gobble, gobble

the weather's getting cripser, colder, and downright crappy. and you know what that means... it's time to put on the winter coat! i can already tell it's happening to me with less exercise and more food. but i can't let that happen! with vegas and a cruise on the horizon, i've got to keep this gut from expanding. maybe i need to start going to the gym, which i signed up for almost 2 months ago... and i still haven't gone. L A M E. maybe after this holiday weekend's festivities, i'll go.

in other news, the East Coast (EC) hag has been on a rampage. through a series of minor events, i now have an ally in my daily anguish. with her regular sounding board on vacation, i have become a little bit of a surrogate for her daily ranting. this morning was the flat tire story. OH-EM-GEE. that was a painful 10 minutes. doesn't eye-rolling and lack of contributing to conversation constitute "maybe i should go back to my desk (or hell) and leave rob alone?" let's just say one of the things i will be thankful for this thanksgiving is the fact that she's gonna be gone for most, if not all, of december. and hopefully, she will go back to the storehouse, her original department.

and finally, i would like to sincerely wish everyone reading this blog a happy, safe, and fat-filled thanksgiving!

what's next? senility?

getting old sucks. first, the gray hairs came in the early 20's, due to it running in the family. fortunately, since i'm a naturaly blonde (!), they don't show as much. then, there's been my battle with gout, which i've managed to keep under control (thank god and allopurinol!) for the past few months. now it seems i've developed a case of tendinitis in my left elbow area. ouch. i don't know what's worse - the pain/discomfort of the inflammation, or the supposed healing process of a couple weeks or more. of course i tried playing through the pain a couple times and probably made things worse. i guess i'll just have to follow the asian method of treatment to get through this - r.i.c.e., aka rest, ice, compression, and elevation. looks like i'll be gaining a few pounds the next few weeks.

'tis the season?

i must be getting O L D. or decrepit. or boring. or unmotivated. or becoming a hermit. or recluse. don't know what it is, really. tomorrow night is halloween, and i don't give a sh!t. at all. to me, it signals the beginning of the holidays. big deal. aside from obligatory gifts, semi-required-attendance office functions, and a few extra days off, what does it really mean? as a kid, i absolutely loved the time off from school, hanging with the cousins, fancy foods, and the presents. hmmmm... let's see... this year, there's tofino (nov), vegas (dec), and a cruise (jan), so i can't complain too much about that. you gotta have something to look forward to! but i could be doing all that any time of the year, right? which brings me back to the fact that the holidays, for me, have pretty much lost their 'luster' and appeal. it's been said before, but i totally believe everything's been commercialized. case-in-point: october 1st, i was browsing costco (as usual!) and they already had christmas gift wrap, decorations, and other assorted holiday-themed items in the store. october-freaking-1st! no sign of halloween or thanksgiving decor to be found, but if you needed santa-riding-a-reindeer gift wrap, it'd take you all of 2.5 seconds to find it. anyways, maybe it's just s.a.d. (seasonal affective disorder) or just me, or a combination of both, but if i can find some true holiday spirit this year, it'd be a miracle.

Sucktober

i've been in a crappy mood lately. maybe crappy's not the word, but depressed, irritable, melancholy, and contemplative have too many syllables, so maybe crappy does work. but the comic above made me smile. i especially liked how they spelled "ghey". that was cool. the only other things that have made me feel good lately are tennis and volleyball. otherwise work sucks, and so does the lack of a real social life. meeting new people and making friends - at this point - seems like a horrible idea. being around people not hitting a ball of some sort doesn't sound very appealing. a change of pace is well overdue, but what is that change, and what could it really do for me in the long run? maybe it's just my time of the month. or maybe i'm going through man-o-pause. whatever it is, i'm in a funk and all i wanna do is sleep.

imapro@crastinating.com

i signed up for gold's gym almost 3 weeks ago. can you guess how many times i've gone and worked out since then?

a) 9 times - 3 times/week! en route to becoming the next Ah-nuld!
b) 6 times - 2 times/week! average joe
c) 3 times - 1 time/week! pizza, surfing the 'net, and TiVo are more important!
d) 0 times - absolutely pathetic.

in my defense, i've been playing tennis twice a week, and volleyball 2-3 times a week, and walking several miles at least once a week.

the best part about it is that i'm a member (hehe... i said "member"... hehe)of gold's and it's only $20/month!!! i'll go soon... promise!

table for how many?

it all starts with your perspective of the world, right? everything after that, can be traced back to that. (confusing? - think about it!)

aaron & lissa are cool. i enjoy their company and have good times with them. aaron is my predecessor to the "single guy" role in the group. but now he's all married and stuff, so taking inventory of the circle of friends leaves me the odd man out... literally.

i've got the bff and fbff constantly on the lookout for single women for yours truly. admittedly, the fbff even has a very slight "potential" someone for me, aka booby blonde. seems cool, but my stubbornness has gotten in the way of any progress! (wow, i actually wrote that!) i think i even have her digits. i do thoroughly enjoy the single life, but every now and then...

so i get a call from aaron, and it's a dinner invite. first of all, i don't hear from a&l all too often. secondly, a dinner invite? hmmm... something's fishy here, don't ya think? i get to the restaurant - osaka - before they do, and in the mind set i'm already in, i ask, "table for how many?" i hear nothing... silence... just like in those at&t "dropped call" commercials. ha. then he says, "3", with a little bit of the confusion leaking through the cell. i'm letting out a sigh of relief! if you can put my twisted thinking together and put 2 + 2 together, then you'll see how i came to the conclusion of how i thought i was being set up on a blind date! (btw, i hate blind dates!) food was good... finally got my tempura fix, a btw, their tempura shrimp is fantastic and huge! a good time was had by all. the end.

the moral of this story: don't ever, EVER set me up on a blind date. have a nice day!

3:13

despite the (inherited) affliction known as gout, i try to stay fairly active. playing volleyball and tennis are my passions, but think about it - both are stressful on the feet. which is why most of you reading this know for a fact that Rob and any version of the word "marathon" don't go together... at all. but with a little persuasion from the BFF, i (at the very last minute) decided to participate in bellingham's inaugural marathon.

the title indicates how long it took to finish the 1/2 marathon. in case you're wondering, this is how i fared in the race!

health permitting, i would like to do it again next year to see if i can beat that amazing time. wanna take a walk with me? i'll hold your hand, if ya want... ;-)

R.I.P. Cal

I first met John "Cal" Callahan in early summer, 2006, at a poker game. (For those of you who don't know, he's my BFF's grampa.) I got to know him only a little bit, and I have to say it was a pleasure. Some of my favorite memories include -

• learning the hard way what "getting my feet wet" meant during a poker game
• being threatened to get beaten "in the ass with a wet squirrel", also during a poker game
• listening to him tell stories about his pilot adventures during World War II

I believe he was 91 when he passed last week. Wish I would've had a chance to watch another Mariner game or play poker with him... or at the very least, let him know that it was great meeting him. My thoughts go out to his family, whom I am slowly getting to know through the Daileys.

guess who's back... back again...

i'm back after an involuntary hiatus from blogging. hmmm... let's see what's happened since the last episode, shall we?

aaron and lissa's wedding - now that was a (drunken) weekend to remember! here's a short list of what i remember most - open bar almost all weekend long, gorgeous beach, sharing a room w/ my bff(!), wedding prep, the actual wedding, shooting glenn fiddich instead of sipping, almost getting into a (my first) fight, walking the streets of ocean shores @ 2am trying to find some place to eat, and trying to recover for the work week.

tennis - because of my not-so-healthy and very gouty feet, i had to pull out of the tennis clinic i was enrolled in last spring, even though i had already paid for it. refund? yeah, that's what i thought! sometimes what matters most is who you know. tj is a friend of the bff, is in my ffl, and also one of the tennis coaches. can you put 2 + 2 together? thought so... and i'm sure you can guess where i'm playing tennis this fall... for FREE. that's my not-so-subtle way of stickin' it to the 'man', for now.

that's it for now, so until next time... unless the 'man' decides to stick it to me, again.

ffl

what do these people have in common, besides being professional football players?

• Tom Brady
• Frank Gore
• Marvin Harrison
• Heath Miller
• Adam Vinatieri

figure it out yet? well, if you couldn't decipher it from the title of this post, then quit reading this blog. (J/K!) they're all on my (winning) fantasy football league team, "Off All Day".

the 2007 nfl season starts this thursday. can't believe summer's over...

escape

i want out. now. ASAP.

wake-n-bacon

bacon is fantastic. waking up to an alarm clock is not-so-fantastic (most of the time). thanks to modern technology, and zoo's excitedly frantic call, i have learned that waking up to an alarm clock doesn't have to be so miserable anymore, thanks to the wake 'n bacon alarm clock.

click here for the 411.

thanks to zoo for the heads up.

proof

just to prove that there was actually a rafting trip, here's the evidence. i don't even remember seeing the photographer, but then again, those few moments just before going over the edge were a nervous blur. gotta do this again, fo sho.

p.s. sorry, no evidence of the strip club. nothing really exciting there anyways. believe me. i'm so NOT in love with strippers...

tennis anyone?

i love tennis. those of you know know me well enough know that i will kick ur ass if we played ;-) I even like watching it on TV. i'm gonna try and watch what i can, but will definitely keep up with scores and highlights online. check it out... and let me know if you need "lessons".

cherry popper

this is my first time. well, not really the first time, but it's close enough. i'll try to keep this up as much as possible. lord knows i should have plenty of time, but that's not the issue. it's really the fact that i'm not much of a writer, but more of a watcher. (yeah, you could say 'i like to watch'). we'll see how often i can post. can't promise quality or quantity, so it's up to you to decide to keep reading... or not. this past weeked was aarondog's bachelor party. my visions of the typical bachelor party include lots of drinking, debauchery and the obligatory strippers. going into this weekend, i knew there'd be plenty of dranks, but didn't really expect any of the nekkidness. and was really hoping there'd be no nekkidness from any of the dudes staying in hotel room. thank god there wasn't.

keeping with the old saying "what happens at a bachelor party, stays at a bachelor party", i won't give up the dirt. i will say that white water rafting was fantastic, poker was fun, and i hope aarondog enjoys his gifts ;-)