I am turning into one sexy beast.

Workout Journal update: Omaha and I have joined a gym. This is a good thing; I haven't had access to a gym in years, not since I left Isilon, and my at-home workouts have tended to be furtive, occasional things done in the most desultory way. Having a gym provides a context, a schedule, and the equipment necessary to exercise consistently and correctly.

Today was our third session. Almost half my circuit slots are filled up with physical rehabilitation: one for my knee, one for my neck, one for an old injury to my shoulder, and planks for general abs.

But it was good. After a five-minute warmup with a punching bag, I did 2 sets x 35 reps @ 5 lbs for the rotator cuff, 2 sets x 35 reps @ 2 lbs for the knee, 2 sets @ 80 seconds for planks, and 2 sets x 20 reps @ 1 lb for the neck extension.

In actual weightlifting, I did 3 sets of 6 reps squat @ 95 lbs, 3 sets of 5 reps bench press at 215 lbs, and 2 sets of 3 TGUs @ 31 lbs (why are kettlebells the only things marked in metric?). That's not too bad, and similar to the sets I did on Monday.

The best growth was in the rehab steps, which when from 25 on Friday to 35 today with much less pain at the pinnacle. The planks were as hard at 80 seconds as they were at 60 on Friday, though, and I was able to do the upper back & neck extensions without problems. I couldn't even do them on Monday, I was so stiff. My body is rapidly adjusting to the return of the old regimen.

I'm still 191 lbs, 24.1% bodyfat, 37.7% muscle, which is 4% more bodyfat and 9 pounds more than I want to be. It's not a big change, but getting down that last bit is always the hardest part. Still, it's nice to have these tools again, and I find myself hoping I'll enjoy the new place as much as I enjoyed the old.

Right now my lower back and knees are sore, but "not in a bad way." I've experienced this before when doing serious lifting, and I'll worry only if it's still bad on Friday and inhibits follow-through. I think part of the problem is that the knee lifts pull hard on my outer gluteals and I can feel my lower back compensating for the weaknesses there.

That's a lot of car.

Omaha and I had to buy a car by Christmas Eve. And on Christmas Eve, we found the one car we wanted. There wasn't much to choose from-- manuals are hard to come by, and even harder to find with all the modifications we wanted. So we went with what we could find.

After test driving a Forester and an Outback, we decided to get the Outback. It's black. We've named it "Darth." And it is a lot of car. Although the Forester is the Subaru "SUV" and the Outback is the wagon, the 2013 Outback is now bigger than the 2009 Forester-- it's longer, wider, heavier, although it is shorter than the Forester. It has all the modern bells and whistles... hill-holder, bluetooth radio, iPod adapter, that sort of thing. And it has the same crashworthiness as the old Forester, which is now a priority with me.

I've gotten used to it. My house is on a steep hill and every time I start my car there's a risk of rolling forward and crashing into the house. The hill-holder is great for this predicament, but it took some getting used to as it works completely differently (and much more cybernetically) than on the Forester. Now, it lets go automagically when I want to back up, as well as pull forward. Kinda cool.

Still, it's a lot of car. And I have a lot of kid to haul around. But in five years, who knows? Maybe I'll be in the market for a nice, little Cooper or something.