Puppies Doing Puppy Things

This is not a staged photograph...

Life Update

T'has been a pretty uneventful January really which is somewhat surprising to me given that it's a new year.  The one exciting event though was the planning of a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  There's about 15 of us that will be taking over the resort in June and I think it has potential to be pretty awesome.  Hopefully I can get some diving in inbetween trips to the bars....

Other than that work has been busy but manageable, Banking Schools projects are awful, but I'm halfway done only 2 more to go.  Travel will start to kick up in Feb. which is a pain, but it will bring some new projects which will be good.

Working out again finally... took way too much time off so while it's not like starting over, it may as well be.  Planning on running another 1/2 marathon in April, so better get in gear.

Beth is good she had a birthday this month which was a good time.  Finally got to attend the annual Jakle birthday meal at Kiku's after a long trend of missed meals.  And I caught my shrimp.

Puppies are a pain as is to be expected with 2 boxer puppies, yes they are over 1 year old, but pretty sure boxers are considered puppies until about 3.  Which oddly enough probably corresponds to the number of years that they will have taken off of my life (each).  

Been playing a lot of CoD Black Ops, which is probably a terrible thing to do with my spare time considering I am WAY behind in my reading of Song of Fire and Ice.

Some things I am looking forward to in 2011:

April...Game of Thrones on HBO... Josh you will groan here, but I can't wait, and if you change your mind you can come to our premier party that will be complete with mugs of ale and turkey legs...think about it...

11/11/11 & 09/10/11 No specific reason other than the numerical significance of them

Rank Em

Today we are going to go with ... ranking ... three things I would take to a deserted island, and they have to be: 1 CD, 1 Movie, and 1 food item that I will have to eat for the rest of my days.

• The CD.  This is a tricky one because I am an eclectic music listener and therefore my "favorites" change like the weather.  However, as far as an entire album that I would want to have with me to listen to on repeat for decades I would choose.... Eminem's Recovery, if you recall this really shouldn't be a surprise because I've written on here before about my affection for this album.  To me it has it all and as much as I listen to the tracks it just doesn't get old.

• If I though a CD was difficult, a movie is nearly impossible.  I love TV but I LOVE movies.  I will even watch a bad movie just so I can say I've seen it and thus intelligently and justifiably tear it down for how terrible it was.  At the end of the day though through all of my lists and pining I had to go with Shawshank Redemption it was very very close and titles such as 300, Watchmen, and Caddyshack were right there.  Shawshank is a classic and one that I seem to watch whenever it is on TV no matter what.

• Of all the items on this made up list, Food item was an absolute no brainer.  Hawaiian Pizza (from Minskey's if we want to get super specific).  This is not only delicious but it is absolutely perfect.  Bread? Check. Fruits/Veggies? Check. Protein? Check. Dairy? Check.  Warm it up you have lunch and dinner, cool it down it's a nice little breakfast.  I'm not even joking I think I could eat this type of pizza for every single meal for the the rest of eternity and not get tired of it at all.

What would you choose?  1 CD, 1 Movie, and 1 food item?

Video of the Week

Some video clips... most are dumb but the baby one is awesome, this kid is brilliant.  Forward to about 0:50 second mark.

Rank Em

Sunflower seeds are something that I've grown quite fond of recently.  I used to chew these things nonstop in baseball but then after High School they kind of went away, which was probably a good thing considering the amount I consume now I can only imagine how much I would have devoured during late night paper writing sessions.  I rediscovered them though after college when I needed something pass the time while driving, they're great at keeping you up because they require effort, as an added bonus aren't horrible for you, and won't require a bathroom break.  Now back in the day there was pretty much one option, the standard salted snack now however... wow the flavor combinations are pretty limitless... as you'll see below.  So as I struggled to come up with something to write about for today I decided I'll rank my top 3 sunflower seed flavors:

#1 - Interstate B8: Bloody Mary:  Hands down best sunflower seeds I've ever tasted, I really can't imagine what will dethrone this juggernaut because these are amazing.

#2 - Jim Beam: Jalapeño:  Just the right amount of spice to let you know it's there but it won't beat you over the head.

#3 - David: Chili Lime:  Love this new one, great flavor just the right amount of chili and lime

Gym

As I mentioned earlier I joined up with 24 Hour Fitness a few weeks ago since I hate running in the cold and given recent vacation plans, more on this later, I figured it high time to drop some lbs and get my act together.  Now for those who've never been to a commercial gym, it's... well lets just say it's an experience.  This isn't my first adventure with a gym, since I was a member of a gym while in Chicago.  However, this gym is A LOT different.  Now I won't go into comparing the quality, cause the one in Chicago cost WAY too much so it was super nice... but you paid the price for the super nice.  24 Hour is ehhh... okay but it's cheap and well it does the job.  The patrons however is where the differences start...  I swear I picked the meat head gym.  I've never seen a collection of so many people who are either a) trying to get on the Jersey Shore or 2) trying to impress ladies (and not in a good way).  Now, getting ripped is all fine and good we'd all like to have a 6-pack and some sweet biceps.  But I swear an nearly break out in laughter when I see some of these fools lifting.  For example... saw a guy yesterday pry 5'10" maybe 185 throw 6 plates (45 lbs) on EACH side of a squat bar.  Normally I don't like to gawk at people in a gym cause it's just kind of creepy, but understandably a man of this stature stepping under that kind of weight was either going to be awesome or a NSFW YouTube video.  He got it off the rack which was further than I thought this would go.  Then he proceeded to squat, 2 inches down.  And this type of thing happens all over the gym, guys throwing on stupid amounts of weight and not even doing the exercise correctly.  Could I throw 225 on the bench press and knock out some 4 in. down bench presses... probably but that's not how the lift is done, so I put on my 125 and do it... 125 is a bit embarrassing and not nearly as cool looking as 225 but I'm not going to get injured and I won't end up unable to scratch my ear from messed up flexibility.  I think gyms should hire the most annoying comedian they can find that will just go around and publicly embarrass these guys, calling them out each and every time they are performing an exercise incorrectly, you get a few free passes, but the repeat offenders are clearly marked and let the ridicule begin. 

Perhaps they have special T-Shirts for them... Pink ones that are baggy

Video of the Week

The Best Breakfast Ever...

This looks both disgusting and delicious ... at the same time...

Working Out

Started working out again after far too long of a "break."  Pretty much status quo, I do a race, then I take a week off that turns into 6 months...  For sure not the way to go about things, the extreme soreness in my legs and arms is evidence to this fact.  So new year, new gym, new race.  I joined up with 24 hour fitness and it's not too bad, pretty sub-par when compared to the gym in Chicago, but at 1/2 the price I suppose a bit of a drop off is to be expected.  Anyway... Got a new race coming up in April the Ward Parkway Half-Marathon.  For better or worse I'm trying a new training regime this time around.  I decided to go with Hal Higdon, which is a running guru that a lot of people use.  This one is going to be a different one for sure since my last workouts just said, "ehh... go run 3mi Monday, 4 mi Wednesday... and so on"  This one is far more structured and has different workouts, 400m speed things, tempo runs, strength training, and all sorts of "fun" stuff.  It's taking a bit of getting used to going away from what I've always done but hopefully the results will be there in the end.  Doing a lot of the work on a hamster wheel (tredmill) because I hate running in the extreme cold, if it drops below 40 I'm done with the outdoors.   So far things are looking good, I'll keep things posted in the next few weeks once I get deeper into it.

New Books!

Updated the Book-It page to my current and future readings.  Song of Fire and Ice is awesome, my only wish is I was a faster reader and that I wasn't so easily distracted by TV.