Fridays in the summer
At MJC, for the summer, we all switch to 4 10-hour workdays with Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays off.
I hate it. The days are so long; you have to spend Fridays recovering from the week, Sundays getting ready for the next week, and there’s no time to do stuff in the evenings after work. My solution is to use vacation time to shorten each of my work days.
Anyway, fans of this schedule will point to the extra day off. But as I mentioned, I spent most of today sleeping in, and doing nothing. I did get some time in on Haelindir, he gained almost 2 levels today. I’m hoping to have him at 38 by weekend’s end. I also went shopping with Jose for the tri-tip fundraiser this weekend. We spent just under $1000 at Cash & Carry. He still had more shopping to do at Costco too. I hope we make a decent profit.
I did my training tonight. I’m on week 7 (day 2) which has me jogging 25 minutes. But I made a mistake and did the training for week 8, day 2, which had me jogging for 28 minutes. I did it, and it wasn’t too bad. Now, do I go back and make up for what I missed or do I just go forward from where I am?
By the way, thanks for reading.
Sunday was actually Rainday
Last night I slept in my own bed. It was awesome! Got the best night’s sleep in almost two weeks. Next time I travel, I should bring my bed with me.
Today, I played for Mass at 10:00 then had a nice conversation with Chris about the direction of music at the 10 AM. Afterwards, Steve and I went to lunch at Perko’s. Nice meal, good conversation. It did get me thinking about when life is supposed to get easier. Also did laundry this afternoon, got all my photos uploaded to flickr and facebook, and did my 5K training. The training went great! Today consisted of 25 minutes of uninterrupted jogging. Nailed it! I believe that every day of training from now on will be 25 or more minutes of jogging. So, I hope to get my speed up such that by the 28th, I’ll be covering 3 miles in that 25 minutes. Stay tuned.
Rounded out the evening with a belly dancing event at the Clarion. Took more photos. But I’m too tired to process them tonight.
Back to reality tomorrow.
Oh yeah, it rained a little today. It was awesome.
Oregon, Day 8
Did my 5K training this morning. Had a rough time of it. Had to stop twice to rest. 🙁 Hopefully Sunday will go better. I’ll be back in Modesto where I’ll be running over flat terrain.
After that, Dave and I went to Voodoo Too to get some doughnuts. I got a Bacon Maple Bar and a Memphis Mafia along with a milk. 
We then drove out to Forest Park and hiked around for about 3 hours. Good workout. Following that, we drove out to The Grotto. I took many photos; it was quite peaceful.
Lastly, we went to Bella Faccia Pizza. It was very good.
I’d really like to move here.
Tomorrow, we both return home.
Oregon, Day 3
Got up this morning and the first thing on the agenda was to do my 5K training. Today was 5 minutes of warm-up, 20 minutes of jogging, and 5 minutes of cool-down. I started off from my hotel and made my way to the Broadway Bridge. I managed to do the jog up the incline and coming down the other side was a breeze. I jogged past the train and bus stations and began my ascent of the Steel Bridge. By this point, I’d been jogging for 15 minutes, almost double my previous time, and I was feeling it. And I was jogging uphill. I though if I could make it to the top of the bridge, I could finish out my alloted time. Alas, it was not to be. I was out of gas. I forced myself to get to the 17 minute mark, then I hit pause and walked for a few minutes. I did resume jogging after a bit, and finished out the 20 minute total.
After a shower and breakfast, I went to Mass at St. Pius X. Overall I was pleased. If I had to make this my parish, I think I could tolerate it. I’ll keep looking but I sure could do worse. Here are some salient pros and cons:
Pros
- Layout of the church – Tabernacle was to the side, worship space was wider than long.
- People sang!
- The worship resources in the pews were acceptable
- There are a good variety of active ministries at the parish
- The parish is growing
- There were lots of families at Mass
- The Presider sang the Eucharistic Prayer (and did it well)
- Music group consisted of piano, organ, guitar, bass, and choir
- During the Prayers of the Faithful, we prayed that people find it within themselves to forgive Osama Bin Laden and others who would do us harm. – This was really moving to me. I think forgiving isn’t so much for the transgressor as for those who have been wronged. It’s hard to forgive but so good for us if we can.
Cons
- Marian songs were sung during Mass (twice!)
- Only 1 verse of the Preparation Song and Closing song were sung
- Some strange, unfamiliar Eucharistic Prayer was used
- Psalm was a paraphrased version
- The Fraction Rite was a little odd. – It looked like the Precious Blood was poured into cups held by each of the EMHC that were assisting.
- There was poor line of sight to from the back of the church to the sanctuary
- There was a long delay before singing started at Communion
- The Presider directed us to hold hands for the Our Father
- The Presider directed the assembly to stay seated for the Prayer After Communion
In the afternoon, David and I went to meet Suzanne and Mike at Powell’s Books. As advertised, the place is quite large. After this, we all went to see Thor. It was pretty good. Only a couple of story/continuity problems which I am willing to overlook.
Finally, we all went to the Brazil Grill where I, for one, had WAY too much meat to eat.
Pretty good day.
Oregon, Day 2
This morning, Dave and I drove about 30 minutes out-of-town and hiked up to Multnomah Falls. I had thought that because I’d been doing all that walking and jogging over the past couple of months, the hike would be no problem. I was wrong. It was difficult at times but I pushed through to make it to the top of the falls. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been if I hadn’t been exercising! I took several photos, but I have to wait until I get home before I can upload them. Stay tuned.
Afterwards, we drove to Vancouver, WA for lunch and to look around. We had lunch at Blind Onion Pizza. Pretty tasty. I made a point of driving around the city a good bit to try to get a feel for the place. I think I’m definitely more excited about living in the suburbs than in the city proper.
Back to the hotel for a couple of hours before going out to see a movie at the Living Room Theater. We saw Gods and Men. The theater only seats 40 people and it’s set up so that you can eat real food (and concession stuff) while watching the movie. So I had a pork and provolone Panini sandwich with a salad and a diet soda. The movie was good but very slow-paced.
Big, full day tomorrow. I’ll tell you about it in about 20 hours.
Oregon, Day 1
Notable events of the past day or so.
Took a photo of Mt. Shasta from the car. 
Had a good 5K training this morning. Two 8-minute periods of jogging interrupted by a 5 minute walk. Sunday will be 20 minutes of non-stop jogging. w00t!
Arrived in Portland, picked up David from the airport. So far, Portland is not as great as I expected. But I’ll give it more time to really form an impression. I expect that I’ll like the suburbs better.
Tonight, Dave and I went to Christopher’s Gourmet Grill for dinner. I had the Louisiana Burger 
and he had the Chicken Burger. 
It was good food and the experience was very entertaining. Game 3 of the NBA Western Division Finals was on and employees and patrons of the place were quite free with their support and encouragement for Dallas. Dallas ended up winning.
Got to see Kate Jackson on an episode of Criminal Minds.
Looming departure
As usual before a trip, I have numerous things to do and feel like I won’t have time to do them all before I leave. I was able to do a little cleaning this evening after I got home from the ShadowChase Walking Group. I really liked meeting up with the group. It has the kind of structure that I respond to. Looking forward to being a regular with them. I was also able to cook up some food for tomorrow and Thursday. Meals are taken care of until I leave.
I had intended to play Haelindir a bit tonight, but some kinnies asked for help running the Great Barrows, so I switched to Danae and we knocked it out tout suite.
I learned some French txt abbreviations today. My favorites are mdr, short for mort de rire (dead/dying from laughter) and A+, short for a plus tard (until later).
Tomorrow I have some things to take care of in the afternoon so I’m taking a half day off. And then more stuff to do in the evening. I may never be ready to leave.
A+
Payday = spendday
I had a lot of difficulty sleeping last night. In part because my calves and feet were sore! Nevertheless, I walked another 4 miles today.
Very productive after-work period tonight. First, I went to the Honda dealership and had them put in a new battery for me ($108). Then I went to the mall and replaced the battery in my pocket watch ($6.50) and I had a strombolli at LA Italian ($5.95). After that, I went to the Goodwill Store and bought a blazer ($5.00). The main event of the evening was going to Brenden to see Atlas Shrugged pt 1 ($5.00) and while there, I bought a pair of Polish dogs ($4.00). Finally, I stopped by Save Mart to buy a few things ($15.00). All told, I spent $149.45.
Looking forward to tomorrow when I’ll spend even more money.
Getting strong now
Karen treated us all to lunch today in the office because it was Administrative Professionals Day. She brought in pizza, salad, chicken, and fries from BJ’s Brewhouse. It was pretty tasty. Thanks Karen!
At lunch, Sandy and I walked 3 miles, and Vee and I did another 2 during the afternoon wellness break. After work , I did my 5K training (Week 4, Day 1). It went like this: 5 minutes of warm up, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, 3 minutes of walking, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, and a 5 minute cool down. I also did a couple of extra laps before and after. So all told, I did 8.5 miles today. Yee haw! The best part is that even though I’d had a difficult time with my jogging on Sunday, today was a breeze! Nice! It was really very encouraging!
Another incidental item about today, I sported my bowler hat all day. Quite dashing if I do say so!
Feel the fever coming You’re shaking and twitching
I began week 3 of my 5K training this afternoon. Because I’d had a pretty good session on Sunday, I was expecting an easy time of it tonight. Not to be. It was actually rather difficult. This week, the training consists of: 5 minutes warm-up, 90 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes jogging, 3 minutes walking, 90 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes jogging, 3 minutes walking, 5 minutes cool-down. That last 3 minutes was really tough. I very much wanted to stop jogging before the time was up, but I forced myself to power through it. Ugh. Hopefully, days 2 and 3 of this week will be a little easier.
After that, I met with my Liturgy Goals subcommittee. We didn’t accomplish as much as we had last week, but we did move the process forward. So I’m counting this a win.
Do you ever have dreams that seem very real, and even after you’ve woken up, and realize that it was just a dream, you still tend to believe what was true in the dream? Yeah, me neither.
Ok, really I experienced this when I woke up this morning. I had dreamt that I’d won a $10,000 shopping spree to Best Buy. I knew right away that it had only been a dream, but all day I was distracted with thoughts of what I was going to buy.
