My first job: Entertainment

I loaded baseballs into a pitching machine in order to get batting practice when the place was empty.

No Time For Lame Twittering

I'm implementing a scorched earth policy with regards to the lame twitter heads. I've estimated I've now wasted 1.296 days of my life learning they've returned home, made cereal, don't want to go to work each and every bloody Monday and are anxious about going to the doctor. Really?

Updating My TwitterNation

Looking for more of this...

"RT Scott Heiferman: 'Hey Pepsi, you're sugar water. You're not hope or change. Cut the crap.'"

or


"Getting out of bed is the worst idea I've had all day."

or

@chelsaskees "When I was in high school, I only had these dance moves <awesome dancing> tho now I have better moves < even awesomer dancing >"

and less of......

"What, snow again?"

I'm looking for Twitter-folks that pack volumes of information into their 140-character-space and scratch their noodle a little before clicking on the "update" button. Smart, witty, funny, an exclusive or it lets me inside that little private life of their's. Most of these people post once per day and they're posting about the snow falling again. Good grief.

Surpise finding of the day. Twitter employees are not always the best posters based on said criteria above.

My next BIG project will be to map the blog authors and twitter-ers from around the country. I already suspect they can be found predominantly in three regions.

First Commute in Weeks

I dusted off the single speed yesterday and commuted in. I was hesitant as the last time I had three flats on the ride in. The pollen count in Austin was the highest ever, according to one of the sniffling crew at the office. I found that out after I road in. The meds I'm on for the cedar fever really mess with my brain. I can think and write but I can't think and make a decision. Like whether or not to have another cup of coffee or whether to take this road or that road. Weird. So with the meds kicking in I went a couple more miles north than I should have.

The roads I took worked out getting to the new office. There was a patchwork of bike lanes that made east/west travel manageable.

The ride home went much smoother. I just pointed the steed in the general direction of the University of Texas campus and let the meds take over. Right, then left, then a little forward. Again, found mostly bike lanes. At this time I was thinking of pulling over to the nearest pub and making the venture home into one long pub crawl but I had less than 90 minutes of sunlight left and no illumination for the bike.

I did manage to run out of sunlight right about Doc's Backyard, a local brew and restaurant establishment that resembled the old southern Texas ice houses from the past. So I tethered the steed to the fence and mosied up to the bar in my full lycra kit.

Cyclists attract other cyclists, runners other runners, Linux users other Linux users and roller bladers, well they just attract flies. I hadn't been at the bar longer than 20 minutes when three biker dudes pulled up stools. These three looked like Marshall Bruce Mathers III , these urban slim shady poets of the dirt & cog ordered Micheladas and then proceeded to tell me there's nothing better after a hard ride. The body craves the vitamin C from the tomato and lime juice plus the salt to restore the electrolytes lost bangin' that last 400 foot hill. No, these Eminem nutritionists knew their cocktails as well as they knew their Gary Fisher hardtails. The Michelada de la Luna is absolutely the first thing to drink off the trail or the street.

After sharing a few rounds with my new friends the sag wagon pulled up. It was time to go. There were showers to take and new neighbors to meet at a party.

It never fails. Although there are times when the ride/ run sucks, 99% of the time there are things seen or people talked to that never would have happened had I sat on the couch or drove the car. And each time I'm reminded of that.

Calorie Restriction and Monitoring is Working

The calorie restriction is working well. I'm down from 190.6 pounds to 182.2 as of this morning. I'm losing it a little faster than I planned or hoped, partly due to the severe cedar-fever allergy I have going. The steam sauna is helping immensely with the sinus blockage.

I'm using Calorie Count from About.com instead of FitDay.com. No specific reason. I came across it before going back to FitDay and have stuck with it.

What's new this time is by the time I reach the calorie limit for the day, that's it. All eating is basically turned off. I say basically as I still ate, but it was plain air-popped popcorn for the rest of the night. I did that three times last week.

End of Hibernation

As the bear opened it's eyes for the first time after the deep sleep of winter passed, today I too started coming out the other side of gluttonous hibernation. I have over indulged since the day of my last triathlon. Writing the prior sentence felt like confessing a sin as I wrote it and I speculate that to triathletes, a trip to the tripple-burger-land is a reward for going all those months without an ounce of grilled buns dripping with fat. Going there repeatedly for over three months is pure heresy to other triathlon purists and may call for my banishment from the lycra establishment forever.

As my weight went up I thought it was do to the added weight lifting but knew it was partly due to the baking frenzy I went on and continued beyond Christmas. At the wellness conference yesterday I passed by the lady holding the calipers checking body fat percentages several times not making eye contact as that would've engaged her tractor beam pulling me against my will ever closer to check my chubbers. What if she grabs 22% body fat in front of everyone at the expo? My curiosity got the better of me and I engaged eye contact. Tractor beam pulled. I flexed. Then relaxed. She pinched. 16%. So now I know what I have to do for bikini season.

This is also the first week at the new office which adds about 20 minutes to the gym commute at lunch so it's probably out as a daily routine. it'll be after work or before from now on.

I'm also starting back with FitDay.com to log calories again. That worked well in the past to the tune of 30 pounds of weight loss so I think it'll work again. Because looking in the mirror and seeing the chubbers appear ain't doing it to get lean. It goes hand in hand with the book I'm reading, The Anti-Aging Plan by Roy Walford, M.D. and Lisa Walford. And, I can only cut 20% total calories if I know what 20% looks like. I have a feeling my baking will be out until next Thanksgiving or until I see 11% body fat again.

I signed up for the Austin Half Marathon yesterday but blew off the 3M. I hated to do so but my foot needs some serious rehab. Pushing the next run to Feb. will give me a little more time. If you're thinking of running the Austin Half or Full Marathon you better hurry. They're over 90% full as of today.

I'd Rather Talk About Something Else

I had ideas today to blog about foot pain, great Austin weather to run in, the closing of "The Cave" (as it was referred to as by my co-workers), the new office digs (the largest cube farm I've ever seen in my life) or the last hacky sack circle within The Cave prior to leaving the building for the last time, but the words didn't flow as expected. I researched and totally had the Punxsutawney Phil metaphor for cube farms nailed and even had the Whac-A-Mole metaphor standing off stage right in the shadows in case the former metaphor didn't materialize. (See Office Space, the movie).

But during the hacky sack circle, during the installation of the servers in the new cube farm, during the eating of fabo-veggie burritos at Freebird's or the Mexican cervezas at Saucer, a certain sadness was experienced by the cavemen and the solitary cave woman. It was not spoken of nor a tear to be had. Four-plus years in a sub-standard office space had come to an end but with great memories of making the most of it. So it was to be that at 12:10 p.m. the non-discrept black and white clock on the wall was withdrawn, placed on the floor and crushed under the feet of six individuals forever freezing in time 12:10 p.m. in the cave. That's the last thing done in the cave before the door was closed. It had the feeling of sealing the opening of the Egyptian pyramid's treasures with dynamite but without the dynamite. And it wasn't Egyptian and there were certainly no treasures and there was nothing secret about it although you had to know the five-digit code to enter which added to the mysterious feel but I digress.

The cave dwellers evolved into cube farmers today. So be it. Enough said.

One curious note though. As I was leaving, glancing to make sure the fridge was defrosting properly, carrying my last box containing a pencil, various sized paper clips and a post it note one of the managers entered the cave waving a familiar square piece of plastic. Lo and behold it was my Bob Dylan Modern Times CD. Synchronicity! Hallelujah! It just goes to show you that if you put the energy out there for something it'll come to you in time. I'd been searching for two weeks for it. Not exactly returned on Twitter time but I'll take it.

So, rather than spend time reminiscing on the old cave or bludgeoning myself on the new dress code including my favorites; no jeans or tennis shoes come Monday, I'd rather point you to the hilarious Bike Snob NYC post about his new-free ride.

Last bit. I also rejoiced today spying bike racks inside the covered garage. At one point officials said they were to be outdoors only. Like I'd leave Salsa Verde, Caliente or Road Saus tethered to a rack in the rain. That was almost a deal breaker for future commutes.

Two Runs Since Arch Supports

The two runs have proven that the arch support in the left shoe helps the foot's running mechanics, resulting in less pain afterwards. I still had to ice and massage the foot after the 10-miler. Not so much after the five-mile run. I'm still thinking it needs to be tweaked a little. Maybe a greater arch.

I'm taking tomorrow off. The last two weeks I've worked two days on/ three days off and loved it. With the Horns playing tonight in the Fiesta Bowl late, I think I need tomorrow to digest all of the feeds, discussions and tweets of the night. It should be fun. And include another long run.