My Journal

AM:
25 min bike

PM:
2 hour hike at River Bend Park

We had fun today hiking through River Bend Park. we found some trails we have never been on before and stumbled across a meadow area that had a cool dry storage/smoke house on the property. The building was wood but the spacing between the siding slats were spaced out to allow air to flow through. there was screening to keep bugs and varmint out, and there was something built up in the center, I am guessing to smoke the meat or dry tobacco. It is always amazing to find new trails at places we visit regularly.

In this picture the park service decided it was “too dangerous” to allow anyone from walking out on the tree growing out over the water and had to erect a barrier to keep us safe. Ridiculous!

Back at the main park area there was a cool structure built like a hut. It had a bark ceiling and woven leaves.

After being home relaxing on the couch my kitty Pandora decided to lay on my wife’s lap. India looked like she was not happy. She was giving us the evil eye. The camera does not capture her ill willed intent in her eyes.

As a bonus for the day we completed playing Diablo 3 through to the end after dinner. Now to the next difficulty level with new characters!

AM:
37 min bike ride while my wife jogged

PM:
25 min bike

WooHoo Friday! Today was a regular day at work and a fun day at home. We are looking forward to the National parks being open and getting in some trail time!

A few days ago I was thinking of Chinese food. I have not had any in a while and really was thinking of getting some except my favorite place has been out of business for years (sold it and new owners did not quite match the recipes). Today I did some grocery shopping and picked up some broccoli to go with the steak I had defrosting. Before I knew it I was making beef and broccoli over brown rice. I even found a Chinese orange sauce in our pantry to go over it. It was good, sorry no pix.

AM:
60 min elliptical machine

PM:
21 min bike

Today was a standard crazy day at work. Getting home was great and enjoying some much needed TV time. Dinner was a surprise since one of our neighbors dropped off some garden veggies. We made them part of our dinner. YUM!

AM:
bench press
135-15
185-6,6,6
Hack squats
180-12,12,12,12

Incline bench press
135-8,8,8
Hack squats
270-12,12,12

25 min Elliptical machine

Today was crazy day at work. There was too much to do and we had an unexplained service outage that we needed to repair right away. It was weird to have things go like they did today.

AM:
20 min elliptical machine
30 min lower body elliptical machine

PM:
20 min bike

Today was a decent day. It was nice being back to work and catching up on the adventures of my coworker. He has been working hard trying to help a younger half-brother and he bit off more than he can chew. I have much respect for him trying to do what he was trying to do, but sometimes you can’t break bad habits of knuckleheads, and his sibling is a knucklehead. He is destined to have troubles in his life and is blowing a really good opportunity to get ahead rather than crash and burn. Tomorrow should have more adventures since it hit the fan today.

AM:
45 min elliptical machine

Today was a holiday and I was off. I still made it to the gym and got 45 minutes in. So it is 7:20 am with folks out and about. Across the street from the gym is a 24 hour diner with a gas station next to it. I am aware of my surroundings as always, and what do I see? A young black dude aggressively asking for money from the older guy pumping gas. The guy getting gas was scared and started moving around his car as the dude makes his way around the car from one side then goes back the other way. Nothing happened to guy getting gas, but it was a reminder that there are knuckleheads out there any time of the day or night that are looking to make someone a victim. I could not her what was said between them, but the guy with the car was worried enough to move away and around the car.

Today I had the time to take the Keltec to the range and test out the functioning with the new slide and firing pin. It works as it should, but I realized somethings today. I don’t like shooting the PF9, I am not accurate enough with it beyond 12 feet, and it hurts my hand shooting it after 20 or so bullets. I think this is one I will need to sell or trade for something I can feel good about carrying. It is a shame since the weight and size of the PF9 is ideal for me, but if I don’t do well with it, it will not do well for me if I ever need it. I also have a problem with the finish rusting on it from my body sweat. This is one I need to clean regularly just to keep it not rusty compared to the better finish on the Glocks.

AM:
42 min elliptical machine

Bonus AM:
1.5 hour hike in Chantilly, VA

Despite the rain we decided to go out for a hike. The National Parks trail system is still technically closed so we avoided the normal go to locations since I read some stories involving folks that went hiking anyway and were ticketed for tresspassing (or something similar) BUT had a MUST Appear in Court citation. Bad enough to get fined 125.00 each but to also miss a day of work for court, no thanks.

We headed out to Chantilly, VA to a place we hiked before. Today we explored the other side of the park system which turned out to mostly be a trail for hiking, biking and walking you dog. We saw plenty of squirrels gathering nuts, a gray Heron, and a turtle! Not a turtle swimming off in the creek, but a turtle hanging out in the leaves right off the trail. We missed him on our way out (too camouflaged) but by some luck I spotted him on the return trip. And finally we had a great dinner of turtle soup. I kid, I kid, it was chicken soup.

PM: 30 min bike

Today was a strange day for me. I slept in. It was raining a bit and I needed to bring my truck in for an emissions test. I was next in line so instead of dropping it off we walked around Shirlington in the light drizzle. After a couple blocks we get the call my truck was ready and home we went.
We played Diablo 3 on PS3 for about 30 minutes then my wife got ready to go shopping with her friend from work. I expected to have a few hours to myself so I caught up on a dvd TV series and took a 1.5 hour nap (I was really tired today). After my nap I watched some more TV and then played Borderlands 2 for a couple hours. I had a couple updates from my wife as she shopped and I thought she was coming home sooner than she did. She did not get home until 9:40! Wow I would have planned my day different if I knew I had ALL day to myself. I would have gone to the range to do some target shooting, and watched less TV. Oh well what can you do.

AM:
1 mile jog
30 min elliptical machine

So I did a mile jog today and it felt OK. At the time. As the day wore on my knee did start to hurt so I am not back to being able to jog. Hey at least I was able to do a mile. Work was fun today. We are very busy and we had some “Oh No!!!!!” moments today. Fortunately I was not the cause of any of them. In the end all was good.

Funny story– I went grocery shopping today after work. As I am driving home it starts to downpour. I had to get out in the rain to get the trash and recycling so my wife can park in her spot and I needed to make 2 trips into the house with the groceries. Even with my jacket on I got soaked to my underwear. My upper 80 % of my shirt was dry though, there was that going for me.

AM:
Barbell overhead press
95-5,5,5

Hack squats
90-12
180-12
270-12
180-12,12
90-12

EZ-Bar curls
60-10,10,10

30 min Elliptical machine

PM:
20 min on bike. (I lowered the seat a position and my legs worked harder and I had a better workout with it!)

So this workout was not an epic one but it was not bad either. I did weights and cardio so life is good! Work was crazy today. We got hammered with requests the last 2 days and we are 9 or 10 requests back logged. Tomorrow we might get a couple done but then again we might not. We need additional infrastructure put in to get things done and that takes time.

When I got home from work and settled in I had both kitties relaxing on my lap. That is pretty cool.

Oh, and I forgot… this AM when I got up to start my day I found our 2 kitties curled up together. They like each other but don’t cuddle. The trick is to keep the heat off in the house and have it cool. They liked sharing the heat from each other.