NJ and PA and Me

As you may have pieced together from my porta-potty photo in the previous post, I was in New Jersey this past weekend. I was down at the south end, by Philadelphia, in Cherry Hill/Camden to be exact, for the USRowing Masters National Championships.

As it turns out, I'm not a champion, but in one race I was in my boat did come in third. So I'm a second runner up champion I guess. Or something like that.

Unexpectedly I saw a celebrity while there. A celebrity at a rowing event? And in NJ? That's like a doubly impossible act. Despite the odds, it was Jane Lynch. Apparently a fan of rowing. Or at least a fan of one particular rower. This sighting adds to my list of Arrested Development cast members that I have seen at random. They're just regular people! Just like me. The list is now Jane Lynch (Cindi Lightballoon), Tony Hale (Buster) who I saw in LA, David Cross (Tobias) who I saw in a bar in NYC and Judy Greer (Kitty) who I saw in a Starbucks in NYC. I don't know what this has to do with anything really. I'm not really even that into TV or celebrities, but I guess it's difficult to not be somewhat intrigued.


Also on my day off from rowing (Saturday) I ventured into Philadelphia for a whirlwind tourist venture. I hit up the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Boathouse Row, ran the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and finished it all off with a stop at Geno's for a cheesesteak (which, for the record, led to some intestinal issues later). It was all very American to say the least. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Twice

On the wall of a porta-potty in Camden, NJ:


Made me think of this:

Danny Vermin: "You shouldn't hang me on a hook, Johnny. My father hung me on a hook once. Once!"



PS Who hangs out in a porta-potty long enough to draw/write on the walls?

I'll Just Dail One Up

Not to get all editorializing on everybody, but I was reading good ol' Savage Love on the Village Voice's site and one of the ads in the left column caught my eye and I couldn't not comment. The icon says dailadancer.com [you probably don't want to visit that while at work] and I thought, "Dail? Is this some new action I could do but don't know about?" but sure enough the link brings you to dialadancer.com:
(click photo for larger size)

Ah ha! Dial. Not Dail. Nice one.

And nobody has noticed/fixed this? Nobody at Dial A Dancer or at the Village Voice? Maybe it's just that nobody needs dancers like I do.

I Gets Tired

So I've been rowing again this summer. Last year it was just a once a week thing with the occasional workout on the side. Although our boat was sort of competitive it was more of a social thing than anything else. I met some cool people and got in better shape and I guess sort of rekindled my love/hate relationship with the sport after a 13 absence.

So this year I upped the love/hate and joined a competitive group. Same boathouse, just different coaching and attitudes. It's been three days a week this year, with expectations of additional workouts the rest of the week. We have a big race coming up next weekend so this week the intensity has picked up. Here's how my week has gone:

Monday: hit the ergs for an indoor workout after work
Tuesday: evening practice at 6:15pm
Wednesday: morning practice at 5:30am and then soccer game at 10pm (I know that's not rowing, but it adds to the exhaustion)
Thursday (today): evening practice at 6:15pm
then
Friday: off
Saturday: morning practice at 8:15am

Also, I should note that on top of the above I've also ridden my bike to work/practice every day. So it's been a lot of working out, but it's also been more difficult workouts. Plus work has been busy and I have a lot of shit on my mind so I'm pretty beat. Physically and mentally. Here comes Mr. Crazy!

I don't really know where I was going with all of that, other than to complain that I am tired. Oh, take a look at my hand:
The photo doesn't really do it total justice. It's pretty gross. Blisters and torn blisters and calluses. The base of each finger and then one or two spots on each finger. That's what happens when wood and skin and moisture clash. Skin seems to lose.

Sexy!

And I sign up for and pay for this. As I said, Love/Hate.

Round II

I'm back. Back in all of my minimal writing glory.

So the "stalker" issue was cleared up (see previous post). My paranoia is at an alarming level. As is my trust I guess considering all it takes is an anonymous someone to post a comment to make me feel comfortable about the situation. Anyway, I guess if this is going to be a functioning blog it shouldn't matter who reads it. Nobody, everybody, enemies, stalkers, whatever!

Another issue cleared up is my non-working modem. Piece of shit modem I should say. I bought it from AT&T when I signed up for their DSL service. Made by 2Wire. And it died. It's covered by some sort of warranty for 12 months but of course it decided to go all lights out on me at 15 months. How convenient. Anyway, I've got myself a new modem from Netgear and all the lights are flickering away. Hopefully they will stay like that for longer than 15 months. Bastards!

So now I guess we wait and see if the writing bug comes back at all.

Frontier Stalking (?)

Anybody want to take credit for visiting this site from a provider called Frontier Communications?

You've been visiting pretty much once a day (on weekdays at least). Straight here, not via another blog. And since nobody comes here it's pretty hard for me to miss and sort of stalkerish.

Anybody?

If you would like to let me know what's up perhaps you could e-mail me (see right column of blog) or comment so I can stop feeling like I don't want to post anything.

Domain Name: frontiernet.net
IP Address: 74.33.212.# (Frontier Communications)
ISP: Frontier Communications
Location
Continent: North America
Country: United States
State: New York
City: Caroga Lake [this changes between a couple of wayupstateNY towns -- this part may or may not be accurate]

Anybody?

Just Snow On My Tube

It should be noted that I now officially have no TV. I have a television set, but just no signal. My television sucks to begin with as it's old and small, but now it's even worse as nothing comes through it.

I've had no cable since I moved to Cleveland which many think is insane to begin with. I really haven't cared other than the occasional sports event that I can't watch without going to a friend's or a bar. But now that things have officially switched over to digital mode and since I didn’t bother getting one of those corny converter boxes I don’t have squat. No Seinfeld reruns, no crappy, local news, no SNL, nothin'. Actually that’s not entirely true as I have a Spanish channel coming through. Bueno!

We'll see if I cave.