I Still Suck At Weighing In

since i've started my high intensity interval training, i chose thursdays as my normal weigh in day because that is the usual day i see my friends (marc and kelley) who happen to own a scale. (i don't own a scale.) needless to say, today is wednesday. i had to move my weigh in day forward in the week because marc and kelley will be busy on thursdays for a while. kelley recently got a new job and her company has a kickball league which she and marc are joining. the league plays on thursdays. thus, the need for moving my weigh in day.

that said, i still suck at weighing in. today, i stepped on the scale at their place. the magic number for today is 182.4 pounds. compared to six days ago (which was the last time i weighed myself at marc and kelley's), i have lost 1.6 pounds. the weight loss equates to a difference of 0.87%.

in addition to the weight loss from the high intensity interval training, i'm quite happy to know that i can lose weight while not maintaining a food journal. for a while, i was concerned that i was fooling myself into thinking that i was eating with the same habits as when i was using the food journal, when in fact i was not. my concern worsened when i did not lose weight one week and consequently gained weight the next week while not using the food journal.

since i haven't been using a food journal, i do feel more at ease to find that i have lost some weight. thus, those two weekly weigh ins could have been aberrations as a result of my wine hangover and recovery. this is yet another lesson to be learned... don't drink an entire bottle of wine by yourself...

anyway, i have a little over a week left of this high intensity interval training. so hopefully soon i can have more of a quantitative assessment of this experiment.

I Suck At Ben & Jerry's

my coworkers (lee and tim) and i... are geniouses. do not ever buy anything from my company.

today is free cone day. every year, ben & jerry's has what is called a "free cone day" where they give out free ice cream cones all day. i happened to stumble upon the fact that today was that day, thanks to my friend (andrea).

needless to say, i love ice cream. so, when i found out this tidbit of information (it being free cone day), i told everyone i could think of. my coworkers were equally excited. thus, all of us here at work came up with an ingenious plan to go to as many ben & jerry's there are today for the free ice cream cone.

unfortunately, i suck at ben & jerry's. the plan was simple. we had used google maps to find all the locations near work that were participating in the free cone day program. we printed out the map and everything. we even devised a plan as to which ones we would hit first, etc. (it turns out only 3 locations were somewhat near us.)

thus, we embarked on our brilliant journey for lunch... in case anyone did not know... it has been pouring buckets outside. of course, my coworkers and i were not going to let a little water deter us. so, we waited till the skies had brightened up before we began.

well, wouldn't you know... as the sky was brightening and the rain had stopped, my coworkers and i crossed beacon street and into the common. we didn't carry any umbrellas because... we were geniouses... we didn't need them because the weather was brightening. oh how wrong we were. shortly after, the clouds darkened again and the rain poured... and poured. (as i write this, my pants are still soaked.)

needless to say, we finally made our way to the first ben & jerry's location on our map. the line was pretty long, but it moved pretty quickly. i ordered a "cake batter" cone. very yummy. (i may even go so far as to quote rachael raye and say "yum-o".) of course, i polished off the cone in no time.

afterwards, downtrodden by the rain and soaked from head to toe... my coworkers decided to simply head back to work and forgo the other locations. sad. so now i sit here... with wet pants... but it was all worth it. free ben & jerry's ice cream! what i wouldn't do for ice cream...

I Still Suck At Riding The MBTA

yesterday, the clouds just poured. unfortunately, i didn't have an umbrella with me. an umbrella is one of those things that i hate to carry with me because most of the time it is just dead weight. (i didn't like to carry books in high school either because those were just dead weight too.)

well, i could have used the umbrella yesterday. as i made my way to the subway station without an umbrella after work, i got a little wet. so needless to say, i was not looking forward to my train ride home with water already dripping off my head. yep, i still suck at riding the mbta.

anyway, as i waited for the subway train to arrive... my friend (hot amy) came. it was a pleasant surprise. i almost didn't notice her because of my sunglasses (which by the way makes a dark day look even darker.)

needless to say, meeting up with hot amy made my train ride more enjoyable. of course, she's probably now getting tired of me because it was the fourth straight day i've seen her. i know... men, eat your heart out... don't be too jealous. lucky for me, i exude awesomeness. (as mentioned in regards to being mr. walsh's favorite... second to his son-in-law, ed, of course.) just kidding.

what made the ride home more enjoyable was the fact that we actually saw one of hot amy's students (mary kate) from simmons. naturally, me... being an instigator, i started talking about how the students these days... in particular a student named erica... were awful. yep, it was fun. it pays to suck at chauffeuring. luckily, i don't think mary kate was paying any attention to me. she is interning at the south shore ymca and was on her way there.

anyway, the ride home was definitely nice. plus, i got front door chauffeuring service from hot amy because i didn't want to get wet. so all in all... it was a good train ride back to quincy.

I Suck At Christenings

yesterday, i had what apparently every guy wants... an entire weekend of my friend (hot amy). i saw hot amy at the british beer company (the one in pembroke, not walpole) on friday night; at our place correcting case studies for class and doing a quick bosu workout on saturday; and at a christening yesterday. i know... don't be jealous.

anyway, my friend (pam) was back in massachusetts to have her daughter (keira) christened. unfortunately, i suck at christenings. as there was some time to kill before the actual christening, karen, hot amy and i decided to go car shopping for a toyota prius. we ended up at a place located in weymouth (i'd type the actual name of the dealership if i could spell the name) across from lowe's and that area. (incidentally, that car dealership is opening a new location by the best buy in braintree.)

hot amy got to test drive the car. karen and i were mainly there for moral support. needless to say, i love the prius. that has been my dream car for a while. damn hot amy for wanting my car. just kidding. regardless, the experience was textbook with the salesperson taking a while with the paperwork and then having the manager come in at the end for a little schmoozing... it was all rather funny.

well, hot amy didn't fall for the sales pitch. so, the two dietitians and i ended up at... of all the ironic places... mcdonald's for a quick lunch to hold us over until the christening was over. yum. for the record, my friend (kerry) is correct, the parfait does taste good there. anyway, i don't know if mcdonald's was the cause or not, but shortly afterwards, i felt a little ill at the church during the christening. i was, however, fine after purging... not that you needed to know that.

anyway, the christening went well aside from one really odd comment from the godfather of keira, who basically asked "are we done yet?" immediately after the whole water/baby thing. odd.

(pictured below are ed, pam and the newly christened keira.)



after the christening, karen, hot amy and i did some more car shopping as there was time again before the subsequent christening party. we basically just did a quick drive by, looking for a prius of a particular color at the car dealership located near the phillips old colony house as the phillips old colony house was where the party was held.

anyway, the party itself was pretty fun. after all, what could be better than learning from mrs. walsh that i am apparently mr. walsh's favorite... second to ed of course... yay, i passed the dad test... granted, it was someone else's dad... but i passed anyway. i don't think the current godfather of keira passed the test though. and interestingly enough, i have a funny feeling that hot amy really didn't want to be there at the party, not because of pam or anything. i don't think i've seen her want booze it up so early. i think it has to do with the aforementioned godfather. or maybe i'm just causing trouble.

regardless, it was a fun time.

(pictured below is hot amy... boozing it up. just kidding.)

I Suck At BOSU Training

i've had a very good day today.

in addition to seeing my bff (kerry), i got to see my friend (hot amy). i like to poke fun of hot amy, just to keep her grounded of course. after all, i can't have all this "hot" talk go to her head. and to give her credit, she is a good sport when it comes to my ribbing. truth be told, her bff (andrea) is a good sport about my ribbing as well. so it's quite amazing that both of them are still my friends... or are they?

anyway, hot amy came over to correct some case studies with karen. in true instigating fashion, after she was done correcting the case studies with karen, i asked hot amy if she ever used the bosu ball. when she said no, i naturally asked if she wanted to try it.

now earlier in the day, i ran my bff (kerry) through a quick bosu workout. it was during that bosu training that kerry discovered she had a bloody sock. so sure enough, i suck at bosu training. (kerry, by the way, is okay. she's a trooper.)

needless to say, hot amy agreed to give the bosu ball a try. had she declined, i might have persistently asked her until she agreed. (for any of you single guys out there who may be reading this... the key to breaking down hot amy is to be persistent. just kidding.) surprisingly, she looked pretty good on the bosu for someone who doesn't like to sweat or workout.

(the video below is hot amy doing pushups on the bosu.)



pretty soon, i'll have a bosu army... consisting of my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my bff (kerry) and my victory-challenged friend (hot amy)...

I Suck At Tennis

my bff (kerry) spent the night last night. she was going to visit her mom today who lives in the neighboring town of hingham. so, it only made sense that she stay the night.

anyway, one of the things kerry also wanted to do today was to play tennis before she went to visit her mom. too bad i suck at tennis. i've never taken any lessons whatsoever for tennis. i've even never played competitively (unless you call the challenge against hot amy "competitive".) everything i learned about tennis i learned from television. my mom and my brother liked watching tennis when i was growing up. so naturally, i had to watch tennis as well. (in case anyone was curious, my favorite tennis player growing up was boris becker because what he did when he won wimbledon in 1985 as an unseeded 17 year old was amazing... and steffi graf.)

kerry, on the other hand, had just finished taking tennis lessons and gotten a new racket. so she was eager to continue playing tennis. thus, we played at the local high school, which was the location of my infamous tennis challenge (and butt-whuppin' victory) with hot amy. (pictured below is kerry opening the tennis ball container she had won during her tennis lessons.)



needless to say, we had fun playing tennis (or i did at least). afterwards while we were waiting for karen to return from her haircut and quick shopping outing, i ran kerry through a quick bosu workout. kerry was interested in learning some exercises for the bosu as there was one at her gym. anyway, while kerry was working out, she discovered a little surprise... a bloody sock. (pictured below is the bloody sock, not to be confused with curt shilling's bloody sock.)



i guess i was too hard on her during her bosu workout. just kidding. in all seriousness, kerry is ok. the blood was a result of a blister or something.

anyway, from there, karen came home and the three of us went to the hanover mall where they were having an earth day recycle event. we then had lunch at friendly's. and after that, we basically hung around the back porch of our house basking in the sun outside. although the three of us didn't really do much, it was a very enjoyable day. karen and i were talking about how much fun it would be if kerry lived across the street. perhaps some day... when she convinces her dad to buy the place... just kidding.

I Suck At The British Beer Company

my friend (pam) who lives on a prayer in bon jovi's home state of new jersey came back to massachusetts for the weekend. (her daughter, keira, is getting christened/baptized this weekend.)

needless to say, pam and her husband (ed) wanted to go out for dinner last night to hang out and see everyone. and by everyone, i mean karen, kerry, jen, hot amy, and andrea. thus, all of us decided to go to the british beer company in pembroke. it's too bad i suck at the british beer company. interestingly enough, it seems like i eat there a lot whenever i see people i have not seen in some time. weird. (for anyone curious, i still have not received a phone call from ed... if only he'd call on his way home from work...)

anyway, it was an bizarre night to say the least. the thing that is odd is the fact that the new mother of two (one of which is a newborn), outlasted almost everyone else on a friday night. very sad. i would say that is a sign that you are old. lucky for me, i was not one of the tired few. in fact, everyone was so tired and had to leave early, that we didn't even get to stay to see the band play.

as it so happens, the band that was going to play was "emergency broadcast system", which features of all people... my high school alum and classmate... phil pacino... or as he likes to be called now... fil. in honor of fil, i just might change my name now to myk... short for mykl. sad to say, i could not stay to heckle him and his band... and cause any ensuing trouble.

had we been in the walpole british beer company, perhaps things would have been different. just kidding. (pictured below is pam, who was cracking up laughing.)



anyway, when dinner was over, my bff (kerry) and i went and found a local ice cream place while karen went with pam and ed to show them the new addition to our house. kerry and i eventually made it back to see pam and ed before they left for the night. and because the night was still early even when pam and ed left, the three of us then watched tlc's "10 years younger" in the master bedroom... on the king sized bed. yes, it was an exciting night.

I Suck At VH1s 40 Most Softacular Soft Rock Songs

today is the normal day i see my friends (marc and kelley).

karen and i (well, karen) made dinner for everyone tonight (pulled chicken and/or pulled pork sandwiches). in addition, my mom made scallion pancakes. yes, it's an odd combination. but the food was good nonetheless. (based on hot amy's apparent enthusiasm, we probably had more fun than she did on her blind date.)

regardless, all of us started to watch vh1's 40 most softacular soft rock songs. gotta love soft rock. well, apparently karen does because she has old lady tendencies. the rest of us watched it mainly for fun. thus, i suck at vh1's 40 most softacular soft rock songs. for those of you who have not seen the show, the premise of the show is to countdown a list of songs based on a common theme (in this case... soft rock songs).

as it turns out, #1 on the list is "sailing" by christopher cross. i hate this song even though the song earned 3 awards at the 1981 grammy awards ceremony. i think the reason why i dislike the song so much is because the song reminds me of that late 70s / early 80s sound.

needless to say, karen loves the song. in fact, she wants me to get the song. after watching the show, she'd like to have the following songs (in addition to "sailing") for her ipod:

"key largo" by bernie higgins
"you needed me" by anne murray
"still the one" by orleans
"summer breeze" by seals and croft
"escape (the pina colada song)" by rupert holmes

sad. if any of you have these songs (or know of anyone who owns these songs), please let me know. i would love to get my hands on a copy of these songs.

I Still Suck At Weighing In

it's been two weeks since my last weigh-in. so needless to say, i still suck at weighing in.

in addition to my ineptitude at weighing in, the numbers on the scale are not that favorable, which is somewhat disheartening. the magic number on the scale for today was 184.0 pounds. compared to the numbers from two weeks ago, i have gained 0.4 pounds in two weeks.

considering the fact the weight gain is over two weeks, the numbers in general are not that bad. it almost appears as though i've reached a plateau. either that or i'm not pushing myself as hard as i should be when doing the high intensity interval training. (maintaining a constant sprinting speed is definitely more difficult to do with the increased amount of time.)

the only other factor that i can think of is possibly my nutritional intake. since giving up the nutrition log, i have been eating according to what i perceived was my normal eating habits. it is quite possible that i could have been mistaken.

regardless, i'm going to continue without the nutrition log and focus more on maintaining a constant sprinting speed over the duration of the high intensity interval training workout. i guess we'll see how it goes. i only have about two more weeks of this experiment left. yay!

I Suck At The Fat Cat

to celebrate the last day of karen and hot amy's teaching this semester, the three of us decided to go out for some dinner after i had arrived to chauffeur their sorry bums home. (plus, we were pretty hungry to begin with so it didn't take too much convincing to go out for dinner.)

anyway, we decided to go to the fat cat which is located in quincy center near sully's. i believe the place used to be an indian supermarket or something like that. needless to say, i suck at the fat cat. apparently, none of us have ever been to the fat cat, so we decided to see what the buzz was all about.

anyway, when we arrived, the host told the three of us that he'd be right back. he then disappeared to clear a table and whatnot. it was quite some time before he finally came back to take our name. in the time he was gone, i got to visit the fat cat bathroom. (the bathroom is interesting with its square sink and automatic faucet.) karen and hot amy also were able to visit the bathroom too... (not the same one though.)

lucky for us, when we were finally able to put our names in, we did not have too long of a wait to be seated. the place is tiny, which makes getting a table difficult at times.

as for the food, the food was good. karen had the chicken philly, hot amy had mac 'n cheese and tomato bisque soup, and i had the beer battered fish sandwich. needless to say, we ate and hung out together. it was fun. if only i had my camera with me to take pictures.

anyway, in my opinion, i don't really know what the buzz for the fat cat is all about. don't get me wrong, the food was good. if i had to rate the service, i would say it was not that good. thus, the whole entire dining experience was just mediocre to me. i think the only reason why there is such a buzz about the fat cat is that the owner is local. that said, the food was definitely good... but not worth any extended amount of waiting time for in my opinion.

afterwards, i actually had to do my chauffeur duties one more time... as i had to drive hot amy back home (her car was in the shop). all in all, i had a good time last night.

I Still Suck At Chauffeuring

yesterday was the last night i would be driving the two miss daisies (karen and hot amy) back from simmons college. apparently, the semester is over and now all they have to do is work on grading the students. thus, my chauffeuring duties are over for now... which is good because i still suck at chauffeuring.

so in remembrance of my fine driving skills is the following quote:

"Oh, Miss Daisy, yesterday, while you was out visitin', I went and ate a can of your salmon. Now, I know you said eat the left-over pork chops, but they was kinda stiff. So, I stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and got you another can. You want me just to go on and put it in the cupboard?"

yum. canned salmon. (pictured below are the two miss daisies [hot amy and karen] on their final day of teaching this semester)

I Still Suck At High Intensity Interval Training

it being patriot's day today... and the boston marathon... and the red sox, i got leave work a little early. my company had lunch for all of its employees and then had a spring cleaning session. so after our spring cleaning of the office, we got to leave. yay!

anyway, because i missed my workout yesterday, i opted to do my high intensity interval training workout today as i had extra time from leaving work early. sadly, i still suck at high intensity interval training.

today, however, i had a partner to run with. my friend (carlos) joined me for the workout. i had mentioned the entire high intensity interval training thing to carlos awhile ago and he seemed quite interested. so, as he also had some extra time from leaving work early, he wanted to try the workout to see what it was like. it was actually quite refreshing to have a partner to do this workout with. ever since my friend (andrea) bailed on me (who by the way came up with the whole idea in the first place), i have been doing the high intensity interval training mainly on my own. (karen has been sporadically training with me, for which i am grateful for because working out alone can sometimes be boring.)

anyway, i ran with carlos as he attempted the hiit. like me, when i first started, he thought four minutes was nothing. needless to say, after the four minutes, he was done. sweat was coming down his forehead. he was gasping for air. so while he caught his breath, i did my workout (as it was considerably more than the four minutes). when i finished, we walked a few laps around the ymca track, recuperating and just talking. it was fun. and similar to me in that he is a glutton for punishment, carlos actually wanted to do more hiit workouts. who would have thought?

I Suck At Dressing Up

yesterday, my niece (kaleigh) celebrated her birthday with a "family" party. now, her birthday party was not just any family party. her birthday party was a dress up party. (pictured below from left to right are janine, nana, pj, mrs. leary, little pj, kaleigh and jackie)



now, i suck at dressing up. don't get me wrong, i did wear a costume to the birthday party. after all, i couldn't disappoint my favorite niece. in fact, i actually dressed up as winnie the pooh. (notice i didn't put up any of those pictures.) for the record, the winnie the pooh costume... gets very hot to wear. (luckily, i didn't have to use the bathroom while in the costume because it would have been difficult.)

anyway, for a family party that my niece didn't want to have (and for a party that served pizza that kaleigh also did not want to have), i think she enjoyed herself.

I Suck At Celebrating My Niece's Birthday

it's amazing how time flies. my niece (kaleigh) is going to be four years old. four. they grow up so fast. where has the time gone?

anyway, i suck at celebrating my niece's birthday. karen and i have started a tradition of taking our niece or nephew out for some activity to celebrate their respective birthdays. so today, we took kaleigh out to celebrate her birthday.

first stop: wendy's. to begin the celebration, kaleigh wanted to go to wendy's for lunch... apparently for chicken nuggets and oranges... and lemonade. yum.

from there, we took her to "not simply beads" located in the land of our pilgrim forefathers... plymouth. apparently, children can choose from a vast array of beads and make bracelets or necklaces from those beads. with the bead station in the corner of the store, it's almost like a little sweatshop. apparently that's how these beaded jewelry entrepreneurs make their money... sweatshops... just like my friend (hot amy) and her "amy's originals". just kidding.

anyway, one of the things kaleigh loves is jewelry. thus, karen thought it would be a great idea to bring kaleigh there so that she could make her own jewelry... and it was a great idea. (auntie is so smart!) with a memory wire bracelet, kaleigh chose her beads and started threading the wire bracelet. when she was done, the people at the store capped the end. excited, she wanted to make a matching memory wire necklace. so, we did that as well. (pictured below is kaleigh putting on her new necklace.)



kaleigh seemed pretty excited about her new jewelry. after "not simply beads" (which for the record, the people there were very knowledgeable and nice), we went for some "peaceful meadows ice cream" which was also located in the village landing that the bead store was also located in. yum!

and to finish off the birthday celebration, karen and i brought her down to see the water. (we didn't last long as it got very cold with the breeze.) all in all, i think kaleigh had a good time... at least, i hope she did. she was with her favorite auntie (karen), so how could she not?

I Suck At Hanging Out With Coworkers

i suck at hanging out with coworkers. i generally follow the golden rule of not mixing business with pleasure, which in my case is rather easy to do because there is no pleasure with where i work.

thus, i am hesitant to do many things with coworkers outside the work environment where there is a group or team setting. i usually dread such get togethers. that is why i never like going to my company's holiday party. i would rather get intoxicated so that the feeling of pain is numbed. (as it turns out, i have gotten very inebriated many times during company outtings for this very fact.)

that is not to say that i dislike my coworkers. one of my friends (carlos) is also one of my coworkers. things are different when you are having a good time with certain individuals who are your coworkers as opposed to being seemingly forced to hang out with a group of individuals who are your coworkers.

tonight, i thought, was one of those nights. to my surprise, i actually had a good time. this past monday, my new boss started at the company. in an effort to get to know everyone on the team, he wanted to go out for some drinks and dinner tonight. naturally, i immediately felt dread when first asked because it was going to be one of those "forced" get togethers.

anyway, we ended up the elephant and castle pub and restaurant which is just a short walk from my company after work. on the walk over, i got to learn about my boss's life, his family, etc. while we were at the restaurant, we talked about everything from sports to other people at work. he genuinely seemed like a nice guy. of course, this may have been the booze talking. (just kidding. i didn't drink that much... only two pints of ireland's finest: guinness.)

i shortly left after my second drink to meet up with karen. i actually think karen was relieved to find me standing and sober as opposed to staggering and attempting to dance and sing because she knows how i get during company outtings. needless to say, it was surprisingly nice and i had a good time.

I Still Suck At Tio Juan's Margaritas

yesterday is my normal day to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley). as we didn't have much planned, we decided to go to tio juan's margaritas in weymouth.

i actually had to run a quick errand before hand. while karen had to work at the ymca for some nutrition counseling, i had to help nana (karen's mother's mother... or grandmother as it may be) with a little home repair work. i really didn't have to do much as karen's father already did most of the work the night before. i just had to tighten a screw on a clamp with my powerful hands of steel. (that's right, hands of steel... don't mess with me... unless of course you want a massage... i've been told i give good massages.) anyway, the clamp was used with nana's sump pump and tightening was a little difficult due to the amount of water in the hold and the awkward angle placement of the hose. nonetheless, my hands of steel did not fail me. naturally, i got a klondike bar from nana too for my efforts. ice cream is always good...

anyway, after picking karen up at the ymca, we headed to tio juan's margaritas. i still suck at tio juan's margaritas. but i must say, i did enjoy the spider cider margarita. (the spider cider margarita is named for the tarantula tequila used in it. i was expecting some cool fake plastic spider decoration on the glass...) it was a fun night with both the red sox and bruins games on. the music selection, however, was quite diverse and interesting for the bar area. i think marc didn't enjoy the music too much, especially when phil collins came on.

needless to say, we had a great time talking about "kids these days" and all that. we must have sounded so old, making fun of the young whipper snappers in school and how lazy they are now. too bad i missed my normal weigh-in though. that will be delayed until sunday when i next see marc and kelley.

I Suck At The Hancock Tavern

today is the normal day that i don the chauffeur cap and drive the two miss daisies (karen and hot amy) home from simmons college where they teach a course together. fortunately for today, i got the night off from my driving duties because one of the speakers for the class is hot amy's friend and she offered to drive them back to quincy.

i'm slightly saddened to not drive karen and hot amy today because i was curious about how the whole plagiarism thing panned out. apparently, one of the students in the class had turned in an assignment that was an obvious cut/paste job without references. now, i may not be up on my cheating skills, but i'm pretty sure that i would either a) cite the source or b) paraphrase as opposed to passing something off as my own.

anyway, because i'm a heartless and cruel individual, i would have pulled up the website where the text was taken from, asked the student if she had used her own words for her assignment, and then if she said yes... show her the website and then expel her. if she said no, i probably would still expel her because her plagiarism is just dumb. everyone knows that passing something off as your own that is not your own is wrong. i guess lucky for the student, i'm not her professor.

regardless, i missed all the excitement of being a simmons educator. instead, i hung out at the hancock tavern with my friend (carlos). now, i suck at the hancock tavern. famished, i had a couple of beers and a "pilgrim's landing" sandwich with nachos for an appetizer. (carlos had a pizza... and plenty of beers.) the pilgrim's landing is a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce... very good.

carlos and i just hung out and had fun. carlos is a good guy. for anyone interested or for anyone who likes men who are somewhat exotic, he is currently not dating anyone. if you can get past the fact that he is still technically married, i'm sure you'll be quite pleased. anyway, karen met up with us afterwards. (i had ordered her a mediterranean pizza.) the three of us got to hang out some more. it was definitely fun.

I Still Suck At Riding The MBTA

yesterday, was an awful train ride home. if it weren't for the fact that i was with my friends (hot amy, jen and carlos), the ride would have been worse.

anyway, i still suck at riding the mbta. probably more appropriate is the fact that the mbta just plain old sucks, but that's a topic for another day. yesterday, hot amy asked to meet at the platform at park street station. naturally, i said sure.

so, i was standing on the platform of the train station (with my sunglasses on of course) waiting for hot amy. carlos soon met me. the two of us watched as one of the subway trains pulled into the station. the train's destination was ashmont (which was not our train) and it just sat there at the platform... forever.

soon after, hot amy came and met the both of us. the ashmont train was still on the platform. the announcement that there was a "disabled" train came. so, we waited... and waited.

with the delay, hot amy contacted jen to see if we could meet up with her. jen normally gets on the very first car of the train at downtown crossing station. we headed down the crowded platform of park street to where the first train would be. shortly thereafter, we simply decided to just meet jen at downtown crossing station. so, we walked down the concourse from park street to downtown crossing. (it's a good thing none of us followed hot amy because i don't know where we would have ended up if we did.)

anyway, when we arrived at downtown crossing... the platform was packed. people were standing shoulder to shoulder. it was awful. it's a good thing none of us are claustrophobic (well, maybe jen is). as we made our way down toward jen, the ashmont train finally pulled into downtown crossing. apparently, we managed to beat the disabled train... all without breaking a sweat (which is probably good for hot amy).

needless to say, eventually hot amy, jen, carlos and i got to take the train home together. it was actually the second time i have ever taken the train home with jen. i previously met her for a train ride home once as we were meeting for some event at wollaston wine and liquors... some booze event of course. actually, i take that back, i may have met jen some other times too. (it's rough when you get old... the first thing to go is your memory... and i forget what the second thing is... just kidding.)

anyway, we finally got back to quincy at 6:45pm (which is about 45 minutes past what we normally get back at). it was frustrating. stupid mbta!

I Still Suck At Riding The MBTA

as i was leaving work today, my friend (aimee) called and asked if i would be taking the mbta subway home. naturally we met up at park street station for the ride home because that seems to be the local hot spot for taking the mbta subway home.

now, i still suck at riding the mbta, but today was actually a pretty good ride. my friend (carlos) was with me when i met aimee on the subway platform. generally, (or at least what seems to have been the growing norm) carlos and i meet my other friend (hot amy) on the platform of park street station to ride home on the mbta. so in essence, today carlos and i traded hot amy for aimee.

anyway, it was fun riding with aimee. as it turns out, her significant other (jim) now has some free time, so she was thinking about having him babysit their kids while she goes out and paints the town red. jim resigned from his position. (for you readers... all eight or so of you... if you know of any company looking for a tall strong good looking man, please feel free to contact jim.)

regardless, it was a fun quick ride home. as it also turns out, when carlos and i exited the subway train at wollaston station (our normal stop), we ran into my other friend (jen). my friends and i have always tried to coordinate a ride home with jen. little did i know, today could have been one of those days.

anyway, jen recently had a hair cut and said it was too short. personally, i think it looks very good. but what do i know? jen also has lost some weight since i last saw her too. we didn't get to speak much because mrs. leary (my mother-in-law) was picking jen up at wollaston station. my mother-in-law lives a few houses down from jen and her brother (bill). needless to say, mrs. leary has been giving jen rides to the train station in the morning.

all right, so maybe i was lying just then. mrs. leary was not picking jen up... although it would have been funny if she were. aside from that little white lie, i had a pretty good train ride home.

I Suck At Personal Training

today, my favorite sister-in-law (janine) came over to do a workout.

janine is taking part in the ymca's version of the biggest loser, also known as the "mad dash". thus, the goal of the mad dash is to have people alter their body composition and consequently lose fat/gain muscle while maintaining a healthy nutritional intake. the winner obviously will be the person who has the most dramatic change within the time frame of 10 weeks.

anyway, janine asked if i could help her with the strength training portion of her workouts. naturally, i agreed (even though i have come to find out that she hasn't been following my high intensity suggestion.) janine usually rests her body on sunday. since she missed her workout on friday, however, she asked if she could come over and workout today.

for janine, it was like having two personal trainers today (me and karen). unfortunately, i suck at personal training. i generally tend to have a bad reputation when it comes to training people because i like to push people. after all, a workout would not be a workout if there were no work involved, right? so, my pushing people to focus on their form, slow down, do additional repetitions, etc. sometimes translates into being hard. with karen there today, it was like good cop/bad cop (and i'm sure you can guess which role i played.)

needless to say, karen and i had janine work on her core. we ran janine through a bunch of exercises on the bosu ball. she finished the bosu portion of her workout about two hours later. i'm not sure if janine thought the workout was too easy or not. she did sweat (but no puddles), which is always a good sign. unfortunately, she didn't look that exhausted. i'd be curious to see what she really thought about the workout. there are some things about the workout that i would definitely tweak for next time as she performed better on certain exercises. i'd probably also make her perform other exercises until she had muscle failure (which karen would not let me do today.)

anyway, i hope janine liked the workout. hopefully, she'll return for more workouts. if she does return, that would be great. i would like nothing more than for her to win the mad dash altogether, just so i can then brag about beating some personal trainer named tyson and the tenacious hanover women competing in the mad dash.

I Suck At Working On The House

today was supposed to be a day full of rain. damn those weather forecasters. today has actually been quite warm and nice out. sure, there were showers in the very early morning. since then, it has been nothing but sun and warmth.

because the weather forecast was supposed to be rain, karen and i decided to be productive and work on the house. i suck at working on the house. i actually love working on the house. the problem is actually getting to the point where i am actually working on the house and not just planning or whatnot. (it's a lot like working out. once i'm doing a workout, i love it. up until then, i dread working out or think of some possible excuse not to do it.)

anyway, today's projects included finishing the little things and hanging mirrors. the last time i really worked on the house was back when karen went to newport and i went wild with the miter saw to create trim for the master bedroom.

well, even though the pieces were cut for the trim, they were never fully complete. the wood had to be stained, polyurethaned, steel-wooled, polyurethaned again, steel-wooled again, and waxed. this morning, i finished the last stage (the waxing) for the trim. so now, the trim is ready for installation. yay!

in our "changing area", we have a closetmaid shelving system. one of the corner bases was never fully secured to the wall. as well, we had a drawer that was never assembled. well, karen assembled the drawer. i secured the corner base to the wall. so check a couple of more items off the list. (karen also did some raking today too, which resulted in a blister.)

as well, karen had given me an engraved door knocker a while ago for a present. the intention was to install the door knocker when the addition was complete. unfortunately, we had lost track of where we had put it... until now. karen remembered where the door knocker was and installed it. (pictured below is the engraved door knocker.) check! another thing off the to-do list.



lastly, karen and i took a little trip to home depot today. we had been talking about getting a mirror (or two mirrors) for our master bathroom. we could just never find the right ones to fit the spot... until we went to home depot. anyway, we chose two rectangular mirrors, which would be placed over each sink. according to the instructions, these mirrors were to "float to enhance" the beauty of the mirror or something silly like that. needless to say, we installed both mirrors in the master bathroom. so, check another thing off the list. (pictured below are the mirrors.)



all in all, it has been quite a productive day. hopefully, we can continue the momentum and get back into the swing of things to diligently work on the house like we used to.

I Suck At Fixing My Watch

i suck at fixing my watch. the battery died in my watch a while ago and i keep forgetting to get the battery replaced.

being without a watch has not really bothered me. it was problematic at first when i was doing my high intensity interval training because i was counting the seconds in my head. little did i know, my
ipod helped solve that problem.

i did, however, attempt to look for a replacement battery at various locations... to no avail. who knew finding one of those flat coin looking batteries was so tough. so needless to say, my dead watch sat on my desk for quite some time (well over a month).

eventually, i decided to do what i do best... surf the web. (actually, i suck at surfing the web but it sounded good.) i ordered a replacement for my battery online.

anyway, lo and behold:
(pictured below is my watch. it's alive again!)



yay, i can keep time again.

I Suck At Wearing Sunglasses

yesterday, i took the subway train home with my friend (carlos).

we chatted about the usual: work, drinking, and some other stuff. anyway, on the ride home, there was some person singing... out loud. it seemed to go on forever. carlos suggested that we both just break out into a song and dance routine. as tempting as it sounded, i declined.

anyway, as i was watching the person sing, i noticed another friend (aimee). aimee waved at me as she was a few feet further down. (and no, it was not aimee who was singing. although it if were, i would have loved to have seen her randomly sing out loud on the subway train. i would have put it up on this blog if she had.)

it's funny. we... or maybe i... used to make fun of aimee for her musical taste when we were growing up. aimee was big into the alternative music before alternative music was so popular. she was a big "cure" fan. naturally, i used to joke with her by saying that "the cure is god". who knew the saying works on so many levels? (interestingly enough, i actually like the cure myself. in fact, i seem to like a lot of the music aimee liked growing up... except for pearl jam. aimee is a diehard pearl jam fan... so i have to say pearl jam sucks! just kidding!)

anyway, what does this have to do with sunglasses (as this post is titled)? well, apparently during the train ride home, aimee sent me a text message asking me why i wear my sunglasses underground on the subway platform. i didn't get the text message until afterwards when i got home. but to answer the question as to why i wear my sunglasses... "so i can... so i can..." (thank you corey hart.) but yes, i suck at wearing sunglasses. if i didn't have them on during the subway ride home, i probably would have seen aimee earlier.

I Suck At Papa John's

tonight, i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley).

in addition to doing my normal weigh in routine, we usually watch "lost". unfortunately, there has not been a new episode of "lost" for the past couple of weeks, so we have just been hanging out.

kelley started her new job this week and absolutely loves it. she's working in my old stomping grounds of technology square in kendall for some pharmaceutical company. (i used to work for draper labs in technology square when i attended northeastern university. it was my one and only co-op assignment.) i'm glad she really enjoys it. she used to get really frustrated with her former company, much like my current employment status.

as for marc, he is loving his return back to school. in fact, he is already talking about getting his master's degree. who would have thought that? i'm actually quite proud of marc. it takes a lot to give up working a full time job to go back to school full time.

anyway, tonight marc was in the mood for pizza. one of marc's hobbies is that he likes to cook. he is the closest thing to a "foodie" that i know. he was originally going to make some pizzas for us for dinner. as he was tired, however, he wondered if it would be okay to order pizza from papa john's instead. (the papa john's is located on washington in weymouth.)

now, i suck at papa john's. i've never been to papa john's. we ordered three pizzas (regular cheese, the meats, and a spinach alfredo chicken tomato). it was good and i'd recommend it to anyone. of course, i should have known it was good. after all, if marc (who is the closest thing to a foodie that i personally know) likes papa john's, then it must be good, right?

needless to say, the pizzas were good. i hope they reheat well.

I Still Suck At Weighing In

well, today is my normal day to weigh in. i usually see my friends (marc and kelley) today, so i use their bathroom scale for my high intensity interval training experiment.

unfortunately, i still suck at weighing in. this would have been the end of week 5 of my high intensity interval training, had i not been so dehydrated from my first hangover incident. needless to say, i did no physical activity this week. i also stopped my food journal in conjunction. as a result, the magic number on the scale was 183.6 pounds.

interestingly enough, that was the exact same number as last week. so, it's good to know that i did not lose or gain any weight. it should make resuming my high intensity interval training easier.

hopefully, the week off will not vastly affect my workout.

I Suck At Tequila Mexican Grille

today, i got to have lunch with my friend (hot amy) and enjoy the beautiful warm weather. as work has been quite stressful of late, i was looking forward to having a break from the insanity known as my job.

hot amy was in the mood for burritos and since she was a 2 on the hunger scale, we quickly ended up at a place called the tequila mexican grille located on bromfield. (the hunger scale is a subjective scale from 1 to 10 to identify physical hunger. a 2 equates to "very hungry, unable to concentrate" or something like that.) personally, i would have been quite interested in seeing what would happen if hot amy reached a 1 on the scale, not that i wish physical harm to hot amy or anything. i was just curious as to what her personality would be like because i know karen gets very indecisive and argumentative when she is hungry.

anyway, i suck at tequila mexican grille. i have never eaten there. it was actually quite good. i had what was called the "burrito suave". i have never heard of a burrito suave. in fact, every time i think of burrito suave, i think of that song by gerardo... "rico suave"... but in this case it would be... burrito... suave... so, with a name like burrito suave, i couldn't resist trying it.

needless to say, we took our burritos to go and ate them in the boston common. (pictured below is hot amy.)



anyway, i had a great time just hanging out with hot amy, eating our burritos, and enjoying the warm weather. it definitely took my mind off of work.

I Suck At Drinking Tea

in addition to having my hamstring tighten this week and shut down my high intensity interval training, i developed what has become a slight cough. i don't know what it is... my constitution just hasn't been the same lately. i never used to get sick. now, in what seems to be a complete role reversal, i have developed the constitution of my friend (hot amy) who used to be always sick.

naturally, when my father heard that i was sick, he came up with this idea that i should drink some concoction of tea that would cure my body. ancient chinese secret! my father has a habit of proposing eastern medicinal remedies to cure things. he's definitely a big believer of these "ancient chinese secrets". he also believes those "as seen on tv" gadgets are amazing too, which is probably why i tend to dismiss a lot of the things my father says about the ancient chinese secrets.

needless to say, when my father told me that he would make some special tea for me, i shook my head and said "here we go again". but, as the dutiful son, i humored him and agreed. yes, i suck at drinking tea. (pictured below is the tea.)



anyway, my father made what is known as "wong lo kat" herbal tea. not that i read the asia times online or anything (because i don't)... it seems that this type of tea is actually quite well known.

"According to traditional Chinese medical theory, this kind of herbal tea, or liangcha, is known for being able to remove the 'spiritual heat and dampness' from one's body to retain a healthy balance of the 'basic elements and fluids' in the body.

As more and more young people became fond of drinking liangcha, sales of the herbal tea hit 4 million tons last year, overtaking Coca-Cola as No 1 soft drink in China by sales volume. Industry insiders are confident that annual sales could even grow to 25 million tons by 2010, beating Coca-Cola's global sales...

Liangcha's history can be traced back to 1813 when Guangzhou was hit hard by an epidemic. To get away from the city, a man named Wang Zebang took his family to a mountain, where he met a Taoist priest who gave him a special recipe to cure the disease. Wang then searched the herbal ingredients and prepared the tea, which proved effective for illnesses.

Wang then opened the first liangcha shop called Wanglaoji (Wong Lo Kat in Cantonese) in Guangzhou, and he also made the recipe public.

Over time, the receipt for liangcha has been altered with the emergence of various herbal-tea brands that have been passed down from one generation to another...

The popularity of traditional herbal teas was partly prompted by the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, which pushed health matters into people's consciousness."

anyway, i drank the tea. it wasn't bad. it doesn't taste like a traditional tea as it has more of a bitter taste to it, but it was still drinkable. we'll see how much of the spiritual heat and dampness it removes from my body.

I Still Suck At Chauffeuring

today, my mother returned from her vacation to hong kong. my father was quite excited. he seemed almost giddy and anxious to ride with me to pick her up at logan airport. one of the duties of a good son according to ancient chinese tradition is to obey your parents, help them with things, and all that jazz. so, i had no problems with picking my mother up at the airport. unfortunately, i still suck at chauffeuring.

because my dad was a little excited, we left a little early. when we arrived at terminal e of boston's logan airport (for international arrivals), we were not surprised to find that we had some time to kill before my mom had to pick up her luggage and all that. naturally, we thought we could just circle around the airport.

too bad we didn't follow the signs correctly. we ended up exiting the airport altogether, paying the toll, exiting at south boston, looping back to the airport, and back at terminal e (like deja vu). sure, it was a roundabout way. the drive, however, did kill the necessary time as when we arrived the second time, my mom was ready and waiting by the curb for us. (i suppose in retrospect, we probably should have just double-parked our car by the curb, but i felt that was somewhat illegal.)

anyway, i managed to drive my parents back home safely. when we got to my parents' house, my mom gave me my necklace back. (pictured below is the necklace.)



my mom had given me the necklace shortly after i got married. the necklace, however, broke a link and my mom brought it back to hong kong to get it fixed. why she chose to bring it back to hong kong and not somewhere in the united states, i do not know. i assumed it had to do with some family tradition or something.

anyway, for anyone curious (and i know it's hard to tell by the picture), the chinese character on the charm is "fook". according to google answers, fook

"means fortune/luck/happy. The word 'Fook' is often used at Chinese new year, on lucky red packets for giving out gifts of money, on greeting cards, and particulary as a lucky charm where it is appears as a diamond shaped poster stuck on doors upside down.

It is stuck on upside down as a charm, because in Chinese it means 'Fook Do' meaning 'luck is coming' ('Do' in Chinese also means upside down, which is phonetically the same as 'come' hence why it is turned upside down). Anyone displaying their 'Fook' (on a door) the 'correct' way up is actually displaying it wrongly! It is stuck on a door as the door is the way into the house (to allow an entrance for the fortune/happiness to come into the household)"

so yes, the character on my necklace is upside down so that the luck will not run out. and for anyone who is also curious, on the other side of the fook character (the side not pictured) is a tiger, which is the year i was born in based on the chinese zodiac.

I Still Suck At High Intensity Interval Training

this week would have been the beginning of week 5 for my high intensity interval training experiment. unfortunately, i still suck at high intensity interval training.

i normally start the week's workout on sunday. as some of you know, this past sunday was not a particularly good day for me as it involved recovering from a bottle of wine. let this be a lesson, drinking wine to forget about the rough days at work... is never a good thing.

so naturally, i had to begin my workout the next day (which was yesterday). so yesterday, i was not feeling any ill effects from the detoxification. if my mind could speak, it would have said "yeah mike, you're feeling good. you can run that 10 minute workout. no problem." little did i know, my mind knows absolutely nothing.

before i started my workout, an older women walked passed me. she was speed walking or something of that sort. i didn't think much about her, so i started my workout. the first 30 seconds was the light jog. the next 30 seconds, i sprinted past the old woman. at that moment, i felt a slight twinge in my right hamstring muscle. (the hamstring is the large muscle in the back of the leg.) needless to say, i had to pull up lame. in an effort to not totally look ridiculous in front of this older lady whom i did not know, i played it off like it was part of my master plan. so i then jogged for another 30 seconds on my bad leg before sprinting again with the same bad leg.

as my hamstring tightened even more, i then jogged across the street to avoid seeing this old woman on the way back and then hobbled back to where i started. she must have thought i was a nut.

apparently, it seems that my body was still a little dehydrated from the sunday. damn you bottle of wine. so here is another lesson: drink lots of water before running past old ladies. needless to say, my high intensity interval training has been put on hold until my hamstring heals.

I Suck At Hangovers

in terms of food intake and keeping a journal, this weekend has definitely been a bad weekend. first, there was the day of the pot luck where i devoured everything. then the following day, i basically devoured nothing. so i guess the two days balance out in terms of calories.

anyway, the reason for my lack of appetite yesterday was because i was hungover. up until yesterday, i have never been hungover. so, this was my first experience. i must say, i suck at hangovers.

normally, when i drink excess amounts of alcohol, i'm perfectly fine and functioning the next day. karen used to get angry with me because i could drink so much and not feel any adverse effects. i think she was more annoyed that i would not be learning my lesson after a night of boozing. needless to say, i had prided myself on my liver... until yesterday.

little did i know, my liver has met its match... and its name is wine. granted, i have been a little inebriated from drinking wine before. for some reason, this time was different. i think, in part, because up until the pot luck party on saturday, i have never polished off an entire bottle of wine by myself. after experiencing the hangover yesterday, i would not recommend drinking an entire bottle of wine again.

i was basically a zombie yesterday. i was lethargic. my mind couldn't concentrate. i had no appetite. it was awful.

I Suck At Pot Luck

this weekend, i attended an impromptu pot luck party.

karen had plans during the day to go to... what she called... a "lotion" party. yes, it sounds so dirty. basically, it was a party that sold moisturizing products and all that stuff. anyway, that left me by my lonesome.

as it turns out, my friend (jen) decided to host a pot luck party. as the theme was mexican, we had to bring things to create tacos. unfortunately, i suck at pot luck. i brought the lettuce, cheese, salsa (newman's own), diet soda, and a bottle of wine. my friend (kerry) brought the taco shells (both hard and soft) and the dessert. looking back, i probably should have titled this post "i suck at keeping my food journal" because i basically devoured anything and everything, making it tough to keep a log of. needless to say, everything was delicious. i definitely think we should have pot lucks more often. (in fact, i hear kerry wants to host the next one.)

afterwards, we basically hung out and had fun. after the lotion party, karen stopped by (to drive me home). all in all, it was definitely a great time. i got to hang out and be one of the girls (which does not happen too often). (pictured below is karen with pugsley)

I Suck At Making Mix CDs

awhile ago, my friend (jen) asked if i would make a mix cd for her. naturally, i agreed. unfortunately, i suck at making mix cds.

i have not make a mix cd in ages. in fact, i can't remember the last time i created a mix cd. awhile ago, i made a cd of songs that my friend (andrea) had requested, but it wasn't a mix cd per se because she wanted those songs. of course, this topic then got me thinking about when the term used to be called a "mixtape".

according to my friend wikipedia,

"A mixtape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette.

A mixtape, which usually reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by a theme or mood, to a highly personal statement tailored to the tape's intended recipient... many mixtape enthusiasts believe that by carefully selecting and ordering the tracks in a mix, an artistic statement can be created that is greater than the sum of its individual songs, much as an album of pop music in the post-Beatles era can be considered as something more than a collection of singles.

With the advent of affordable, consumer-level digital audio, creating and distributing mixes in the form of compact disc or MP3 playlists has become the contemporary method of choice, but the term mixtape is still commonly used, and will be used throughout this article to refer to mixes in different media (CD, MP3, MiniDisc, audio cassette 8 track, etc.). Video mixtapes have emerged as well."

ah.. the good o' days when when we used to make mixtapes and give them to our significant others growing up. needless to say, i'm a bit rusty in my dj skills and threading songs together. perhaps i'll need to take lessons from dj hot amy. who knows?

anyway, i just finished creating a mix cd for jen. i hope she enjoys it. i figured that she would like the dance/pop genre of music, so i tried to create something that she could possibly dance to and have fun with, especially when working out. as well, i tried to keep the music list to recent songs.

here is the song list:

"about you now" by the sugababes
"now you're gone" by basshunter
"what hurts the most" by cascada
"what's it gonna be" by h two O
"break up" by Kim Sozzi
"wow" by kylie minogue
"fascination" by alphabeat
"something good 08" by utah saints
"love like this" by natasha bedingfield
"work" by kelly rowland
"low" by flo rida
"scream" by timbaland
"young free and simple" by urbnri
"4 minutes" by madonna
"crank that" by soulja boy
"foundations" by kate nash
"still figuring out" by elliot minor
"better in time" by leona lewis
"with you" by chris brown

anyway, hopefully jen will enjoy the song list.

I Suck At Enjoying Friday

for most people, friday is a cause for celebration because the day is the last workday before the weekend. normally, i am one of those people.

today, however, i suck at enjoying friday. of course, i may be somewhat biased today because i had to work extra late today, only to have to immediately book it to my part-time job at the south shore ymca, which then doesn't get me home until well past nine o'clock to have dinner. so it's only natural that i am a little perturbed today.

i have been working on a social networking application project for months now. this project has been dreadful from the beginning as the specification document used to build the application has been non-existent. this lack of specifications unfortunately increases the chance of what is called "scope creep" where things just keep getting added or tweaked to the original proposal.

according to my friend wikipedia:

"Scope creep (also called requirement creep, feature creep, and sometimes kitchen sink syndrome) in project management refers to uncontrolled changes in a project's scope. This phenomenon can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered a negative occurrence that is to be avoided."

regardless, the project was temporarily put on hold for a while while the stakeholders thought more about the application as a viable product. naturally, the social networking project was greenlighted. the only problem was... i was given a couple of weeks to build an application based on... well... whatever i could pull out of my butt.

it's a good thing baby got back. after numerous days of long hours where i was just downright grumpy, i finished building the application today. unfortunately, the project then had to be in "alpha" by the end of today. "alpha" refers to the state of development. for this project, "alpha" involves only allowing people within the company to tinker with the application in a live environment.

as any developer knows, pushing code on friday is never a good idea (because of the possibility that things can go wrong during the weekend). unfortunately, i had no choice. so, i had the envious duty of staying late today to not only push the code to alpha, but also to test it. and again, as any developer knows... testing your own code is also not a good idea (because the developer knows how the code works and not necessarily the normal user work flow). needless to say, this was not fun. it's also not fun to then be late for the part-time job afterwards and work on an empty stomach until 9.

but i suppose there are some good things that came out of today. for starters, today was the last day that my friend (kelley) will be working at her dreaded job. she got a new job in cambridge. congratulations kelley! so unfortunately, she will not be around for lunches anymore with me. oh well; the train ride home was nice and empty so i got to have a seat. of course, the subway train after the normal rush hour probably is empty more often than naught; and lastly, the stupid social networking project is finished (although not completely because it then has to move to the "beta" stage and there will inevitably be things to change or add then). so hopefully i won't have to work long hours for awhile.

i feel like drinking a lot of booze right now...

I Suck At Going To Miami

today my friend (hot amy) went to sunny miami. besides basking in the sun and picking up the hot latino men, she went to visit two of her friends who live in florida. (she also went to snort a kilo of cocaine too. after all, ever wonder why hot amy sniffles a lot? just kidding.)

anyway, i suck at going to miami. i have never been to miami. i've always imagined miami to be like how it is on tv with shows like miami vice, golden girls and silk stalkings. someday i'd like to go. the closest i've ever been is orlando.

thinking about miami makes me want to getaway right now and enjoy a relaxing vacation. work has been frustrating lately with the social networking project i'm building, its constantly changing requirements, and the "i need it yesterday" deadline as provided by the people who keep me employed. i've worked so many long hours the past couple of weeks that i think i am getting burnt out. so needless to say, any thoughts of a break or vacation are nice.

miami also makes me think of my friend (anna) who lives in the orlando area. anna banana, as i sometimes refer to her as, moved down there a little over a month ago. (i don't know how or why i started calling anna "anna banana". it could have been the fact that the words rhyme... or the fact that... like a banana, she is asian... who knows?) anyway, it would be nice to visit her down in florida. someday i'll take that vacation.

I Still Suck At Weighing In

week four of my high intensity interval training ended today. thus, i am at the halfway point of my workout experiment. as much as i dread performing the high intensity interval training, i must say i do love the challenge it provides.

anyway, i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley) tonight. we ordered out at this place called "the food club" (they always have good food) and basically hung out watching things like vh1's one hit wonders, "naked" cops, and the worst criminals part 4. it's tough when the best show on tv ("lost") is not on. so, even though i still suck at weighing in, i was able to resume my normal weigh-in process using their scale.

well, the magic number today is 183.6 pounds. thus, i have lost 1.6 pounds since my last weigh-in last week. in case anyone is curious, the percentage of weight loss from last week is a measely 0.86%. even though the percentage is low, i still managed to beat the two brothers and stay above the yellow line (theoretically speaking in comparison to the "biggest loser" show of course).

as for my food intake, despite my one day of consuming close to 4000 calories (hey, the food was good), i averaged about 2500 calories per day for the entire week. i'm guessing i should be reaching a plateau soon. but i guess we'll see how the second half of the high intensity interval training goes.

I Still Suck At Sharing My Blog

i find that the more i post to this blog, the lazier i get when it comes to telling people what i did on a given date. thus, rather than actually explain what i did, i have been referring people to this blog.

case in point happens to be a couple of days ago when the car broke down. don't get me wrong, i still suck at sharing my blog. my favorite sister-in-law (janine) sent me an email and asked about the car. because i was too lazy to actually retype everything, i sent her the link to my driving post.

needless to say, i am slowly increasing the readership of this blog. i don't know if janine shared this blog with her husband pj, but as of right now, here is the list of people who i have shared this drabble known as my blog.

1. aimee (and her sister angela)
2. hot amy
3. karen
4. kerry
5. jen (although i hear she refuses to read my garbage, which is probably a good thing because i wouldn't want to read my own stuff either and i write it...)
6. andrea
7. janine

maybe there are more people than i know who read this. i was actually surprised when angela mentioned she read my stuff. who knew? today, there's only a handful of peole... tomorrow... the world! [insert diabolical laugh] just kidding.

I Suck At Personal Training

this week is the first week of the ymca's "mad dash". the "mad dash" is the ymca's version of the biggest loser, just without the weekly weigh-ins, the reward challenges, and the $250,000 grand prize. it's basically a competition to see who can lose the most percentage of body weight while exercising and following a sensible nutrition plan.

anyway, my favorite sister-in-law (janine) asked me to help her with the strength training aspect of the competition. usually, when friends or family ask for my help with certain things, i am somewhat skeptical because i tend to push and challenge people (which is probably why i am sometimes labeled as an "instigator"). what inevitably happens is that they end up doing whatever they want regardless of whatever i suggest. and that's fine. i have no problem with that. in my opinion, i have always found that it is better to have people you do not know push you in achieving your goals because there is a comfort level with friends and family that a person can sometimes "get away" with.

needless to say, i agreed to help janine. unfortunately, i suck at personal training. janine called last night and had some questions about a routine i suggested for her. her strength training routine involves using the workout machines at the ymca. now, the south shore ymca protocol for working out is doing 1 set of 8-12 repetitions on each machine. (now, the ymca has reasons for that protocol. the reason is because there was "research" saying that the particular routine yielded the best results in terms of strength gain. unfortunately, i disagree with that research for a number of reasons. some of those reason include the sample population, the methodology, etc. which i have been privy to because i work there as an instructor.)

anyway, janine felt comfortable using the ymca machines for her strength training, so i suggested a routine for her that was different from the ymca protocol. the routine i suggested is called "super slow" and it involves (as the name implies) very slow controlled movement of the weights during the repetition. the slower movement reduces momentum and keeps the tension within the muscles longer. the workout is a form of high intensity workout.

well, i had suggested that janine try that routine while she worked out during the day. i'm actually quite proud of her too. little did i know, however, she was doing the super slow workout in addition to the regular ymca standard workout. i assumed she would do either/or, not both. oops! i'll need to work on my communication skills some more.

I Still Suck At Not Your Average Joes

last night, my bff kerry came over and we went out for dinner. we ended up at not your average joes again. that restaurant seems to be our new hangout. what can i say? the food is good there (especially the bread). why... i could even make the comparison that not your average joes is to me what blue 22 is to hot amy.

anyway, kerry came over to spend the night again. it's a good thing that karen has been around when kerry has spent the night. otherwise, my neighbors may think i'm having an affair with kerry.

needless to say, i still suck at not your average joes. not your average joes offers these "sweet petites" which are mini versions of their desserts. these mini versions are served in a tiny martini shaped glass. naturally, that got me thinking. i started to think about my pilfering expertise because i thought it would be cool to use that tiny martini shaped glass as part of a trophy for the next "event series"... which is supposed to be martini night, that i have not had the time or opportunity to fully plan out yet. i thought about building a base and attaching the martini shaped glass on top.

unfortunately, i did not swipe the glass. it was recommended that if not your average joes was becoming the local hangout, that it would be better if i did not swipe the glass from that location. rather, i should either swipe the glass from another location, or else have someone swipe one for me who doesn't frequent the restaurant. (as i write this, i am thinking of my friend jen who would have no problem swiping the glass. but if anyone else wants to swipe one of the glasses for me, please don't let me stop you.)

regardless, we had a great time at the restaurant and kerry ended up spending the night afterwards. (in case anyone is curious, we may be having a "veronica mars" marathon soon which i'm excited for. yay!)

I Still Suck At Driving

this morning, karen and i picked up our car at the mechanic's garage ("dana's" located at the intersection of furnace brook and newport in quincy... dana and his staff are very nice).

apparently, the problem with the car was its water pump. according to WikiAnswers, a water pump

"Circulates a 50/50 mixture of glycol (or some form of) and water through the engine block and cylinder head and back through the radiator. In the radiator the mixture is cooled when air passes over the fins of the radiator. This is accomplished by driving or a mechanical/electrical fan when stationary. The water pump also circulates the mixture through the heater core giving the car heat."

anyway, because the water pump failed, the coolant that is normally circulated through the engine began to leak (which was the red fluid the car left all over the mean streets of quincy) through the bottom of the pump. thus, without any coolant the engine will start to overheat.

needless to say, dana fixed the water pump and karen and i were able to drive the car again... yay! so it goes without saying that i still suck at driving.