Bike odometer: 466
Weight lost: 50 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 41
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks
Recent listening: Coverville, DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday
Recent viewing: Without A Trace, And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop, Sportscenter, Countdown, Mythbusters
Recent playing: Sketchfighter, Guitar Hero
Recently accomplished: n/a
Imperative To Do: Finish garage, finish old blog entries, call mechanic, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive, Best of 2006, memory rebate
Cool Link: International faux pas: Just reading the one for the U.S. is fun. Try another country!
Wiiquest
This morning I visited four Walmarts in an attempt to get a certain Christmas present. In each case they only had enough units for the lucky 28 (or 15 or 12 or 9) people that had arrived before me. Hopefully, this item will become available at other stores soon. Interesting factoid: it takes only 45 minutes to drive to three Walmarts from our house. I could have added the fourth for another 10 minutes probably, but they made their items available at 12:01 this morning. The others all started selling at 7:00 or 8:00 this morning.
My shoulder is till sore and pops with certain hand movements. I’ve been trying to keep Nietzsche off it at night, but that’s his favorite shoulder. My other arm is also sore now because we did some garage cleaning over the weekend. The slow healing part of getting old really, really sucks.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 448
Weight lost: 49 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 11.5
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks
Recent listening: Coverville, DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday
Recent viewing: Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Cold Case, Giants at Cowboys, Colts at Titans, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
Recent playing: Zuma, Sketchfighter
Recently accomplished: Cleaned garage (mostly), mowed lawn, winterized back yard, dried van, paid bills
Imperative To Do: Finish garage, finish old blog entries, call mechanic, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive, Best of 2006, memory rebate
Cool Link: AIM Fight: Are you on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)? If so, you can take me on in an AIM Fight (my screen name is “rynosoft”), an idea conceived by one of the AIM programmers.
Morning Bike Commute
Distance: 11.3 miles
Riding time: 52 minutes
Max speed: 29.2 mph
Average speed: 12.9 mph
Temperature: 45º
Route:
- 162nd to Halsey
- Halsey past I-84 overpass
- 80th to Glisan
- Glisan to 76th
- 76th to Everett
- Everett/Davis to Floral Place
- Floral Place across Burnside to Ankeny
- Ankeny to Grand
- Grand to Burnside
- Burnside to Broadway
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 414
Weight lost: 49 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 10
Hours billed this week: 24.5
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Running With Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Recent listening: Coverville, DrugMusic, Humpy’s Soul Show, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Iowa by Slipnot, XO by Elliott Smith, Either/Or by Elliott Smith, Joe Satriani, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Doctor Who, Iowa at Arizona State, Eagles at Colts, A Walk In The Clouds, Keep The River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale, Man vs. Wild, Medium
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Tested memory for Thomas’ new computer
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive, Best of 2006, memory rebate
Cool Link: The Last Outpost: Wil Wheaton summarizes an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s total geek hilarity.
Morning Bike Commute
Distance: 2.5 miles
Riding time: 17 minutes
Max speed: 20.5 mph
Average speed: 8.5 mph
Temperature: 37º
Route:
- 162nd to Burnside
- MAX to Skidmore Fountain
- Zig-zag to Broadway
Standing by peaceful waters
On Friday we journeyed to Coos Bay to attend the memorial service for Tina’s grandmother, Ruth, who died a couple of months ago. Ruth had Alzheimer’s disease during her last years, so her passing brought about mixed emotions. Although it probably sounds weird, the funeral was one of the best I have ever attended. You can read all about it on Tina’s blog.
While we were there, we stayed at The Mill Casino (mentioned in Vital Statistics a few days ago). I considered playing some no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em but never really got the chance. I did spend about 5 minutes playing a penny slot machine called Mr. Cashman. After I read the help screen and switched to playing all three lines, I put myself in the black quickly and not long after that won big. I walked away with a 480% profit on my $1 investment.
The drive back yesterday was long and rainy. I noticed my left shoulder popping with even the slightest hand/finger movements so I had to do most of the steering with my right arm, a practice to which I am not accustomed. I thought I might have slept on it wrong and made a note to call my doctor today to get to the bottom of the problem. However, when I walked from the parking garage to my office this morning I realized the cause of my pain – I have been lugging about 15 lbs of laptop around on that shoulder intermittently throughout the weekend. I brought two laptops home for the boys to use in the hotel room. I guess that’s the last time I do that.
Vital Statistics
Miles driven yesterday: 227
Weight lost: 44 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed this week: 37
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Running With Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Recent listening: XO by Elliott Smith, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coverville, Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks
Recent viewing: Colts at Cowboys, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, Scrubs, Bruce Almighty, Buccaneers at Cowboys
Recent playing: n/a
Recently accomplished: Numerous Harvey runs, recycled cardboard, cleaned and lubed bike, paid bills
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive
Cool Link: The Mill Casino: From where I write this
Walrus gumboot
Tina’s mom’s surgery to reattach her right index finger was successful. The accident also cut off the tip of her right middle finger, but they were unable to save it, but they contacted a injury lawyer from https://www.fieldinglaw.com/dallas/personal-injury-attorney/ to help with this. Tina really wanted to drive down to NM for Thanksgiving, but fate conspired to keep that from happening.
After Graham served his suspension Wednesday morning, he returned to school that afternoon. However, that night Tina woke to the sound of him vomiting in the bathroom. He stayed home sick Thursday, vomited that night and then stayed home from school Friday, too. Because it was very cold and windy, he also had to miss football practice and his last possible game yesterday. His team has another game next week, but we’ll be out of town at Tina’s Grandma Ruth’s funeral. He’s feeling much better today, but they don’t have school all of this week.
Tina got sick Friday night and has been resting and puking since then. She’s starting to recover and eat today, but she’s still weak. There’s no way we could manage a trip to NM now.
Thomas and I have not gotten sick yet. We both braved the wind and cold yesterday for his last football Saturday until next season. It was trying, but we both made it through. I was chilled all day after we got home, though. Winter in Oregon sucks!
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: n/a
Weight lost: 46 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 10
Hours billed this week: 26
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs
Recent listening: Coverville, DrugMusic, KBOO Bike Show, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Prine, Necktie Second by Pete Droge, Back To Mine by Morecheeba
Recent viewing: Heroes, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Countdown, Medium, Sportscenter
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Rebuilt Tivo Season Passes, fixed leaking downspouts, recreated Tivo wishlists, groceries, book shopping, created an account for Thomas on my computer (stop gap measure), removed toothbrush from bathroom toilet, babysat Graham for the morning, had my CPAP results downloaded, installed Harvey
Imperative To Do: Recycle cardboard, finish old blog entries, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive
Cool Link: Salmon in the Bike Lane (short commercial at the beginning)