The past few days.

I had a semi-relaxing on-call weekend. I got called a couple of times on Friday night to help the FBI setup some wiretaps to find some missing kids in Milwaukee, but it was otherwise pretty quiet. I played hockey Sunday night with my cell phone in the bench area, just in case work called. Since I play for the Whiteman Bombers, and half the team is off doing readiness drills getting ready to threaten Iran, we got slaughtered. I stopped looking up at the scoreboard after it was 8 to 0. I got some shots, but their goalie is catlike. They ought to move him up a league. Monday was typical and I got a lot done. . . necessarily so. I prepared to upgrade some OC12 links to OC48. I ate. I worked out. I napped. I came back to work at midnight and worked straight through. Now I've had a nasty McDonald's breakfast on this dreary morning. . . but then Rolf called to chat. Long time no see! I must head to OKC to catch up with old friends, especially now that Rus is back in the States.

The race is on.

So, I made a little wager with my brother now that we're working out at the same gym.  The original wager was the first one to weigh 205 wins.  Well, when we shook hands on it, I was 190 and he was 265.  I put up $500.  Since his lean muscle mass is probably near 205, we agreed that if he can lose 50 before I gain 15 (and I have to maintain the same body fat percentage) he'll gladly take my money.  Well, we're both stepping up the workout intensity and changing our diets to win this thing.  It's serious, and I think it's going to take me about 6 months to achieve it, but I believe I'll win. . . and more than gladly take his money.

 

Ceasar versus Brutus

r hill (10:11:39 AM): Ooh... beware the ides of march!
C Hill (10:11:59 AM): Et tu Brute!?

Lyric Opera

http://www.kcopera.org/  <-- Lucia di Lammermoor = excellent, if you dig that kind of thing.  I went last night and was pretty much floored.  The soprano they have playing Lucia is not to be missed.  Scotty and J were along for the show and we met up afterwards with Adam D, who was a tenor in the chorus, who sometimes overpowered the chorus <eg>.  We lounged at The Stables, inhaled turkey sandwiches, and exchanged contact info to facilitate future outings and potential voice lessons.  So, Scott, when are you playing open mic night?

Crazy weekend.

After a late night of babysitting Friday night, Saturday was a long day. The weather was phenomenally perfect, so I did some cleanup of my flower beds. Shawn came and picked me up, and we went to Pho '97 for some A+ Vietnamese noodle soup. I polished off some spring rolls and an entire "big bowl" of pho. On the way downtown we were near the river market and it came to light that he had never been there. I would put the river market on a Saturday on the top 10 things to do on a regular basis in Kansas City. We made a detour and I think it's on his list now, too. We scoped it out with plans to come back after the auto show. . . which we did. I stocked up on produce, because it's so inexpensive there. He bought a rabbit from the butcher shop with the intentions of letting his dog devour it. I want video. The auto show was great eye candy. I got to sit in cars that cost more than my house. "Don't fart in there or they'll make you buy it." Yeah right.

The mixed martial arts fights at Memorial Hall were pretty good.  The venue didn't sell out, but at those prices, I'm not shocked.  I was pretty thrilled to get to conversate with Matt Hughes and Tim Silvia.  I have autographed t-shirts and I'm been kicking myself for not having my camera with me.  I'd surely have a video of a guy getting thrown down, but posting his arm to try to catch himself instead of the prescribed tuck-n-roll.  He threw his shoulder out.  Matt Hughes was the official for that one.  He pulled the other fighter off of him and held the guy's arm/clavicle in place until the paramedics ran into the cage.  I respect the risk those fighters take, but I think knowing how to land would be a prerequisite for even signing up to try it.  I was there with George and his compadres Brian and Scott.  We grabbed dinner at Uno on the Plaza.  I did not know that you could get a good steak dinner in this town that close to midnight.

Fast forward to the house party at Jason's house.  Guitar Hero.  Trash can punch.  Nuff said.  When the host passes out, that does not mean the party should wind down, necessarily.  And it didn't.  I'd like to say I made it home safely.  But I didn't even go home.  A few episodes of Trailer Park Boys at Adam B's house and I was down for the count.  I awoke at 7:24am andslipped out.  I proceeded to drive my brother and his kids to Arkansas to meet up with my folks.  The neice wanted to go stay with her Nanna.  The trip home was harrowing.  I was keeping a close eye on some very scary clouds.  Just when they got the scariest, it started raining very hard.  I was sort of relieved because I know that if there was a tornado, it was rain-wrapped and wouldn't be dangerous.  Then the hail started pummeling my poor car.  Then the hail started falling sideways.  Then the car started rocking side to side.  We sat through that for a few minutes and it let up a bit.  We proceeded, because that was not the place to be.  The ground was completely covered in hail stones.  It appeared as if the ground was snow-covered.  It was like that for the next mile.  There was a truck with a flat trailer stuck in the median.  When we broke into the clear, the car was acting sluggish.  Something's wrong with the engine.  It's two days since I had it towed from Belton to the shop I use in KC (for surprisingly little money), and they're just getting around to looking at it.  I have no idea, but we were very near the studio where Rich's band was set to record, so Mickey came and picked us up.  I missed my hockey game.  Lisa gave me a ride back to my Jeep, which I've been driving since.  And that's how good weekends go wrong.  I just went straight to bed.  I woke up Monday feeling great, though, and I'm on a roll.

Timely advice.

The more I read Trump, the more I like him. http://www.trumpuniversity.com/connect/newsletters/itt/issue32.cfm?mm=U_143660_301#one

Friday. Busy. Hurry.

My ankle is almost back to normal. I was able to do my leg workout today. I did lower weight, but lots of reps.

Tonight, I babysit the nephew and the niece. I'd rather take them to Crown Center than sit around the house, so that's the plan.

I'll surely sleep in tomorrow.

Click here. A lot.

The Gravitizer spam was funny the first time. "See it in action by clicking here." Indeed. Now that I've gotten the same email 20 times today, I'm ready to see what happens if I simulate clicking there about 1000 times a second.  I wrote a little unix script to find out.

#/bin/bash
until [[COWSCOMEHOME]] ; do \
set X=0
while [[ $X++ != 1000 ]] ; do wget -b -o/dev/null http://www.techwolrdsfirst.com/productinfo.php >&2 ; done;
echo .
sleep 1
done

I hope that's their own server, because that kind of transfer on a hosting service would eat into the profit margin a smidge if I let it run long enough.

Bench clearing brawl.

Ah, a good bench clearing hockey brawl, Russian style, to break up the monotony of the work day.

http://avokatsomo.com/arkisto/2006/02/23/romanialaista-hockeytaituruutta/

I guess the guy in the lab coat is a doctor.  He looks confused, like he doesn't know where to start.

Springtime on the east side.

Well, it's rainy and that's good for the bulbs I planted, some of which are coming up.  We'll see how that works out when/if they bloom.  Thanks, Shawn, for the free winterized bulbs!

I was quoted in The Pitch, which is kinda cool.  I asked Jen Chen, who bumped into Adam D and me at the Foundation, if I could give her a fake name, and she said I could give my porn name.  I told her it would have to be just the street I grew up on, because most of the pets I had growing up were female.  So, I'm known as Quincy in the article.  Any guesses who Thor is?

The ankle is better today.  It's not 100%, but I didn't work out at all last night and kept my weight off of it.  I tried to photograph the bruise on my calf last night for posterity, but the photo didn't do it justice, so I didn't include it here.  It's about the size of the palm of my hand and multiple colors now.

T-minus two days until the TFC fights in KCK.  I found a compadre I know from the gym who will join me Saturday after I check out the Auto Show at Bartle Hall.

New kind of pain.

Hockey players are not padded in a few areas, including the sides of the feet, the back of the calf, the forearm, and the neck.  I was expecting a pass in front of  the net, but the centerman hit the point, so I screened the goalie. . . and then saw a slapshot coming straight at my feet, so I raised my left skate to let the shot go under me, but it was rising and impacted my calf at about 70+ miles per hour.  That is a new kind of pain for me.  The worst part is the shot deflected wide of the net.  It would have been easier to take if we had scored.

Later in the game, I was playing a rebound in front of the net with defensemen on either side of me.  The puck was on my backhand and just as I was shooting, shifting my weight onto my right foot, someone swept my right leg with their stick.  My foot was pointed toward the goal, my knee went all the way to the ice, my butt went all the way to my skate, and my ankle bent in a direction that ankles should not bend.  I shook it off and kept skating.  The ref didn't see it, because I was in traffic.  I deserved a penalty shot on that one, even though we ended up scoring on that play.

Fast forward to this morning.  I got out of bed onto the left leg with the fantastically bruised calf.  Then I shifted onto the right leg with the hurt ankle.  Then I winced and got back into bed.  When the endorphins kicked in, I basically crawled to the shower.  I'm discovering ankle movements that make me want to scream.  Flexing the foot to depress the gas pedal or flexing the foot to turn the office chair are particularly surprising.  Something is really strained in there.  Today is quadricep day, but I won't be doing any squats.  I guess I'll just hit the leg extensions extra hard.  All that said, it was a really great defensive game last night.  My team really outscored them, too.  I can't wait to play again next Tuesday.

What a week!?

Monday, I did the whole rush from place to place thing and tried to fit meals in edgewise.  That leads to a lot of eating in the car.  Work.  Eat.  Work out.  Eat.  Choir rehearsal. Eat again.  I think if I had a minifridge in the dash of my car, it would be more of a life saver than the airbag.  An in-dash toaster oven and beverage dispenser would be too much like a Sprite commercial, but don't think I wouldn't use it.

On Fat Tuesday, I played hockey, then joined some of the guys at Maloney's for 75 cent tacos.  I choked down four of them and a coke and bolted to try not to miss the Crossroads Mardi Gras parade.  Nieda and Lake were already out and having fun at Kelly's in Westport, but we met up at Grinder's on 18th.  It was nice to meet Dory, who works there and is somewhat hot.  The trail of confetti down the street indicated that the parade had already passed.  I went down the street to watch a very good punk rock band for a while.  After drinks and some pretty good pizza (sliced meatball pizza is deluxe!) and incriminating pictures were taken by Leanderthal, we parted company.  Adam D. and I motored to the Mardi Gras party at the Foundation.  It was crowded inside, but the music was excellent.  We chatted with some art crowd regulars and were interviewed and photographed by Jen Chen, who is cool, but really good at catching people off guard. 

Wednesday, I just worked, worked out, then vegetated and watched Americans Idle. 

Thursday, I started coming down with a cough and some chest congestion.  So, I did the usual work-eat-workout-eat-tv-eat-sleep thing.  Emphasis on the sleep part.

Friday, I felt rested and better.  I went to the doc and got some antibiotics.  I'm told I have MRSA.  The first thing the doc asked, "Do you use antibacterial soap?"  That's an understatement.  When I take off my nasty hockey gear, I wash with surgical scrub.  Methicillin Resistant Staph. Aurelius is the only thing that survives it.  Without competition from the good bacteria which is supposed to be on your skin, it goes crazy.  It's like killing all the predators in the jungle and letting the monkeys take over.  And it was in my sinuses and on my skin.  So, the moral of the story is this. . . antibacterial soap is only for hands. 

After my workout Friday evening, I went to the KU versus MU hockey game.  KU could have won that game, except for someone's skate being in the crease when the tying goal was scored and then retracted with 4:40 left in the 3rd period.  Then MU proceeded to score again.  4-2 final.  MU Tigers win.

Saturday, I worked out in the morning and went shopping.  That included upgrading the broken radio in the Jeep to a fancy CD, MP3 player thing with a USB port on the front and built-in Sirius sattelite radio.  That was a good thing on the road trip to Manhattan, KS later.  I wish I had gotten a nap in, because by the time I had explored Aggieville and saw my brother's band play and loaded up their gear, and bumped into some KC acquaintences out there, I was dead tired.  We grabbed food and hit the road.  I don't remember much of I-70 except that I couldn't recline the seat because of a speaker cabinet and the seatbelt made a mark on my neck while I slept and my brother drove.

Sunday, well, it was already Sunday when we got home from Manhattan.  I don't often see daybreak, but I fell face first onto the couch and later awoke to find that the indelible black B they drew on my hand at the bar to indicate that I was with the band had transferred very nicely onto my leather couch.  My cough had resumed.  I felt wiped out, so I ate some hot cereal.  I skipped hockey.  I needed a break.  I watched the UFC 58 fights, recorded the previous night.  I ate at Pancho's, then crashed.

It's Monday again, and I feel much better.  Not 100% clear, but much better.  This week, I'll try to not miss any hockey games.  Rob Zombie in 40 days.  Tick tock!