The Laughing Wolf

A Gym and Cooking Update

Things progess at both locations. I still have a long ways to go to get where I want at the gym, especially after hurting my back a few weeks ago. There is so much more I have to learn about cooking at the restaurant as well. The good news is, I do know how much more I need to do/learn.

I am getting better at some of the basic prep work, though I am no where near where I would like to be. My knife skills are improving, and I mainly have only nicks to show for goofs. Not all the nicks come from knives, some come from pans and such. While I carry a couple of others, most of my work is done with a sankoto chef's knife and a long-bladed paring knife. The other two tools used the most are a mellon baller and a Y-peeler. The latter is wonderful, and after using it you will never go back to a regular peeler.

At the gym, I am slowly building back to what I was doing before screwing up. I will have most of the machines/exercises back this week, with the exception of the ab crunch, rotary torso, hip thrusts, and touching of toes. The back still does not like bending forward that much, so it may be another two or three weeks before I even consider adding those back in. I've also had to drop the incline on the treadmill to no more than two percent, as the higher the incline the higher the amount of pain in the back. Did get back up to four miles today, and not feeling it too badly. Word of advice here is, do not mess with your lower back.

The gym and cooking have intersected in an interesting way. Not long after starting at 801 Franklin, I had a peculiar experience in the gym. I was on the treadmill doing my regular two miles when I suddenly smelled something not nice, in fact it had an onion smell. My response was "Man, who is that!" A minute later, and a good sniff of me, and it was "Oh man! That's ME!" It seems that the onion oil gets in the skin and comes out with the sweat. It even overrides garlic. I have been trying everything I can to deal with it but have not been entirely successful in dealing with it. Chef's Care soap does help, but is not complete. Lemon juice does not work, but is a great way to find a bunch of nicks you may not know you have.

The only other problem is that the red onions, red cabbage, and mushrooms have died the cuticles and skin around my fingernails dark, so that it looks like I have not cleaned under my fingernails in years. Scrubbing, cleaning, and such don't do as much as I would like, and I am seriously considering a bleach solution to try to clean them.

Other than that, both have been fun. Just thought you might like an update on both, realized that I had not done either in a week or more.

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