OK, this song’s been out for 8 months…hence the 81 million views on the video…so obviously I’m a little late on the uptake.  The guy is Belgian/Australian and he’s old news down under, but I just found him and the whole album is great and I can’t stop listening to it.

Thanks to Paul for introducing me to him.

Paul decided to make some sweet pickles, which I don’t like.  With that in mind, he decided to pickle 7 jars.

…and the excitement continues…

Last weekend Paul and I hopped on a quick flight over to Baltimore (which has its own official webpage, if you were wondering) to surprise Joe for his 30th bday.

When my sister moved to Baltimore last year and started raving about what a great place it was to live, I was like, whatever.  I’ve seen The Wire.

Welp, turns out Baltimore is kind of awesome.  My sister and Joe live in Federal Hill, where there are approximately 400 really fantastic restaurants and bars within walking distance of their apartment.  The neighborhood sits right on the bay, it’s a 15 minute walk from downtown, and craft beer abounds.

They also have crab tots, which are just as delicious as they sound.

My roommate from freshman year of college, who I haven’t seen in like 8 years and who also happens to live in Baltimore, picked us up from the airport, which was beyond fantastic.  Molly took a pic of us, but it was taken in the rain, in the dark, and we both look like corpses.  So I’ll spare you.

Molly put together a little shindig on Saturday night for Joe, which was great.  A few people we knew when we were kids from SB who just happen to live in B’more showed up:

(please ignore my shapeless body)

…and at the end of the night Molly ran home with what remained of the monstrosity that was Joe’s birthday cake.

(The chef couldn’t find his 9” cake pan, so he used his 12” pan.  It was the size of a car tire.)

The next day was really cold and windy.  Molly had to leave early for Texas where she’s doing some pre-deployment training, so Joe, Paul, and I wandered around the city…

…stopped by a car show, where this happened…

(it started coming at me as I took the picture, scared the crap out of me).  And we ate some crab tots.  Then we flew home.

Good times.  Hope to go back soon.  Happy 30th Joe!

What a surprise to look out the back door this morning and see a blanket of white.  The first real snow of the year to stick.  Didn’t even see it coming. Even Spike was caught off guard (he saw one of the toys he left laying by the back door buried under a pile of snow and it freaked him out.)   I had kind of assumed that we had skipped winter this year and were already headed into spring and tornadoes.

I love it, fresh snow is so great.  Just hope winter doesn’t decide to really arrive like 4 months late…because I’m also dreaming of a garden.  And chickens.

Totally unrelated to anything, but I thought this was great.   Happy Monday.

HYP is this weekend.  Go tigers.

Yeeeeah…so…

The atmosphere at work yesterday was super stress with a hint of homicdial.  So when I got home I figured I’d hit up good ol’ P Dubs to make the house smell nice and bring up office spirits today through…fat.  And sugar.  To sit around the office the day after I swore it off.  I am full of great ideas.

I don’t think these turned out as well as the traditional buns did (different dough recipe), but they were still a hit and I didn’t eat any.  Woot self control.  Day 1 down.  No swimming today, kick that off tomorrow.

Starting tomorrow…pull out that Speedo…it’s February Fitness time!

As a Masters coach I am encouraging one and all to get out there and push your fitness levels this month.  Though I personally am taking a break from hard training due to some chronic injuries that just will not quit (bummer), I still plan on swimming.  Last year I went about 40,000 yards, which is totally beatable.  So there’s goal #1.

Along the same lines of improving overall health/fitness….I have a massive sugar problem.  And apparently sugar is horrifically terrible for you.  So goal #2: cut back on sugar intake.  Eliminating fake sweeteners, avoiding sugary foods during the day, and no candy at all.  It’s a bad habit, time to break it.

And finally, my coworker and I have committed to no bitching this month…which is completely unrelated to physical exertion, but a serious exercise in mental fitness.

And there it is. February Fitness.  Go get ‘em.

Yup, that’s right.  A coworker and I were back in the Bay for the past 5 days (actually 3 days…2 days of all-day traveling, blarf) for a work conference.   In addition to attending the conference, we made a “networking” stop down in Mountain View….

…where they provide their workers with free beer every Friday, have free cafes every 200 yards, and google-colored bikes lying around for people to grab if they need to get across campus.  Big thanks goes out to Jess for the tour.

Saturday afternoon, after two days of conference and a morning meeting, we took a trip over the bridge in PERFECT weather in a drop-top Mini Cooper…

…to Bolinas…

…to chill with some old grad school friends and their babies.

And now we’re back, work is in full force, Paul is in full studying and pickling mode.

Oh, and I changed my hair color.

Happy Monday.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

For those of you spending your day in a cubicle hunched over your keyboard staring at a computer screen (me), this timelapse video of Yosemite is worth the 4 minutes.  The stars. The fog. Half Dome. Awesome.

For a little piece on how they did this, go here.