Yesterday, I worked my new hours and went to get some sushi with Tiago. The sushi dinner is really good there. They offer up eel, which is served warm. Them's good eats if you haven't tried it. Wouldn't sound too appetizing if you haven't yet jumped into the world of sushi, but I'll tell ya (as a former sushi-dodger) if you go somewhere that sushi-eaters trust, you have nothing to worry about.

After dinner, I took the car through the brushless, spongeless, wipe-less, blast of soapy water and rinse kind-of-car wash at the Exxon down the street from the restaurant. After spending more than an hour with the hose on Sunday evening blasting off chunks of mud from the car, this looked like a great way to work on phase 2 without potentially rubbing in the sand and grit that naturally comes with dirt. And when I drove out, the car was about 90% perfect. Not too shabby.

I'm probably going to start in with the sponge tonight. Anything that survived Sunday and yesterday's washing is likely just pure, caked-on baked-in mud, which means that nothing short of gentle elbow grease will get it off of my car's finish. I'll take it slowly and rinse the sponge often, just like the good ol' days.*

When I got home, I decided to not open the computer. I sat in my room after saying hello with my parents and just channel-surfed for an hour or two. I flipped around from show to show and enjoyed the lazy night of doing nothing. When 10:30 came around, I was already in bed. I guess I needed some sleep.

Sleeping isn't so bad anymore. I don't hate it like I used to. I am pretty sure that has to do with the new work schedule. Something about it makes me feel more rested. Essentially, I'm getting up and going to bed with the sun now. It feels pretty natural.

I weighed in this morning and learned that without even following the WW system, I still lost another pound. And that was through a camping weekend of Grandma Utz chips (thanks J&O!), hotdogs (thanks Eric!) and marshmallows (thanks Paul!) and general laziness all week long. No running since last Monday, and I was on my own, left to my own good judgement about what was right to eat, and what should probably not be eaten. I guarantee that had I had some alcohol this weekend, I wouldn't be able to say today that I not only retained the 30-pound weight loss, but I lost another pound to boot.

And now I'm back in the swing of things. Work is... well, it's different. I'm getting used to not being in touch with everyone online as much as I used to be. It's not something I wanted. But then, I was a little more into keeping in touch than I should have been for my mental sanity. :) So now I only talk to everyone once a day or so. :) Angela's put in for her two-week's notice. We're all pretty sad to see her go, but very happy for her. These are weird times in the company, and it's good to see someone taking a stand to the distrust that management has created for its employees. None of us could blame her.

The weather is getting to that point where having a window is more burdensome than beneficial. It's gorgeous out there. And sitting here only makes me think of the weekends and what I'll do with them. Alas, the inbox calls.

Back to work I go.

*Good old days refer to the time when I used to wash cars in return for a weekly allowance of two bucks. Along with lawn mowing, I took it very seriously and did a pretty darned good job if I do say so myself.