Month: May 2004

I started the day with two cups of coffee

Last night I said we tilled the garden plot where we wanted to plant, just in case it rained. Well, it did not rain, so this morning before the day got hot, we went out and planted our tomatoes and peppers. We are doing a little experiment and planted part of the live plants in this black planting fabric and the rest the way we traditionally do — we plant inside a milk carton with the ends cut off, then later in the season we mulch with straw. We will see what works better.

After the live plants were in, we came inside for a bowl of pineapple and banana slices.

After that, we went back out and planted the remaining seed plants we have. That is, the two varieties of corn, the beans, and the squash.

Lunch was a bowl of potato leek soup with some croutons — made using some stale Italian bread that Gretchen made a few days ago — and two Saranac Pale Ales.

Ahh… in case you have not figured it out yet, I am on vacation this week. We are going to try to get a bunch of the remaining Spring chores done.

Dinner was a salad with a few of those croutons we made earlier and a Saranac Pale Ale. Important safety tip: Use the croutons up when they are fresh from the oven. Otherwise they get tough and chewy. We had some Häagen-Dazs Cherry Vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Breakfast was two cups of coffee, a bowl of pineapple and banana slices, a glass of orange juice, and a plate and a half of waffles with maple syrup. I weighed 157 pounds.

I mowed some of the lawn before it got too hot to work outside. I had a Saranac Pale Ale and a hand full of mixed nuts when I came in. Then I went down in the basement to work on replacing the exterior door to the basement. We are replacing a “nine-lite” with a “fifteen-lite” to try to bring a little more light in.

Gretchen made another of her asparagus, ham and cheese quiches which we split with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

After dinner it cooled down a bit outside and, since it looked like it might rain tonight, we went out and tilled the parts of the garden where we are going to plant the squash, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and beans. After we finished, we went back in and had another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale along with some Häagen-Dazs Cherry Vanilla ice cream.

Breakfast was a bowl of pineapple and banana slices and a cup of coffee.

We had our annual family garage sale today, so we spent almost the entire day sitting in the sun on my in-laws porch in the sun. Needless to say, it got a little hot and crabby. My brother-in-law Ed and my niece’s husband Lou went and got a deli platter for lunch. I had a ham and cheese sandwiche and a Sprite. It was still pretty hot as the day went on, so Gretchen and I snuck off and had a Saranac Pale Ale. Later, Lou and Ed went out and bought some more beer, so I had a Coors, and then another later. Finally, when we had given up on the garage sale, Gretchen and I went home and had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. We ended up making $29.50 off our garage sale items, got rid of some things that were just taking up space that we would have had to pay 5¢ per pound to haul to the dump, and some nice people got good deals on some things they thought they needed.

Dinner was a salad, two slices of garlic bread, some garlic roasted asparagus, and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, with the last of the Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream for dessert.

I went to work out again last night after work. I think I have decided to use the MBNA Fitness Center because it has the best selection of machines, and I have tried to standardize on the Nautilus Nitro equipment because it reads in pounds which is easy for me to relate to. I have also significantly expanded the routine. I think I have all of the exercises the machines will let me do. I am still not including free weights, which the center has a nice selection of, but I will add that when I have a little more confidence.

1. 5 minute warm-up on the Schwinn Airdyne
2. 12 repetitions at 50 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Compound Row
3. 8 repetitions at 50 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Overhead Press
4. 11 repetitions at 65 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Lateral Raise
5. 12 repetitions at 95 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Lower Back
6. 12 repetitions at 65 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Abdominal
7. 10 repetitions at 50 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Biceps Curl
8. 8 repetitions at 50 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Triceps Extension
9. 8 repetitions at 4 on the Hoist Prone Leg Curl
10. 12 repetitions at 80 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Leg Extension
11. 12 repetitions at 180 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Leg Press
12. 10 repetitions at 80 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Super Pullover
13. 12 repetitions at 105 pounds on the Nautilus Combo Lat Pulldown
14. 8 repetitions at 65 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Vertical Chest
15. 5 repetitions at 50 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Incline Press
16. 12 repetitions at 65 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Seated Dip
17. 8 repetitions at 125 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Adductor
18. 12 repetitions at 140 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Abductor
19. 12 repetitions at 2 on the Hoist Rear Delt
20. 12 repetitions at 80 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Pec Fly
21. 12 repetitions at 100 pounds on the Nautilus Nitro Rotary Torso
22. 12 repetitions at 120 on the Hoist Standing Calf
23. 5 minute cool-down on the Schwinn Airdyne

The standard disclaimer applies. Any set of twelve repetitions is really an indication that the weight was too light. Likewise, any set that is less then eight is an indication that I really need to work on this exercise because my lowball first guess was still too high. I would like to find the weight for each exercise where I can just manage eight repetitions and then work at that weight until I can get back to twelve. Stay at twelve for a few times — maybe three — and then increase the weight again.

Breakfast was a bowl of fresh pineapple slices and a cup of coffee.

I walked over to the HUB at lunch with one of the guys from the office — about three miles, round trip — and had Panda Express orange chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, and a fortune cookie.

Your character can be described

as natural and unrestrained.

Lucky Numbers 16, 17, 26, 27, 36, 37

Learn Chinese – April

Si-yue 四月

Dinner was a salad with three slices of garlic bread, two Saranac Pale Ales and a bowl of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream.

Forbes says that State College, PA is one of the best small metropolitan places in America to work and live (number 9). Forbes is right.

The best metro areas to launch a business or a career often revolve around universities that offer a diverse, educated work force and, especially when they are far from big cities, relatively low costs. Such regions — Raleigh, Austin and Ann Arbor among them — are also attractive places to live, judging by the patterns of migration.

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Kurt Badenhausen. “Best Places For Business.” Forbes. 7 May 2004. <www.forbes.com/2004/05/05/04bestplacesland.html> (20 May 2004).

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee. I weighed 157 pounds.

I did the 4⅜ mile town loop over lunch. Along the way I stopped at the IST building and grabbed a Penn State Creamery low-fat strawberry yogurt.

Dinner was a salad with three slices of garlic bread a Saranac Pale Ale and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

As anyone in New York knows, the strength of the economy can be measured in small things: long lines at Bergdorf’s and Dean & Deluca, the scarcity of Producers tickets. But the broadest of these indicators is table availability at the hottest restaurants.

That’s why we’re announcing the debut of our NYC Restaurant Index ©, a tongue-in-cheek economic survey, which measures the difficulty of getting a reservation at the City’s most popular restaurants. We’ve compiled the index quietly for nearly a year and the results tracked the upswing in worldwide GDP in 2003. Whether this is a lagging indicator, a leading one, or just a useless one remains to be seen. [Berman]

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Berman, James. “Food for Thought.” Wall Street Journal. 18 May 2004. <online.wsj.com/barrons/article/0,,SB108498904430815903,00.html> (19 May 2004).

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

I had some errands to do over lunch, so I ended up getting something to eat at Taco Bell. I had a Grilled Stuft Burrito, Nachos, and a large Root Beer. Not counting the Root Beer, that is 970 Calories and 104% of the recommended daily amount of sodium!

After work, Gretchen and I sat on the porch and had a Saranac Pale Ale.

Gretchen made fish and chips for dinner — pan fried tilapia with rosemary roasted potatos and onions — with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and some Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream.

The Yukon Gold potatoes have finally started to break through the surface. The Red Pontiacs are thoroughly up and their trenches are nearly filled. The Kennebecs are doing well also, though they are not as far along as the reds.

Gretchen got fed up with the spinach and peas. She replanted the spinach, salvaging the six plants that managed to germinate. She replaced the non-peas with buttercrunch lettuce plants that she got at Peachy’s.

All of the lettuce varieties are doing well.

Gretchen filled in the holes in the onion rows with new seed.

Ed and Verne tilled the weeds off the top of the asparagus bed this past weekend and as of last night there were already enough spears back up to start picking again.