I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be stuck at work. I am being sarcastic, of course. I wish I was outside today. After the rain yesterday and the humidity of the past week, today was clear, dry and in the high 70’s. I drove to work with the windows open and hated every minute of it. It was so nice – I wished I was off or something. Incidentally, I’m not sure why, but I got a hankering for a quarter pounder today. I stopped at a McD and as I was ordering, I noticed that they now serve Mr. Pibb!! Of course, now it’s called Pibb Xtra. Xtra what? I have no idea. But it is my favorite soft drink. It’s hard to find anywhere and it’s a shame that they have it at McD’s – but they also have it at Chipotle too. I guess that makes sense since McD owns Chipotle.

It was a very slow night at work. Not one call, not one incident. We have a TV and we watched coverage of the Olympics all evening. I have to admit that I have very impressed with the coverage by NBC thus far. One can find almost any sport on one of six channels almost 24 hours a day. I would have to say that cycling, track & field, swimming and beach volleyball have been my favorites.

Hmm… flash back to Friday… grocery shopping, haircut, laundry, frozen pizza, chillin’. Pretty much sums up that day. Saturday morning I went to men’s group at church and really reached out to find some common ground with these guys. I’m not going to be able to go to men’s group anymore with my new schedule and wanted to try to create some new relationships. Anyway – it worked! Most of us traded numbers and will try to hook up in the future. In fact, I found out that one of the pastors, Derek, is an avid bicyclist. He invited me to join him for a ride that afternoon. And even though rain was in the forecast, I didn’t care and was excited to get on my bike for a ride. I loaded up the bike and all my gear and drove over to his house. We had some lunch and then headed out. He took me on some of the trails that start near his house and he showed me how all the trails in the area run together and are very well laid out. Indeed, they are… they even have signs and stripes painted on the trail. Most of the trails go under roads and rarely cross traffic! It’s like a highway for bikes. We took an easy ride, the trails were easy, the rain fell hard at times, but it was a blast. In all, we rode about 12 miles. My butt is sore and my shoulders ache a little bit. I’ll just need a few more rides to get my body used to the saddle again. I was very happy with how my bike handled, especially in the rain. And it cleaned up very easily.

Matt and Pili invited me to join them and some friends at a Spanish restaurant called Lauriol Plaza in DC later in the evening. The margaritas were excellent, and the platanos maduros were awesome, but the lomo saltado was just okay. I first had that dish at a Peruvian restaurant in LA and it was much better there. Here the flavor wasn’t as good and the meat tasted overcooked. At least the margaritas were yummy!

So this week I understand I'll be toodling around DC performing software upgrades at various sites. This will be a nice break from the norm - and I'll have to get to work early too so it will help me get on the right schedule. One day and a wake up until I go home!!!!