Yes Man

So I get home from my jog today and turn on the tele while I stretch and what is on but the Republican National Convention. Now generally I identify as a Dem but I believe in being an informed voter so I have no problem watching the RNC.

Here's the funny part - if you watched, maybe you noticed too. There was apparently one VERY enthusiastic man standing near the microphone with a sort of Ray Romano like nasally voice who every time the crowd cheered could be heard saying "Yes! Yeah! Yes! Yes!".

What a great yes man. I wonder if he was paid.

Tripps!

Take a look at your national weather map. See that red spot in the middle of California? Yeah that's us.

Triple digits baby.

There might be some truth to that whole 'dry heat' thing after all.

I was driving with Lauren and said man, it is hot today.

She was like no doubt.

I was like first triple digit day of the year.

She was like WHAT?!?

I was like sure thing babe, it is 100 degrees right now.

and she didn't believe me.

Dry heat is good heat.

The doctor was in...

and I've got Achilles Tendon Enthesopathy. Sounds worse than it probably is - he says it is totally reversible. As I said before, my number one fear is that this was a career ending injury. This is not a career ending injury. Here is what he has prescribed:

4 weeks no impact - elliptical running, biking, weight lifting and swimming are all fine
2-3 sessions physical therapy
"Aggressive" stretching -they will show me how in the PT
Daily Advil
revisit in 6 weeks (start running in 4 so we can talk about how it is going when I see him again)

Not too bad. Apparently what is happening is that my Hamstring and Calf muscles are tight. This, along with the running tugs and tears at the point where my Achilles Tendon attaches to my heal. These tears bleed a little, and when bone bleeds, it makes new bone. This leads to growth of little bone spurs, the hardening of the tendon, swelling, and can sometimes aggravate the nerve in there.

Anyway, if you want to learn more, see the link below. My favorite part? This is a condition that affects athletes and lazy fat people - not people who generally share health woes.

"Contracted or shortened calf muscles resulting from a sedentary lifestyle and obesity or athletic overuse are factors."

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec04/ch043/ch043g.html

Gabon

Looks awesome. Wish I was on this one.

A pain in my...

Heal. I have a lingering pain in my right heal. It first showed up around November last year. I figured I would take it easy, and so I didn't jog from December 2nd for three months. The thing is, the pain didn't go away. I figured what the hell, might as well start jogging again, and so I did in March. Strange thing is, the pain got better. It is still there, but when I jog and stretch, it is better for a few days, and if I lapse, it gets worse.

I don't know what this pain is but it worries me. I have an appointment on Monday with a Podiatrist to have it checked out.

My number one fear is that he is going to say it is a stress fracture or something else, and I have to stop jogging for like 6 months. If that happens, I will have to take up swimming.

One of the best parts of my job...

I get to use the manlift. It is like a fire pole, only it goes up and down. We have one of these that goes up and down 8 stories. It is awesome. You step on the platform, grab the little handle, and away you go.

http://www.humphrey-manlift.com/

Like seeing your fiancee on the food network

I'm sitting at home eating some dinner and watching a DVD of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" by Larry David. It is a great show that's on HBO in case you haven't seen it. Anyway, right in the middle, Lauren's uncle shows up.

A little explanation - Lauren's uncle is an actor. He isn't quite famous, but he has done quite well for himself with parts on all sorts of shows you have probably seen, like "Monk", "Desperate Housewives", "Cold Case", "Friends", "Malcolm in the Middle" and on and on. Well, apparently he is also in Season 6, episode 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It is very strange (and cool) seeing someone you know talking to Larry David on your DVD.

It's been a good weekend

Started off with a minor league baseball game on Friday night. The Iowa Cubs were in town. More than the baseball, I was drawn by the friends and the fact that it was $1 hot dog and nestle ice cream drumstick night. We played around with the idea of a hot dog eating contest - it looked like Lauren was actually the most likely to take on my new friend Issac. Didn't do it in the end, but Lauren did manage to pack away three dollar-dogs. The Iowa Cubs won by a long shot, we debated what a "Rivercat" actually is (don't cats hate water?) and a good time was had by all.

On Saturday we finished up our gift registry for our wedding. Mos Def not my favorite task. It was okay in the end, I suppose - there are a few items on there that I would be really happy to receive (read - ice cream scoop and paper shredder) but I really don't enjoy the whole process. It is strange, because I have no problem putting together a long and detailed x-mas list. For some reason the wedding registry makes me feel greedy.

Saturday night we got together with some new friends and played Settlers of Catan: Cities & Knights. When we got out here, we were very happy to find some new board game friends. Catheryn actually has all three versions of Settlers, including the 5-6 player expansions of each. We played 6 player Cities & Knights - it took a very long time probably about 3 hours. For those in the know, we had a very well defended island and no cities were burnt down the entire game :-( Catheryn ended up winning but it was a good game, with 4 / 6 players in series contention to win it right up to the end.

Today we got up and ate granola bars and sausage for breakfast (we were going to make pancakes but are out of fresh milk). I'm looking forward to catching a matinee of Iron Man.

Like I said, that's a pretty good weekend.

Walnuts suck major nuts

I had to get up at 03:30 AM today to go into work and do an alergen inspection. When we run a product like, in this case, banana walnut muffins and finish the production run, we have to clean every last bit out of the system. This is because very small quantities of nuts can kill a guy - you have to make sure that not even the tiniest nut gets into the next product.

Anyway, at the general we have to do a 3-level inspection which means machine operator, quality lab technician, and team leader.

I was that lucky team leader who got to go in at 03:30 AM and do the inspection.

Yippee!

Nothing will ruin a good run like...

Got some brand new running shoes today - very exciting. I went to a running store not far from my home. They seemed pretty good, and I will probably go back to this store. They also do track workouts on Tuesday nights which is awesome - I can only hope they are as good as my old running club in Naperville.

Anyway, I got some new shoes and strapped them on for my first run. They felt pretty good on the way out and I was feeling groovy. All of a sudden it hit me - there was some definite motion going on in my bowels. This was upsetting because

A) I had taken a dookie before I left the house
B) I was having a good run
C) I was about as far from my house as I could be

What is a guy to do? After a little internal debate I turned around and started to walk it in (the bumping and jolts of running doesn't help this kind of situation). This is by far my number one least favorite way to end a run. I would much rather have cramps or exhaustion or pain than the 'ol BD (Bi logical Distress).

What a way to break in some new shoes.

The fat lady has sung (on the iPod anyway)

The wedding is over, everything was great and went off without a hitch. For my part, the master of ceremonies went well as did the best man speech. Now I need to go to bed - we start union negotiations this week - our contract is up on Sunday!

The big weekend

This weekend is my brother's wedding. I am the best man. This makes you the but of a lot of jokes, such as

- they searched the whole world and you were the best they could find?
- If you were REALLY the best man, you would stop him from doing what he is about to do!

Okay, well, two jokes. But I have heard them a lot this week, particularly #1. With all that said, I am very glad for my brother and have no doubt that he is doing a wonderful thing. It would really NOT be in his best interest to stop him as per #2.

Now I just have to fine tune my best man speech - it's a tall order really. I just might pull out some old standards - like starting the speech and saying "I've prepared a few words" and then pulling out many sheets of paper taped together as if I had a long list of notes. Might be good for a quick laugh.

How I love my brother

I am the best man in my brother's wedding this Saturday. I can tell that it is important to me because everyday this week I have been coming home from my jog, getting out of the shower, and plucking nose hairs. Yes, that's right, plucking nose hairs. With tweezers. It is excruciating.

Mind you, this is all my own doing - he has made no requests that lead me to believe he would have even thought about my nose hairs. But gosh darn, if he has taught me one thing, there is a right way to do everything, and if you really, really want to have a nice clean nose, you have to pluck - the trimmer just doesn't do the job.

Try it... it makes you cry and sneeze all at once! I am not even kidding.