dbacks win!
That's right. I can't believe it either. The Diamondbacks won a game I was at. 2-0.
Season total;
3 wins, 9 losses. dbacks runs; 29, opponent runs; 88
Interestingly enough the band Live put on a concert after the game that Lori and I stuck around to see. The audio sucked. I don't know why we expected it to be great when they rolled the entire setup on the field in about 15mins, but I was disappointed. It was good to hear a couple songs from them though, since I've never seen them perform before.
Let's see.. what else happened today..
I watched Constantine tonight, and really liked it. Keanu Reeves movies tend to be really hit or miss, and I hadn't heard anything good about this one. Lori recommended I take a look, and she was right, it was good.
I went out to eat with Melissa at RA, and setup her new laptop to do wireless in her Mom's apartment. I also got her printer working reliably, something I had failed at a couple years ago. I guess my Windows driver skills have gotten better? That's depressing =).
Despite popular belief, Carrie is in fact not dead. I used my shiny new bluetooth headset to talk to her while driving to Melissa's, and we actually spoke. Call off the search!
Woah, I almost forgot. Guy posted a cool flash game to my stuff list. You throw wads of paper at the trash can, compensating for the fan's intensity. Fun stuff. You can find it at; http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html
For those that don't know what the "stuff list" is. It's a mailing list where we send random humorous things. You can subscribe by going to;
http://www.disturbed.org:8888/mailman/listinfo/stuff
toys!
So my cell phone has been horrendous lately. It drops calls, the spring holding it open (it's a flip phone) barely functions, the wall charger no longer works, etc.. I had the phone for over a year and a half, but I would have expected an expensive Motorola phone to last longer. It was time to buy a new one.
As many of you know, I carry a Palm Pilot (Tungsten T5) in my pocket. Its case doubles as my wallet, so it's always on me. I use it a TON for organizing things. The only issue is that it's really freaking big to be carrying around all the time. So, what I've done is buy a Palm Treo 650 for my cell phone;
I carry so much less stuff now, it's great. At first I was thinking I was going to keep the Tungsten as a media player, but I remembered that I have a perfectly good iPaq being used as a remote control in the family room that can play movies. The iPaq has a smaller screen with worse resolution, but better battery life. Since I've been watching movies optimized for a 256MB card, two 512MB movies should look just fine on the iPaq and I can regain a few hundred bucks from the Tungsten.
I've got my bluetooth headset, cradle, rubber skin, car charger, pen stylus, etc.. rocking. This thing is absolutely wonderful. I recommend it to anyone who has the cash to lay down on one. Make sure you'll actually use the Palm features first though. Or, of course, you could lay down the extra $200 and get the Samsung SCH-i730. Which has 802.11b, and a bigger screen, but runs Windows Mobile.
the dbacks hate me
My bad luck with the Diamondbacks continues. I didn't update the last game, where they lost 0-7. Then last night they lost 1-14. Awesome. The season total is now;
2 wins, 9 losses. dbacks runs; 27, opponent runs; 88
I am the best luck they could possibly have.
Lori was my victim last night that had to put up with my luck. We drank a bunch of beer at Sports City Grill off Jefferson then went over to the game. I really like that place. Kind of shocking that it was almost completely empty, while Majerle's is packed right around the corner. Their spinach dip appetizer was really good, and $1 Amberbochs are definitely my friend.
monday monday monday
So last night I ate too much lasagna. Lori and I had made some on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I had heated the oven too high, so despite turning it down, I burned the top and undercooked the inside. Lasagna is a wonderful beast though, after refrigeration and a little microwaving it is as good as new. Even better in this case. So I naturally inhaled too much of it in my hunger.
In my fat cat elation I sat down and watched the final episode of Six Feet Under. Wow, that was a wonderful ending. I really don't rant and rave about dramas on TV often, but that show was a phenomenon. I will miss it, but one less thing to watch on TV is a good thing. Speaking of TV, I have 20 episodes of South Park on the DVR. I guess Comedy Central had a marathon. Woot! Much alcohol and South Park on Friday night anyone?
I woke up not feeling very refreshed this morning after not being able to fall asleep last night. In typical half asleep nature I went to the Coke machine to get a Diet Coke, only to have my dollar eaten. Thankfully Brian keeps Diet Mtn Dew in his little mini-fridge so I got my caffeine fix. The day got better after that, and I got done what I had intended to do today, got a bike ride in, weights lifted, opposite knee crunches crunched, and a phone call with Lori. Add to that a little Laundry and cleaning up a bit, and it was all in all a good day for getting stuff done.
time well spent
So Lori and I have spent quite a bit of time together in the past few days. I am definitely going to call it time well spent. I haven't spent that long straight with someone without getting sick of them in forever. We did a few things that deserve mentioning;
Ikea. I finally went to Ikea! Yeah, it was worth seeing, but I'm not sure it lived up to the hype I've heard? It was interesting seeing some of the "rooms". It gave me some ideas for what I want to do to my house.
The 40 Year Old Virgin. This movie opened this weekend and I thought it was really funny. It's definitely worth going to see. Do you like to self help? I can see many jokes coming out of that movie into my day to day conversations..
Va Bene. Great food! Va Bene is an italian restaurant (and apparently trendy happy hour/friday night bar spot) at 48th St / Chandler in Ahwatukee. The most impressive part of the meal to me was the prosciuitto wrapped shrimp we had for an appetizer, and the tiramisu and creme brulee we had for dessert. For entrees we both had pasta with seafood. Mine with shrimp, mussels, clams, and scallops in a red sauce, Lori's in a creamier sauce with salmon. The entrees were good in my opinion, but not amazing. The appetizer and desserts stood out as amazing though.
Super Size Me. I had started to watch this documentary during my flight to/from Sacramento, but didn't make it too far. Guy had also told me that I need to have the DVD itself so I could watch the extras. So we rented that, and I was a big fan. I suggest every fast food eater rent that film and read Fast Food Nation in close succession. Don't forget to watch "The Smoking Fry" in the DVD extras. Interesting.
First Watch. Apparently Lori had gone to one of the locations of this place when she lived in Florida and loved it. The closest one to Ahwatukee is at Central and Thomas. It was a bit of a drive, but really good breakfast food. I'm a fan of Mexican-style breakfasts.. so the "chickichanga" I ate with chorizo was quite tasty. I'm not sure if it's worth a 25min drive on even a semi-regular basis, but I would definitely go there if I was in the area.
I've already written a book, you don't need to know any more. Needless to say, spending time with her, and doing the above was great fun.
holy capriotti's
Dan does it again.
The restaurant review man himself comes through with another wonderful recommendation. As I wandered the office today, one of the NOC guys offered to get me a sub from Capriotti's. I of course said yes since Dan had raved so generously about their sandwiches. I ordered the Capastrami (hot pastrami, coleslaw, swiss cheese, russian dressing on a roll) and loved it.
I highly recommend it, although stick with the small ($6.75). I was a little stuffed after eating it, so a large would be way too much. A medium if you're extra hungry. They are located on the south side of Chandler Blvd, just west of I-10.
drama and weights
Well. My life is a soap opera apparently.
I wanted to talk to Lori a bit more, so I asked her to dinner last night to return some of her things and talk. I was completely honest about what I was thinking and while she's still concerned about what she said, we are going to go out again.
The oddest part is, for some reason I don't feel all that confused now. She had misheard a key part of something I said the previous night, which no doubt skewed her thinking pretty dramatically.
So, to give everyone an update on exercise, I am doing 3 arm/back/abdominal workouts every day and riding my bike. On Wednesdays I actually do 6 weight/stomach workouts and do not ride my bike. I've been doing this for a while, and I finally upped my weights this week. It's good to feel some burn in the old arms again for a change, I had really fallen off the proverbial horse.
The oddest thing to me is the tricep workout I do. I ride bicycles. On my road bike the muscle holding up my upper body is my triceps. They are flexed pretty much the entire time and load bearing. You think they would be huge and strong. But no. I have issues keeping proper form with 3 sets of 6 reps and 20lb weights doing a "tricep kickback". Anyone with suggestions on other tricep workouts to do with dumbbells that may help, bring 'em on!
retraction
No, Lori did not actually tell me to fuck off. She was very nice about it, I was just being bitter. *SIX* different people asked about that.. It's good to see my blog is that much of a work distraction to you all ;-).
Wow.
Well Lori just told me to fuck off. I'm not entirely sure what was up with that. She said she really really liked me but didn't think I was going to give her what she wanted. She thought I didn't want to get serious, or that I shouldn't get serious after Tausha. Man, if she could have heard me talk about her she would have gotten a different opinion. I tried to play the whole "I don't want to get serious" thing with her as a defense mechanism because I really did like her which was scaring me a bit. I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt her by making her a rebound. Oh well. She warned me when we started dating that she ran quickly, I should have listened and not started to get attached. Somehow I had a big enough ego to think *I* could stop her from doing it. Heh, guess not.
Women.. let me tell you this. You are one fucking confusing bunch. I have a hard enough time finding people that live up to my expectations, then to find one that likes me as well, yeah a real rarity. I at least expect good reasons to stop dating damnit! =) I guess I'm just too damn logical. Oh well, time to move on. We'll see how I think in hindsight, maybe I'll give her a ring in a couple months if I still think she was as rare as I think she is now.
Feh, and now I'm going to bed after midnight again. Lack of sleep is my own personal plague.
fun and enjoyment for profit
Alright, there was no profit, but plenty of fun and enjoyment. So on Monday I was going to go home and ride my bike. Instead I went to the grocery store and then to The Tilted Kilt.
Well you might think that sounds like my favorite beer, Kiltlifter. But it's only a coincidence, outside of the fact that they serve it on tap for $3. Well, this place is a pretty sweet bar, with good beer and food. They have a ton of TVs, so it makes a pretty good sports bar as well. I had a handful of Kiltlifters and the corned beef "Sloppy Jane". Very tasty stuff. The best part is it's convenient, right off Warner and Kyrene, across the street from the Home Depot I go to.
Of course, I must describe the waitresses. Although none of them were overly amazing to look at, half dressed girls are never a bad thing to have around. In a bit of inebriation I described it as "The Library for adults". Here is a picture of the waitresses;
There is only one other of them around, and it's inside the Rio hotel in Vegas. Apparently the guy in Phoenix who opened this one plans to open 6 more around the city. Too bad.. things are generally better when they're one of a kind.
So today I was better. I rode my bike and lifted weights. I told everyone I would be late because of my exercise, but I made it the Bamboo Club off Mill just in time to order a drink and munch on some appetizers. Dinner was good, and the company was entertaining. I had the Honey Sesame Chicken, but tasted some of the other people's food as well. Someone had a hot and spicy chicken that was really good.
Despite the fun I have a bitter taste in my mouth after work today. Since I went on vacation last week I had not gotten a configuration needed to turn up a customer to the people that needed it. So I got them the configuration needed yesterday. Well, the non-customer focused part of it needed to be enabled as well. So, since the customer wanted to be turned on today I had one of the other engineering teams deploy the config for me. Turns out it broke 6 customers for less than a minute. I got shit from the manager of that group for the fact that I told them it was non-impacting. Funny, I don't have six years to test every possible combination of every possible thing on the planet to know that something might break if the stars align correctly. She was really bitchy about it, and just pissed me the fuck off. Oh well. I know she meant well, she just didn't present herself very reasonably.