Made it home safe, late last night. Catching up on friends entries, 236 of them to be exact. I will also be posting my vacation notes shortly.

Fri 8/1: No Sat 8/2: Does moving the telescope and cleaning the porch count? Otherwise no. Sun 8/3: No Mon 8/4: Vacation, lots of walking. Also rode exercise bike at the hotel. Tue 8/5: Vacation, lots of walking. Wed 8/6: Vacation, lots of walking. Thu 8/7: Vacation, lots of walking. Fri 8/8: Vacation, lots of walking. Sat 8/9: No Sun 8/10: Hauled laundry up and down stairs Mon 8/11: Trick knee today, no activity Tue 8/12: ? Wed 8/13: Bike, 10 miles Thu 8/14: Bike, 11 miles, wt 261 Fri 8/15: No Sat 8/16: Bike, 10 miles Sun 8/17: Bike, 10 miles Mon 8/18: Bike, 7.7 miles (a.m.) Tue 8/19: Bike, 10 miles (a.m.) Wed 8/20: Bike, 10 miles Thu 8/21: Bike, 9 miles Fri 8/22: Trick knee! Nothing today. Sat 8/23: Swimming, 30 min Sun 8/24: Nothing, except hauling the scope up and down steps Mon 8/25: Swimming, 45 min Tue 8/26: Very light biking, also with arm movements, 25 min Wed 8/27: Thu 8/28: Fri 8/29: Sat 8/30: Biking, 10 miles Sun 8/31: Biking, 7 miles

No workout today, but I also did not eat out for dinner, so let’s call it even. After dinner of asparagus and leftovers, I made some more pickles. I made a double batch this time, one jar for me and one jar for some friends. Better not tell you who just yet… it’s a surprise. 11. Dill Pickles: Cucumbers, Onions and Bell Peppers Cucumbers, cut into slices Green Bell pepper, cut into thin strips Onions, cut into rings 10 cloves of fresh garlic 20 sprigs of fresh dill 2 cups cider vinegar 1 cup champagne vinegar 2 cups of water 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup kosher salt 2 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp onion flakes 3 tsp pickling spice ...

I’m feeling like I had a productive day today. Hours slept: 5.3 Minutes early to work: 15 Donuts brought: 24 Donuts consumed: 2 Meetings attended: 3 Meetings postponed: 1 Dentists visited: 1 Cucumbers pickled: 2 Bell peppers pickled: 1 Miles pedaled: 10.1 Calories burned: 500 Grams of ice cream: 140 Calories of ice cream consumed: 350

This was posted as a reply in a friend’s journal and I wanted to save it for myself.

After a hiatus, the Workout log has returned. Let’s see if I can keep this up. I haven’t had much exercise at all since October. Mon 7/21: Bike, 45 min, 9.37 miles Tue 7/22: Bike, 45 min, 9.60 miles, wt. 265 Wed 7/23: Bike, 45 mim, 10 miles Thu 7/24: Bike, 45 min, 10 miles Fri 7/25: No Sat 7/26: No Sun 7/27: Bike, 35 min, 6 miles Mon 7/28: Bike, 50 min, 10 miles Tue 7/29: No Wed 7/30: Walking, 30 min Thu 7/31: Bike, 45 min, 10 miles

Friday: not much going on. Don’t remember what we did for dinner. Hmm. I think we gave the cats their doses of Advantage. Saturday: Emptied out the trunk of the car, which previously contained 5 12-packs of pepsi, bag of something from Walgreen’s, laptop for my mom, 2 pillows, and empty bottle which previously held pre-diluted radiator fluid. The trunk now contains only 3 sheet sets from Bed Bath and Beyond, a trivet or something, and a video card. We also managed to get most of the crap off the balcony (mostly leaves and dirt, but also a rug, some chicken wire, screws, remains of the window I pushed out to install the AC, and a couple other things I can’t remember. ...

Ok, my favorite cooking show is still Good Eats. But, if you like Good Eats, and have temporarily run out of episodes, check out Deep Fried Live. The host is an octopus, the show is a cartoon, but the recipes and advice are real. Pretty funny! If you haven’t seen Good Eats yet, do it! If you like Good Eats, be sure to check out Alton Brown’s own site Alton Brown.com for some more tips, rants and raves, etc. Worth it for the cool pictures of him if nothing else.

Why am I pickle crazy, you ask? Well, I am just all around crazy, but that you know. Mostly it is because I finally found something I can make for myself relatively easily and cheaply and is a non-fat low-calorie snack that I will actually eat. I took pickles to work last week and had them Thursday, Friday and Monday for lunch (or something like that)… Here is a link to the previous recipe. Those are all gone now. (Note the previous Dill the 4th recipe makes enough for 1 and 1/2 jars :) ...

A quick review of this week. Went to the vet on Monday, went to Sacramento on Wednesday, gods, it was hot enough to melt my deodorant, had a lot of good meetings with sysadmins, came back on Thursday, and didn’t do much at all on Friday. There. Friday afternoon, went shopping, had mashed potatoes, brown gravy, and hamburger meat. Sounds strange but it was good… a comfort food. Saturday, drove up to see M’s family in Healdsburg. Got to see E (cousin J’s new wife) and a tiny baby, might be the youngest baby I’ve seen in real life. Babies are so helpless… I think humans must be unique in surviving so well, compared to how helpless we are as infants. Also damn hot in the North Bay too. ...