Octo4er 2010

The new one's out, you guys! And it's 40% more list-form:

Average Mood for the Month: 52%

Restaurants Visited: 13
Bars Visited: 6

Loads of Laundry Done: 4 (a record?)

Movies Watched at Home: 5 (another record?)

Best Wine: Franciscan Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Haircuts: 0

Miles Jogged: 49.8
Average MPH: 6.36 mph
Weight at End of Month: 209 pounds
Weight Change from September 30: -3 pounds

Best New Food Invented by Girlfriend: Waffles with an egg and ham friend into the waffle by the waffle maker itself. Genius. And tasty. Tastily genius.

Items Checked off Bucket List: 1 - Skydiving

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10 Things Done in October

1. 10/06: Ran my first non-stop 5K - Actually 3.24 miles, to be precise, at a 8:33 min/mile pace. Slow as it may seem, I haven't been able to do that since I was probably 14 years old or so... And in fact, that's just an assumption since I don't believe I've ever tried running more than even a mile without stopping before. Then again, why would I? ...This is apparently what people do with their free time when they get old. Exercise...


2. 10/08: Hung out with my old friend Josh from high school for the weekend. He'd never been to DC, so we toured the city a bit, ate some Turkish and some Ethiopian, reenacted the Reagan shooting and drank a lot of wine. Standard fare. Good times.


3. 10/15: Spent the weekend in Atlantic City.

We walked the boardwalk, did some minor gambling, had a breakfast buffet (required activity in casino cities), climbed 228 steps to the top of a lighthouse, ate pizza and ice cream from the boardwalk shops, rode some carnival rides on the pier, stayed up late and drank. Quite the place - though if you're not much of a gambler, there's not much else to do.




And just behind the northernmost mile of the five mile long boardwalk in Atlantic City are a surprising number of vacant lots and boarded-up houses. It's quite the contrast between the tourist packed boardwalk full of endless shop fronts to the unwelcoming area just a few hundred feet behind it. This picture was taken from the top of the Absecon Lighthouse:




4. 10/17: Skydiving! My first time. I have never in my life had a more exciting few seconds than the first moments after falling out of a plane at 13,000 feet and having that heart-dropping feeling of falling last until you hit terminal velocity. And then you just keep falling. Absolutely incredible. I'd like to do it again, and soon.

I have also never in my life signed my name so many times, and initialed so many warnings and liability releases. This cover page was just the beginning (also the only good picture I got before we went flyin'):







5. 10/22: Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. I had a gift card, so Laura and I spent all of it (plus $6.80) on two dinners (steaks), veal ravioli appetizer, an order of pecan encrusted sweet potatoes, five glasses of wine and a bread pudding dessert. I cannot recommend the potatoes enough... More advice: Avoid the "Ruth's Chris Original" wines. This was, unexpectedly, probably my second favorite meal of the year, after Komi (See June). Quite the tasty ordeal.


6. 10/23: Laura and I carved our first Halloween pumpkin (we'd skipped it the last couple years). We made it two-sided, double-faced, so one side could face the street while the other scared our apartment guests. Guess which face is mine:








7. 10/24: Watched Henry VIII at Folger Theater. It's an experience to see a play at the Folger, but Henry VIII was not so great. The end.


8. 10/28: Ran a 5K in 25:20, 8:17 min/mile pace. Kicked the ass of my [somewhat] slower time earlier in the month. My goal? 3-minute miles. That way I won't spend so much damn time exercising.


9. 10/29: Spent the weekend plus a couple days with my brother and his girlfriend. It was great to have them visit. They were in town to experience the rally (see #10 below), and we got some other things done as well - Dinners: Ethiopian, Himalayan, some gourmet Pizza. Drinks: Some wine bar action, tried some bacon flavored beer (!) at Brickskeller. An unexpected Senor de los Milagros parade (procession, really) on the street in front of our apartment:

And for breakfast one morning we got to cook some EggHamWaffles (see "Best New Food Invented by Girlfriend" above), we were rejected from the metro on our way to the rally on the Mall (it was overcrowded - really), and we even got to play some pool one night. I lost.

Many good times.


10. 10/30: Squeezed into the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. There were an amazing number of people there. Largest crowd I've ever been squished into. After 30-45 minutes of inching our way forward, Laura and I made it to a few dozen yards behind the furthest-from-the-stage jumbotron...

This was my second giant rally to restore something this year. And fortunately for my overall level of entertainment with the world, neither succeeded.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it. Perhaps the new episode will air on time next month. And you know what comes after that? Season finale. Everyone is excited.