A Bachelor's Fridge

I know...I suck as a blogger lately. It's freakishly hot here in Texas. The heat has zapped my energy and inspiration. And since I hole up and try to stay out of the extreme weather, it's not very conducive to meeting new potential dates.

This week, I'm out of town, staying with my recently divorced uncle, who had some orthopedic surgery. He's still in the hospital tonight (surgery went very well), and since I know there is a hope or possibly an expectation that I will take over the cooking duties while I'm around, I went through to see what I'm working with. Here's a sampling of what I found:
* almost all the condiments you could need
* 4, yes 4 bags of grated "mexican cheese" - this is one of those repeat purchases. You know, every time you go to the grocery store, you think, oh yeah, I'll get one of those. Not remembering you already have one (or more) at home!
* several cans of chicken and beef broth
* a couple apples
* very ripe bananas (I'm thinking banana bread...although there's no flour or sugar yet)
* 6 yellow onions
* much meat in the freezer

I'm sure if one of my sisters looked through my bachelorette fridge, it would also be eye-opening about what's there, and what's not. It just made me laugh to see how much of some items he had, while completely lacking in others.

Tri it

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. What can I say? I have had ideas for topics to write about, but either they are too personal -- and I don't want them out there on the world wide web -- or they're about topics that I'm not ready to talk about yet. Sometimes, it's best just to keep your mouth (and keyboard) shut.

I haven't had any dates lately, since the way-too-young-for-me guy. But most of the time, I don't miss it. My life is full with good stuff. I spend my free time with friends, family, or exercising. I've been reading lots of great books that stimulate my mind, and I'm still travelling quite a bit for work, which exposes me to different cities and some great restaurants.

I finished my fifth Danskin triathlon last weekend, beating my previous time by a couple minutes. I was pleased with that. I trained harder than ever before for this one, and my only regret was that I had a massive muscle spasm (in my abdominals, of all places!) on the run, which slowed me down tremendously. I think it was due to not taking in enough electrolytes. I've got another tri next weekend, again in the Texas heat, so my plan is to load up on the electrolytes. The course next weekend is easier than the Danskin, with less hills, and there's less people, meaning we should finish sooner in the day before it gets too unbearably hot.

Some people ask me, why do you do triathlons? I admit, it is a bit daunting, and years ago, I never would have ever thought I would do one, let alone five or six. But that's exactly why I do keep doing them. It's a reminder to me that I can do something I never thought I could. And if I can do this...what else can I do? The possibilities are endless...!

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Right Now

I'm supposed to be in Chicago right now. But I'm still in Austin.

I went to the airport as scheduled early early this morning to learn once I got there that the flight was delayed 1.5 hours. So I got some breakfast and settled in, even took a cat nap in the uncomfortable lounge area. When I woke, I learned the flight was delayed another hour. And then another. And then ANOTHER. There were multiple reasons given: there were tornados in the Dallas area last night, keeping flights from coming into Texas, there was a hail storm in Austin this morning, damaging some aircraft, and our flight crew was MIA.

Eventually, it got to the point where I wouldn't be getting into Chicago until the end of the day, missing all the meetings I had scheduled. Tomorrow's day was already truncated, with the plan to head back to the airport around mid-day. It didn't seem worth it to go all the way up there for a half day of meetings, so I asked for the credit for the flight and headed into the office here.

When I lived in NY, I heard so many NYers stories of where they were on 9-11-01. There were several near misses -- people missed their train or bus, a child was sick or something else kept them from showing up to the World Trade Center building on time. It reminds me that we don't have the overall picture. While the horror and tragedies that occurred that day are still hard to comprehend, those near misses make me think that sometimes, we aren't supposed to make that plane, or we're supposed to be in traffic.

What if you're exactly where you're supposed to be RIGHT NOW.

It's My Birthday

Just enjoying the day, which started with a 6:30 a.m. bike ride. I am NOT a morning person, but the endorphins from exercise do make for a nice start to the day.

Had lunch with a dear friend, who brought me a balloon. :-) It's a red, helium-filled balloon, and it makes me feel like a kid again!

My coworkers got me cupcakes, and I'm looking forward to dinner with my sister, niece & nephew tonight at a Japanese hibachi restaurant.

And I'm also looking forward to the year ahead! Exciting things in the works...

I've Still Got "It"

Although 40 is looming like a dark storm on the horizon, apparently, I don't look it.

When I was leaving in Honduras from vacation, I struck up a conversation with two guys in the exit tax line. When they heard I was going to Austin, they asked if I was in school at the university here. I laughed and said no, explaining I was a BIT older than that.

And then getting asked out on a date this week...I knew he was younger than me. I just didn't know he was THAT much younger. Ah, well. We had a nice time. He's mature, and we had a great conversation. So I accepted his invitation to dinner on Friday, too. It's hard not to like the attention from a younger guy.

A Date!

I have a date tomorrow! It's just drinks, but after such a long dry spell, it's pretty exciting.

I went to a friend's party a couple months ago. Many of his gay friends were there, and I enjoyed talking to everyone I met. It was a great party! Towards the end of the night, I was talking to one of the few straight guys there. I didn't think much of it -- he's younger than me -- but we had a good conversation (although I can't remember about what now). He did ask for my phone number, but I forgot about it.

And then he sent me a text message, saying "I'm not sure if you remember me, though I definitely remember you." and asking if I wanted to go out for drinks. So, we are. Tomorrow.

Ahh...

What a relaxing vacation! The resort we stayed at on Roatan was remote and sparsely populated. I had lots of time to catch up on reading, listen to the ocean and experiment with my camera (I recently took a photography class and learned a bit more about it). It was all very refreshing.



I enjoyed taking pictures of the different creatures we saw as well, and Kelley and I sat at the table by the hummingbird feeder every meal we could. At night, the bats would come and finish off any sugar water the birds had left.




And I was thrilled to get to meet the little girl at the local orphanage that I am mentoring through an Austin-based non-profit.


We also enjoyed snorkeling -- so many different fish! -- kayaking, and enjoying the sunsets.