The home of Rob L Glazebrook
It’s a sad but true fact that whenever my life gets busy, and this could really be any sort of busy, my website is the first to feel the effects. If work is busy, then I don’t have time to write articles at work, and I certainly don’t feel like sitting in front of a computer when I get home. If my social life is busy, then I have more things of interest (to some people) to write about, but less time in which to write. It’s a conundrum. And sometimes, I just get distracted by other things in my otherwise ample free time. This week has been a combination of all of these things.
Work has been keeping my nose firmly planted against the grindstone, with a monkey seated between my shoulder blades. Or whatever metaphor you prefer, so long as it makes me really busy and is vaguely surreal. I’ve had a ton of different projects going on at once the last couple of weeks, all of which managed to have a deadline of this Friday. Right before a major holiday. Go figure.
Luckily, there’s my social life to distract me. Tonight, Amanda and I are going to Ames for the ISU football season opener against Kent State, which should be a great time. Friday during the day, I’m a pall bearer in my Great-Uncle Willie’s funereal.* I’m not sure I’d normally consider that a social event, but I’m not sure what other category it should grace instead. Friday night, I’ve gotten a bunch of people to join me on a Clive-based pub crawl from 5pm – 12:30am. This weekend, Amanda and I are planning to paint the office, do a bit of yard work, and enjoy each others’ company (I’ve hardly seen her this week). On Monday, we’re getting up early and driving to Minnesota to visit her family. Tuesday, we’re going to the Damien Rice concert in Minneapolis (thanks for the tip, Monica!). Wednesday is all about the driving of home and the catching of breath before we head back to work on Thursday.
Of course, all of that is in the future. Amanda’s been busy socially this week (I haven’t seen her the last two evenings), but I’ve mostly been haunting the house by my lonesome. Or as lonesome as one gets with two inquisitive cats and a hyperactive dog. So what have I been doing with myself? Well, I’m halfway through book 5 of Harry Potter, if that’s any indication (hint: it’s any indication). I’ll probably get through #5 this weekend, and grab #6 for the Minnesota run. And then, I can finally get on to #7! Go me. For very nerdy values of me.
* My great-uncle Willie died in the night on Tuesday. He was very sick, so I’m going to go ahead and consider it for the best. Sorry to end the article on a downer, but I didn’t like how that information got buried in the middle of that paragraph. :)
Words cannot describe this video. Alas, you’re stuck watching it.
My workBud Jeremy seems to think that this is an example of what makes the Internet a less-than-useful place. I disagree. This video is an example of what makes the Internet a wonderful, utterly useful place. I mean, just think — twenty years ago, before the Webbernets came about, the people in this video are the sort who probably would have exhausted their obviously excessive pent-up energies smashing mailboxes with baseball bats, torturing small animals with sticks, or lighting their farts on fire (all to impress The Ladies, of course). Or… well, whatever the Japanese versions of these national pastimes would be. I’m sure face painting, garish typography and used women’s underwear would come into play there somewhere.
But look! Instead of all that, these misguided chums can simply funnel their otherwise plausibly destructive energy into song, dance and rudimentary video editing. This way, the only thing they’re really destroying is my afternoon productivity. And I’d rather lose that than my mailbox any day.
So I was filling up my water bottle in the break room at work a few days ago, and as I was walking back to my cubicle I saw something odd: a brown paper grocery bag, sitting in an otherwise empty plastic garbage can, filled to the brim with fresh fruit. After a few moment’s contemplation, I figured that this must be the company’s leftover fruit for the week.
See, August Home has fruit bowls scattered throughout the offices that they keep filled with fresh fruit for their employees. They refill the bowls on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I’d made it a habit recently to grab any extra bananas on my way out of the office on Friday evenings, since I’m usually one of the last to leave on Fridays and the fruit was just going to be tossed anyway. I’d take the bananas home and freeze them so I could make banana bread, or muffins or something in the future. But recently, someone had been emptying the bowl before I could get to it. I assumed it was another enterprising fellow (or fellette) looking to score some quick fruit fixin’s. But as I had just discovered, someone was simply tossing them out earlier in the day than usual.
So here it was, Friday afternoon, and I was faced with a bag full of fruit. And right on top was a nice bunch of bananas, five in all, looking entirely untouched and slightly overripe (perfect for banana bread!). I resolved to check back at the end of the day, just to make sure someone else hadn’t just put them there for saving. If not, they were mine.
At 5 o’clock I headed back to the break room. Score! The bag was still sitting there. I grabbed the bunch of bananas off the top, collected my things at my desk, and walked happily out the door…
…and nearly walked straight into my boss (Brian) and the CEO of the company (Don) having a conversation in the entryway. They both glanced my way, Don told me to get a haircut (a running joke between us), and they went back to their conversation. A second later, they both did a double-take when they realized I was carrying an armful of fruit out of the building. Don was giving me a bit of a quizzical look.
I decided this might look a little bad. I mean, it wasn’t really stealing if someone had already disposed of them, was it? But they didn’t know that. For all they knew, I grabbed these out of the fruit bowl and hoarded them all week or something. I didn’t want them to think of me as a thief, fruit-based or otherwise. So I decided to set things right.
“I got these out of the garbage!” I exclaimed excitedly, holding the bananas high.
Don’s quizzical look intensified. Brian started to look a little concerned, too.
“Err… they’re left over. Someone threw them out. I’m not stealing them or anything.”
Don nodded slowly.
“I’m taking them home. To freeze them.”
“Oh, for banana bread!” Brian said. Bless his heart.
I quickly agreed with Brian, we exchanged brief banana bread-based pleasantries, and I scurried off to my car. I later heard that after I left, Don turned to back Brian and said, “Yeah, he works in IT, all right.”
I’m simply thankful I work in a small enough company that this was neither my first nor my last interaction with the CEO. A good first impression this would not have made.
Goooooaaaaaalll!
As of this morning, I am at 175.5 pounds, which is just half a pound over my goal weight. And since I was actually ~below~ my goal weight yesterday, and celebrated this fact by gorging at my friendly neighborhood Mongolian grill last night, I think half a pound is close enough.
Weight: I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last 11 weeks, or just over 2.5 pounds/week, which is almost exactly what I was shooting for. As the graph above shows, while I wouldn’t exactly want to ski down that slope, it does move fairly consistently downwards. And I’m happy about that. Also of note: the two biggest upward spikes coincide with visits with Amanda’s parents. I don’t think that’s coincidence. ;)
Intake: I averaged just under 1300 calories/day consumed over the last month, which is pretty consistent with the rest of the diet. After exercise is figured in, this gave me just under a 1300 calorie/day deficit. Since a 1300 daily deficit works out to around 2.6 pounds/week lost, I’d say my dashboard calculations are pretty darn accurate over the long term. :)
Exercise: I’ve averaged just over 400 calories/day burned exercising this month. I’m pretty proud of that number, as it’s the equivalent of 3 miles jogged/day. Not that I actually ~did~ jog 3 miles per day. Although with Amanda out of town this last weekend (she was in Indiana for a Dave Matthews concert), I managed 10.6 miles between Friday and Sunday. ;)
So we’re going to go ahead and call this Diet: Accomplished. What does this mean? Well, you’re not going to get weekly Crap Rob Put in this Mouth updates anymore. I’m sure you’ll miss them. Also, I’m going to try to quit using my Dashboard for a while, and I’m not going to weigh myself every day anymore. I want to see if 11 weeks is sufficient time to have developed generally healthy eating habits. Fingers crossed. :)
Also also, I know I promised a more interesting update last week, but last week was busy, so I’m going to try to get one out in the next day or two.