So I was at a Christmas party tonight. Of course there were games, and you can't have a party game without some trivia. So one of the questions was along the lines of, "Before turkey, what was the first type of poultry that was served during the holidays?"
I didn't know the actual answer, so I blurted out, "The African Swallow!"
Expecting at least a couple of laughs, I was appalled that of the 20+ people that were there, nobody had a clue (except my wife of course) what I was talking about and looked at me like I was a crazy person. Well, I am a crazy person, no doubt, but boy did I ever feel like I was with the wrong crowd.
And for those keeping score, apparently it was geese/goose.
Reminds me of the time a bunch of fellow residents where I lived prior were having a conversation around holiday time of year about their fave drinks. Being as it had been a long time since I was even a beer drinker, and never was into hard booze much, I just sarcastically blurted out, "How bout that sweet potato vodka! They all laughed, but when I got home just for shits and giggles I checked the net to see if there was such a thing. Turns out they make such a drink in South Korea, and it is known as one of the most widely sold liquors in the world!
BTW, on the subject you brought up of Orbea eMTBs earlier, check this out. It was done just 2 and a half weeks ago, so appropriate for holiday cheer. It's a group of 4 Canadian mt bikers who are riding some absolutely insane dense forest downhill trails that are very steep and technical, and some quite slippery. The guy filming is on an Orbea Wild.
Note the 3 guys other than the one filming aren't wearing gloves, and the guy filming and the heavy guy with the ZZ Top looking beard aren't wearing full face helmets. No pads on knees, elbows, etc, I can see either. I can't tell you how many trips I'd have to take to the hospital were I to try such things, IF I could even live through it!
You know they're all native Canadians by their hockey sounding names.
This is Mt Seymour just north of Vancouver BC
I finally started going to the LA Fitness that's very close to where I live now. Yesterday one of the guys and a new gal he was training were putting me through their "evaluation", which is in reality more of a "We'll embarrass you in front of all the members, convince you your body badly needs more muscle mass", followed by a "we'll coach you for $65 a session, but it's cheaper per session the more sessions you do", spiel.
I mean, I knew it was coming, after all, pretty much every big chain gym does that routine, and the staff they use aren't even licensed trainers. I just humbly went along with it and said, "you know, I'd love to have a personal trainer, but I just can't afford one". I kind of figured they knew that since my membership is free with my health insurance.
Today I went back in and did a fair bit of stretching on their Precor multi stretch machine, then some ball pushups, then a more rigorous interval workout on the same Matrix recumbent bike than what they evaluated me with yesterday. I put in just over 30 min on it doing 30 sec intervals at max resistance, keeping my heart rate around 105 during the intervals. The distance was just over 5 miles. The main appeal of this machine is it reads your heart rate when you grasp the handles at either side of the seat. It also has a very smooth spin for something that doesn't use a large heavy wheel like a spin bike. The only issue I have with it is it always temporarily loses track of your heart rate when you adjust resistance, no matter how fast you dial in the setting. Then you have to squeeze the handles hard to get it to read again, which can make your hands a bit sore after a half hr. I just think of it in terms of getting in some grip strength workout simultaneously.
Next time I go in I plan to get in some lunges with half twist for quad and core strengthening, some dumbbell pushup rows, and some side planks. I was sore enough after today's workout to warrant using the jacuzzi afterward. Before going in to the jacuzzi I made an embarrassing mistake though. The locker doors if you open them at all swing a little past 90 degrees open, meaning they get in the way of a locker being used to the side of the direction the door swings. So I closed the door, but after wrestling my sweaty gym socks off, I'd forgotten I closed it, and thought the guy using the locker next to mine had his door closed. This caused me to casually toss my socks into his open locker, thinking it was mine. I immediately apologized (twice), but it was so funny I couldn't help but laugh a bit. I don't think he thought it was funny at all though.
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