An acknowledgment of failure, or of not keeping my word: I did not make it to my goal weight of 175 lbs. by February 11. I'm still at 183.

Another acknowledgment: I'm not making it to the gym. I haven't gotten to the gym since vacation. I am going today, as soon as I leave Monkey Grind, where I'm doing my usual Saturday breakfast. But every day after work, I come up with one excuse or another not to go. If anyone reads this, please accept my invitation to call me and check on me and kick me in the butt (metaphorically speaking) and deride me for my laziness and gently remind me that I need to go to the gym.

My vacation in San Diego was perfect in almost every respect. I loved being with my friend Cathy for a week; we managed to stay out of each other's hair and still spend a lot of time together without pissing each other off. I got a lot of work done on my novel. I enjoyed a fun birthday with an amazing dinner at JRDN. I got to see my high school friend Alan for the first time in 4 1/2 years, as he was wonderful enough to drive down from L.A. in heavy weekend traffic with his boyfriend Tony. They only downside was getting sick at the end of the week. I didn't realize I was sick; I thought I just wasn't feeling great. When we had a nice dinner of Mexican food in La Jolla and I promptly lost the whole thing in the men's room, I should have suspected. Or when I nearly passed out in an art gallery. It wasn't until I got home the next night and discovered I had a 100.7° temperature that I thought, "Oh, no wonder I've been feeling so crappy!" Fortunately it was only at the very end of my vacation that this happened, and it didn't ruin any of the fun.

The best thing about my vacation was that, unlike almost every vacation I've ever taken, I didn't resent it for being too short, and I didn't need a vacation from my vacation. I was ready to go home and get back to work (once I felt better).

Work is going well. The ping pong tournament is officially underway, although I haven't played any games yet. I lucked out in the bracketing. Here's how it works: There are 40 in the tournament, divided into 10 groups of 4. Each player in each group plays a 3-game match against the other 2 players in that group. When that's over, the top 20 move into the "A" bracket and the bottom 20 move into the "B" bracket. Then each bracket has its own single-elimination tournament.

Of the 40 in the tournament this year, 22 played in last year's tournament, and 18 are new. All the newbies were randomly seeded at the bottom, and the top 22 were seeded based on stats from last year. Of those 22, 12 were in the "A" bracket and 10 were in the "B" bracket. I am 3rd seed from the "B" bracket last year (because I lost to the eventual winner of the bracket, and/or because others who were above me aren't playing this year), which should mean I am seeded 15th overall. But the person in charge of the tournament decided that the top 5 "B" people should be rewarded for their success by being seeded above the bottom 5 "A" people. As a result, I am seeded 10th, higher than several players who are clearly a lot better than I am. I think I have a really good shot at making it to the "A" bracket, which probably means I will lose my first game in the single-elimination round.

I went to a workshop on presentation skills offered by UW. It was two 4-hour sessions, the last two Friday afternoons. I can't say I got a lot of direct value from the workshop, but it did help me learn some things on my own by preparing and delivering my presentation for the class, and by delivering it in a practice session for some peers at POP. The most exciting part was getting immersed in my topic, a proposal for adopting lean principles at POP. I find myself becoming an evangelist. I really believe what I'm talking about makes sense, and when I talk about it, people immediately see the value. I really believe I can make a difference with this, and I can't wait to expand my audience.

I love loving my job!

OK, now off to the gym...