Month: May 2004

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal, a glass of orange juice, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 158 pounds.

I walked over to Borland Lab to check on some networking equipment that we are upgrading. Borland happens to be the building that currently houses the Penn State Creamery. So, while I was there I took the opportunity to pick up a 2¾ ounce bag of Middleswarth Barbecue Chips and a pint of Penn State Creamery Chocolate Milk for lunch. The walk was about 1½ miles, round trip. Over my actual lunch hour, I took a short walk around the block, which was probably another mile.

Dinner was whole wheat spaghetti with marinara sauce, garlic roasted asparagus — which is excellent, by the way — and two Saranac Pale Ales.

Garlic Roasted Asparagus Recipe

• ¼ pound Asparagus (per person)
• 1 clove Garlic, pressed (per person)
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil (per person)
• Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper to taste
• Parmesan Cheese

1. Position a rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat it to 450°F.
2. Trim, clean, break, or cut your asparagus to whatever size you consider to be a spear in whatever way you see fit.
3. Press the garlic into a zip-top plastic bag (that is big enough to hold your asparagus spears).
4. Add the olive oil to the zip-top bag, as well. Seal the bag and squish the garlic around. Then let it sit for a few minutes to infuse.
5. Put the asparagus spears in the bag, seal the bag, and squish the oil, garlic, and asparagus around until the asparagus is thoroughly coated. Then let it sit for another few minutes.
6. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment and spread the now-marinated asparagus spears in a single layer so that there is at least little space between each of the spears. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
7. Roast the asparagus for 10 minutes. Half way through, shake the pan to turn the asparagus.

Serve, topped with grated parmesan cheese.

I went to the MBNA Fitness Center in the White Building after work today, instead of the Athletic Weight Room in Rec Hall that I went to last Monday. MBNA does not exactly replicate the equipment in Rec Hall, but they have more variety and the Nautilus equipment is the newer Nitro line. Not that it matters to me, though the Nitro equipment actually claims to read in pounds, rather than arbitrary units. Here was my workout for tonight.

1. 5 minute warm-up on the Schwinn Airdyne
2. 12 repetitions at 4 on the Hoist Vertical Chest Press
3. 10 repetitions at 80 on the Nautilus Nitro Pec Fly
4. 12 repetitions at 105 on the Nautilus Combo Pulldown
5. 12 repetitions at 80 on the Nautilus Nitro Super Pullover
6. 12 repetitions at 3 on the Hoist Seated Shoulder Press
7. 12 repetitions at 5 on the Hoist Seated Leg Press
8. 8 repetitions at 4 on the Hoist Prone Leg Curl
9. 12 repetitions at 80 on the Nautilus Nitro Leg Extension
10. 12 repetitions at 120 on the Hoist Standing Calf
11. 12 repetitions at 125 on the Nautilus Nitro Hip Abduction
12. 12 repetitions at 80 on the Nautilus Nitro Hip Adduction
13. 12 repetitions at 6 on the Hoist Low Back/Ab Assist
14. 12 repetitions at 100 on the Nautilus Nitro Rotary Torso (both directions)
15. 12 repetitions at 50 on the Nautilus Nitro Biceps Curl
16. 8 repetitions at 35 on the Nautilus Nitro Tricep Extension (Boy, that needs work!)
17. 5 minute cool-down on the Schwinn Airdyne

Again, any set of twelve repetitions is really an indication that the weight was too light. 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. Of course, changing machine types makes that a little difficult. I still have not tried the fitness center in the Intramural Building. Unfortunately, the Summer hours for the IM building have the fitness center open only over lunch, so it looks like I am going to stick with the White Building.

Breakfast was a cheese egg white omelette with salsa, a piece of banana cream pie, a glass of orange juice, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 158 pounds. The omelette was made with the whites left over from making the pie filling. For those that have never had an egg white omelette, it tasted to me to be just like a regular omelette.

Over lunch I walked around the downtown area. I measured it to be about 4⅜ miles. After lunch I had a bag of Andy Capp’s BBQ Fries out of the vending machine.

Dinner was a steak salad and two Saranac Pale Ales.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Breakfast was a bowl of pineapple and banana slices, a cheese omelette with salsa, two strips of bacon, a glass of orange juice, and three cups of coffee. I weighed 158 pounds. Gretchen made the omelette in our wok. We do not have an omelette pan, so she usually just makes them in a fry pan. Coincidentally, all of the fry pans were dirty this morning, so she used the wok. It just so happens that our wok has a non-stick surface. It is our only piece of cookware that has a such a surface. The omelets were noticeably different. Not in appearance, but in taste. They were really good, though I am not sure why, but I attribute the difference to the non-stick surface.

Lots of yard work today, nothing very interesting, but enough to keep us from having lunch.

Dinner was grilled marinated sirloin steak, cole slaw, asparagus fried in bacon grease, and two Saranac Pale Ales. For dessert, we made a banana cream pie with real whipped cream and split it with the in-laws. The pie was an experiment of sorts. Gretchen wanted to try out an olive oil crust. We had tried a whole wheat version of it before on our ham, cheese, and asparagus quiche which worked out all right. This was a plain flour crust and it was tough. I think there might be two factors that accounted for the difference. First, this was a pre-baked crust with a cream filling while the quiche has the ingredients baked in the crust. That may have moistened and softened the crust. Second, the asparagus released a lot of moisture into the quiche while it was cooking, further moistening the crust. The difference in flour may have had a tertiary effect, but I am betting on the two moistening factors.

Breakfast was a bowl of pineapple and banana slices and a cup of coffee. I weighed 158 pounds.

This morning, Gretchen and I cultivated the garden.

The onions are doing great.

As is the romaine…

…and the mesclun. Unfortunately, the spinach and peas are not really doing anything. Oh, if you ever wondered why you can never manage to pull dandelions, look at the tap root on this one I dug out of the garden.

For lunch, Gretchen made some whole wheat tortillas that we made into bean and cheese quesadillas. I had two and two Saranac Pale Ales. We had a couple tortillas left over, so we cut them up and fried them in a little olive oil and had our homemade tortilla chips them with some salsa.

After lunch we trimmed around the pine trees we planted by the fence on the front pasture and watered them. Then we put Kitten and her kid out in the pasture for a little exercise.

Later, Gretchen found this garter snake on the plastic she uses to cover the sawdust she uses for bedding in the horses stalls.

Dinner was Pasta with Asparagus and a Saranac Pale Ale with some peanuts for dessert.

Breakfast was a bowl of pineapple and banana slices and a cup of coffee. I weighed 158 pounds.

I had a meeting this morning at the Paterno Library and walked over and back — proabably two miles.

I walked over to the HUB for lunch — probably three miles round trip. I had Panda Express mandarin chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, and a fortune cookie.

He who climbs a ladder

must begin at the first step.

Lucky Numbers 2, 4, 31, 34, 36, 39

Learn Chinese – Friend

Peng-You 朋友

Dinner was a salad, a slice of raisin bread, two Saranac Pale Ales, and some peanuts.

I would like to thank Marla over at Olive Cheeses for adding me to her “Chewing the Fat” list.

We had the kid out in the front pasture for the first time today. Here are a few snapshots.

There is also a ten second movie (804 KB) of them running around.

We have most of our seeds planted, but we grow much of our garden from live plants, so today I took the day off of work and Gretchen and I went over to Peachy’s Greenhouse and got some plants.

Gretchen and I looked for the varieties that we had already picked out. We ended up getting 14 Better Boy tomato plants, 6 Big Boy tomato plants, 14 Gypsy green pepper plants, 6 Jalapeño pepper plants, and two Rosemary plants.

Here they are in the trunk for the ride home. We’ll plant them in a week or so, after we are sure there will be no more frost. In the mean time we’ll keep them in the shade and well watered.