Ob-la-di, ob-la-da.

March 7, 2004

Last week was a week of McMenamins, that’s for certain. I ended up going three times in one week to two different locations–Ringlers Pub, downtown on Burnside beneath the Crystal Ballroom, once for the wrong night and once for the right night, and McMenamins on Murray, a new one nearby I’d never been to. On Friday I met my Dad downtown and we walked over to the Bridgeport Brewery and had some pizza and a new beer they have on draft there, so I indulged a bit last week. It was a pretty heavy week for food, that’s for certain.

I can tell that my body shape is changing because my clothes are fitting differently. The exercise machine my Mom has downstairs wasn’t doing me much good last summer when I got back into exercising, so I may give it another ahot to have something to do when it’s raining outside and I can’t jog. Last Fall I was in great shape. I got down to 165 pounds and my clothes were fitting beautifully, too loose in some cases, and now I’m back up to 175 with the little exercise I’ve been getting due mostly to weather interfering with my outside exercise. Of course, the three pieces of pizza I had on Friday for lunch probably didn’t help, either. I’ll just have to go easy on the pizza again, for awhile, or if I get the craving, make my own healthy version that I like so much. Heck, now that I can use the stone, I should be jumping on the chance, no?

Yesterday I talked with Dan on the phone for about an hour since it was his birthday. Kristine had urged me to call, though I had made a note that it was his birthday so I planned on calling anyways. It was good talking to him again. We talk over IM about once a week or so, but it’s not quite the same thing as a phone conversation. I’ve got all these free long-distance minutes to use on my cell phone and unlimted usage on the weekends, I might as well use ‘em and bug him some more.

Speaking of cell phones, got my bill for this month. $85. Apparently the few phone calls I made in Denver bumped my bill by about $50. Ouch. I can only assume that the charges are correct, so I have no choice but to grin and bear it as I write them a check. Pretty much this whole paycheck that I just deposited will be going towards expenses. I have to pay off my cell phone bill, pay back my Mom for bailing me out of my overdraft of my checking account, pay Cindy for the companion pass I used to fly to Denver, and possibly pay for another trip to see Heather. Though that will cost considerably less than the last time because A) we’ll stay somewhere cheaper, B) we won’t make the mistake of eating at a place that pretends to be upscale, at least with their prices, and C) she has some money now from HER paycheck. It’ll all even out. I’m not going to drain my paycheck, but those expenses will take a chunk out of it.

Today my sister and I are going to ANOTHER new McMenamins. Granted, I’ve been quite a bit recently, but this is yet another new one (#22) and I just want to get out of the house for a bit and knock back a pint or two. That and in my quest to catch ‘em all (sorry, Pokemon flashback…GO TO them all), I can’t stand it to know that there are three by my huose I haven’t been to yet. I hit one last week, another today, and I’ll try and knock that third one out soon enough. Plus I bribed her by promising that I’d pay this time.

On an unrelated note, I was talking with my friend Michiko the other day and she was telling me about a video she watched called “Burn the Floor”. It sounded familiar, but it wasn’t until she had gone on about the dance steps in it that I remembered what it is. It’s a video that was sold at the OPB Store of Knowledge when I worked there four years ago, and they aired it again and again and again and again and again. They would put it in the VCR, let it run, the VCR would auto-rewind, and it would play again. Repeat ad naseum. Sometimes they would put it in just to irk me because they knew I was sick of it. Well I must have seen that damn video about 50 times by the end of the summer (along with “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” starring Donny Osmond), and I would rather jump naked into a huge pile of thumbtacks than to watch that thing thing again. I was sick of the songs, mostly, since I knew the order of them after about the third time. But that’s all it takes. Thankfully, I don’t believe I ever have to watch it again. I haven’t checked my old entries, but I’m sure I talked about it at one point because I was bitter about it then, too.

This upcoming week should give me some work to do, fortunately. I’m going to call Martin and see if me can knock some more off our to-do list that we’ve been meaning to finish up with, so at least I can earn some money. I might even be approaching the level where I’ll have to officially go on the company payroll, too, which would be nice. Other than that, it’ll be full of playing and sleeping. Good stuff.

Now, off the the Greenwood Pub to cross something of MY to-do list. Take care, all.

Posted in Beer, General