Snowman Studios
Ugh
Today I took my car to the insurance office, then the shop. They gave me a ride back to my parents house. I borrowed my dad's car, or tried to. It wouldn't start. We had to push it out of the garage and use the truck to jump start it.
When I got out from work, it had been sitting in the sun all day. It was like a sauna. This was made worse by the fact that the HVAC system is hosed and always has the heat on. No way is Brittany going to want to ride in it...
Labels: cars
WTF!
It wasn't bad enough that my car was hit at a gas station this morning, but then the loaner from my parents was hit in the parking lot at dinner.
I was stopping to get gas before driving up to my Tae Kwon Do practice (~20 miles away), and a car backed out of its parking spot and hit mine. I was on my horn, but they didn't realize it until they hit my front left fender. He was very friendly (not a given in these sorts of situations), and I was able to get all of his drivers license and insurance information.
I dropped off my WRX and borrowed my mom's Altima. At dinner tonight, we were backing out and I heard a crunch. I got out and looked around but didn't see anything. One of my passengers was also out looking, and noticed that the passenger side tail light was cracked. The lights work OK, but the cover is in need of replacement.
Brittany and two of her friends and I went and saw "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry." It was quite amusing, especially the character played by the actor who plays "Luther" in Mission Impossible. However, some scenes looked like they could have been lifted straight from "The Bird Cage."
Labels: crash, movie, wtf
Stretching
I've started working on stretching more. The Chiropractor gave me a list of different stretches, including ones for the neck and for the legs. Years of Tae Kwon Do combined with years of bad stretching has lead to my legs being very tight. Some of these stretches I know from class or remember from college (like "Wall Stretching", only without the instructor to push down). There isn't much floor space in my living room, so I had to move the coffee table out of the way.
Yesterday, I botched meeting Brittany for lunch (in her words: "Stop assuming!"). I won't go into all the details. However, to make it up to her I picked up Starbucks and took it to her at work yesterday evening. There was a late night meeting there, and we weren't going to get to see each other afterwards.
Labels: starbucks, stretching
Travels
As it turns out, I'll be out of town three consecutive weekends in September. At least, that's what my next credit card bill will tell me. More amusingly, I'll be flying on three separate airlines: United, Northwest, and Southwest (hmmm... kind of sounds like a title for a Civil War book). I wanted to fly on either Southwest or United, but Southwest doesn't fly to my destination (Minnesota), and United wanted $500-600 for an economy ticket. No thank you.
I have been going to the Saturday practice for Tae Kwon Do the last couple of weeks. This is the only practice I can go to where they spar. A week ago, we sparred. I did OK, but not great. I was too slow and too tired. My strategy became to try something that would shock my opponent. I threw two consecutive 360 round-house kicks. The guy backed up (so I missed) and just kind of stood there (it's not a common kick to be thrown in the first place, but almost is never followed by a second one like that). So as he stood there in shock I moved in and got him.
Speaking of martial arts, there's a new TV show on the History Channel called Human Weapon. If you are interested in martial arts at all, you really should see this. They pick a martial art, study it and learn it's history and techniques, then one of the two hosts go up against a champion in the style.
There's a new RPG that was featured in
Penny Arcade. It's called
Chore Wars. It'd be something I'd consider trying if I was living with a bunch of guys. Since I only live with Andrew and I hardly see him (and now that Brittany is here, I'm hardly around), it seems like too much to setup...
Labels: chore wars, martial arts, travel
Sushi and Sake
Carl was in town last Tuesday as he passed through on his cruise to Mexico. I picked him up at the cruise ship terminal downtown (right next to the airport and a few air craft carriers). We then went up to Pacific Beach to a very good sushi restaurant called Sushi Ota (Andrew met us at the sushi bar). It was nice that he was able to spend part of his vacation with us, and his stories of misadventures in the first night of the cruise were quite amusing. I used to think the idea was kind of lazy, but now I'm starting to think it could be interesting...
Brittany and I went out to sit in the sun on the 4th. Brittany didn't get as tan as she would have liked (I was darker), however my shoulders burned. Whoops. She went out again on Saturday, but I stayed indoors while I wait for my shoulders to stop peeling.
Labels: sun, sushi
Must post more often
Apparently it's been a busy month even though it didn't feel like it. I've enjoyed coming home and not having to squeeze school work, dinner, and spending time with Brittany before going to bed (no, I'm still doing the last one).
I've started going to this Chiropractor / Massage place. They were at a health care fair here at work giving out certificates for 1 hour free massages and free evaluations. I'm giving it a try (partly because my health insurance covers it) and will see how it goes. So far, the bulk of it has been the massage to loosen up my ridiculously tight muscles.
Brittany and I went to the Del Mar Fair (I will not call it by it's new name), and had a little fun. We didn't go for long; just a couple of hours on a week night. One of my coworkers lives near-by and offered to drive us to and from her house so we didn't have to deal with the crowded parking lot or pay the $12 fee.
I've kept my promise to be a bug killer for Brittany. This morning she found a spider and I was able to come over, find it, and kill it all without grossing her out too much. I killed another one two weeks ago.
We've started using her roommate's grill. It's a gas one, which is foreign to me. I was able to figure it out after a little bit though, and the condo hasn't burned down. However, we need to use leaner meat because the grease from the hamburgers caused flames as tall as 2-3 feet.
I'm still playing FF-XII and I'm on a break from Medieval Total War 2. I enjoyed MTW2 a lot, but it's definitely one of those games that can become a big time-suck. Playing as England, I had a lot of trouble trying to avoid becoming excommunicated by the Pope. Eventually he had enough with my conquest through France and all of my Catholic population got angry. I guess that would be historical though... FF-XII is enjoyable. I've gotten a better feel for their battle system. There are still some annoyances like very powerful monsters walking around next to the starter-fiends. Ones that can run faster and kill in one hit. I think I've died almost 10 times at this point.
Labels: bugs, games, grill, massage, summer
