This week is the 100th week of Out of 5 posts, and to mark the occasion, we all have our own themes, with our own 10 songs. So there's 10X as much musical goodness over there, for a week. Go over and get some!
My theme is: The 80's Didn't Really Suck. I uploaded a song from every year and here's the playlist, from 1980 to 1989:
X - Your Phone's off the Hook (But You're Not)
AC/DC - For Those about to Rock
Men At Work - Down Under
Tom Waits - 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six
Van Halen - 1984 (...what?)
Mekons - Chivalry
Beastie Boys - Hold it Now, Hit It
Straitjacket Fits - She Speeds
Pixies - Gigantic
Fugazi - Margin Walker
I think it's a pretty sweet list, and I was trying to get a variety of genres in there. Well, I kind of achieved that.
This was our Thanksgiving menu:
Appetizers:
Cheeses, crackers
french onion dip, chips
bruchetta
Pumpkin soup, rolls
Main:
Roast turkey
Mashed potatoes
Roast vegetables (yam, parsnip, beet, fennel, rutabaga, scallions, carrots, garlic)
creamed corn gratin
winter salad
stuffing
gravy
cranberry sauce
Dessert:
blueberry bread pudding
pumpkin cheesecake
ice cream
blackbottom cupcakes
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Brooklyn Pennant Ale
Pilsner Urquell
Yuengling
2 malbecs and a pinot noir
*burp*
A month ago, the USA women's team won the Venice Cup, the women's competition at the World Bridge Championships. When they were presented with their trophy, they put up a spontaneous sign stating "we did not vote for Bush". Now, they have been censured and among other penalties, are facing a years suspension, which will affect their incomes. So how far do their rights to express themselves freely, without fear of penalty, go? At my bridge club lately, surprise surprise, it's been quite the topic of conversation.
Do you ever get those intense mini-crushes on people? Like, for 10 minutes you're staring at them thinking that they are one of the most awesome people you've ever seen? It happens to me quite often. (Luckily, it rarely lasts longer than 10 minutes or so.) I got one last week at bridge. Walked in and there was a young (read: under 40) guy there, chatting with one of my friends. He was just my type: dark hair, glasses, looked bookish. So I stared at him for a while and fantasized about him falling in love with me, and me having to cruelly reject him, but not after I'd run the gamut of overwrought melodramatic pseudo-emotions. As you do. After a while he wandered up and said "oh, you must be [gaspode], I'm D." And I realised that he was the person I'd been emailing with about playing sometime*. So he wasn't mysterious anymore and I promptly lost my crush. But it was a fun few minutes.
*this happens a lot in bridge -- names get passed on and you make contact with people without really knowing who they are
Which is what happens when you soak for an hour in a bath with one of these dissolving in it. Mmmm cocoa butter.
A label on the hairdryer (paraphrased):
The cord of this appliance contains lead, a substance that has been determined by the State of California to cause birth defects and other health issues. Please wash your hands after handling.
Words fail me.
So I got a big annoying tube stuffed down my gullet yesterday. Not the most fun way to spend an afternoon in the Bronx, but hey, fun is overrated. Anyway, why was I doing this instead of making daisy chains in Central Park? Well, the usual kind of reasons for an upper-GI endoscopy: I have had acid reflux and annoying ulcer-like pains for about 6 or 7 years now. I'm H. pylori negative, though, so I've never been on antibiotics (nor would I want to be with no good reason, but don't get me started on that rant), and I tend to just dose up on zantac and sleep on an extra pillow when I get pains in my innards.
ANYWAY after another nasty episode a few weeks ago, I took myself off to my internist and then to a GI doc and that led up to yesterday with them having a look-see. Happily, there was no Barrett's oesophagus (which predisposes you to oesophageal cancer) and nothing much in the stomach, except for a bit of redness. But day-um, it was weird getting the sedation. Particularly because they positioned me before they sedated me, so I was lying there on my side with a thing strapped in my mouth to hold it open (oh how I had to resist the ball-gag jokes!) and the GI doc standing in front of me holding the endoscope (awash with lube), practically tapping her foot in impatience. Freaky shit, yo. Now, I've had general anesthesia before, so I've had propofol, but only in combination with other anesthetics. Getting it alone was weird, because when you wake up you feel perfectly normal. I was out of there 15 minutes after opening my eyes. Very different to the slow, druggy comeback from general.
And of course because I had a sore throat last night I got to have therapeutic soup, milkshakes and ice cream. So it was a good day after all.
I finally got around to downloading Radiohead's album. I've only listened to it once, so I'm not making any pronouncements on it yet.
I am home for a while. The UK was awesome. Bunnystock II in Virginia Beach was awesome. Now it's back at work time.
The other thing it's back to is working out and eating properly. As could be predicted, I drank way too much, didn't work out at all and ate a lot of crap over the past 2 weeks (and I didn't run the whole week beforehand either because I was super busy) so add all that up and you have a 5 lb weight gain. Sigh. Even worse, in my opinion, is the reduction in fitness. I am someone who *needs* to run all the time to maintain my fitness. So, before this lapse, I was running 3-4 miles, 3-4 times a week, and finding it pretty easy. I was about to start working up to 6 miles twice a week (goal to be able to do it by the end of October). Instead, I went running yesterday and nearly killed myself. I ended up jogging, slowly, 2.2 miles WITH a 2 minute walk in the middle! Argh.
Time to rededicate myself to the cause.
