Septemboree 2010

September Foree, Foryou

Davemonth in Numbers

Average mood: 48%
Strange. It didn't feel like a 48% month. It felt like a 52% or even a 53%. But numbers totally do not lie.

Haircuts: 1
Total Haircuts in 2010: 4
Is that normal? Well, by the end of September last year I had 5 haircuts. Conclusion: this is a boring statistic.

Bars visited: 7
Is that normal? Thanks for asking, here's a graph:

Average number of bars visited per month since Jan 2009: 6.3. That's about three bars hit up every two weekends. Sounds about right. And in case you're curious, July's 11 bars visited stat is largely due to Laura and me being in Wyoming for a week.

So yes, it's normal enough. ...Except for all the data collection and graphing, of course...


Restaurants: 9
Ranking from good to best:
Lincoln's Waffle Shop
Casa Oaxaca
Skewers
Chinatown Express (twice)
Etete
Pho 75
Tono Sushi
Rosemary's Thyme

What, no graph?


Laundry: 2 Loads
I'll graph this later.

Situps: 324
Exactly.

Miles jogged: 47.6
Average Speed: 5.31 mph
I finally got a GPS tracker (app), and have started kicking this running thing into high gear. ...October ought to be better.

Aaaaaand, I finally ran my first non-stop 5K (well, close enough: 2.9 miles) in just under 25 minutes, at a 8:40 mins/mile pace. Not bad for a lazy jerk, if I do say so myself. But lots of room for improvement...


Weight at end of month: 212 pounds
Down 9 from August 31. See "Miles Jogged" section above.


Number of nights I had a chicken & cream cheese bagel sandwich (my own tasty, tasty creation) for dinner: 14
Yes, seriously. 14 out of the 30 days of September I had the same [strange] thing for dinner. They're just so damn good. Give 'em a chance.


Number of visits from old friends: 1
My home town & college buddy Travis and his wife Alyssa came to visit at the beginning of the month. We hit some bars and restaurants, did the National Mall, conquered some museums (Spy Museum included), hung out on the roof, ascended the Washington Monument (my first time) and caught up on each others' past two years worth of life-data. I had a wonderful time, and it was great to see them both again.

I didn't get many pictures, but here's my favorite of the few I did - Travis standing next to the Natural History Museum's giant piece of petrified wood on the National Mall, gifted to the Smithsonian by the father of a girl we both knew in high school in Holbrook, Arizona. CONNECTION! Click the pic to see the text:


Episodes of Firefly watched: 10
Including the three watched in August, that's all 13. Verdict: The series was watchable, but not worthy of the incredible praise pretty much everyone I've ever discussed it with has given it... But Travis was correct: The second half of the series did get substantially better.

Which reminds me:
Movies watched: Just 1 - Serenity
It was fairly fun to watch. Not quite enough answering of the plot mysteries of the series, but pretty good.



Pictures of DC you're about to see: 3

The End of Fenty (for mayor signs)

He lost.

Nighttime Rainville

It was rainy.

Sunset during a run over the Taft Bridge

It was sunsetty.



Wines that have been pre-approved by me: 3

Gewurtztraminer - Fetzer 2009
Fairly tasty, though there are better Gewurtzraminers out there.

Merlot - Three Knights 2006
Surprisingly good Merlot. Best I've had yet, I think... Though I the last one I had was likely in 2009...

Chardonnay - Rosenblum Cellars 2007
Above average; smooth and drinkable.

But none were really notable this month. Wait until October...

Wines that have been pre-rejected: 3

Malbec - Alamos 2009
This is the second Malbec that has let me down. But perhaps it's just me...

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo - Villa Cerrina 2009
On one hand, it's really cheap at Trader Joe's. On the other, it's boring (though drinkable).


New museums visited: 2

Spy Museum
In the world of museums, this was an especially interesting place. But only if you remember to think of it as a museum, and not an interactive experience. At $18 per person, it's hard to not assume it's going to be the latter. But if you're expecting your usual museum experience and ignore the entry cost, it's pretty worthwhile.

Building Museum
I'd been wanting to come here for quite some time. And I was pretty substantially disappointed (again with the expectations!) The place is huge, but there are only four small exhibits. I was hoping for a lot more, especially a lot more about architecture in general. 'Twas not delivered. Though it should be noted that the building in which the Building Museum is housed is just gorgeous:

Number of new iPhones I got this month: 1
4. Yes, I'm now an early-ish adopter. For what reason? 5 megapixel camera! Also higher screen resolution vuvuzela emulator, which is a major plus for traveling back in time when vuvuzelas were funny, and for being annoying in high[er] definition.


Amount of construction going on next to our apartment: Lots
Our bedroom window is the one visible in the top-left corner of the picture, in the yellow-brick building. Though on the plus side, the white building on the right side there is pretty much finished, and apparently we're getting our little market back in a couple of months. It will have been worth all the damned noise.


...

OK, that's enough of that. Octo4er is, as we all know, the month that follows Setemboree, so see you then.