bl(ip)og

I think I lost 20 pounds tonight at Great Clips. I took the “your hair looks good grown out like that” comments, factored in Joe’s “you’re too old and too big for [a short haircut like] that” advice, and ended up with something in between — short enough on the sides (#1) that I can’t see the gray in my sideburns, but long enough on the top (scissor cut) to require product. Being my creation (and not being known for my creativity), I’m kind of scared, but Marge (my Great Clipper) didn’t give me a “WTF?!” look, so we’ll see.

What’s that dusty smell? Could Rico have updated his journal? http://www.livejournal.com/~jasonrico

Had a very awesome weekend. The fabulous Jon W. Collins and I met up with Rico for lunch at Tropical Smoothie Cafe (yummmmmm), and then went back to Lowe’s for a guided tour of the lights/switches/etc that Rico’s picked out for the conclusion of “Great Kitchen Remodel (2003-2004)”. After watching “Scary Movie” with a towel-draped Sean, Jason came home from work and we ended up Orapaxing it for dinner, and then treking out to Newport News for Ian’s 26th birthday party. Jason worked 6am-5pm that day, and had to work at 8am the following, so we only ended up staying there for about an hour. (As Jason is quick to point out, we spent 2x the time driving than we spent there). Ian wasn’t going to let us off of the hook so easily, so I agreed to meet him and some friends at Max and Erma’s for lunch on Sunday.

Enroute to meet Ian at MacArthur Center on Sunday, the DJ made a comment that the effect that “downtown Norfolk was under water” — apparently it had rained cats, dogs, zebras and some elephants. I knew that I’d beat Ian to the mall by at least 15 minutes (that I could spend having fun in the Jeep), so I worked my way over to Ghent hoping to find some flooded side streets. OMG! OMG! OMG! The intersection of 21st/Llewellyn (where that funky furniture place Decorum is) was at least two feet under water. I took a right on Llewellyn and the water got deeper… and deeper… The water was pouring in the Jeep floorboards from the drainholes (which was OK with me — it’d drain right out), but 30 feet further up the road, the water was over the Jeep’s headlights. I’m sure I could have punched it and made it thru, but I didn’t want to risk being the “dumb asshole in the Jeep who got stuck”, so I reversed out. It was cool hearing the “glug glug glug” sound from the underwater exhaust pipe! I managed to “submarine” thru a few other side streets before Ian called wondering where the hell I was. [Side note: '04 Jeeps have four-wheel DISC brakes which don't work very well after being submersed. My apologies to the lady in the cross walk!]

I can’t believe that we’re supposed to get rain every day until FRIDAY! Crap — it’s like Oregon’s come back to haunt me, but it’s really pissed about the MLB thing, so it’s teamed up its friend HUMIDITY to really kick my ass. I mowed the lawn on Sunday (even though Norfolk got so much rain they had to close the Midtown Tunnel because it couldn’t drain fast enough, Va Beach got none) and about passed out. It was MISERABLE, but only in the low 80’s. Whew! Even JAK, who’s always wanting to go outside and play for hours with his chew toy, only lasted 2 minutes before he wanted to go back inside.

I’m slowly getting back into the exercise swing again. I managed to get on the Cross-Trainer for 30 minutes Thursday, Friday, and today. 30 minutes usually equals 3 minutes/440-460 calories. If I could just make the mental switch to “fast food isn’t the best choice”, I’d probably drop the 20 pounds I’m shooting for in a month.