R & R

Today was a day of rest and relaxation. I slept in, did some reading, and had coffee with a friend. I also went to the gym, which probably doesn't qualify as rest or relaxation, but I signed up just a few days ago and wanted to get started on my workout plans. Tonight was slow, and I'm heading to bed relatively early. For me, that alone is a pretty big accomplishment.

Mood: Calm.
Song: The Killers, "Mr. Brightside"

Search Results

I looked through the search engine results that have led people to this site. Two of my favorites were:

• hallelujah chorus alarm clock and
  
• snack cracker toppings.

Hmmmmm. Snack cracker toppings. Nothing wrong with that.

One Year Ago...

And with wind chill, it was somewhere around -30'F.

I took this photo in early January 2004 at a Clark 2004 rally at which I was working.

I was wearing six or seven layers of clothes, including a couple layers of ski clothes, plus gloves and three sets of liners, a balaclava, a nose-and-mouth facemask, two fleece hats, a double-layered ski jacket, ski goggles, and more. Breathing was painful, and it was fairly common (albeit very strange) to feel the sensation of your eyelashes freezing.

Being inside would have been smart, but instead I was directing traffic in a parking lot and helping people get out of their cars. Once everyone had arrived at the rally, I ran over to the sign, took this picture, and ran inside.

Hello Again

I've noticed something about my blog posts over the last six months - every time I say that I will write "soon" or "tomorrow" or something like that, I don't end up writing again for at least a couple weeks. Now I'll try to take the opposite approach; maybe I won't write again for another couple weeks.

DC is cold. Very cold. It was around 10'F this morning when I woke up. Ouch. It's not quite as bad as my experience in New Hampshire during the primaries last year, but it's still pretty cold. At least now I'm not standing outside during the morning rush hour, waving signs frantically at cars as I slowly froze to death. I'll see if I can find the Dallas Morning News article that I was in; with wind chill, our daytime highs were in the single digits. And in the early morning? Easily twenty or thirty below. So 10'F is nothing to worry about.

I had a great weekend, and I'm feeling pretty good about this upcoming week. It will be a busy week at work, but I'll finally get around to checking out my new gym!

Mood: Calm, sleepy.
Song: Ottmar Liebert, "Spanish Steps (Rome in May)"

What a Great Day!

Today was a very good start to 2005. The DC weather was incredible -- clear skies and a high of nearly 70 degrees. I slept in, unpacked my luggage from last weekend, cleaned my entire apartment, went running for the first time in months, caught a episodes of Iron Chef: America and relaxed for a few hours. The run was pretty exhausting, but that's what I get for (a) not running in 4 months and (b) running soon after recovering from food poisoning (and, hence, not eating for a couple days). More on that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I will create my plan for getting back in shape, finish Catch-22, and cook for the first time since last summer.

It's past 3am now, but that's fine when I consider what a great day it was. If it weren't so late, I might actually write some reasonably long posts like I used to....it just seems like I don't have any particularly interesting stories right now. We'll see what I can think of tomorrow...

Mood: Optimistic.
Song: Beethoven, Symphony No. 9: Molto Vivace (2nd Movement)

Happy New Year!

Happy 2005, everyone. I feel good about this year.