And to You, Too

Oh, and, by the way, I'd like to wish all 7 of our regular readers---and anyone else reading this---a happy new year.

Happy Freakin' New Year to Me

Holy. Flurking. Schnit. Happy new year to me, I guess.

PR: Fight Gone Bad*

Today, I set a new PR on my version of Fight Gone Bad.*  I completed 255 repetitions/kilocalories, an improvement of 36 over my only previous score.

* Since we don't own a 20-pound medicine ball or have 10-foot ceilings, we sub thrusters with 2 20-pound dumbbells for the wall-ball shots.0

I Call it MiPhone

So far, my iPhone, is, as our leet-speaking friends would say, is teh awesome.  I plan to post more extensively---and understandably---after a another week or so of using it.

Nibble, nibble, nibble...

I have started on a New Year's resolution early this year. This year I've decided to try something a little different...but first, some background.

I have played the violin since I was 2 years old. One thing that you may or may not know about playing a string instrument is that you must keep your fingernails extremely short. This is a pretty good example of how one's fingers need to be placed on the strings...you can see that if your fingernails were at all long, you wouldn't be able to press down on the string with your fingertip. So, as a kid, my nails always had to be cut short. At some point, I realized that I had my own pair of fingernail clippers built right into my mouth...yep! I am a nail-biter from wayback.

However, I stopped playing seriously sometime in high school and I haven't been a member of an orchestra for a while, so there is no reason I can't grow my nails a little bit. Thus, I have finally decided to NOT bite my nails. Even if I cut them super short again (because, frankly, after having them so short all my life, having them even a little bit long feels weird), I have resolved to try to break my nail-biting habit. Look at my progress so far!


See? I have little white bits at the ends! If I actually manage to grow them a little bit long, I'm going to treat myself to a manicure at my hair salon.

So, for anyone who knows me in real life, feel free to yell at me if you see me biting on my nails. It is something I tend to do sort of unconsciously when I'm reading or working on the computer, so having someone point out to me when I'm doing it might actually be helpful.

iPhonizzle, as Ashley would say.

Alison bought me an iPhone 3G for my birthday.  Who has the coolest wife around?  I do, that's who.

Michaelmas

I just realized that, though I've used this word repeatedly on the blog, I never actually defined it:

Michaelmas, noun.  The holiday honoring me, observed yearly on the anniversary of my birth.

PR: Michael

I set a new personal record on the workout that bears my name---though it wasn't named after me---tonight:  21:55, almost 2 minutes faster than my previous best.

Holidays in the ATL

Regular readers may have noted a drop in activity here on the Offical Blog of Team Grondul lately.  Alison, Newton, and I just returned from a weeklong trip to Atlanta, where we spent the both Christmas and Michaelmas.  It was a good trip, all considered:  we spent some time with both sides of my family, ate at a couple of my favorite restaurants, and tried to relax.

PR: Filthy Fifty

I set a new personal record for the god-awful workout known as The Filthy Fifty* today: 29:30, 72 seconds faster than my previous best, way back in January.

* I make a couple of substitutions for this workout due mostly to lack of equipment.