Freyja's Day

Hello Vikings.

I'm on a Norse mythology kick and Friday was named after the goddess Freyja (consistent spelling of the name still TBD).  She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality.  I think any good religion, cult, myth series by rights has to have a fertility goddess (Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte and Aphrodite/Venus come to mind).  If the fact that she rides a chariot pulled by two cats isn't indicator enough of her femininity I don't know what it is.  Actually, it seems slightly masculine and torturous to do that to cats.  Anyway, Happy Friday to you...unless you happen to be a literate feline reading this on your iPad while pulling a chariot.

I had the fortune to wake up from a vivid dream this afternoon, assuming it was either midmorning or a hour before my alarm would go off.  In my dream, my brother-in-law was paddling a canoe in a pool with my wife and her sister in the canoe with us.  However, we were traveling as fast as if we had a motor propelling us.  My brother-in-law is athletic, but I am pretty sure his arms can't move as fast as a motor.  Eventually, my wife fell out of the canoe, the front edge of the canoe was sinking into the water and my brother-in-law was choking me.  I know what you are thinking: this is your standard Christmas gathering.  Then my 1 year old son tried to jump into the pool with no flotation device on.  After picking up my son, I realized the whole thing was a dream and I should probably get out of bed.  I looked at my phone and realized I was supposed to be awake now and my alarm didn't go off.  Yeesh.  I took the time to get a haircut and complimentary head massage or "listen to the barber's knuckles pop on your head" time.

At work I was happy to see both my coworker and I received packages from our wives.  His wife sends him cookies; I ask for and receive sardines.  If only he would listen to my advice and grow a mustache.  Anyway, my better half sent me coffee, macadamia nuts, six cans of sardines, smoked herring, smoked trout, almond butter, several variations of coconut and the toys below.

The red clips say "I love bacon."

My son gave away the surprise a few weeks ago when he told me, "We made you a sun catcher today!"  I put it on the computer monitor at work and now it resides on my refrigerator door.

After work I took the time to outprocess from the medical facility.  The doctor asked how I was and where I was from.  His eyes lit up when I said I'm from Pennsylvania and asked if I liked the Steelers and the Pirates, he being from the western part of the state.  Getting back to business, he was glad I had not been incapacitated and I told him I am also glad I didn't get thrown out a window.  He shook my hands and wished me safe travels.

Thinking I was done, the technician called me into another room and told me to look out the window and stand next to the table.  I thought she said, "Grip the table, take off your pants and look out the window while thinking of your happy place."  In my mind I heard the door lock and a rubber glove snap into place and was glad I double checked the sign on the front of the building to be sure I was at medical.  The tech stopped me before I embarrassed myself and told me I just needed a shot...in my arm.  Due to privacy concerns, I can't say what it was she gave me, but let's just say I think the shot explains the pink elephants I saw in the walk back to my room.

My eggs meal was regrettably relatively routine.

At least Texas Pete will make me smile.

If the CEO of Hulu is reading this, every ad does not apply to me.  I do not want a Capital One credit card, a new car or Jack Daniels bourbon.

Vito Andolini

"Do you need any olive oil?"

It's been over ten years since I've seen "Godfather Part II", but after reading the recap on Wikipedia I remember enjoying it much more than the 3rd installment and just a normal bit more than the original.  I also see parallels to "The Empire Strikes Back."  Both movies are darker than the original, Han in carbonite/Fredo dead in the lake...actually, the comparison fits better if Michael Corleone is compared to the Emperor.  Michael's career at the top of the Corleone family is encountering many snags (Congressional inquiries, Jewish mobsters in Cuba, traitorous brothers) and the Emperor of the Galactic republic is wondering if he can build a space station (that's not moon...) without a simple weakness, turn the son of his right hand (hand, hah!) to the dark side and work with gangsters to capture the key figures of the rebellion.  The flashbacks to post-WWI New York City are more reminiscent of  "A New Hope" or maybe even "A Phantom Menace" with the build-up of Vito Corleone's career similar to Obi Wan Kenobi's Jedi training.

Slight segue via the import-export business...tonight I feasted on Cento sardines, made in Morocco but imported from New Jersey.  I've probably eaten a dozen cans of sardines since I've been here, which isn't really that many for me.  The flavors ranged from soaked in water (ick) to jalapenos crammed in the can. If you haven't eaten sardines or are simply apprehensive about eating fish (or things out of a can), Cento in olive oil are for you.  They are not fishy and taste like meat with oil.

John Kerry is Sam the Eagle and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Basically tonight's repast was the same as last night's.

2 eggs, 2 burgers and 2 sausages.

Today was my mom's birthday.  I didn't get her anything yet, but will have the opportunity to find her something uniquely Middle Eastern in two weeks when the souq comes to the base gym.  She's never used a hookah, but she probably doesn't even realize how fashionable they are in Pennsylvania.

Here's me squatting 315 five times the other night.

And here I am deadlifting 385 four times.

That's all for now.

Nuts

If you have sardines and Star Wars, today is a good day.

Today was an excellent day for receiving mail!  My aunt sent me a letter (which contains such juicy tidbits like, "Here's a list of homemade food you can't eat."), Amazon delivered the BCAAs and CJ's butter I ordered and my unit sent me a big care package.  At first I thought, "They sent me printer paper.  We already have that here."  Then I said, "No, no Mr. Sarcasm, it's just a box the paper came in."  The picture above summarizes what I was sent nicely: sardines, nuts and Star Wars.  They also sent pretzels, Fig Newtons, beef jerky and a chocolate Cliff Bar, but my backpack was stuffed with the above.  Anyway, thanks to anyone who already sent me a package or letter and more specifically, if you are my aunt, work at Amazon (but only if you actually touched the things I ordered) and if you contributed to my care package above.

Through some investing blog reading, I found this guy.  I have not yet seen him trying to sell anything from his blog, so don't think he's a huckster, hustler or charlatan.  His message is clear: you don't have to spend all your money on things that fill up a garage.  If you can, use a bike rather than a car; if you buy a car, buy it smartly.  And grow a mustache.  I don't agree with all of the advice he gives, but I like his idea of a Costco membership and using the library a lot instead of buying books.  Certainly over here it's easy to use the library (surprisingly good selection out here.  I feel like I said that in another post...worth repeating.), both for borrowing and donating.

Rest day today, so tomorrow it will be squats-overhead press-deadlift.

Dinner involved a pile of meat, some butter and brussel sprouts.

The olives look like eyeballs.

Tomorrow I'll get to see my neighbor who is TDY out here.  Good night!

Letters from home

My mom and my aunt are still old fashioned enough and caring enough to write me letters.  Since they live near each other, I end up hearing about the same stories multiple times: what they ate for dinner, when they saw my brother and how hot it is in Pennsylvania.  I'll occasionally get newspaper clippings and yesterday I received an obituary for a 88 year old gentlemen who went to my mom's church.  I've been a member of Mensa since May 2008 and this gentlemen was also a member.  I couldn't help but wonder if my mom was saying, "...guess he wasn't that smart..."

Included was another newspaper clipping describing a local company helping to redefine the way in which a kilogram is measured.  Rather than keep a brass mass (hah, I kill me!) inside multiple glass containers, the company has built a device that creates a magnetic field, within a very high tolerance, so that the force of the field would relate to the same force (weight) exerted by 1 kg.  So anyway, three cheers for small town Pennsylvania contributing to NIST measurements.

A coworker and I (neither one of us with FB accounts) discussed the relative merits of Facebook communications tonight.  Found it interesting how omnipresent (and soon omniscient) Facebook accounts are and how other websites (ESPN, HULU, imdb, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Car and Driver, ebay to name seven sites...) let you use FB accounts to log in, rather than creating a new account for that site.  Yeah, I hear you: "I have enough accounts that I end up selecting 'forgot my password' every time I login; why make a new one?"  If that is the case, then use a password manager, but that isn't the point.  You'll never know how much information from the other sites is traversing to FB or vice versa.  Anyway, Google knows all about me, so why tell Facebook now.

Lastly, I got a tantalizing package in the mail today (thank you JOD) containing tuna, salmon, sardines, macadamia nuts and almonds.  My drawer at work is teeming with nutritious snacks now.  I think people at work (with one exception) see my loot and think, "Oh...no candy or cake...sardines?  what a weirdo..."  When I was a kid, sometimes we ate sardine sandwiches with mustard.

the loot