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5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

June 16, 2014 by |Blog|Comments (26)

And…it’s Monday again.  How does it happen so quickly?  Here’s a partial rundown of what we were up to this past weekend, though, there’s definitely more to come down the road!

1) The usual Friday night date night: Restaurant supply store

My weekend started off pretty much like it often does: Driving a small and occasionally cantankerous Autolib down to the massive restaurant supply store to fill up stocks for the week ahead.  Or, at least a few days ahead.

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In case you’re curious, each green/brown box is 90 eggs.  The bag The Girl is carrying is 25KG (55lbs) of sugar. The flats along the front are butter, there’s three of them.  That much butter (alone) costs 170€ ($230).  Butter is our most expensive item by a wide margin.

It’s hard knowing this specific upcoming week how much to make each day because it’s on the edge of the official summer vacation season.  Last week is just ahead of it, but this week is sorta transition period.  The last week in June till the end of August (if last year is any indication) will be crazy busy again.

After a prolonged checkout period we went down into the garage level to fill up the car.  We contemplated filling up this car instead:

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But weren’t quite sure on how that would be received by the owners.  So instead, we bumbled over to our little car and filled it up and headed on back to the shop to unload.

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Muscles Needed Wednesday Evening: As a related aside – if you’re a Parisian (locale) and willing to help us out briefly on Wednesday evening to move a giant (and heavy) mixer about one block into an underground cave, there’s a box of cupcakes in it for you.  The mixer is about 204 kilograms (450 pounds), and we have to get it out of the kitchen to make way for a newer/bigger one (again, seen here arriving a few months ago).  Feel free to drop a comment below and I’ll reply privately via e-mail.  (Update: I think we’re good, thanks everyone!)

2) Unboxed the Misfit Shine

Coming out of the ‘things that have been sitting in a box a long time’ category, I unboxed the Misfit Shine activity tracker this weekend.  I originally received it sometime last year as part of a crowd funded project I backed.

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Given their recent visibility in some Apple commercials there’s been a bit of a spike in interest there.  And since I wrapped up the FR15 activity tracker last week, and also started working on the Jawbone UP24 this past week – I figured it’d make sense to knock out a few together.

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As usual, this doesn’t preclude other items (i.e. the Mio Cyclo Review or ROTOR Power Review), since those devices don’t  ‘conflict’ with each other (i.e. two power meters in the same spot).

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In any case, more as I start to actually use the device.

3) Spending time at Ikea and a lot of other stores

I walked about 8 miles in shopping related endeavors on Saturday.  Which, is approximately 8 more miles than I wanted to walk.

On the bright side, Ikea had this chocolate cake thingy (plus of course meatballs) that were great:

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Plus, while playing around with the fake laptop The Girl noticed that the desk she was sitting at had a secret compartment for routing cables (or, stashing gummy bears).

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Speaking of that Jawbone UP24 activity tracker I mentioned earlier…here ya go:

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My problem with the UP24 is simply that it lacks a display and/or status screen.  Thus I don’t really know where my step-count stands for the day without pulling out my phone and opening the app.  Still, I like that it’s rather minimal (even if I happened to buy orange instead of black).

4) We both ran a 10K race

More on this tomorrow, but about 10 days ago we signed up for the L’Equipe 10K here in Paris, which is organized by ASO – the same organization that also does the Tour de France (as well as the Paris Marathon and Half-Marathon).  The event had about 20,000 runners in it, so, slightly larger than you’re average 10K.

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But, at least here it was only 25€ (compared to many big city 10K’s), which included a finisher’s technical t-shirt (aka DriFit), as well as a finisher’s medal, plus food (gummy bears too!).

Oh, and we ran reasonably fast.  But again, we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

5) Off to Germany, land of Haribo

I wrapped up my weekend by a short 1hr flight tonight over to Nuremberg.  I think this is the 3rd time I’ve been to the city, as I was there about two years ago when I ran into a flock of sheep (seriously).  Then again back a few months ago briefly visiting Adidas.  This time I’m just here for a bunch of work meetings.

On the way over I got to fly on my favorite plane – the Air France Hop plane.  Simply because every time I see it, I actually think ‘IHOP!’ (center of pancake awesomeness).

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On the Germany front though, I saw my impending trip to the host of Haribo as a sign though.  See, just across the street from our apartment a man setup a giant Haribo stand today.  First time we’ve ever seen this:

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They even had our favorites – the ‘Orangina’ flavored  ones seen in the middle.  Up until about a month or so ago these were widely available within the Paris Metro (subway) system’s vending machines.  But they’ve since disappeared, making us both very sad.

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Hopefully some reader with connections to the Paris Metro system will be able to express my displeasure and re-institute the gummies.  At least in the area around Notre Dame (oh, and both airports too, if it wouldn’t be of too much trouble).

Have a great week ahead, and thanks for reading!

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26 Comments

  1. Bryce
    June 16, 2014 at 4:00 am #1

    How long are you in Nürnberg? I’m about an hour South if you wanna German speaking Xpat to run, cycle, or swim with. USA v Ghana tonight too.

    Reply
  2. Tonny Madsen
    June 16, 2014 at 6:31 am #2

    The land of Haribo is actually Denmark… It is one of the few Danish products we can find everywhere.

    Reply
    • Stefan Gründel
      June 16, 2014 at 6:41 am #3

      Actually, Haribo stands for *Ha*ns *Ri*egel *Bo*nn, and was founded by Hans Riegel in Bonn, Germany in 1920 :-)

      Reply
    • John B
      June 16, 2014 at 11:25 am #4

      Yup. I lived in Bonn in 1985, down the street (Langwartweg) from the original factory. Every morning I could smell what the Oompah Loompahs were concocting that day.

      Reply
    • Kenni Lund
      June 16, 2014 at 2:51 pm #5

      Yup. Haribo is indeed German, but have factory’s in many country’s. The one in Denmark (Faxe) is almost 80 years old (founded in 1935), so I guess many would think of it as Danish. :-)

      Reply
  3. Josh
    June 16, 2014 at 7:10 am #6

    Ray, What’s on your wrist in the pic at the restaurant supply store?

    Reply
  4. Josh
    June 16, 2014 at 7:44 am #8

    Thanks, that’s what I thought but wasn’t positive. Just ordered my thru CT to supplement my fenix 2 with the activity tracker.

    Reply
  5. Captain Chris
    June 16, 2014 at 10:17 am #9

    Mid-morning is not the time to read five random things…

    Awesome picture of an industrial grocery store accompanied by talk about butter, eggs and sugar
    Free cupcakes for moving a little mixer
    Chocolate cake thingy with a side of meatballs
    Food and gummy bears
    Land of Haribo

    And the final straw….
    IHOP (center of pancake awesomeness)

    Only two more hours until lunch, I am not going to make it!

    Reply
  6. Robin White
    June 16, 2014 at 10:38 am #10

    One for the Misfitt shine review. The shine has a habit of popping out and disappearing.
    I lost mine after about 9 months whilst doing some circuits in the park.
    The girlfriend lost hers lifting boxes. Neither of us saw them go just looked back to an empty wrist.
    Ever know a Garmin 605 to just plain loose a recorded work out? Today’s cycle has completely vanished.

    Reply
  7. Eli
    June 16, 2014 at 11:59 am #12

    No one in America has ever heard of Orangina Haribo (I’ve tried several specialty candy shops in LA). My biggest regret from my trip to Paris was not bringing back several cases of them. Favorite candy I’ve ever had.

    Reply
  8. Chris
    June 16, 2014 at 12:39 pm #13

    Speaking of things done this weekend, I completed my first sprint triathlon this weekend, at least partially inspired by you! And certainly it went much more smoothly than it would have had I not read your many guides/how-to’s/tips and tricks. I’ve been reading your site for a while and am a huge fan, so thank you!

    Reply
  9. Healthy Simple Smart
    June 16, 2014 at 1:42 pm #14

    I’m so excited to hear about your Jawbone review, a few of the people I work with have them and swear by them! I’d love to commit to a fitness tracker, but I refuse to make a decision without looking at practically ALL of them and comparing!

    Once again, it looks like your weekend was pretty awesome! Looking forward to hearing more about the race and ALWAYS feel free to post about gummy bears!

    Reply
  10. caspar
    June 16, 2014 at 3:08 pm #15

    Ray, Sure I can help you move wednesday evening. Let me know, Caspar

    Reply
  11. Xander Ryan
    June 16, 2014 at 5:24 pm #16

    Hi Ray, if you’re still looking for people to help out with the mixer move on Wednesday evening I’m happy to help out. Xander

    Reply
  12. Jo
    June 17, 2014 at 1:17 am #17

    Hello Ray,
    let me know if I can help tomorrow
    PJ

    Reply
  13. Ray Maker
    June 17, 2014 at 3:44 am #18

    Hi Xander, Jo and Casper – I think we’re good at the moment, I appreciate it!

    Reply
  14. Jeffrey
    June 17, 2014 at 2:46 pm #19

    Do you own a restaurant?

    Reply
  15. brokv
    June 17, 2014 at 2:52 pm #23

    Fun weekend

    Reply
  16. René
    June 18, 2014 at 9:13 am #24

    Hi Ray,

    let me know next time you are (or plan to be) in Nuremberg and have time for a run. Would love to take you on a tour near Nuremberg (“fränkische Schweiz” = Franconian Switzerland). Maybe we can even have a “Franconian bratwurst” :D

    René

    Reply
  17. DFX
    November 9, 2014 at 11:28 am #25

    Hi Ray,
    Any updates on the “Misfit Shine Activity Tracker”? I like the sound of it, but would hang on for a review by you… or any little updates.
    Dave.

    Reply
  18. DFX
    November 25, 2014 at 5:52 pm #26

    Ray,
    Any updates on the “Misfit Shine Activity Tracker”? I like the sound of it, but would hang on for a review by you… or any little updates.
    Dave.
    bump!

    Reply