Weekend!!

Weekend, weekend, weekEND!!
God bless Fridays. There is just no better feeling than friday afternoon when you know you'll be done with work shortly and won't have to be back for 2.5 days.
And it's even better today since we have some guy's retirement party at 3pm. Don't know him, never really worked, with him, but we'll be damned if we don't show up to get some free food. Which is what we're doing. Hopefully we'll be able to just slide in and slide out unnoticed. I'd hate to have another incident like we had for Cinco de Mayo.

God's Music
I was reminded yesterday of a great out-the-cuff remark I made to myself last fall. It was right after buying Chimaira's latest CD (which is awesome). I pop it in for the drive back from Strawberry's. No more than 30 seconds into the first song I actually say outloud to myself "Whoa, this is what God would listen to if he was angry!". It was that good. And the rest of the album completely backs it up. Fantastic piece of metal work if you're into that kinda thing.

Protein Powder
So a couple weeks ago I decide that it's worth looking into taking protein suppliments or other such things. I no longer get to the gym as much as I'd like, and don't really go as hard as I used to. So I wanted to look into what I could do to get the most out of my workouts. And maybe find something for before hockey games to give me a little boost.
I left with just a new multivitamin and a tub of whey protein powder. While I haven't noticed any big gains in strength, I have noticed 1 big factor. If I have a quick protein drink right when I get home from the gym, I'm significantly less sore the next day. I can usually tell during a work-out if I'm going to be sore. For example...The last time I did any squats was likely last week on thursday (7/6). After having a couple days off early in the week due to soreness from my baseball/hockey double-header and looking for a new apt I got back to doing squats on wednesday. Hit it pretty hard, too. And followed it up with some leg extention. Normally I'd be pretty much regretting it by the next afternoon. But yesterday I was hardly even sore. A little bit, but not nearly what I used to get after a work-out like that.
I'm still waiting to see if I get any noticable gains in strenth or size. I don't really want any increase in size, as that can cut down on your flexibility and range of motion. Not something condusive to pitching and playing hockey. But you can't really avoid some gain if you're lifting weights.
As for a pick-me-up before hockey, I passed. There are some pretty scary products out there for legal performance enhancement. The whole NOX line you'll hear about if you watch enough UFC, various other stimulants and such. You know you're taking something dangerous if they tell you to use it for no more than 12 weeks in a row then stop using it for at least 4 weeks. Yikes! Not really something I'd like to try at this point in my life. Maybe if I was trying to get a college sports scholarship or a semi-pro athelete and it was my life to be at peak performance. But not for pick-up baseball and C-level hockey. It's kinda fun to browse over all the various things out there. But most are just too dangerous to consider using.

Baseball
Thank God the all-star break is over. It was killing me not having highlights and box score to pour over while at work. And fantasy stats to evaluate and roster moves to think about. It was really making work seem much longer. I had no daily distractions! And it was even worse when the Cubs were given an off-day yesterday. So I had 4 days away from my Cubs. But they are back at it and I'm currently sitting here at my desk watching the game on mlb.tv. So no one rat me out to my boss. It's friday afternoon and he hasn't given me anything interesting or challenging to work on in probably 3 years. I deserve the occational break to watch the Cubs and relax.

Okay, time to hit that retirement party and head home before Hayley gets here. Then we'll be off for some sushi for dinner. Now that I know the place just north of me is good, I can go out for sushi much more often. So I hope you all have a great weekend. Those in New England, get out there and enjoy this nice weather.
PEACE!