Monday, February 19, 2007
Catching Up
This weekend, I was supposed to take Luke to Wisconsin for a weekend of male bonding. I don’t know how much bonding can be done with a 2-year-old, but I was going to give it a shot. Mostly, I was hoping to give The Wife one last weekend alone before the baby came. Alas, my plans were foiled. My truck’s transmission decided that it didn’t want to go on living any more. And so now the BFT is laid up in a repair shop for about a week.
There are many aggravating things about having no truck. One, of course, is that it’s going to cost me about $1500 to repair the thing (I hope). One nice side effect is that I won’t have to pay $1.50 at the train station to park it every day. So, maybe it’ll only cost about $1495 or so. Sweet. That savings, though, is offset by the need to have The Wife drive me to the train every morning. I feel pretty bad making a 9-month pregnant woman wake up and drive me. I feel worse when I have to convince a 2-year-old child to get in a cold car right after he wakes up. Especially since he prefers riding in Daddy’s Truck. That’s all he wanted this morning. Fortunately, when he saw that Daddy’s Truck wasn’t in the driveway, he was amenable to getting into Mommy’s Car.
The really aggravating thing to me, though, is that I was just getting into a rhythm with working out. Every morning, I’d wake up at 5:00, get ready and head to the gym. I’d work out for half an hour or so and then head to the train station and catch the 7:05 train. I’d then fall asleep at 7:10 and wake up as the train was pulling into the station 45 minutes later. Perfect.
Since I started this schedule, I’ve lost about 8 pounds and 1+ pant sizes. Right before Christmas, I decided that the 34s weren’t working anymore. Just a bit too tight. So I went up to 36s, which were awesomely roomy. But now I’m back to my 34s and they’re just a bit too big. The 33s are probably a pinch too small at this point, unless I’m going to a dance club in the 1980s. Conveniently, my pants are acid washed already, so I’d fit right in.
My point is that my new workout routine was actually working for me. And now I’m going to break it. Which means those 36s are going to have to come out again. In theory, I could wake up early and use the elliptical machine or even go for a run. In reality, I’ll come up with a million excuses not to. So I’m really hoping they fix my truck today or tomorrow. That way I won’t get too much out of my routine.
One nice thing about having no truck this weekend was that I was able to get caught up on a few of my TV shows. I watched Lost the other night, and I thought it was one of the best episodes of the show I’d seen in a very long time. On most episodes of Lost, they introduce a mystery. Then they spend about a season or so trying to figure it out while they give you half-assed answers that don’t help at all. This time, they just gave you the answer.
The whole episode centers around Desmond, who seems to be able to see the future. He keeps seeing bad things happen to Claire. For some reason, he feels the need to save her. Personally, I think she should be killed. I thought she was hot at the beginning of the show with her Australian accent and everything. But lately, she’s just a pill. But Desmond keeps protecting her. Jerk. Anyway, Charlie asks Desmond what’s going on and Desmond won’t tell. That’s how all the other episodes go. But then they do a flashback and they reveal just what happened to Desmond in the Hatch last season. It was jarring for it’s, um, upfrontery. (Screw you, spellcheck. It’s a word.)
I won’t go into all the details about the show, but Desmond finally revealed that he could see the future, as if he’s already lived it. Kind of like déjà vu. And that’s when he tells Charlie that he’s not trying to save Claire (phew!). He’s trying to save Charlie. And frankly, he should just stop. Charlie’s getting annoying too. Anyway, it turns out that Charlie would have been struck by lightning (alongside Claire) and that when Claire was drowning, Charlie went in to save her and drowned himself. But according to Desmond, the universe has a way of cause-correcting, meaning it’ll find a way to kill Charlie. Which is just great. Adds a bit of tension to the show.
I also got caught up on Survivor. This is another ho-hum season, but I feel compelled to watch because one of the contestants is practically a next-door neighbor. Mookie (an asian dude) grew up in Wheeling. He also went to U of I (as did I). Not only that, but he also studied actuarial science! We’re practically twins! The only problem is that I find Mookie really annoying so far. And he’s only had about 3 lines of dialogue in the last two episodes. So, part of me is cheering for him because he’s my blind man’s doppelganger. But part of me just wants him to get voted off so I can stop watching the show.
CSI is continuing to wear on me. I just don’t get it anymore. They’ve been dragging this whole Miniature Killer thing on WAY too long. This after killing off a new character after 3 episodes. Huh? In case you aren’t following CSI (and I can’t blame you if you aren’t), they kept finding these miniature replicas of murder scenes. They finally found the guy who did them and he killed himself. Well, another miniature replica showed up. Only this time, the murder hadn’t happened yet. Blah, blah, blah. Apparently, this guy had foster kids and one of them must have done it. The Wife thinks it’s this guy Hodges, who works in the lab (and also used to be on The Larry Sanders Show). I tried to argue with her and think of someone else it might be. Then I realized that I just don’t CARE who it is. I don’t know why I watch this show.
One show I do enjoy watching is House. Last week’s episode was another fantastic one. I’ve realized that what makes it consistently fantastic is the dialogue. It’s incredibly witty, which you don’t realize unless you watch it right after watching an episode of (dramatic pause) CSI (cue Who music). Ugh. It’s such a joy to see characters that are well fleshed out. Not only that, but they have complex issues. And they KNOW they have complex issues and they address them. And the best part? They don’t feel the need to explain things to the audience like CSI does. “You see, Grissom, blood is necessary for people to live. It carries oxygen to the brain. This guy died because he lost too much blood. I guess he finally found something (dramatic pause) that he didn’t let go to his head.” God, I hate that show.
There are many aggravating things about having no truck. One, of course, is that it’s going to cost me about $1500 to repair the thing (I hope). One nice side effect is that I won’t have to pay $1.50 at the train station to park it every day. So, maybe it’ll only cost about $1495 or so. Sweet. That savings, though, is offset by the need to have The Wife drive me to the train every morning. I feel pretty bad making a 9-month pregnant woman wake up and drive me. I feel worse when I have to convince a 2-year-old child to get in a cold car right after he wakes up. Especially since he prefers riding in Daddy’s Truck. That’s all he wanted this morning. Fortunately, when he saw that Daddy’s Truck wasn’t in the driveway, he was amenable to getting into Mommy’s Car.
The really aggravating thing to me, though, is that I was just getting into a rhythm with working out. Every morning, I’d wake up at 5:00, get ready and head to the gym. I’d work out for half an hour or so and then head to the train station and catch the 7:05 train. I’d then fall asleep at 7:10 and wake up as the train was pulling into the station 45 minutes later. Perfect.
Since I started this schedule, I’ve lost about 8 pounds and 1+ pant sizes. Right before Christmas, I decided that the 34s weren’t working anymore. Just a bit too tight. So I went up to 36s, which were awesomely roomy. But now I’m back to my 34s and they’re just a bit too big. The 33s are probably a pinch too small at this point, unless I’m going to a dance club in the 1980s. Conveniently, my pants are acid washed already, so I’d fit right in.
My point is that my new workout routine was actually working for me. And now I’m going to break it. Which means those 36s are going to have to come out again. In theory, I could wake up early and use the elliptical machine or even go for a run. In reality, I’ll come up with a million excuses not to. So I’m really hoping they fix my truck today or tomorrow. That way I won’t get too much out of my routine.
One nice thing about having no truck this weekend was that I was able to get caught up on a few of my TV shows. I watched Lost the other night, and I thought it was one of the best episodes of the show I’d seen in a very long time. On most episodes of Lost, they introduce a mystery. Then they spend about a season or so trying to figure it out while they give you half-assed answers that don’t help at all. This time, they just gave you the answer.
The whole episode centers around Desmond, who seems to be able to see the future. He keeps seeing bad things happen to Claire. For some reason, he feels the need to save her. Personally, I think she should be killed. I thought she was hot at the beginning of the show with her Australian accent and everything. But lately, she’s just a pill. But Desmond keeps protecting her. Jerk. Anyway, Charlie asks Desmond what’s going on and Desmond won’t tell. That’s how all the other episodes go. But then they do a flashback and they reveal just what happened to Desmond in the Hatch last season. It was jarring for it’s, um, upfrontery. (Screw you, spellcheck. It’s a word.)
I won’t go into all the details about the show, but Desmond finally revealed that he could see the future, as if he’s already lived it. Kind of like déjà vu. And that’s when he tells Charlie that he’s not trying to save Claire (phew!). He’s trying to save Charlie. And frankly, he should just stop. Charlie’s getting annoying too. Anyway, it turns out that Charlie would have been struck by lightning (alongside Claire) and that when Claire was drowning, Charlie went in to save her and drowned himself. But according to Desmond, the universe has a way of cause-correcting, meaning it’ll find a way to kill Charlie. Which is just great. Adds a bit of tension to the show.
I also got caught up on Survivor. This is another ho-hum season, but I feel compelled to watch because one of the contestants is practically a next-door neighbor. Mookie (an asian dude) grew up in Wheeling. He also went to U of I (as did I). Not only that, but he also studied actuarial science! We’re practically twins! The only problem is that I find Mookie really annoying so far. And he’s only had about 3 lines of dialogue in the last two episodes. So, part of me is cheering for him because he’s my blind man’s doppelganger. But part of me just wants him to get voted off so I can stop watching the show.
CSI is continuing to wear on me. I just don’t get it anymore. They’ve been dragging this whole Miniature Killer thing on WAY too long. This after killing off a new character after 3 episodes. Huh? In case you aren’t following CSI (and I can’t blame you if you aren’t), they kept finding these miniature replicas of murder scenes. They finally found the guy who did them and he killed himself. Well, another miniature replica showed up. Only this time, the murder hadn’t happened yet. Blah, blah, blah. Apparently, this guy had foster kids and one of them must have done it. The Wife thinks it’s this guy Hodges, who works in the lab (and also used to be on The Larry Sanders Show). I tried to argue with her and think of someone else it might be. Then I realized that I just don’t CARE who it is. I don’t know why I watch this show.
One show I do enjoy watching is House. Last week’s episode was another fantastic one. I’ve realized that what makes it consistently fantastic is the dialogue. It’s incredibly witty, which you don’t realize unless you watch it right after watching an episode of (dramatic pause) CSI (cue Who music). Ugh. It’s such a joy to see characters that are well fleshed out. Not only that, but they have complex issues. And they KNOW they have complex issues and they address them. And the best part? They don’t feel the need to explain things to the audience like CSI does. “You see, Grissom, blood is necessary for people to live. It carries oxygen to the brain. This guy died because he lost too much blood. I guess he finally found something (dramatic pause) that he didn’t let go to his head.” God, I hate that show.
