Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
January 2002
Today I had to run around doing errands in the morning and then had lunch with Kiz,
things were pretty hectic, at least I finished most all of my work yesterday. Oddly
Fila was kinda feisty going to the vet this time, even worse when they took blood.
I finally wandered off to 2 banks (WaMu and BOA) trying to buy some Canadian money
but no luck, guess its just a Washington thing -- oh well will have to wait till
I get to Vancouver to do a withdrawl. Elena came by to help me pack, so we went
out for a quick bite, at least all the clothes I wanted to take were recently washed.
On the "haven't heard from them lately" front, I got an email from Schlick, cuz
he's trying to put together a battle bots team and wanted to use some "missle technology"
that he thought I might still have .. lots of luck, but if he builds a bot I expect
it to be *MASSIVE* cuz he doesn't do anything on a small scale. Next up was Marnie,
(I went to college with her) I guess she mistook my brother (who is friends with her
brother) for me, so now we're emailing and may have lunch since she lives down here
somewhere...
Finally on the financial front, the re-fi is done, and I wrote some of the largest
checks in ages to take care of the credit cards, now its time for the motorcycle,
just as soon as I get back.
Friday it was vball with the gang, not too bad, but only got a few games in
since my knee was a bit tweaky, still I managed to play safely. Saturday and
Sunday was an "all Elena, all the time" mostly it was shopping for my MP3 player
that I want to take on the ski trip, but we did sneak in a movie (The Brotherhood
of the Wolf, longish and "just ok") as well as a quick trip to a Road Riders, to
look at helmets and jackets for that bike I'm buying RSN. Sunday night we went
with her sister (Michelle) and boyfriend (Jason) to chow down at Hot Pot City,
all you can eat, and we did.
Monday night was yoga again, my original teacher was back with a vengence, it
still surprises me how tight and sore my shoulders are, but at least my knee
wasn't a problem at all. Tonight I sub'd at vball, 4 games in a row, but as long
as I warmed up the knee seemed to be ok. It was probably better that I played
vball instead of bball, so things can rest a bit more for my trip.
The one thing I did manage housewise last week was I finally got my other
machine up and running -- now I have full access to my finance records, and have
been busy putting all the entries in over the last year. Now all I have to
do is reconcile all of the entries to balance my checkbooks. Good timing too
since I need to get everything ready to ship to my CPA for my taxes to be done
on time.
Speaking of money, looks like all of the papers are signed, so the re-fi
should complete this week, just in time for me to take my ski trip. Then
I can start clearing up my accumulated debt and start working on the fun
stuff like the house baseboards and the motorcycle.
Monday I tried yoga again, first time in about 2 months, and boy was it tough,
we even had a substitute instructor (a "Yoga Therapist") who had a different
somewhat more passive style -- good thing too, surprisingly the parts that
gave me trouble were the upper arm/shoulder rotations -- the knee wasn't too bad
off, and I even managed most of the squat type positions, but boy were the shoulders
wracked.
Today I got a late call to sub at vball, I must've confused them though about
my bball plans, cuz they actually had another sub show up later so that I could
leave early. Even still I managed 2 games (we won) got to set a bit and even
got to chat with that cutie Sharon again (sounds like she has a live-in "friend").
Afterwards I managed to make it to bball. The body held up pretty well, still
not in shape for a full day of running but this time I must've been working
a bit harder because the ankles got a bit sore (both of them) from the cutting.
The left knee (the good one) was a little tweaky, some jumpers knee, but it settled
down after it warmed up. The right knee (the sore one) seems to be better with
my brace on (during vball too). Its hard to tell if its muscle imbalance or actual
injury since I still have some general tightness sround my psoas and calves. Hopefully
the icing and stretching will do the trick.
Friday I wasn't feeling to well so I just vegged out at home. Saturday was another
excellent outing with the raven haired one .. she finally got a cell phone, wondered
off to see the car show (still liking that PT Cruiser) and went to see Gosford Park
which had some pretty hilarious scenes, even if it was set "way back when".
Today I tried to play some vball, but the knee got sore, odd though, only hurts
at full squat, or full extension, not sure if its overuse or just hurt something
at the tourny last weekend -- going to ice and drug to see how it responds this
week.
Last week was a short but hectic week, Thursday I had dinner with Elena, Friday
it was volleyball, to tune up for my tourny but it ended up to be pretty much useless,
we (Sam & Will) went to play at the new Fremont City Beach, nice facility, but lousy
flooring (linoleum over cement) and they didn't know how to coordinate play at all --
since it was Sam's bday sat, we went out to celebrate a bit that night with the
vballers -- didn't get home till 2:30am.
Saturday was errands with Elena before we headed out to Sam's surprise bday party --
the party was pretty well attended, Brown was even down (and not drinking !!!) from
Tacoma. Food, as always was good, and the drinks, well, lets just say it was typical.
Elena made a pie (lemon meringue) and apple cheesecake -- nobody waited for the bday
cake to cut into them. Even though the party was still going strong we headed out early
so that I could pack for sunday's tourny. Turns out I needn't have bothered -- we could
have done as well as sam's team did if I'd have stayed and drank too ;)
Tourny was kinda fun, way too much running, and a bit of lunacy from some less than
experienced players and still we got about 13 games in to finish 10th out of 12
in BB Gold, all that and still a 1 1/2 hour drive to get home.
Monday, well boy was I sore, skipped yoga and had dinner with Elena instead, unfortunately
I made the mistake of having a caeser salad with my prime rib, and was feeling pretty
ill by the time I got home. Tuesday was better, got a massage, and then went off to
play bball for the first time in months, still moving kinda slow but managed to
run for about 2 hrs -- must've been the massage cuz I even managed to shoot decently.
Tonight was dinner with Cheryl, it was good to catch up, but better to have
an easy evening where nothing really hurt to much.
In "keep in touch" file, I got to chat for a rather long time with Caroline as she
seems to be doing pretty well in Hawaii. I've been exchanging emails with Joy to
pick up the latest on Alec and Alan. I even got a call out of the blue from Angel
who, while knowing she's on the "B" list, didn't seem to care to know why. I guess
that was because she's busier telling me about her latest trauma (or is that drama?)
For those of you that know her, that's major hip surgery at the end of the month. I
even missed a call from Lori, and have been playing phone tag with Daryl (who's rumored
to be engaged, but we'll see ;) I even have been getting late holiday cards from folks
who don't seem to have my new address, guess I better have that housewarming party
soon ;)
On the house front, there is still no word on the plugged drain. Today I signed all
of the re-fi paperwork, that'll get sent off tomorrow -- that SV650 is close to
being in my garage.
On site news, I finally found Breakup Girl, and now she's given me permission
to post a bit of news about her latest gigs. You can find it
here. Now if she'd only
bring her show to the west coast, or maybe free Breakup Girl from her legal
entanglements.
Oh, and I had the strangest nightmare too -- Kat and I were
going to a sonics game, only I had left the tickets at home, so
we jumped into her car (zippy !) swung a hard left up denny
and proceeded to slide into a building, through the windows
of what appeared to be Patty's office building, only it was
too near the water front. Since I was in the passenger seat
all I remember was sliding, glass window, office partitions and
then I was picking glass out of my arm -- strange though, it
was the left arm ... so I guess I'll be driving the next time
I'm up there for a game with Kat.
And last, but not the least bit normal, I got a call from Elena tonight, to warn me
just in case I was "overly superficial" that she had dyed her hair (previously
strawberry blondish) black -- the funny part wasn't that she worried, it was that
the store only had 2 bottles of black, and she needed 3 (she has rather long hair)
so she substituted a bottle of brown, and then proceeded to forget to use it evenly
across her hair. Very spontaneous she is, but definitely not shy.
Skiing on Thursday was fun, my body wasn't up to skiing hard, so I just cruised easily, Karah's
new to boarding so we just wandered the blues some. Its a good thing that Kiz got
a hard day of skiing in the day before otherwise she might have been bored with our
pace. Bear Valley is just close enough to day trip (3hrs one way) and when we got there
it was really crowded but sunny and warm. However that afternoon it clouded over and then
started snowing ... finally it was like christmas. In any case it was a full day on the
snow which was needed, especially since I'll be on the biennial ASIA ski trip at the
end of January.
The other reason I took it easy on the slopes is that I have a volleyball tourny coming
up pretty soon, and can't quite risk injury yet -- at least not till I'm in better shape.
Friday I had lunch with Sam, then that evening we (along with Ivy) played at City Beach
before catching dinner with some of their friends (some of their very young but very
skilled vball friends). After skiing I was a bit toasted, but playing with the A/AA folks
just burnt me out further -- must've gotten about 5 straight games in -- and didn't
set at all but touching the ball helped.
Saturday was movie (Kate & Leopold) and dinner (Frankie, Jonny's & Luigi Too)
with Elena along with playing with Gilbert and a bit of shopping, but because of the
2 straight days of exercise, I was moving pretty slowly. At least I finally started
unpacking my clothes into my closet -- Elena tried to help, but she was overwhelmed
by the magnitude of the job. At least almost everything fits.
Sunday was more volleyball with the NAGVA gang, where I spent the whole day setting --
still sore and a bit burned out but at least my hands were good. I even managed to
play with 4 of the NCVA team members -- could be very entertaining/frustrating come
tourny time -- as one of them was on my Nationals team (with Daryl) a few years ago,
was lame in the back row, but insisted he should pass, well he got another shot
at back row sunday and sucked badly, I swear he hasn't gotten any better since the
first time I saw him, oh well, at least we have a backrow player for him during the
tourny's.
New Years Eve was another eating and shopping day, was pretty worn out so we skipped
the party invites and watched a lot of the Twilight Zone chain reaction on the SciFi
channel. Surprisingly Elena drank some wine to celebrate, boy is she silly on a bit
of alcohol.
New Years day was IKEA madness -- didn't know they were having a sale but went anyway
and managed to buy a few more closet organizers (for the remaining sweatshirts etc)
as well as storage bench for my comforters. Afterwards we took Gilbert "over the hill"
to Santa Cruz to Elena's sisters new years party, fun group, Gilbert was overly spoiled
and managed to drink a fair amount of wine (I think it runs in the family). Its a
good thing that brought towels since he gets car sick and managed to throw up on me
during the trips there and back.
Work started again today, things were pretty light since a lot of folks are still on vacation
but my new manager did stop by to let me know that I recieved a small promotion
basically a change in pay range, with out a change in pay -- nice but not effectively
useful in the short term.
On the house front, the roofers came out to check things, and noticed that the drain
was plugged instead so they'll have to come back out with a snake. I later noticed
that I have some leakage in the spare room downstairs, which I think is coming down
via the chimney. In any case they'll be back out again tomorrow to fix the drain
and take a look at the new leak area. Oh and it sounds like the house re-fi is now
a go so soon I'll be able schedule a new roof before that leaks all over my sister.
Last update for a while, off to go skiing with Ski ASIA in Whistler, should
be fun, that is if I'm well enough to ski. Had dinner with Elena the last couple
of nights but I've been pretty exhausted so we just sat around and watched tv
before I headed home. Packing for the trip was actually faster than I thought,
and the most time was spent downloading mp3 files to load into my new MP3 player
(Nomad IIc) pretty cool actually, can get about 40+ songs on it, more than 3 cd's
worth, and its solid state so it should be just great on the slopes.
Thursday I managed dinner and movie with Kiz, haven't actually got to see
her much this year cuz things have been pretty busy, and now with ski season
there'll be even less time.
Forgot to mention that Sunday Elena cooked me dinner (Shepard's Pie)
pretty yummy, even if we had to stick Gilbert back in his cage so he wouldn't
steal food. Manged to ice my knee for a while and it felt better, but not great.
Thursday I finally got to see Elena's dye job, it'll take some getting used to,
especially the brown streaks, definitely a different look, I guess her co-workers
have taken to calling her Elvira -- but I think it's more goth than that.
So much for more frequent updates ;)
It's a new year, and maybe, just maybe, I'll manage more frequent updates, or
at least a picture of Elena ;)
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