Ponds a'plenty, time not so much.

This past Thursday, night despite frigid cold and howling wind, I spent the evening with 8 other crazy people playing pond hockey under the brightest moon of the year. With a glow puck and Schnapps to be passed around on each goal itt was a perfect reminder that winter is only as bleak as you believe it to be. Kristie hit the nail on the head "hooray New England."

Long time no nothing

I haven't posted a thing in ages, but that is okay, and here is why:
July 1st:
Bought house
move
begin renovations 15 minutes after closing
living from boxes till renovation is finished
ran 21:21 5k
about to cut the back of the house off
baby due in 7 months
spend nothing, save everything
urinate blood? good god
resume`, interview, test, interview, hired, declined, worry, resume`s
so much more I have forgotten
Tomorrow is January 18
Yes, lists are the extremely lazy way of my saying that I have been busy. Though I feel I have earned the right to blog sloth.

run down

16 days:
home
san diego
home
stomach flu
see new home
stage old home
buy new home
sell old home
run a PR
conjunctivitis

Post Script:
backed out of the house, didn't get the other house, now effectively homeless.
ran another PR
broke cycling personal speed record.
worrying about home constantly.

Habit

About a month go I started trying to form a plan for my future. I have been feeling a bit lost, passive perhaps, about the direction of things. And although the planning hasn't gone as smoothly as hoped I have had one good idea; habit quitting.
It came to me as I sat trying to think of how I could improve the future, all the while picking the skin from my cuticles.
Maybe it was a way of avoiding making the harder list but damn if it wasn't easy to find all sorts of terrible habits that need to cease (if you know me and there are any habits or quirks that drive you nuts let me know as I'll add it to the pile.) I won't list them as these are bad habits and with due right I am a little ashamed of them. What was really amazing to me was once I listed them I saw that all of them were hold overs from childhood. So out with the old. I decided to do them in batches of two and to up the difficulty level I decided that I needed to add a good habit.
First up chewing my food thoroughly. I mean masticating the hell out of things; better than the bass-o-matic could have done. The past two night were the first in 10 years that I finished dinner after my dining companion. I think I may be eating as slowly as Jeff Khan.
To aide in habit breaking/forming there is a reward system. Once I have a habit completely destroyed I will randomly select a reward from a list of things that I genuinely want. To be honest I would have taken up these challenges without the rewards. I just like a challenge, but hey if it gives me justification to do a weekend in Miami then why not.

Post script the first two things on the list have been accomplished. But I have reverted to bolting down my food like a wolf going to the electric chair. As if that made sense. Additionally the idea of rewards has fallen by the wayside. Rewards for doing what should have been done anyway seems a bit silly. And I don't have the discretionary income to pat my back. Though I am glad I conquered two habits, million to go.

Jack Benny

I have been exceedingly restless this evening and for some reason the Jack Benny show helps a little. I don't know why. I think because it reminds me of my grandfather. To this day I still pause for a second or two when ever I see the Lawrence Welk show. Back when I was 5 or 6 I can recall sitting over the heating grate trying not to get caught pulling the colors off of Lawrence's face with the set of magnets I pulled out of a speaker. When I finally would get caught my grandfather was more impressed with my discovery than annoyed that I destroyed the tv.
Nostalgia. I always feel kind of strange indulging in nostalgia considering I am a bit conflicted about my younger years. I get upset thinking about the distance in time and place between where I am now and the memory I was looking back at. Thinking of the naivety I had back then disappoints me, but I suppose that is what childhood is for. The people you love most in the world are still with you and you can pull the face of a german immigrant with some hunks of metal you found in the trash.

weird night at the pool

Demetri Martin said swimming is a weird sport because you could be doing it to get laid, or you could be doing it in order to survive. And that the difference is just in what you are wearing. Trunks..cool, jeans..uh-oh, naked..we'll I see.
Though tonight wasn't quite that odd it did seem a little off. I decided to go an hour early which put me in the open swim slot rather than the adult swim time. Kids and soccer moms react very differently to speedo jammers than the adult swim crowd. I can't say I blame them. This is after all a function only outfit. But all told I must say I prefer them over the 81 year old gay Lithuanian man that the adult swim has to offer.
He seemed surprised to see me leaving at 8.

3G 3G 3G

Branding annoys me to no end. I know that it is so pervasive that it is impossible to avoid but at least don't be so obvious. Currently my ire is focused on every cell phone company that mentions the "3G" network. Oy gewaltz.
G is overused, it is exhausted, retire it already. Perhaps the thing that annoys me it s that it seems as though the name is trying to latch onto the space age. As though the network were hurtling through the sky, banking and rolling, experiencing 3 Gs at every turn.
We all know it will be replaced in under a year by the 3.5 or 4.0. It wasn't enough to say "we have the fastest network" it needed a name. I looked it up. I know that this came after the 2.5 G. I know it has better spectral efficiency, and that it really does have some great benefits. But I don't care; honestly call it monkey's anus network for all I care as long as it works.