So, it's Friday, May 18. I haven't posted in a while, so I'm serving you my buffet of blog posts here. The Weekly Platter, if you will.
Personal
The Assault is continuing on after a small break due to a lingering back issue. I think I may have slipped a disc in my back when sleeping awkwardly on Ro's couch about a month ago. But a couple of weeks of sleeping on the floor and taking a break from the gym have me feeling about 95% now. Got in three Crossfit sessions this past week and am looking forward to continuing with the strength and conditioning regimen there. Every day, it's something different. And every day, I wake up sore all over. I look forward to each workout and am truly exhausted when each workout is done. It's a win-win, folks! Yesterday's workout: 21-15-9 of box jumps and burpees (that means 21 box jumps, 21 burpees, 15 box jumps, 15 burpees, 9 box jumps, 9 burpees). Took me 7:30 with sporadic 5-10 second rests between sets. Not thrilled with my time, but my lungs still hurt this morning, so I'm pushing myself.
Weight is still right around 181. I'll admit, I haven't really been making an effort to get down to the 175 target I laid out some months back. I've been content to sit right around here, and this week, MotherOfTheWife is in town and making all sorts of Indian foods that I can't possibly say no to, so who knows how much I've been eating. But no more! The honeymoon with 180 is over. Time to bust through the plateau and reach 175. I got weddings to go to this summer, dammit!
Travel
Just got done with a stint in Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, New York and Chicago. A couple of weeks here on the homefront in CT, and then it's out to India for a week. I'll return to CT for one night to attend TheWife's residency program graduation dinner (she's not graduating, she's got another year), and then it's off to Georgia for a week. One June wedding in L.A., one July wedding in Seattle, an August wedding in Asheville, NC, and a September wedding in Long Island will cap off the personal summer travel. As for work, who knows.
TheWife
Many of you who know me know that my month-long trip all around the US and to the Caribbean, followed by the two-week work trip mentioned above, left TheWife feeling abandoned. It didn't help that Anant decided to peace out for most of that time, too, so TheWife was in effect at home by herself for the majority of the time. And yes, she blamed me for this. In fact, she so hated me that she wouldn't even speak to me or let me finish a sentence on the few days I was at home. I told her it felt like we had broken up, but we were still living together. It was super odd. Anyway, she had no idea I was going to Chicago because when I tried apprising her of my travel plans, she cut me off with a curt "I don't care" or simply didn't listen when I did tell her my plans. So imagine her rage when she called me on her way home from work one day, just to hear me tell her I'm on the way to Chicago. Hell has no wrath like TheWife scorned.
Well, I'm glad to say TheRanga, not unlike ThePhoenix, has risen from the flames a stronger and more powerful being. And how did I do it? I'm actually not sure. I think it's some combination of actually being at home for an extended period of time and delivering her a great birthday gift along with a reservation at a nifty little restaurant, capped off by an extravaganza of cupcakes from the best bakery in Hartford. Apparently, the best way to TheWife's heart is through her sweet tooth. Boom, baby!
(TheWife, if you are reading this, I love you very much)
Sports
I won't go too much into detail here, but the Saints bounty-gate scandal keeps getting more and more complicated. Anthony Hargrove's recent admission that Joe Vitt and Gregg Williams told him to lie is a HUGE stain on the franchise that has been denying any wrongdoing so far. Somehow, this seems to have passed without much more scrutiny. The suspensions, while severe, were in this Saints fan's opinion, warranted. Otherwise, how the hell is the NFL going to put a stop to this kind of behavior?
But NOW, things have taken an even more interesting turn, with Jonathan Vilma deciding to sue Roger Goodell for defamation of character. Vilma must be completely resolute in his protests that he never paid, nor intended to pay, any player for intentionally inflicting injury upon another player. I just don't even know what to think at this point. As a lifelong Saints fan, when we won SB XLIV, it felt too good to be true. It now seems that maybe it was too good, even if only a little bit.
As for Duke basketball, an offseason that was only slightly better than the Saints' took a turn for the better this week, when the Blue Devils landed a top 25 recruit, power forward Amile Jefferson. Finally, Duke gets the long, versatile, mismatch guy that we have sorely missed since the likes of Shane Battier and Mike Dunleavy. At 6'7", 190, Jefferson has a bit of filling out to do, but I have faith in the Duke staff to use him in a way that makes the team a bit less one-dimensional than last year's squad. So we'll return Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins (maybe), Tyler Thornton and Quin Cook in the backcourt; Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, Josh Hairston, Alex Murphy and Marshall Plumlee (God, please let this one be better than the last two) down low; and we'll be adding sharpshooter Rasheed Sulaimon and the aforementioned Amile Jefferson to the squad. If Murphy and the younger Plumlee can come in without missing a beat (remember, they red-shirted last year, so they should be familiar with all the sets) and if Sulaimon and Jefferson can adapt quickly this summer, we might actually field a decent team! Honestly, as long as we don't lose to another 15-seed in the first round, I'll be happy.
Personal
The Assault is continuing on after a small break due to a lingering back issue. I think I may have slipped a disc in my back when sleeping awkwardly on Ro's couch about a month ago. But a couple of weeks of sleeping on the floor and taking a break from the gym have me feeling about 95% now. Got in three Crossfit sessions this past week and am looking forward to continuing with the strength and conditioning regimen there. Every day, it's something different. And every day, I wake up sore all over. I look forward to each workout and am truly exhausted when each workout is done. It's a win-win, folks! Yesterday's workout: 21-15-9 of box jumps and burpees (that means 21 box jumps, 21 burpees, 15 box jumps, 15 burpees, 9 box jumps, 9 burpees). Took me 7:30 with sporadic 5-10 second rests between sets. Not thrilled with my time, but my lungs still hurt this morning, so I'm pushing myself.
Weight is still right around 181. I'll admit, I haven't really been making an effort to get down to the 175 target I laid out some months back. I've been content to sit right around here, and this week, MotherOfTheWife is in town and making all sorts of Indian foods that I can't possibly say no to, so who knows how much I've been eating. But no more! The honeymoon with 180 is over. Time to bust through the plateau and reach 175. I got weddings to go to this summer, dammit!
Travel
Just got done with a stint in Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, New York and Chicago. A couple of weeks here on the homefront in CT, and then it's out to India for a week. I'll return to CT for one night to attend TheWife's residency program graduation dinner (she's not graduating, she's got another year), and then it's off to Georgia for a week. One June wedding in L.A., one July wedding in Seattle, an August wedding in Asheville, NC, and a September wedding in Long Island will cap off the personal summer travel. As for work, who knows.
TheWife
Many of you who know me know that my month-long trip all around the US and to the Caribbean, followed by the two-week work trip mentioned above, left TheWife feeling abandoned. It didn't help that Anant decided to peace out for most of that time, too, so TheWife was in effect at home by herself for the majority of the time. And yes, she blamed me for this. In fact, she so hated me that she wouldn't even speak to me or let me finish a sentence on the few days I was at home. I told her it felt like we had broken up, but we were still living together. It was super odd. Anyway, she had no idea I was going to Chicago because when I tried apprising her of my travel plans, she cut me off with a curt "I don't care" or simply didn't listen when I did tell her my plans. So imagine her rage when she called me on her way home from work one day, just to hear me tell her I'm on the way to Chicago. Hell has no wrath like TheWife scorned.
Well, I'm glad to say TheRanga, not unlike ThePhoenix, has risen from the flames a stronger and more powerful being. And how did I do it? I'm actually not sure. I think it's some combination of actually being at home for an extended period of time and delivering her a great birthday gift along with a reservation at a nifty little restaurant, capped off by an extravaganza of cupcakes from the best bakery in Hartford. Apparently, the best way to TheWife's heart is through her sweet tooth. Boom, baby!
(TheWife, if you are reading this, I love you very much)
Sports
I won't go too much into detail here, but the Saints bounty-gate scandal keeps getting more and more complicated. Anthony Hargrove's recent admission that Joe Vitt and Gregg Williams told him to lie is a HUGE stain on the franchise that has been denying any wrongdoing so far. Somehow, this seems to have passed without much more scrutiny. The suspensions, while severe, were in this Saints fan's opinion, warranted. Otherwise, how the hell is the NFL going to put a stop to this kind of behavior?
But NOW, things have taken an even more interesting turn, with Jonathan Vilma deciding to sue Roger Goodell for defamation of character. Vilma must be completely resolute in his protests that he never paid, nor intended to pay, any player for intentionally inflicting injury upon another player. I just don't even know what to think at this point. As a lifelong Saints fan, when we won SB XLIV, it felt too good to be true. It now seems that maybe it was too good, even if only a little bit.
As for Duke basketball, an offseason that was only slightly better than the Saints' took a turn for the better this week, when the Blue Devils landed a top 25 recruit, power forward Amile Jefferson. Finally, Duke gets the long, versatile, mismatch guy that we have sorely missed since the likes of Shane Battier and Mike Dunleavy. At 6'7", 190, Jefferson has a bit of filling out to do, but I have faith in the Duke staff to use him in a way that makes the team a bit less one-dimensional than last year's squad. So we'll return Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins (maybe), Tyler Thornton and Quin Cook in the backcourt; Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, Josh Hairston, Alex Murphy and Marshall Plumlee (God, please let this one be better than the last two) down low; and we'll be adding sharpshooter Rasheed Sulaimon and the aforementioned Amile Jefferson to the squad. If Murphy and the younger Plumlee can come in without missing a beat (remember, they red-shirted last year, so they should be familiar with all the sets) and if Sulaimon and Jefferson can adapt quickly this summer, we might actually field a decent team! Honestly, as long as we don't lose to another 15-seed in the first round, I'll be happy.
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