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Seriously, this thing was sharp and hurty in all directions.
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I was at my brother’s house in Atlanta this weekend for his & Colleen’s wedding party shower reception thing. Had a great time. Dad got rear-ended for the second time in a year on Friday afternoon but is doing OK albeit some soreness. My grandfather is in a rehab center and doing better. Looks like he’s got a couple compressed vertebrae that are pinching a nerve. Ow.

Back at the C & C music factory for Saturday evening, I alternated between chugging water and drinking beer. I was in quite a bit of pain and obviously had a blockage in my system. After talking to my loving wife, I went back into the bathroom with that stupid plastic strainer funnel and…

(warning: gross picture follows)
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Nikki had a great idea on the way home.

Banana relleno split.

PATENT PENDING.

Consider yrself warned.

This kidney stone better as hell leave soon. It’s been hurting me in tender places.

Yeah, I know, I was gonna keep this shit up to date. Shut up.

The short version is this – after xmas & nye, it had been a couple weeks since i had been to the gym. And i was eating a lot more. And drinking a lot more. I basically gained back 10 pounds of the 15 i had lost. Whoops.

Then i went to India for 2 weeks on the company dime and went all-vegetarian while I was there. I lost 5 pounds before I got back on the plane to Chicago, not for lack of eating. I ate all the delicious Indian food I wanted, albeit no buffets. Last year when I was there, I gained 10 pounds.

Encouraged by this success, I kept it up. We started monitoring portion control, set out a weekly menu, measuring out all ingredients, brown bagging my lunch every day. It’s been 2 months since I got back from India and a couple weeks paying close attention to what we eat.

I’ve lost 25 pounds (from my original start weight) and have yet to go back to the gym. I can only hope it will accelerate as soon as I get back on a bicycle or start lifting some heavy stuff again.

Man, it’s weird when folks catch back up with you.

So whomever ‘redframes’ is, send me a lil’ email.

I don’t think any of my 203498234 addresses are listed anywhere on this site, but i’m pretty sure you could figure one out.

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I guess I should qualify my laughter at the Cubs.

I got nothin’ against them as a team, per se. I just don’t like how they’re consistently mediocre and every media outlet in Chicago (perhaps excepting AM 670) treats them like a mother duck preening and cooing over her retarded hatchling.

Meanwhile, the White Stockings Bases-Ball Club Team from the south side have actually won recently. In fact, they won the World Series last year. Nice.

I guess I’m also biased against National League games. I don’t wanna set a pitcher bat, it’s a complete waste of my time. Bring on a DH in the AL any old day.

Finally got around to brewing another batch of beer, this time a Dortmunder.

Add ingredients tomorrow

Only a few minor hiccups, mostly an early slight boilover, so i tossed in the the 2 oz of flavoring hops 5 minutes early. Cooled the wort in a sink of cold water, and despite my sketchy math (including synthesizing a new Gallon-degree-Fahrenheit unit) it wound up a perfect 70 degrees. OG checked out at a nice 1.052, pitched the east and left the kitchen in shambles to deal with tomorrow.

Ever since Howard Stern went to satellite radio in January, morning FM radio has been nigh unlistenable in my neck of the woods.
His replacement, “Rover” is about as bland and boring as listening to the AM farm report on pork belly futures. His ads are truthful, tho – they used to read “Radio With Bite”. It’s true. The dude’s show does bite.
Chicago Public Radio has been doing their pledge drive, so screw trying to listen to that.
WXRT’s “Regular Guy” is perhaps the most honest movie reviews ever, but he’s only on for 5 minutes on Tuesday & Thursday and their beloved Lin Brehmer gets a little too faux-philosophic for me.

So I’ve been sticking to the tape/disc head unit and the 6 disc changer.

Afternoons are much better, mostly because of Steve Dahl. He gets too far into Bears crap than I care to hear sometimes, but overall an entertaining listen (especially when his Swiss friend, Chef Hans, does the Swiss Sports Report). While talking about Scott Posednik and his newly pulled groin muscle, he said something to the effect of “Well, at least that’s a legitamite injury that keeps a player from performing well. You know, unlike the Cubs.”

HAH.

I had a really strange day a couple weeks ago.

Woke up and remembered a dream – it’s been a long while since that’s happened.

Took the bus to Midway for a business trip to (ugh) Fresno. Not a block west on 63rd street, I saw two eight year olds running down the sidewalk, yelling. Then I saw the possum chasing then.

True story.