Friday Five

The Excuse

I was working on Saturday and just didn’t get a chance the last two days.

The Week

I found myself in Tampa …. again. At some point I do start to wonder if it would just be easier to just get an apartment in certain cities. But on the upside I do have the city pretty well down, knowing where to go and where not to. On the flip side I find that I tend to get less adventurous when I’ve been to a city numerous times, as if I feel a need to visit the places I really enjoy, as if I’ll never be back again.

My luck at visiting people when I’m out there continues to be pretty terrible. As per usual I did get a chance to see Michael (although we didn’t make it over to the International Beer Garten). The surprise was the chance occurrence that Bill, who also travels full time for work, happened to be home. I’m always grateful for whatever opportunity I have to catch up with friends.

The biggest issue I had this week was insomnia which lasted a solid 3 days (Mon-Weds). I think a big part of it might be the previous week when I was in Vegas and then home (but still staying up until all hours of the night). The routine when I was battling insomnia was I’d fall asleep at about 10 and then wake up at 11:30p – and I mean wide awake, as if my body was saying, “Hey – there’s supposed to be a hand of Pai Gow in front of me.” Fortunately by about Thursday I was finally exhausted enough that I slept through the entire night.

The Exercise

All jokes aside, I think the biggest problem for me is knowing what it takes to lose the weight I had lost before, which is ironically turning out to be my biggest hurdle. I’ve been pretty well down that path before and remember how hard it can be at times. I also see Jumbo and Sheri and what they’ve been able to do, and the amount of willpower they’ve shown, and question if I have that type of determination.

Of course on the flip side I also remember how great I felt after a good workout, and how spectacular it was when people would say, “Hey, you’ve lost weight.” What I did find funny was they’d always say my face looked thinner, which makes me wonder how fat my face really is.

The Restaurant

Dinner with Bill brought us to Capital Grille, which is an upper range steakhouse chain. The place generally does a good job of exuding class, including a well apportioned bar with hardwood all over. The food, though, wasn’t quite as good as the surroundings. Their lobster bisque was very tasty, and their au gratin potatoes were also very nice, but the steak was good but not great. I’m glad that I can now say that I’ve been to one, but I don’t see myself walking back into one in the near future.

The Travel Note

I always find it interesting the different laws regarding alcohol sales that some places have, and often wonder about the logic behind them. For instance, when I was in Altus, OK I stopped by a liquor store to pick up a six pack for the room. I was a bit confused by the fact that there were no fridges in the place. Upon asking the clerk I was informed that because they sold beer stronger than 3.2% alcohol they weren’t allowed to sell cold beer. And while you can buy 3.2% beer at a normal convenience store or market they have to put it in a bag, but the liquor store doesn’t.

Seriously – who makes these laws?

The Five

With Christmas season approaching, I guess I should list off the top 5 things I want for Christmas.^[1]

1. A second tattoo. I’m currently working on this one, but if someone wants to fund it.
2. Best Buy gift cards. Trust me, I’ll find something to spend it on there.
3. A good bottle of whisky. In particular I’d love another bottle of the Laphroaig 10 cask strength.
4. A smoker. Although I have to say I’m a tad torn on this one. Abram might be right in that it’s something I’d use about 5 times and then forget about.
5. A wine cellar. Since plunking down the cash to get “free” shipping from Wine.com we’ve found ourselves with a good amount of wine in the house. It’d be nice to store that somewhere other than the Harry Potter closet.

^[1] This only includes things that are actually attainable. Sure it’d be nice to get a Lotus Elise but I don’t think anyone’s going to be buying me that.