Out the Door

I’m leaving my office in T - 19 minutes to walk to the Gallivan center and get my front row spot for the Josh Ritter show tonight. Nevermind that it doesn’t start for six hours, and he probably won’t go on for 7.5 hours. But damn if I’m not getting a front row spot. I can’t sit still…yes, I’m THAT excited.

I raced on Tuesday, felt surprisingly well. Covered a few moves and attacked on the last lap only to completely and utterly BLOW UP on the final straight. At least my teammate took 3rd.

To All the Secretaries Out There

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged, and really, I don’t feel like it’s been long enough. My general malaise towards sharing any detail of my life events has increased in recent weeks. Actually, I don’t think it’s so much that as it is that I’m simply not in the mood. However, I came across a story from a friend that impressed me to no end. I can’t help but share.

 

This is a copy/paste from just a few of our 1,384,990,834 lines of dialogue we’ve shared since initially chatting on line 3-4 years ago. It’s now a daily occurrence, without which I don’t quite feel like work is work. Or maybe it actually is work without it…I don’t know. Anyway, on to the show:

 

I really am at my limit.

So i asked my secretary to create some binders for a hearing next week. I wanted the complaint, answer, motions, etc. in it.

I say “will you print them off double sided so we can conserve space? if you don’t know how, ask (names removed to protect the ignorant) (the other secretary).”

She says “sure.”

I come back from lunch with a msg from her.

“Um, I found these documents and printed them out but none of them are double sided”
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DOUBLE SIDED ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT

 

Okay, so the first time I read that I chuckled, but everytime since I have laughed even more. I’m not sure what kind of smarts it takes to be able to hit “properties” inside the print window. But what do I know, I’ve been printing for years so I’m pretty good at it. Seriously, Funny!!!

 

Anyway, I found a new artist today, Christopher Bell. Really, really, really good.

Mmmmm….

There are few things better than a bowl of raspberries and Josh Ritter, or maybe The Frames. But actually, a game 4 Boston victory in LA comes close.

Sugar House

I’m sitting here trying to get some actual work done, but for some reason am not doing a very good job. I’m pretty much okay with that though, seems to be the theme of the day. Anyway, Sugar House….interesting race. It’s the criterium equivalent to the East Canyon Road Race. Everyone that hasn’t raced all year, but thinks Sugar House is really fun comes out. There’s nothing wrong with that, I did it last year, it actually makes the race pretty fun since the field gets so big. I was pretty terrified about a 90 minute crit though, the longest I had done prior was 75 and that about killed me.

For some reason I can’t find any motivation to even get past that first paragraph, I have no idea why. I finished the race, have no idea on my place, was pretty active which made me feel good. I think my fitness is getting good.

All for now.

RMR Oval

I used to really like racing on the oval, and I guess to a certain extent I still do. But I don’t know if I’ve raced it once this year without a crash occurring. Seriously, people…that crack that exists coming into the finishing straight is still there. It’s been there every single time we’ve made that turn this year and as far as I can tell, it’s not going anywhere. Furthermore, it’s been there the last 30 times we’ve ridden by it in the last 20 minute period.

So I decided to not be a total bastard and deleted a portion of this post that was previously posted…hmmm, that was a weird sentence. Anyway, I’m down to 155.0, which is basically the least I’ve weighed in probably close to 6 months. That makes me happy, 152 and I might be able to climb again.

Top 5 Greatest Albums of all time

This is fact as far as I can tell, though probably just opinion to pretty much everyone else. In fact, I don’t know how I’m really going to get through this list since I can really only think of three artists who deserve to be here, a difficult task for sure.

1. Josh Ritter - Animal Years

2. The Frames - Fitzcarraldo

3. James McMurtry - The Americana Series

4. The Frames - Set List; or Josh Ritter - Hello Starling

5. Brett Dennen - So Much More (I think this is a stretch, but I’ll allow it)

I know having two albums from the same artist in the top five is not really kosher, but I have no other options, they really are THAT good. I should probably throw a Van Morrison in there, but then I have to take one out….and to be fair, I don’t know if one of them can be….given that, I’ll make it a top 6, or 7 since I already have 6 albums in the top 5. So, coming in at number six:

6. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl or Moondance

What Hillary must do to win!!

A friend emailed me this earlier today, I actually think the third place one is the most funny, primarily because it’s true. But seriously, why is she so hell bent on taking this thing all the way to the DNC? She is as likely to win the nomination at this point as I am, and I have zero delegates, pledged or not. In my humble opinion (which is not so humble, because it’s pretty much always right), she’s starting to appear as whiny and totally clueless…..yeah, that’s someone I want running the country. And you didn’t think it could get any worse.

The winners: The best submissions managed to make a concise joke, summarize all of Obama’s vulnerabilities at once, or vividly capture the mind-bending paucity of Clinton’s odds of survival. Here are three that did the job:

3^rd place: Hillary appeals to the Supreme Court, which, based upon a 2000 ruling, decides that the candidate with fewer votes wins the election.—John Kirkbride

2^nd place: Hillary Clinton must parachute into Pakistan while under heavy sniper fire, infiltrate al-Qaida using a fake beard, putty nose, and duct tape, and capture Osama Bin Laden, whilst singing the “Star Spangled Banner” with one hand over her heart and an American flag lapel pin prominently shown on her outfit. She must film all of this in HD and create a montage scored to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Meanwhile, Barack Obama must publicly convert to Islam and change his name to Osama Hafez al-Mohammed Hussein Ayatollah Obama, while burning an American flag in the Crystal Cathedral as he replaces the crucifix with a do-it-yourself Piss Christ, while performing an abortion on the exhumed body of Terri Schiavo. He should also be naked. It should then rain frogs. That ought to do it.—Jason in San Diego

1^st place: One of the lesser-known consequences of quantum physics is an event called “quantum tunneling.” Here’s how it happens: At a campaign stop in West Virginia, completely out of the blue, the aggregate wave functions of all the particles in Barack Obama’s body end up instantaneously transporting him through the entire Earth and leaving him treading water somewhere in the Indian Ocean, or leaving his various particles scattered inside the mantle. The odds of this occurring are such that any macroscopic object tunneling through any barrier is highly unlikely in the lifespan of the universe, but it could occur!—Michael Blessington

My own musings

Been a while since I’ve posted, and due to the constant pleadings of readers and non readers alike, I figure it’s about time. It’s a painful post really, I’m missing out on valuable David Archuleta face time. Apparently he’s signing autographs at the gateway today; I work in the tribune building (gateway tower one) so it’s my perfect opportunity to meet the man (boy), the myth, the legend. Maybe I’ll join the throngs of 12 and 13 year old girls later. Perhaps their moms are hot, maybe?

Anyway, I have this friend who blogs (who doesn’t blog these days), her name is Val. BT and Val have been good friends of mine for some time. A couple weeks ago Val posted a very kind account of me adopting my dog, which happened about 2.5 years ago I guess. She briefly mentioned the quirks of said dog and the “issues” that can arise with bringing an adult dog into your home. Fortunately, I’ve been quite lucky, but Clementine certainly has her share of weirdness. To name a few; when I let her in the car it’s usually through the rear passenger door. I drive a Nissan Pathfinder, yes…a gas guzzling SUV, so she’ll jump up then basically take the whole back area of the car for herself, the seats are down and no one else is back there. Anyway, one day she jumped in, I shut the door and she began yelping as if she was in pain. I have no idea why, I know she wasn’t stuck in the door. No clue what happened, but ever since then when I open that door she does one counterclockwise loop around the car, THEN jumps in. I suppose she thinks that’s going to make whatever happened that day not happen again. Works for me.

Next story, I’ve been riding my bike everywhere lately. Seriously, everywhere, I’ll get to that in a minute. But Clementine is not allowed on the couches. I put a board on each couch when I leave in order to keep her from jumping up, but sometimes she moves them and sits on the couches anyway. The other day I forgot to put the board on the couch upon leaving. I arrived home by bike, not by car, so she couldn’t hear me coming until I opened the door. As soon as said door was opened, I see her very slowly move from the couch to the lovesac, which is her self appointed bed. She lays on the lovesac and gives me this exact look, “What? Am I not supposed to be up there?” She obviously knows she’s not, but I couldn’t really get mad because it was more funny than anything and in the end, I guess I don’t really care that much. They’re leather and can be cleaned quite easily.

Now, back to this bike thing….I bought a fixie a week or so ago. I figure it’s good training, fun to ride around town and honestly, just another bike I can look at in my house. Furthermore, gas has climbed to nearly $3.50 a gallon (and is poised to go much higher throughout the summer) and I refuse to subject myself to that beating…absolutely refuse. This is my statement politically, environmentally and economically. I won’t, repeat WON’T continue to line the pockets of our current (crooked) administration. I know I’m not the only one who finds it ironic that gas prices (and oil) are at all time highs AND Exxon Mobil reported an $11 Billion dollar profit last quarter, which by the way is the most EVER in a quarter for any company, public or private. So…why should I continue to support that, those execs obviously don’t need the money more than I do, or anyone else reading this for that matter. Sure, there are times where I wake up in the morning and think, it would be really nice to drive in today, but then I just think of my hatred for President Bush and my perspective is brought back to reality. Not to mention, I’m doing my small part of alleviating the sewer that is the Salt Lake City air….and of course, saving myself around $150 a month. I’ll take it.

Let’s see…on the racing front, nothing to report. Lots of rain lately, sub par race results. Finally starting to feel a tad bit fit, but still a long way to go. Note to self: put in a few base miles next year.

Val…you asked, it was a little bit ranty, but worthwhile I hope.

I feel so lethargic today that I can barely get the motivation to blog about anything, anything at all. So lethargic in fact, that I’m not even going to name this post. I hate titles anyway, kind of like email subjects. Half the time they’re, “Hi,” or “So….,” I just don’t see the point. You can figure out what it’s about when you read it.

Actually, with it being earth day, I’ll comment around that theme. I can’t understand why everyone in my office is so alarmed when not every single fluorescent light is turned on. It’s actually kind of nice not dealing with the glare and the feeling that I may begin to shrivel any second…and it’s not even cold.

Overheard yesterday from one, “Why are all the lights off?”

Another: “Did you see the Green poster by the door, maybe it’s something to do with that.”

Original Commenter: “Yeah, but it’s like every other light.”

I’m thinking, yes it is every other light, how about making it every single light, makes for a much more pleasant work environment. A separate conversation ensued today regarding energy saving light bulbs.

One guy that was obviously against them (A GW supporter): “Yeah, but you have to recycle them when you’re done, you can’t just throw them away.”

The other guy: “That may be true, but it doesn’t matter. No one has recycled them yet because they haven’t burned out.” (I actually thought that one was pretty clever, and really…isn’t it a good thing to need to recycle them? Why is that bad?)

Anyway, back to the GW supporter, we were talking politics last summer when I expressed my dislike for the current administration, dislike being a soft word, and he said, “Name one thing he’s (GW) done wrong.” Are you kidding me? One thing? How about we start with the number of things he’s done right….the list is a hell of a lot shorter. If his goal was to end the conversation, it worked…I couldn’t argue, not because I had no ammo, but because I saw no point. ANY President has done at least ONE thing wrong, but another 7 months and we should be in the clear (I hope).

Josh Ritter coming to Salt Lake City

Josh Ritter is absolutely my favorite artist of all time, yet for some unknown reason (at least to me) he has never played in Salt Lake City. Actually, I believe he did at one point and had an experience that has kept him away since, at least that’s what I heard from someone who heard it from someone else. I saw him last year in New York, Aspen and Boise and loved every show. So you can imagine my excitement when viewing this:

http://www.joshritter.com/tour.php

and seeing this (July 17):

http://www.slcgov.com/arts/twilight/

If nothing else good happens this summer, that will make it complete. I’m headed to the mile high music festival two days later. He’s playing there as well, I can only hope at least one show is with the full band. In any case, if you don’t know Josh Ritter, get to know him, fantastic music. Either way, put it on the calendar…he and Andrew Bird will put on a great show I’m sure.

Tax day last weekend? I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in a race for myself. Not so much from physically not having it, but from pulling the plug mentally. I knew what to expect going into the race so why I pulled the plug so early (at least in my head) is beyond me, and incredibly frustrating. Never again.