You know, I realized yesterday afternoon that for the first hour or so after I work out at the gym, I feel remarkably more clear-headed. I suppose this is one more huge incentive to keep up the exercise. Perhaps with continued work the mental clarity will last longer.
I sure hope so 
So on Wednesday, Valerie and I are meeting with a realtor. I’m hoping, also, to talk to a lender tomorrow and discuss pre-approval and all that jazz.
Well, I thought I had more to say on the subject, but that’s really it. I’ll update as I have more to tell.
I just purchased two CDs yesterday – “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road” – both by the Beatles, of course.
Holy crap. They are both so incredible.
While I was already familiar with about half of the songs on each, some I’d never heard, or hadn’t heard in years. Hearing each album all the way through was a treat indeed, absorbing all the innovative details of the music. I think the next album I purchase will be the so-called, “White Album,” in all of its two-disc glory.
Yesterday I had the longest day of work in my life. 14.25 hours, to be exact. I had to stay late to fix a problem I discovered, and it had to be fixed before midnight for reasons which would take too long to explain.
I was there until 10:15 pm.
I marveled at how quickly the extra 5.75 hours went by, especially considering the work I was doing was tedious. I guess time not only flies when you’re having fun, but also when you feel the hours you should be spending at home robbed from you without your control.
It didn’t really help that I came to work this morning to discover the client had changed its mind, rendering all my work useless.
Guh.
You know, as a final note, I realize that the last several posts of mine have been rather rant-ish/negative, and that’s not generally my nature. I think I’ll try to expound on some more positive events in my life over the next few weeks.
Oh, and go read my brother’s poetry, right now.
Or lasagna if you prefer.
Today I brought home-made lasagna to the office for the folks on my team, and it was a hit. I made the pasta from scratch, I made the sauce from scratch, and man was it all delicious…
I was pleased with the food, my team was pleased with the food, and I’m once again encouraged to keep cooking.
Mmmmm…
So yesterday in the morning I finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I read Angels and Demons last year, and I enjoyed it for the most part. The ending was weak, and I felt cheated by a poorly constructed about-face in one character’s personality, but I thought it was otherwise a decent book.
Then I borrowed Brown’s latest from my mother-in-law. I wasn’t particularly worried about the hot-button issues in the book as I had essentially heard of them. It would take more than a novelist to shake my faith.
It didn’t take long for two realizations to dawn on me: First, I was just as drawn in by the fast pace of The Da Vinci Code as Brown’s previous Robert Langdon tale. Second, I was beginning to suspect some unfortunate similarities between the two novels.
I’ll not bore you with the details, but essentially this book read like Angels and Demons in a different country with different secret societies. The attractive girl losing a loved-one who raised her, a pre-eminent man of his field privy to controversial knowledge that seems, at least on the surface, to threaten the Catholic Church. The suspicious law enforcement leader, with just enough detail to finger him for the bad guy until the last minute. The close ally, built up to the reader and transformed into the real enemy based on a flimsy, misunderstood pretext.
Yes, I was offended by several assertians by the characters in the novel. I was struck more, however, by the lack of rational thought process on the part of the characters. It appeared as if some of the principal players took leaps of faith rivaling that of literal Creationists when it came to connecting the symbolic links of the plot. Such loose links and flimsy ties were not limited to the development of characters’ attitudes, but the very movement of the plot in most cases.
I believe I could sum up my feelings for The Da Vinci Code by saying I lost a lot of respect for Dan Brown as a writer. He pulled a Cold Play on this one, borrowing heavily from his own previous hit single. While a change of key and some different lyrics may result in a different song, the result is the dulling of an otherwise pleasant theme leaving me disinterested yet, strangely, dissatisfied.
You know, it was less than a year ago that I couldn’t stand the taste of beer, yet a strange transformation has taken hold, allowing my taste buds to enjoy the complex flavors of good beer.
Tonight I once again savored the goodness of Rogue Hazelnut Brown ale, one of my favorite drafts served just right at Capital Ale House in Richmond. Flavorful, malty, not too heavy, and a smell almost of caramel.
Of course, I head off to the Czech Republic in June, with full intention of sampling what many consider the finest beer in the world.
The adventure continues…
Today I may be finding out what my salary increase is, as well as my bonus for last year…This combined with my taxes to be completed by the end of the week should allow Valerie and I to start looking for a house in earnest. No more renting!
So here I am, waiting expectantly, hoping to hear about my raise today, or tomorrow, or the next day…
UPDATE:
So I did find out what my bonus was, and my raise. They were both pretty sweet, especially for my first year.
Then I did my taxes today, and all of that essentially disappeared. Uncle Sam indeed.
Listen to the Neil Young song, “Like a Hurricane,” and tell me it’s great. Then I’ll laugh at you until I’m hoarse.
That must have been one of the crappiest songs I’ve heard in 5 years.
So it appears that there will finally be some serious snow in Virginia today. Took long enough, considering there’s only about a month left of winter…
And of course, it would just figure that the serious snow comes on a weekend with no chance of getting me out of work.
Nice to see either way, though.