I�ll get back to you on that title
2007-11-01, 10:15 a.m.

Day 1166

Yay!! Bowling tonight. Booo � design reviews tomorrow. I�ll probably be working after bowling getting the details covered. Some genius scheduled these reviews for 8:30 tomorrow morning. Hate that.

No gym work again this morning. For the last month, I�ve only been doing the spinning, no running, no weights. That�s got to stop. I also need to get my butt on a scale and seriously consider getting all militant about my diet again. I�ve turned into a chocolate fiend in the last couple of months. That�s a rather odd situation for me, because historically chocolate never had much of an attraction for me. Peanuts? Absolutely. White chocolate? Certainly. Those evils I know and have SOME success avoiding. But this new fling with the darker chocolates � it�s terrible. I have to change my mindset and start tracking everything that I eat again (food wise � body parts don�t count).

Maybe some of you have seen this little joke that�s being sent around in emails. Goes like this:

I rear-ended another car this morning on my way to work. I knew right then and there that it was going to be a REALLY bad day!

The driver of the other car got out , and wouldn't you know it, he was a DWARF

He looked up at me and said, "I'm NOT Happy"

So I said, "Well, then, which one ARE you?

And that's when the fight started . . .

Tuesday morning I sent it to pretty much my entire family that�s internet friendly. Cindy, the kids, my brothers.

I get this back from Zach:

so tell me more......

How bad is the damage?
did u really fight the guy, or was it just words?
Is everyone ok?

dont just leave me hangin

Also got 3 phone calls from him (had my ringer turned off). He called Cindy at work and she finally told him it was a joke. He just never associated dwarf and Happy until he heard Sneezy, Doc, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful and DOPEY.

Of course, now his uncles know he fell for it, so if he stops in at bowling tonight, they�ll be merciless teasing him about it.

About that whole Ms CL situation. I see it losing energy, slowly fading into the distance. Once she returns home it�s going to be near impossible to communicate. She�s going to try to keep her current cell phone, but her control freak, 8th grade educated, bigoted husband is going to be demanding she relinquish her phone, paycheck, bank & credit cards, her gym membership and anything else that grants her any independence, including account passwords on the home computer. Her only means of communication will be via email at work, which her husband is entirely against because it�s �all the way in the city and too dangerous�. She�s a court assistant in the county courthouse. She spends the day surrounded by city police, county sheriff�s, state troopers and lawyers (ok, maybe the lawyers are dangerous). The criminals are under control pretty much full time. I think that for the most part, she�s pretty safe at work. Sure, she gets to meet some creepy folks, but who�s going to mess with you when there are literally hundreds of cops within shouting distance? Some whacked out nut of a husband, that�s who.

So. Limited contact. No place to cozy up. (My house is strictly off limits � I like to take risks, but I like to live too). Motel for a day? Maybe, but that starts to get expensive. I�d really like to maintain some contact as friends, but at that level, how much energy is each willing to put into it? Time will tell.

Aha! I remembered another �condition� of Cindy being willing to commit to work on our relationship. That condition was that I start wearing my wedding ring again. Or at least try. Haven�t worn it in several (4, 6, 7?) years. Way back when we were married, I was a skinny little shit. Might have tipped the scales at 180. My wedding ring fit wonderfully on my finger then. Fast forward a billion years, add 60, 70, 85 pounds onto my formerly delicate frame, and my wedding ring actually got imbedded into my finger. I managed to get it off one day and never put it back on. There was an 1/8 inch groove in the skin/flesh around my finger where the band had nestled. Plus, with my job (lasers, AC power systems) having shiny gold baubles on your fingers isn�t necessarily a good idea. You could poke an eye out, or inadvertently use your finger as a brazing (welding) rod. Not nice.

Last week, in an attempt to satisfy that condition, I tried putting my wedding ring back on. It fit, but was extremely snug. Sure, I�ve dropped weight, almost got back to my pre-wedding weight, but gravity, work and life in general have altered the dimensions of my fingers. This weekend, or some time soon when we are both in the bedroom, vertical and awake, I�ll show Cindy what I found. I tried. It doesn�t fit. I�ve never been big on jewelry (I currently don�t even wear a watch) and I really can�t see spending hundreds of dollars on a replacement ring. I could get this one re-sized, but in the years I did wear it, it managed to get extremely worn. There used to be two bands of some sort of filigree work done on some of the upper surfaces. Those are worn completely smooth. I might try to get some pics of Cindy�s ring next to mine to show the degree of wear. (They were matching rings. We were SO romantic back in the day) I don�t know that it�s worth the effort & expense of re-sizing. I suppose that at some point Cindy would like me to wear something to indicate my marital status � and a ring is the universally accepted symbol. At least in this country/culture. I think that�s about all she wants it for too � sort of a �POSTED� sign for me.

Nothing much else going on. Heard from Serena, late of Serenaville. I really need to give her a call and get all caught up. She was a good buddy and offered a sympathetic ear last year during a particularly low point. And no � we didn�t get any more physical than the occasional touching of arms to emphasize a point during our lengthy conversation. Although she DID show off her belly and flex her biceps for me. Looked rather yummy if I do say so. But. We were entirely successful at keeping things platonic. There�s the added complication that she lives 90 miles away, so there�s little to no danger of this relationship escalating like the Ms CL one did. Maybe lunchtime today I�ll give Serena a buzz and see what she�s been up to. We�re overdue. Serena � if you see this � consider yourself warned!!

Enough for today. Off to design review land.
Edited to add: I goofed on the size of that box of wint. It was 5 liters. 169 ounces, 165 of which should STILL be sitting there. It felt heavy. Heavy enough? I dunno. I will try and trust her to her program. Tonight could be interesting. I'll be out bowling, temptation will be sitting right next to the garage door. She'll be in & out numerous times for a smoke. Will she resist? I want to believe that she will. Time will tell.

If you use a pop-up blocker, hit "Ctrl" when you click to leave a comment