So, I’m at the office and our server’s just crashed. What’s more irritating about not being able to get to my files is the incessant

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP

coming from the server room. We turned off the server - as in, unplugged the power - and the thing is still making that noise. The IT department is baffled, and we are slowly going crazy. As a coworker just mumbled, “That noise is making me want to jam an ice pick into my head any minute.”

It’s the audio version of Chinese water torture.

So, in order to avoid descending into madness from the beeeeeeeping, a blog update:

• Soupy air: Ran 4 miles with the Reds on Saturday morning. As usual, I barely made it on time. The run started at 6:45am - the exact time I was scrambling out of the car. Luckily, I found some Reds and joined the herd. The run itself wasn’t too bad, but the humidity was so thick it was like swimming through the air instead of jogging. Yuck. Though, I did discover that running consistently during the week is making a huge difference in my endurance and energy level, making the Saturday morning runs feel pretty easy. I had been worried that running only 35-40 minutes a day wouldn’t be enough to prepare me for the increasing mileage each week, but I’m surprised at how easy the runs are getting.
• Cloned Scottish Men: On Friday night, a group of us went to see The Island at the Angelika. It was essentially a cross between the Matrix, Gattaca and Total Recall. And very cheesy. Not funny cheesy, but *groan* cheesy. Before the movie, we had drinks at the Sake Bar (mmmm….cold, unfiltered sake), then Muffinboy took us over to Mingalone for the food of his people and some yummy wine. Needless to say, I woke up on Saturday morning with a slight hangover and I’m surprised I even made it to the run.
• Chocolate Johnnies and Carbo Loading: Saturday afternoon turned into a chocolate marathon. I met TBus at The Chocolate Bar for some homemade chocolate ice cream (I got a mix of chocolate orange and chocolate peppermint) and chocolate coffee. I haven’t had ice cream in forever (thank you, lactose intolerance), but damn it was good. Afterwards we headed over to the movie theater, armed ourselves with nachos, a huge tub of popcorn, two diet cokes (because the ‘diet’ part makes it all healthy) and settled down to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. TBus said we were carbo loading. The actor that played Charlie was cute, Johnny Depp was entertaining as always (though not at all like Michael Jackson, as all the critics are claiming) and the Oompa Loompas were funny. One of the trailers was the next Harry Potter movie - YAY!!
• Bonking: After a few weeks of almost incessant rain, Sunday turned out to be warm and sunny so I went to Memorial Park for some tennis. Well, the lesson I learned was that I really, really, really need to acclimate myself to exercising in the Houston summer heat and humidity. About 30 minutes into tennis, I completely bonked. It wasn’t pretty. My heart rate monitor read 226 - I’ve never seen it go above 200. Afterwards, I went home and passed out.
• Comfort Food: Exhausted and hungry from the tennis incident, I trekked over to my parent’s ‘hood in Koreatown for some groceries. Picked up some baechu kimchi, fresh and pickled gaenip, tofu (gonna make soontoobu jigae) and two huge, white flesh peaches. Afterwards, I dropped by my parent’s house for my monthly “Hello, Parents” visit. My mom was at work, and my dad was passed out on the couch…..but my mom had made some kong gooksu from scratch. My mom rocks. YUM.

Update on the BEEEPING:

My coworker has left after annoucing, “I can’t stand that noise anymore. I’m outta here.”

I’m leaving too. Whee.