Fired up today

Today started very bad - but I like busy stressful days with a lot going on. They make me feel alive unfortunately. I don't have time to fuss about details - both work and home are all about just getting stuff done that needs to get done.

Why is it that stress makes me happy? That can't be good for my long term health.

Speaking of which - now that I have both my cholesterol and blood pressure workups back from over a month ago, I've made permanent a few changes in my lifestyle:

1. I'm biking 10 miles every other day. Days that it's raining, I'm spending 30-45 minutes (at least) on the elliptical. I slacked off on that because of the strep throat, but I'm back in as of tonight.

2. Meatless lunches at work - not >ALL< the time, but as a rule I've replaced a Turkey Bacon Club or Roast Beef sandwich with Tofurkey and Mustard, chips with carrots, cookies with a banana. Every once in a while, I'm treating myself to a veggie burger, either homemade or from BK.

3. No more eating out on weekdays. I was already doing this for the most part, but I started to slack. The past month I've been back to this again - and even if Tiff with her magical cardiological system gets a Whopper, I've been able to restrain myself. And maybe, just maybe, I'll let myself have a Whopper Jr, no fries. If I'm good.

4. This is just because it's easy, I've switched to diet soda and half level kool-aid. If you know how much kool-aid I drink, cutting the sugar in half has been a real calorie boon, and I actually find the drink more refreshing this way. (And it's cheaper!) Who knew there could be such an easy change.

5. And finally, drum roll please.... I've been off of potato chips for over a month. (Okay, I have had some reduced fat Pringles and fat free Ruffles... But going to that from a bag of regular chips every five days has GOT to be some improvement.)

My goal is to drop my cholestrol 15 points, lose 10 pounds (I'm halfway already, but I'm sure the second five will be tougher than the first five), and bring my blood pressure back into a clearly healthy zone instead of the borderline hypertension I'm at right now. If I can achieve this with this rough structure, I'm happy. These changes have really not been a big deal to make permanent over the last month. If I can reach this goal by September, I'll be thrilled. If I don't, I'm going to keep trying until I do.

And to be honest, I doubt I'd be even close to this mentality if it weren't for Morgan Spurlock and his movie Super Size Me, or his new show on FX - 30 Days. If you haven't seen either, consider tuning in or renting.

When Mapquest fails

My weekend involved a search for a dumpster, a 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew guzzled in one go with the requisite need to find a place to put all of that used Mountain Dew shortly thereafter, lots of dirt roads, and a possibly armed crazy hermit affectionately known as "Old Man Whitey" -- "Don't you know this is a dead end? No? You don't want to go down any further, Old Man Whitey is crazy."

And that was just Saturday morning...

When I get out and ask for directions, twice......you know it's bad. (I knew where I was, I just didn't know where my destination was - and the people I asked didn't know where that was either, although they were adamant where it was not.)

Rural Western Pennsylvania really has a lot of friendly, helpful, non-hermits. And when they tell you not to go any further down that dirt road, it's probably good advice.

And today, a little more judicious use of MapQuest uncovered where I should have ended up... I was closer than I thought, but I wouldn't have had quite the same adventure through some absolutely beautiful Armstrong and Venango county countryside.

Mad cow disease - The death toll

I'm sure the media will be pounding the mad cow story right around now, but I would just like to put something into perspective:

Deaths from CJS (related to the eating of beef with neurological tissue from a mad-cow infected bovine) Total from 1986-Spring 2005: Estimated at 167

American Military Casualties in Iraq (in 2005 ALONE, as of yesterday): 302

I'm more worried about being killed because of a mad president than because of a mad cow.

Strep throat

I have strep throat. Bad enough for me to stay home from work for two days. The silver lining is that it was bad enough that I actually went to a doctor - not typical for me, who recommended that I stay home to not spread it today. It's probably better for me, because I'm still definitely sick, but I'm well enough to stay in touch and work on my computer, so I can sort of get caught up for when I get back tomorrow.

I don't get sick that often, so I get really frustrated when I do get sick and I tend to make it into a big production. I even took two ibuprofen in one day.......... That's amazing for me.

Tiff and I were in Detroit over the weekend - got to see many relatives, got to go to a Tigers game. Tiff took a neat movie of the crowd doing the wave in the stadium. I'll try to post it if I can later today.

Erie Bayfront Connector. Work it.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a road nerd. I read maps instead of the Reader's Digest... er... you know where... I actually frequent the PennDot road survey website in my spare time (which is very very cool by the way...) However, someone at GoErie.com, the local Erie newspaper's website took the road nerdiness a step to far with their video log of the new bayfront connector highway through the East side of Erie. The video itself is a little over the top, but the classy music just takes it to a whole new level. Make sure your speakers are on for this audio delight, you will not be sorry.

In case goerie.com yanks or moves the video, here it is hosted locally in all its glory. (Or until my bandwidth gets used up, in "high-res" broadband mode.)

I don't know why I find this so amusing....

No posting for a while

Life has been pretty busy lately... Nothing too exciting, just a lot to do.

I posted some new stuff in the galleries. Well... "new" old stuff that I've gone through and catalogued last weekend.

Tiffany is coming back from a conference in Chicago, and I'm trying to stay up until she gets home. We're planning on scooting out to Michigan to visit with my parents this weekend, but it's only going to end up being one day, so we definitely won't get to do everything and see everyone we'd like to. There are work reasons that I need to stick close to the area - I'm happy to be able to get free for just a weekend.

The weekend after that I think Tiff is headed out to help her brother move to St. Louis. I would go, but ditto on the work obligations. (I'll get my time off - just now is not a good time for me.)

I'm in kind of a weird mood so I probably should stop posting for now.

Terrible Songs for Advertising

I should have written this myself - I agree with nearly every observation. Tiffany will tell you I ALWAYS rant when they play Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" for the cruise commercial.

http://www.slate.com/id/2120229/

My other music rant is musak versions of songs that have no business being played that way. I've always said I'll feel old the day I'm humming a musak version of Nine Inch Nails in an elevator. It will happen. I know it. It will be some snappy, catchy version of "Hurt" or "Mr. Self Destruct" with a horn section and everything.

My boring blog

Yes! My blog is officially boring. I've been reading some other people's blogs over lunch today and I've successfully expunged any drama from work or my social life.

Sorry... that makes me feel better to say. Sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with me that I avoid so much drama that other people seem to get involved in. Then I start to think, you know, it's not such a bad deal. I sleep well at night and I know where I stand with most people. (And I think most people know where they stand with me.)

So I might have all kinds of random observations or things to mention. But I'm not writing this blog to be interesting. I just have a need to be out there, for people to find me, and know what I'm about. (Which on the whole, isn't very complicated. I promise.)