Thursday, June 28, 2007

Pandora: it'll do for now

Okay, I realize this is a strange hour to update. But there are some things I feel like sharing.

1) My dad is configuring my computer to work with Suse. While this is extremely exciting, it's also a major bitch because my external hard drive is not enjoying the transition. Before, I had managed to work around the corrupted music files. Now, all but maybe 200 of my mp3's have become inaccessible, both in Windows and Suse startups. Fortunately, my dad is a big computer geek and sees this as just another fun project for him to play with, once he gets my wireless working with Suse. (Once Suse is up and running, and my hard drive is fixed, I doubt we'll be seeing much of Windows. Maybe to use Excel for class.)

2) I have seen Tom twice since I've been back home, both times with beer and his recently-graduated high school friends. They're charmingly exuberant. Also, Tom is one mean BBQing machine.

3) It takes 5 minutes for me to drive to work, 15 to ride my bike. It would probably only take 10 to ride, except my neighborhood is designed to be impossible to leave by bike. I have to walk it up the roller coaster hill going out, and up the 7-11 hill coming back.

4) Work is fucking amazing. A sauna and steam room, and I didn't even realize how bad I missed my old coworkers until now. If only I could pluck up the new Rec Center and drop it over Arne Hanna, mixing the two town's lifeguards and completely transferring Fedtown's supervising staff. I'd never whine about lifeguarding again.

5) Redondo is just as useful as I thought it would be. Running every day, plus walking and drinking coffee at night. Never before did I realize how steep the Redondo hill was until I drove up it, imagining myself on a bike. I cringed. Can't wait to show it to Irene.

6) I have not done laundry since the week before BRAG. With the dawning loss of clean underwear, it's about time I ran a few loads. Maybe tomorrow, before I head to the bike shop for some fresh air in my tires.

7) The long-awaited reunion of Chanelsea takes place tomorrow morning, 11 am, location TBD.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Don't you wanna go down?

All year long, I kept track of my bike mileage in my school planner. Each month had a mini-calendar before the real planning part began, and I used those little boxes to mark off "Bike Work" or "Bike 10 miles". The distances were short and infrequent. I believe my best week was a 30 mile ride one day, and Bike Work all the rest of the week. Once Spring quarter got to be tedious and predictable (and my attempts to actually do schoolwork fell off completely), I stopped keeping track of my training.

I kind of wish I'd kept it up. If anything, just to see the sudden spike from Bike 10 Miles to Bike 70 Miles, Bike 65 Miles, Bike 73 Miles, etc., all within one week.

Seriously, I did 421 miles in 7 days. I still don't quite believe it.

This evening I went for a light pedal around Bellingham. Ended up going up hill after hill after hill, and instead of wondering why the hell I kept turning up instead of down, I really just regretted that I was on the mountain bike. I can't wait to put the road bike back together.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Network Cable is Unplugged (but really, it's not)

I would like to file an official complain to my laptop's internet connection. I've been back home in Bellingham for little over an hour, using a computer for the first lengthy chunk of time in over a week, and I can't begin to explain the extreme frustration I'm experiencing. Apparently my computer's internet plug likes to wiggle around in its slot, disconnecting and reconnecting at random. When I go back to Fedtown for serious this Sunday, I'm going to have a chat with my dad. See what he can do about hooking me up with a better piece of machinery.

Please take the time to note the timestamp on this post. 10:30-ish, yes? I've been fighting off sleep for the last 40 minutes. Last night, I slept from 9pm to 8am. I've been sleeping 12 or so hours a day ever since I climbed off my bike on Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to go out running and see if I can't jolt my body out of its hibernation mode.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

I'm trying to look at my own blog right now, but instead I'm seeing something completely different. Is Blogger down? Who knows. Anyway, I'm going to post this as a test and republish the whole damn thing. Also, Irene and I got bored during the ride today and started thinking up jokes to tell to the riders we pass/who pass us. Here are some I found on the internet just now:

A: What do you call a deer with no eyes?
B: No idea. (No Eye Deer.)

Q: If you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, what does it become?
A: Wet.

Q: What do you call a boomerang that won't come back?
A: A stick.

Q: What do you call a hippie's wife?
A: Mississippi.

What do you call the best butter on the farm?
A goat.

What do you get if you cross a chicken with a cement mixer?
A brick layer!

Two cannibals eating a clown.
One says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?"

Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid,the other was eating fireworks.
They charged one and let the other one off.

Staying at high schools is irritating. 90% of the joke websites I tried to check were blocked, as are Facebook and Myspace. Who knows how many kottke.org links will work when I go for my links fix?

A movie about this year's Tour de France winner is playing. Mostly it's just amusing to watch the skinny biker footage. Listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and planning on running back to my book here soon.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Washington? DC or the one in Georgia?

I came into the campus library to use the bathroom (after staring at the building from 200 ft. away trying to convince myself to get up), then saw the computers and thought, Hey, I'll check my email. Now I'm back to the same dilemma from before. I really want to go back outside and lay in the sun, read a book, sleep, but damn it's hard to stand up.

We're 205 miles closer to the 4oo-something finish line. 416? 402? I can't remember the specific number. I can barely remember how many miles we're doing a day. Day One was Hills of Death, Day Two was The Day My Legs Didn't Work, Day Three (today) was Party Armadillo Day. Yeah, today the bikers were throwing Mardi Gras beads on all the roadkill.

If I could actually focus, I'd try to write about all the bizarre behaving bikers. But right now my legs refuse to lift me from a sitting position, and my back and shoulders are in a constant slow burn. My legs have an already frightening mid-thigh tan, and... I don't know what else. I'm going to go sleep in the sun (it rained all morning, so the heat is semi-bearable today.) Funny to think that I'm getting up 2am West Coast time and sleeping like a baby by 6pm.

Also, I think I'm picking up the accent.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Why can't we be friends?

The geekout moments just keep coming. I was watching another episode of Freaks and Geeks today (I think I can blame this show on my current descent into geekdome, actually). Episode 8, Boyfriends and Girlfriends, for all you dvd tv show nerds out there (Tommy, that was directed straight to you.) Anyway, the very last 2 minutes or so are of Lindsey and Sam sitting in the kitchen, eating ding-dongs. Sam gets a phone call from the girl he likes, who starts telling him about the boy she likes that asked for her number. Sam wraps the telephone cord around his neck and fake-dies, and Lindsey comes over to listen in on the conversation. After a couple seconds she opens her ding-dong filled mouthed into the phone receiver, and Sam shoves her away before turning back to the call.

And I smiled and felt a little pang, because I really miss living with my brothers.

Tuey and I are going out for an End of Year Dinner at Jalapeño's when she gets off work. Hopefully. Usually whenever I write about my plans in here, they fall through. But if they don't, then tonight is a night of enchiladas and Deep Fried Ice Cream (aka DFI, for when you find yourself saying the phrase too many times in polite conversation and need to save your breath for the gasps of anticipatory excitement (or pretend you aren't geeking out over ice cream covered in corn flakes.)) Tonight will also include reminisces of older times, like the time in junior high when we stayed up until 5 in the morning eating frosting from the container and talking about boys. Or all those Memorial Day weekends in high school spent wandering Folk Life Festival. Or the endless nights we used to spend between the pool hall and Denny's with Bob and Steve-o.

...

I am practically dying with anticipation now, thanks Blogger. An hour and a half until showtime.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Don't touch me please, I cannot stand the way you tease

So, in my dinosaur class today, we watched a clip from the fabulous movie Dinosaur, which I have watched many a time thanks to my many years spent babysitting for families with vast Disney DVD collections in high school. When the mama monkey screamed for her baby monkey, "Suri! Where are you?!" I almost fell over snorting with laughter. I think the Hollywood gossip rags can finally stop arguing. We know where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes found their baby name. Also, in statistics I felt the usual desire to keep a running commentary on the class material (it keeps me distracted from his accent, sort of.) When he started talking about the Greek letter beta, ß, I had an immediate flashback to high school German. I spent a good chunk of time rewriting words including the eszett. My favorite is saßy.

I completely geeked out this afternoon at Fred Meyer. First, I've got a brand new baseball cap. I've been dying to find a good one for ages, and alright, it's Nike, not Adidas, but I can deal. Not all my sports apparel has to be from Adidas. (But my new workout shorts are! Note to self: Find red Adidas shorts, they must be around the house somewhere.) Anyway, my geek moment was when I stood among all the sports bags and backpacks and suitcases, fondling and comparing fanny packs. I took the items in my basket and saw how many I could fit in each one. I checked for durability of the fanny strap, color, price, and sex appeal. Ouch, well, I guess I have two Nike products now. But my new black fanny pack is perfect, wonderful, glorious, I can't wait to get it covered in dust on the outside and bug spray/sunscreen on the inside.

9:30 Update
3 days until I leave Bellingham, 82 hours and 18 minutes until my plane departs for Georgia!