Ribs Aren’t Supposed To Do That, Right? Kenosha, WI, Maha Selling in NY, The Reunion is Coming, Muse

So, I grab my chinup bar and start to do a pullup, and feel this “pwaaang!” in my chest on the right side, just past the sternum.  As per my rules, I quit doing that as part of my workout right then, but it quit hurting.  So I had to ask Doc about it.  Well, either I’ve strained it, or separated the rib.  The difference is not being able to do that part of my workout for either a week, or not being able to do it for about three or four weeks while it heals.  Oh bummer!

I’m starting to get to the fanatical level for working out now.  To me, I’ve never seen so much progress in so little time, so I’m not getting discouraged or the whole body image problem (where I’ll be fine with what I look like until I’ve worked out for a while, then I feel like I look like hell after a couple of weeks.)

Cool.  I’m pretty happy with that.  And I checked, yep, I’m still 220 lbs.  Haven’t dropped a pound in six or seven weeks.  Again, cool.  

And while the system I’m using seems to be working, I’m going to try something “just because I can”.  I set at a desk all day (well, most days anyway), so I’m going to get up and work out about once an hour just one set of reps through all the stuff I do (except pullups.  Guess I’ll double up on pushups).  I tried it today - phenomenal energy levels all day.  But then again, I slept until 1 PM (I got home from Kenosha at 7:30 AM or so), so I’m gonna say today doesn’t count.  But I’m going to try working out as a steady flow all day, then doing a primary workout for two hours once a day.  I’m just currious to see the effects of that, if any – it COULD be harmful to the effects the workout is having.  Guess I’ll find out! 🙂

Was standing there talking to Doc about it, and had finished doing a round of those “once an hour micro workouts”, and he stops and looks, and comments “You’re getting guns.”  OK, yeah, that made me feel pretty good that someone noticed :-) 

And I obviously FEEL like I look better – didn’t even think about it until I was inside QT, I was still wearing a workout shirt (one of those skin tight sweat wicking shirts), and realized I didn’t care – I didn’t look any worse than anyone else in there.  Granted, some of the patrons may have vomited in their mouth a little.  Hard to tell. 😉

Well, done with this year’s first Kenosha trip, and planning the second trip in June.  It’s POSSIBLE I may land a project there that will having me go to Kenosha about once every two months for about a year and a half or so.  Big ass project – but I won’t know if it’s going to happen or not for four or five months I’m going to guess.  Cargill has an integrator who’s job it is to this this sort of thing – and they HATE them.  They are really wanting me to do it so I can keep the other integrator out of the plant.  And I’m just fine with that.

Project pricetag?  Around $100,000.  Current rough guess (still working numbers, etc.) puts the profit after labor and markup in the $60,000 range over a year and a half.  

Now THAT would be nice.  Everything else for a year and a half would be gravy on top of that big ol’ pile of mashed potatoes.

But I’m not holding my breath – this whole thing will still have to be slid by Corporate.  Though, the way I laid out the rough plan, Pat thought it might be a hell of a lot easier to get all those small projects approved rather than a big one.  May not hold my breath, but I’ll cross my fingers a little 😉

Chatted with my friend Maha on my way back from Kenosha for about an hour, and we worked out a pricing schedule, etc. for “boutique websites” for a lot of these little boutiques she’s been running across in NY.  We figured out a good price for it all, and so she’s now out doing sales in New York for Midnight Ryder Technologies and herself doing websites.  

Cool.  These will all be small projects, but if she pulls off selling a few here and there, then it’s definitely worth it.

She’ll be in town next week, and we’re supposed to meet up for lunch and do some pre-sales training, etc. 

This week and next is going to be “catch up” week for me though (except I’m taking tomorrow off, with exception of contacting a few customers), so I can see if I can *FINALLY* clean my slate of a few projects that aren’t done yet!

Well, Sunday is my 20th Year High School Reunion.  I’m going for a couple of hours, but I’m still not real sure about this.  I’m not even 100% sure why I’m going – most of these people I could give a fuck less about.  And really, I could care less what they think about me, though the reunion does provide me yet another excuse in the back of my head to cleanup, trim up, and bulk up a little – I’ve seen pictures of these people.  I aged well in comparison, IMO.

But I’ve got an oddity in this (don’t I always.)  I’m feeling sort of sexist right now.  I don’t do the “arm candy” thing because it’s rather… sleezy.  Yet, I’ll be doing just that.  Devvi is going with me for nothing more than show off value.  

I’d feel really bad if it was my idea, and cancel the plan.  But it wasn’t my idea.  And every time the reunion is mentioned, Devvi mentions how I’ll be showing up with a hot chick on my arm.  Hm.  

It took a while, but I finally gelled in my head – this wasn’t about me for the most part.  It’s been her plan, and I realized SHE is probably getting the ego benefit of being someone’s arm candy (‘specially since it is someone who thinks she’s hot)  Yes, she’s doing it so I get the “boost” from it, and maybe that voyeuristic thing where she gets to see me interact with all the old people I went to school with, but she’s getting a hell of a boost too.

I still don’t really feel quite right about it, but fuck it – if it’s gonna give us both and ego boost, then why not.  But why do I forsee a sit-com level sort of backfire gonna happen if people ask too many questions?

Been writing on Muse, and I LOVE it.  I have no idea what anyone else is gonna think of this thing, but it’s definitely a unique story, a unique setting, and I think my writing is excellent.

Which means it MUST be a piece of crap if I like it, ’cause I never have liked my writing yet! 🙂