Squamloonland

My quest: a decent road bicycle that fits me, at a low low price. (Stupid economy’s getting in the way of my dreams.)

Hell, if I can be the Biggest Loser, might as well raise my sights: I’m now a Timberman “short” course triathlete. http://tinyurl.com/cxz2n5

@yopalin: and I’m jealous of my college roommate’s talent for it. http://twitter.com/sgazzetti

@yopalin: I know what you mean. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/twoosh/

SquamLoon My world is secure: I scrounged up twelve twelfth shots. http://tinyurl.com/bdghkv

Lucky I got twelve today. Most of them were with my BlackBerry, through the Otterbox (see last month’s 12) plastic. I think I need to cut a hole in it.

40 minutes on the elliptical, average heart rate 157. After six weeks, I’m still flabbergastedly enjoying this.

Thanks to a tip from a student, I discovered I could drag and drop a song into GarageBand to grab an intro clip for tonight’s presentation.

We’re in the running for an “EDie” award. It would be cool to win, but the whole exercise of packaging who we are was reward enough for those of us who prepared it. I really like the people I work with.

This is my niche: data. The third and fourth categories are my favorite.

It was a whirlwind day. Here we are rehearsing at school at 4:20…

…and here we’re in what we dubbed the “Green Room” in Concord at 6:07, eight minutes before presenting.

It went pretty well, with a memorable glitch that made for a laughter-filled celebratory dinner at the Common Man Concord.

Good thing there were three other Biggest Loser contestants at the dinner, because I really went for it with my blue-cheese-sauced hanger steak and my cheesy mashed potatoes. (This is an embarrassingly bad food photo, but I’m grasping for twelve to post this month.)

10:24pm: No matter what time I get home, I can count on the SquamDogs to be waiting in the nose-smudged window.

*Requisite cute filler photo here.*

To unwind, I had a glass of cognac (I’m way ahead in the Biggest Loser) and watched yet another epsiode of MI-5 (Spooks). Season three’s not as good as the first two, IMHO, but it’s still enthralling.

Already Tom (Matthew MacFayden) is long gone, and it looks like Zoe (Keeley Hawes) and Danny (David Oyelowo) will be several episodes from now, too. We’ll see if it’s still watchable at that point. They’re the reason I watched the first two seasons almost non-stop.

So. A fabulous day for me, but not for the camera.

For those who don’t do the FaceBook thing, there’s a thing going around where you write “25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you”. Here’s what I came up with. The actual link is here.

1. Given the irrational, unconditional, boundless love I feel for my dogs, it amazes me that I spent the first 42 years of my life without one.
2. I’m a longtime subscriber to Family Handyman magazine—and it’s made me handier.
3. I don’t believe in absolute truth in any situation, but there’s nothing I enjoy more than asking the questions to help rule out what’s false.
4. Every time I get on a plane I feel like a kid who gets to do something really cool.
5. I love watching the way personalities affect group dynamics, and it fascinates me that so many people never think in those terms.
6. I look for the alphabet on product packages, and once had the distinct pleasure of finding all 26 letters on a pack of Juicy Fruit gum.
7. Among the million reasons I feel lucky to have found the beautiful woman I love is that she knows before I do when I’m not being real, and has faith in my abilities when I am.
8. Given the hours I spend underwater with my mask and snorkel every summer, I really ought to go seek out that scuba class I’ve always wanted to take.
9. I hate that I’m a packrat.
10. Thanks to my wandering eye, a goodly portion of the things I’ve seen in this life have been in duplicate.
11. I think I’m generally well liked for my extraversion, but deep down I’m an introvert who has forged only a handful of lasting friendships.
12. Applebees, Olive Garden, and all of their ilk are the spawn of the Anti-gastronome.
13. My one true regret in life is not having had children in my late twenties—and one certainty is that I don’t want to make any in my forties.
14. I can more often than not be found singing or whistling a song containing a word that I’ve just heard, read, or thought.
15. Few things rival savoring un grand crème et deux croissants first thing in the morning in a Paris café while completing the NYT crossword in the Herald Tribune—and for the past few decades I’ve tried never to go more than two years without repeating the experience.
16. I can reboot my body with a five-minute nap.
17. While I find comfort in being well groomed, setting aside time for shaving, nail clipping, skin care, and haircuts is a major annoyance to me.
18. I am regularly overwhelmed by inexplicable angst.
19. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed three solid years of intriguing hide-and-seek adventures, but my geocaching addiction seems suddenly to have gone into remission.
20. My favorite word game is the elegantly playful cryptic crossword, and I don’t believe I have any friends who share that predilection.
21. The emotional minefield of the dynamic between father and son is to me one of life’s most potent and poignant mysteries.
22. I eat the green stuff in the lobster.
23. I live ten minutes from my favorite place in the world, but it carries so much baggage that I too seldom appreciate it.
24. I yearn for a convertible.
25. Just for the heck of it I wrote a bucket list a few weeks ago, and in so doing came to these conclusions: not only have I already led a fulfilling life, I have full faith that at least 96% of my dreams for the future are attainable.

MY CARDIOBLISS:

• Absolutely Not
• Fergalicious
• We Like to Party
• Can’t Touch This
• Don’t Be Stupid
• 4 Minutes
• Hard Style
• Ready to Rumble
• Lolli Lolli
• When I Grow Up
• Move Ya Body

Rick Wormeli is getting me EXCITED about assessment and individualized instruction. That makes him one hell of a motivational speaker.