10 posts tagged “vacation”
I fucking hate packing for several reason. First, there's the whole ADD thing. Putting away two weeks of laundry that has been sitting in piles that the cats love to sit on. Filling up my iPod. Making sure my scrips are all filled. Finding the portable umbrella. Then there's the going through the clothes thing and realizing that I have nothing to wear. I hate all my clothes. Ok, that's not entirely true. I have a few pairs of jeans I like, and just bought some cool shirts. But that's it. I hate the 20 pairs of khaki's on the bottom shelf of my closet. They're so 90s. Besides, they show dirt too easily, and I can't keep them clean for shit. It's spring, can't wear any of the five different colors of cordourys. Too warm for wool. The black ones are just boring. The green check are just *ugh*. That leaves....nothing. So once again I am forced to go clothes shopping in the big city.
Heading out tomorrow morning for a few days in Brainerd, MN. Wife and I are going to do some bicycling along the Paul Bunyan Trail, which is 80 miles of paved bicycle path. We're staying at a cheap hotel, and will probably do a couple of day trips along one or two segments of the trail. The forecast calls for 90 degrees and sunny, not my ideal biking weather, but we'll see how I feel. I'll try to take some pics and post something when I get back. I also have some fireworks pics from July 4th that I've been meaning to post, but they need a little cleanup and my trial version of Photoshop Express expired last month.
Heading out tomorrow morning to Brainerd, MN, for some vacation-type activities. Going to do some bicycling along parts of the Paul Bunyan trail, which covers over 80 miles of paved bike paths. We'll do a couple of day trips along various segments, maybe 20 or 30 miles at a time, depending on weather and how I feel. The forecast calls for 90 degrees and sun -- way too hot for my tastes. I'll try to take some pics and post some reports when I get home. I also have some fireworks pics I took on July 4th that I still intend to post, but I have to get Photoshop or Photoshop Elements first. My trial version expired last month.
At the risk of beginning an entry with an apology, I'll say Sorry I haven't been around much. Boss Man has been on vacation for the last week and a half, plus I'm trying to get out and exercise more. All of which leaves less time for something; which right now is blogging and sleep. Even the sleep thing I've about reached the limit on how far down I can go. It's time to start cycling back up into the rhealms of a more normal night's sleep instead of these little 4 hour "power naps" I've been getting at night. That's just not cutting it any more.
I am trying to keep up, at least briefly, with everyone in my neighborhood, but if anyone's tagged me or otherwise referenced me and I didn't respond, please assume I didn't see it and PM me directly.
Boss Man gets back into Boss Land on Monday. We get to converse and frown at each other for a couple of days (this includes my hollering at him for bouncing yet another paycheck. I'm getting really sick and fucking tired of this irresponsible shit, but at this point I feel I have no one but myself to blame for not moving on. There's also another long part to this story that I'll expound on when I have more time.).
I leave next week Thursday for five days in Sunny Duluth. Looking forward to five days of peace, quiet, and bicycle riding along the Mungar trail -- 63 miles of smooth, paved roads just for bikers and roller bladers. This is exactly what I want.
Anyone who lives near Duluth and wants to join me for a meetup somewhere around there is welcome (and even encouraged) to PM me and we'll figure something out.
I'm going to DC this weekend (Fri - Sun). Any suggestions of places I should go, things (or people) I should do, or places to eat? Other than the obvious ones (National Gallery, etc.)?
Looking forward to visiting Brotherman and niece & nephew (or Denise and DeNephew, as I will forever think of them).
Know what I'm doing next week? Taking a vacation, of course. Taking it nice and easy. That's right folks, starting Monday I will be spending my entire week at home with Wife. Except that we're really spending the week running errands, but still together. Monday morning we (hopefully) report to the hospital for the infertility work. Then bring all three babies in to the vet for their annual checkup. Then drop the car off for its checkup, drop Wife off at her shrinks, then I'm going out to dinner with AS and J.
Tuesday I have my PT at 1, then need to run to the other end of the world to pick up the car, then go back downtown for a 5pm meeting with our financial advisor. Wednesday it's tax time, with a 10 am appointment with Mr. Tax Accountant (actually, he's very good and has a sense of humor, or I wouldn't be working with him). Thursday I get to sleep, hopefully have sex once or twice, and pack. Friday morning we hit the road for a long weekend in sunny Des Moines, Iowa, visiting G and his family. That's always a rockin' good time. We saw Springsteen last time we were there, and ate some really good food.
If the weather holds, I might even be able to take his R1100RS out for a ride....Yuummmmmm.
Have you ever taken a dump so large that it literally clogs the toilet? Well, yours truly is now a member of that elite group of people. I only mention this because I'm sure you'd want to know.
In other news, it's frigging cold here. As in single digits, for the last four or five days. That's without the wind chill, and man has it been windy. Going outside is akin to mounting an expedition to the top of Everest, only with more Oxygen and less of a view. And only slightly less of a sense of accomplishment.
I braved the elements on Friday to get the all important MRI on my right knee (be sure to note the cute little mouse living just above my knee cap). If you've never had the privilege of getting one done before, it's not difficult or painful. The machine looks like an eight-foot white donut -- all it needed was some powdered sugar. You lie perfectly still for 30 minutes (give or take a few, depending on how many scans they do) on a table that slides inside the donut, which then makes really loud noises as powerful magnetic fields course through your body. Oh, and be sure to leave the credit cards at home, or they'll become completely demagnetized.
Alternatively, it looks like something that could be used for exotic forms of torture. The blond technician running the machine that evening had a strong Russian accent. After securing me to the sliding table, I almost asked her to say "Goodbye, Mr. Bond" before waltzing up to the control room. Actually, she was very nice and gave me a quick tour of the control room afterwards (the front end is a Silicon Graphics Octane workstation. I received a copy of all 118 images on a CD as a parting gift).
In the meantime, I'm slowly feeling worse and worse. I don't want to just whine and complain all the time (actually, I do, but that's another story), but it's hugely frustrating not being able to move. I feel like I'm living my life inside a stiff rubber hose; unable to bend and twist like a normal person. It hurts walking up and down stairs, bending over, even crossing my legs. Next doctor appointment is in a week (doctor is out this week), so I guess I have to wait for results of the MRI and blood test from last session.
I'm also feeling tired and stressed out by work. Anyone want to join me for a weekend in Vegas? Lying in the sun by pool, some really good food, take in a Cirque du Soleil show? The appeal is becoming overwhelming after a week of frigid temps. Email me if you're serious.
P.S. Wife's Superbowl post game analysis, and I quote verbatim: "Grossman sucks, Grossman sucks, Grossman sucks."
that I was getting ready to do a track day. I had all my gear together--leathers, boots, gloves, helmet. I was about to put in my ear plugs and head out on the track for the first time that day, and I couldn't wait to rev the engine and go screaming around the curves. See how far I could lean the bike over in curves and get some real speed going down the straights.
Mainly, I think it was about the excitement and anticipation I felt in wanting (and being able!) to do something recreational and out of the ordinary. I've been in a blah, emotionally flat state for some months now. I need the adult version of a day at the amusement park--fun, exciting, a little wild and different. The sad part is, right now, I'm not even sure what that would look like.
Sorry I haven't written much lately. It's been a long, tough week at work (although we did get paid on time--Woo woo--and I'm mostly caught up on my paperwork). Wife and I rescheduled our therapy session, mostly because I was too exhausted to move or think. And, no movement on the kids thing.
The new TV is great, but before you can watch it, you have to hook it up. This is the really fun part, and by "fun" I mean "not." I now have a deep and personal understanding of the old joke, "this reads like stereo instructions." I spent two hours untwisting and unhooking cables from the old cable box, then trying to figure out how many dangling wires I could add to the spiffy new digital cable box (it and TV support HDMI, but the receiver is older so it's only S-Video. Then there's SPDIF, optical SPDIF, and a bunch of other acronyms that I have no idea what to do with).
Finally, everything is hooked up, I get both sound and video (we got both kinds of music -- country and western) and the difference is huge! Switching back and forth between the regular version NBC/CBS/ABC and their digital versions, you can actually make out individual strands of someone's hair; skin tones are clearer; you can see where people are wearing makeup; even the stripes in Bill Maher's suit are thin sharp lines, not the indistinct gray blur of a guitar string. The sharpness and clarity are phenomenal, and I'm not even getting paid to say that.
Tomorrow I've got a couple of personal clients, then I have to pretend to clean house and put my laundry away. Next week I head off on Thursday to the DC area to visit my brother and his family. I haven't seen my niece and nephew (two and a half year old twins) in a long time, so I'm really looking forward to it. Plus the time away from home and work is always good. Getting out of my environment and the usual daily rat race makes me a much calmer person.
With any luck, one of their cute neighbors will flirt shamelessly with me and I'll have something interesting to blog about.
It's been a pancake and french fry kind of day -- nothing seems to go together.
Wife 1.0 has the day off and I took a vacation day so we could spend some time together. Except I forgot she had an appointment for the ultrasound of her uterus (everything looked fine, btw) this morning. Then our oldest cat (he's 14 and diabetic, so we watch him closely. Plus, he's still kinda cute...) started limping, so we took him to the vet first thing this morning. Then wife got another appointment downtown, so I agreed to see one of my clients who was screaming about backup problems. Mix in some rescheduling, another client getting a new hard drive (which means a complete reinstall of everything), and there goes our day.
All I wanted was a little sleep and some sex. And maybe some peace and quiet.
