The goal for the weekend was achieved, although it wasn't easy. I was at my parents from about 7:30 on Friday, until about 1 or 2 on Sunday, and not once did I snack on crap. I managed to refrain Friday night. All Saturday I stuck to the plan, and even out at dinner, at an Italian restaurant I resisted eating any bread, and skipped dessert, despite the fact that they had tiramisu on the dessert menu. Sunday morning I skipped out on the usual bagels, and made myself a nice midday breakfast of the usual bacon and eggs variety, and toast from 7 grain bread. I packed up my stuff and drove to my hot as hell house, cranked my AC, relaxed, exercised for the first time since Thursday night and just chilled out the rest of the night.

The end result, instead of starting the week try to undo the damage from the weekend, I actually made progress over the weekend. I stepped on the scale this morning to see if there was any adverse effect to what I ate without exercising and I was actually down 3 from what I saw on Friday, so that was a damn shock. Lets hope it continues this week!

It was tough not eating stuff thats just lying around in abundance at my parents. When the urge got really bad, thankfully I was able to get out of the house for enough of the day. Eye doctor in the morning, guitar lesson in the afternoon and when the craving for a pretzel got really strong before we left for dinner I ran to Best Buy to pick up a CD or two. Not too bad I must say. I'm proud of myself.

Along with all that the weekend was good. Nothing major happened, which kind of sums up my entire summer, really. Boring. Aside from the near knee surgery debacle and a few concerts, its basically not been too exciting. At least I'm keeping myself occupied with my diet and exercise regime, practicing every night (I'm starting to see a lot of improvement in my playing, which is awesome, of course those feelings all go away when I try stuff in my lesson and fail miserably!) and work has been pretty busy lately too, when I'm not almost getting fired.

I'm looking forward to Seth moving in, once he finally makes up his mind to tell people. I may have mentioned this once, but when he moves in, we're going to start a band. My existing roommate will be on bass and lead vocals (he's an excellent guitar player, but he has a tendency when jamming to just start riffing and its impossible to keep up, to curb that, he's on bass), Seth will be the rhythm guitarist, and I will be on lead guitar. Now we just need a drummer. And I've already come up with a band name, Lower The Suck Knob. Although it sounds kind of sexual, huh? Oh well. Should be fun.

Alright, back to work. Adios everyone and have a great week!

I can't think of a clever title, so thats what you're getting, just deal with it, OK? I must say that this week, or more like last weekend was a learning experience. Lesson learned? Don't pig out on crap at a BBQ/party one day on a weekend, because you'll be paying the price for it all week long. I need to exhibit crazy self control this weekend while I'm at my parents as well, because snacking on pretzels and other crap probably doesn't help either. Let this weekend be the weekend I behave, OK? We'll see about that on Monday though.

So the results for this week are...

Lost 3 more pounds, bringing my grand total to 15, and with 35 more to go, I am 30% to my goal. Pretty cool, but just a little disappointing because when I weighed myself last Saturday morning, the scale read what it showed me this morning. So I basically spent all week working off the damage from last Saturday. Lesson learned, move on and have a good week.

The plans for the weekend aren't that big. I'll be at my parents house for most of it. We're going out to eat tomorrow night to celebrate my grandma's birthday. I think she's 83 or something like that. My parents and my aunt and maybe my uncle are all meeting up for dinner. So the key will be going the whole day without snacking on junk. I think I can do it. The key is also to get through tonight at their house without doing the same. Then, I'll be out of there early Sunday morning after having breakfast. Thats about it. Nothing else spectacular has been planned by me.

Have a good weekend everyone!

As the end of August is fast approaching (it can't get here soon enough) its almost time to bid a fond farewell and adieu to one of my roommates. Like I said, it can't come soon enough. I don't really have anything major against her, and anything I did, goes back to when we first moved in and the stupid shit arguments people had at first. She told us she was moving out when the lease was up all the way back in February, so its not like this is a surprise. What was a bit of one, was a conversation I had with her about a month ago.

She was curious what the deal was with whoever was going to take her spot when she left. I said it was very simple, she leaves, someone else moves in. Then she asks about who pays August's rent. I said that she did, to which she replied, I can't. To which I said, you have to, you agreed to a year and the year ends on September 1, you don't have to pay September's rent, but you sure as hell have to pay Augusts. At that point she said, OK, but she needed her security deposit back from whoever was moving in at the beginning of August. I said that was really between her and whoever takes her place. Then she said that maybe she'd just call the landlord and ask for her portion of the security deposit back. At this point I was thinking, whoa, hold on. You're leaving and we have to stay, there is no way I'm going to let you call my landlord (and I say mine, because really, everyone just sublets from me, since I'm the only one with my name on the lease) and ruin my relationship with him over something as small as $625. I still have to there, she's leaving, no way she's going to mess up anything. My landlord was cool enough to rent to us for another year at the same amount of monthly rent, which is awesome. I said, worse case scenario, if she really needs that money, I'll lay it out for her, and whoever takes her place will give me their security deposit, and we'll be even. That was fine with her.

Cut to last night when she asked about August's rent. So I said, yeah, you're going to pay it, right? She said yes, but it may be a little late, by a few days. Already I started getting uneasy. So then we just cut right to the chase of her security deposit. I asked when she needed it by, and she said as soon as possible, because she needs that money to help pay the rent. I couldn't believe it. I said I could get her the money by the third of August, as I get paid that day. So she said, OK, I'd give her the money, then she'd write me a check for the rent. By the time all that stuff clears all the banks, the rent will be way late. So I said, why don't I just pay your rent for August, and that's your security deposit. Fine.

This is an example of her. So yeah I'm paying for half the rent for August, but its a small price to pay to not start anything with someone who already has one foot out the door. I should've asked exactly when she's moving out, but didn't. I will soon. It looks like a done deal that Seth will be moving in, regardless of whether or not he'll actually admit it. So I'm not worried about that, and am actually looking forward to it.

Alright, enough babbling.

Man, all I want to do is go home. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up and go to work today. Weekends aren't nearly long enough, nowhere close. I suggest a 4 day work week and a mandatory three day weekend, all the time. Seriously, I'd work the extra hours during the week if it meant a longer weekend. Oh well. Its not gonna happen. At least not right now.

I had a good weekend, so I really can't complain, it just wasn't long enough. I didn't do much of anything on Friday night. I jammed with my roommate for awhile, then watched some TV and went to bed. I woke up Saturday morning, exercised, packed up my stuff and went to my parents. I had to stop off at the doctor first to get something checked out, then onto the parents to do laundry and eat crap. Then my guitar lesson, lunch, and then off to the BBQ/birthday party at friends of Seth and Shari's. That was a lot of fun, but of course I ate too much crap and drank way too much home brewed beer. I had fun though, and didn't get home until about 1 AM. Sunday I went back home and relaxed, watched some DVD's and hung out with my roommate and his family while they had a BBQ at our place.

Nothing big on tap for the week yet. We shall see though. Other than that, nothing new to report. Have a good week everyone.

Although I look forward to every weekend, just because you don't have to work, I'm actually looking forward to this one. I have no plans tonight. I may just stick around at home, and just go to my parents in the morning. What I'll do by myself, who knows. Probably just play the guitar, or try to. I have an hour lesson tomorrow so that, as my teacher put it, we can start seeing some results. It does frustrating at times, but I think I'm making progress. But thats just me.

Tomorrow, post lesson, I was invited to a barbecue/30th birthday party of one of Shari's friends, being held at another friends of hers house, which is the next town over from my parents. Its an all day thing with family in the afternoon, and anyone and everyone at night. The guy that lives there is in a band with his brother, so Shari said something about an open mic, which is cool. I wonder if I should bring a guitar? I guess I'll find out. It'll be cool to hang out and jam though. So I'm looking forward to that.

No plans for Sunday yet, maybe a movie with my brother. Who knows.

Alright, so without much further ado, the weekly progress report. Didn't quite do this week what I did last week, but I'm still satisfied with the progress. I think the key this week will be to contain the damage done over the weekend so I'm not working all that off the first few days of the week. I think the only problem this weekend will be Saturday at the BBQ. I'll just have to control myself. OK, so here we go...

I lost 4 more pounds, to bring me to a grand total of 12 lost, with 38 to go. I'm 24% there. Nice, right? Here's the kicker though, one of the guitars I've been looking at was just on eBay, and the guy was selling it with a Buy It Now of $200 less than retail, with free shipping if you bought it at that price. The opening bid was $500 less than retail, with $40 shipping if you won it that way. The thing that really stings is that no one bid on it! I was debating just getting it and shoving it in a closet at my parents, but thats not fair to the spirit of this thing. I have to reach my goal, then reward myself, not the other way around. So I held off. I wonder if the guy will re-list it or if I should contact him and see if he'll sell it directly to me in a few months. Decisions.

Alright, back to work. Feeling good, which is a good thing. I know I'm not going to see these kinds of results every week and the closer I get the harder it will be, but I'll persevere. I want that guitar!

Have a good weekend everyone!

I'll send five dollars to anyone that can guess the movie line. I used to play this game with my little brother when I was like 18 or so, and he was 12. I'd put on a classic rock radio station and offer him cash if he could guess any of the bands. Naturally, and sadly, he never had a clue, so I never had to pay out. This time I will. A crisp bill with Lincoln on it.

But seriously, it is too damn hot here the past few days. Like above 90 hot. Like, feels like 100 hot. Its crazy. I take one step outside and I feel like melting. Its not a pleasant feeling. Hopefully this heat wave will break soon, because honestly, enough is enough. The sad thing is, its only mid-July, and it can only get worse. Sucks, huh? I can't wait for the fall. I love the fall, and the spring. Any kind of weather where jeans and a t-shirt, no more, no less, is acceptable and comfortable attire is fine by me.

OK, I'm going to stop babbling now.

So after the stress at the end of last week's work-week, I had myself a very nice, relaxing weekend, filled with very little to do. Friday night I went to my parents. Saturday I had a very frustrating guitar lesson, mostly because my hands would not cooperate at all. My teacher told me to block off an extra half hour with him next week so we can start seeing some results again. I'm cool with that. Getting frustrated sucks, and I know I'm the type to give up way too easily. But I'm going to try to get what he was trying to teach me. I think part of the problem was with the way my guitar was setup. The action was a little too high, the action being the distance between the frets and the strings. The close the action the easier it is to push down on the strings, but you get a little less sustain (the amount of time a string will rign when struck) and you're prone to a little more buzzing. But, you play a little fast as you have less distance to go to push down on a string, and you exert less energy. The remedy to that, I re-setup both my Strat and my SG last night and lowered the action somewhat considerably on both. And, after a quick playthrough on them, the buzzing and other negative effect were negligable, at least to me.

Sunday morning I left my parents, donated platelets, went into work for an hour (the office, a remote one, was only a mile down the road from where I donate, and it was on the way home), then I went home and relaxed for the afternoon. I exercised, something I hadn't done on Saturday, and that was basically it.

Its supposed to be crazy hot today and tomorrow. My weather plugin to Firefox already says its 93 degrees in my home town, and its supposed to get to 97, and 95 tomorrow. Its going to make working out when I get home a ton of fun. But its worth it and I need to do it. I tried one of the built in programs on the elliptical machine on Friday afternoon, one that simulates going up a hill, then back down. Its a resistance and RPM program, as it'll tell you if you're going to fast or too slow and helps you keep the pace. The thing kicked my ass in 45 minutes. It blew away what I was doing in 45 minutes when left up to my own devices. I'll have to do that again, if I don't sweat to death tonight doing it.

Alright, time for lunch. I'm off to Guitar Center to get some new strings for my acoustic and some bass strings for my roommates bass. Enjoy your Monday everyone!

So, the first official weigh in for my "50 Pounds to a Les Paul" challenge was this morning, and I'm shocked. I'm trying to keep it all in context though. A few numbers before we get to the big reveal. The time between the starting point and today isn't a week, its more like a week and two or three days. So take that into account. My starting point, which I decided as the arbitrary 50 pounds from my starting point way back in 2003 was actually about what I weighed when I started back on the hardcore diet and exercise track, which was the day after July 4. I was shocked that I didn't weigh more, considering all the inappropriate stuff I was eating for the week and a half prior to that, especially after my knee injury. OK, so with that in mind, without further delay, here we go... the results.

I lost 8 pounds. That means I have 42 to go and my goal is 16% complete. Yeah, I'm just as shocked as the next person. I seriously doubt that I'll see that next week as well, but here's to hoping. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and I'm sure I'll be fine. I guess sticking to the diet like a madman works. The only breaking in it has been going out with my roommate last night and drinking two Vodka tonics, because they have very little calories, as opposed to my drink of choice, a pint of Guinness. Other than that, the only things I've drank are water and green tea (and some beer at Jason's party last weekend). And I'm sure the exercise helps tremendously. The elliptical keeps track of my estimated calories and carb burned, and ever since I upped it to 45 minutes, which I started on Sunday and have been doing all week, its over 600 calories burned and 100 carbs, however those are measured (in grams?).

So that is that. I'm impressed. Lets just hope that I don't derail this weekend when I go to my parents house. Its tough, but I'm going to try my best and keep that image of my new guitar in my head, even though I still haven't made up my mind exactly what I want.

OK, so enough about that as I don't want it to be all I talk about, ever. Dodged a rough patch at work the past two days and am now making sure that what happened, never happened again. Taking a much tighter look at what went wrong and its already fixed, and will make sure that it remains so. Definitely looking forward to the weekend and not having to work!

Speaking of, let me get back to that!

Yeah, so the last 24 hours haven't exactly been pleasant. But thankfully they are over and I can move on, learn from my mistakes, put them behind me, and hopefully never think of them again. What happened, you ask, to make me talk this seriously. Oh nothing, I just almost got fired, thats all.

I don't want to say too much here and proclaim my guilt out loud for my huge mess up, but I just want to thank the guy working tech support for the application I had to deal with today. The guy saved my life, and my job.

Lesson learned children. Move along.

You crazy dog you. Five years old today, and he has his moments where I think he's calming down, and others when he's just as crazy as he was as a puppy. I'm a bad dog owner though and don't have a recent picture of him to throw up. He very rarely does something thats cute that I've never seen before, so thats why there's a lack of pictures. Plus, I am a really bad dog owner, he doesn't even live with me and I barely take care of him. He's been at my parents since I moved out last summer and they walk him and feed him and all that stuff all throughout the week. I see him a day or two at the most per weekend. But I make the most of my limited time with the little bugger, and I know its only temporary. Once I get my own house he'll come and live with me. Although, I think my parents may not even let me do that. I think they've become quite attached to the little guy and couldn't imagine not having him around. Its sweet really, considering they never let my brothers and I have a dog growing up, but the second I bring one home after living out of state for a year, they go nuts for him. Who knew?

Thats about the only update I have. Its Wednesday, hump day, and honestly, all I want to do is go home. Don't know why. But I'll sit here and work anyway. Looking forward to checking my progress on Friday. I have a good feeling. I still realize it'll be a long haul to 50 though, but I have faith that I'll get there this time.

Have a great day everyone!

Don't weigh yourself every morning. You're just going to piss yourself off. I'll stick to Fridays, its less stressful. And, I've come up with an official title to this thing I'm doing, ready for it?

"Fifty Pounds to a Les Paul"

Real original, right? Oh well, I tried. I hit the elliptical for another 45 minutes yesterday. I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life. I'm realy intelligent, doing this in the middle of July, in a room with no AC. Smart, man, real smart. But it felt good. At one point as one of my roommates was leaving, she popped her head in and I couldn't hear a word she was saying because Pearl Jam was blasting in my headphones. I finally heard, "You must feel like dying," or something like that, I said yeah, but it feels good. I look forward to doing it again tonight. Really, I do.

Sarcasm just doesn't translate well online. Oh well. I am proud of myself though. I haven't given up, yet. Its only been a week. Usually I throw in the towl after two, and try again after one, then quit after one, try again after another week or two, last a week or two, then quit... and you get the idea. We'll see how long I can keep the streak alive.

Although, to be honest, I want that guitar, and that'll push me.

Alright, back to work. Good talk.

So I made it through the weekend unscathed, which is always a good thing. I walked into NYC on Saturday afternoon, and managed to walk back out with no less of a limp later in the evening, which considering how I left Manhattan two weeks, rocks. I managed to not eat like crap too much over the weekend, which is always where I seem to lose ground, so I'm happy for that accomplishment.

I've been mulling over the goal I've set for myself over the weekend, and the onyl thing that I can't seem to decide upon is my starting point. Unfortunately when I first started dieting my starting point number ended in a 4, which is a pain. I like things to end in 0 or 5, I'm just anal like that. If my iTunes library contains an amount of songs that doesn't end in 0 or 5, it irks me. But I think in this case, since I'm looking to lose an even 50, to make an even 100, I'll use the 4, which means according to the scale this morning, I'm on my way, as opposing to be in the plus already! I guess I'll have to use Friday the official weigh in day each week. But, other than those little decisions, I think I'm good to go.

I've been hitting the elliptical every day since last Wednesday, and every day I'm hitting it harder. Sunday I increased my total time on it by a third, going from an easy half hour to a very brutal 45 minutes. But its all good and all for the sake of getting healthy, and getting a guitar! And just in case anyone was wondering, I have the perfect playlist for hardcore aerobic activity, for either 30 or 45 minutes in duration. I'll map out the 45 minute one as thats what I'll be working with going forward. And it should come as no surprise that every song is by Pearl Jam. I mean, come on, you should know me by now, right?

1 - Life Wasted off of Pearl Jam - The song has a killer opening riff and just an insane amount of energy. It works perfectly for getting started right out of the gate. With lyrics like "I've faced it, a life wasted, I'm never going back again," it really keeps you motivated.

2 - State of Love and Trust off of the Soundtrack to Singles (Cameron Crowe movie from the early 90's, set in Seattle, great soundtrack) - Just a rocking tune. Lyrics include "And I listen, yeah, for the voice inside my head nothin', I'll do this one myself," because honestly, who's going to do it for you if you don't do it yourself. You know, that old saying.

3 - Save You off of Riot Act - Another straight ahead rocker. The song is all about helping someone beat addiction, so I guess its applicable here, just not for drug addiction, just addicted to being lazy. As the lyrics say "Let's pick up your will,... it's grown fat and lazy."

4 - Whipping off of Vitalogy - Lets just say, they're all rocking high tempo songs on this list, because no one wants to workout to Nothingman. I think the song is really about people who are against abortion, and being against those people. Confusing, I know, but then again, you've heard Eddie Vedder sing, its not the easiest to comprehend sometimes. Lyrics include, "Oh, don't get behind, I can't fall back."

5 - Severed Hand off of Pearl Jam - Their new album starts off with four rocking tracks, and I've used three in this playlist. This tune is about psychotropic drugs, but it just rocks, hence its inclusion. Lyrics go, ""Got some kicks, wanna take a ride?" I said, "Yeh,..." "Take your pick, leave yourself behind." I Said, "Yeh,..." - and those yeh's are really intense, so it gets you going.

6 - Breakerfall off of Binaural - No clue, as the lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with anything mentioned previously. The song just rocks.

7 - Alive off of Ten - OK, this one is a no brainer. Half way through, you feel like giving up, and possibly dying, until you hear, "Oh I, oh, I'm still alive," really, enough said. Perfect second wind song. And the guitar solo kicks off at almost exactly the halfway mark of your 45 minutes.

8 - Do The Evolution off of Yield - Because its evolution baby, evolution of your entire mindset. Evolution of you. OK, I'm going to stop babbling now, as I'm starting to make less and less sense.

9 - Hail Hail off of No Code - Again, no real reason as its a sort fo rocking love tune, "All hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love," but its good to get you going, or keep you going, as you're ready to cough up your lungs at this point.

10 - Down off of Lost Dogs (An album of B-sides and rarities) - Another song about kicking drugs, "Oh rise. You can't be neutral on a moving train. One day... the symptoms fade. Think I'll throw these pills away. And if hope could grow from dirt like me. It can be done." Interpret amongst yourselves.

11 - World Wide Suicide off of Pearl Jam - Very ant-Bush anti-war tune, and it just rocks, perfect for the final stretch, and lastly

12 - Rearviewmirror off of Vs. - Is there any surprise with this one? I mean, really, come on? Don't you know me? This song is just the perfect fuck you to anyone and anything that is holding you back, including yourself. And it rocks, enough said

So there you have it. Download and enjoy. Trust me, it works!

First report on Friday, and I think I made a decision on the guitar I will by myself, at least for now. I know it'll definitely be a Gibson Les Paul of some kind, I'm thinking a Custom Shop '57 Goldtop Reissue Historic. Now thats a mouthful!

I meant to throw this in with my earlier post, but forgot. In the spirit of my new, and hopefully not fleeting, fitness minded mentality, I've decided to set a goal for myself. The orthopedic doctor told me to lose weight, although his term sounded much nicer in just generic "weight reduction." Still, I've seesawed with sticking to a diet for so long, I think if I put a light at the end of the tunnel, or a carrot on a stick or something like that, it'll be an even better motivator. My goal in the past was always to get back to my lowest weight in the, I don't want to say her name, so I'll just say around the time I was dating the slut bag whore (I'm so nice, aren't I?), which I achieved way back when in October/November of 2003. I'm about 25 pounds away from that. At that time I was 25 pounds from my goal, which from the start of my diet was a total weight loss of an even 100 pounds. I'm not even going to get into any more numbers, so screw it. So lets just say my goal is to lose 50 pounds. Is there a time frame? No. Sooner rather than later though, but nothing too drastic. Just keep towing the line of sticking to the diet and exercising, and I think I'll be OK.

Now, what would setting a goal be without having that carrot? Since I hate carrots, I need to put something better out there. How should I best reward myself when I hit that goal? The answer is pretty easy, actually. A new guitar. The only follow up question is, which one of the many that I've been lusting after? Most of the ones I've been drooling over are in the $2,000+ price range, with the priciest being something like $5,100. I've been saving money like mad too, which is good. I think that once I hit my goal, I shall reward myself with one. And I guess its just a matter of how much I have saved up at that point as to how much I'll be spending.

See, now I'm excited about all this!

An old boss of mine had a perfect answer to that. A moron is someone that does the exact same thing and expects a different result. Case in point. My ex-girlfriends mother. One of the few times she ate dinner at my house she put her paper napkin on her lap. Keyser, being the crazy little paper eating bastard that he is, would constantly just snatch it from her lap and tear it to shreds. Now, one would hope you'd learn from this and not put your new napkin on your lap for the dog to snatch. Nope. And wouldn't you know it, he snatched it. It took about 5 napkins for any change in behavior, and I'm not talking about the dog. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against my ex's mom, very sweet lady, always nice to me. Its just that, pissed me off. Mostly because I was the one to pick up the scraps of napkin and chase down the dog every time. Every time.

That brings me around to my point. This time, the moron is me. After doing 30 minutes on my roommates elliptical and having my knee turn into absolute stiffness the next morning, I proceeded to do another 30 minutes last night. And this morning? My knee is like a petrified forest. I'm sure by the time I get home tonight it'll be loose enough and sure enough, I'll hop on the damn machine again, only to have it stiffen up on me again tomorrow morning. But I won't ride it tomorrow. Too much going on. But I think the exercise will do me good, and if I can get into a routine of doing it every night when I get home from work I'll be in good shape. Its too much a pain to get up and do it first thing in the morning. The routine is thus, get home, crank the AC in my room. Exercise for 30 minutes and sweat more than a human should. Go into AC room, take off sweaty as hell socks and hop in the shower. Come back in AC room and cool off some more. Get dressed, set up guitar, amp and pedals and practice for awhile. Watch TV or a movie or a baseball game, go to bed. Not bad, right?

Speaking of baseball. I just watched a game for the first time in High Def, and holy shit, it looks amazing. Now, I watched the Super Bowl in HD, hockey all season long in HD, and they look simply amazing. But I had no idea that baseball would look so damn good. It almost makes your average game exciting. Don't get me wrong, I love baseball and watch it religiously, but only when the playoffs roll around. 162 games is too much to track day to day and watch every night. But the playoffs are awesome, and then I really get into it.

Back to the weekend plans, as we're jam packed. The schedule is thus, go home, and run through the exercise and shower routine. Pack up laundry and a change of clothes for tomorrow and go to parents house. Deposit laundry for my mom to wash and iron (I'm pathetic, I know, but once I figured out I can live on my own and still have my mom do my laundry, I jumped all over it), go with brother to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Tomorrow morning I have to take the dog for a bath and a nailtrim, something he hasn't had (the nailtrim, I've given him a few baths in the sink, which he loves! Yeah right!) since I broke my toe, and that was in March! We're on a whole new orthopedic injury here, I gotta get with the program. After the dog is cleaned, I hope to have a guitar lesson, then its hopefully on home to unpack said laundry and whatnot. Then its into the city for dinner, and then my brother's friend Jason is having a 30th birthday party for himself. Sunday, no plans, yet. Hopefully just resting, relaxing, recuperating, you know, the usual.

Alright, back to work! Have a great weekend everyone!

So I think I took my doctors orders a bit too far last night. I hopped on my roommates elliptical machine for a half hour, and while it was a great workout, this morning I woke up to find my knee as stiff as can be. Ouch. I was hoping to hop on the thing again this morning, but I didn't think it was the best idea. Maybe I'll try when I get home from work. Hopefully a day of walking on it will loosen it up so I can try again. It didn't really hurt while I was doing it, which is a good thing, I guess, but I'm paying the price now.

In other news, I love these short weeks. Two in a row for me, although the one last week wasn't so pleasant, as I had to burn two sick days in order to get it, and laying on a couch thinking you're going to need surgery is not a fun way to spend a day off. It'll be nice when the weekend finally gets here though. I'll probably head to my parents Friday night and get a jump start on my laundry, mostly because I don't plan on sticking around long on Saturday. I'm heading into the city at some point in the afternoon for my brother's friend Jason's 30th birthday party. Sad that I know people turning 30, but oh well. At least its not me. It'll be my brother in October. Ha! And don't worry, while in the city I shall be avoiding the metal sidewalk grates like the plague. I have no desire for a repeat injury.

Alright, time to get ready to go to work. Fun times.

My extended 4th of July weekend was pretty decent. Nothing really major went on. I spent the whole weekend at my parents with my dog, partaking in the three R's, rest and relaxation being the two most people know, I added recuperating. My knee is starting to heal. It still hurts when I try to move it past the range of motion its letting me work with. But I can walk pretty much without much of a limp, minimal pain and the swelling has gone down a lot, all good things. I had a followup appointment with the doctor and he said I should be back to normal in about 2-3 weeks. The only things he wants me to do, is lose some weight (no surprise there) and start building up my quad muscles, which means I may have to join a gym. There's one right up the street from me, thats not a chain of franchise, so I may check it out, see what they offer, and most importantly, how expensive it is.

I had a co-workers wedding on Sunday, which was a lot of fun. It basically consisted of sitting around with the rest of my department and two of their spouses and getting pretty buzzed and making fun of anything and everything. Good times.

I did not have my guitar lesson though, so this makes, about 3 weeks in a row that I haven't had one. Hopefully we'll get back in the routine this week. I miss my therapy!

Thats about all thats new. Another short week this week, which should be nice. Going into the city on Saturday for a friends 30th birthday party. How depressing is it that I have friends that are old enough to be 30? Its only a matter of time before I follow suit. Damn.

Have a good week!

That's the plan at least. Stay off my leg as much as possible. Walk as little as I can manage, keep the leg up and with a combination of heat and ice on and off, and hopefully feel better by the time the work week starts up again on Wednesday. The only things in the way of that are a wedding I have to go to on Sunday for a co-worker. Thats about it. Today, I have a guitar lesson, the first one in what feels like forever (two weeks in a row I didn't have one, one week he cancelled, the next, I cancelled as I was in the ER at the time). Then its off to see Superman Returns (again) with my brother and maybe even my dad. I saw it Tuesday night when it opened and it was damn good. At the time I thought it was amazing, and I'm hoping it holds up under a second viewing. There were some things I didn't like about it, and for a two and a half hour movie, it didn't feel like one, but it definitely could've used more action. But thats just me. I won't spoil anything else.

Monday's plan consists of a follow up with my orthopedic doctor in the morning, then a platelet donation in the afternoon. My good deed. I donated blood at the office on Thursday and they wanted me to do a double red donation, where they hook you up to a similar machine that they use for platelets, and instead of spinning out your platelets, they do red blood cells. The only problem is you can't donate again for double the time, so instead of 58 days, its 116 days. And not just blood, but anything. So they wouldn't let me do it as I wouldn't be allowed to donate platelets for almost three months. I guess they'd rather have my platelets. Fine by me.

Tuesday there are no plans. Just sticking around at my parents as much as possible all weekend, as they have central air and I can save on my electric bill. Horrible, I know.

Alright, time to get back to the resting and recovering. Have a great holiday everyone!