I don't ordinarily blog about work -- it could have negative repercussions.  But today, I'm making an exception.  A portion of the floor on which I work at the new job is under construction, and I am fortunate enough to have the construction less than 50 yards away from my office.  The gaping hole that will eventually become the hallway leading to a shiny new section of offices is currently blocked off by a plastic tarp and some duct tape, which means that not only can I hear pounding, drilling, sawing and hammering, but every single conversation the construction workers have.  Now, I've never seen these guys, but I imagine them to be fairly large, muscular or somewhat hearty guys, and many of them have fairly thick New York accents.  So the other day, they were talking about their workout routines.  "Yeah.  You should lose some weight"  "Well, I already dropped 45 pounds"  "Yeah, but you should lose some more."  "Well, I go to the gym.  My wife's got me going to a kickboxing class."  "That's good, but you should do yoga."  "Yoga?"  "Yeah -- I been doin' it for a year now.  Check out how flexible I am."  Pause. "Wow -- that's from yoga?"  "Yeah, yeah.  It's good stuff.  You need to be all flexible."  "Yeah."   The images in my head were hysterical.

A quick recap of the past few days -- dinner Saturday night with Chip at Una Pizza Napoletana (which always kicks ass) followed by drinks at Blue Ribbon Bakery to visit Jim at his place of business (I told him he could visit me at my place of business anytime, but it might not be as much fun).  We were met there by the Lovely Miss Katie, Elisa, and others, and we capped off the night at the Stoned Crow -- a great neighborhood dive.  Sunday I finally spent some quality time with Erika as we walked through Central Park, talked about life, the universe, and everything, then visited Michelle to see the new arrival.  Sunday night I was almost ready for bed when I received a text message from Augie asking me to join him at Otto for a toast in honor of his and Lauren's one year wedding anniversary.  How could I say no?  Monday I saw Matty Z in his debut poetry reading (which was great, by the way), and tonight I joined my Mom and Joe at TONY's Eat Out '05 (the photos are here -- not one of my better batches).  Off to bed before an early morning meeting.  Despite my best intentions to slow things down to 33 1/3, the gerbil wheel keeps on spinning at 45.