Michael Douglas AND New Skyscraper

I picked up my new glasses yesterday, and I love them!  A lot of you like them, too, as they came in second place in my poll, but ever since I picked them up, I’ve been thinking about one of the comments that was left on my post where I shared the four finalists.  My friend “Pat” left this comment (“Pat” is in quotes because it’s a pseudonym, but I know who it really is):

I also heard that my father didn’t vote for #3, because the frames reminded him of “Falling Down,” and Michael Douglas is “so unlikable in that movie.”  I’m not sure if my father saw Pat’s comment, or if he remembered the glasses from that movie on his own.  I know he’s seen “Falling Down” – we had it on VHS and I remember watching it as a family. 

If you’re not familiar with “Falling Down,” it’s a 1993 movie where Michael Douglas goes on a rampage across Los Angeles.  I don’t remember many of the details, since it’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve seen it, but he gets laid off, and is having issues with his ex-wife and daughter, and after having a bad day, he goes bat-shit crazy.  I remember a scene where he destroys a mini-mart with a crowbar (or a baseball bat?), and another scene where he shoots up a fast-food restaurant because they wouldn’t serve him breakfast two minutes after they started serving lunch.

Apparently, Michael Douglas’s glasses in that movie look a lot like mine.  After picking up my glasses, I was away from home for another 7 hours (I had a busy day!), but as soon as I walked in the door, I started looking for pictures of Michael Douglas in that movie, because I couldn’t remember his glasses at all.  Turns out that Pat and my father were right – our glasses are eerily similar.  Take a look for yourself:

(I’m the one on the right.  Duh.)

Good memory, Pat!  (And possibly my father too!)  Tomorrow I’m going to shatter my right lens to see how similar they look then.  Kidding.  Oh, and for the record, this similarity doesn’t change my opinion of my glasses at all.  I’m still in love!

Moving on…

After leaving the eyeglass store yesterday, I headed over to West Hollywood for a session with my trainer, Craig Ramsay.  I’ve mentioned before that Craig was the assistant trainer on Bravo’s show Thintervention, and he’s also been in Broadway shows and done other TV stuff, too – and today I really enjoyed when Craig said this to me, when we were chit-chatting about health-related stuff:

“I’m not a doctor… although I was a doctor when I was on All My Children… and they let me keep my last name!  I was Dr. Ramsay!”

That may have been the best thing I heard all day.

The workout, like always, was brutal.  Intervals on the bike where I alternated between levels 12 and 24, more walking lunges than I can count, 40 pull-ups, tons of various chest, shoulder, and arm exercises with 15-pound weights in each hand, and, mixed in there somewhere was 11 1/2 minutes on the StairMaster.  I started at level 5, and every repeatedly upped the level, eventually getting to 12.  According to the machine, I burned 198 calories in those 11 1/2 minutes, but what I’m more excited about is that I climbed 56 floors.  That means I can add a skyscraper to my collection!

Today’s skyscraper is in honor of my friend Jen (you all know Jen – she’s popped up on the blog again and again).  In a few months, Jen is moving all the way to Germany to go back to school, so I thought I’d pick a skyscraper in Germany.  Jen will be in Berlin, but the tallest building is Berlin is only 32 floors, so that doesn’t do me any good.  Frankfurt, however, is home to the second-tallest building in all of Europe, and it just happens to be 56 floors!  Say hello to the Commerzbank Tower:

Yep.  I climbed it!

The Commerzbank Tower actually sounds pretty cool – there’s a triangular atrium that runs up and down the center of it, and on 9 different floors, it connects to the exterior of the building, creating sky gardens that have trees and plants and shrubbery.

Let’s add it to my collection:

• Aon Center, Chicago, IL (83 floors, climbed 8/5/11)
  
• CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China (80 floors, climbed 12/1/10)
• JPMorgan Chase Tower, Houston, TX (75 floors, climbed 3/9/11)
• Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI (73 floors, climbed 6/19/11)
• The Sail @ Marina Bay, Singapore (70 floors, cilmbed 11/9/10)
• Yokohama Landmark Tower, Yokohama, Japan (70 floors, climbed 4/11/11)
• 900 North Michigan, Chicago, IL (66 floors, climbed 4/1/11)
• Vista Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (62 floors, climbed 7/2/11)
• > > Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt, Germany (56 floors, climbed 8/19/11)
• 1000 de la Gauchetiere, Montreal, Canada (51 floors, climbed 11/3/10)
• Hotel Arts, Barcelona, Spain (44 floors, climbed 8/12/11)
• Ernst & Young Bldg, Los Angeles, CA (41 floors, climbed 10/3/10)
• City Place I, Hartford, CT (38 floors, climbed 5/11/11)
• Ocean Towers, South Padre Island, TX (31 floors, climbed 1/20/11)

Keep it up, David!