You know that I’m just trying to put the theme song to The Facts Of Life in your head, right? Oh how I loved Lisa Whelchel back then. You know she was a “new” Musketeer as well, right?
Today’s Daily Challenge
Stand with feet wide, go into a squat, and slightly move your torso up and down for a count of eight.
This challenge is a triple threat for legs! It helps to strengthen and stretch the muscles in the hips, thighs, and glutes. Stronger muscles in the legs help you with everyday activities like walking, running, climbing stairs, and exercising. Leg muscles that are more toned also help to prevent injury in the hips and knees.
It might also help with playing racquetball!
You Take The Good
Facing another shitty traffic commute home I instead drove over to the LA Fitness near the office and toiled on a recumbent stationary bike for an hour. I was going to use a conventional stationary bike at first but the two available each had problems. The recumbent bike I took also had some issues. I really need to go to different LA Fitness locations because they all seem to have better equipment than the one near the office.
If you believe the bike I expended nearly 650 kCalories during my sixty-two minute (adding two minutes of cool-down).
You Take The Bad
What’s the one thing you expect me to do after a workout? Go to Taco Mac? WRONG!
Because traffic had subsided by the time I exited LA Fitness I drove down to East Atlanta and ruined my workout by eating at Argosy instead. I wasn’t too sure that I was going to eat at Argosy last night as no one seemed to wanted to wait on me, but eventually someone came by and I had the tri-tip sandwich with fries, and chased those with a side of curried Brussels sprouts and a beer.
More and more I wonder if any of the multitude of couples/groups see me eating alone and feel sorry for me. Eh, who am I kidding, they pay no attention to me at all.
ITP Flickr Pic
“Trade-In Value $15”
Alternate title “Imperfections” because in this photo you can easily see one of the two imperfections in my iPhone 5’s camera sensor (or perhaps shit that’s under the protective glass and in front of the lens) as well as the obvious imperfection in the iPod’s screen.
This is my second iPod, a 60GB “iPod with Video” which replaced my original 20GB model. I’ve long-since moved on from using this often and have considered trading it in (aka “recycling it”) for a more modern iPod.
If you look closely at this photo you can see two things.
1. Yes Virginia, that is a Firewire 400 connecter on the power wort.
2. My iPhone 5’s camera sensors is appearing to die just like the screen on this iPod did
I didn’t get an opportunity to take the bad to the Apple store yesterday, today perhaps.
Look Ma, I Have $8.28 In Kindle Kredit
Sorry, even though I hate alliteration I just couldn’t resist.
Timing is a funny thing. During one of the many times I awoke last night (side note: Do you find when you exercise you dream more, or at least wake up enough to remember your dreams? I’ve had some doozies the past two nights.) I cleaned out one of my electronic mailboxes (well, not really but I did manage to remove some of the cruft). In doing so I came across an email from Amazon from at least six-eight months ago telling me that I was to receive some Amazon credit as part of the “eBook price fixing” lawsuit filed against Apple a year or so ago. I chuckled and wondered when, or if, I’d ever see this credit appear.
Lo and behold that day is today. On my drive in to work this morning I received an email from Amazon alerting me that I now have $8.28 in Amazon book credit. Not bad for a guy who has a lifetime-and-a-half backlogged books to read already.
Today’s Personal Project
Get some sleep.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, but I have a feeling that I will be very tired afternoon.
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I was awake so much last night that I found time to read this article about the rise and fall of professional bowling.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – stationary bike, ~1 hour
Morning Weigh-In – Arg, I keep forgetting to jump on the scale
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~10.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 8 (8 cardio)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
March Goals
– have Austin CocoaConf trip plans in place (new)
– exercise no fewer than twenty days (new)
– ride my bike no fewer than five times (new)
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– publish an app to the iOS AppStore
2014 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)
2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014
- “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
- “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
You know, Lisa Whelchel was on Survivor a few years ago. She did much better than I thought she would.
Do you read while on the recumbent bike?
I wish I could remember a fraction of my dreams. I really should keep a pen and paper next to the bed. I don’t find that exercise has any effect, tequila however is a whole ‘nother issue.
Instead of exercise last night, we went over to Megan’s to see the new foal, which was born Saturday night/Sunday morning. They have been on foal watch for 3 weeks, which means a lot of sleepless nights. So cute!! Mom was over nursing for a little while and tried to run from the baby and he was doing everything those spindly little legs could do to keep up. We got her caught and taken into the barn and the baby was much happier.
Tomorrow is the big day. We have to be at the hospital at 05:30!! Surgery is set for 7:30- maybe I’ll check in later, or Debbie will for sure.
-FP
When I went to her website I saw that she was on Survivor.
I listened to podcasts when I was on the bike. I cannot read while I ride because my eyes move about and I sweat like the dickens. Yesterday was particularly bad because I forgot to pack a sweat towel and was forced to use paper towels while I was on the bike.
Looks like the boss and I are going to smack a racquetball around for awhile tonight.
Good luck with everything, Steve.
Best wishes Steve!! Debbie if you need anything, just let me know. I’m settled enough I’ve got some flexibility back in my schedule.
Okay, I’m no Grammer Nazi (Jenka) but what is up with your writing today? Were you drinking? Sleep deprived?
Ack a baby horse…so cute, I keep thinking more and more about, litterally, getting back on the horse.
I can’t think of any one move that gives you more bang for your buck than squats. If there is *one* thing I can do its squat. Probably helps I’m closer to the ground than most people. 🙂
Hope everything goes as it should tomorrow Steve……..
Just let us know if there is anything we can do to help with anything.
If any of you know Bumper Bullets from way back when, her dog is going to have puppies most likely today, she has a live feed going. Not sure I want to watch that.
Good luck Steve, I hope all goes well tomorrow. I’ll echo all others, if you need anything please let me know.
Ugh, squats! I have pretty strong legs so can push a lot of weight but my core is weak so I cannot control heavy weights. On a machine I’ll bet I can do 20% more since I don’t have to balance the weight.
And that, Bob, is why “real” lifters don’t use a squat rack. I wish I could get back to doing some…
Thanks everyone. I think this will be pretty straightforward- I’m really not worried.
I hear ya Steve, crossfit has shown me that. Some dudes in there don’t look like they can squat squat (see what I did there :-)) but lift some impressive weight.
Not sure exactly what you mean, Martha. I did forget to put the Argosy link and put something into the personal project but other than that it reads fine to me. My prose is always a bit stilted ’cause I ain’t no professional or nothin’. 😀
“I wasn’t too sure that I was going to eat at Argosy last night as no one seemed to wanted to wait on me, but eventually…”
This seems to me to be wrong, but I can’t quite say why. I know it has something to do with “seemed to wanted” which I think should be “seemed to want”.
Myan eenglish ain’t much better than urine.
Man, did I mess up with my post, first I forgot to spell check and then I left out my ‘examples’…Just call me pot, okay kettle.
But yes, the missing link for Argosy was one and this one…the one I just can’t wrap my head around … “the multitude of couples of groups” …
Balancing the weight and using your core, that’s the point, the machine is ‘cheating’ (its not really cheating but don’t compare your max on a machine to my max with a free weight). Techique I use to be able to squat a fair amount (for my size). I can remember exactly what my old lifting coach use to say but something along the lines of ‘technique moves the bar’… brute strenght will only get you so far.
Ah, that should have read that a bit more carefully.
I need a new job. These people are just too much anymore. Is it 5pm yet???
Uhh, yeah. Real lifters use a squat rack, not-real lifters use a Smith machine. And as Martha said, it’s all about technique.
Good luck, Steve! Which hospital are you going to?
Piedmont-Fayetteville. It seems like BFE, but it’s a nice new place and they do a superior job of customer service. Now, granted I don’t have a lot of experience in such matters, but when we have had to go there, they have been really nice.
Hopefully I won’t get on their “frequent patient club”!!