I think the big news is pretty obvious at this point, but I’m now live on the web. This means you can see exactly what I’m doing at any given time (is that good or bad?). I’ll just have to make sure not to pull an American Pie when I change to go to the gym.

Last night, I went home after work and put some time into the webcam project, then I went to my floor hockey game. We were handed a heartbreaking loss with 15 seconds to go. Mentally, I really wasn’t in the game last night, so I didn’t do much to contribute. Definitely picked up some nice bruises though, including one courtesy of having someone’s stick jammed between my pelvis and the wall.

After the game, I went home and had Al try to help me troubleshoot some problems I was having with getting the webcam to work. Didn’t have any luck, so I decided to sleep on it. Came in to work today and tried some different code and it seems to be working!

Today is Michael’s birthday, so a bunch of us are going out tonight to celebrate. The plan is to meet up at Buca di Beppo’s around 9:00 for dinner and possibly go out afterward. Tomorrow, I’m meeting up with my immediate and some extended family for lunch. After that, I’m picking Michelle up at the airport. I’ll get to see her for a couple of hours, and then I’m heading up to Redlands to hang out with Christopher to celebrate his birthday.

Sunday, I’m going to stop in Hemet on the way home for a BBQ lunch with the family. As for the rest of the weekend, no real plans yet but I plan on relaxing on Monday.

Oh yeah, I've had a bunch of requests for pictures, so I'll start working on that today too...

John School: Learn all you never wanted to know about ho's

Just got back from the fun event a little while ago. I won a popcorn bowl and some microwave popcorn by answering some trivia questions and giving a 30 second talk on Italy without using any “um’s” or “uh’s.”

A guy in our office just dropped off my tickets to Bob Dylan. Sweet! I can’t wait. Supposedly this will be his last year on tour, so I’m glad I get to see him again.

In other news, I’m revamping my no alcohol policy. Once again, I think I got too caught up on the wrong priorities (i.e. getting out of balance again). Instead of total abstinence, I plan on enjoying the occasional alcoholic beverage. At the same time, however, I don’t see myself drinking in excess, simply because I don’t really care for the way it makes me feel the following day.

Back to enjoying life…

I almost forgot what it was like to get up before 7:00. Unfortunately, today served as an untimely reminder. I guess a hard drive on one of our servers failed last night, so Brian (my boss) wanted me to come in early to swap it out.

Yesterday ended up being a pretty good day. After work, I went home to meet a guy who wanted to buy my scooter. Judging by the smile on his face after the test ride, I figured there was a pretty good chance I was going to get this thing out of my garage and out of my life. Sure enough, after a couple seconds of deliberation, he exclaimed, “I’ll take it!” Sweeter words were never spoken. And so ends the scooter phase of my life.

After I finished with the scooter ordeal, Michael came by to pick up 10 boxes of Protein Plus cereal. With all the money and goods exchanging hands last night, I felt like some sort of dealer. When Michael left, I ran over to Whole Foods to pick up supplies for my new rice cooker. I bought one of those fully automatic jobs, so I can throw everything in in the morning and have dinner waiting for me when I get home. I’ve been looking for one for a while, but I was waiting until I found a good deal.

The next activity on the agenda was my hockey game over at UTC. It turned out to be a pretty good game, even though we lost 5-2. I had a goal in the losing effort, so it wasn’t all bad.

Today, we’ve got a fun event at lunch, which should break up the day nicely. The first thing I’m doing when I get home tonight is to take a nap. Then, I have a floor hockey game over at UCSD at 9:00. TGTF (Thank god tomorrow’s Friday).

Today I did something I haven’t done in a long time. I mixed up the AM/PM on my alarm clock. Fortunately I went to bed pretty early last night, so I was able to wake up on my own at a fairly reasonable hour. Ended up getting into work around 9:00 this morning. Oops.

Last night, I got together with my mother, grandmother, Alexis and Jenny for dinner at Roy’s in La Jolla. If you’re ever there, I highly, highly recommend the “Poketini” appetizer. After dinner, I went over to Alexis’ place to install a locking doorknob on her bedroom door to prevent her roommates from stealing additional clothes out of her closet. When I was finished there, I just went home, did some laundry and then promptly fell asleep.

Tonight, I’m showing my scooter to someone after work in hopes that they take it off my hands. If it falls through and you’re interested in a 50 cc scooter to get around on, let me know. Following that, I have a hockey game later tonight (last one of the season at UTC). I think it’s my boss’ turn to come in late tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll remember how to work my alarm clock tonight.

I opted to play in the All-Star game last night, although I probably should’ve just stayed home. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t on my game last night. I found myself asking why I’d been invited to come out when I obviously wasn’t living up to expectations. Other than that, the only thing I did last night was get together with Michelle for about 20 minutes since she will be in Seattle until Saturday.

Tonight, my mother and grandmother are coming into town, so I’m going to try to get together with them as well as Alexis for dinner. Busy as hell around here today, so this one’s going to get cut short.

Looks like the site that was hosting my comments changed or went down, so I've switched. Unfortunately, this means all of the past comments have been lost. I don't necessarily like this one as much as the last one, but hopefully it will work a little better (which is to say, at all).

Damn, I’m feeling pretty wiped out today and it’s barely 9:00. Another weekend down and ready to face another Monday.

Friday night marked 6 months for Michelle and I so, to celebrate, I recreated [the majority of] our first date. Here is recount of the first date:

To add a bit of novelty to the date, the theme for the night was All-Things Italian. I asked her out for a Friday night. Since we had been hanging out quite a bit at the time, I wasn’t too nervous as I got ready to go out, although, at the same time, I wasn’t sure how things were going to turn out. I arrived at her place to pick her up for dinner. She answered the door and instead of presenting her with flowers, I gave her a box of biscotti. Which, in retrospect, I think went over a lot better. I remember she was wearing a red sweater ensemble with black pants and looked very attractive.

For dinner, I took her to one of my favorite Italian restaurants, La Bruschetta. The meal was terrific, good food and great conversation (which I’m sure was helped along by the bottle of wine we shared). After dinner, I suggested a quick walk on the beach since it was in such close proximity to the restaurant. We actually ended up walking quite a ways along the water before turning around and heading back. I remember feeling very comfortable with her the entire time.

Next stop was a little gelato place for dessert. We drove around for quite a while trying to find parking. Eventually, we just gave up and headed back to my place to watch The Godfather. For whatever reason, the movie didn’t seem to be overly captivating for either of us. In fact, I think Michelle even fell asleep at one point. After the movie, we were both pretty tired; I took her home, thus ending a great first date.

This past Friday, I picked Michelle up for dinner and gave her another box of biscotti. She had no idea what we were doing, so I’d asked her to wear black pants and hoped that she’d end up wearing the same outfit. Fortunately, fate was on my side and everything fell into place. We went back to La Bruschetta for dinner. Again, everything at dinner was superb. After dinner, we took a very abbreviated walk on the beach and then headed back to my place (we were both too full for gelato). I was originally planning on renting Scarface, but because it was 3 hours long, and I wanted to avoid putting Michelle to sleep again, I opted for something a little lighter. I decided to go with Serendipity instead. Unfortunately, John Cusack didn’t seem to fair much better than Al Pacino and we were both half asleep 20 minutes into the movie, so I stopped it and took Michelle home.

Saturday, I felt pretty lousy for most of the day. I tried to work out in the afternoon and I thought I was going to pass out in the gym. So I went home to rest in hopes that I would be feeling well enough to drive up to LA to Dave Denes’ house party. Unfortunately, by the time I was feeling well enough to go anywhere it was too late to make the party. I was extremely disappointed that I didn’t get to go. I really wanted to see Dave and his new place. Maybe I’ll have to make a special trip up there in the coming weeks so that we can get together. Instead, I ended up going with Kevin and Julia to an improve comedy club. Overall, I would say that the show was pretty entertaining, although a little obnoxious at times. Additionally, it provided an answer to the question, “what do high school kids without fake ID’s do on Saturday nights?” as they seemed to make up the majority of the audience. After the show, I was totally wiped out so I just went to bed.

I slept away the majority of Sunday morning. When I finally did get up, I still wasn’t feeling 100%. I had a hockey game in the afternoon. Our team had a pretty convincing win and I scored a honey of a goal. After the game, I went back to my place to get ready for the Tom Petty Concert. Al, Michelle, Nik, and Nik’s girlfriend Barbara all got to my place around 6:30 and we made our way down to Coors Amphitheater. The traffic near the arena was pretty bad and it took us quite a while to find parking. The show started at 7:30, but we didn’t get in the doors until 7:45. Jackson Browne was the opening act, but we missed a lot of it trying to get something to eat and finding our seats. I don’t know who the guilty party was, but someone in our group bought a bag of Kettle Corn. I swear that the secret ingredient in Kettle Corn is heroin. What else could they possibly put in there that makes you want to continue eating it even when you feel noxious from eating too much of it in the first place?

The concert was good though; Tom can still rock the house. He’s definitely looking a little rough these days however, I guess the years (and drugs) are catching up to him. He played a lot of old stuff, as well as a couple of songs from his upcoming album. Getting out of the parking lot was an absolute nightmare. I think we sat, with no movement what so ever, for at least 30-45 minutes. At least the overly inebriated concertgoers standing around the parking lot provided plenty of free entertainment, like the guy who relieved himself on the front of his van.

Tonight, I’ve been asked to play in the All-Star game for the hockey league over at UTC. I’m going to try my best to make it, but that will hinge on how I’m feeling later.

One short workday away from the weekend! Thank god for that! Last night after work I got together with Jenny for dinner. The two of us went to Cozymels by UTC. Our waiter could have been a little less pushy (he would’ve made a good used car salesman). But, dinner itself was quite good. After dinner, we went back to my place and Jenny showed me the pictures from her European adventure. Looks like she had a great time, hopefully I’ll be able to get over there some time in the next 12 months.

Tonight, I’m going out with Michelle (more details on Monday). Tomorrow, Dave Denes is having a “House Cooling and Botox Party” up in LA, so I’m planning on heading up there for that. It was Christopher’s birthday this past week, so I’m hoping to get together with him on Saturday as well. Sunday, I have a hockey game in the afternoon and then I’m going to see Tom Petty in the evening.

I’m planning on seeing Bob Dylan in Oct, and I have access to a couple of extra tickets. If you have any interest in going, please get in touch with me!

Bored? Here's a page with a bunch of interesting pictures, including the transformation of Michael Jackson's face.

*sigh*, if stupid people could fly, this place would be an airport.

Ok, so I did find some time to explore my creative side and fool around in Photoshop for a bit...

While we're trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, perhaps someone can explain why I have 225 songs loaded into WinAmp, but it only plays the same 30 songs over and over again. And, it's not even the good ones...

I can’t wait for this week to be over and for things to return to normal around the office. I was busy as hell yesterday and this is the first chance I’ve had to breathe today. After work yesterday, I stopped by Lianna’s place to say goodbye and pick up some things that she had for me. She has been cleaning and boxing everything up to move it out of her condo so she can rent it out. I can’t think of many ways that I’d rather not spend my vacation.

After seeing Lianna, I came home and made dinner and then just bummed around the house. It was actually nice to just do nothing for a while. I don’t know what I’m going to do this evening, maybe I’ll just stay at home again and get caught up on stuff.

That’s it for now, I have to get back to work.

There are two types of people in this world who use the word “penis”: Doctors, and women. Why is that? Why can’t a woman use slang to refer to a man’s package? They don’t have any problems calling their breasts “boobs,” and I can’t remember the last time I heard a woman use the word “vagina.” Another one for the ages, I guess.

Life Lesson #3349: A woman’s razor and my face are totally incompatible. I ran out of razors last night, so I borrowed one of Michelle’s. I don’t know what’s different between razors for men and women, but that damn thing took off half my face! I swear I was shaving with a cheese grater. When I was done, I looked like a leper who just walked through a plate glass window. I was afraid I was going to become the first person to need a transfusion after shaving.

After a long day of work yesterday, I stopped by Tricia’s to visit with her for a bit and pick up my glasses. When I was there on Sunday, there were a couple of other guys that were doing some shopping as well. It was fairly obvious that they were playing for the other team (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Which is to say, if they were a snack food, they’d be flaming hot Cheetos, if they were money, they’d be as queer as a three dollar bill, if they were…well, you get the idea. At any rate, Tricia informs me that one of them had the hots for me and was convinced that I was gay. This, I don’t really understand, since at the time I was wearing shorts and an old t-shirt and my hair was gel-less, etc. Usually when people think I’m gay it’s because I’m dressed well and look clean cut. In this day and age it seems that people are a lot quicker and even eager to label someone as gay. Just off the top of my head, I can think many people in my life that have been called such at one point or another. But really, is this an insult? How often does a woman exclaim, “oh, he’s perfect, except that he’s gay!”? It seems that every woman out there thinks that a gay man is the ideal companion. Generally, it’s someone who is well groomed, appreciates the finer things in life, has a good sense of fashion, likes to shop, is willing to sit through Beaches, etc. In fact, here is a perfect article detailing why women are looking for a man that is ”Just Gay Enough.”

After leaving Tricia’s, I met up with Al and Michelle to go ice-skating. We went over to the rink in Mira Mesa for their public skate session. The ice was marginally better than last week, but there were still a lot of people there.

Not much going on today, but it should be pretty busy again around here. I’ve got a ton of projects that I’m trying to finish up by the end of the week, plus all of the normal daily duties. No plans yet for tonight, but I may join some friends at World Famous for some lobster tacos.

I don’t know how many of you visited Am I Hot or Not.com, but it seems that there is an updated version: http://www.howmanywouldittake.com/

I'd like to apologize to everyone for today's earlier entry. I think it qualifies as the most boring entry yet. I simply wrote for the sake of writing, and for that I apologize. May tomorrow bring more excitement to my life.

Since I was running around the office all day, yesterday positively flew by. Unfortunately, much of the day was spent performing one of my least favorite job functions--setting up and moving people’s computers around for them. I dislike it because it means having to get down on the floor and crawl around under people’s desks. Additionally, no one seems to be satisfied with the initial arrangement of everything, which means I have to unplug, move and plug everything back in at least twice.

After work, I could barely keep my eyes open so I took a quick nap before my floor hockey game. In retrospect, I should have just stayed in bed. We ended up getting blown out 6-1. It was a frustrating game, to say the least.

Today will probably be much like yesterday around the office. After work, I’m going to run by Tricia’s and pick up the martini glasses I failed to pick up yesterday. Then, Al, Michelle and I are supposed to go ice-skating out in Mira Mesa. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, as I really need to catch up on my sleep.

Update! I just added in a commenting feature, so if you have something you'd like to add to one of my posts you can do so (just click on the word Comments underneath the post you'd like to comment on). Also, it looks like the archives are down for the time being, hopefully they'll be back up later today.

And so begins the week of hell. My boss is out of the office all week, so it’s just me running the show. I’m hoping that nothing too disastrous happens in the next five days.

As for the weekend, it was a pretty good one all around. Friday night, I went out with Lianna, my sister and Lianna’s friend Randy. The four of us went to dinner at Zen 5 sushi in PB. After dinner, we headed downtown to the Onyx Room. The place was quite crowded, more so than I’ve ever seen. So, we hung around the bar for a bit until Randy H. showed up. Lianna and Randy went off to dance and then Michelle and Al showed up with some of Al’s friends. Bill came down to meet up with us as well. We all stood around and talked for a bit and then hit the dance floor. Alexis, Lianna and Randy all left a little early, while the rest of us stuck around for a bit.

When I say that Saturday was a lazy day, that’s truly an understatement. I think I accomplished absolutely nothing all day long. In fact, I couldn’t get myself up off the sofa to go out at night and ended up falling asleep around 7:30.

Sunday, on the other hand, involved a little more activity. I slept in for a little while and then Bill and Al came over and the three of us went to Tricia’s “Buy all my old junk so I can go to New York” garage sale. Al bought some books and CDs, but Bill and I left empty-handed. Although, I did put some martini glasses on hold that I will probably pick up tonight. After the garage sale, I had an ice hockey game. It was the second game in a three game series and if we won, then it would be the last game of the season and we also would take first place. Al and Michelle came out to watch the game and take pictures with their new cameras. The game went really well. It wasn’t as physical as I had anticipated, but I was still able to get a couple of shots in here and there. We were up 3-0 with a couple of minutes left in the third period. I was camped out in front of their net when one of my teammates set me up with a great pass. I shot the puck up into the top of the net. However, I don’t remember exactly what happened, because as I shot the puck, someone hit me from behind, sending me careening towards the net, while another one of their players hit me across the face mask with his stick. I was fine, just slightly distracted.

After the game, the three of us went out to dinner at Buca de Beppo in Mira Mesa. We had to wait for about a half an hour for a table. Once we were finally seated, we ordered a tomato salad and a pizza. The salad arrived as expected, however our pizza suffered a slightly different fate. One of the waiters (perhaps a manager?) came over to our table and said that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he was going to pay for our pizza. The bad news was that he gave it away to someone else. 20 minutes later we had our pizza. Needless to say, dinner came out to be quite a bargain.

After dinner, I went home while Michelle and Al went to get coffee and work on Michelle’s essays for a business school application. As I mentioned Friday, I was determined to do an oil change this weekend, so I forced myself to get that monkey off my back. I changed out my oil and spark plugs (car is running great now), took a shower and then headed down to PB to meet up with Michelle and Al again. The three of us went to shoot pool at Society for an hour or so and then said our goodbyes for the night.

I’m proud to say that I made it through the entire weekend without a drop of alcohol. Even Friday night at the club wasn’t bad sober and I still had a great time. The best part was that even though I didn’t get a lot of sleep on Friday night, I didn’t spend all of Saturday in a haze like I would have if I had been drinking. So, I plan on staying off the sauce for a while and seeing how things go.

As for tonight, I’ll probably swing by Tricia’s to pick up my martini glasses, and then I have a floor hockey game at 9:00.

XXX…what can I say, I think that was the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. Al and I caught the 5:00 show last night, which was quite fortunate for two reasons:
1) It meant that I didn’t throw away $8.50 on this film
2) There weren’t many other people in the theater that would have been annoyed by our uncontrollable laughter.
I think the first rendition of the script must have read, “borrow vaguely believable plot line, remove James Bond and replace with indestructible convict, ignore all hints of reality, and blow lots of shit up.” I also learned that professional skateboarders/freestyle bicyclists (Tony Hawk and Matt Hoffman, respectively) can’t act. Finally, if you do go to see the movie, make sure to stay until the end credits, as it’s one of the best parts.

After the movie, we grabbed some dinner at Chipotle, a.k.a., Subway meets La Salsa. I really like the place, with one exception. The employees don’t wear any sort of sanitary gloves when they’re manhandling your burrito--a great faux pas in this day and age.

Today’s shaping up to be a good day. I’m going to get my hair cut at lunch (my barber was off yesterday) and my boss told me to take off early this afternoon because I’m going to be here all by myself next week. Michelle gets back into town this afternoon (she was out all week on a business trip), and I can’t wait to see her. Later tonight, a bunch of us are going to go out for some sushi and then do some barhopping or clubbing afterward.

The rest of the weekend should be good as well. I’m not sure what’s going on tomorrow, but I have to do an oil change on the car. Perhaps I’ll head over to Balboa Park to check out the art museum, since my mother gave me some free passes. Randy Hull’s birthday is this weekend as well, so maybe we’ll all get together to celebrate that. Sunday is fairly open as well, with the exception of a hockey game in the afternoon.

Coming home from hockey last night I couldn’t help but smile at how everything seems to be in place and balanced in my life right now. Even the fact that we lost handedly didn’t seem to keep me down simply because I was so happy just to be on the ice again. I think more than anything I’m just glad that I’m done with that damn cold.

I just ordered tickets to see Tom Petty on the 25th at Coors Amphitheater (if you’re going, let me know so we can hook up). I can’t wait. I saw him play a few years ago when I was out visiting family friends in Boston and it was a great show; I expect no less this time around.

Tonight I’m planning on seeing XXX (the mainstream movie, not porn). I don’t really know much about it going in, but I’ve heard that it’s an entertaining flick. I’m debating between getting a haircut at lunch or working out. Right now, the haircut is winning out, but we’ll see.

In other news, I’m considering giving up alcohol completely for a while. Mainly just for health reasons, after all, it’s just a bunch of calories and toxins my body doesn’t really need. Tomorrow night, a bunch of us are going out clubbing; I’m sure it would make for a completely different experience if I stop before then. I’ll paste an article at the end of this explaining why alcohol makes you fat (and it’s not just the calories).

I think I’m ready for another vacation. Appropriately enough, I received this fortune at dinner the other night:

Hopefully that means I’m either going to Europe or Hawaii. While I’ve been to Italy twice, I have yet to explore any other European countries. I would like to do a tour so that I can get a taste of everything. I think I would like to hit Spain, Italy, France, maybe Greece, Holland and, time permitting, any other countries in that area. As for Hawaii, I’d really like to go simply because I’ve never been. I’ve seen some pretty good deals lately; maybe I just need to put the wheels in motion.

Why alcohol calories aren't as important as most people think...

According to conventional wisdom, the infamous "beer belly" is caused by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat.
However, researchers from the University of California have shown that less than 5% of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy.

Alcohol calories
Successful weight loss is all about oxidizing (or burning), more calories than you eat. When they go on a diet, many people choose low-calorie alcoholic drinks, mainly because they contain fewer alcohol calories than their regular counterparts.
However, this recent study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows that even a very small amount of alcohol has a large impact on fat metabolism.

Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink.
For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%.

Here's why...
Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

A car engine typically uses only one source of fuel. Your body, on the other hand, draws from a number of different energy sources, such as carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To a certain extent, the source of fuel your body uses is dictated by its availability. In other words, your body tends to use whatever you feed it.
Consequently, when acetate levels rise, your body simply burns more acetate, and less fat. In essence, acetate pushes fat to the back of the queue.

So, to summarize and review, here's what happens to fat metabolism after the odd drink or two...
1. A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat.
2. Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.
3. The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces fat as a source of fuel.

Your bodies' response to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy. That's why any type of diet, whether it's high-fat, high-protein, or high-carbohydrate, can lead to a gain in weight.

The bottom line?
Even a small amount of alcohol (this study used two servings of vodka and lemonade) can have a big impact on the rate at which your body burns fat -- even if the drink is low in calories.

Reference
Siler, S.Q., Neese, R.A., & Hellerstein, M.K. (1999). De novo lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balances in humans after acute alcohol consumption. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 70, 928-936

Allow me to profess my undying hatred of El Torito. First off, is it company policy to hire totally incompetent servers? I think I have yet to be served by a truly attentive waitperson (is that PC for waiter/waitress?). Secondly, it would be nice if there were more than one item on the menu that was remotely healthy. Whenever I go in there I feel like a vegetarian going to a steak house (“oh good, salad again!"). The item in question is the Sonora Burrito. Before El Torito revamped its menu to “be more authentic,” the burrito was actually pretty decent. Instead, they’ve decided to make it totally inedible. They should have also updated the name to En Fuego Burrito. It literally just tastes like burning (I have no idea what was in it, because I couldn’t taste anything else). Now, I’ve been to Mexico multiple times, including deep into the heart of the country, not just south of the border, and I can say with much confidence that authentic Mexican food is actually quite edible and enjoyable. Even food that is spicy still has a good flavor to it, unlike the Sonora Burrito. Couple the heat of the burrito with an inattentive waiter (read: my water glass went unfilled for much of the meal) and you can imagine how enjoyable my lunch was. In fact, I'm going to hop on over to their website now and give them some feedback.

Think you have a terrible job? Read about some truly awful ways to earn a paycheck: http://www.worstjob.com

Hump day here we come! I don’t know what’s been wrong with me the last couple of nights, but I’ve had quite a time trying to fall asleep. I can’t say I’m extremely tired during the day, but it’s still frustrating to be lying in bed helplessly watching the numbers on the clock crawl towards the next day.

After work yesterday I met up with my mother, grandmother and sister at P.F. Chang’s for dinner. After seeing them, I picked up Lianna and the two of us went ice skating out in Mira Mesa. Talk about disappointing ice conditions! Next time I go out there for a public skate session, I’m going to bring my water skis! I don’t know what the deal is with people who throw on a pair of figure skates, but as soon as they do, I think it gives them the illusion that they own the entire rink. Talk about having absolutely no regard for anyone else out there trying to skate! And then you have the instructors who are following some kid around while holding a boom box and giving instructions; again, total disregard for anyone else on the ice. Of course let us not forget the little kids who don’t know any better and obviously have no idea as to what clockwise versus counter-clockwise means. As I circled the rink I had to fight the desire to put a hip into some of these people and send them flying into the boards.

Today we’re taking one of the guys in our division out for lunch for his birthday, although I have no idea where we’re going. It’s funny, but every time someone besides me chooses the restaurant for lunch, we go to El Torito, a restaurant at the Shores Hotel, or T.G.I. Fridays. I always try to be somewhat adventurous and expand our eating horizon by picking a new place each time.

Tonight, I have an ice hockey game at UTC. We’re probably due for a solid thrashing, but I'm just excited to get back out on the ice since I haven't been able to for what seems like a long time.

Ever wonder how fat people have sex? Gain some insight here.

How effin hard is it to rerack a weight in the gym? Evidently, it must be quite a chore since no one seems to be able to do it. I just got back from RIMAC and I swear that half the people that work out need their mothers following them around helping them pick up after themselves! Is it because these gymrats are too busy looking in the mirror when they finish an exercise that they forget to put the weights they just used back in there proper location? 9 times out of 10, it’s these guys that think they’re God’s gift to the gym. Wow Buddy, you just bench pressed 300 pounds…it’d be a whole lot more impressive if you were actually able to put something back from where you got it. You’d think that in a university gym, people would be smart enough to be able to match the number on the dumbbell/plate with the number on the rack. It’s no wonder meatheads are associated with idiocy.

No major disasters to speak of (yet) this morning. Last night’s game went well. We were leading 5-0 going into the third period when things started to fall apart. Next thing I know, the other team started tallying goals like they were going out of style. With under a minute left, the score was 6-5 in favor of us. Fortunately, we were able to hold the one goal lead for the last 60 seconds and came out with the win. It was a good night for me as well, as I added two goals and an assist to my stats. It just felt good to be doing something physical again. Surprisingly, I wasn’t sucking wind as much as I thought I would be.
Today, I hope to get in the gym at lunch so I can get completely back on track. Later tonight, I’m supposed to meet up with Lianna to go ice skating and then I’ll probably try to get in bed at a reasonable hour.
I’m happy to report that Gilman Dr. is going to be reopened today, so that should help my commute home significantly. I also learned that my friend over at Kearny Mesa Toyota lost his job recently. That sucks for him and, in turn, me. I don’t know what’s happened to me lately, but I’ve pretty much lost touch with my car. I remember not too long ago when I was really into working on it and performing all of the maintenance myself. Now, I can’t even bring myself to change the oil. What a sad state of affairs. What’s even worse is that I’ve recently passed 120k miles so I’m due for some major service work and, to add insult to injury, I have to get another smog check so that I can register the car before September.
On a happier note, I think one of my favorite things about the summer is being able to leave my bedroom window open at night so that the summer night air can waft over me as I sleep.
I talked to Dave Lee last night. He heads off for New York this morning to start his law career. I can't wait to hear all of his adventures and stories once he gets there. I'm planning on going out to visit for New Years Eve so that I can say I've done the whole Times Square celebration. Can't wait.

What a disastrous Monday! We tried to finalize a migration to a new file server over the weekend and it practically brought the whole dept to its knees. After running around the office for two hours, we decided to roll everything back to the old setup and try again tomorrow.
I had a fabulous weekend, though and I’d say I’m about 95% over this cold. Friday evening, I stopped by Lianna’s after work so that I could see her before she took off for the weekend. It was good to see her again and we chatted for a bit. I am planning on getting together with her again this week when she gets back into town. Later that night, Michelle and I went out to dinner in Solana Beach at a little Italian restaurant that I really like, called Parioli. We sat outside on the patio in the back and it felt very much like eating in Italy. It was a perfect summer night enhanced further only by the food and company. I was still under the weather somewhat, so I had to call it an early night.
Saturday was, for the most part, a lazy day. Garrett and Julie came down in the afternoon, so I got to visit with them for a little bit. In the evening, my parents came into town to celebrate my dad’s birthday (I guess the ever-pleasant 110 degree heat in Hemet lost out to the perfect weather in San Diego). The four of us went down to Mission Hills to eat at Parallel 33. The food was absolutely amazing! I’d definitely recommend the restaurant to anyone. The prices were on the high(er) side, but the food was worth every penny. I bought my dad a Swiss ball and some dumbbells for his birthday in hopes that he spend a little time to get himself in shape so that he can enjoy many more birthdays in the future. I was supposed to play hockey later that night, but dinner ran a little too late (and I would have been much to full to really play well). Instead, Kevin and I went down to Mission Beach to meet up with Michelle at a party. Due to a slight communications glitch, Kevin and I ended up parking at the roller coaster and walking half way to Pacific Beach before we reached the party. Fortunately, we were able to arrange a ride back to the car from some other folks at the party.
Sunday I tried (without too much success) to sleep in. My parents were still in town, so I wanted to get together with them for lunch. My father had a serious penchant for sushi, so I called around and tried to find a place that was actually open for lunch. Unfortunately, it seems that no one besides my father eats sushi on Sundays. Instead, my mother suggested a new restaurant downtown called Momo. So, Michelle and I headed downtown to meet up with the rest of the rest of the Emmel clan. By some amazing stroke of luck, I was able to find street parking on the same block as the restaurant. However, that was quickly laid to waste since it turns out that Momo is in fact a sushi restaurant and naturally isn’t open for lunch on Sunday.
So, the Emmel’s paraded up Fourth and down Fifth Ave in search of that ever-elusive perfect restaurant. Making our way down the street, we stopped to look at the menu at Bella Luna to see if it met with my mother’s approval. My father and I, pale and weak with hunger, begged for mercy, requesting that we be allowed to give up the quest and simply eat at some point during the afternoon. Fortunately, the restaurant was acceptable to everyone and we were able to quiet our growling stomachs.
Originally, I had a hockey game that was scheduled for 4:30 in the afternoon, which I would have had no problem making (and that I was really looking forward to playing in). However, as I was driving down to meet my folks, I received a call from the team captain informing me that the game had been moved up to 3:00. Regrettably, the afternoon’s indecision forced our meal to run past the start time of the game and I was unable to play.
In the evening, Kevin, Michelle, Michelle’s friend Al and I grabbed a bunch of beer and some golf clubs and headed out to the driving range to hit some balls. It’d been a while since I’d hit, so a lot of my shots seemed to be slightly off target (namely to the right).
Today, I’m hoping things remain somewhat calm around here after this morning’s fiasco. I’m going to try to sneak out of the office and get a haircut. Later tonight I have a floor hockey game up at UCSD. I should be thoroughly flogged by the end of the game since I haven’t done anything athletic for a while (hitting golf balls and drinking beer definitely doesn’t count as athletic). Speaking of, I continue to shrink, losing pounds by the week. I hope to finally get back in the gym tomorrow and start the rebuilding process.

Just got back from lunch with Alexis. We met up at Ginza Sushi in La Jolla. The sushi today was so-so. It's hard for me to fathom how that place stays in business. The rent they're paying must be astronomical for the location and there never seems to be anyone in there.
As you may have noticed, I've added some informational articles about me and my life, as well as the Fitness chapter in the History of Travis.

Mystery solved. Turns out the ice pick-like pain in my right eye was caused by a sty. It’s much better today; in fact, I don’t even notice it. As for the illness, I would say I’m back up to about 75%.
Last night I tried to meet up with a bunch of friends in Old Town for dinner. Clearly, far too many people had the same idea because the place was packed beyond belief. Alexis and I spent 40 minutes driving around trying to find parking before decided that it was completely ludicrous and decided to go home instead. It really sucked that it came down to that, especially since two of the people who were going to be at dinner were Lianna and David Lee. I haven’t seen Lianna in a year or so since she left for England for school, and this would probably have been the last time I would have been able to see David before he takes off for New York for law school. If I hadn’t been sick, I think I definitely would’ve stuck it out, or at least have tried to meet up with them later.
Not too much going on today. I’m going to try to get together for lunch with Alexis and have dinner with Michelle tonight. Looks like I’ll have to sacrifice the rest of a perfectly good Friday night to try to get over this cold.
The rest of the weekend is shaping up nicely. Saturday is my father’s birthday, so he and my mom are coming down for a nice dinner at Parallel 33. I have a game on Saturday night as well, but it’s looking like I will most likely be a scratch. Sunday’s open, as far as I know, so maybe I’ll actually get around to changing my oil and spark plugs since I’ve been putting it off for weeks now.

Feeling a little better today, with the exception of my right eye. I don’t know what’s going on, but it feels like someone is driving an ice pick into the lower half of my eye. Maybe it’s sinus pressure?
Because I’m so much fun to be around and have such a strong desire to leave the house right now, I chose to do nothing last night. Michelle came over for a little bit to keep me company and listen to me bitch and moan. After she left I tried to go to bed, but I had a hard time falling asleep because I was really congested and was having trouble breathing.
Lianna is supposed to be in town for a while, so I may get together with her for dinner tonight (we’ll see how I’m feeling). I don’t really like going out when I’m feeling sick since I tend to be even more quiet and reserved than usual (if that’s possible).

Fortunately, I think I’ve passed the turnaround point on this illness. I woke up this morning feeling a lot better than when I went to bed last night. Don’t get me wrong though, I still feel like hell.
I spent most of yesterday lying around the house trying not to move. Last night, I gathered up what little energy I did have and left the house to have dinner with the old work crew. Erik didn’t make it out (what else is new?), but Nik, Eric, and Michael were there. We went to an Argentinean restaurant called Pampas. Since my sense of taste hadn’t been restored by the time I reached the restaurant, I figured I might as well try to go the healthy route instead of loading up on steak, seeing as how I wouldn’t really be able to enjoy it. So, I went with chicken. Unfortunately for me, I think I would have been better off going for the steak. My chicken breast arrived with the skin still on and, unless this chicken sat on its ass all day reading Playhen and eating Bon-Bons, I think they must have injected it with some additional fat because there was an ungodly amount present on the ol’ bird. Overall though, it was good to get out of the house for a while and catch up with everyone.
I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I couldn’t justify taking two complete days off, so I came into the office around noon today. Now, I can’t wait to go home.

Today’s one of those rare occasions where I’d rather be at work than home, namely because I’m sitting here nursing a cold. The only thing worse than that is that it doesn’t give me anything to write about. I guess I’ll be spending the day sleeping and watching some of the DVD’s that I own but have yet to watch. Tonight, I’m supposed to meet up with a bunch of old friends that I used to work at Res-Net with. Last I heard, we’re going to some Argentinean restaurant that is supposed to have amazing steaks. Hopefully I will have recovered most of my sense of taste by then.
It’s been about a week and a half since I last stepped into the gym, mainly because I’ve had hockey games most nights and have been too tired the following day to workout. I feel like the incredible shrinking man. This cold isn’t going to help much either. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get to RIMAC at least a couple of times before the end of the week.
I guess that’s it for now. I’m off to the store to pick up supplies, then it’s back to bed.

Unfortunately, I’m writing today’s entry from home, reasons being that I’ve caught a minor cold and they painted our office over the weekend and the fumes were making me nauseous. The weekend was non-stop. Friday night I went with Michelle to the racetrack in Del Mar to watch a concert up there. We met up with her roommate and a bunch of her friends. While we were trying to find them, I noticed a very familiar looking person. Turned out to be Christine, who was there with a bunch of her friends.
After the concert, we went to a bar called Epazote to have a quick bite to eat and a few drinks. After eating, Michelle and I were too tired to hit any more bars so we ended up going home.
On Saturday, I got together with Bill and David for breakfast at Broken Yolk. A good meal as always, made even better by David enlightening us with his tales of Europe. After breakfast, David and I parted ways with Bill and went downtown to hang around for a bit. We walked around Horton Plaza for a while and then went to Ghirardelli for some ice cream. With our meter dictating that we either leave or feed it more change, we decided to head back to Bill’s for a bit. The three of us then took off for my place, stopping at Brooklyn Pizza on the way so that Bill could get a bite to eat.
We stuck around my place long enough to take a tour of Europe through the eyes of David’s camera and then struck out for downtown for dinner. One of our favorite places to eat is the Persian restaurant, Bandar. As usual, it was a fantastic meal. After dinner, we walked a few doors down to the Hard Rock to continue celebrating David’s birthday. The bartender there was really cool and we all had a great time. A couple of drinks into the night, our friend Dan joined us as well. We stayed there for a few hours before calling it a night.
Sunday, I met up with Bill, David and Dan for a quick walk through UTC. Afterwards, we all headed down to the seal beach in La Jolla to give David one last taste of the Pacific Ocean before he heads off for New York. Later in the afternoon I had a hockey game out in Mira Mesa. It was a really close game that ended up tied and went into overtime. The score was still 2-2 after overtime, so we went into a shootout. They ended up scoring a really weak goal to which we were unable to counter and ended up losing. Following the game, the captain of the other team I play on was hosting an end-of-the-season BBQ over at his place, so I went over to hang out there for a bit. Had a great time there, lots of food and drink, and there were highlights from a few of our games playing on the TV.
It looks like Michelle’s made a final decision on the business school front. At this point, she’s going to ask Chicago for a deferral and try to get into UCLA in the mean time. It seems to me that she really wasn’t completely ready to go away for school at this time in her life, or at least not for all of the right reasons. I think a lot of the draw of Chicago came from the desire to make an overall life change. On the whole, many things came out of the decision process. Michelle learned to appreciate a lot of things that she has in her life right now as well as identify those things that are holding her back. Now, the key is to keep those things in mind every day and to make corresponding, little, life changes to achieve larger goals.
I’d be lying if I said that I was disappointed that she’ll be sticking around for a while. Listening to her for the last couple of months, I feel that she made the appropriate choice. If business school is to be in her future, it will certainly happen. When it does, she will be able to bring a lot more to the table and be able to appreciate the experience more.

I just bit the holy hell out of my tongue, but for some reason I can't taste the blood. Is that irony?

Just got back from the Staff Appreciation Picnic. A lot of people came out for it and there was a lot of good food. I stayed for about 45 minutes and then stopped by Netops to see some old friends. As I was getting back on the shuttle to return to the office, the guy that got on before me was complaining to the driver that the previous shuttle never showed up and that he had an important meeting. The shuttle driver apologized, saying that the picnic had thrown everything off. He must have also taken this to heart, because he was hauling ass to get back to the other stop. So much so, in fact, that he was willing to run not one but two red lights! I think the lady next to me thought we were going to die. For a second or two I thought it was a possibility as well.
I've come up with one negative to living in San Diego. When summer rolls around, there isn't anywhere worth taking a roadtrip to because you're already in the ideal place. I mean, how great would it be to be stuck somewhere in the middle of this country where it's hot and muggy with nothing to do and then pile into a car with a bunch of friends and drive out to San Diego, California? Talk about a great roadtrip! But, when you start from here, where would you go??
So, what's the deal with cereal that comes from manufacturers other than the really big names (e.g. Kelloggs, Post, General Mills, etc.)? Do they not have the money necessary to fund an R&D dept that can figure out how to make it possible to open the inner bag and keep it in tact? I mean, really, the inner freshness bag has been around for at least 30 years; do you mean to tell me that in that time these smaller companies have been unable to find a glue or method of sealing these bags that allows them to be opened without total destruction? If there whole purpose is to keep the cereal fresh, then how is it supposed to work when you can't refold the bag because it's torn up to all hell?

TGIF! Another week is behind us and another weekend before us. This weekend should be a good one. David’s coming into town tomorrow, I’ve heard Todd is coming down from LA, and Dave Denes is supposed to be here as well.
Yesterday, I got together with my mom and Michelle for lunch. The three of us went to P.F. Chang’s. Good food as always, with the exception of the seared ahi salad. The spices used overpowered the delicate nature of the fish and the dressing didn’t seem to work well with the rest of the salad. After work, I got to hang out with Michelle for a little while before my floor hockey game.
The game went well and we won 3-1 again. I didn’t contribute on the scoreboard, as I spent much of the game helping out on defense.
Today should be pretty easy going. We have a staff appreciation picnic from 11:30-1:00, so that should break up the day nicely. This evening I may go play some floor hockey or see who’s in town and wants to hang out.
In other news…Michelle was accepted at Chicago’s school of business back in May. Since then, she has been grappling with the decision to attend in the fall. The primary issue she’s dealing with is whether or not the cost is worth the benefits of obtaining an MBA from a top school.
That said, I think I’m going to snap soon and they’re going to have to declare me clinically insane. I feel like I’m no longer dating Michelle, but rather the decision on whether or not to go off to school in Chicago. It’s the first thing I hear about when I wake up, the last thing I hear about when I go to sleep and god help me if it’s not the only thing I hear about all day long. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not that I don’t have sympathy for her or her predicament, I’ve just gotten to the point where I can’t handle the indecision any more. It kills me to see her beating herself up over this and I feel completely helpless in trying to remedy the situation.
Every day has become an emotional roller coaster for me, not knowing whether or not Michelle will be here in a month. One day she’s definitely not going and I start to think about the coming months and all the good times we’ll have and the great things we can experience together. Next thing I know, 24 hours have passed and she’s definitely going to Chicago. Suddenly, all those plans melt away and I’m just left with a feeling of emptiness.
Everyday, she asks for my opinion on what to do. My initial reaction is to avoid the question because I don’t want to be responsible for her decision either way. But, what may be a little closer to the truth is that I don’t really have a true, clear opinion. I mean, at this point, I don’t think I can give an honest, subjective answer because my emotions keep getting in the way.
I guess the bottom line is that I would just like her to make a decision that she’s comfortable with, accept it, and begin moving forward to meet her goals. Once that’s in place, I can try to figure out things for myself and hopefully regain some stability in my life.

Much of this morning will be spent writing up my performance evaluation for the preceding year. Hopefully I will be able to remember all of the projects that I helped to complete.
Mom was unable to make lunch yesterday as she was stuck in a meeting. Instead, Alexis and I went to Board and Brew up in Del Mar for a sandwich. The place was pretty crowded, but the food was excellent as always. After work, I went home to take a nap before the night’s ice hockey game.
Unfortunately, most of the other team didn’t show up for the game and they were seriously short-handed. In an effort to even things out a bit, we let them take on a couple of our players. Because of the circumstances, the game had a much more casual, relaxed attitude. I managed to put four pucks in the back of the net and had a few helpers (assists) as well. I had a rough time falling asleep after the game, so I’m a little tired this morning.
Today, I’ll be meeting up with mom for lunch and possibly again after work. She came out to my hockey game last night and stuck around afterward to give me a gift. The gift turned out to be new towels for our downstairs bathroom. I guess she felt the current ones weren’t socially acceptable. Later tonight I have yet another hockey game, but this one will be in the old gym instead of on ice (floor hockey). I can only hope to do as well as last week.
David will be coming into town this weekend for one last hurrah before he takes off for law school in New York. I imagine the next time I will see him after that will be for New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
I think if this plum I’m about to eat had any more wax on it, I could put a match to it and use it as a candle.