The last few weeks have been pretty busy. Here’s a few of the highlights (excluding brewing activities – another post to follow soon on these).
It has been awhile since I talked about my goals to get back into shape. To be honest, I fell off that wagon pretty good for a couple months. While I was still eating decently and maintaining about the same weight, I found that I really wasn’t running or going for hard hikes very often, and as a result, was not really getting in any better shape. A couple weeks ago I decided to give myself the proverbial kick in the ass and start exercising on a more regular basis. I still am not in quite as consistent of a routine that I would like, but I have been getting a few runs each of the last couple weeks. With the summer heat in full swing, I have been trying to get my ass out of bed by 5am at least a few times each week (not fun!) and go for a run. When I do manage to do this, it has worked out great – I get my exercise done for the day, Abby gets her exercise in before it gets too hot (that little bulldog is not a fan of the heat), and it clears my head and gets me ready for the day. It really is an invigorating time of day. There are almost no cars outside, the birds are chirping, and I can often still see the moon out in the sky. It is a very serene way to start out your day. Once I smooth out a consistent routine, I will be back in the saddle and on my way to getting back in shape.
I was able to take a couple days off this past weekend to enjoy some time with Theresa and just relax. This was the first time I have had a chance to take some days completely off from work since January (long overdue). Theresa and I made our way to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phils play the Giants on Thursday. The Phillies lost and we got rained on a little bit but we had a lot of fun and had some good seats!
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| Fun seats in center field! |
One of the perks of traveling as much as I was in my old consulting job is that I accumulated a lot of Marriot Reward Points. These come in handy for last minute plans to go on trips. The rest of this past weekend turned into one of those situations. Theresa and I ended up getting a hotel just outside of Atlantic City so that we could go to the Shore to relax, enjoy the beach, and hang out with Theresa’s sister (whose birthday was on Friday – happy birthday Gail!) and some of her other family. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend and just the relaxation that I needed. We ended up spending most of our time in a combination of Sea Isle, Avalon, and Ocean City and had a really good weekend! :-)
The last few weeks I have also made an effort to spend a little more time playing video games to catch up on a couple games that I have been meaning to play. I was finally able to finish off Mass Effect a week and a half or so ago and was very impressed with the game overall. I loved the RPG balance in the game and loved the story. Hooked into the story and wanting to play further into the story, I borrowed Mass Effect 2 from my buddy Jim and starting playing it a couple days later. The second installment is a blast to play but does have some notable differences. The RPG elements are much lighter in this one (a little too light in my opinion) and the combat seems much faster and forces you to play a bit more aggressively. I am not far into the game yet so I can’t make a complete judgment on the game but it seems like BioWare has made some noticeable improvements to the series in this installment, as well as some detractions (in my opinion), but overall the game play is very fun and very solid. The storyline is very well written and addicting so far. Overall, although I would have liked to see them keep the RPG mechanics closer to the first installment, I am very impressed with this game. I am trying to get through this one (or at least most of it) prior to October. Since the end of September will see the release of Gears of War 3 and November will see the release of Halo CE: Anniversary Edition and Modern Warfare 3, the time that I will have for video games this fall, will most likely be spent with these three sequels to three of my favorite game series to date. More to come on Mass Effect 2 as I get further into the game.
Song of the Day: “Lullaby” by Jack Johnson ft. Matt Costa
Beer of the Day: Yards Brawler
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