my ban on beer.

i had some brandy (for cooking) in my kitchen, ran out of beer, tried it, and liked it. i bought some cognac as an upgrade to the brandy. liked that, too. then on a stroke of (unbesotted) good luck stumbled upon bevmo's "sampler" display, and picked up some vodka (stoli), irish whiskey, blended scotch whisky (dewar), and single malt scotch whisky (the glenlivet, the glen-something-else). i didnt try all these at once.

the results:

cognac: yes
captain morgan's spiced rum: hell no
irish whiskey: so far, no
the glenlivet single malt : yes
the glen-something-else: no, and that's why i dont need to remember the name
the macallan single malt (picked up full bottle) : yes
dewars blend : no

so the verdict is in: i like the single malts and the cognac, and i don't like the cheap stuff.

that is good: as long as i consume only expensive alcohol with snob appeal, my intake stays low.

but endorphin is more fun.

same good news this year, but none of the bad news.

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.

i hate giving gifts.

rather, i love giving gifts but the stress drives me nuts. i'm a thoughtful giver. i really don't want to pick some generic piece of crap off the shelf of a store and give it to you. and if i do pick some piece of crap off a store shelf and give it to you, you can rest assured that there's some special reason i picked that particular piece of crap for you. i heard you 3 months ago mention in passing that you'd like it. i wrote a poem for you (lame but works well for mom). it's a reference to an inside joke. it's special, and it's unique.

W gave me a birthday present this year. it wasn't what i asked for. it was better than what i asked for. i asked for some pieces of crap off a store shelf, and, while i would have been plenty happy with said pieces of crap, what i got from W was a real gift: a personal creation. a unique item. one of a kind. nobody else has one and nobody else will. she worried that i would like it, she didn't leave it up to WalMart or Sony or David Brin to worry whether I'd like it.

last year i was thrilled by her gift to me. it was a piece of crap off the shelf, but what made the gift special was the thought and the ceremony and the effort that went into it (that is to say: the lies and deceit :)

she also gave me some candles last year, which, i'm afraid, i didn't love quite so much as this years' gift. but that's okay: you win some and you lose some. the candles may have cost more than what she gave me this year. almost certainly the video game did. but when i show off this years' gift, i won't say, "some dude in indonesia made this and my girlfriend bought it." i'll say, "my girlfriend made this. you'll never find another one like it, just like i'll never find anyone like her. isn't that cool?"

yes, that's way cool.

:x

today i'm 28.

i spent my last birthday happier than most birthdays, but still feeling old and misunderstaning relationships.

this one was much better. even the voicemail from my mom saying "our baby is 28!!" didn't bring me down.

i woke up next to the one i love and even though that won't happen tomorrow, i'll still go to bed happy because i reached a huge milestone in lifting. i squatted 315 for 5 reps.

315 is a magic number in weightlifting. see if you can figure out why.

i planned to squat 300 for 5 reps. i passed that milestone 2 weeks ago and didn't look back (and while squatting, especially not down). tonight i made the 5x315 without fearing it, without doubting it, and without screwing it up. it wasn't as pretty as 5x300, but it happened.

the past year has seen me through tremendous personal growth in all areas of my life, but there's nothing quite so quantatatively satisfying as cold iron and hard numbers.

yet another busy weekend has passed (yeah, it's Tuesday -- that's how long it took me to recover from said weekend). sunday found me sailing again in santa cruz, with several of the same crew as last time: returning were The Red Headed Stranger and My Favorite Russian. TRHS brought his wife and I brought W, who took over photography duty from The Guy Who Got Seasick Last Time And Didn't Come Back.

The weather was cloudy but calm. No signs of storms but no signs of sun, either. Simply being able to sail at all was more than I expected for winter, so I didn't bemoan the lack of sun. I'd gotten a bit of sunburn from Saturday's hike, so my skin helfully radiated enough warmth for me to avoid donning my jacket on the docks.

the problem with sailing in santa cruz is that there isn't much to look at or do out on the boat. when there's wind, that's no problem: the sailing itself is an adventure. when there's no wind, one can sit back and relax or twiddle with the sails and try to squeeze another tenth of a knot out of the boat. we did both, since there wasn't much wind to speak of.

Before long, I handed off the tiller to TRHS.

Despite the lack of real wind, both the water and sky proved to be photogenic.

As I said, there are few things to do when sailing in the northern Monterey bay. one thing that is fun is to sail out to the mile buoy and chat with the regulars.

MFR and I gave TRHS a quick lesson about sailing leeward of buoys, only to have some guy in a racing boat come after us on the windward side. Whatever. I'll keep my security deposit rather than showboat, thank you very much.

Now we're sailing the other way, as can be seen by the orientation of the mainsail.

Somewhere around the mile buoy, TRHS's wife got seasick. Not having often skippered with seasick crew aboard, I didn't really know what to do. If anyone had asked to turn back I would have, but nobody asked. It was clear she was feeling cruddy, but not yet awful. Maybe it would go away? Someone (me?) suggested dramamine, and it turned out that MFR had brought some. He said it takes 20-30 minutes to kick in.

20-30 minutes later she wasn't getting any better. I figured 30 minutes was plenty of suffering for one day, even for someone who wasn't going to ask to go back in. I had little faith in medications like dramamine. So we executed a Chicken Jibe (my first, I think) and headed back to the harbor. By then we were about an hour from shore. We fired up the diesel to get us there a bit quicker, and the GPS said we'd reach port in 30 minutes. Neat.

Somewhere along the way the wind picked up and we got a nice (well, nice for the non-seasick crew) heel.

On the way back to the slip, something interesting appeared off the port bow.

Finally, we made it back to the slip. TRHS and MFR secured the boat while I smoked an imaginary cigarette (the only kind I ever smoke).

Like landing a plane, any docking that I walk away from (with my security deposit) is a good one. This was a particularly difficult dock, but fortunately I had a good crew that was able to compensate for my errors. A helpful sailor on the dock also grabbed a rope and helped.

MFR doesn't like to dawdle long after securing the boat before he breaks out the beer. That day was no exception. So he and I enjoyed a warm beer while packing things up. I broke out W's beer bread and we had some of that to wash down the Beck's. Yum.

All in all, not a bad day. I felt awful for TRHS's wife: she was the sort of person that one likes immediately upon meeting. That wasn't too surprising: TRHS himself is about the same. I felt bad about cutting the day short for everyone (including myself!) but what is there to do? I had always wondered what a charter skipper is supposed to do in that situation, and I guess it just depends on how well he likes the seasick person ;)

Maybe a more experienced skipper would have some magic cure for seasickness. As far as I know, there isn't one. We had her steering the boat while she was sick: that helped me quite a lot when I was sick the first two days of class. Also it helps to get on a bigger boat, but that wasn't really an option. When seasick, it might be nice to have a good lie down, but you definitely don't want to go below -- it's ten times worse down there. There's discouragingly little that can be done for a seasick crewmate.

So it looks like I'm 0 for 2 on keeping my crew's lunch out of the Pacific. On the other hand, between TRHS, MFR, and W, I'd say I've got a pretty solid crew that apparently doesn't have a busy weekend schedule. I'm hoping the third time's the charm.

TRHS's wife had brought some homemade cheese (and probably other goodies!) but we didn't have a chance to try it. So TRHS brought some of it into work today, along with some homemade goat-milk caramel. I haven't tried the caramel yet but I did have some of the cheese. I think I want goats now so I can make my own ;) Great stuff!

Finally, while putting up the pictures it occurred to me that out of 2 sailing trips with him, I haven't gotten a picture of My Favorite Russian. Why is that? Perhaps he's a vampire and doesn't show up on film. A digital vampire, that is, who doesn't show up on... um... digital film.

Yeah.

last weekend i made a stew. the stew itself was nothing special for me: it was just one of the many stews i've stewed. beef, veggies, TLC, and a hint of habanero. the same stew i always make.

but the stew had several side effects:

1 - W tried it and really liked it. i've been stewing stews for 5 years but this is the first time I've had anyone else try them (as far as I can recall). it's gratifying beyond words that someone actually liked it. she wasn't lying, either, because after trying a taste she ate my leftovers for lunch the next day.

2 - having stew available at home broke my cycle of going out to dinner every night.

3 - this weekend i didn't have time to stew another stew, but i also didn't want to go out to dinner last night. it takes me 4-6 hours to stew a stew and i got home at 6 so i stewed for the next night while sangwiching for monday night. the sangwich i sangwiched was an experimental tuna sangwich.

the sangwich was a success:

- crusty french roll, buttered (yes!)
- tuna mixed with pickle relish (the mayo i planned to use turned out to be one year expired)
- tomato slices
- swiss cheese
- iceburg lettuce

the thing was a mess and the roll was humongous and i used 2 whole cans of tuna. but it was good! and it was hearty!

so i made another one for lunch today, using onion sprouts instead of ht lettuce. it was also delicious and filling.

it is surprising how much joy can be acquired from a sangwich well done.

It's Frobuary 2nd, YOMHC 0xb.

you'd better believe it's short: i showed the guy this and asked him to duplicate it. I guess his shears cut a bit closer than the ones used to take the picture.

W pouted about it but I know she likes it.

yeah, my lifts are going up for a change and it's really nice and feels great and all.

but with it, as usual, comes the price: my jeans are tight in the waist.

as Agent Smith said:

what good.... is a 300 pound squat if you can't.... fit it... in your pants?

... moved over to my home where i feel comfy.

i need to see "fiddler on the roof" again.

it's too late to see it with Zero Mostel.

would it count if i watched it on dvd?

i had a dream last night -- more of a nightmare, really -- that i didn't go hiking this weekend. <shudder>

i only ordered one item (carne asada super "wet" burrito) so it wasn't necessary to label my styro dinner box.

but she labeled it anyhow:

that's nice.

3 cups flour (plain old self-rising flour)
3 Tablespoons sugar
12 ounce can a beer

Preheat oven to 350 and grease or spray two 81/2" by 41/2" loaf pans or one large 9 by 5 loaf pan. Mix ingredients together in a bowl until dough has the consistency of a mud pie (yep, it says that). Divide dough between the two small pans or put it all into the one larger pan.
(I always did the 2) Wet fingers with water and smooth the tops of the loaves. Bake for 40-60 minutes until bread is golden brown on top.
Remove from oven and brush top with melted butter. Let bread cool before serving for easier slicing.

Love, Mom

last night i backflushed silvia. it's a required procedure for commercial espresso machines but not recommended for home machines. still, it's widely accepted as a good idea for silvia, and in fact, my retailer provided me with the necessary equipment and an instruction sheet on how to do it.

so i did it. the point is to thoroughly clean the brewpath: to dissolve and flush out all the accumulated coffee gunk that gets lodged inside the brewhead and the three-way valve. so now silvia's insides are all clean and sparkly.

that finished, i took a hand-vac to rocky. i found his nooks and his crannies and sucked the grounds from them. i used a fork to remove caked-on coffee gunk from the spout. rocky is as clean as can be (okay, not really, i could have done more with disassembly).

so how does it affect the coffee?

the idea of both procedures is to cut down on bitterness -- and that it did. still, the first shot was lacking something, or boasting something new: a disturbing flatness in the middle of the cup. i became suspicious that i was drinking cleansing fluid and i pitched the rest of the cup.

the next cup was a ristretto and i didn't notice anything special. i'm not sure if i benefitted from the backflush (inarguably, the cleaning of rocky was a good thing), but at least i feel nice and clean on behalf of silvia.

once i get back to my preferred espresso blend i'll know more.