Michael and I went to Shoreline Lake on a nice bike ride. We then went to downtown Mountain View and met up with Nima. We went to a beer garden and had some tasty french fries. We all had some good conversations and waited for Steph and Caryn to be ready to meet us for dinner. We went to Shezan and got some really tasty food. Steph and I then left for other parties.
This book was good, but didn’t contain as much information and detail as Lifelong Health. I’d say if you had to choose one to listen to, choose Lifelong Health. I have the same problem with this book; that they didn’t support the claim of eating a whole foods diet. This issue most likely arises since there aren’t any good studies on diet (self reporting errors and long term stable groups and whatnot). I also like that both books stressed the importance of working out, something that I should do more often. I get off a bit easy since I bike everywhere, but that still doesn’t excuse the lack of vigorous workouts and weightlifting.
This book was very informative on the goods and bads of health. There was a lot of science based evidence and good advice. The only issue I have is the lack of science based evidence for the whole foods diet that is continually recommended. I’m not saying that the diet is bad, and I agree with the logic they use (in most cases, i don’t care about fooling mother nature), but they don’t support the claims with evidence in this case. I do like the rest of the evidence that is provided, and the caveats they give to each study they mention. I am pretty sure I’m going to give up drinking alcohol altogether for the foreseeable future, as well as cutting out most meat.
Steph and I went to Planet Granite and got some good climbing in. The routes we chose were not as hard as the ones we had done before, and Steph had her butt way off the wall on the last one. She ended up pulling her shoulder/neck doing the last climb so I helped her out a bit with the belay. We did a 5.9, 510a, 5.10c, and 5.11a. The 11a was hard, and clearly made for someone my height. I’m impressed Steph was able to do it at all.
This morning I set out for a long morning bike ride and it turned into a long early afternoon walk when I got a flat and had to walk the bike to the closest bike shop for a repair. The start of the ride was really nice and I went to shoreline lake. There I talked to my parents. They have had a very exciting week with my dad getting and signing an offer from Emory and then having their offer on a house they like accepted. It will be great to see them at Christmas in their new house. After that I went to downtown Mountain View via the Stevens Creak Trail. I was hoping to get some tea but the tea shop isn’t open Mondays. When I got back to my bike I noticed a flat tire. I’ve gotten into the habit of not carrying my repair tools with me, just the air pump. The flat I ended up getting wasn’t the slow leak that a pump will help with. After about a 45 min walk I got to the bike shop and got it fixed. Then decided to grab a late lunch at The Counter. After a quick stop by Milk Pail Market I rode back home. I am very tired and most of the day is now gone. I still enjoyed the ride.
This morning Steph and I had a great bike ride over the farmer’s market on California Avenue. It was a really sunny morning and I rushed out without putting any sunscreen on. Luckily I only got minor burns that don’t sting, but I can tell that a hot shower will make them unpleasant. I got a lamb curry naan wrap and it was delicious. I decided to try out the samosas at the place that does the naan wraps this time, and they weren’t nearly as good. I’ll probably go back to get the samosas at the smaller stand. Steph got a good supply of bolani, and I got some of the tofu. Steph also got some really high quality yogurt, that is absolutely delicious.
Yesterday I played a really good set of games of squash with Nima. He had just eaten and had played a couple hours of volleyball earlier that day. Even with those extenuating circumstances he won the first game, and nearly got me on all the subsequent games. The third game was especially close, with us playing to nearly 15 in decision points before I was able to take it. Him being tired and full is certainly what made the difference. He wasn’t positioning himself nearly as well as he normally does, so I was able to get a lot more kill shots than would normally be expected. I look forward to next week when we are on more equal footing, and I can make it to games night.
On Friday I biked over to the San Antonio Shopping Center to get the boots for motorcycle riding class. I was able to get some cheap ones that were comfortable, along with a new set of sneakers. The old set of sneakers were falling apart and I could start to see my socks through the holes in the top of the shoe. They lasted a long time for $15 used shoes.
I met up with Steph outside of Milk Pail and we went inside for some tasty foods. We went back to my place after that and had some dinner of cheese and crackers with fruit.
Friday afternoon I took a long bike ride to go fix the wall when I removed the mirrors. I found out that paint matching is a tough process, since you can’t bring the wall to the store very easily, and bringing samples to the wall doesn’t work very well. There are just too many samples to bring them all reasonably. I got lucky in that I was fixing a wall that I had ripped a few pieces out of, so I just took the wall pieces for matching. It was hard to find a really good match even with the wall piece there, but I got one that was really close. I went back and painted over the spots that I had already spackled over. Then I biked back to my place. The whole trip to nearly 3 hours and I had biked at least 25 miles on the trip at a good pace. I think I am finished with the things I need to do at 906, unless I want to go back for the Olives next week. It seems like it would be nice, but it would be a good chunk of time that I just don’t have right now.
It's an Exciting World 