Curing some boredom for me and you

No specific topic tonight. Just your standard weekly update randomness...

I worked tonight for the first time since Sunday! I was pretty pumped to run around waiting tables. It turned out to be a bit of a stressful night as there were only four of us working. That includes two new people, myself and my boss. Things got a little busy and I had to pick up the slack, and I was the "veteran" server out there after only 30 days or so on the job. My boss did tell me at one point that I need to be mindful of something. That's the worst feeling. That feeling when you think you are busting your butt and the man points out what you're doing wrong.

It reminded me of this varsity hockey game I was in when I was a junior in high school. My coach was yelling at me for this or that and I looked him in the eye and said, "But coach, I'm doing great things out there." He benched me for the final period and a half....and overtime in which we lost.

So instead of telling the boss how good I was doing, I just nodded my head. We had a really good chat at the end of the night about how things went. I thanked him for his support, then went home.

Waiting has its ups and downs

I've mentioned in previous blogs that my new focus is getting healthy. So this week I've worked out everyday (except Tuesday, my day off). My workout consists of a 2.5 mile (4k) run, some push ups and sit ups and this little muscle building exercise called Plank. It is like a push up, except you just try to hold your body up off the ground for as long as possible. It is supposed to build all sorts of muscle. I was pretty bored on Wednesday, so I did this workout twice. I was wearing 36 waist pants when I left the USA, now I am using the smallest notch on my belt just to keep my pants up. I was a fatty. I'm taking this so seriously now that I am reading labels at the grocery store and I even went to the movies the other night and did not get movie popcorn. I found some jaw dropping stats on the amount of junk they put in that stuff. Also I've cut back on alcohol, only having one or two drinks a week. I think I just need to remember to have some fun once in awhile with the food. Ironic, isn't it that I went to a country famous for its binge drinking to STOP drinking. Feels great though.

Dec 31, 2008...pushing the scale at...I don't know...but it was a lot.

10 minutes before publishing this blog. I have a neck again.

Having days off has been great for listening to radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, the NBA and NHL. This week I've been listening to the Carolina Hurricanes radio broadcst for the Bruins/Hurricanes series. During intermission today, a caller asked "Who was on the roster when the Hurricanes first started in 1998?" And the announcer listed off the whole roster. It was a great trip down memory lane. And the Hurricanes won today to take 2-1 series lead. Also I listened to my first MLB game on the internet the other day. How much a part of New England culture is the voice of Joe Castiglione, radio voice of the Red Sox? That's as American as Dunkin' Donuts.

I watched the Dodgers play the Nationals on TV today. During the seventh inning stretch, I stood in my livingroom and belted out God Bless America with the rest of LA. The woman really blew the ending, but I had my hand on my heart and sang it like I was there regardless of how she sounded.

I like that I get to watch former Swamp Bat Andre Ethier on my TV in Australia. I was lucky to have the opportunity to pick him up at the airport the day he arrived in Keene back in 03. I bet he doesn't remember, but I do tell people I drove the guy around. Same goes for Jeff Keppinger and Amazega.

Hockey Monday night was another good one. We won 10-6. I had a couple in the win. Next Monday is our playoffs. We are the #3 seed playing the #2 seed. 1 is playing 4 also. We really should win and then all we have to do is beat the bad guys and we're "champions" of a league of four. Yep, doesn't get any better than that.

My friend Eoin responded to my previous post regarding Australian vehicles and yards.

"Read the blog, too short but funny. True our cars are small and those little fences, well we don't own the land past them. The council does. You should do a piece on Australian local councils.... Like how its illegal to cut a tree down on your own property. Yes you can get really big fines if you do it, like $30,000. Oh and don't even think about building a garage without permission."

So I didn't realize the council or basically the city as we'd say in the US had so much pull.

Mike York had a different defense when he heard I was bashing his country's vehicles.

"Our roads aren't as big, so our cars can't be as big."

Well who's fault is that Mikey? Actually Mike drives a good sized truck for Australian standards. He passes.

I graduated from College five years ago this month. Carroll College or Carroll University as it is called now was my home for three years from August 2001-August-2004. One of these days there will be a post titled "The College Years." It will be edited for all ages to read.

What else is going on? I've been talking with Andy Neumeister recently on facebook. Andy and I both used to work for Clarke Distributors in Keene, NH. One summer in 2001, we were weekend merchandisers together in Rindge and Keene. We worked in major grocery stores like Shaw's and Hannaford Brothers and it was our responsibility to make sure there was plenty of Budweiser on the shelf each weekend. We've kept in touch since that time and I was in his wedding a few years back. Anyway, we invented a fictious competition called the "Merch Off." and we would always talk about the events. You'd have the Merch off decathalon:

Tools of the trade for "Merch-Off 2009"

Events include:

30 pack toss, catch, and building of display
40 yard pallet pull, avoiding obstacles (shoppers) along the way
Wheeling of kegs off the back of a truck
Merch off terminology ("Did you check that cooler?" a.k.a. "Check that attractive women down the aisle")
Speed rotation of the "Born on Dates"

Precision label fronting

Syncronized Pallet-jacks

And of course our guest referee would be Dizzy. He's the living legend merchandiser.

I think we should write a screen play about the merch off. It would be a Vince Vaughn film I imagine. In the movie Black Sheep, Chris Farley talked about a "bounce off" regarding some security guard competition. I believe that's where the concept started.

Time for bed. Goodnight.