Goin Camping

We made a tent this morning for TLW. She loved it.

Tennis anyone?

My friggin elbow is killing me! My belief is this is a repetitive use injury. Before all you funnymen leave “snake charming” related comments I can assure you that’s not the case. We’ll leave it at that. My diagnosis is Lateral Epicondylitis. Whatever the case, I suppose I need to pay a visit to the doc’s office. Joy.

I got a nice ride in today down to The Berm for little DJ’s final b-ball game. Turned out to be a pretty decent day. I got nice and mud spattered about halfway. I took the most direct route which involves a cool 1-1.5 mile dirt road complete with a short 18-20% climb.

Everytime I shifted I’d get this sharp pain shooting through my elbow. Might this be the motivation to renew my passion for the fixie?

Speaking of DJ. There’s a milestone birthday in the little man’s future. The big one zero for him. Can you remember where you were when you were 10? Me? Hardly.

In honor McHammy’s recent dry spell, which unless I’m mistaken will now stretch into a 4th week now, I thought I had found the perfect direction for our little Kylie to take his life. As I was flippin channels tonight I came across this. What could be more perfect? Already an experienced male model, I was excited at the prospect of success for The Hamster. Until, the small-print-disclaimer-fast-talking dude at the end of the commercial mentioned the deal breaker. Eligibility requirement #8 dooms him. Maybe we could all chip in and buy Hammy some shoe lifts. How’d the weekend go KHam?

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken sammy

Old news here but I’m always at a loss when it comes to smoking. No need to rehash all the reasons why it’s no good for you. You know it. I know it. We ALL know it. Yet, it still happens. The Wifey, TLW, and I went out Friday night to The Crapper Barrel. I was flummoxed to hear the hostess ask us if we wished to sit at a smoking or non-smoking table. Never mind that we had a 14-month in our hands. Pretentiousness aside, because you know plenty of folks have no problem killing their loved ones with second-hand smoke, I had to wonder how a restaurant that prides itself on a family-friendly atmosphere would allow smoking anywhere in it’s building.

I’ve always vocalized my feelings about smoking. We tod id. Restaurants should ban the practice. Bars/pubs/taverns should think about it as well. Our government should stay out of it. Let me make choices, I can handle it.

Wegman’s grocery recently stopped selling tobacco products at all their stores. A lot of people freaked out. Even some non-smokers had a problem with it. Who do they, the powers that be at Wegman’s, think they are to impart their morals on me, the consumer? Here’s a case where someone has made a powerful statement to the public without The Gov getting involved. You, Mr Consumer, have every right to choose smoking, however, I, Wegman’s, will no longer enable your habit. Very cool.

McDonald’s still uses trans fats for their French fries. Maybe they could take a page from Danny Wegman, AND the entire rest of the fast-food industry and get that straightened out.

Saturday I worked at the cyclery. I was hugely disappointed to learn upon arrival that it was NOT pancake breakfast Saturday. Seems that’s going down next Saturday. Although, my potential sour mood was tempered dramatically by The Legend making an appearance and subsequently working all day. After work I took my Ladies out again for some grub. This time to The Coliseum. We had to wait a bit so that Auntie Em could wait on our table. Benny showed up to entertain us. Later still, I finally got to meet KMad. She’s a cute little baby. Nice work Thotis & Jules.

Commuting has been rough so far this month. Crap weather and Erin being away a couple days has hurt my percentage thus far. The weather for the week looks favorable. I could possibly get'r up to 63% by Friday.

Jack Shit. You may or may not know him. Whatever the case, it’s how I would describe my activity level today.

Crunchy Corn Cereal

I'm such a sucker for breakfast cereals. Most people know of my love of Honeycomb. I've had love affairs with Wheaties, Total, and Honey Nut Cheerios over the years but I'm always hooked by the here today gone tomorrow existence of Quisp.

Quisp is one of those cereals that harkens me back to days of yore when your humble narrator was but a tiny little punk earning his stripes on the mean streets of East Berlin. Days spent riding my sweet 'Goose around town trying not to find trouble or vice versa. I'd fuel up every morning with this sugary substance to get me through the day.

A few years ago I was out in San Diego visiting my brother-from-another-mother, Glen, and I found a huge stash of Quisp at the local Von's. I bought several boxes and smuggled them back to the Commonwealth to share with my friends here.

Now every once in a while I find it at Giant and I buy a couple or six boxes. It's not an incredibly tastey cereal, not bad, just not great. That's not the point though. When I throw a leg over my steed this morning to ride to work, just like all those years ago, I'll have been powered by the silly little alien dude and his sugary goods.

No go

As I supsected, The Wifey did not approve of a 2-day nanny while she's gone so it's just me and TLW. We'll have a grande ol time. She's gotten over her stuffy head runny nose thing that stuck with her for weeks which means she's been sleeping much better. My biggest obstacle will be to actually get her to sleep and stay asleep. Or we can just stay up all night and party.

Haley loves her hat.

4M

This ain’t global warming but maybe in a way it should be. A little while ago I linked a pretty cool video of a physics teacher who had an excellent take on the topic. Here it is to refresh. Basically it boils down to this; if global warming turns out to be real and we do nothing, we’re screwed. If we heed the warnings and take action, well, good for us whether it’s real or not.

Which brings me to Diet Mtn Dew. Or more to the point, aspartame. Go ahead and google aspartame. You’re likely to find as many links to studies and articles claiming it will kill you slowly vs those which say it ain’t no big thang.

I happen to be an aspartame user. I’ve read the studies. One week I’ll read it’s fine. The next it’s not. Am I drinking poison or am I drinking a pleasant calorie-free beverage. Never mind that I lost a pile of fat in large part due to my refusal to drink calories anymore.

So, perhaps I should apply the global warming principle to my aspartame dilemma. Heed the warning, true or false, and presumably live out my years poison free or continue to drink laced beverages at the risk of pushing my expiration date forward a tad. What to do?

Seems easy enough. I just need to overcome my neurosis about drinking calories. Any thoughts? Maybe I could devise some sort of diminishing aspartame patch to wean me off. Or I could simply burn the extra 150-200 calories I’d need to break even by drinking naturally sweetened beverages again.

What sort of fun could I get into burning 200 extra calories a day? Let us count the ways. Just a smattering of thoughts here.

-25 minutes of competitive badminton
-1hr 40minutes of accordion playing
-1hr 28min of brushing my teeth
-3hr 15min of napping
-1hr 58min of watering the lawn
-30min of chopping wood (axe version)
-2hr 15min chopping wood (shuckin’ the corn version)

-2hr 57min of praying for forgiveness

The Proposition

I love fantasy sports. But I don't do it for money. It's purely and simply a fascination to play GM and do better than anyone else you're up against. Easy stuff. What I don't do is gamble. Never have. Seems to much like a slippery slope to me. I do, however, look forward to the Super Bowl every year when Vegas makes what very well could be a crap game, or not, by adding a sense of drama and sillyness with the prop bets.

Basically, a prop bet is any bet that has nothing to do with the actual outcome of the game. Some of this years prop bets, as usual, are pretty funny.

Predict the Coin Toss
Heads
Tails

Tom Brady’s Total Passing Yards Will Be an
Odd Number
Even Number

Which Song Will Tom Petty Sing at the End of His Halftime Show?
Free Falling 2/3
Don’t Do Me Like That 5/1
Learning to Fly 12/1
Great Wide Open 9/1
Last Dance with Mary Jane 4/1
Runnin’ Down a Dream 7/5

Who will the MVP of the Game Thank First?
Teammates 2/1
God 5/2
Family 2/1
Coach 5/1
Doesn’t Thank Anyone 6/1

Jersey Number of Player to Score First Touchdown
Over 43.5
Under 43.5

Who Will Have More?
Amani Toomer Receiving Yards +15.5
Tiger Woods 4th Round score -15.5

Who Will Have More?
Total QB sacks by Giants and Patriots
Shots on goal by Jaromir Jagr

Who Will Have More?
Longest Field Goal by Giants or Patriots +24.5
Phil Mickelson 4th Round Score (FBR Open) –24.5

Who Will Have More?
Tom Brady Interceptions
Derek Fisher (LAL) Free Throws Missed

How Long Will it Take Jordin Sparks to Sing the National Anthem?
Over 1 minute 42 seconds
Under 1 minute 42 seconds

That last one is my favorite. It has nothing to do at all with the game itself. Some poor sucker will no doubt lose his kids college fund as a result of the outcome though. As I was seeking out some of these prop bets I happened to come by this gem of an article. Go ahead and read it. And hang in there while reading it. It'll change the way you look at (or in this case listen to) our National Anthem forever. Plus, it's funny in so many ways.

So if you're not a Pats or Giants fan but you want to sit and watch this game with more than passing interest, go ahead. Why not? I'm taking the under on The National Anthem.

Next question

So, it looks like Wendy's once or twice a year takes the prize. Sounds about right to me. I spent a lot of time on the road this week delivering fitness goods with McHammy or VisitPA Ray. Good times. Both are quality delivery mates.

The Wifey is running off on some work related 2-day trip in a week or so. She's not normally excited to go on a trip like this but this time I think she's looking forward to it. Her and her co-worker, Nikki, are looking at this trip as a way to get away from needy little babies and also to get away from Haley and Molly for a couple days. In a way I'm happy to see her get away but I'm also slightly freaked out because this means I'm in charge of getting TLW taken care of. I've done one night before but never a 2 nighter. I've joked that I'm going to hire a 2-day nanny for this event.

January wrapped up with a 20 out of 23 commuting success rate. 87%. February started off crapilly. 0%.

Eli's Coming.