Shifted

With my alternating schedule, each day is either a long work day or a strange day figuring out what to do without changing my sleep schedule.  I got to talk to my family for over an hour after waking up, which was a rare treat.  Then went down to the gym and got to experience the crowdedness of late evening.  I still got my workout in a 25 minute span.

Warmup: 2x15x45lb kettlebell swings
Squats: 3x5x305
Press: 3x5x135
Deadlift: 2-415

My neck and lower back are very tight from the deadlifts, so hopefully sleep will help.

Then, I ate this for my breakfast:

The server laughed when I asked for ten wings.

Sam and I tried the Kasbah lounge rather than the Fox Sports Bar and found the selection of wines and scotches to be much more varied.  I had a Ruffinos Chianti, a Tawny port (with a word of warning from the bartender) and finished with a McClelland's scotch.  The bartender told me that most of the patron's he served the Tawny told him it did not taste like a quality beverage.  I assured him I knew what a port tasted like and enjoyed the reduced price tag ($2.25 a glass versus $4.25 for the chianti).  It tasted similar to a raisin wine I made last year.

We sipped our scotches outside and I thought about Scottish Highlanders while thinking it felt like we were in a sauna.

Cheers with McClelland Speyside 12 year

Before we left, I almost took a nap in a couch outside the Gentlemen's Water Closet.

I don't think you'll see this at Big Lots.

After all of that, I went back to my room and read stories to my sons before they went to sleep.  Then I took a nap, still feeling full from my breakfast.  I forced myself to eat some beef ribs and BBQ chicken at the DFAC and will shortly climb into bed.  Cheers.

Say hello to your mother for me.

Downtown

Long day today...which is always strange to say since each day is the same length.  Anyway, ventured downtown for the second (and possibly final) time.  I have 17 days remaining here and might just have my going away at the sports bar (they have Shiraz now!).

Driving around town I saw a billboard with a picture of a juice smoothie and the words, "Test our fresh juice."  I'm assuming that was supposed to be "taste." 

We found the BAM (Big Ass Mall) and walked around a little bit.  It really reminded me of the Fair Oaks Mall in Virginia, but with one more floor.  Sam and I split (which is much more masculine than saying we shared) a lamb grill and I ordered a Turkish coffee aka cup of sludgey bitterness.  There is a "French Walmart" in the mall called Carrefour and I wanted to see what kind of groceries were available.  I ended up purchasing a liter of acidophilus milk (as close as I could get to kefir) and a 100g box of drinking chocolate.  I chugged most of the milk drink by the time we got to the souq and will use the chocolate tomorrow at work to improve some of our mediocre coffee.  Two possibilities: add the powder to the grounds in the filter or add a half spoonful to my coffee cup and pour the coffee into the cup.  I am leaning towards the latter approach since the cocoa is meant to be made into effectively hot cocoa.

Next we found a souq whereupon (how often do you get to use that word, huh?) one of my companions bargained for pearls and another got pearls for free.  The remaining two of us marveled at a German male wearing capri pants.  Oh and I saw a guy wearing camo crocs at lunch today before I left.

Then we went back to the regular souq.  We traveled down the same backstreets that were filmed in the movie "Beerfest" on their way to the drinking competition and were told that "everything is 70% off today."  I asked the sellers if they had any knives, quaiches or rosaries but they didn't have any.  So we found a Moroccan restaurant and sat on the roof.

...without the whole French occupation.

I spent less here than the previous restaurant and I think the food was even better I feasted on a Niçoise Salad (which sticks in my mind because I think there is a recipe for this in my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook that I referenced in 8th grade) and roasted camel (tastes like beef, another yummy cloven toed ruminant.

I think the stack on the right is hearts of palm.

Hump costs extra.

Boring I know, so I added butter and chili paste.

Downstairs we went for the local hooka.  I had a vanilla milkshake (not paleo/primal/whatever).  Sam speaks Arabic and told the waiter we are "boat engineers."  I started to list the life aquatic terms I am familiar with: transom (thank you Alan Jackson), mark twain (thank you Mark Twain) and James Bond evil villian method of transport.   

Incredibly full, we got back on base and I got back to my normal routine: did laundry, squats, overhead press and deadlifts.

Squats: 3x5x295
Press: 4-160, 4-155, 5-135
Deadlift: 4-405

I think I'll take the next week off due to more work coming up and will lower my weights on everything except deadlift and rows.

Returned two books to the library and donated four books to the free exchange.  I borrowed Dragonfly in Amber; who knows if I'll finish it in 17 days.

Oh and I think I could read War and Peace in the public bathrooms here, as they are much nicer than the bathrooms outside my trailer and more cozy than my wood-paneled room.

I'm going to ask Paul Hogan what a bidet is used for.

Not Much to Say

The Tramp

A sit with mustache in its title wouldn't be complete without Charlie Chaplin's character The Tramp.  Growing up, my dad had a 38 mm projector and we watched Charlie Chaplin and Stan and Ollie silent movies.  Even had a projector screen mounted in the ceiling in his office.  They keep showing commercials on AFN of Chaplin in a movie where a house is spinning, he falls and fixes the chimney and the roof falls onto the ground as Chaplin stands still and doesn't get hit or hurt.

Not much going on today.  Seems the stock market is up and it is getting slightly cooler here.  We actually saw some cumulonimbus clouds today, but no rain.

Scaled back (or up) my workout slightly.  Had another guy running to spot me on my squat.  At this weight, it's probably a good idea if I schedule a spotter.  Maybe I can borrow one of the guys who gets paid to clean the bathrooms.  This week or next week I'll shoot for the 1,000lb club T-shirt.

Squat: 5-320, 5-320, 4-320
Overhead press: 5-160, 4-160, 4-160
Deadlift: 5-395

I think for Christmas I'll ask Santa for chalk.  The last few weeks I've been asking around to borrow chalk when I get to my deadlifts.  Thankfully it's cooling down, so didn't really need it today but I still borrowed a piece.

Mint tea and milk.

Remember, the volume of a sphere is .

Steeler's Stache

I'm not really mean...I'm a deep thinker.

When I was growing up, my dad had an array of collectible soda and beer cans.  Several of the cans lining the shelf in his study (back before the days of laptops and internet bloggers...he had an electric typewriter) were commemorating the Steel Curtain of the 1970's.  Tonight I watched the Ravens and Broncos game and I had no idea going into it who the significant team players are.  Actually I only watched a little past kick-off, as it was 0415 and they barely had one play.  Never cared about professional football, probably never will and, regrettably, only played one season of Fantasy Football (I had no idea what I was doing).  So the best way I can connect to football is to think about the Steelers.

Actually, when I think about football I also think of this:

...or this.

"Al, I think people came here to see some FOOTBALL!"

In case you don't remember, Family Guy premiered after the Super Bowl on January 31, 1999.

Back to the squats, press and deadlift workout:

Squats: 5-315, 5-315, 3-315, 3-315 (third set I basically squatted myself into the floor)
Press: 5-155, 5-155, 5-155, 4-155, 5-155
Deadlift: 4-385

I have videos of me squatting 315 and my set of deadlift but they are still in the pre-processing phase.  More to come.

Slightly different than my typical meal...

Catch you on the flipside.

Labor Day Ramblins

No exposition on the history of the Monday in September when we have off work (feel free to Google it yourself).  I'll be at work earlier than normal to get some abbynormal work done.  Plus, it is Mexican Monday so no reason to complain.

One of Neil Gaiman's short stories dealt with Shadow from American Gods meeting up with a hulder (huldra?).  So I had to look up what the Scandinavian faerie was all about.  Seems a huldra is a faerie that looks like a woman, but a hollow backside (not sure what this really means) and a tail.  They can bend horseshoes and typically marry farmers.  According to Gaiman, if you are a gangster pederast, don't mess with a huldra.

Update on the DFAC workers names: tonight I saw one bronze skinned gentleman with the name Roshan.  Apparently, this is also the type of work phone I have been using for an alarm clock the past two months.  It looks like an old flip phone everyone had in the late 90's.  So, thanks for the beef sausages Mr. GSM Phone.

Only $1,9995.95 at your local Radio Shack.

Old Crow Medicine Show's Wagon Wheel video...wow (official and BBC).  I would say not safe for work, but I don't know how much décolletage you normally have at work.  I heard of the band from a site dedicated to paracord weaving that recommended listening to OCMS while crafting some knickknacks.  I figure any band with a mutton-chopped banjo player, go-go boots, fishnet stockings and carnies, probably do not lead boring lives.

Tried my hand at more breath taking, dizzying squats.

Warmup (on because two guys were still on the squat rock): 10-90lbs & 5-180lbs leg press
Squats: 5x5x295
Overhead press: 5x5x150 (finally got all sets of 5!)
Deadlift: 3-375 (only got 3, but I still feel pretty good about that weight)

Borrowed some hand chalk from another guy who was doing tricep pushdowns because it gets very sweaty and humid in the gym.  I only got 3 reps, but still feel good about that for that weight.  It was over two weeks ago on 17 August that I got 2 reps of 365, so I'm slowly moving up in the (deadlift) world.  Then when I was walking to the cafeteria, I saw the same guy from whom I borrowed the chalk and just said, "Thanks."  He stared at me blankly, which made me assume that he 1) was scared off my mustache, thus allowing me to borrow his chalk and 2) didn't recognize me in the darkness of night.

I allowed myself some more tater tots and a banana tonight.  Smothered the banana in almond butter and shredded coconut.

This was before the hot sauce hit.

If you are tired of seeing eggs at the end of these blog posts, console yourself with the fact that I head across the pond in 4 weeks.  But then I'll probably create a new blog, something like platesofeggs.blogspot.com or upperlipbarbells.blogspot.com or fairtalesandfrenchfries.blogspot.com.  Please don't register these names with a DNS server before consulting with me.