Where'd you get your suit, the Toilet Store?

We went and saw "40 year old virgin" last night. It was freaking hilarious. Steve Carrell gets better in every movie he does.

I suggest you go see it.

Kicking fears' asses since 1982

So here's the deal: When I have a fear of something, I do something to overcome it.
My past and present fears include:
1. Heights, 2. Falling, 3. Spiders, 4. Needles

Growing up, I was deathly afraid of heights. So, I started doing alot of hiking and skiing. Hiking was an easy approach because you always have ground under you, but skiing nailed it home by making me ride the chair lift every single run. I got over heights pretty quickly. I despise all things arachnid, so, I squash them into oblivion at every chance. I hope to conquer my fear of falling with my hopefully-upcoming sky-diving experience.
However, I've never done anything to alleviate the needle issue. I have a pretty high tolerance to pain, yet, needles still scare the crap out of me. Don't know why.

My thought is this: get a tattoo. I've considered it for years, but never really acted on it. But now getting inked seems like a pretty feasible and not horrendously unreasonable thing to do. I also have to consider what I'd get. I'm very proud of my heritage, so, it would probably fall into that category and I'd either get a celtic braid around my arm or two flags criss-crossed on my shoulder (ireland & scotland).

Your comments are desired. Am I being crazy? Is this a good idea? Let me know.

Engineering Units of Measure

We just had a Cam-co unit delivered. For those not familar with the item, it is basically a box with a cam and follower system inside, a motor attached, and then an output shaft that you attach your machine/fixture/tool to. It's pretty much cheating in my book, but then again, I sadistically like to torture myself and design cams.

Anyway, Bob and I are talking about picking the thing up to bring it inside...

Me: How much does this thing weigh?
Bob: It's pretty heavy. Heavier than 10 motherfuckers.
Me: Haha. Well, how much does one motherfucker weigh?
Bob: I'd say about 1/10 of ten motherfuckers.
Me: Thanks, that's helpful.

Weekend, In Review

This weekend was pretty good.

Friday I went to the Dakota cd release show in Lunenburg. It was pretty good and I got some nice photos.

Saturday I went for a 34 mile ride, a new one that I've never done before that took me through Clinton, Bolton, Berlin, Northboro, Boylston, West Bolyston, and Sterling. It was cool. Then I met up with the gang and the temporarily returned Kate from Ohio. Fun times and many Coronas were had.

Sunday I was a bum. I went to Nypro for a bit to get ahead for this morning, and then I pretty much watched the OC for the rest of the day. Saw "the longest yard" at wpi later with the SocComm crew. The movie was hilarious.

Teh Oh See

So the OC Season 2 DVD set came out the other day. I went to BestBuy and bought it. It's true. Why do I love this show? I'm not sure. Some questions just can't be answered.

Regardless, that's what I've been watching ever since.

Tonight I'm doing photos for Dakota in Lunenburg. Should be pretty good. Tomorrow I have a huge, long-ass bike ride planned. I'm greatly excited. I haven't measured it exactly, but this route looks like it'll be approx. 40 miles. It's a combination/mix of 3 other routes that I do regularly. :)

Work time conversations...

So I'm talking with a fellow engineer about a project, and he notices that I'm chugging down a 1-liter bottle of coke (I was wicked tired this morning and needed a boost). This ensued:

Fellow Engineer: you drink alot of soda. you should definitely switch to coffee.
Me: Eh. I don't really like coffe, I only drink those little Starbucks Frappacinno's and Latte's.
FE: Oh, girly drinks. Yeah, you need black coffee, it'll put hair on your chest.
ME: Ha, I'm all set.
FE: No, it's good. The ladies like to run their hands through it while they're riding you. Except of course when they pull on it when they get mad, like when you're watching the porno more than them.
ME: This is an occurring problem with you?
FE: Yeah, they hate it even worse when I'm coming from behind and they're on all fours and I put my beer on their back. Oh they hate that!

All me

This pretty much sums up the vehicular side of my life...

Brilliant!

So I'm putting a performance exhaust on the nubira to try to get a few more horsies out of the engine. I was afraid of getting it done somewhere and being dicked on the price, but I just found a place in Leominster that will let me buy the exhaust myself and then install it for labor costs. Sweet!

In case you're interested, I'm probably putting this one on.

I will do it

Attention Denizens of the Worcester Courthouse:

Don't cross the street/intersection in front of the courthouse while I have a green arrow and I'm late for work. I will run you over.

My new favorite hobby

My new favorite hobby is burning by other people on road bikes, preferably up hills, on my mountain bike. In terms of cycling performance, I'm in the best shape that I've ever been, and I'm loving it. I shave time off of each ride I take, and my new road bike should be coming in any day now. I can't wait.

I also did a new 24 mile route last night. I think that it might take the place of my typical 19 mile one that I've been doing after work lately. It's more fun and less traffic.

I live life in the fast lane

The past few days have been labeled under a 'racing' theme.

Wednesday night I went to Racing America with some friends from school. It's a go-kart place where you get fully dressed in race gear and drive up to speeds of 30-35 mph. It was pretty intense. We did 3 20-lap races. I plan to go back soon.

Then last night I went for a 19 mile ride, shaved some time off my total trip (averaged 18 mph overall), and hit my max speed with this bike; 41 mph. 41 on a mountain bike is fast. I can't wait to get my road bike and try to beat that speed.

The Weekend of Hiking!

So this weekend was all about hiking. And driving. Alot. Of both. But it all rocked.

Friday: drove up to Pico Mt. way too early and hung out with my dad and his gf, sally. We went on the alpine slide they have there a bunch of times. It's longer and better than the ones at Attitash/bear peak, so, it was pretty fun. We then drove up to Jeffersonville where we were staying and then had dinner with Sally's sister and her family.

Saturday: Headed to Mt. Mansfield bright and early for the ascent. It was a great hike and had a pretty good view at the top despite some approaching cloud cover (it is a hair about cloudline, so, you do get fogged in. I'd definitely recommend this and would like to do it again. I then drove 3 hours to my uncles cabin in Conway, NH.

Sunday: Drove to Pinkham Notch and began my ascent of Mt. Washington via tucks. I had intended on beating my fastest time (3.5 hours round trip) and was hoping to hit 3 hours. BUT! as luck would have it, the T-storms made their way in quicker than I planned and POURED on me for about 3/4 of the trip. Most people on the mountain turned around or hid in the huts/trees. However, this hiker was either too cocky or stupid and kept going. I ended up doing the whole trek in 4 hours 10 minutes, which I feel is pretty good considering the weather and potential safety concerns. I was also a little tired from the hike on saturday.

All in all, a great weekend. 2 states, 3 mountains, 600 miles on the road. Life is good.

My legs don't always share my ambitions

I pushed myself pretty hard this weekend to get ready for the coming one. On saturday I did my 28 mile route around the area and managed to push myself hard enough to shave off 25 minutes (went from 2 hours to 1 hour 35 min). Needless to say, it was pretty fast and I can't wait to get my roadbike so I can make it faster/easier. Then yesterday I drove out to Greylock and hike the 12 mile route that I've done before and knocked off 30 minutes from that hike down to 3 hours 5 min roundtrip. I ran probably 1/2 the hike.

I got a little bit of the ole Toe Jam, but I'm feeling remarkably good considering. We'll see how I feel a week from today after back to back mansfield/washington ascents.

The Penne Battle of '05

Last night me, Kali, Jill, and Dith went out to the Westboro area to Ocean State, Mill works, and then ate at Outback. I bought a bunch of cheap risotto, got a cool shelf for my room, good meal, and we had a cute waitress. I thought the night was good enough at that point.

But then we get outside. Jill smuggled a lemon slice out with the intentions of continuing the minor food fight that had occurred at the table. The slice was quickly shoved down Kali's shirt out in the parking lot. Quite funny. Kali then decides that it would be a good idea to throw her leftover container at Jill. And by throw, I mean open the lid and heave the entire contents at her right in front of the door to the restaurant. Chicken, penne, and sauce goes everywhere. There was seriously a blast radius of like 5 feet from this tiny container. We then ran and hid so that we weren't seen by the poor saps that had to come out and clean up the mess.

Good times...

New Jeans!

So the excitement of the past day was I bought new jeans last night at American Eagle. Yeah, that's right. I'm basically saying that in other words, this has been a boring day.

However, the Dukes comes out tonight, so, I'll hopefully see it tonight or tomorrow. Looks to be pretty good.

I'm also doing a speed assualt of Mt. Greylock on sunday morning if anyone wants to come. I warn you though, I'm running most of it to try to beat my best time. So, if you plan on taking your time, I'd stay home for this one.

Waiting on hold is Awesome!

I was just on hold with our SMC (pneumatics products) distributor who is based out of RI. Their 'hold music' is B101. I'm not familiar with the station's normal day-to-day lineup, but in a 5 minute period I heard "mustang sally" and "margaritaville". It was quite pleasant, and a nice change of pace.
When I'm on hold with Gateway for 20 minutes at a time, I get nothing but babble about their company and the typical "your call is important to us" BS.

It's amazing how good music puts me in a better mood.

Nice Guys Finish Last

Lately I've been realizing more and more how very true this statement is...

The stuff that occurred this weekend...

Friday night:
Went out to eat with Kali, Jill, Dith, Gill (whom I haven't seen in about 3 years), Gill's gf Amy, Gerson, Jim, and Tom Sivert. Ate at Friday's. I had a cape codder and some quesadillas. Good times.
Kali and I then went to the movies and saw the new Batman movie. It was wicked good. I liked it much better than the previous string of Batman movies, so, I'm hoping that this new Dark Knight line will be better.

Saturday:
woke up early and went to Gamache's in Fitchburg for my bike fitting appointment. I got sized up for my frame and components and finally settled on the Trek 1000. I think I'm going to be very happy with this. It'll be back from the Trek factory in like 2 weeks. I'm pretty pysched.
I then went kayaking on Paradise Pond in Leominster State Forest, then went to Rota Springs for ice cream with Kali, then later on me, Kali, Jill, Dith, Jim, Hud, & Andy went to Mulligans for mini-golf and P&S for late night foodage.

Sunday: Sucked.
I wanted to go to Monadnock, but it was pouring, then I went to ride, but the rain moved down south to Clinton. Then my dad snapped at me for saying a comment that I DIDN'T SAY while I was putting away HIS KAYAK for him. Holy shit, I love my life.