Sheep Guarding Llama

Today on Opentopia I discovered a web cam coming from NJIT in Newark, NJ. Not the most exciting web cam in the world but it is the closest one to us in Newark. Just a few blocks away.

For more web cam fun check out the carpet cam in Syracuse. I really need to get a cam set up in Newark. That would be cool.

I made reservations for Dominica, Oreo and I at the Hotel Utica today for Thanksgiving. We are excited as we have been wanting to check out the Hotel Utica for a long time now. The Hotel Utica is a landmark in Utica and is right in the heart of town. Built in 1912 just five weeks before the Titanic first (and last) sailed the structure is an important part of downtown Utica. Dominica grew up there and has never been to the hotel so this should be really neat for her.

Today was extremely typical of a moderately slow day at the office. Nothing to report. This afternoon was exceptionally quiet so I took off on the early side and got home a bit before Dominica did.

I got home and Dominica and I went right out to Subway for dinner. We ate and then came back and I did just a little more work from home and then it was time for our evening workout. We went down at eight so that Dominica could work out while watching The Gilmore Girls which I also got stuck watching because there is nothing at all on. Cablevision is sure doing a bad job of trying to sell us cable. Not once have I gone down and found anything on television at all. If this is what cable subscribers have to choose from I am definitely not missing anything. I can’t believe how television has declined! Internet Television must be taking a pretty significant toll on the networks if they can’t turn out anything interesting anymore.

Today is the last day of the gym only being open in the evenings. Tomorrow begins the regular schedule of being open from six in the morning until midnight (at least that is the latest story – nothing at 1180 is an actual “plan”.) Dominica put in a full hour tonight! I only managed to do forty-five minutes but at least we are keeping up with it. This was our fifth day in a row working out.

So we went to bed on the early side and just played some Nintendo DS from bed. I am going to be up quite early tomorrow so I want to get some sleep.

Weight Lost: -5.5lbs 🙁

I was awake very early this morning. I was up at half past four and didn’t have much to do so I got partially ready for work and played an hour or so of Lunar: Legend. Once everyone was awake I walked down to McDonald’s on Broad Street to pick up some breakfast. This is our first time going to McDonald’s in Newark and I didn’t really realize just how close it is. It was hardly like I had even left the apartment.

Dominica and Susan left for work and I settled down to do some work from home before heading into the office. Susan forgot to take in the cheesecake that she had bought for her office Thanksgiving Party today so I walked that down to her office for her. The weather is pretty nice today. Good for taking a walk.

Once again my morning ended up keeping me from being able to go into the office when I wanted to. It was late enough that I decided to just to lunch at Food for Life rather than skipping lunch or trying to do it at work.

It was just after noon when I got into the office. I really like having the day broken up like that though because time really seems to fly. I needed the time to fly since things were so slow in the office once I got there. Quite the slow day.

I got home just in time to find Susan and Dominica at the door of 1180 with Susan’s car being pulled up right behind me. So I got a chance to see Susan off as she returned to Baltimore. Dominica and I then headed right up to get ready to go to the gym. This is our fourth day in a row. We are really excited that we have managed to stick with the program. Dominica worked herself up to forty-five minutes today. I had to cut my session down a little as my right leg went numb and my foot was starting to hurt.

Our shipment from Amazon came today so we have new DVDs to watch and CDs to listen to. Our Disney Hayley Mills collection has expanded significantly.

Weight Lost: -2.0 lbs (negative numbers mean net gain not loss 🙁 )

Dominica and I slept in a bit this morning – the result of two days of working out in the gym. We decided to start off the day with a work out to get ourselves going. We took Oreo out to the park and walked for about twenty minutes. It is a beautiful fall day. Warm and dark. It will definitely rain later on.

After Oreo’s walk we headed to the gym. Again we were the only people there the entire time that we were working out. It is nice having a totally private health club like that. Today Dominica put in forty-five minutes on the eliptical and I put in fifty-six minutes. Yesterday I burned, according to the machine, 612 calories and today I was up to 662 even though it was about the same amount of time. So I am pushing a little bit harder today. I felt good though. I am looking forward to this routine. Tomorrow is tough because I have to go to work and the club isn’t open in the morning, only at night. So I, along with everyone else in the building, has to use it after we get home from work.

After our workout Dominica and I walked over to Subway for a healthy lunch of veggie patty subs. On our way down we ran into someone heading to the health club so at least someone else is using it. After lunch we also ran over to the Dollar Bazar (yes bazar, not bazaar – I am sure that it was accidental but if you want to know what it means look it up in the Urban Dictionary.) I think having a store called Dollar Bazar tops even McDonald’s supposedly accidental “I’d hit it” campaign. Anyway we picked up some towels to use at the gym and a set of really cheap wine glasses because we didn’t have anything in the apartment and it has been getting to be a problem.

Dominica headed back to the apartment while I decided to take the very long walk down to the nearest liquor store (kudos to Newark for aparently bordering on being a dry city.) The walk was a mile or more in each direction and it started to rain before I arrived at the liquor store. I was very wet by the time that I returned to 1180. But at least I managed to get another bit of exercise.

Dominica is working on her Java class today. She is a bit behind and needs to do some catching up. The end of the year gets very busy with travel and events and it will get tougher and tougher as we near the end of her class.

I found a great Google video of a Comcast technician who fell asleep while on hold with Comcast at a guy’s house. The guy took a video of him sleeping and posted it online. Comcast is famous for having the lowest service levels on the east coast of any broadband provider that I have ever heard of and the highest prices to match. Comcast is so bad (and I am not talking about the infamously poor customer service but just the details about themselves that they announce) that it would make it difficult for me to move into an area that uses them. Now that I have used Cablevision’s Optimum for a while it is hard to ever leave them because the ROCK!

I found a cool video of a guy making a portrait of Abraham Lincoln out of pennies. Short but well worth the thirty-eight seconds to view. You also have to check out Panda Bear Sneezing.

Dominica spent the evening working on her Java homework. Susan got into town around eight and I drove out to Harrison with her to look at an apartment that she was interested in because I have a better idea of the safety level of the neighbourhoods around Newark. Then it was back to 1180 and just about bed time.

Weight Lost: 1.0 lbs

The weekend is finally here. Dominica and I slept very well last night after our first day or working out in our new gym. Oreo slept well too sharing Dominica’s pillow. He thinks he is a small human.

Today is a hazy, raining day in Newark. Newark is neat because when there is hazy or rain or any type of atmospheric interference Manhattan simply fades away as it if was never there. And then, after a good rain on a bright day it is very clear and very close and hard to believe that it could ever have disappeared. It is a neat effect. One day you are all enclosed in a little bubble and the next you are in the middle of the enormous metro area.

I was up at eight this morning – one of the hazards of my line of work. I actually didn’t get off to bed until like one in the morning. I was busy playing Lunar Legend on my Nintendo DS Lite. It is an old Sega Genesis era game, I believe, that has had many lives and was eventually remade and repackaged for the Game Boy Advance and it is the GBA version that I am playing. It is a good game though with fun gameplay, entertaining storyline and nice graphics. I am having fun with it. I have put about four hours into it so far which all ready makes it a pretty decent bargain since I got it for only like ten dollars.

I was up for nearly four hours this morning before Dominica managed to pull herself out of bed and even then she only got up because the sunlight was streaming in on her face and she couldn’t take it anymore. While she was sleeping I managed to put together another episode of the SGL Podcast. W00t! That is the fifty-second episode so far.

We made it back to the gym today. Dominica worked out for half an hour and I put in just six minutes under a full hour. Not bad for our second day. That is two days in a row. A good sign if ever there was one. It is perfect that we managed to get started on a Friday night leading into a weekend when we are home all weekend so that we have plenty of time and opportunity to get into the work-out groove before Monday comes along. Monday will be tough getting the exercise to fit into our routine – especially with the club only being open for limited hours right away. One thing that is really awesome is that yesterday there were only three of us using the gym and today there was only Dominica and I and when she left I was alone the whole time that I was there. We remembered to take headphones with us today and we had a much better time and were able to enjoy the television. That is going to make exercising awesome.

We did some shopping tonight up at Target and Stop and Shop. Mostly we needed groceries and work out clothes. That killed several hours this evening. Then it was home for a light dinner and to watch Stargate which I haven’t seen in forever and forgot that it was actually a pretty good movie. I am glad that we watched it again. This is the Extended Edition but I am not sure what was added. But I probably haven’t seen the movie since it was in theatres.

Weight Lost Going To Gym: 0.0 lbs.