Travel Hiatus

Alrighty, I'm back, if only for a few days. After the nearly month-long trip out to Atlanta, Louisiana, Arizona, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Jersey, and the Dominican Republic, I'm back at the house, recharging for some more upcoming travel. This Friday, it's down to Florida to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary, then back to CT for a day, then off to Atlanta, Nashville, New York, and Chicago for more work travel. The flying never stops!

Had a great trip out west--attended an awesome wedding in beautiful Scottsdale, AZ, a place that definitely is creeping up the list of golf destinations to visit one day. Had a good visit with Ro and JayMoney in Los Angeles, then a stealthy celebration of The Face's bachelorhood in Vegas. Spent the 30th bday on a plane back to the east coast, but it's ok, because the crew in DR wholly embraced the belated bday concept. Plenty of nachos were eaten and beers consumed to commemorate the aging of TheRanga. The trip did end on a sour note though, with the hotel maid stealing $180 in cash from our hotel room the last day of the trip. Very unfortunate.

On a side note, the DR has one of the better "island" beers I've tried. Not that I've tried many, but of Hinano in Tahiti, Balashi in Aruba, Red Stripe in Jamaica, and Island Hoppin' IPA of St. John/St. Thomas, DR's Presidente probably ranks as my second favorite (behind Red Stripe). It's a little heavier and a bit more bitter, but quite drinkable with dinner, which any good beer should be. True to my form, I purchased the local beer shirt while there. Let's hope this one actually fits!

Assault-wise, came through the month-long trip relatively unscathed. 182 today, and I'm starting my Crossfit regimen tomorrow afternoon. Was good about getting in workouts in Georgia, walked a lot of golf holes and ran a couple times in Louisiana, hit the gym in Arizona and Los Angeles regularly, and in DR, remained active with lots of baseball (not baseball, but "BAH-zee-ball," a gentleman's game that deftly mixes basketball, volleyball, and chess into a well-orchestrated, graceful symphony. WTF, you ask? More on that later), swimming, walking, etc. Now back home, I can rein in the eating and ramp up the activity. 175, here I come!

The Assault Continues

In keeping with the whole "accountability" thing, I'm overdue for an assault post here. Here's what the last week looked like.

March 27 - Travel to Georgia, off day
March 28 - Back, biceps, shoulders, 10 minute elliptical (hip flexor was tight, so skipped the run)
March 29 - One hour of racquetball with the father-in-law (who thundered me the entire hour, very embarrassing); 10 minute run (1.25 miles)
March 30 - Off day
March 31 - Chest, triceps, forearms, abs, 50 med-ball wall shots (basically a squat that ends with throwing a med ball to a spot 9 feet high on the wall--good for glutes, hammys, quads, chest, triceps)
April 1 - 50 minutes of racquetball, this time with Anant, who also sucks at racquetball. Not a great workout.
April 2 - walked 8 holes of golf, maybe 2 miles. Again, not a great workout.
April 3 - plan is to walk 18 holes today, perhaps 5 miles. Depending on energy levels, maybe a short run at home afterwards.

Weigh-ins are a bit apples-to-oranges, as I'm weighing in on different scales while on the road. In Georgia, weighed in at 178, but that's an old scale that may read a bit light. Here in Louisiana, weighed in at 182 last night, and that's probably accurate. I'll keep the eating reasonable today and hopefully be back on track.

Current weight: 182
Target weight: 175
Time frame: 5 weeks

Hittin' the Road!

I'm just under halfway through the month-long work/vacation trip to Georgia, Louisiana, Scottsdale, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Dominican Republic. Writing to you today from good old Monroe, Louisiana. In case you are unfamiliar with Monroe, we are the proud home of Delta Air Lines and apparently one of the first locations for a Coca Cola bottling plant (hey Atlanta, why are you stealing all our shit?).

I used to be somewhat skeptical of the Delta claim, as it is not uncommon for people around here to claim grandiose things about the town that aren't particularly true, but are really tough to check out. For instance, once a friend told me, "The Chick-Fil-A in West Monroe is the first free-standing Chick-Fil-A ever." Really? Is that verifiable? And if so, does anyone really care? But this Delta thing, I had always maintained a healthy amount of doubt. Even Wikipedia never fully sated my skepticism (not sure why, because it certainly is clear now). But what really knocked it home was one of those in-flight TVs on a Delta plane from Amsterdam to Mumbai. After having watched Crazy Stupid Love and not particularly caring to endure a screening of I Don't Know How She Does It, I clicked through the little on-screen menus and found a "History" section. And sure enough, right in front of me, the History section explained that Delta used to be a crop-dusting outfit-cum passenger airline from Monroe, Louisiana that relocated to Atlanta in 1942. So all those "Atlanta's hometown airline for 70 years" signs in Atlanta? Yeah, they're a muted nod to good old Monroe, who was kind enough to put the momentum behind Delta. (Also, you know the Delta pre-flight safety video, where the CEO, Richard Anderson, says "Delta had a great founder, C.E. Woolman, and I get to sit at his desk everyday"? Disregarding the uninentional comedy factor of that statement, your boy Woolman? Yeah, he's a Monroyan.) Good work, Monroe!

Anyway, enough about Monroe. Today's plan: close any unclosed items for work, lunch with Dad at the country club, after which we tee off at 1pm. Demoed out a different driver yesterday--the Titleist 910 D3 with 445cc head. Set it to a slightly draw bias (B2, for those of you that care), and sent some screamers down the fairways--shortest drive was 240 into the wind, longest was 270 with the wind with nice, easy swings. Totally took the right-hand rough out of play for me, which is generally where I spend most of my time on the course. On the front 9, hit 6 of 7 fairways and was a respectable 6-over through 8 holes before the storm came in and forced us to an early exit. I'll give it another shot today and let 'er loose on the back 9--maybe I can clear 300 with a good swing and some bounce.

And speaking of the storm, we caught a few heavy gusts of wind as we scurried from the 8th green into the clubhouse. The sky looked ominous and scary, but we're not talking Katrina here. Lost both my scorecard and towel to the wind, a small price to pay for getting to safety quickly. Little did I know that just two miles away, things were MUCH worse. On the way home from the course, we saw 8 downed oak trees, one of which unfortunately fell smack onto our garage. Just blitzed it. Lost some sections of roof and even had oak tree branches puncture the stucco siding of the garage. Also, unbeknownst to us, the wind was so strong that it blew open both the front and back doors of the house and set off the security alarm. Cops called the house, and because no one was home, no one answered. They scrambled to the location and saw the doors just swinging wildly in the wind and papers flying about inside. A bit of a scary moment for Mom, who arrived shortly thereafter, having to walk the cops through the house in search of burglars. Alas, all is well--insurance is on it, the tree crew already cleared the mess from the roof and just has to haul it away now, and reconstruction will be under way in a couple of days. Two hours after the tree fell, the garage was tarped and the tree branches all laid neatly alongside the driveway. That's expediency. (Hint hint, Connecticut Power and Light!)

Ok, lunchtime now. More later.