A strange 5 days...

In the last 5 days it's been a very interesting time in my life.  It started with a trip to LA and ended with the announcement that my company, Morgan Stanley, has sold the division that I work in to Ocwen.

 LA- The trip was awesome.  It was a lot different than I thought it would have been since Cris, Maily, Nate, and Josue were all there as well.  Torr was our guide and the trip was centered around food and sights.  Friday was filled with numerous stops of amazing architecture and art deco sights from the early 20th century.  the restaurant that we went too was originally a theater so the ceiling (listed below in white) had so much detail to it.  The food... man was it stellar-

Ceiling of Mas Malo

So far there hasn't been a lot of news about the sale.  Right now about all I know is from what I read about on the net and lets just say the details were speculative at best.  I have about as much re-assurance as I can get at this time that I'll be heavily involved in the transition portion until the sale is supposed to be completed at the end of February.  At that point I'll see what my options are.  I have some more info and plans that I can't go into but once the options are more public I'll be able to talk about them more.

The LA Skyline

Ed Helms and Mark Maron at UCB

Breakfast at the Standard

Julie and Cris on Venice Beach

Best Fish Taco's Ever!!!

We all have strange days, this was one of them

Today was the day of strange quotes.  I'm not sure what the heck was going on but it sure was a weird one to hear what some people were overheard.  Here are the ones I could remember-

"I shaved my legs this week and started a diet.  I'm becoming a woman"- late 30's frumpy woman from work

"I'm wearing deodorant, but since I didn't shower yesterday I didn't re-apply" - same frumpy woman from above in response from her co-worker asking if she smelled a strong vinegar smell.  It was also in the break room at work where someone was making fish.

Damn... wish i could remember more of them from earlier.  This wasn't so much a quote, but a strange occurrence.     All day long I was emailing Kristin at work on a project.  After a little while i noticed the context of the emails did't seem very feminine.  Later in the day I had a meeting and found out why.  Kristin is a middle aged black man who pronounces his name "Christian".  There has to be a lot of bitter emotions towards his parents or the nurse that spelled out his birth certificate.

Texas OU and the weekend that started to suck since Friday

Texas OU weekend usually sets my state of emotional happiness for a good week.  If UT wins I'm in a euphoric state that lasts well into Sunday night and carries me through until the next weekend.  With that little bit of info I'll start with Friday night....
Friday
I was supposed to meet 3 separate groups of people out at New West to see Gary Hobbs.  New West is a Tejano country bar so to say I would be out of my element is a huge understatement.  One of my friends was going to meet me here first but she had to get her tires changed in Garland and it took about 2 hours longer than she thought so i was going to meet everyone there.  The arranged time was 9:00 and being accustomed to WPT I showed up at 8:50.  By 10:30 Vicki text and had decided to bail- Joe was being lame and I hadn't heard from Nora.  So at 11:15 I left the Tejano bar after waiting at a table and being propositioned by over 45 year old divorcee's.  Total damage was $12 cover for the concert I didn't see and 3 Coors lights at $1.75 each.  Once I got on the 75 and 635 mixmaster Nora txt and had just arrived.  I was just about to turn around and head back to meet her when my passenger side rear tire blew.  So I exit, hang out and wait for Triple A to change my tire.  The full size spare was already used when I purchased the vehicle and the previous owner didn't replace it so I had the slightly smaller dounut. With this recent chain of events I decided to head up to a closer spot and meet some friends that were at Logan's.

Logan's was a lot of fun and I saw some old wakeboard friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.  One of them asked if I could take him and his girlfriend home and of course I obliged.  Once we left at 2:00 and hoped on Bush he told me that he now lives off Renner and 75, no longer off frankfurt and tollway.  For those not familiar with Dallas this means I'm now driving 30 miles out of the way on a dounut tire.  Needless to say I got home about 4am....
Saturday
Dropped the car off at NTB for a new tire, Texas lost miserably... The End

Sunday
Still in a funk from Texas losing....

Tim Ferriss is a Genius and some other tidbits

10/1- Weight 208, last week- 214
In a week I went from 214 to 208.  I know all the tricks and when to weigh yourself, I was a personal trainer before and learned a good number of ways to manipulate the system.  Since I've been able to start working again I started doing more cardio and focusing on my diet.  After coming across Tim (I detailed the history) and starting in on his diet plan I've dropped a great amount of real weight.  I also started in on adding a tablespoon of almond butter every night before bed.

I hoped on an outdoor team for a tournament that's coming up in a few weeks.  It'll be the first time that I've played since the tear in my knee.  After ridding 10 miles off road Saturday I had to ice it on Sunday for a good deal.  I don't think it helped either standing for a good amount of time at Jordan's party or with Joe later that night watching the Rangers game.  All in all I'm very happy about playing, I just hope my lack of cardio doesn't hurt the team and I'm able to have a good range of movement for the games.

Ranger up 2-1 on Devil Ray, Cowboy implodes on the 4th, Man U wins record 19th at home...

Test Ride of the new 29'er

This morning I went out to Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine to give my new bike a good test.  Also to see how I would fare since I haven't ridden for any length of time in over a year.  I started out on the trail about 8:45.  There were already a good number of people out there ridding but it didn't feel crowded by any means.  There were a few groups of riders out there hauling ass through the singletrack but it was a good ride in the section that I was in.

I had one good fall when I didn't judge the distance between two trees appropriately and drilled my left bar end against the tree throwing me to the ground.  It caused my crank arm to spin up and slam into my shin too during the fall.  Not the most pleasant experience that I've had but after a calf tear and peiliteal tear this wasn't much.  I had another incident of riding through some thorn bushes while letting a faster rider pass me.

The bike did really well throughout the ride.  I had a lot of fun with the ride.  It was a tad over 9 miles long and really did me in.  I can't wait to get back out there during the week and again next Saturday though.

 Next week it will be a lot more fun with more trails to bomb down and a ton more energy to knock those miles out.

Back Again

It's been a damn long time since I've written anything.  Looking back I see some of it was definitely way too dark and angry.  That has to be from where I was at that point in my life.  Since then things have changed and I'm planning to give this more of a direction than just venting out my frustrations.  There will still be quite a bit of random things going on in it but I think the focus and consistency will be improved.

With that in mind.....
9/24-
214 lbs
TI: 118.75 = Stomach 41, hips 38, Bicep 13.5, thigh 26.25

I read an article on Tim Ferriss a few weeks ago in Outside magazine.  He had some interesting things to say so I was intrigued.  I also listen to a number of podcasts; Joe Rogan and the DeathSquad crew with Brian Redban, Tom Segura, Ari Sheifer (no way I'm spelling that name correctly and I'm too lazy to look it up), and that comic crew has to be my favorite.  Rogan had on Tim for one of the podcasts and he went into a lot more detail from what he normally has a platform to speak from.  He was also on Adam Carolla's, but he didn't get near the time.  His rational and motives seemed to make sense so I bought the book, "The 4 Hour Body", last Friday.  Within the first chapter I was hooked.  I started the diet this Wednesday along with working on the sleep portion.  I won't go into all the details of the diet, buy the book if you want to know.  Honestly it's easy and makes a damn good amount of sense, especially once you look at all of the science behind it.  As for the sleep portion I started doing a table spoon and a half of Almond butter before bed and I can tell the difference in my activity level.  Or as he puts it my I feel like shit when I wake up level.  I've always been a morning person so I went from waking up and being functional to waking up with the energy level of a speed freak.

Exercise:
9/24- A tad over 9 miles hiking with some light jogging out on the grapevine lake northshore trails with some friends.
9/28- 3 mile mountain bike ride out at the GL trails.  I have to say too- Wednesday's short trail ride was a lot more of an ass kicker than Saturday's 9 miles.  I'm still sore today in my triceps and shoulders from the ride.  I've got another ride planned for tomorrow morning.
El Soccero

Hopefully I'll be less fat by the end of January when the outdoor soccer season kicks off again.  I thought (per my first doc) that my ACL was torn.  Turns out it was pelital muscle and no surgery is needed.  Since I tore both that and the calf this year in the same uni and I'm superstious as hell when it comes to sports I figured it was time for a change.  My new outdoor cleats came in today from www.WorldSoccerShop.com and the look sweeeeeet!  The Diadora Kobra KPro's in high vis orange were my choice.  I've always loved Diadora since I used to wear the Brasil's back in HS.  My last pair was Umbro Specialai's which weren't too bad, but were pretty heavy compared to what was out there now.  Now it's time to get some new indoor shoes for the season starting in November.   I've attached a pic of the Kobra's- the carbon fiber sole is pretty awesome and a huge weight saver.  I also like the cleat position and the way they are formed.  Next week sometime after work I plan to start kicking the ball around with Peter to test out my lateral movement.

After tomorrow's ride I'll give a review of my new bike too- it's been a beast so far!!

Been a while

I’ve been pretty busy with the new job so I’m just now getting back into the swing of things and budgeting time for this again.  For now I’m going to stick with the random thoughts and quick topics although I do have two other column topics in mind.  One is sports related and the other is based off the Hannibal Lecture quote “we covet what we see” but is in reference to dating.

Hates:
Driving
Everyday I have between a 40-60 min commute to work.  It takes me from downtown Ft. Worth and into Las Colinas.  During this drive I see so many asshole drivers.  I really don’t understand how someone can be nice in person and then a complete cocksucker when they get in their vehicle.  People will ride the shoulder as far up as possible when the lane is closing, driving past numerous signs telling them the obvious and they have to get as close as possible to an accident before merging.  What in the hell is wrong with people?  Why do they think it’s OK to have such disregard for other people when they are surrounded by half a ton of aluminum and plastic but if someone were to do this in the grocery line they would be flabbergasted?  I wish people would start doing the right thing more often for their fellow man than be conceded enough to believe the world revolves around them.

I think all the NFL owners are all douche bag jerk offs (more on this later)

I think all of the banks and finance companies that recevied bail out funds shouldn't be allwoed to give any sort of bonus to their execs.  They should also have their books scrutinized or the Ex Committee gets waterboarded- their choice

Network TV

Politically censored thoughts

Over-serious people

the cocaine and boob job crew at the playoffs.

bland food

Questions:
Concert Tickets-
My favorite band is coming to House of Blues in July, the tickets are $57 each.  I saw them two years ago with 2 other bands at The Palladium Ballroom and the cost was $31.  What in the hell is going on with concert ticket prices?  The band isn’t one heard on regular radio, they don’t have a top single not are mentioned in critically acclaimed lists or were on the Grammys.  So does it cost so damn much to see a band at House of Blues on a flipping Tuesday night???
Is online dating now an acceptible form of introduction
Is gas ever going to go down
Why do people cling to end of the world date theories?


Likes:
Turkey, bacon, and avocado
Spy Sunglasses
1953 Bowman Pee Wee Reese Color baseball card
DVS Heir Enduro- black and white color way
Monster Coffee
Summer Moon Ale
Jalapeño Cheetos
Reef Flippers
College Football season is almost here
Bolivia
EOTech Sights
Oakley Si Assault Boots
Carnita’s
1310 The Ticket
The Big German AKA DIRK!
Red Texas Rangers uniforms
Bill Simmons

Comedy Central