I've been doing wall sits since Monday. It's a great exercise to strengthen your thigh and knees. I can't believe I used to be able to hold this position for five minutes.

The legs are the hardest part of the body to workout and get definition, because you're on your feet all day. I have to do a ton of leg exercises to get definition on my legs, and even doing leg presses of 200-300 pounds doesn't help much. If I do weights, I usually like to work my legs until they shake. It's the only way I know I've worked all my muscles.

Here's the basics of the wall sit exercise.

Wall Sit: While standing with your back against the wall, bend your knees allowing yourself to squat. Hold this position for as long as you can. You are working to increase the amount of knee bend up to a seated position and the length of time.

I can do the wall sit for two minutes and fifteen seconds, and after that my legs begin to shake. It's a great way to get rock hard thighs, at least on the front portion. It doesn't do much for your hamstrings though. I'd like to get back up to five minutes.

Of course all this eating at fancy nice restaurants is wrecking havoc with my plan to lose 20 pounds, but it's fun to eat out for cheap.

I've been wearing my pedometer again, and trying to walk 10,000 steps a day or about 4-5 miles a day. So far this month I've only missed two days, and had one day where I only walked 8,200 steps and one day when I walked 5,000 steps.

On the days when I go to the gym I don't track my steps, but I work out for an hour. I've had two gym days so far.

I'm also doing Callanetics exercises at home. Callanetics is really great for tightening and firming your body up. These exercises are also really good if you have back problems as well.

I'm thinking January will be a washout as far as losing weight, but I'm okay with that as long as I can get back into the the habit of exercising and walking and eating within my calorie range on the days I'm not eating out.

And maybe if I really get into it, I'll start working out with my pilates and yoga tapes again.

Dine about Town San Francisco 2004 Experience # 2 - Rubicon.

Rubicon is a great restaurant, and definitely worth the price of its dinners, and a bargain for its three course fixed price meal. Their attention to detail and presentation is excellent, the food is fantastic and if you're a wine buff, they have an award winning extensive wine list.

I'd been to Rubicon for a business lunch before when it first opened, but never for dinner. For Dine About Down 2004, they are only serving dinner.

They were named as one of the Top 100 Bay Restaurants in 2003, and here's SFGATE.com had to say about them.

"Few restaurants are better known for their sommelier than their chef, but Larry Stone has made Rubicon a wine-lovers' mecca. Of course, the wine wouldn't be shown off nearly as well without the talents of chef Dennis Leary, and the handsome interior. The brick walls and sculptural earthquake support beams play against refined wood booths and Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It feels like a big-city restaurant, and has celebrity cachet: It's owned by New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, Robert De Niro and several other celebrities. Leary offers the traditional a la carte and fixed-price menus, including a vegetarian option."

Here's the Dine about Town menu.

choice of:
Organic Arugula Salad with Walnuts and Crescenza Cheese
or
Chestnut Soup with a Foie Gras Crouton

choice of:
Pumpkin Risotto with Pinenuts, Parmesan and Sage
or
Roasted White Bass with Herb Potato Purée and "Thermidor" Sauce
or
"Blanquette de Veau" Veal Stew with Winter Vegetables and Puff Pastry

choice of:
Rubicon Créme Brûlée with Housemade Cookies
or
Chocolate Fondant with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I had the arugula salad, bass and the chocolate fondant. My friend had the soup, bass and creme brulee. Instead of "Blanquette de Veau", they were serving a duck comfit.

Since it's a school night we decided to just have one glass of wine each, so we asked the waiter to recommend a red wine. He chose an excellent light italian red wine.

The service was excellent and besides what we ordered we received a small appetizer of smoke salmon courtesy of the chef, and after dessert some kind of really light cannoli or profiterole, again courtesy of the chef.

It's these little touches like extra food from the chef, that make Rubicon such a great place to eat. They treat you well, and it makes you want to come back for more. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with a glass sculpture flower arrangement that my friend thought looked like the glass sculpted flowered ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. She was right. The glass sculpture were done by the samer person. Whatever you think ambiance is, Rubicon definitely has it.

Red Herring was okay, but it doesn't merit a trip back. Rubicon is a restaurant to go to for a great meal and for special occassion dinners.

I'm becoming the raging consumer.

I have a subscription to Vanity Fair, and my renewal notice came in the mail for $24.95 for one year and I paid it. I received what would have been the last issue today had I not renewed, and there was an offer card which said I could get renew for $15. This irked because I just paid the higher price.

So I called their customer service and told the operator I just renewed my subscription at the higher price, and it wasn't fair because if I had waited till the last issue I would have saved $9.95.

The operator agreed with me and credited me with 10 more issues. I'm glad I called. Usually I don't care or pay attention to stuff like this, or if I do notice it I just let it go. Not anymore. It pays to call customer service because the worse they can say is no. And if they agree, you save money and saving money is a good thing.