I suppose the most exciting thing I saw was Anderson Silva almost get his ass handed to him by a guy from Milwaulkie. The city that seems like a long strip of auto body shops and strip clubs developed a fighter that actually beat the crap out of the champion until he screwed up at the end. But really, watching TV shouldn’t be the most exciting thing in my life. At least not outside of football season.

So I spent the weekend priming and painting the laundry room. It’s a small room, but I had to avoid the washer and dryer that I moved to the middle of the room. I think it looks pretty good now. I also know much more clearly why I pay someone to paint.

Other than that it’s all things I can’t do anything about. My uncle (my dad’s cousin, really) died and it sounds like their neighbor may or may not be taking advantage of my aunt (my dad’s cousin’s wife). We weren’t informed, hardly anyone in the Spokane Japanese-American community was informed, and the neighbor has an irrevocable power of attorney, or so I’ve been told. I have no idea, really. I think I’m the closest blood relative to my uncle in the US, but my aunt has other relatives. As long as my aunt is happy, and not getting ripped off, I’m OK with it.

And a friend has a recurrence of cancer, but she told me that she’s going to fight it, or die trying. That’s the spirit.

So really, my boring life is boring, but it can still lead to stomach ulcers.

I like Big Macs and I have one every three to five years.They’re probably no worse for me than the Jack in the Box fare I get every few weeks, or the Five Guys burgers I get once a week but sometimes they make my stomach hurt so they can’t be all that good for me either. The Big Mac I had tonight was especially tasty as the lettuce (the only seeming variable) wasn’t bitter. Since I was alive in the mid-70’s, I remember the Big Mac is:

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. I’m not sure any of that is cooked normally. The beef patties seem to come out of a microwave, the onions are cut into little tiny chips, and the buns don’t seem to be baked, but I find it tasty all the same.

The rest of my life is kind of causing me stress. Why not eat a Big Mac? I didn’t get fries or a sugary soda so I’m calling it a win.

I was trying to get some friends to go out to Sushiville and get some sushi-on-a-track. It’s been pretty good when I’ve been there. I kind of knew that the plans weren’t solid and so I got some pre-packaged sushi at lunch. Really, though, I didn’t have time for anything else. I really need a vacation, the kind where I can just sit on my ass by a pool or something. Or even just watch TV. A whole lot of nothing would be nice, but work is busy, and weekends are fixing the house.

I ended up going to Sushiville by myself. It was kind of weird looking around, though most of the time I was busy either scoping out the track or shoveling food in my pie hole. I saw a couple who looked like they were on a first date, and a group of young people who looked like they were just hanging out. Both the couple and the group weren’t eating all that much. I was having a hard time keeping myself to whatever number of plates I ate. In Japan it was usually eleven. I think tonight I was down around five to seven. I’m wondering if I’ slowing down or if the sushi is just larger here. I only weighed like 143 pounds when I was in Japan, I’m guessing the sushi was just smaller.

I think I did as much as I could to dehydrate myself this weekend. I went to the gym and hydrated myself with coffee, then spent eight hours in a small hot room with a dust mask on, tearing down the walls. Then I hydrated with beer. The next day I went back in the room but knocked off early to go to a barbecue and hydrate with even more beer. Sheesh. I wasn’t quite on my game today, and even at the gym I sandbagged it. IT’s just as well.

I’m glad that I pay professionals to fix my house. I was afraid the laundry room would be a horrible mess. It needed some plumbing and electrical work before it could be insulated, and no insulation means no insulation for my mom’s new bathroom, delaying work there. The laundry room is a tiny add-on (probably a walled in porch) and it’s always hotter than hell in the summer and colder than hell (I see the paradox already) in the wintertime. I think it was the only room that didn’t have the rafters insulated recently. When I got home, most of the electrical and plumbing was redone in the room and we’re only a couple days behind. Even better, the laundry room might be usable by the end of the week.

Woo, it’s later than I thought. Time to catch up on some sleep.

I had to make multiple trips to Home Depot today because I didn’t have all the electrical parts necessary to finish the laundry room. I also had a barbecue to attend to see off a friend who is moving to Germany for her job! I hate to say I’m sad to see her go because it’s a great opportunity for her, but honestly I am a bit sad. Also, I’m not sure when I’m going to finish the wiring in the laundry room. Oh, well. That’s life I guess.

I have been lax in my duties boring people with my boring boringness. Unfortunately, I’ve been jerked around a lot lately and that’s taken a lot of my time. It’s just the way it goes.

Today was another day taking out the old lath and plaster in a room. This time it was the laundry room. If I had any sense I would have started on it early because I can’t do any laundry until it’s over but I went to the gym and then out to get some lunch before I started. That just meant I didn’t finish until after 8PM. Now I’m even more tired. Hooray. And with the state of the laundry room, I won’t be able to use the washer or dryer for a while. Hooray.

I’ve mentioned before that I get phrases stuck in my head. Unlike religious people who may get sacred texts stuck in their heads, I get bits and pieces of songs and movie scripts. Looks like I’m getting the opportunity to destroy another room this weekend. We’ll see how that goes.

Went out to dinner with the boys where we sat around speaking about our feelings. Our feelings about strip clubs is more like it, though we did spend an inordinate amount of time talking about how we’d cook with blueberries. I knew I had more work to do so I had more than one beer. Imran even bought ice cream. Did I mention he’s 8 feet tall and a very nice guy? And ladies, he’s single.

There’s all this talk about fitness goals and i got caught up in it earlier this year when I thought I wanted to get fit enough to be invited to work out at Gym Jones. I really thought this was a good idea for about a week until I realized that it would require me to be a level of meathead that I am unaccustomed to interacting with, much less being. At some point my “FU” reflexes would probably kick in and things would degenerate into an ass-whooping that I would be on the wrong end of. Better to avoid situations like that.

So my new fitness goals are much more sensible. Or at least the goal is to be more sensible:

You probably don’t know Imran, but he’s a friend from the gym who is about eight feet tall.

So when he’s swinging a kettlebell, it’s probably going much further than I’m swinging it. Let’s say it’s proportional to height. I’m only 5′ 9 1/2″ (at least I used to be) and if he’s 8′ tall then that means he has to go 1.4 times further than I do. Since a swing is in an arc, let’s just multiply that times pi. Maybe even times the gravitational constant. That’s FORTY THREE times more work he has to do. But he’s probably FIFTY TIMES STRONGER than I am. At least he throws around those 28kg kettlebells when I’m grunting under the effort. I mean, he ran two laps around the gym in 1:12 when it took me 1:25. Let’s cube that because we’re three dimensional which would mean he’s ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE PERCENT FASTER than me. Plus he’s like half my age. I should not try to keep up with Imran.

OK, so you’re thinking my math is off. It often is when I’m comparing myself to Imran, who is stronger, smarter, and has a cooler name than me so I really should tell you my real goal. Really. Here it goes.

I want to keep doing things like this:

And keep looking like this:

Except maybe not so squinty.

I had this grand plan where I was going to say something but it’s time to move my sister’s blog to different software. All I have to say was that I BEGGED HER TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO QUIT PUTTING SPACES IN HER FILE NAMES and she NEVER LISTENS.

So now I have THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED LINKS to look through on her blog because of this which is going to take FOREVER. And I thought work was bad.

Oh, I just remembered I have two important emails to send out. So much for sleep.

OK, so not really blind dates, but dates with people met on online dating sites. Usually this doesn’t work for me, but somehow after being on OKCupid for three years, I’ve gone out with three people. I never talk about it because what if it works out? HAH. I’m no longer deluding myself.

But really, the important thing is WHAT I ATE on my last two blind dates. Both were messy, both were cheeseburgers. A couple of weeks ago I went to Bridgeport Brewery where they cooked my cheeseburger as rare as I wanted (as rare as they could get it) and I think it’s a solid pub burger.

But this weekend I went to Café Nell (which I always thought was almost great but never enough food) and got their great burger. It had thick smoky bacon, nicely seasoned meat cooked kind of rare, a runny sunnyside-up egg (the way I like it), nice unobtrusive bun, and sweet relish. It was tasty.

I think this goes on my list of best fancy burgers.

Who knew that Lululemon athletic shirts were so expensive. I’m guessing the answer is JUST ABOUT EVERYONE EXCEPT ME. I’m used to getting free t-shirts (as ugly as hey might be). If you just get enough of them then some of them turn out to look OK. My sister (much more of a shopper than I am) told me that athletic wear was just plain expensive and I should just suck it up. I’m sure I’m going to enjoy wearing the shirts. Someone asked if I looked good in them and my answer, however was, “Who is going to care?”

I was in a bad mood when I got home, but not bad enough that I wasn’t trying to figure out why I was in a bad mood. I didn’t want to drink any free wine at a wine tasting or eat any free cupcakes. My stomach felt too empty. I realized that I’d had another awful $6 salad at work because I didn’t have time to escape campus to get something to eat. Not only are the salads expensive but they’re kind of tiny and I was starving by the time I finished my workout at the gym. Part of it was running like a maniac around the block, and I was beat by a 34YO and a 29YO to which I can really only say, “Whatever.”

Work continues to be hectic, and my boss let me know that he wants me to do EVEN MORE. I know he’s right and his suggestions are given with the best intentions, but what timing. It’s not like I have a whole lot of spare time.

And I should really be happy, I think I got a refund for my iPhone 4 bumper. I know it’s only $27 or so, but it’s better than nothing.

It’s just a lot of work at work which is good because that means I probably get to keep my job. Other than that, I got nothing.