I was standing around for most of the day, but instead of just standing in one place comfortably, I was 70 feet up in the air trying to get my friend’s ham radio antenna down to the ground so he could fix it. I was one of the “lucky” ones who got to go up the tower. It’s kind of weird, you don’t get to move round as much as you’d like (because falling to your death is a bad idea) and if you drop something it’s a big production to get it back, especially if you hit anyone down on the ground. When I got passive-agressive about it, I’d make sure no one was near my drop zone and I’d drop things that were getting in my way, like water bottles.

We started in the early afternoon and I think I finally got off the tower at 7:30PM. My buddy who owns the tower bought us dinner afterwards and I had something unhealthy since I thought I deserved it, but I didn’t expect to see 4 orders of ribs on one plate. Those people in Scappoose sure know how to eat.

In retrospect, I really have to find a weekend where I can just sit around and watch TV or something.

I hung out with some people watching a UFC fight tonight. I’m not a very violence-prone guy and I try to avoid it in most cases, but I get sucked into watching things like that. It’s like watching a train wreck. I can’t look away.

Speaking of train wrecks, I went to look for bathroom fixtures yesterday and found some nice, boring fixtures from Price-Pfister. Unfortunately, my plumber and my contractor told me to go back and find something else. It’s my understanding that Price-Pfister has had some trouble with their kitchen sink fixtures. I went and found something slightly nicer that cost approximately $600 for the valves and fixturing for the upstairs bath. Then I also looked for some fancier things for the downstairs since it gets used much more often and the fixtures I priced there were more like $2000. I think my mom also wants the Toto Washlet bidet as well.

I suppose there’s a big question about why I’m spending so much money on this, but I haven’t had a girlfriend since 2001 so it’s all for me to spend how I want. Although if I ever do get married, I bet my wife will tell me to tear all this crap out and replace it with what she wants, but that’s much less likely than lightning striking me at this point. Especially since I have to climb my buddy’s 70-foot radio tower tomorrow to do some antenna work. Good thing I’m not sober now, but unfortunately I’ll probably be sober by the time I have to climb up that damn thing.

None of the stuff they took was a big deal and really, I needed to replace the toilet and sink anyway. Plexiglas was cheap the last time I checked and looking at all the junk they got out of the bathroom really just reminds me that I should have thrown it all away much earlier. I’ve gone through my those drawers before but, like the rest of my dad’s junk, I’ve been putting off going through all the stuff. So tomorrow I go to the plumbing supply to look for toilets and sinks. I bet they’re expensive.

Other than that, I’ve been wondering what’s geekier, the weird bulge you get from keeping your iPhone in your front pocket or the weird belt pouch. It probably doesn’t matter anyway. It was pointed out to me that at my age I’m invisible to single women. Somehow I think age has little to do with it.

So the contractors came to tear out most of the old upstairs bathroom. I didn’t think about it until now, so I hadn’t cleaned out the drawers up there. Instead of leaving the crap in the drawers and just demolishing the cabinets, they unloaded the crap into all the spare cardboard boxes I had that I was using to take books to Powells. That annoys me a little. They also decided to throw away the old fixtures, which could have been reused. The old toilet was sitting at the sidewalk and the old sink is missing. Not only that, but they took the plexiglas we use to keep the wind off of the basement windows and probably other random stuff around the house as well.

All I have to say is what the hell, man. I’m not going to be able to sleep because I’m fairly annoyed at this.

MobileMe has messed up my work calendars, making my iPhone useless for work. There’s no end of annoyance for me tonight.

For the most part, I seem to get sore at the gym and my joints sometimes ache, but to really hurt myself I need to do something that has little to do with actual exercise. Today, for example, I pulled the tendon that goes down my middle finger down my forearm when I was pulling on my gym shoes. The time I hurt my back so bad that I was out for most of a month, I was putting golf clubs into my trunk. While I think the medication I take probably makes me more susceptible to muscle cramps, this is all getting ridiculous.

Other than that my brain is fairly fried and the only thing I can think is that 95°F is too hot for this Oregonian. So, I think I’ll go lie in bed and hope my brain doesn’t melt.

Last week it was cold outside during the day. I think there were days in the 60’s and, in any case, it actually rained. But today it was 91°F. Probably even more here in the city. The workout at the gym included 3 laps around the block and I have a hard time with more than 2 on a good day. The sudden heat and my trying to cough up a lung after being in the basement all weekend (blowing black snot) didn’t help either.

When I left for the gym there was a girl down at the school practicing tennis against the wall. She was wearing shorts and a bikini top. I would have taken a better look, but I figure anyone with that sort of fashion sense is probably very, very young. An exhibitionist wouldn’t be behind the school and anyone closer to my age would probably be wearing long sleeves and sunscreen.

I could always try to embrace my inner dirty old man and break out my trench coat and a bag of candy, but I don’t have the kind of aberrant tenacity to pull that off. First, it’s too hot to wear a trench coat and it only comes out of my closet when I’m wearing my suit and it’s raining like for a funeral. (The suit only comes out for weddings and funerals and weddings are usually during the sunny season.)

And how in the hell would I keep a bag of candy in the house? First, I’d eat some for a sample. Then I’d have to make sure that the sample was representative of the rest of the bag. Then I’d have eaten almost half, so I’d have to eat approximately half of the candy. Then I’d accidentally east some more. Well, now that I was almost 2/3 of the way through the bag, I’d have to get to 2/3. But a 1/3 of a bag of candy is close to 1/4 so I could eat a bit more. And 1/4 bag of candy isn’t worth keeping around so I’d have to finish it all. This theory seems to apply to cookies and cupcakes as well.

So, I think I’ll stick to the ice cream as a vice, if I only had some ice cream.

P.S. I put some pictures of plumbing on yesterday’s post.

The best thing about this weekend is how well my $20 saw held up. I think I got rid of most of the old pipe in the basement, at least all I could get out. My friend the contractor came by to tell me that he thought all the siding might need to come down and I he was surprised at how much pipe I got out.

The most surprising thing to me was the state of the hot water pipes. One by the hot water heater snapped off when I tried to unscrew it, and the pipe to the bathroom sink was almost completely plugged up with rust.

Speaking of the bathroom sink, it decided to start leaking today and I had to replace the drain. So that’s my life right now: plumbing.

(I always just take a picture to take to the plumber’s supply so it’s easier to explain things to the guy at the counter.)

Every weekend I’ve had a house project, though it’s all been about the same thing: fixing the plumbing. Cleaning the basement was about getting space for the plumber to work. Taking books to the used book store is about the same thing. Well, the plumber is finally finished and we’ve been waiting on the contractor who is buried in work. So, instead of waiting for him to tear out all the old galvanized pipe, I decided to do it myself. I covered myself in rusty water and bits of metal for most of the day, after going to the gym of course.

The biggest surprise of the day was how well my $20 reciprocating saw from Harbor Freight worked. I didn’t even have to borrow a real Sawzall. The metal cutting blade that came with it was kind of crap and flew off into never-never land but after I got some name brand blades at the hardware store it worked just fine. The In any case, I got a lot of pipe out of the basement and in the driveway.

That’s my day and I have more work to do tomorrow. I decided I deserved a bacon cheeseburger at Stepping Stone. It was surprisingly good, though the PBR could have been colder.

My evening was capped off by playing Aurora Feint on my iPhone. Hooray, what an exciting life.

I guess they finally came out with a blog client for WordPress that runs on the iPhone. I’m trying it out now.

I just got back from the the gym owners’ house. I had to check out their Wii because it wasn’t powering up. I don’t think anyone with any heart could leave a couple with a 7-year-old and a broken Wii. Fortunately, it just took a little jiggling of the wires and the Wii was up and running. I stuck around while the kid proved how bad I am at Mario Kart and Lego Indy Jones. Just something else to make me feel old.

Update: Blogging on the iPhone sure makes for short sentences. I just went back and read this and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Ah, well, I think I’ll stick to the regular laptop so I don’t wear out my typing finger on the iPhone. Now to decide whether to learn French or Spanish.

A group of us, including Nurse Tiff of the Stink-eye and non-updating-blog, went out to eat after the workout. I’m always rooting for dive bars, and Crackerjack in NW is quite the dive. I don’t mind going to local dives for the most part, but the drinkers at Crackerjack look a bit too serious for me. In contrast, the back deck at the Crackerjack is a nice area with picnic benches and usually full of neighbors and their kids. It’s funny how different it feels from the inside.

In any case, we went to Laurelwood which is nicer and while I wanted a hamburger, I ate a pulled pork sandwich instead because we all know how much healthier that is for you. And I had a beer. One beer is usually what it takes to make me want to sleep in. Two and I’m usually OK. I don’t know how that works.

Somehow I was clicking on random links IN MY OWN BLOG since WordPress puts them there, and I got to something called, “Real Men Like Curves.” Along with this there’s all sorts of links about cheeseburgers and even a section titled, “How many cheeseburgers does it take to scare a model?” I’m not sure what this is, but somehow I think I can get behind it.

So for those who don’t do Crossfit, Fran is the name of a benchmark workout. 21 thrusters, 21 pullups, 15 thrusters, 15 pullups, 9 thrusters, and 9 pullups. My throat felt dry afterwards and it was from breathing so hard during the workout. In fact, your chest can hurt the day after the workout for the same reason. I think I was the slowest in our class, but I still improved my time and I even did more weight on the thrusters. The “prescribed weight” is 95# for the thruster and I did 85#. Last time I did 75#, so that’s a 13% increase. I’m not sure that was a wise increase because of the difficulty and because my knees hurt like hell right now. It even made me miss going to the The Dark Knight with hotties from the gym (you know who you are).

I almost missed going to the gym because I was at work late. They’re actually making me work for the money and that’s quite an annoyance. I also heard a rumor that the contractor thinks it’s going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair our house. While I trust him and I know there’s lots of repairs that need to be done, F*CK*NG H*LL that’s a lot of money. I guess it’s time to get a loan.

My iPhone continues to annoy me, but I still love it. I guess I may need that therapist after all.

My weight fluctuates about 5 pounds. I’ve read that’s common with males. I had a goal of losing 20 pounds from my peak of 185 but it’s kind of hard to pin down a weight when it moves around like that. So I figured I’d use the weight right after my post-workout shower. I also decided that I wouldn’t say I reached my goal of 165 unless I dipped below it. Well, I finally did it today. One-hundred-and-sixty-four pounds. Count it.

You can imagine there are a lot of attractive women at the gym. And really, who could be more attractive than someone who makes cupcakes? I found out today when someone gave me chocolate chip cookies. Of course, they were so good that I ended up like the cookie monster and chomped them all into little bits that fell out of my muppet mouth. Well, not really, I didn’t let more than a crumb fall and now I wonder if I’m ever going to see 164 again.

Actually, I’ve kind of slowed down in my weight reduction and I’ve been eating more Mexican food lately. I found out what what a “sope” is and a chavindeca (two corn tortillas with cheese and meat melted inside with some avocado as well). What they are is my downfall. Really quite tasty and probably not that good for me. I was sticking to salads for lunch for the most part and I only have a cheeseburger every couple of weeks. I’ve even avoided fried chicken and only had it once in the past few months. Quite odd for the guy who liked to go to Popeye’s several times a week.

But really, I’ve had salads at Jack-in-the-Box (good), Baker’s Burgers aka Assburger (not too good), a strip club (not a good choice in any sense), and other various and sundry places including the cafeteria at work. I’m surprising myself at the number of salads I can eat and not feel like I’m starving, but I’m being tempted by things that actually have flavor, like bacon. Mmmm, bacon.