Rae’s Coastal Cafe. Him, Jerk Chicken, her, Scallops Special.
Watched Astronaut Farmer tonight. Cute little movie that nearly lost me a few times when the unreality showed through despite my suspended beliefs. I think the only reason I didn’t turn it off, like we did for The Pursuit of Happyness the other day, is because I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up (and what kid didn’t want that if they were 8 when John Glenn orbited the planet.)
In yesterday’s episode of As the Lipids Bounce my numbers were a little better than last time, but not as good as they were the time before. The Doctor has obviously given up trying to make it any lower as his advice was, “Stay the course and I’ll see you in six months.”
| Chol | HDL | LDL | Trig | |
| Goal | <200 | >31 | <100 | 30-150 |
| 07/17/07 | 185 | 36 | 117 | 162 |
| 03/05/07 | 195 | 39 | 123 | 167 |
| 09/19/06 | 167 | 37 | 103 | 135 |
| 04/06/06 | 168 | 37 | 106 | 126 |
| 12/08/05 | 182 | 35 | 120 | 137 |
| 07/28/05 | 177 | 30 | 113 | 169 |
| 06/17/05 | 164 | 31 | 85 | 238 |
| 05/06/05 | 174 | 27 | 108 | 194 |
| 01/10/05 | 176 | 33 | 110 | 167 |
| 09/21/04 | 209 | 24 | 131 | 271 |
To celebrate this “success” Donna and I went to Hardee’s for breakfast this morning and we both had Biscuits & Gravy.
Now here’s something that doesn’t happen everyday. I got an email from Netflix letting me know that the cost of my monthly plan was being reduced by a buck. Cool, now I can afford that BMW 335i Coupe I want.
Or Robert Parker’s name for my home town of Aiken, SC. At least that is what he calls it in Spenser novel number 20, “Paper Doll.” Not nearly as exciting as the movie “Who’s Your Caddy” (which opens this weekend) that was filmed in Aiken I know, but it ranks right up there in my little life.
–> Bloggus Interuptus < --
Early in Chapter 12, “Never go unarmed on a murder case.” This one was not numbered and was just called one of Spenser’s best crime-buster tips. Guess I’ll just add it to the list at the top. and see what happens.
Took the Emperor back to the doctors as much as I hated to do the traveling, but they didn’t do something right, so they ought to fix it. Besides as Donna said, “This way I don’t have to cook.” We spent almost more time doing paperwork than the technician did adjusting the belt and about a half an hour later we were gone.
I had picked a Japanese place, Tsunami, off the web as a dinner spot for something different. We were off course early (5:30ish), which is how we like it, but apparently that is not a good time for the restaurant. Walked through the door and stopped at the hostess station. After less than a minute a Paris Hilton look-alike with a white top and black skirt came our way. Good, we were thinking, this must be the hostess. She walked right behind us and shouted down to a couple of waitress types, “Can I get a server up here.” One of the waitresses shouted back something like, “I told Name to go to you.” Dona and I looked at each other and said, “Guess we won’t be eating here.”
So we went across the street to Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. We wanted to eat at a place that we didn’t have in Aiken and this was it. Turns out it was just a sub place, good and just a little different. We split a Vito, some chips and a Sprite.
We we left the car I locked it up. I have been doing this ever since we went up north a month ago. I’m hoping someone will slit the top to steal something out of the interior, so that the insurance company will buy me a new top. This one is going to develop a hole soon and if I can get them to foot the bill it would be nice. Donna says, “Why don’t I just cut it myself.” I can’t do the crime, facilitate a little I’m OK with, but I can’t commit it.
Donna and I went for a bike ride this morning with the intention of ending up at the New Moon for muffins and/or bagels. We missed timed our arrival so that we had twenty minutes to wait before we opened. Donna almost convinced the guy putting tables on the sidewalk to let us buy our two items to go and leave. Almost. We settled down to wait. People started to arrive. And more people. Then some more. Pretty soon there were over a dozen people waiting by the door for 9:00AM. I felt like I was waiting to buy the latest Harry Pooter Book.
I checked the time on my cyclecomputer and we still had 10 minutes to go. Impatient with the crowd, the annoying gnats circling me and the time left, I told Donna to forget it. We wanted to get home to see today’s mountain stage of the Tour, so we mounted back up on the tandem and started on our way. At the end of the first block towards home I noticed that the time was now just a couple minutes shy of nine. The siren’s call of a Cranberry Pecan Muffin was too great. We circled a couple more blocks and went back. I went inside to get our stuff while Donna waited outside. I was 6 or 7 in line. I crept forward at a glacial pace (probably seemed longer for Donna standing outside in a gnat cloud) and finally got to order. An Everything Bagel for her, the aforementioned Cranberry Pecan Muffin for me and to fortify ourselves for the 3 mile ride home I bought a cookie to share.
Speaking of cookies, we made a double batch of Donna’s Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies this afternoon and I lost count after eating six…
The Emperor came home today from the doctor’s tonight after his ligament replacement surgery and fluid transfusion. On the way home we stopped for pizza at a place called Nick’s House of Pizza in West Columbia. Because it is called Nick’s you know that they also serve Greek food. So we had a Greek salad to go along with the 10″ pie with sausage, pepperoni, onions and bell peppers. There were a couple of waters and a Sprite involved too.
On July 1st the FRS had a 10-1/2 game lead over the Yankees. From the first of July through last Saturday the Red Sox have gone 6 & 5, but the Yankees have a record of 7 wins, 4 loses and were 10 games behind. On Monday morning when I mentioned that I thought the expected FRS slide had begun, I was scoffed at. I predicted that the Yankees would only be 5 games back by the end of the month. Both my Yankee fan manager and Mark the Braves fan felt that the Sox were too good this year and the Yankees too weak. My boss was just making excuses in case and Mark is used to the Braves always winning the division, but I on the other hand have had to suffer through several decades of Red Sox collapses.
Both now may believe my prognostication powers because since Saturday the Yanks have won 4 while the Sox are 1 win, 3 loses shrinking the lead to 7 games. I may still be wrong, at this pace the Yankees may be ahead of the Bosox by August 1st. Which brings to mind a memorable quote from the movie Game 6, while in the bar watching the titular game, the kid tells Michael Keaton’s character that he should be happy because the Red Sox are winning, to which he replies, “The Red Sox are always winning…until they lose”. The screenwriter must have been an FRS fan.
For the second time in 7 weeks I’m driving a PT Cruiser. The Emperor is sleeping over at Wray’s place in advance of having it’s 60K mile check-up by the royal physician tomorrow. There was a coupon on the dealer’s web site that offered a free rental on any major service or timing belt change. They have an agreement with Enterprise and after a 20 minute wait we were whisked away to their offices to fill out the paperwork. Five minutes after that Donna and I were driving away in a Marine Blue Pearl Touring model. It had a whopping 248 miles on the clock and there was still plastic protective wrapping on the front carpet and lower doors.
I can now say with authority that these vehicles are trucks in cute clothing, it rides rougher than my tightly sprung sports car and if the steering wheel was 30 degrees more horizontal I would feel like Ed Norton. After a couple of understeered curves I had to chant to myself, “Not a Miata. Not a Miata.” to prevent visiting the wrong side of the yellow line on the sharper right turns.
On the way home we stopped at Fudrucker’s for dinner. I had a 1/2 lb burger, onion rings and washed it down with iced tea. Donna opted for the fish sandwich with water to drink.
If you haven’t checked out the Jokes page in a while, I’ve added a couple of new ones in the last week: Genie In A Tackle Box and The Romantic? (thanks Mark)
Aiken had it’s Horseplay with painted horses and now Darlington County has it’s painted cars. While looking for the Post Office in Lamar, SC we noticed a painted car in front of the Library. Later in the weekend we noticed a couple more cars around. So when we got home, we looked on the internet and discovered that it was new this summer – Carolina Car Trek. There is even a contest involved that can win you a 2008 Darlington Raceway Package (whatever that is.)
I had to give a little blood this morning for my cholesterol check next week, so I had to not eat breakfast at home. This meant a stop at the New Moon Cafe for eats on the way in to work. Cranberry Peacan Muffin for me and an Everything Bagel for her.
A couple of new links on the sidebar tonight, 1) A New Miata? in 143 days and B) Spenser?s Crime Buster Rules.
I found another place that is raffling off a new Miata, or MX-5 as Mazda would have you call it, the International Motor Racing Research Center. The IMRRC is in Watkins Glen, NY and they are selling just 2,500 chances on a 2007 Touring Package car. $35 each, two for $60 or a quartet for a C-note. I opted to take 4 chances at getting a new Miata about 1,088 days sooner than planned.
After finishing re-reading Spenser book #3 and finding another rule, I broke down and created a page for Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules. I only have 32 more books to go to get all of the rest (if there are any more…)