I was going to watch my new TV tonight but I ended up watching some downloaded Japanese TV instead. It’s odd that I actually have something to watch. My DVR is probably filling up with more Food Network shows as well.

I had fried chicken and Greek fries (the 3-piece snack box) at the Mad Greek Deli again today. It’s one of the least expensive things on the menu and I love fried chicken. I was going to go slightly healthier: chicken souvlaki and a Greek salad, but they were out of souvlaki again. They didn’t skimp on the portions today and I was still burping fried food when I got to the gym. I thought the sprinting would kill me, but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I did fine and the chicken made its way down my digestive tract, not out the way I was fearing.

Speaking of fear, I found out my Sigg water bottle was lined with the scary plastic that I was trying to avoid! Well, I probably breathed in enough pthalates while I was getting my chemistry degree (as well as various and sundry organic solvents and chemicals that are used to cleave DNA for fun and profit) so the water bottle is probably the least of my worries. But there is a return program and I may take advantage of that. That is if I can remember after getting indoctrinated by the President.

I’m not sure what I did today. Went to the gym, ate pierogi, made sure a wireless keyboard worked with my friend’s daughter’s Netbook, and watched some TV. It’s a holiday.

I am using my HD DVR to record ever possible episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (and Good Eats for that matter) and even after having a steak for dinner, the show made me hungry for some greasy food. I’m wondering if I’ll gain weight just by watching the TV. Ah, well, I’m not going to travel to many of the places he goes to, I’m sure (I’ve been to two, as far as I can tell) so I should be OK. Then again, I finally found and ate some pierogi today and it was pretty good. I may find a method of self-sabotage that doesn’t require any help from Guy Fieri.

So I still have all those channels with very very little to see, but I’ve found TWO movies this whole weekend that seemed worth recording. Oddly enough, I’ve been way too busy to watch them and now I’m staying up late to finish watching them. No Country for Old Men was as good as I thought and now I’m watching Speed Racer. I never heard anything good about it, and it’s fantastic.

I was in the attic for most of the day, putting in another outlet, a network connection, and a phone connection, all so I can hook up my DirecTV upstairs. It’s ALMOST working. I just have to get the network working and I think I can get it going without too much trouble, but that’ll take yet another trip to the hardware store. Good thing I’m a guy and I like hardware stores.

Well, time to stay up too late watching Speed Racer. I needs me some more cheese!

You’d think I liked crawling around in the attic, but I’m really just trying to figure out how to get my DirecTV connected to the internet and a phone line. I had to go buy more crap to fish around in the walls and under the floors and I’m not even close to getting the wire pulled through yet. I have, however, spent way too much time but successfully modified my sister’s old wireless router to act as a wireless bridge so now the DirecTV DVR has an intarweb connection. Sounds like the phone line is the important part, though and that’s going to be a bit more work. Just a little more fiddling with my Harbor Freight push rods and I should have a phone line in the corner of the upstairs. So much work for something so silly.

At least I’m feeling a lot better, and I even bought a Rigid shopvac today. I’ve been wanting a shopvac for YEARS and a 9-gallon model was on sale at Home Depot for $20. They look the same as the $60 ones, but they’re a different color and cheaper. Weird. It’s a good thing I glance at my sale emails from time to time.

I was home sick again and I’m feeling better, but I have a cough now and I hate it when people come to work with a cough. I wouldn’t have stayed home otherwise because the sheet rock is up and now the mudders are in making their usual extreme mess. There’s no rest to be had when those guys are around.

I just got my DirecTV hooked up today and now I have hundreds of channels. But still, there’s hardly anything I want to watch. It’s been, what, almost nine months since I had the cable turned off and now I have a GIANT 23″ HDTV hooked up to an HD DVR. I will admit that I was switching between channels and there’s a HUGE difference between HD and regular TV. The installer was a super nice kid who did a great job and so far I’ve had very little problem with DirecTV. I just got it though. Now I’m using the HD DVR to record every episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and this is probably not going to be the best thing for my health. I looooves me some cheeseburgers and some of the ones on the TV are looking mighty fine.

I just have to wish Sean and Melissa good luck tomorrow! They’re getting married, and luck may not be exactly what you’re supposed to wish for a wedding, but I know the old saying is true: It’s better to be lucky than good. I’m hoping for a break in the rain for their ceremony, and everything to go off without a hitch. I’m sure it will be great as they’re both incredibly laid back and I can count on them to just enjoy their special day!

I took the day off work today because I kept waking up in the middle of the night feeling like crap. I was really not faking it; there’s no way I’d stay home when the sheetrockers were coming in otherwise. Speaking of which, not only is my brain fuzzy but I could have sworn I wrote something on this blog last night about the sheetrockers coming in. I was hoping that I’d get my DirecTV set up before all the walls went up, but that wasn’t to be. That’s just life.

In any case, I did buy a HUGE new HDTV in preparation for the DirecTV service. It’s a Samsung TWENTY-THREE INCH HDTV. I figure that’s good enough to see if the thing is working or not and I can figure out if I want a bigger TV when we finally get some of the rooms sorted out in the house. I’m not quite sure when that will be, but it surely isn’t right away.

I did stay up too late for a sick guy, having a burger at Laurelhurst Market. They changed up the burger, adding heirloom tomatoes and changing out the pimento cheese for aged cheddar. Now I’m convinced that this is my favorite burger, and I really couldn’t completely taste everything. And now I know just why everyone was raving about the cheesecake. The first bite was tasty, but the second bite was even better. I wish my brain wasn’t full of cotton candy, because I’d really like to say how great both were, but I’m just not quite hitting on all cylinders right now.

Oh, and my doctor told me that my LDL cholesterol was 101. They really like to have it below 100, and he also suggested (without any prompting from me) that I could probably get it down a point by avoiding the cheeseburgers! I wonder if he’s psychic or if there’s some sort of cheeseburger signature that showed up on my bloodwork. I don’t like this waffling sort of cholesterol level. I wonder if I should try jacking it up or try to place it firmly below 100. I mean we almost killed THMFIC at the gym by “making” him eat a Slow Burger and a fried pie. He had to go home sick from the gym because of that. The rest of us were, as they say, fat, dumb, and happy. That makes my think my destiny is to have a higher cholesterol level, but I should probably have more sense than that. Though I don’t, usually.

I think I’m coming down with a head cold. It could be just allergies, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It wouldn’t be the first time I slept all the way through a 3-day weekend because of an illness.

So while Melissa’s bachelorette party sounded a little wild, Sean’s bachelor party was in danger of only one thing: overeating. We were going to make a pilgrimage of several taco trucks, but that got derailed when KOi Fusion was closed. So we headed to Slow Bar for their burger. The regular Slow Bar Burger, with the onion rings, is pretty much how I like it. Mine might have been slightly overcooked, but the meat tasted great and the sweet crunchy onion rings made it just the right flavor. It might have been a little tall and messy, but I think this is probably the baseline for the burgers I like. It’s not the “best” (some of the fancier burgers are probably better because of the ingredients) but this did taste just the way I like it.

After Slow Bar we went to the food carts on SE 12th and Hawthorne and got some peanut butter and chocolate hand pies at Whiffies Fried Pies. I ate too much.

We did drive by some strip clubs, but in a city that’s supposed to have the most strip clubs per capita, it’s kind of hard to avoid them. And why would you want to if you need to drive by them to get a fried peanut butter and chocolate pie?

I’m feeling incredibly beat right now. Either the workout (which was torturous) did me in or I’m coming down with something. I was breathing so hard that my stomach muscles hurt and I’ve done that three times in the past week. Maybe I should be sandbagging it a little. I am an old man, after all.

When I got home from the gym there were people standing out in the street and I had to set up a turn to get away from them. I ended up scraping the side of my car on a parked Civic’s bumper. I found the owner and she pointed at an identical scrape on the other side of her bumper, so I just told her to come find me if she wanted me to do something to fix it. Her car was older, and I think she was OK with it. I have to find out if I need to have some paintwork done on my car. I called up a friend to complain about my stupidity and all he wanted to do is talk about his new girlfriend to a level of detail I didn’t need. Sheesh.

So we decided to have a bachelor party for Sean. And by “bachelor party” I mean “taking him to the taco truck”. We’re a fairly tame bunch. We thought we heard his bride-to-be Melissa tell us, “Any day but Tuesday,” and planned to go on Wednesday. Well, what she really said was, “Any day but WEDNESDAY.” We’re rescheduling for Tuesday night. Anybody wanting to tag along, let me know. This isn’t your traditional bachelor party, we’re mostly likely just eating Korean tacos.

Somehow I figure I should have done a bit more, but with those bird people also comes more birds. I was going to clear out more of my sister’s old bedroom, but I ended up cataloging her old cassette tapes and then throwing them in the trash. She didn’t want them and said she didn’t even have anything to play them on, but I wanted to remind her of what she had in her collection. I had 140 titles on the list, so that’s at least 70 tapes. And that’s not counting her classical music or her mix tapes. OK, now I see why it took me so long.

Next step is to throw out my old Apple software. I have lots of stuff for OS 7, 8, and 9.

I had another hamburger for dinner (I gotta cut down) but I’m on the way to recalibrating my tastes. Or so I think. The burger at MacTarnahan’s Taproom is a good pub burger, a little overcooked, and quite good with some ketchup. That’s the thing, I like the burgers to taste good enough that they don’t need ketchup, and that takes a little care with the meat. The fries are overly salty and not quite done enough for me, but it is a pub burger after all. Not in the upper reaches, but still a good burger.

I really need a new hobby.

Today at the gym we did a three-round Fight Gone Bad.

• Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
• Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
• Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
• Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
• Row: calories (Calories)

Basically, this workout was first designed for BJ Penn, a UFC fighter, to feel like a fight gone bad. I got a score of 270, which is fine by me. I would have liked to go above 300, but whatever. That’s like my stretch goal. I’m old, I’m weak, and who really cares? I was so tired in the third round that I almost fell over doing the push-press. Afterwards the gym had a barbecue and I have to say the burger was worth it.

Honestly, I can’t say that much more about the burger because after mopping the gym I went to a housewarming and had some Scotch, and then watched the UFC game and had a couple (only 2) of beers. The drinking was spread over a lot of time, but that plus the fatigue mean my brain isn’t exactly processing much information right now.

My sister wanted a Polaroid camera for her birthday and some of the rare film for it. Urban Outfitters had one left when I got there and it was being held for someone. But the rules were that you couldn’t hold it and you had to buy it in person because they’re limited. I’m not sure what happened, but I ended up with a birthday present for my sister and it cost a metric buttload, too. And unless the Impossible Project gets going, there isn’t going to be any more Polaroid film in the world.

I bought an MFP today for a couple of reasons. First is that the abbreviation looks like “motherf*cking printer.” Second is that my printer and scanner are probably fifteen years old and while the printer works fine, the scanner software has gone the way of the dodo. I have to start up WindowsXP on VMWare or I have to start X Window to get something scanning. I figured it would be easier just to buy a “multifunction printer.” It even makes copies without having to fiddle with several programs like I used to have to do. Anyway, I don’t feel too guilty about buying a new printer and scanner after fifteen years.

Wow, that’s even more boring than my usual Friday night, isn’t it?

If you’re into watching youtube videos that are a little gay, kind of disturbing, and also completely surreal, search for, “Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend.” All I have to say is that my previous link for Ejector with the techno and the two guys in latex skirts was incredibly tame compared to this thing that doesn’t make any sense at all. I got the link from Wired magazine, of all places. Weird, huh? If you just want to laugh at some German techno, look at this instead. While the first video might be kind of disturbing while you’re laughing your ass off, this second one just reminds me of watching late night TV in my tiny Japanese apartment after a night of drinking using the 12″ TV I found broken in the garbage and fixed.

So most of the burger club bailed on us today and it was just Jeff and I at 5th Quadrant getting a standard bacon cheddar cheese burger. It was a good standard burger. They overcooked it and it had a bit of an odd flavor combination between the overly peppered bacon and the slightly sweet charcoal grilled hamburger meat. I’d suggest not getting the bacon, as it actually detracted from the flavor of the hamburger. The bun was a lot nicer and fresher than what you’d expect from a sesame seed bun. Unfortunately, this is a burger that could use a little ketchup.

The fries were crispy with the skin left on and while I knew I should have ordered a salad, it was time to go whole hog tonight. The beer at the Lompoc pubs is pretty good as well and most days it’s discounted during their long happy hour.

Tonight’s burger was in a completely different class than the “fancy” hamburgers we’ve been having. I’d put it on a par with the burger we had at Red Star, but that was also overcooked and dry when I had it last. When Red Star cooks their burger medium rare, it’s an absolute delight.