Nature is my church

Saw that bumper sticker today on a car parked in a police department parking lot, which I found interesting. I also felt some jealousy, wishing I had the bumper sticker.

My racquetball racquet greeted me this afternoon when I returned home from an all-day substitute orientation. It was a grind today, that is for sure, but an old lady who looked and acted a lot like Dr. Ruth made the day much more enjoyable. The racquet was a nice surprise, which I didn't expect until Friday or next Monday. It looks and feels sweet, and I can't wait to test it out tonight at the gym.

Joined a Gym!

I "worked out" today for the first time since my weight training class, freshman year at UPS in 2000. Working out doesn't include the Push Up Challenge I have feebly kept going almost 11 months now (18581 push ups, 20882 sit ups, 12880 frog squats, 23.5 miles jogged). I feel alright now, but I think I'll be sore tomorrow. I joined LA Fitness, and I didn't realize how much I miss having a place to run around and go to get out of the house.

My last gym membership was in Tahoe, and I never worked out, but I did ride the exercise bike and I played a lot of basketball. The LA Fitness near my house has a basketball court, four racquetball courts, a swimming pool and a sauna--it is freaking nice. I checked out the gym a month ago when I moved up here, but it was way too expensive... until I found out the school district I work for has a great wellness program and I don't have to pay the initiation fee, and the monthly fee for gym use is cut in half!

I joined on Thursday, and decided to practice my racquetball skills (or lack there of). I borrowed a racquet from the front desk and had been hitting for about ten minutes when a guy knocked and asked if I was waiting for anyone, or if I would want to play a game? Awesome. The guy wasn't great, and the only other racquet the front desk had was about the size of a ping pong paddle. I won the first game with the good racquet and I gifted him the second game (I felt kind of bad beating him with a ping pong paddle, and he is a burly ex-army guy).

It is just cool to join a gym and be playing pick up racquetball an hour later! There is a racquetball league I need to inquire about, and also basketball leagues--I am looking forward to a fun and active winter.

Another perk of the LA Fitness membership is Dr. Chako belongs to the same gym, but south of Seattle. I played a few games with him on Saturday, albeit being a little hungover, and while he is still up in the Northwest I plan on leeching all of his racquetball skills.

Skeezo fo' Reezo

Sold the Ford Ranger truck this morning, which I've been trying to sell for the past three months. The first guy that wanted to come see it was quite a character. He called me last night, saying he was on his way up at around 4:30pm. An hour later (the drive is 30 minutes) he called and said he had to pick up his daughter and he would be here shortly, I told him I had to leave at 7:30pm. He calls at 7pm and wonders if he can come this morning to look at it in the light, I say that is fine. We agree on meeting at my place at 8am, and he says he will be here at "8AM sharp!"

I wake up at 7:45am this morning. Receive a phone call at 8:15am asking for directions again. Receive another phone call at 8:50am saying that he is here and looking at the truck. We take the truck for a spin and he enjoys the ride (it rides nicely). We get back to my place and he looks under the hood and starts to point out to me all of the imperfections, rubbing his goatee and smacking his chops in dismay at each new imperfection. He says he is going to go call his friend from his car and have the carfax report done, I say, "OK."

He comes back to the truck in less than a minute with a wad of cash. We had ball-parked $2400, he says, "$1900 cash right now and I won't call the carfax in." I don't care if he calls carfax or not. I say, "$2400."

"Oh, come on man, it'll cost me $300 to transfer the title. How about $2000?" I don't care how much it costs to transfer the title, also 2400-300=2100.

"$2200 is as low as I'm going." I say.

"Ah, alright man." And he proceeds to count out $2100 in $100 bills. He counts it again and realizes he is short and says "You count it this time."

I count it. "Still short one."

He adds one hundred more and we part ways. He says he is happy that he can pick up chicks now (he paid $300 for his other car).

He calls back two hours later from the licensing office, saying that the sheet I kept he needs at the title office, but he'll just take the info off the title he has and fake the signature...

Part of me hopes he gets caught, that'd be a stupid way to go to jail, seeing how I have the official paper right here and he has to come back for his old car anyways. But another part of me hopes he gets away with it so I can wipe my hands clean.

Fall Colors

The Seahawks were getting walloped, nobody was biting on the new Craigslist ad I put up selling the Ford Ranger, and it wasn't raining. Three strikes and I'm out... of the door and onto the ninja for some fall riding.

The colors were absolutely beautiful over on High Bridge Road. I'm colorblind, so the shades are all different for me, but I saw yellows, oranges, reds and greens in the leaves. I saw blue in the sky and the river, white in the picket fences, and more orange in the huge pumpkin patch east of Woodinville.

I may venture out again on the bike tomorrow if no new sub jobs come up. I grabbed a high school female phys. ed job earlier this evening, but I couldn't make myself keep it. I'm sure they prefer a female teacher, what with the locker room situation and all, and I don't really want to be "that guy" who tries to bend the accepted norms. And by "that guy" I mean waffles, or the guy who played in the Ladies poker event and won it.

Sick and Subbing

First off, I've got to say that Kat has found a good gig. I subbed for a high school technology class on Friday and it was amazing. I'm used to kids bouncing off the walls if they finish early, or don't care about what we're working on in class. In tech class, they just play on the computer, without distracting too many other students. Sure, the behavior isn't exactly what I'm after, but it could be worse--much worse.

I was out sick last Wednesday, but with copious amounts of tea and poker I was able to work Thursday and Friday before succumbing to the full force of the cold over the weekend. Friday night was no fun, as I was invited out to hang with Eddie and his friends, but couldn't stop blowing my nose and hacking up yummy green stuff. I laid low for the most part this weekend, just in time to work again on Monday--gah. My consolation is that today was another easy sub day, watching a Bill Nye the Science Guy video over and over again all day long. I sub for the same science teacher again on Wednesday, when apparently a counselor is coming in to talk with the class for the entire period. Suh-weet.

Going for the Record!

I took the day off from subbing today, which I had kind of planned on doing anyways after two grueling days of work (don't pity me, please). Ends up that I started feeling ill last night, and would have had to take the day off anyways.

I started playing the two Early Double tournies on Full Tilt. There are bonuses associated with cashing, final tabling, and winning both tournaments. There is also a nice bonus for having the highest average finish between the two tournies out of all the runners. Three hours in, I've cashed in both tournies and there are about 100 people left in each.

The real record I am going for is "Number of times a single tea bag has been used." I am currently on my 7th cup of tea with the same tea bag. If I can get to 10, I'll go ahead and call that the World Record, unless proven otherwise. To go along with the tea bag record, I've visited the restroom five times today, which might be close to the day record for males without digestive problems.

I owe my record-making skills to my father, who is the current World Record holder for the "Longest lasting bottle of shampoo, due to adding water." We had one bottle of shampoo last for about six months, and by the end the mixture was 98% water. My dad is cheaper than a nest of newborn chicks. Go for the gold!

Update: out in 84th in B (lost a flip), still going strong in A.