Tag: diary

Early night tonight. I had trouble falling asleep last night, but I intend to make up for it tonight. I’m off to bed as soon as I finish this post, even though it’s still light out and even though there is a rumor that Mars is particularly visible on the east coast tonight.

I dropped my suit off at the cleaners after work today; I won’t be able to pick it up until Friday but it will be ready Wednesday. One of the dinners we have at the Homestead is a formal dinner and I’ll need a suit for it.

Watched the last three Tivo’d episodes of Smallville when I got home from work tonight. Then I caught up some more on my SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN issue.

It stopped raining yesterday and today was bright and sunny with temperatures in the 70s. I was up at 4:20 but didn’t make it into the gym today. While I slept better last night, it was still not great. I’d planned to go to the gym after work, but when our first softball practice was canceled (due to a muddy field), I gave up. In fact, I made matters much worse when I got home by ordering a pizza and then eating nearly three-quarters of the thing by myself.

On the train home this afternoon, I noted the Potomac was muddy and flooded. In fact, at high tide (which it must have been since the moon was overhead), water on the north bank had flooded over onto the sidewalk, the first time in 6 years that I can remember seeing that happen. (FYI, just in case, I just checked and high tide was at 3:56 PM today; I crossed the river about 10 minutes after 4.)

I managed to watch Randy Pausch‘s lecture on time management today, which was excellent.

I had about 10 pieces of mail when I got home, and every single one of them was junk. I think that might be a record for a single day. There was no one piece of live mail in the bunch.

The workday was made up mostly of meetings, three or four hours of them. I think I have a similar schedule tomorrow. But tomorrow morning, at least, I hope to get to the gym beforehand.

he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother should be on their way to Paris about now, for a week in and around that famous city. Bon voyage!

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I was very comfortable and wanted to sleep in some. I guess I did sleep in a little bit. I think I finally got up around 8:30 AM. Kelly and I had breakfast and finished up some laundry, and then we headed out to do some grocery shopping, stopping at Target and the grocery store.

Kelly headed home early today in order to avoid being caught out on the roads when the rain started, and to have time to go to the gym. I spent my entire afternoon in the productive activity of watching episode after episode from season 6 of The West Wing. I could have spent that time cleaning up the place, which has gotten to be a bit of mess. But why bother, right? There’s always tomorrow.

I spoke to he11o_sunshine on the phone this afternoon. I also called Mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. (Did you know that today is the 100th anniversary of the Mother’s Day holiday?) And I called vickyandnorm to congratulate Norm on his graduating from UConn yesterday and obtaining his Ph.D. Now I’m packing my lunch and heading off to bed. I’m back to the gym in the morning, and this week, I’m back to strength training in addition to cardio.

Got to sleep in a little this morning because I was at Kelly’s last night, and she lives so close to work that we can leave much later. That’s always nice. I actually slept really well last night. It was warm, but not hot, and with the storms coming in, there was a nice breeze in the air.

Busy day at work with meetings and two interviews that I did today. During the second interview, I was training someone on how to do these screening interviews and that proved to be pretty useful, I think. But it made for a long day in the office. I didn’t leave until after 5 PM and didn’t get home until about 6 PM. I decided to be lazy this evening and avoided doing anything remotely productive.

Had a check in the mail from my landlord for the electrical work I had done earlier in the week. I paid the bill and he reimbursed me for it. I have the best landlord ever invented.

Still doing good with no carbs for dinner. (I’m back to that now that I’m back to the gym.) I cheated just a little tonight, when I had a few cookies, but I’m improving. It’s much easier to phase it in than to do it cold turkey. (What, I wonder, is the etymology of that expression?)

Did some reading today–I’m more than 300 pages through In Joy Still Felt.

It rained just about all day, at times pretty hard, and I think more is expected overnight and into tomorrow. Lots of phone calls today. Spoke to Mom, Dad, Doug, and he11o_sunshine. Mom and Dad are out of town this weekend for my Uncle Bob’s funeral in Utah. That means Mom will be away on Mother’s Day and so I had flowers sent to her today. She called when she got home to tell me she’d gotten them.

I failed to follow up on my blood donation yesterday. It all went well. I managed to donate an entire pint in about 6 minutes. I felt a little light-headed but not nearly as much as the first time. It’s not a pleasant experience. I don’t mind the sight of blood in the least, but I don’t like the feeling of your life being slowing sucked away. It’s one of those things that is–for all it’s discomfort–not worth doing; except that it is worth doing. And if you understand that, then you know exactly what cognitive dissonance is all about. In fact, I hate the feeling, but I force myself to do it anyway. I get through by cracking bad jokes. The Red Cross people were great and they have the efficiency of their process down to a science. I was, however, amused by one inefficiency that I noted. In the screening process, I was asked for a picture ID. I gave my driver’s license. The nurse placed the license before her and keyed in some information. She asked me a few questions and then asked, “What’s your date of birth?” I thought that was odd, since my DOB is right there in red on the license. But I answered. A few minutes later, she asked again. I answered but I was mildly annoyed. Lesson: if you have the information in front of you, save everyone time and don’t ask! I’d been warned not to exert myself too much. Running for a train after work, I discovered why. I was completely out of breath, my heart was pounding. I felt unmanned. Of course, I feel back to normal today.

Def Leppard has a new studio album out, their first one to make the top ten since 1992. I downloaded it to my iPhone this morning, but haven’t listened to it yet. strausmouse is skeptical.

Gym tomorrow morning. Another busy day.

Days that I work from home always seem longer than days that I’m in the office. I think it’s the lack of a commute. I get started early, don’t have to commute in, don’t have to commute home, and I usually work later. And to top it off, I had 4 hours of phone meetings that stretched my poor phone battery to it’s limits.

The bathroom fan has been replaced. The electrician came out today. They were scheduled to come out between 8 and 10 AM. At around 9:30, I got a call from the guy telling me he was stuck on a job and would be closer to noon. He was very polite and apologized. And because he had the courtesy to call and explain, I didn’t mind in the least. He ended up getting here around 11 AM, and made quick work, pulling out the old fan, replacing it, and adding a new cover too. Twenty minutes.

I’ve been doing some work on my modeling software–that’s the software that I first developed about 10 or 11 years ago that I use to manage my finances. I’ve been fixing some bugs with it. I’ve been considering doing a new version of it, but I’m trying instead to adapt the current version to my needs. I’d rather spend the time getting back to writing.

Been keeping an eye on the Indiana primary, now that Obama won North Carolina. News is currently saying that Clinton has the lead, but it’s still too early to call it. I’m hoping Obama can pull off a victory there and that Clinton will get out of the race. We’ll see.

Going to pack my lunch for tomorrow and then head off to bed. As busy as I was today, I don’t feel very accomplished, for some reason.

Work went by quickly today, and I was kept fairly busy throughout the day. In fact, I didn’t get out of the office until almost 5 PM. I had a 6 PM meeting so once I left, I couldn’t dawdle. While waiting to change trains at Mt. Vernon Square, a man came up to me and asked, in a thick Russian accent, “Do you speak Russian?” I said no, but I wonder why he asked me, of all people.

I was back home just before 6 PM, in time for my meeting, which fortunately only lasted 30 minutes.

Got the July issue of ASIMOV’S in the mail today and the JULY/AUGUST issue of ANALOG. Also my American Express bill.

I packed my lunch today, and I also managed to eat second breakfast after the gym. It was a good day health-wise. In fact, I capped it with a low-carb dinner of hummus and carrots and tuna fish (no bread, just the tuna). It was good!

Yesterday, I started reading Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture. This morning, I finished it. It was a great book. I really enjoyed it. Once I was finished, I couldn’t let it go at that. I went to the website and I watched all 76 minutes of the actual lecture. It was incredible. On the train home, I resumed In Joy Still Felt. I’m nearly 300 pages through at this point.

Spoke with he11o_sunshine this evening. Also talked to Doug for a while.

I’m working from home tomorrow (which is why it’s 10 PM and I’m still awake). I have an electrician coming by to do some work.

I took the telescope out briefly this evening. I still need to align it properly but I was able to look at a few stars. I spent about 30 minutes at it. Not only was it fun, but it was relaxing, too.

Quoted here, from my diary, without comment:

Saturday, May 1, 1998 — I think that I decided that I want to be an astronaut today. I know that sounds odd, especially since I’m already 26 years old and “grown up”. But I was browsing some of NASA’s web today and found their astronaut candidate program pages. I know I don’t have a chance in hell to qualify. And I’m not kidding myself. It was only a daydream… but… I certainly may not make it. But think of what I can do for myself by trying. I can put myself into outstanding mental and physical condition. I can try to learn new things with a real heroic goal in mind. And as long as I remain realistic from the start (my chances are extraordinarily slim) I can’t lose. I’ll come out a far better person than I went in no matter what.

I had mentioned the incoherent entries in my diary for 9/11/01 earlier today. Now that I am home and have the books in front of me, here are some examples (even the handwriting is worse than usual):

September 11 — The world changed today when four commercial airliners were hijacked–2 crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in NY, ultimately collapsing them. One crashed int the Pentagon, and one crashed in a cornfield in Penn. Thousands of people are feared dead in this terrorist attack… I was in the office at 6 AM when I got a call from Beth about what happened. I am still in shock. [Company redacted] closed the building around 10 AM. I came home and have been glued to the TV ever since. In my mind, this is worse than Pearl Harbor–it is an act of war. I’m furious, angry and saddened. The NY skyline has been changed. I simply can’t believe this…

September 12 — No sleep. TV all night. Into work early after picking up all the papers I could find to pour over them. Bush and many of his cabinet members finally called this an act of war today. It’s looking more and more like its related to Osama bin Ladin, the terrorist hiding in Afghanistan…

September 14 — …I can’t find a f—ing flag anywhere. Every place is sold old. I don’t know why but I feel like I just have to have a flag. There’s everywhere but no place has them in stock… also talked about the possibilities of enlisting. Spoke with Brad at work about the Marines, but probably the Army or Air Force would be the way to go. With my pilot’s license and […]

September 18 — News is reporting a possible link between the NY terrorists and Iraq. I can’t believe an entire week has gone by…

September 19 – 23 — Blank entries for the first time since 1996

September 24 — I’ve been having trouble keeping this book up-to-date lately and that’s pretty frustrating… Still having weird, terrorist-related dreams most nights although now I don’t recall them as much…

So there you have it.