I finally remembered

the other thing that was bugging me at the gym the other day. People on treadmills, stair climbers, etc., who have the speed cranked way up and they're hanging on for dear life to the rails or to the console or whatever it's called with the displaly on it. How much of a f*cking workout do you really think you're getting by hanging off of something while your feet tippy toe along the belt or steps? I saw one guy who had the treadmill up to about 6 mph and he was running along for about 10 seconds, then hanging from the rails and sort of grazing the treadmill belt for twice that time. Back and forth, back and forth. Just set the damned thing at 4 miles an hour and jog, why don't ya? And the people on the stair climbers who are getting more of a workout in their arms supporting half their weight on the rails while also cranking up the speed . . . useless. Oh, and my favorite: people on treadmills with the incline at 10 or above and they are hanging from the console so they can keep up with the speed of the treadmill. Uh, not the point, genius. Put it at an incline of 7 and get your f'ing hands off the rails and see how you do. You should be breaking a SWEAT when you do that! Stupid people. Just because the machine is angled higher or running faster doesn't mean you are getting more of a workout. You have to actually DO the WORK, mmmmkay?

Jesus.

Anyway, I managed to get through an hour on the treadclimber. That thing is somehow more of a workout than a regular treadmill with the two separate treads that alternate up and down. Now, if I could just make myself do that every day . . .

Yeah right.

I'm due for a shower, then taking care of some things around here. We gotta get our closet situation figured out so I can get all the junk laying all over our room back in there!

Then again, maybe we'll go bowling. I'd like to go bowling. And to play some air hockey. That sounds like fun. Tomorrow the pro shop in there is supposed to be open so I'm gonna go look at the shoes and maybe get a new pair since the one I have is over 10 years old! Maybe the husband will get a ball.

The sequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean opens next week. I'd like to see that. I am wondering if we should go see Click also. I dunno. I'm not in much of a movie mood at the moment, but I've been kicking the idea around.

Last night I bought 20Q, this little electronic thing with AI (artificial intelligence) that will guess what you are thinking of -- usually quite accurately. It guessed that the husband was thinking of playing cards, and that the stepdaughter was thinking of a bulldog. Pretty good when you consider the questions didn't seem to be leading anywhere near those things! I also picked up the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition that comes with a DVD for the questions that you earn wedges for. We played it and I enjoyed it, but the husband hates trivia games. What am I supposed to do about that! We need to have some friends over to play that and play in teams. Maybe then he could get into it. Anyway, I smoked the husband and stepdaughter. Hey . . . I can't help it if I know a lot of stupid shit. And they knew a lot of things, too . . . they just don't have any confidence when it comes to stuff like that. They need to get some. I'm not babying anyone.

So anyway, this morning the stepdaughter comes out and says her aunt just called her and said she was on her way to pick her up. I was under the impression that she was staying through the weekend and she acted like she was clueless as to why her aunt was picking her up. Yeah, well, her aunt showed up (9 a.m. on a Sunday) and when I mentioned that I thought she was staying through the weekend, she said the stepdaughter called her a zillion times yesterday and sounded so bored so she decided to come get her and take her w/her wherever today. Nice. Um, when a kid is bored, you need to let the kid find a way to amuse herself that doesn't include calling you incessantly and complaining that she is bored. That child has had, for some time, a real problem with this belief that she needs to be entertained every second of the day. The bigger problem, of course, is that the husband and I don't subscribe to that theory but the other side of her family seems to. Always gotta be doing something. Or, I should say, talking about doing something -- I am forever hearing "we're going to do this, we're going to do that, we're going here, we're going there . . . then later, I ask the stepdaughter how the movie/auction/trip to San Francisco was and the answer I get, more often than not, is "oh, we didn't go." So I guess what she really needs is the promise of being entertained, whether it actually happens or not. Well, when we say we're going to do something, we do it. Big difference. But we don't build it up like it's an event. So we will go ahead and do whatever we are going to do this weekend and she's just going to miss out. But it annoys the shit out of me that she acted like she didn't know why her aunt was coming to get her when she apparently called her nonstop yesterday. Um, DUH. And like I'm not going to figure that out.

ANYWAY.

I guess I'd better jump in the shower and get ready so we can go to lunch and maybe hit Lowe's to look at their closet solutions before we go bowling & stuff.

And ask me how happy I am that I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday?! Pretty goddamned happy!