Fitness update

No beefcake picture this week, but I did measure myself on the scale this morning. You can see that my body fat went up and so did my weight. I guess sitting on my ass at work this week wasn't all that great for my fitness. I think the stress from my job situation is also playing a role.

Chicken dinner

I'm off work again today so I had time last night to cook something a bit more complicated. I decided to make roast chicken. I checked my How to Cook Everything Cookbook by Mark Bittman for a suitable recipe and found one using parsley and onions. I roasted the chicken according to instructions and it tasted alright, but that was mostly because it was a free range chicken. The parsley didn't seem to add enough flavor. The meal was still pretty good because I had mashed sweet potatoes and fresh pineapple to go along with it.

Funny XKCD comic

The comic strip below cracks me up on many different levels.

The job market

As many of you know, things are going all that well on the job front for me. I was furloughed for all January and only get to work this week as I'll be off again next week and don't know anything past that. Woo hoo. Anyhow, it's been a little weird being back at work the past couple of days. Firstly, my brain had to be jump-started yesterday so that I could contribute and secondly, few people at work want to talk about anything other than whether or not there are any other jobs out there. Apparently, you can't even trust a job listing online because it may be for a ghost job. Super weak. It's hard to look for a job when nearly every company out there is laying people off.

News from work

The CEO at work resigned yesterday so we've got an interim dude. I wonder if that's prelude to a deal... I hope something happens to provide some stability one way or another. I don't like being in work limbo.

Super Bowl food

As nearly everyone knows, yesterday was the Super Bowl. I was rootin' pretty hard for the Cardinals, but that crazy interception return at the end of the first half and some stupid personal fouls in the second half did them in. Props to the Steelers for staging an end of the game drive with a pretty cool catch. Dems da breaks, but I don't think Arizona will be back next year. They'll just be a year older. Larry Fitzgerald is the pimp daddy of receivers though.

Below is a picture of the corn bread I made. I used white whole wheat flour which is "better" than white flour, but not as tough as traditional whole wheat. Traditional whole wheat tends to make pretty chewy bread and this corn bread should be lighter. It was tasty for sure.


I got four bunches of red mustard greens at the farmer's market. These were stir-fried with a little olive oil and some fresh crushed garlic.


One of the main courses was grilled pork spareribs. I got them from Dittmer's so you know they were tasty. Unfortunately, I over-cooked them by about 10 minutes, but they were still good.

The second main course was chili made with ground chuck from Dittmer's. I didn't spice it up too much, but it was still good. It made a bunch so I know what I'll be eating for lunch this week.

I made a bbq sauce for the ribs. It smelled pretty acidic, but was more palatable after reduction. I snuck in some Dave's Insanity Sauce to give it more of a kick.


Here's everything on my plate. You can see chips and lime soda in the background. I was in crap heaven.


I "made" a marionberry pie for dessert. I just poured marionberry pie filling that my folks had got me in Hood River, OR into a pie crust. It was a little sour, but tasted great with homemade vanilla ice cream (not pictured).


I ate way too much yesterday, but it's all good.

Thoughts on Portland 122, Utah 108

Portland was at home against the Utah Jazz tonight and took care of business, winning 122 to 108. At times it felt like it was Portland versus Deron Williams, but he didn't get any help from his teammates. Utah was missing Kirilenko and Boozer while Portland was short Blake and Webster. Portland was aggressive all night and had a lot of dunks. Portland had 28 assists for the 43 made baskets so they were definitely moving the ball around. A lot of folks called this game a big game, but I think they're all big. You play to win.

Individual observations:

• Brandon Roy had a quiet 30 points and 5 assists. Sometimes you don't realize how many points he has until you check the boxscore. He also kept his mouth shut and didn't hassle the refs too much.
• Sergio Rodriguez got the start again for Blake and had a terrific first quarter. I'm not sure why McMillan has to take him out after six minutes, but he does. Sergio ended up with 9 points, 7 assists and 2 steals. He shot well and had a couple of nice alley-oops to Rudy.
• Greg Oden had a pretty miserable game with 5 points in 11 minutes. He was hampered by foul trouble from the beginning and never really got into it. He will need to learn to fight through early foul trouble, keep his position and keep his bleeping arms up.
• LaMarcus Aldridge didn't shoot well, but scored 14 points, grabbed 6 boards and had 4 assists. He seemed a little more aggressive going to the hoop, but that mainly happened when Millsap got into foul trouble.
• Nicolas Batum had a great first quarter and showed why Portland cannot trade him. He ended up with 16 points in 25 minutes. He usually only plays about 18 minutes, but McMillan let him run a bit more. I'd like to see him play as much as he can. He's young, he has long arms and he can defend slashers. Williams didn't do much after Batum picked him up.
• Joel Przybilla showed why you can never have too many talented big men. With Oden in foul trouble, he needed to step up and he did with 14 points and 17 boards. He also played tough defense and scored a "dunk" with his right wrist/forearm. He plays hard and doesn't complain much. When Oden is rolling, Joel rides the pine, but I think he's ok with that. We'll see when his contract is up in a year or two.
• Rudy Fernandez finally had a good shooting night and scored 13 points and had 4 assists. He threw down a couple of Sergio's passes so he should be ready for the dunk contest. He seemed more active tonight and didn't just hang around the three point line.
• Jerryd Bayless had a rough night and didn't seem to slow Williams down much. He scored 4 points and had 4 assists, but also drove into traffic a few times. He needs to work on keeping his head up to find the open teammate.
• Travis Outlaw had 11 points and had a good fourth quarter, but he needs to play well all game long if he wants to stay with Portland. He's not as good around the basket as he should be given his height and jumping ability.
• Channing Frye, Ike Diogu and Shavlik Randolph got garbage time burned and each scored two points.

A good win by Portland against a decent team. Utah has a pretty poor road record though and seems really soft. Portland heads out for a tough road trip.