I went back to Belly because I couldn’t stay away. Plus, it’s 4th of July weekend and I think most people are either out of town or off their regular schedules, so some restaurants are empty while others are overfull. Belly was empty on Friday so I took a chance.

My mom and I were the only two there, and I got a burger. Not as rare as I like, but tasty nevertheless. They must have grilled it over wood, because the meat had a smoky taste. The only downside, again, was a bun that wasn’t perfect. I’m not sure why I’m so picky about the bun, but this one was also a bit gummy. Not chewy, but just a little gummy.

The burger could have used a bit more relish or something.

My mom got the pizza. Not as crisp as I’d like, but tasty.

I went to Belly today because I was working from home and one of the advantages is that I get to go to different places for lunch. (In case you think I didn’t do anything, I did almost destroy a hard disk while trying to get something work-related running.) Also, Belly announced their new lunch menu and it sounded meattastic.

Oddly enough, I didn’t have the burger. I had the Belly dip instead, which was:

crisp roasted pork belly, melted leeks and watercress aioli on toasted hoagie with bacon jus

It was tasty but not executed perfectly. The roll needed more toasting (it was too chewy) and the meat was cut into small chunks that fell out of the roll and made it impossible to dip. I’d still recommend it, but it’s one of those “hard to eat” things.

My mom had tasty asparagus with a poached egg fritter which she said was kind of bland but pretty. Remind you of anyone?

I think I may go back tomorrow for the burger.

Earlier this week I had to get up at a ridiculous time so I could be in the office for a 7AM meeting. I was just kind of listening in on that, but tomorrow I have to be in for a 6:30AM meeting and I’m the main event. Fortunately I think it’ll just be a nice question and answer sort of meeting, but sometimes the answers just mean a lot more work for me. But enough about that. Not talking any more about work, and how people live in other, more inconvenient, time zones.

I tried for a 340# deadlift today and I didn’t make it. This means that if I’m going to pretend that I can deadlift twice my body weight, I’m going to have to pretend that I only weigh 165#, which is sort of what I weigh. I’d say I go from 164# to 168#, so I’m going to have to deadlift more next time, or lose some weight. Either one is going to be kind of hard. I did get 340# up and about to my knees, but I just didn’t have it in me to get it all the way up. I started out thinking that I wasn’t going to make it and that didn’t help much. I should probably get more sleep, but the heat earlier in the week didn’t help much.

OK, so I have to get up at a ridiculous time, so that’s about it for today. Life could be more interesting, but then would it be my life?

Most days I would say something about my tedious day and, according to the stats, 20 people would read it. I think 19 of those 20 are actually just google and yahoo and whatever other search engines are still out there. I wonder if altavista is still out there?

But I really have very little to report. And I even missed Sunday and Monday. Sunday was a beautiful day and I spent it inside. I started out by finally putting marmoleum sealer on my bathroom floor (after more than a year of just thinking about it) and then paying my bills. But then I spent the rest of the day trying to write an iPhone app. I was successful in writing an app, but it did not work the way I wanted it to. Back to the drawing board.

I think the main reason I haven’t been writing as much is because I’ve been busy at work, and I still have stuff to do in the evening because i’ve been busy at work. Pretty pathetic but whatever. Anyway that’s the happy haps. Time to read the entertainment news.

I did very little actual work today and it just involved filling a garbage can with some more of the ivy my awful neighbor left in my yard. It’s just as well, I’m not a big fan of ivy. I also had some fun trying out some chemical means of controlling the weeds in my yard. Other than that, though, it was all about sitting inside and trying to get my computer to do what I wanted it to do. I wasn’t quite successful.

We went to a Japanese curry restaurant called Kale that my mom and my sister have been talking about for a while and it was pretty good though they don’t have a lot of things on the menu. Beef curry, non-beef curry (semi-vegetarian), and curry doria. I had the doria, which must be phonetically transliterated from something else, but it’s rice, curry, and cheese which is baked. It was quite tasty. The name of the restaurant is also the transliteration of curry in Japanese.

Japanese curry is not like other curries, but it was pretty tasty if you ask me. The menu is pretty limited and the location is in a café in SW Portland near Lincoln High School and I think I’ll be going back.

Oh, and I went and bought a Zagg screen protector for my iPhone 4 after being all paranoid about scratching it and I’m much happier now. I’m waiting for the bumper to actually ship and I think then I’ll be even happier. I finally made a couple of phone calls with the thing but so far I’m just using it like my last iPhone 3GS, maps, texting, and iPod. And so far I really like it.

I used Facetime today. The heat, however, is melting my brain. 85°F is too much too soon for me. So I got nothing else. Time to pass out.

I knew I’d be fairly useless today since the UPS web site hadn’t changed since I got my notification on Monday. Refreshing the web page told me that things were changing, but the things that were changing was just the time of the report. It still said it was on the way to UPS in Memphis until it was actually delivered today, one day early! My guess is that they almost crashed the AT&T system last year when all the iPhones were released on the same day, and this time they wanted to spread it out a bit. Especially since I heard they sold ten times the volume of phones this year.

Anyway, I’ve spent all evening transferring data into my new phone. I still haven’t made a phone call, but I’ve taken a picture and sent a text message to my sister. Whoop-de-doo, right? I guess I have to play with it more tomorrow.

Other than that, it really feels like Thursday. What is with this week?

My iPhone 4 is shipping or so the email said. AT&T has somehow sent it into the bowels of the UPS system and it should be delivered sometime. The problem is that I’m hitting refresh over and over trying to find out when I’m really going to get it. This is why I just wanted to stand in line and get it at the store. I’d know nothing until the day it arrived and I’d just waltz in and get it. It worked the last two times I got an iPhone. Ah, well. Not much else to say because I’m busy clicking refresh on the UPS package tracker.

I’m usually OK winging presentations, but I’m not entirely smooth at them either. I had to do a presentation with another guy today, and I only spoke for 10 minutes out of two hours, but it was still oddly tiring. And because of that my mind is drawing a blank right now.

Went out to dinner to an all-you-can-eat pizza place last night with my sister and some of her friends. Unfortunately there were other small groups there and we had to wait an hour to get seated. The problem in a group of six to eight is that not everyone is full or get the pizza they want and so you wait on the last person. Especially since you want them to get their money’s worth, too. Also unfortunately, the pizza was good but not great in my opinion. I’d certainly get it again, but someone else would have to pick it. And I over-garlicked myself and instead of just getting gas, I had more catastrophic stomach problems. Self-limiting, of course, but still unpleasant in it’s own way. I hate to think I have to avoid garlic from now on, but it would make more sense than I have to top cold-turkey. I wonder if there’s a twelve-step program for garlic.

I usually don’t blog on Fridays because Fridays are excitement time for me. A guy like me spends all week working for the weekend and parties hard on Friday night. And by party hard I mean I watch all the TV shows I have queued up on my DVR. Now that it’s summer, though, I’m not as popular with the DVR and I have to find something else to occupy my Friday night.

Actually I was so tired that I tired that I lied down for a few minutes before dinner (or is it layed down? this isn’t a grammatical rule I have to use much) and when I woke up I couldn’t remember what the hell I was doing. In fact, I thought I was late for the gym.  This contributed to lots of stumbling around before eating dinner.

Anyway, I’m actually Mr. Popular My usually quiet phone rang SEVEN TIMES today! Unfortunately, it was a number iI had blocked myself so it didn’t ring through. I wish I could say it was something exciting like an ex-girlfriend or a government conspiracy of some sort, but not only do I have an ex-girlfriend who calls me but I’m probably way too dull for the conspiracy parts of the government. From what I’ve heard, the number is some sort of telemarketing service. Ah well, II’m going to keep thinking it was more exciting than it was.

How you like me now? It’s WordPress 3.0 beaches with a new theme! I figured I needed a wide picture, and the only one I could think of is the view from Megan and Nadeem’s. Anyway, here it is!

Yesterday I went to dinner at Sushiland with Erin and MattyG after the gym and then hit the Nook Cafe next door for a drink. It’s in a house where my sister’s grade school classmate lived and I keep hearing that the house is haunted! I don’t believe in ghosts, but I love a good story. The guy who runs the cafe doesn’t believe in ghosts, either, but he said he felt something bump into him as he stood in the middle of the room with no one around him. It’s a nice little spot either way.

OK, time to hit the hay, I think.

I did make it back into the gym today, where I think I almost broke myself. I’m exaggerating, but I am tired.

I recorded the basketball game and I watched it, but really why do I always miss watching the Lakers get beat and have to watch them win? Perhaps it’s better for the Celtics if I just don’t watch the games. You know how this superstitious stuff works.

The worst news (which I realize isn’t all that bad) is that I don’t think I’m getting a new iPhone on the first day it’s available. I almost had it ordered this morning at 7AM, but I thought if I went to the AT&T store I could get in-store delivery and I wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for it to be delivered and then being unproductive at work while I waited for it to arrive home. Well, it turns out that EVERYONE wanted an iPhone 4 today and the ordering computers crashed. When I got to the AT&T store, they were taking orders on paper and running credit cards using one of those old manual machines. I got a call late in the day from the store telling me that the computer looked like it was limping along finally, but I also saw online that the pre-orders were all sold out and I probably won’t be getting mine until after July 5 or so. That’s two weeks after the launch. Oh, well.

Now I’m tempting fate by updating my Kindle software. These things happen in threes, right?