Mishaps and other haps

BTW, Montanni hit 30th last night.

Spent some time running around with Jagga today. Did not find the Elemental we were looking for, but picked up some good loot.

Actually, it is “Mystery Meat”, but all of the turtles, swoops, and basilisks carry it, so it is the ubiquitous, if generic, Spam. The Shimmering Flats is a salty, dry white place. It’s probably the only grub to be found.

I am at home sick today.

Glad I didn’t stay out earlier in the week since I needed to stay home much more today. I have about 2 weeks of sick time and I spent most of yesterday spreading my germs around, so I decided enough was enough.

When I left the gym this afternoon, I noted that my throat was a little scratchy.

Several cups of hot tea, soup, and cranberry juice later, I’m thinking I might actually have a cold.

Jervis dropped by to pick up his coolers from our apartment and he mentioned that his throat was hurting. Also, my roommate has had a sniffly respiratory thing the past week or two. So there is some cold/respiratory thing going around.

But we shall see. I am taking plenty of loose change to exchange for hot tea at work tomorrow, just in case my throat is still scratchy.

In WoW news, I had fun running around in new places, killing/looting some things, and completing a few quests with the help of Deathwish tonight. I may log back in tomorrow night just to do more looting.

Think I am going to head to bed now.

Everyone who spends time around me knows that I eventually want to buy a house/condo and one thing that will be important in this purchase is the kitchen. I want an outstanding kitchen.

Both Deathwish and PhysOrg, at separate times this weekend, suggested that I need a mixer or a food processor, or perhaps both.

So I dropped by Williams-Sonoma on my way home from watching Corpse Bride this afternoon and checked out their selection of mixers and food processors. W-S carries Kitchenaid mixers and Cuisinart food processors. I discovered that if you buy the right model, either a mixer or a food processor may have a dough hook (for making bread).

When I eventually have that outstanding kitchen, I will have it equipped with useful appliances. I’m not sure whether I want to spend $400 to have a top-of-the-line, 14-cup capacity mixer any time soon, though. We’ll see. I guess I could consider one of the smaller, less-equipped models.

For those who might be wondering whether they should see Corpse Bride, it is a really cute movie and well worth seeing. We enjoyed it a lot and laughed frequently.

Since G. is visiting Aries this weekend and they haven’t seen each other in a few months, I also have a houseguest for the weekend. I am very happy about this.

I have been shopping and the bread monster is working on a loaf of Garlic-Parmesan to go with dinner.

It’s damp outside and looks like it will rain more, so I am going to stay in this afternoon, smell the bread as it bakes, and play WoW while I work on laundry.

4:45 PM Sculpt class (it’s all about strength training)

Probably making lasagna for myself and PhysOrg tonight. Anybody else hungry? Should I add soy crumbles to the lasagna, or leave that part out? What about a tiny bit of spinach layered somewhere in the cheese?

10 PM Very likely hanging out with Inle and Mlitiagrl. I think we’re going to try to play our Friday night game.

****

As a side note, here are some reasons why I have become preoccupied with the gym lately:

1) Way back at the beginning of the year, my left shoulder was causing me a lot of pain and I went to the doctor and ended up having some physical therapy sessions. The physical therapist gave me some exercises to do and suggested that I needed to build up strength in my arms, shoulders, and back. (Also, I had an ergonomics expert at work inspect and adjust my desk, which helped a lot.)

2) My body is relatively weak. I am mostly fat and bones. So all-over muscle tone is something I need.

3) My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with osteoporosis (which her mother also had) and my mother was diagnosed with a pre-cursor to that disease this year. Since the behavioral risk factors for these individuals varies significantly, but they are all related, I hypothesize that this is hereditary. Weight-bearing exericise and sufficient calcium intake are important for helping to prevent this disease, so I am incorporating more of both into my life. Also, I have been limiting my intake of things that DEPLETE calcium, such as caffeine and carbonated drinks (yes, the carbonation itself does suck the calcium right out of your bones).

Stepped outside to a crisp, cool morning. It’s the second day of Autumn and it actually feels like it. The air smells different, like change is coming.

As I entered the building from the parking garage at work, I noticed that the heat had been turned on for the first time since last winter.

It wasn’t that cold to me– I didn’t run back inside for a jacket when I started out this morning. In a few weeks, I’ll be wishing I had a new, warm fuzzy jacket, though. So I had better order the jacket I have been eyeballing pretty soon.

I have heavy coats and windbreakers, but I wear medium-weight jackets the most and at the end of last winter, the zipper on my old red jacket finally broke. That jacket was purchased before I moved to Wisconsin– maybe a year or two before I moved to Wisconsin– so I had gotten a lot of use out of it and it held up pretty well for a long time.

This is a good example of my philosophy about shopping. I don’t buy a lot of junk. It’s a waste of money and resources to buy junk and I don’t have money and resources to waste. Also, I’d rather own something that is good quality and will last for multiple seasons. It is better for the environment and it is better for my pocketbook.

And I just don’t like the clutter that comes from owning more junk than I need.

Anyway, it is Fall and I am looking forward to the next few months. I think the last 1/3 is my favorite time of year. Lots of Holidays, Birthdays, and the arrival of cold weather all coming up. There will be pumpkins and apples and I will probably be enticed to bake things.

If the weather holds out this weekend (forecast says rain, but who knows?), we’re going to try to make it out to the apple orchard. I enjoyed picking apples for the first time last year and am looking forward to it. We should come back with a ton of apples (enough to feed five or six people until they are completely sick of them).

I have to say that this strip of OOTS was pretty insightful.

I read dooce this morning and was really happy to see that Heather and Jon have a plan of action that they are implementing to make both of them happier.

The Ars technica crew recently reviewed the ipod nano and put it to a stress test. I’m not yet sure that the nano is the MP3 player for me, but it’s certainly lookin’ good.

This is what my weekday schedule is currently like:

6:00 AM– wake up

7:30 or 8:30 AM– start work

4 or 5 PM– finish work, head to gym

I stay at the gym for 1-2 hours, maybe a little longer if a class I want to go to is later in the evening– only about an hour if I just use the equipment and do not go to a class.

Drive home, eat dinner (may take detour route at this point if I am doing things with people).

Kind of get organized for the next day (10 min)

Play WoW or read (when I am not spending time in person with friends).

Sleep.
********

I think I like this schedule. There is enough flexibility built into it that I can see my friends in the evenings, but there is enough structure to keep me doing all of the things I need to do. I am not too busy to cook dinner, but I am not bored and I have been going to sleep at very reasonable times lately.

I did not notice the absence of a DDR machine at the gym until PhysOrg mentioned it.

Since a Mario DDR game is coming out for the GameCube in about a month, I’m not sure I will care that much about the lack of a DDR machine at the gym.

Of course, I don’t know what *any* of us will do about the lack of tiny Asian women (ages 18-25) at the gym. Maybe we’d just better convince them to buy a DDR machine.

However, I would appreciate it if they played more dance/techno in the locker rooms, rather than the Nelson twins. Or at least something fairly with it. They were playing Sam Phillips one day– and I think even Lucinda Williams, which was neat.

But no Nelson twins. We can do without that.