Too cold for fitness?

Is "it is too cold outside" actually a good excuse for not going to the gym? I am currently in a good old fashioned internal debate about this, and I can't figure out if it is worthy or not.

Plans for tonight: Clean up, do some work from home, go to the gym, watch newest favorite trashy reality TV show, "Bad Girls Club", play some WOW and go to bed.

What has really happened: zero work, eating chocolates that work handed out, watching Comedy Central (oh, Stephen Colbert - you are KILLING me!!!) and of course, convincing myself that it is too DAMN COLD to leave for the gym.

I should be ashamed of myself.

Feliz Navi-paws

I haven't heard as much about the "War on Christmas" this year as I did last year, perhaps I am just not watching enough Fox News...at any rate if us crazy liberals were indeed waging a "War on Christmas", then I think that Vincent has been selected to lead the battle. The cat has done nothing but try to ruin Christmas in my apartment. No ornament is safe, no present is safe, and I have even caught him pulling lights off the tree. For someone who gets anxious at the site of a crumpled up post it note on the ground, his disregard for my Christmas decorations is more than I can take. I knew it was risky, but I thought that maybe I would think it was cute if he took ornaments off the tree and batted them around. It's not cute. It's not even a little funny. It may even make me more crazy than the thought of trying to find a parking space at a crowded mall.

Paulie, the Worthless Brother-in-Law

Okay - with the upcoming release of Rocky Balboa on next week, I decided I could not delay seeing Rocky V much longer. Saturday night, I gave it a whirl. I was expecting the very worst Rocky movie that you could imagine. Perhaps because my expectations were so very low it did not seem that bad at all. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the 5th installation was not only good, but better than the 3rd and the 4th by a long shot. It was still nowhere near the quality we say in the 1st, or came close to in the 2nd....but I really did enjoy it. There were no flashback scenes of Rocky and Apollo running on the beach and overall, it just didn't seem anywhere near as corney or as painful to watch. The loveable meathead that is Rocky was back to his sweet, naive self rather than just that moron that you can laugh at. How dare that worthless Tommy Gunn snub Rocky like he did, can you even believe it?! After all he did for him!! I am now fully excited for the new one to come out!

There are a few concerns I have about where this story line could have ended up since 5...

1. I had read there is no Adrian, so how can we watch a Rocky movie without someone yelling at him and telling him he can't suceed? How is that going to be any good?
2. Is it possible that a screenwriter could top the Mr. T antics we sat through in the 3rd. "My prediction...pain!" You don't know whether to laugh or to cry.
3. What on earth will Paulie be up to? Is it possible that he could ruin their lives any more than he already has? Maybe if Adrian is gone, he will be gone too? Also, do you think he has checked himself into AA yet?
4. Where is that singing group we saw in the first few movies, and then in 5 you could hear them but I don't think that we saw them. What happened to them?
5. Could any of the fighting be as exciting as a Knicks - Nuggets game?

How about those Jazz?

Okay, okay – I have been getting a fair amount of flack due to my lack of writing. I have no good excuse to offer. (Emphasis on good!) For those that know me well, you can probably identify a single source, but that is not really important right now.

At any rate, one of the exciting things going on in my life right now is that Matt and I got season tickets to the Jazz. We went in fully expecting them to not do well, so you can imagine our glee at how well they are doing! We have made a sport out of collecting free mints at the doors – current record is 12 – but we fully anticipate by the end of the season that 12 will look like kids stuff.

So, this leads me to my favorite jazz outing ever – and I cannot explain to you why it has left such a mark… Last year my brother and I attended the Bulls game and we were in the very top row. With 1.6 seconds left, Okur made a game winning 3 pointers, the bulls immediately took a time out and the crowd went nuts. I’ve seen a fair amount of frenzies in my day, but this one sticks out in particular. You would think the emotion would not be running so deep on the second to top row, but the guy in front of us displayed crazed sports fan like you could only expect to see court side. He turned around, and made the “give me a high five” gesture my brother, who very smartly ignored him. Then, I made the mistake of getting caught looking at the whole mess, so he turned to me. Against all better judgment, I let the moment also carry me away, and went right in for the high five. My brother then followed suit. After that, the crazed fan turned to the Bulls bench and gave them the throat slitting sign. Which by the way, I am sure was very devastating for them from the second to top row!

Seriously, I high fived a COMPLETE STRANGER! I don’t generally like giving anyone the high five, not one for physical contact – but a complete stranger?! What happened in my life to make such an exchange acceptable?!

This year, in addition to gather so many free mints that Mrs. Cavanuagh’s has to higher more employees, I should make it a goal to high five a stranger every game. It seemed to make that game stick out in my memory!