| Day one in Iceland was amazing. Alot of wandering and site seeing. The city is relatively small, and quiet by most standards. The countryside is flat and barren, but green and colorful.
Our guide, Joi (Joey) picked us up at the airport and showed us the city, got us checked in to our hotel overlooking the ocean, and then brought us around.
In the afternoon we were picked up for horseback riding through the countryside lavafields. I can't say my bottom half feels very good at the moment, but the pain was well worth it. I got some amazing pictures that I'm posting to picasa at the moment, if it works I'll share them with anyone who reads this later.
The night was finished off with a dinner at "Ice Bar", which is a gimmic type (but fancy) restaurant that has a room with a bar in it that is walled with huge blocks of ice. They put a parka on you and send you in to have a cocktail or a shot. Which really knocked me on my ass considering how little I'd eaten yesterday.
After all was said and done I'd been running since 4am Thursday until we crashed at around 8:30 last night. There were times I was nodding off on my feet. I was hoping to have gotten more sleep on the plane, but obviously that was not meant to be.
Today is geisers and what's called the "Golden Circle". Joi should be picking us up shortly for breakfast, which will probably be a bit of a picnic in the countryside considering the unusually sunny weather that we've arrived to. Iceland is usually fairly overcast and drizzly. I bring sunshine wherever I go I guess.
More soon! | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Sitting in the airport right now.
In 16 hours or so we'll be in Iceland. Layovers suck, but we'll get in at 6:30am.
Pics to come. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I find it oddly hilarious that Rove is trying to label Obama as arrogant. This coming from the man who helped orchestrate possibly the most arrogant administration in US history? I think Obama should get up in front of a TV camera and say, "Mr. Rove, if these are the best things you can come up with...BRING 'EM ON!" | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| The past several Tuesdays me and the hubby have been playing volleyball after work. Because I'm closer to home I'll swing by my house and feed the dogs and change, and go downtown to pick him up at his office on the way. This week we abandoned my car and took his car, which is new (cuz I wanted to drive it).
I didn't notice it till yesterday... A large dent above my passenger side tire. About the size of a basketball. I don't think it will cost a ton to get hammered out. There are NO scratches, which means I wasn't hit. What looks like foot treads were parked in the dirt.
So, great! This brightly lit, camera monitored parking lot is completely insecure. I guess security will check the tapes, but it won't really do much good I'm sure. I'm hoping to drag the money out of the property owners' insurance to cover it, since they are the ones that "monitor" that lot. Police report filed, etc.
Not quite what I want to deal with before I go on vacation.
It makes me somewhat sad that I can't even park downtown and know my car will be in one piece when I get back. The police are over burdened, society as a whole doesn't want to take responsibility for themselves, their families, their kids.
People like to blame everyone else, so I'll just blame everyone downtown for letting the city sink into a cesspool. We can hope they drown in their own apathy and misery. Just don't complain to me that businesses are failing because nobody comes downtown anymore. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Ran a 5k race in 27:08 this morning. Not as good as I wanna be. But consistent at least. :) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| In a little over a month me and the hubby go on vacation. A week in Iceland followed by 3 days in Amsterdam for Pride. Pride crap isn't usually my thing, but it's Amsterdam, and we were halfway there, and the tour group I found had it as an add-on to the package we bought for Iceland, so we figured we may as well enjoy it.
Of course there's always a wrench to be thrown into plans.
There's always been the assumption that mom and dad would watch the dogs. Mom gets stressed by having 4 dogs (hers and ours) around, never mind the fact that our German Shepherd is a fucking coward, but she usually does it grudgingly. My father, though, now has to have a hernia repaired...removed....whatever the hell they do with those things, which puts restrictions on him, which would put the burden of the dogs and babysitting my nephew on my mother.
Mom took it upon herself to contact a coworker who she trusts, though, to possibly watch the dogs, cats, fish, and house while we are away. She even offered to cover the cost. I'm still somewhat squeamish, one of the cats is very easily stressed by strange people in his house, but its definitely something I'd consider at this point. I can't put my mom through that hell. I'm not sure if I'd never forgive myself for it or if she'd even talk to me again after. Mixed blessing possibly, but the woman feeds me. And let's face it, without the leftovers I might starve!
So there's alot of thinking to do there.
Beyond that, I'm hitting my routine hard at the gym. Me and my workout partner are actually more engaged in helping each other this week. We both have goals we want to hit. I went to the gym this morning to do some cardio and found that I don't like the gym as much when it's quiet like I used to. I think I actually crave the interaction with people. It is a social activity for me now. Odd how things change.
Hoping to get to volleyball with the hubby again tonight. The weather hasn't been very stable lately. So that could throw a wrench into things. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Time for more coffee! | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Yawn | | Time: | 07:35 pm |
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| Today I blog because I'm bored and trapped at a wedding reception. Thankfully I used my general disgust of religion to miss the ceremony, but they're making up for it by blasting country music for the couple to dance to.
So here I sit in the car trying to "get some air".
I just wanna go home and watch jumper, which netflix should have delivered today. That or play warhawk.
Anyone else out there with a PS3? I need to hook my wii back up someday and play metroid, too.
Blah. Is this my life? Wasted Saturdays suck!!!!
Tomorrow gym and yard work, gods willing. I am so far behind... | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Okay, I'm told I don't blog enough. I think my life is boring, but I suppose I should contribute now and then.
I'm still a regular at the gym, hurting myself in all kinds of imaginative ways. For the first time, though, I have a stable workout partner. Strange. We're not all crazy about it either. Its a fairly casual, open, workout relationship. We workout together when we are there at the same time, which is usually fine. We workout with other people, too, though, or by ourselves. No real expectations.
I'm seeing results, too! Maybe someday I'll post pictures. I'm still fairly modest. :)
I found this today:
http://www.familygorilla.com/js_artparodies.html
It f'in rox! Make sure to click the next arrow!
More soon I hope! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I may be out of the loop, but I didn't know there was a strike.
*shrug*
people need lives. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| One last, final, begging plea (until next year) for donations!
I'm doing the Polar Plunge this Sunday!
It'll be frigid! Like 20 degrees!
Go to http://firstgiving.com/ChrisBianchi and throw me some donations!
Do it for the kids! And all the Special Olympians!
And mostly, do it cuz I wanna beat all my teammates in fund-raising!
Thanks! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Its that time of year again...well a bit earlier...
In any case, I'm going to be jumping in a frozen lake again in January to help the special olympics. I'd really appreciate any sponsors I can get, I want to double totals from last year hopefully.
www.firstgiving.com/ChrisBianchi | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm going to start logging my running times. Just to keep track of improvement.
5 miles at 47:30.
6 miles at 58:45.
Then walked till 70:00. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Okay, I've been lazy with the journal. My bad. Here's the update of what I remember about the past few months.
Last thursday I ran in the Chase Corporate Challenge with my gym. I actually did it in roughly the same time as the last race I ran. Roughly 10 minutes per mile (35 minutes in this case). I may have done better, but there were over 10,000 people running and jockeying for position occasionally slowed me down. I don't even know how long it took me to cross the starting line. But I'm pretty happy with the number.
My gym routine has changed from what I was doing. My friend, Dan, who instructed most of the classes I took, has stopped teaching while he adjusts to his new Master's program classes. In his absence, there are alot of new classes which I have no interest in. I still do boot camp on Tuesday and Thursday morning with the gym owner subbing in. But my evenings are more free now. So the past few weeks I've been consistantly lifting and doing cardio 3 nights per week. Tuesday and Thursday nights I've also added on Pilates for a core workout. Some Saturdays I go with Dennis to core class, and may do cardio that morning as well. Yoga on Sunday as always. That combined with some changes in my eating has dropped me back to the low 190's in weight range, but I'm being told that its a leaner 190 than I was, so I may have actually seen some developement. Here's hoping.
I saw Live again a couple months back. This time in Lancaster, PA at a small club call the Chameleon. Its a pretty small club and it was a small, crowded show. But this was the club where they got their start back when they first formed. The guitarist met his wife there. Their album art was photographed there. So it was a lil historical concert for me. Unfortunately I had to get stuck behind some 50 year old drunk who was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to chummy with his grown kids for my comfort (damned near groping them). It was worse when he moved on to the people around him. Latent homosexual tendencies me thinks.
This summer I will be seeing Live twice more. Once July 5th in Toronto. Once August 1st in Buffalo. Alone, unfortunatley, but eh.
The big happening was the vacation. Dennis and I went to Key West for a week. I thought I'd be completely bored and unhappy there. But it was probably the most amazing vacation I've ever had. Key West itself was laid back, walkable, hot but not unbearable, friendly, and beautiful. We stayed at a gay resort called Oasis. The first couple days we didn't really connect and befriend anyone. Dennis and I took a ferry out to Dry Tortugas national park as our first touristy excursion. It lies about 60 miles west of Key West in the gulf and has an old abandoned brick fort that started being built to protect shipping lanes in the 1800's, then was turned into a prison. We snorkeled there, sunned, toured the fort. It was a really awesome day where we learned how often we need to reapply our sunblock. But after that we found a group of new arrivals who we really got along with. It turns out they were going on the an all-inclusive little boat expedition that we were going on. One of the local places puts on a gay package for tourists where they throw together snorkeling, jet skiing, parasailing, kayaking, and sunning on their little barge out in the gulf. There also was an inflatable "iceberg" for rock climbing and a floating trampoline that had seen much better days. I now definitely want a jet ski someday. All that aside, we ate a ton of expensive food (its hard to eat cheap there without going for chinese every day) and had a ton of fun. We're planning a return trip in the near future already.
In other news, I just hit 1 year at my current job. I still love it here, which is a rarity for me, so I'm not planning on going anywhere.
I'm sure I'm forgetting alot of things, but I do have work to do. More updates to come hopefully! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I ran my first 5 mile race Saturday. It snowed 8" overnight and the windchill was pretty low, but I still came in at 50:51. I'm happy. :) | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
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