Saturday in the sun
I spent all day out at Modesto Christian High School with the Knights cooking tri-tip, hotdogs, hamburgers. It was a sunny day with a high of about 80 degrees. In other words, I hated it. I did get a decent sunburn. Joy. And I managed to cut into my finger with the meat slicer. So I got that going for me.
Sales weren’t as brisk as I’d have hoped, but we still might make a bit of a profit by the end of the weekend.
Tonight I tried to burn through several episodes of recorded tv. I managed to watch a couple of hours of Smallville. I wish I had more time to get stuff done!
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.
AMGEN Stage 3
Today was Stage 3 of the AMGEN Tour of California. It started in Auburn and ended in Modesto. Last year I went up on top of the Performing and Media Arts Center and took photos from that high vantage point. This year, I wanted to try to get street level shots so I went across college to catch the riders as they rounded the corner onto Coldwell. It went ok, but I’m not entirely happy with the photos. I’ll try to post some tomorrow.
Led my last Officers Meeting tonight. At this point, I’m looking forward to ending my term as Grand Knight. Bill will be taking over July 1st so the next Officers Meeting is his to lead. I just have one more Council meeting to lead then it’s on to trustee land.
If the weather cooperates, I’ll be taking photos of Eloisa tomorrow night for her graduation from Stanislaus State.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Back to life, back to reality
Goodness! I had already shut down the living room and was brushing my teeth when I realized I hadn’t posted yet today. I need to focus!
Today was my first day back at work. I’d love to say it sucked, but it didn’t. It was just a normal day at work. Yeah, it was hard at times, but that’s often true. I’m just happy that I got to deal with all the things that were awaiting my attention from the time I was gone. So now it’s back to the regular grind. I have several projects to keep my occupied. That’s a good thing.
I’m way behind on my Survivor. I watched a couple of hours tonight and I still have the finale to go. Perhaps tomorrow. Or Wednesday. Or Thursday.
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.
Blood on the sill
Background:
- When I was in my teens, I corresponded with my cousin (3rd cousin once removed, actually), Danielle, via cassette tape. I’d record a message on one side and she would record on the flip side. She lived in Edmonton, Alberta, so in a way, she was my exotic foreign cousin and at the same time, she was a connection to Canada, where my family was from.
- On at least one occasion, my friend, David, participated in the recording of my message to Dani. We were silly and stupid and goofy. In the course of the recording, we made some reference to a tiny island off the coast of Great Britain.
- I used to sort of collect maps from National Geographic. I’d pin them to the walls and ceiling of my room.
- Also, I was very active in a martial arts class, attending and working out 4-5 days a week. Thinking back, I was in REALLY good shape. What a shame I slacked off on that.
Story:
Some time later, in eighth or ninth grade, I was lying in bed listening to this old recording. It came to the part where we were talking about this small island. I happened to have that map tacked to the ceiling above my bed. I stood up from my supine position and at the same time, tilted my head back to look at this map. I sort of recall a sensation of falling through blackness but from a great distance, almost as if it was happening to someone else or something. Well, the next thing I know, I became aware that I was sitting or lying back. All of this came on gradually, It took longer to put all of these elements together than it will take to read this. I noticed some blood next to me on the window sill and I realized that I had fallen half through my bedroom window. I got up and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. I felt something behind my right ear. I reached back and pulled a 2-inch shard of glass out of my head. More blood, yada, yada, yada.
Anyway, it seemed that low blood pressure plus standing up suddenly (sending blood to my legs) and tilting my head back (interfering with the flow of blood to my brain) had caused me to black out. Good times!
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 7
Came back to Portland today. After checking in at the hotel, the first order of business was to go back to Christopher’s Gourmet Grill for the Man Up Cheeseburger. It was two patties, cheese, bacon, a sausage, a fried egg, and fixins.
I killed it.
We walked to and from the restaurant which allowed for some good digestion time. On the way back, we stopped in at a percussion shop, the Nike Factory Store (where Dave bought some stylin’ new sneakers), and a coffee shop. Very relaxed afternoon. Back at the hotel, I dozed off for a couple hours. Somewhat late in the evening, Dave and I took the lightrail downtown to go to a bar and catch some music. Sadly, we were a little too late. 🙁
