Site Update

I've updated most of the blog addresses (thanks for the reminder Udenia) and I think I'm all good. If I've missed one let me know. I'm looking for a new song to replace the old one I had but I'm just not finding what I want yet. Or rather the one that I want doesn't exist anymore. I would use You Tube but it's been a little skiddish lately as well. Hopefully these adjustments will allow me to peruse and comment more frequently on my blends blogs.

Harry Potter

Okay folks just finished up all the Harry Potter (including HP7) and additionally a rough week schedule wise at work so I'm hoping to be back to normal this week in both updates and working out.

Carol you asked what I thought about the HP5 Movie about a week ago and I'll say that I thought it was pretty good considering the amount of storyline they had to trim to make it into a 2+ hour movie. I was unhappy with so many of the omissions (The centaur teacher, Harry Potter getting back at the ministry with Rita Skeeters Quibbler Article, no mention of the prefects badges or Ron's amazing Qudditch Cup winning performance) however, they did what they had to do to stay on target for the last two books. Still...I felt a little cheated on some parts to be honest.

Now as for my views on book 7 I'll just say you'll have to message me on my blends and get my personal views...I'm respecting JK Rowlings wish that we give everyone enough time to read Book 7 before spilling any beans or plot points!

Chug chug chug

Well the swimming is going better this week. Haven't been able to finish a complete workout in the time allotted yet but I'm getting there. I think the times will start dropping again real soon as well. Birthday was kinda lame as everyone was on vacation or had to work. I'm planning something at the end of the month to make up for that. I've been posting on blends again which is probably why I've not been posting as much here.

Workouts this week will be tough to meet because my schedule has been tinkered with in that I'll be working during the evening workouts and will be cutting into my sleeping to make a morning workout. Overall it's only going to really affect one day, however, it's screwing up the sleeping patterns between two normal weeks that is really going to be hard to get back on track.

Last Friday I went out with a few members of the team for beers and mexican food. We sat outside and listened to a band and just had a nice time. They were eager to get all the dirt on my social life and other stuff. One of the ladies is from Italy and has a great sense of humor but isn't completely educated on American slang and Idioms so we would make jokes about our everyday lives and she would need us to fill her in on what some of those jokes mean. It strange to be sitting at the same table with people that were Iron Man Triathalon finishes/placers and swimming with an Olympic Bronze Medalist. However, I think it's good. The one thing that got me off track with BFL was the actual physical distance I felt from everyone I was communicating with on the blogs/tracker/myblends. I have to admit that having someone there to push you in person goes a LONG way to helping you out.

Nothing new on the dating front. I've decided to completely stop using any form of online matchmaking anymore. Too many people on there that shouldn't be on there, too many people fresh out of marriages or long term relationships and trying to immediately date again, too many people that just don't want to date but just meet people as friends and as usual too many people that just aren't right for me. At my age it's hard to meet people that are single and compatible but I'm finding it harder to do it through a stupid digital box. There are a few girls on the swim team that I think are single and a few people on the team that like me well enough to set me up with their single friends or at least let me meet them and let me makes the moves. That's more how I like to meet people to date anyways...get to know them first, become friends and see if it leads somewhere. Not talking to someone via email, meeting them awkwardly for the first date under dating pretenses and then trying to see if either one of us can put a round peg into a square hole. I'm tired of that to be honest...all of my long term relationships came about after I knew the person for a while and THEN we decided to persue something. Why break that tradition right? And yes...there is a girl that I have my eye on with the swim team but really it's more because we just have a lot of fun joking around between sets. She's nice and funny but I'm fairly sure there is about an 8-10 year age difference (I'm the older one) and that could be a dealbreaker in the long run for anything beyond friends. But hey...I'm open.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

CRAP

Well folks I slept through my workout today. Not suprised by this but a little dissapointed nonetheless. This is one of the unfortunate cases in which my job tends to eat into my schedule.

I went into work last hoping to be out by 8 am, home by 8:30 am and in bed by 8:35 and sleep till around 4 or 4:30. Seems plausible right? Well we had unscheduled training until 9:30 today, didn't get on the road home until about 9:45. Got home arond 10:15 and got into bed...tossed and turned and probably fell asleep around 11. Then for some reason I woke up around 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep for the life of me. Then finally I resigned myself to trying to stay up until my workout started. Bad idea...so I laid back down and fell asleep again around 4 pm, didn't set the alarm as I figured if I wake up in time I'll wake up in time if I don't I'll just get rested and see if I can make up the workout tommorow at the YMCA instead. It's not the actual swimming I miss tonight...it's swimming and pacing myself with people. Grrrrrr.

Allright back to sleep.

Late night special...

Yeesh I've gotta start making a schedule so I can find a way to bring some weightlifting into my weekly routine without A) Interfering with my sleep B) Not doing it right before I go to sleep and C) not doing it the same day that I swim.

This should be interesting. The only days that I have available to lift would appear to be Sunday and Thursday. Tuesday are for work, sleep and Trivia. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are for work and swimming. Needless to say I've gotta find some kind of way to put it all together while working this god awful shift!

In other news I've just realized that I've dropped about 30 pounds since around the middle of March. Someone from our California office was visiting our office yesterday and told me that I was looking slimmer and asked me if I had lost any weight. I quickly calculated the time it had been since I had last seen this person and sure enough it was 4 months and 30 pounds ago.

Great workout...bad cramps!

Well I am completely and totally thrashed at this moment!! Just got back from my first REAL workout with the Masters team and lemme tell you I'm wishing I was heading to bed in about 2 hours instead of heading to work!! Sheesh! Let it be known that i have the speed but those folks have got the stamina and having a cramp in the middle of a sprint set didn't do me any favors! Overall I feel good...mentally I'm a little beaten down because I still have a long way to go but overall it's nice to have people to pace you. I felt faster than my last timed 50 and 100 yard freestyles so I have a feeling those will be coming down in the next week as well. I did a 100 Yard Freestyle without kicking (because of the cramp) in about 1:12 tonight and I was pacing with another swimmer so I think those current best times will be dust by the end of next week. Now I need to find a ton of bananas!

Back to work

Well I had a nice 3 day weekend then I'll work 4 days this week and then I'll have another 3 day weekend next week (my birthday is July 14th...hint...hint) and in between I'm hoping to have some great updates on my swimming progress. Perhaps even a pic or two as per your requests. Don't count on it though!

Carol Transformers was actually pretty darn good. I'm not a fan of Micheal Bay movies at all (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, etc) but he the film was written by two guys who work with J.J. Abrhams (Lost, Alias, etc) and they sort of kept the dialog pretty good. John Tuturro and Anthony Anderson were pretty darn funny as well so overall if you get past a buncha hokey robots it's a pretty good movie.

Die Hard wasn't as good as the first three, and the fact that NO ONE seemed to know who Bruce Willis's character was in the entire film seemed a little strange, considering he had built up quite a reputation with the Police, FBI, CIA and NSA by the end of the third film. Justin Long (Hello I'm a Mac) and Kevin Smith (aka Silient Bob) were nice comedic additions though. The action was pretty intense, but still, a bit sub-standard for the normal Die Hard movies.

1408 was actually a little disappointing. It seemed to WANT to be a supernatural/horror movie and was well on it way. Then it seemed to lose it's way when it started to briefly became a movie about bereavement and loss of a child. Like most Stephen King films it has a great buildup but just doesn'tseem to deliver in the end. Fortunately Stephen King's books don't have this problem.

Allright folks I gotta sign off, meet some friends for dinner and carb up for tommorow workout!

Oh hell yeah...

Okay I kicked a lotta ass today and made some major drops in times:

50 Free
************
June 2007 - 32:50
July 7, 2007 - 29.85

100 Free
************
June 2007 - 1:19.57
July 7, 2007 - 1:11.23

Needless to say I'm very very thrilled. I'm sure the new workout suit didn't hurt either. Sorta of a cross between swim trunks and a racing suit, but considerably less drag. At least now I know that I getting where I need to be.

And just to let you know where I am overall compared to my personal bests...

Starting Times

50 Yard Freestyle 32.50 (June 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC
100 Yard Freestyle 1:19.50 (June 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC

Current Best Times

50 Yard Free Style - 29.85 - (July 7, 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC
100 Yard Free Style - 1:11.23 - (July 7, 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC

Career Bests

50 Yard Freestyle: 22.98 (3/1995) SCAC Championships/UALR Pool - Little Rock, AR
100 Yard Freestyle: 51.01 (3/1995) SCAC Championships/UALR Pool - Little Rock, AR

All Units be advised...we have a man that can't keep his pants up...

So I went to the movies yesterday (Die Hard 4 and Transformers) for a little bit of R and R and just to have some brainless fun. Well I put on some shorts but forgot the belt. No these are shorts that in the past I haven't NEEDED a belt for so you understand the reason why I felt it would be ornamental at the least and cumbersome at the most. Well I saw the first movie, killed an hour to eat and then saw the second movie. By the time I got back to the car I was nearly running with both hands on top of my shorts because they would barely stay up!!

I'm losing inches folks and it's starting to freak me out! I know this is a good thing but will someone think of the children???? WHY DOESN'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??????

Strange...

So I left the YMCA today and stepped in something that looks like dog poop covered in mustard and smells about the same. That's just two bad things that go worse together and the fact that those two things somehow wound up in the evil harmony on the bottom of my shoe is very befuddling in addition to being smelly. Something is amiss in the universe...

You know your swimming lane mate is fast when...

...he has a wikipedia entry describing his Bronze Medal performance in the 1984 Olympics.

Yep that's right folks...I went to a workout today for the Masters team that i'm going to join and sure enough one of the swimmers is a member of the Swedish 4x100 Freestyle Relay team from the 1984 Olympic Games.

Yeesh.

Overall I enjoyed visitin with the team and I think it's going to be a great experience. I sat in on one of their planning meetings and they seem to have a great head on their shoulders about making sure the team stays viable and healthy for years to come. Everyone was friendly and absolutely happy that I was looking to join the team. The speed of the swimmers in the advanced group is a little above where I'm swimming now but my goal is to be swimming with that group towards the end of the summer if not sooner.

I'm pretty damn excited about this to say the least. It feels strange to say it: I'm coming out of retirement!

It's late...or I guess for you folks...it's early

Well I'm finishing up my workshift and all I want to do when I get out of work is jump in the pool and swim laps. This is very strange. Does anyone else feel this way about your workouts? I don't mean the "Oh man I HAVE to work out" feeling I mean the "Oh man this is better than sex" feeling. Yeesh...I think I need to check to see if there is a direct connection between chlorine and my sexual needs.