We've had a lovely weekend of mild activity and hanging out with friends. Yesterday we headed down to Corvallis to see SnakePlissken and be fed by him, and the man did not disappoint. We had delicious burgers filled with bacon and mushrooms, corn salad, and mead. Mmmm, I think I'm still full this morning.

Corvallis is adorable, like a small town that didn't go bust, and still manages to be charming even in the presence of multiple Bi-Marts. So many lovely farms and produce stands too. I think we need to spend a weekend down there just shopping farmers markets and eating.

Today we should finally clean the house, and go grocery shopping. I don't want this weekend to end.

I had several inches cut off my hair last night, just in time for the weather to be all shitty and not warm. I think I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks, Summer Olympics! Before tonight, I had no idea synchronized diving was a real event.

In other news, my coworker is getting married soon, so we're having a shower for her. I'm in charge of finding songs about weddings, marriage, etc. Other than that "Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married" song, I'm drawing a blank. Help?

I figure maybe I'll check out Pandora and see if it will do the work for me. Please post any song ideas you have! Thanks in advance.

Five years ago today, I decided to join this wacky site. Less than two weeks later, EnergyChannel and I found each other.

Thanks, SG, for snagging me an awesome man, and a whole gaggle of awesome friends. Who knew that naked ladies could bring us all together?

Lately, I am an exercise in cognitive dissonance.

A large part of me wishes to be frugal, save money, keep an eye on the future and buying a house and doing other grown-up things. Then the rest of me says "fuck it, let's buy new bikes, Mario Kart, hit Costco and Trader Joe's, and go out to eat a few times, then go look at naked ladies with friends and eat cupcakes."

Tomorrow maybe I'll try to win back that frugal part of me, but for now, I had a great weekend.

And Mario Kart is hella addictive. Six hours of my life already lost. I'm so glad my Wii tracks such "accomplishments."

For some ungodly reason, I'm fully awake at 6-something on a Sunday morning. That's just not right.

It might be because I'm thinking about these bicycles that EnergyChannel wants us to buy, even though they are each like $500. We want to get back into bicycling, save gas, get in shape, perhaps recapture some youth, but that some expensive recapturing, isn't it?

I haven't had a bike since I was a kid, so I don't know. What does one pay for a decent bike these days? Scarily enough, the bikes we liked were some of the cheaper ones in the store. Who the hell pays so much for a bike?

If you have a bike, what did you pay for it? I promise I won't judge.

Oh yeah, and here is the bike we're both considering. Matching bikes! How cute is that?

Weekend of Gluttony or What Happens When Family Visits

Eating. Eating is what happens. Every breakfast in a different restaurant. One grows weary of eggs after a day or two, although the biscuits and gravy at Genie's is delicious. We usually skip lunch, as breakfast tends to be more calories than I usually ingest in a day, and opt for dinner instead, where again I manage to eat my weight in food. The worst way to eat, two large meals a day, with one of them consumed mere hours before bedtime. The food is always so good, though. I wound up cleaning my plate more times than I thought possible.

This week, I re-regulate my metabolism, and dive back into this yoga class. Monday through Thursday, four straight days of yoga. That should help get my ass back in gear.

Shopping is the other thing that happens, and while I re-regulate my metabolism, I must figure out where we are financially. The outlet mall in Woodburn is always a dangerous place. Throw in Ikea and Costco, and we'll see if we can still pay all of the bills this month. Luckily, the city is full of shitty techs, which keeps EnergyChannel busy. Unluckily, gas is still 80 gazillion dollars. You know it's bad when we were at Costco yesterday, and my dad eagerly filled up there, because gas was ONLY $4.19 a gallon. Sheesh.

Great weekend though. I hope work is somewhat quiet today.

Beating the heat by hiding in the bedroom with the AC on, watching "The Wire" from episode one. Only emerging into the rest of the house when absolutely necessary. Looking forward to a drop in temperatures later this week, as I'm a giant wimp when it comes to the heat.

My dad and stepmom are coming up next weekend, which should be fun. Dad wants to hit the blues festival on the 4th, so we can stick around and watch the fireworks down at Waterfront Park. We'll likely hit an outlet mall as well, which I always enjoy because I'm a cheap bastard who loves a bargain.

I start a yoga class this week at my work. I'll be in class 3-4 days a week, for a month. As I've never taken classes from this instructor before, it will either be awesome or the worst experience of my life. She comes highly recommended, so I'm guessing awesome. Because it's the summer session, they opened up the class to staff, since there weren't enough students signed up. For 30 bucks, it's an amazing deal, especially as I'm such a cheap bastard, as mentioned above.

Back to the AC cave. I hope you all are keeping cool and having nice weekends wherever you are.

I hate the money argument. It's by far one of the more stupid things to fight about. I also hate my constant need for financial security. For something I need so damn much, I sure am bad about having it.

Oh well. At least the sun's out.

So I've had this weird stomach bug since Saturday, and at first I thought it was food poisoning, so I just figured wait it out, all will be well. EnergyChannel came down with it on Sunday, and we were still thinking just food poisoning. I managed to work on Sunday morning at a planned event, for which I receive a bonus day off, and ended up staying home yesterday. Last night, I made the mistake of looking on Web MD, and convinced myself that I have this horrible strain of something called C. Diff, which tends to be immune to antibiotics, and can be fatal. I really should never check Web MD for things.

This morning I woke up, and so far, so good. I'm off to work, but am prepared to call the advice nurse and have a nervous breakdown with her/him and hopefully be told that it's normal to have these intestinal issues for this long, and that I'm a paranoid freak who is perfectly healthy.

I'm really tired of being sick so much. I feel like 2008 has just been a parade of illness, what with the flu back in February, and another cold last month, and now this. I don't remember ever getting sick this often. WTF, man?

Wish me luck, guys.