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January 25, 2007
good doll, bad doll
I don't normally do posts that are just links, but I found this interesting and provocative:
http://www.komotv.com/home/video/5001856.html?video=YHI&t=a
How far we haven't come.
Posted by Mark at 11:57 PM | Comments (1)
January 23, 2007
gym, beer, class
I finally got around to joining the local gym yesterday. A coworker got me a free visit, and I liked the facility so much that I signed up on the spot. It wasn't too crowded, even on a weeknight after work, and they have a very substantial weight room with multiple stations for different exercises and plenty of free weights. The treadmills all have TVs attached to them, and they have both regular personal trainers and even golf coaches. I think I may avail myself of some golf lessons through them.
Best of all, I can feel the soreness in my arms today and it's such a good feeling. I'm excited to start strong again.
I mentioned to Pete yesterday that I was thinking of trying to go in the middle of the day, around lunch, and he was all for it. He even considered doing that himself, since he actually has a membership at that same gym that he hasn't been using since he started having some heart problems last year. I love working out in the middle of the day because you come back to work so energized and ready to get things done. Plus it helps that at the end of the day you can just go home, knowing that you've already gotten your workout in for the day.
I've been thinking about Matt's beer list lately and since I'm doing the moleskine thing during the day for to-do listing and note-taking, I decided to start my own beer list. I estimate that I've tried easily 200 beers in my life, probably more, and I'd like to start keeping track. So I am making notes, and I'm going to transfer them to the blog at some point in the near future.
Classes have started at BU for the semester and they seem a bit different this semester. Seems like the marketing class will be a bit more intense than last semester, and corporate finance has a lot more math and calculation. It's only been a week, so we'll see how it goes. It has been really nice seeing people again after the Christmas break though.
Posted by Mark at 10:48 AM | Comments (1)
January 12, 2007
milestone, basketball, schedule
Hit a big milestone at work last night...we did our Q4 2006 change release. It was a little nail-biting, but in the end, everything went out with no problems at all. It was exciting to release changes to a product, and to have actually had such a hand in doing the work.
We're heading out to Syracuse this weekend for a basketball game, which should be fun. Nice little vacation. I even found my Wegman's shopper's club card.
In terms of the condo, it has been a slow week. Kara has been working late most nights and I've been in one of those mid-winter sleepy semi-funks, so I haven't been doing much. Also, we're about at the point where 95% of the boxes and bags have been unpacked, and now we just need to determine where the stuff actually is going to live, and what stuff needs to continue to be stored in boxes. There's a subtle difference: you can unpack something, but then determine that it needs to go back in a box and go to the basement. Like Christmas decorations, or camping gear, or whatever. We're about at that point now.
Monday is a floating holiday, but I think I'm just going to work it and take the holiday some other time.
Classes start on Wednesday!
Addendum: This is a neat article about a new and interesting way of looking at the original Star Wars trilogy, taking into account everything that happens in the prequels.
Posted by Mark at 08:48 AM | Comments (1)
January 08, 2007
holidays, organization, notes
As per usual, just getting caught up in the new year. I just finished reading Matt's blog and figured I should update my own.
So, Christmas gifts were great. I got some tool bags and related home improvement stuff, the Star Wars cookbook from Kara (Greedo's Burritos and Han Burgers represent!), a putter from Mike, a Nike ipod thing and ipod armband from Matt, and lots of other random stuff, including some delicious bottles of wine (more on those later) and some good beers. I got Kara a lot of decorative stuff for the condo, and she was happy. All in all it was a good Christmas.
While we were home in PA I got to hang out with Bob Margoles for some whisky and cigars, and I met up with Pat at the Country Tavern for some beers...not Yuengling though! Seems they ran out. I did buy a couple cases to bring back up here when we returned to Boston. Also, I brought the 12 beers of Christmas 12-pack that Saranac does around the holidays, and we all had a beer sampling party where we tried all 12.
I also got a chance to play with the Nintendo Wii. I didn't really spend as much time playing with it as I probably would have if I had been feeling better...I had some kind of bug during Christmas week and basically spent the whole time either feeling sick, or drinking, which took the edge off the "ill" part. It was fun, though, the little I did play. We also had a putting contest in the family room, and I felt I did fairly well.
New Year's was very quiet this year, with a small party at Robin's place. We had some beers, played some party games, and watched the ball drop. It was a very minimal-debauchery holiday.
James and Julie came to town to visit us from the UK and they enjoyed themselves. They were our first houseguests in the new place which is pretty cool.
So the first thing we are really doing in the new year is getting life organized as far as bills, financial contributions, etc. I am finding that money is a bit tighter than it used to be, what with the mortgage payment, but on the other hand, we are doing a lot more cooking at home and basically finding ways to minimize random expenses. Yesterday we bought a cart full of food from the grocery store for under $70, and it will easily feed us both for probably a week and a half. That's the great thing about having somebody else around: you can cook more meals.
I am going to try to set up some of the computers and video game systems in the next few days so I have something to keep me at home rather than out at the bars. We are also spending a lot of time going through boxes and getting rid of stuff; we consolidated all our Christmas decorations last night, and I put together three whole bags of clothing to give away. Some of it had sentimental value, but I figure my old high school leather jacket is better used keeping somebody poor from being cold than sitting in the back of my closet. So off to goodwill it goes.
Also, we had excellent warm weather this weekend and spent Saturday night smoking cigars and drinking wine on the balcony. It was a wonderfully relaxed evening, and it makes me excited for spring. We ended up having three of the bottles that Matt gave us, and all were excellent in their right. We were disappointed in that a bottle of Fat Bastard Shiraz I had sitting around since last Christmas had gone off. Now that we have a proper wine fridge, that shouldn't happen anymore.
Basically, we're taking a break from working on big fixes around the apartment, like painting and the like, so we can just put boxes away and generally finish finding places for everything. I'd like to finish the painting before it gets too warm out, but I want to take a breather for a little while so we can determine where stuff should live. We have a LOT of stuff.
Mike, you're getting a trunk full of "starter equipment" for when you have your first apartment. Just giving you fair warning.
I am trying a new low-tech method of keeping track of things. Brian gave me the idea to keep this little notepad, called a Moleskine (mole-a-skeen-a) in your back pocket; I cut down a ballpoint pen to a shorter length so I can keep a pen with me as well. I'm using it as a catch-all for to-do lists, my personal budget, writing notes, making little drawings, you name it. It's admittedly low-tech, but it's a lot faster to write things than to type them into a cell phone. Of course, I can't synch the list with Outlook or anything like that, but, eh, maybe the convenience of having it in my pocket will outweigh the fact that it isn't online.
Posted by Mark at 02:19 PM | Comments (2)
January 02, 2007
quick note
Just a two-second update here...I'll write more later.
Christmas was great, New Year's was great. Kara and I both loved all our gifts, and it was great to be able to spend some time at home. We also had a nice New Year's party that was definitely a lot of fun.
The condo is improving, and I hope to put some pictures up within a few days. The degree to which we have progressed is amazing.
Posted by Mark at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)