Friends

Ya gotta have friends.

What would you do for unsuspecting victims without them? I mean, really.

So there I am, staying with my friend James. He is a lovely man. A kind man. A thoughtful man.

So thoughtful, indeed, that during the entirety of my visit with him he has arranged that all his scheduled appointments take place between the hours of 9am and noon, knowing well that I shall be (and, indeed, was) dead to the world during this time.

A kind, thoughtful man.

And so today, it was with a sense of shock that I endured the following exchange.

Now, I’m not the sylph I was at twenty-one, ’tis true. Nor yet the Amazon I was at thirty-six, when I ran the Marathon (4:33:09, quite respectable thankyouverymuch). Yet, I am 25 pounds lighter than I was in January and have the ability to take off the jeans I got then, which were skin tight, without actually going to the trouble of unzipping them.

Still.

We were getting ready to leave the house. James wished, as a thoughtful friend, to facilitate my ability to take coffee along with me, although it must be said that this could have been purely selfish in motivation, me being much easier to get along with when I have caffeine to put in my system and a beverage to occupy my mouth instead of talking.

So he suggested I pour the hearty mug of Anniversary Blend I had in my hands into a travel mug and we could hit the road. The problem is, he did so using the following wording:

“Here’s an old chubby. It’s perfect for you.”

the Cyclists

Thank God the Doctor never had to go up against these sinister robots. They’d use the power of their terrifying Supercilious Stare to fry him right into the pavement. I’m pretty sure this is from a John Wyndham story, or at least it aught to be.

via the Vancouverite

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quiz: what extreme sport should you try?

I wouldn’t mind running with the bulls, but it’s so bloody pointless. I’d rather do a sport that gets me somewhere or is itself a physical accomplishment. Running with the bulls is like playing Russian Roulette on a rollercoaster: it’s not actually a skill or accomplishment, it’s just something risky. I loved Blue magazine: they didn’t cover bungee jumping because essentially, it’s passive. Fall. How can you fail at that?


You Should Try Running with the Bulls


Exhilarating, but not as dangerous as it might seem.

You’re more likely to get crushed by a person than a bull!

What Extreme Sport Should You Try?

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Operation Global Media Domination: the confessional

TIAJesus, I hope I spelled that right. I am only genetically Catholic, after all. No doubt The Sister, who rode our Catholicest of the Catholic family name all the way to a very senior job in the Catholic school system (which, of course, neither of us attended although we did go to Baptist day camp), will correct me.

After she asks her secretary how to spell it.

In any case, I have a confession to make. I have taken you for granted. And judging by the hits yesterday, you didn’t seem to mind.

I think acetominophen is antithecal to blogging, or at least on two extra strength tylenol I wasn’t feeling very fresh, so I just didn’t post. Now, this may seem odd, given that what I usually post is just the online equivalent of shoving the newspaper under some handy person’s nose and saying, “check this out!” but nonetheless, one must be in the mood, in the zone, or in the groove, to blog effectively.

I took one look at the stats and said to myself the Britney pervs will keep this thing afloat overnight if I flake out, and so they did, all 1200 of them looking for the elusive porn tape. Guess what, guys? It’s not her. Now you can get on with the rest of your so-called lives.

You’re welcome.

So, I jammed the Axe Gang dance moves up there and went to bed, sulking and wisfully thumbing through all the workouts in Self and Shape that I cannot, in this shape, actually do. Gawd knows what I did to my left ankle right now, but it’s quite clear that I am being singled out for punishment in this life, as we finally have perfectly clear, crisp days that are perfect for rollerblading, and the T-factor has not yet become suffocating, although I did scare a bunch of oblivious Iranians and one tiny Hong Kong realtor wheeling and dealing on a cellphone when I zoomed between them. They’re just lucky I swerved rather than treating them like vertical speed bumps. I did pat the realtor on her shoulder, and she looked quite surprised. Perhaps she thought I was after her jacket?

In unrelated news, I spent the day cooped up and the energy had to go somewhere, somewhere that didn’t involve the feet, so I washed all the mold and lichens off the wall of my patio, revealing the pink stucco that lurks beneath. I also cleaned up most of the crap on the patio and looked wisfully at the iron potbellied stove that Carinthia gave me, but dismissed the idea of starting a fire, for fear my neighbors would smell smoke and become alarmed.

Then my upstairs neighbor threw his trash over the balcony and onto my patio.

The fire is lovely. 

amerikan skoolz @ work

rat race!Because Americans cannot tell time, a man’s four-day ordeal on a stationary bike is ineligible for the Guinness Book of World Records.

George Hood spent 85 hours riding a stationary bike in January, riding the equivalent of about 1,080 miles, and thought he had bested the existing record of 82.

However, Guinness World Records officials invalidated Hood‘s entry because of record-keeping errors.

About 40 volunteers took turns logging Hood‘s efforts, but they made addition and subtraction mistakes and had trouble reading a 24-hour clock, Guinness officials said.

Expect Bush to pull particulary gifted chronologists off active duty in Iraq and put them on Texas Gym Patrol.

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