Work, The Basement, and Friends!

Work was pretty busy today. We are in the final stages of preparation before implementing our solution for the Smalls Sort area, a plan that will be carried out tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a 7:00-7:15 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. workday, approximatley13 hours (after taking out lunch and dinner). Good news is that I probably will be off on Friday. Yay.
I headed out to The Basement tonight by myself after a few failed invites, but I ended up meeting the Britt sisters and Gina out there, 3 very amazing people that are very fun to be around! The worship was good, as it always is, and afterwards we headed to the bowling alley some others. I did not bowl, but I did eat a massive chocolate sundae with an enormous amount of whipped cream and a cherry on top. I can't wait to go back to Tuscaloosa to see all of my friends.
I just received word tonight that a fellow crew member, boat member for 2 years, and good friend Anderson Renaud just got engaged to his long time girlfriend, Brittani Tingle. They are both excellent people, and I am very happy for them.
I have read the first 26 chapters in the book of Genesis on my quest to read the Bible before I graduate. I am 35 pages in...approximately 2.44 % complete. Already, I have seen the amazing power of God with his Creation, his ability to keep all promises that he makes, and also his wrath. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be...MIGHTY. How can you not fear?
On another note, I have finalized my choice for my first road bike purchase. I will be getting a 2007 Lemond Alpe D'Huez. It is named after the mountain range in France on which a very brutal stage of the Tour de France is usually held. From my best research, it is pronounced Alp-ey-du-ez. However, I am not completely sure about this. Cahaba Cycles did not have the 2007 in stock, but I was able to test ride the 2006 model. I took it up a fairly decent hill right beside the shop, and I really enjoyed the way it climbed. What's even better is that the 2007 is going to be an even lighter bike! I am going to OWN hills with this thing.

Contador Wins, I Lose.

Alberto Contador, a 24 year old phenom from Spain, wins the 2007 Tour de France. Although it was pretty much over after yesterday's time trial (the 20th and final stage that ends in Paris is more of a formality for the riders), every once in a while, a rider may try to get cheap and gain some of the time bonuses on the 20th stage to move up some places. Being the classy and gentleman-like riders that they are, the 2nd and 3rd placed riders behind Contador (Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer) said that they would not attack each other or Contador, even though Contador only lead Evans by 23 seconds and Leipheimer was only 8 seconds behind Evans. It is insane that the top 3 riders' final times over 3000+ miles were separated by a mere 31 seconds. Unbelievable. In a Tour that was plagued with doping scandals that saw stage winners and yellow jersey holders removed from the race, it actually turned out to be one of the most exciting ones yet:)
This afternoon, my Dad and I headed out to Bentbrook to play a round of golf, in what was sure to be another epic shootout. We both started out striking the ball well, but neither of us could score, and we finished the front 9 dead even at 47-47. Both of us played significantly better on the back 9. My tee shots were almost always in the fairway or very near rough, and I was striking my irons and chipping around the green very well. After a mammoth 250 yard 3 wood down the middle of the fairway on hole 11, I had an easy 120 yard pitching wedge into the green. However, not knowing my own strength (haha), I powered it over the green and was stuck on the other side of a creek with about 5 trees in front of me. I had about a 5 foot opening in front of me, and a 10 foot vertical distance until I would hit a tree branch. Taking my sand wedge (I was too lazy to go get a 3 or 4 iron), I placed the ball in the back of my stance and hit a little punch shot that flew right in between the trees and landed about 10 ft from the pin. It was awesome. On hole 14, a 140 yard par 3, I grabbed my 8 iron and with a very solid stroke I knocked it 6 feet from the pin. Booyah. I then masterfully sank the testing 1-ft-breaker 5 foot put for a BIRDIE! However, after a few mishaps here and there and some stellar shots by my Dad (including hitting the flag stick from 150 out), it all came down to hole 18, as it always does. After my Dad missed a 10 footer for the win, all I had to do was sink a 10 footer of my own for the tie. I hit the put solid...good line...and...it lips out the right corner, no! I absolutely knew that I had it read right, but I think I hit it just slightly too hard. Final score: Dad-90, Chad-91. I'm happy with the 91 and the birdie, but none of that matters. I want the W.
I lifted some weights and ran my hill a few times later on tonight, since I've gotten to where I have to at least do something everyday. I love the way I feel after I have a really hard workout. Being in shape is awesome. I would recomend it to anyone who wants to improve their quality of life.
I have read 6 pages in Genesis on my quest to read the entire Bible. Current scripture: Genesis 3:17. Even though the summer is over, I still have some meat left on it. I am still going to see Taking Back Sunday, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Saosin in Atlanta. I am buying a bike this weekend. I have 70 hours of work left, and about $1K more to make before the end of the summer. I am, however, ready to go back to Tuscaloosa.

I Love Saturday's

Part of my daily information gathering routine usually involves keeping up with a few of my friends that blog consistently. While catching up with Trevvor Clark, a friend and teammate (rowing) of mine, I have been motivated to complete a task which I have said I was going to do a few times before: reading through the entire Bible. My plan is to finish before graduation, 140 days from now, and at 1434 pages, that is an average of 10 pages a day. I have no doubt that this will be an extremely beneficial asset to my spiritual life, and I am going to take on this activity as I do all others: at 110%
I am about to go run a few trails back behind the Preserve. Depending on how my legs feel, I might run longer than the normal 3.1 mile trail loop that Jamie and I have completed so many times this summer.
I plan on watching the entire replay of the Tour de France's final time trial tonight, so if anyone tries to tell me who won, I am going to be extremely upset, haha! Although unlikely, I hope that the GC looks like the following after today:
1. Levi Leipheimer
2. Alberto Contador
3. Cadel Evans
American Team Discovery is pretty much dominating:) This is also partly due to Team Astana withdrawing because of the demoralizing doping acts of star rider Alexander Vinokourov.

Wonderful, so wonderful
Is Your unfailing love
Your cross has spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen, no ear has heard
No heart could fully know
How glorious, how beautiful you are!

Beautiful One, Tim Hughes

I Did Absolutely Nothing Today

Actually, I did, but comparatively speaking, I did not. I worked from 7:45 a.m. until 11:35 a.m. because we stayed late yesterday. When I got home, I deposited my paycheck, got my head shaved, and then cycled 15 miles. Besides these 4 things, I did absolutely nothing all day. I'm pretty bored right now as I type this...
I really would like for American Levi Leipheimer to win the Tour de France, but I do not think that it is going to happen. Alberto Contador, Levi's teammate, is in the lead, but Predictor's Cadel Evans is less than 2 minutes behind. I have a gut feeling that Evans might take the lead in tomorrow's individual time trial and secure the yellow jersey.
I plan on sleeping in late tomorrow. I have absolutely nothing planned for the day except to watch the Tour de France time trial in the late evening. I will probably go on a ride or run, whichever I fancy at that particular moment.
Only 2 weeks left of work:)

Boring Week at Work

This week has been incredibly boring at work, as we are in between projects. However, we got treated to O'Charleys today, wohoo! So far this week, I have worked out twice, biked 31 miles, ran a mile, done 200 push-ups and 500 sit-ups, and jumped some rope. This afternoon, I'm heading out to ride at Oak Mountain with the Birmingham Bike Club for their weekly Watermelon Ride, in which everyone is treated to watermelon afterwards (hence the name). I'm pretty tired right now, and I can't wait to do absolutely nothing this weekend, as well as play a round of golf with my Dad.

Weekend

For whatever reason, whenever I am about to leave work, I always get assigned a last-minute task that causes me to stay past my regular departure time. Friday was no exception, but that wasn't a surprise because we were pretty busy with Harry Potter stuff. When I got home, I went on 3.5 mile or so trail run in the blazing heat, stopped by Birchtree to cool off, skipped lifting weights, loaded my car, and headed down to Tuscaloosa to move into my new apartment.
I moved all of the stuff that I had packed up last weekend to my new place at River Run over in Northport by City Cafe. Of course, it was raining the whole time, but I managed all right. After moving some stuff, I hung out with Jordan and some people for awhile, before heading to see Marley for the last time for who knows how long, sad!
Keith headed down on Saturday morning with a truck, and the rest of the day proceeded as follows:
-load all of Keith's furniture into truck
-take truck to my old apartment
-load all of my stuff
-drive to my new apartment
-unload all of my stuff
-drive to Jamie's apartment
-load Jamie's and Eric's furniture (in that order)
-drive to Eric's new apartment
-unload all of Eric's furniture
Of course I am making this sound like more than it actually was, but it was a good solid 3 hour job. I was reminded of memorable moves from last summer, when I worked for Gentle Giant Moving Company up in Boston, MA. After moving all of the furniture, I headed back to my old place to put the rest of my random crap in my car and to help Matt, Jimmy, and his Mom clean our apartment, as our lease will run out on Tuesday. After cleaning, I dropped off some stuff at my new place, and then Jamie and I watched Stage 13 of the Tour de France, which was a time trial. Alexander Vinokourov from team Astana completely dominated everyone, but Michael Rasmussen was still able to hold on to the yellow jersey, despite historically sucking at time trial stages.
Today was pretty uneventful. Jamie, Phil, Matt Martin, and I biked the Purple Onion loop this evening, averaging right at 16.0 mph for the 15 mile ride. I set a new personal max speed record will riding down Hackberry, hitting 45.6 mph. It was freakin' scary. I'm going to bed.

I Hate Harry Potter

In what is probably an excellent business deal, UPS landed the new Harry Potter book deliveries (awhile ago), and they are going out tomorrow. I hate Harry Potter...both the story and the fact that all I have been doing for the last 2 days is try to idiot-proof the delivery plans to all bookstores and households in Alabama. Blah.
I rode 17.7 miles after work, trying to hit as many hills as possible. My quads are shocked. I'm going to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for the weekend to move into my new apartment. Also, I will be seeing my good friend Marley McKenzie for the last time before she moves way far away to Pennsylvania to attend Mercyhurst. I wish I could have a whole week of weekends.

And all I (all I)
Need to know (need to know)
Is that I'm something you'll be missing
(is that I'm something that you're missing)
(maybe I should hate for this)
Maybe I should hate you for this
Never really did ever quite get that far
(maybe I should hate for this)
Maybe I should hate you for this
Never really did ever quite get that...
-Taking Back Sunday

O.A.R.

A bunch of us went and saw O.A.R. play tonight at Sloss Furnace, and it was aweeeeesome! The finished with Black Rock and of course, Crazy Game of Poker. INSANE!!!

Work was boring yesterday, and today we started working on the plans for the new Harry Potter book deliveries...it's kind of a big deal. I ran 5.5 miles yesterday, did nothing today, and tomorrow I plan on biking the Purple Onion Loop. Peace.

Hilly Ride

Work was boring today, so I will not comment about. Also, if your name is Heather Wiginton, then I am mad at you:)
Jamie, Phil, and I went on a [check the title of this entry] bike ride this evening. We rode to Hoover High, up Brock's Gap (massive hill), and then all the way up Shades Crest Road (long hill) before flying down Patton Chapel and coming home through the Preserve. We averaged slightly over 15.1 mph for the ride, which was surprising considering that more than half the ride was up some kind of hill.
I am about halfway through reading Running with the Buffaloes...and thus far, I am pretty impressed. The workouts that the University of Colorado's Cross Country Team does are insane. The top runners are averaging anywhere from 80 to 110 miles a week, and most of it is at a pace of 6:15 or under. I might could run a 5K at that pace, but nothing more. However, that might be different if I ran more than like 10-15 miles a week. I think that during the Fall, I am going to attempt 40 miles a week for as long as a can...and we will see what happens.
I'm pretty tired, I think I'm going to read some and go to bed. Cheers.

The Weekend

The main objective this weekend was to pack up my apartment since I am moving to my new one next weekend, with a side objective of seeing some friends! I'd say the 2 objectives were sufficiently met.
Earlier this evening, Jamie, Matt Martin, and I went on a 15 mile bike ride on what we have officially named the Purple Onion Loop, since the route passes by the restaurant at the 9 mile mark or so. Matt has been running like 90 miles a week this summer, so being in such good shape, he was definitely pushing Jamie and I. We finished the course in exactly an hour.
I'm pretty tired...hopefully work will be easy tomorrow.

More Domination at Work

I finalized the designs for the Smalls Sort at UPS today, with complete domination! We meet with Jon Rich, the Package Planning Manager, tomorrow at 3 p.m. I was actually planning on going in at 7 a.m. so I could be off for the weekend by 2:20 p.m., but I guess a manager's decision trumps my plans. Oh well.
Jamie and I had a pretty good workout today. Our Friday lifts are our "bulk days," in which we focus on higher weight and lower reps. I also knocked out some more push-ups later this evening.
Tonight, I started a new book, Running With the Buffaloes by Chris Lear, an account of the 1998 season of the University of Colorado Men's Cross Country Team. I knocked out the first 50 pages of it, and it is extremely interesting. Hopefully, I'll have it finished in a week or so.
I'm ready for the weekend.

Domination at Work

I made significant progress today at work in my attempt to re-design the Smalls Sort at UPS. I have all but finalized the design, and after an initial "looks good" from the Package Planning Manager, I will meet with him tomorrow or Friday for a more in depth review. I'm kind of glad to be done with the MPG Initiative project...it was very interesting and all, but very long, and after 5 to 6 weeks on it I was ready to move on.
Phil, Jamie, Jamie's Dad, and I went on a close-to-15 mile bike ride this evening. We started out climbing up Patton Chapel Road before snaking through Bluff Park and on down to the end of Shades Crest Road, where we turned right and headed towards Highway 31 before coming home through Star Lake and back down Patton Chapel. After stretching and resting, I knocked out 90 push-ups. 20 of them were one-armed (left arm), 20 were one-armed (right arm), 20 were 5 second negatives, 10 were declined, and 20 were normal.
We have biked twice this week, and my legs are pretty shot. I think I may take tomorrow off from doing any kind of physical activity.

He is Mighty Enough to Save

Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

My Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
Forever
Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything i believe in
Now i surrender

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus

Christ is not only “mighty to save” those who repent, but he is able to make men repent. He will carry those to heaven who believe; but he is, moreover, mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness love it, and to constrain the despiser of his name to bend the knee before him.
-Charles Spurgeon

Another Monday

Today was pretty boring:
-I finally got in touch with Mike Boone, the Tuscaloosa manager, after about a week of trying to contact him...it was about the only worthwhile thing that got accomplished today
-The weather changed about 15 times today
-It took Jamie and I 3 tries to find a tennis court that wasn't in use
-I'm tired from yesterday's bike ride and today's push-ups/sit-ups
-I'm trying to finish up a scholarship application

Keith arrived home today, so it was good to see him. Hopefully tomorrow will be less boring at work, or else, I'm going to be in horrible shape.

Some humor:
Man robs bank disguised as tree, haha!

A Good Weekend

At the time of my last post, I was basically walking out the door to meet my good friend Ben Sholes to ride up to Huntsville, AL. I suppose this post will be semi-not-short, as it will cover the whole weekend.
I would be staying with Ben for the weekend, while also attending the wedding of Mr. Matt Beaver. We left my car in the Cost Co. parking lot by the Galleria, and headed off in Ben's semi-new sweet BMW. The ride went by pretty quick...Ben and I had a nice lengthly conversation on my job for the summer, his job (of around half a year) at PWC, as well as various business topics such as CPI, management, and what kind of work I want to do, among other things. After arriving in Huntsville, we talked with his parents for a bit and then hit the sheets around midnight or so.
On Saturday morning, we all awakened around 10 a.m., and the Sholes family treated at a restaurant called Red Robin, which is similar to Johnny Rockets (for those residing in the Birmingham area). After a filling lunch, we all went back to the Sholes's residence and hung out until around 3 p.m. or so. At this time, we proceeded to get ready for the wedding, as we were scheduled to start making our way there at around 4:15 p.m. We rolled out at around 4:30 p.m., and arrived at the wedding location at around 4:55 p.m. It was at some sweet little place (I don't know what to call it), and the weather actually turned out pretty nice, even though it had rained a good bit the day before. I had been getting pretty excited about the wedding, because I knew that a lot of familiar faces would be there:)
To name a few, Mr. Kyle Carlton (and his wife of course) were in attendance. I had the pleasure of rowing in a spectacular 4+ with Kyle the Spring season of my sophomore year. We medaled at Aiken Co. and John Hunter Regattas that semester, as well as becoming the first men's boat form the U of A to race at the Dad Vail Regatta up in Philadelphia, PA, as well as making it into the semi-finals at this prestigious race. Other good faces to see include (but are not limited to) Lucian Hornbuckle (and his wife), Jason and Allison, Chris Thomas and Stamps, Larry "D", and a slew of ladies including Rachel K., Marley, Bryn, McKee, Vic, Rachel J., Cristin, Leigh Ann, Ali, Cara...and I'm sure that I'm leaving someone out! Point is, I really enjoyed seeing all these people and catching up with them!
The ceremony itself was short and sweet, lasting only about 15 minutes, but we stayed around the reception and caught up with old friends for another 3 hours or so. From there it was back to the Sholes's house...we were all pretty worn out. Breakfast this morning was at Cracker Barrel (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Sholes!), and I met up with Marley and Bryn to ride back home around 9:30 a.m.
I will say that I'm pretty impressed with the 2007 4Runners (Marley's new car), as it provided an excellent, comfortable ride back home. I was chillin' in the back seat, windows down, sunroof down, sun shinin', and wind in my face, and it gave me a nice chance to relax, clear my mind, and worship God in my only little way, since I would be missing the usual Sunday morning service. We made it back quickly, and Marley dropped Bryn and I off at my car before darting back to Tuscaloosa for some commitment. Bryn's flight back to FL did not leave until 6:05 p.m., so being the excellent friend I am:), I sought out to entertain for the afternoon before dropping her off at the B'ham airport. After a stellar lunch and some cheesy end to a Steven Segal movie, we became engrossed in the movie K-PAX, which was playing on the Sci-Fi channel. It finished up just in time to run her to the airport, so I quickly did that and headed back to get a workout and bike in.
Jamie and I lifted our weights as usual, and at around 6:30 p.m., Phil met up with us for a bike ride. We ended up riding about 18 miles, traveling up Patton Chapel, through Bluff Park, down to Alford Avenue, and back around, finishing with a nice spring down Patton Chapel and then up into the Preserve. I will note, however, that we encountered some murderous climbs, and the usually not-to-bad 18-miler seemed rather tiring. Our competitive fires got going when finishing up the last leg down Patton Chapel: Phil was already a little ahead, as he was first in line, and we had to slow down for a stop sign. After passing the stop sign, Jamie started to hawk down Phil, and I positioned myself right off his back wheel and took off with him. We caught him after 30 seconds or so, and then, right before the crest of the next hill, Jamie's chain popped off. I quickly flew by him and rode even with Phil until the bend by Simmons before falling back in line. Max speed on the hill: 40.8 mph, yea! We quickly headed home since darkness was approaching rapidly.
That was my weekend, and hopefully this week will be cool. I don't plan on doing anything on Friday, since it is Friday the 13th, ahhhhhhhh! I do plan on attending The Basement on Tuesday though, as well as completing my regular weekly workouts, and hopefully I'll get in a round of golf.

She's Everywhere!

It has been brought to my attention that I have left an unusual circumstance of my life out of my blog recently. For the past few weeks, I have been randomly running into my dear friend Heather Joy Wiginton.....everywhere! First it was pumping gas at Exxon, then it was in passing on Sulphur Springs Road and Highway 150, among other places, and finally last night it was outside of the Publix Shopping Center on 150 down towards 459. In the latter of these instances, I was practically run over by her (haha, kidding)! Anyways, I thought I would acknowledge these aforementioned series of chance events, because they brighten my day!

End of the 4th + the 5th

I really didn't do much on our Nation's birthday, except eat a lot (a traditional happening in my family) and play a lot of tennis (a traditional happening for the summer).

Work today was good........we reorganized the whole Smalls Sort area, which may sound rather elementary, but I guarantee you that productivity will go up by at least 5% in that area.......and that is what IE is all about. This reminds me of a comment I recently heard in response to the University of Alabama closing down the IE department. Some uninformed student proceeded to say that IE's work in manufacturing alone, and their skill set is overlapped by other engineering disciplines. Hmmmmm, that couldn't be farther from the truth. If it was true, would I really be working for UPS? (obviously, a not a manufacturing company) I would ask this gentleman to look at the manufacturing and service industries as a whole, and then get back to me.

My Dad has started up a Bible Study at our house on Thursday nights, and tonight was the first session. It went pretty well I would say, even though there were only about 4 of us, haha. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

I ran 2 miles today, finishing with a nice sprint up our hill (which rises 112 feet in elevation). This was followed by 5 x 25 push-ups and 5 x 60 sit-ups. The push-ups are getting easier as the summer progresses, which is good. I actually knocked out a few one-handed, to my surprise, as I was just trying out of pure boredom.

Tomorrow, after work and workouts, I will head to Huntsville, AL to see a good friend and ex-boat member Matt Beaver get married. He is marrying Stephanie Rainey, a former crew member who I also know. Beaver and I held down the bow pair in our 4 man shell along with Jason Cottingham and Drew Hall back in the Fall of 2005. I have to say, that was probably the fastest and smoothest boat I have ever been in, and we received medals at the Chattanooga Head Race as well as the Head of the Hooch (the 2nd largest collegiate regatta in the nation). Also, we raced at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta, placing 9th out of around 40 shells, finishing in the top 5% to earn a guaranteed entry for the next year. What a great semester. They are getting married on Saturday (7/7/07), so it should be fun. Also, I get to see a bunch of good friends from the years such as Ben Sholes (my cox'n all but one semester), Jason Cottingham (my stroke for 2 years and boat member for 3), his girlfriend (coach for a year and teammate for 2 years), as well as my favorites Rach, Bryn, and Marley, wohooooo!

I am about to dive into Sowell's Basic Economics, as I just finished Friedman's The World is Flat last night. Maybe I'll tell you what I got out of the description of the flat world next time, as this post is already too long.

The third, and Happy 4th!

I was entirely too tired to post yesterday......so here goes. We started our new project at work, with the objective of re-designing their Smalls Sort area. Also, we completed a few load quality audits while the pre-loaders were loading the trucks. As one of my colleagues (Robyn Smaha, a very young, genius of a woman with an MBA) was showing me how to complete an audit, she found 2 mis-loads on the very first truck! A mis-load is simply a package that has been put on the wrong truck, which is a very big deal. The Manager of that particular line then proceeded to destroy the pre-loader.......I felt kind of bad for him! I completed the rest of the audits, and lucky for them, no more mis-loads were found.

After work Jamie and I completed our second out of three upper-body workouts for the week, and this particular workout utilized the "high-rep-low-weight" method. After lifting, we headed straight to Chace Lake to play some doubles tennis with Moose and Matt Sterley. After last weeks pitiful performance, Sterley and I were determined to dominate, like we knew that we could. We came out blazing, taking the first set 6-0. We fell into a little rut in the second set, however, and were down 4 games to 1 right off the bat. After a quick regrouping though, we proceeded to win the next 5 games to take the second set 6-4. After this amazing comeback, it was pretty much over. My first serve was pretty much unstoppable the last game, and throughout the whole match, I think my serve was only broke one time. I think we won the third set 6-1 or 6-2, but to one watching, it probably looked like 6-0. Just like last week, my net play was rather sub-par, but my forehand was pretty strong, and I would estimate that I probably hit 70% of my first-serves, and that number probably jumped to 85% in the third set.

After our 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 win, we switched it up for a Jamie/Chad vs. Moose/Sterley 1 set match-up. We fell down to a 1-4 deficit, but then started to post a miraculous comeback. Jame's net play combined with my back court play helped us get it as close as 4-5, but they eventually closed out the last game for the win. I am confident, however, that next time we can squeak out a "W."

I just ate my 4th of July lunch, and the menu was as follows:
-Pork tenderloin
-Baked potato
-Baked beans
-Cheese bread
-Watermelon
-Chocolate chip pound cake

Needless to say, I am stuffed right now. Who knows what the rest of the day will bring....maybe I'll get into trouble with some fireworks.

My legs hurt

I started off the day strong, waking at 8:30 a.m. to go lifts some weights at the Hoover REC Center. Today was a leg day, so the workout consisted of squats, calf raises, leg extensions, and leg curls. I reached the 300 lb milestone on squats today, finishing my 5th set with 2 reps of 305 lbs. My goal for the summer, as I previously stated, is to be able to max 400 lbs, which means I will probably be finishing my last set with about 340 to 350 lbs. At the rate I am going, I will be there in approximately 4 weeks.

I rolled into work at noon, since I was supposed to work the Local Sort today. For the first 4 hours or so, I made some final adjustments to our project and tried to contact the Manager over in Tuscaloosa, but he did not answer. When the trucks started coming in, we went out to do some check-in audits. These are very necessary in order to find out what UPS is doing wrong and how they can make it better, and it serves as a complimentary back-end to the Planning methodologies. Anyways, we are starting a new project tomorrow that focuses on the "smalls sort." Every package that is a "small" (pretty much, this means that you can hold it in one hand) is bagged in a special container. This method helps decrease damage claims and provides a means for shipping simplification by allowing UPS to group all boxes that are going to one particular place in one container. Our project is pretty vague right now, but it has something to do with improving this operation.

After work, Jamie and I went on a 5.5 mile run down through Lake Crest, around the lake, and back. We made the run in 43 min and 11 sec, which averages out to around 7:51 a mile. It was probably one of the most painful, easy runs I have ever been on. After the first mile, my legs felt like complete jello due to my leg workout this morning. The whole rest of the run was a drag, but I guess some days are like that. It was pouring rain when we started out, but my the end of the run it was pretty humid, and I could see the steam coming off the concrete as we progressed through the run. Also, if you were wandering how I knew the exact distance of our run even though it was party on trails, there is this SWEET website where you can draw your own routes on a map powered by Google, and it automatically tracks the distance as well as any elevation changes. Check it out here.

I ran across three outrageous articles today at work:
Crazy!
Crazier!
Craziest!

Also, I heard a pretty funny quote at work from one of the Managers:
(pointing to a guy who was putting packages in a container)....

"This guy scans like 3000 packages a night. He's unstoppable. He must be on cocaine, speed, or crack."

Cool ban + Stuff

England definitely knows what is up.....CHECK THIS OUT.

Today's accomplishments:

-Sunday School and an entirely too long Church Service
-a nice meal of pot roast, potatoes, and carrots
-a solid upper body workout with Phil and Jamie
-survival of a few lightning strikes and a power outage
-an interesting conversation with Ms. Micheletti concerning diets, haha, among other things
-50 pages of reading in The World is Flat (only 66 pages to go)
-taught my Mom how to use Microsoft Excel
-jammed out to some Taking Back Sunday
-completed my daily news gathering routine
-[currently] finishing up a scholarship application

What is up with all of this violence directed towards the UK?