life hereafter

I am exactly thirty days away from this years Multiple Sclerosis Society City to Shore ride. Last year at this time I had all of my donations in, and I was training daily (a hell of a lot after my failed attempt at a cat 5 race.)  In fact I trained so well that I maintained a 21.5 mph average over both days. I was even the first one to finish from my team, and one of the first few to finish the overall ride. Now, I know it’s not a race, but the way some people were ridding, it sure felt like one.

This year on the other hand, with how busy things have been in every aspect of my life I find myself having only ridden two or three times a week. I am uber slow, and I weigh ten pounds more than last year. That’s a 7% increase! My longest distance ride this season was 37 miles. That isn’t even half way there.

In an effort to incent myself to find the time to ride more, I made up a little chart. The chart is a list of things I want with the price tag next to it. A half an hour of riding is worth $10. So each time I go for a ride, I am at least $10 closer to something I want!

Now to see if I really stick with it. I’m only two rides away from my first goal…

Lately McDonalds has been showing some rather offensive commercials on the Food Network. Not offensive in the way that I was personally offended. I was offended because you think people will actually buy (pun-intended) into this crap.

There are three versions.

1) A small child is enjoying chicken nuggets made from “real white meat.” Well yeah, it was real at one point, but then you ground up an entire chicken, added liquid, salt and preservatives, and reconstitutied it in the form a nugget. Which, last time I checked, was not a real part of the chicken.

2) You show me how you make an egg McMuffin. Step 1, take a real egg, set it in a circular metal cookie cutter. Step 2, place it on a fresh baked english muffin and top with cheese and bacon. Do you really think that anyone believes the guy behind the counter making minimum wage is really cooking my egg fresh?

3) You show me a package of FRESH REAL 100% American ground beef! Except you never say that it’s grade A, or B… or even C. You just say it’s… beef… and that is how you make burgers that all look exactly the same.

While we are on the topic of things that frustrate me; I do not understand why guys wear business dress clothes and sneakers…

I understand the rational for women. Heals are painful and hard to walk in. So, leave the heals at work and commute in sneakers. But seriously, do guys need to do the same thing? Guys don’t wear heals.

So, what exactly are these men who are wearing sneakers to work doing? Do they keep a pair of dress shoes and work and commute in sneakers? Is that acceptable? Do you really need that little itty bit of comfort while your on the train?

Please do not think me insensitive for this post, but I was at the supermarket earlier today and I saw something that I truely do not understand… Why do expectant mothers at supermarkets get primo parking?

I mean, I understand the handicap parking signs, you know, the ones mandated by state law. The ones you can be fined $100 if you violate. However, these ‘expectant mother’ signs are placed there by the supermarket with no enforcement mechanism. Sure, if some woman is eight months pregnant and still has to go shopping, than sure, park closer. Although I think there are larger problems at home if this poor woman has to still buy the groceries at eight months…

On the other hand, you can’t really tell if the woman parking there is ‘expecting’ or not. I mean you could just be some regular lady, and have no problem parking there. If anyone asks, just say you are three months in and aren’t showing yet. This also begs the questions, does the ‘expecting mother’ have to be alone? What if I was the husband and driving the car. Could I park there as long as she was with me? How come no other stores have these kinds of signs? Could you imagine, a maternity store with ‘expecting mothers’ parking. That would be hilarious.

Last night as I was taking the R6 home we stopped about five minutes into our journey. After about ten minutes we start moving again but only about 100 or so feet before we stop again. We sit like that for another fifteen minutes.

As usual the speakers on the train were not working, so we just heard a series of “buzz buzz buzzz” as the conductor was apparently telling us what the problem was. After a few minutes a woman got up and went out the door to ask the conductor what was wrong. She returned to tell us that the train had made a wrong turn and needed to back up.

How the hell does a train take a wrong turn!? It’s on tracks!

The stock markets have been brutal lately. I’ve watched two years of saving and paper gains be wiped out in the course of the past few months.

However, being the good little risk taker I am, I am going against what any normal person would feel and buying more of the market. 1) It will lower my cost basis, and 2) The opportunity to make back the gains on oversolds stocks is too great to pass up.

So here’s to at least breaking even by years end, even if I can’t afford a house just yet!

I think I am addicted to going to the supermarket. I have gone three times in the fast week, and each time I just wander up and down the aisles (or is it isles) looking for new and interesting things to try. This is starting to cost me a small fortune.

My personal finance software just told me that my most frequented merchant is “Superfresh.”

On the other hand, I did make delicious empanada eggrolls for dinner. Mmm…