We had a consultant meet with some people from our team over the last couple of days, and he referred to me as the “court jester” and “the wise fool” after only knowing me for a couple of hours. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it’s really true. I have a tendency to do what Al Franken calls “kidding on the square“, sometimes without realizing it. It lets me be a lot more honest than I might normally be able to get away with. It’s interesting how quickly he nailed that trait in me. I also realized for the first time than I’m an extrovert. I’m a weird type, in that I don’t really do well in large groups, but I’m very comfortable in a smaller setting. Oh, the things you learn about yourself.

In other news, my new couch is here and my old couch is gone. I am very happy.

I haven’t been attending Bootcamp for the past few weeks (despite pressure from Tom to come back and play with him), but I still receive the e-mail updates. From an e-mail from Russ, I learned that last week, Chris Rummel (one of our bootcampers) had a severe motorcycle accident. Yesterday afternoon, he passed away. I did not know him long or know him well, but he always seems like a very happy, positive person. He will be missed.

I planned to write more, but I lack the words.

After sitting in silence at the train station for 20 minutes, the guy next to me speaks up.

Guy: “Do you know what time the next train comes?”
Me: (checks time) “Should just be another minute or two.”
Guy: “Thanks.” (pause) “How tall are you?”
Me: “Excuse me?”
Guy: “How tall are you?”
Me: “Six-three.”
Guy: (nods, pauses) “In shoes, or barefoot?”
Me: “Barefoot.”
Guy: (nods)

And then he didn’t speak to me again. So weird.

I get that Pernice Brothers song in my head every time I think about the Great Gorilla Run. It was a complete blast.

Kai picked Blake and me up at my mom’s house, and we took time for a photo shoot. I’m the one in the purple hat, Blake is in the green hat, and Kai is the naked one (he put on his thong later). One more so you can appreciate the full outfit:

When we met up with some of my Yahoo!’s Your Daddy folks, Joe noticed the Sponge Bob boxers I was wearing and asked “You have Sponge Bob boxers?” “No, I borrowed them from Blake.” (to Blake) “You have TWO pairs of Sponge Bob boxers?” We were looking sharp.

The race itself was fun, although it’s undetermined exactly how far anyone went. The course was poorly marked and some gorillas were wandering off the course, causing much confusion. It’s the first year in SF, so I cut them some slack. All in all, a good time was had by all.

More photos on my Flickr page

One person who was not there was the poster of this comment on the blog post Rusty wrote for Yahoo! Yodel. And boy, that anonymous person who replied sounds like quite a guy.

Since I had the afternoon off, I played some online poker tournaments (I’m back to microstakes [$1-$6 buy-ins, some with rebuys/add-ons] multi-table tournaments after a cold streak on the sit-n-gos). I cashed twice, once for $42.60 and just now for $227.50. Add that on top of my two $100+ cashes in the last couple of weeks, and it looks like I’m either running really hot or actually getting better. Considering I hit a one outer earlier, I’d guess the former…

Rusty (teammate from Yahoo!’s Your Daddy) wrote about our upcoming entry in the Great Gorilla Run on Yodel Anecdotal. We’re going to be so famous. I’ve got a Yahoo! Autos pimp hat ready for the occasion…

“My doorbell just rang itself. Twice.”

I stopped at Togo’s for my usual post-tutoring sandwich (because I am rarely up for cooking by the time I get home on Tuesdays), and I was chatting with my usual sandwich guy. He noted that I never get meat on my sandwich and asked if I was a vegetarian. This ended up starting a discussion about my eating habits and how much weight I’ve lost, and ended with me giving a recommended reading list (Eat to Live) and diet tips to the cashier. It’s still so weird to see the look people give me when I put a number to my weight loss, like I’ve just told them that I have done something to alter the state of the world.

In other news, we move to a new office on Friday, which means a day off for me. Helloooooo sleep. Speaking of sleep….

1. Run 7 mile relay leg while sweating profusely.
2. Continue to wear sweaty clothing in poorly ventilated van.
3. After removing sweaty clothes, place them in a non-breathable plastic bag.
4. Leave clothes in plastic bag for 2 weeks in back of closet.

Then when it comes laundry time: Gather. Wince. Repulse.

It’s Bike To Work Day in the bay area today, so I took my brand spankin’ new bike out for a spin. I rode to and from the office, so yay for me. I met up with another Yahoo! guy (there was supposed to be a larger group, but I guess it didn’t work out) at the train station, where the Bike To Work folks had a couple of booths of food, drink, and freebies. The best part of Bike To Work Day? Free Hobee’s coffeecake. Mmmm….. I had planned on not riding home, but on a whim, I decided to give it a go. I only missed one turn when retracing the route from the morning, but I knew it right away and had no trouble correcting my mistake. I forgot to put on my GPS unit for the ride to work, but here’s the data for the ride home.

And since Rachel asked, here’s a picture: