Emotional Me!

Ok, so I’ve been a little confuse on the whole Democratic nominee thing lately.

I started out thinking Hillary was the way to go. And then I thought she was too much part of the system.

So I started thinking Obama was the one. Because he wasn’t part of the system.

Edwards, who’s that?

But I had a little bit of an epiphany after Iowa. I actually felt disappointed and sad that Hillary didn’t win it. And resentful that Obama did.

That really surprised me.

When Hillary did win New Hampshire, I had a huge sense of relief and almost welled up with tears. That really surprised me too. I had no idea that I was that emotionally invested in this. This has turned into a gut feeling kind of thing.

So now I’ve come to the conclusion that Hillary is the one we need. She has been battling these f*cking Republican morons since at least 1992 in Washington and she knows how to get things done even with the road blocks and petty wars that the Republicans resort to. I feel that Obama will get chewed up and spit out and will not be effective, he’ll just spin his wheels. He will try too hard and will get nowhere.

It’s sad but true.

Unfortunately the way the US is right now, the only way to change it is to “pander” a bit to the right wing constitutes. But one can still change things this way, it just takes longer. Hopefully Hillary and Bill will be able to do this.

Now for other non political comments.

I’m tired, this not eating and exercising things is hard. But I am making some progress. I just have to keep this up for another, oh, six or seven weeks. By that time I should look rather gaunt and pale. But I’ll be skinny. And we all know, you can never be too rich or too thin.

210lbs today. Like I said, making progress.

211lbs, WTF

Well I guess it just goes to show that things can change very fast when you have a body mass like mine. Today I weighed myself in the morning and after working out, 212lbs and 211lbs respectively.

So, I guess I’m going in the right direction and that the day of rest on Sunday had everything settle for a bit. I just had to get it moving again.

I walked home the long way last night. By the time I got home my legs where wobbly. I didn’t help that I have a huge head cold going on right now. When I got home I cleaned a little bit and then put some of our left over gumbo in the microwave just in time to see that I had gotten a call from a friend who wanted to go out to dinner. I had to call had give him a rain check. I didn’t want to be around people while I felt that contagious.

It’s much better today.

I ended up taking some cold medicine and watching some movies. I was in bed by 9:30 and up at 5:30 this morning feeling much better but still having the sniffles. Here is the morning routine:

• · Get up and go down stairs to the kitchen to make coffee. It's Tuesday so it’s trash and recycle day. Empty the trash cans and recycling bin and place in the appropriate place for pick up while I wait for the coffee to brew. Pick up news paper while doing this.

• · Drink coffee and check emails. Wait for coffee to “work”

• · Coffee starts to “work”, go to bathroom, read news paper and get cleaned up.

• · Get dressed, pack workout clothes for gym at work in backpack.

• · Make oatmeal, do stomach exercises while waiting for it to finish cooking.

• · Eat oatmeal and head out the door. Leaving by 7am.

From here I take the long 5 mile walk to work. I’ll take the same walk back tonight.

So, here’s hoping all the work begets some results.

Later.

Well, up to 213……

But I need a new hole in my belt!

What’s up with that?

I guess fat turns into muscle which weighs more but, shouldn’t 1lb of fat turn into 1lb of muscle? If not, is the mass coming from another dimension somewhere?

Ugh….

Anyway, I walked the long way to work today, about 5 miles. I plan on walking the long way back, about 5 miles. I plan on keeping this up until I can see the muscles in my stomach or i drop dead. I might keep doing it if I like the results. What's two hours of my life a day?

I also only want one chin, not two or three.

I did chest and back today for weights. I starting to look like Chriszilla. I’m use to being big, but not this big. I’m hoping that once most of the fat is gone I’ll start leaning up and showing more definition.

Onwards and upwards….. To space and beyond!

January and the unobtainable goal!

Being the crazy wacky kind of guy I am, I’ve set up a goal to lose 20lbs before we go to Cape town at the end of February.

The way I’m going to do this you might ask?

Well it starts with cutting out alcohol for at least a month. Yes, you heard me. No booze for at least a month. Do you know how many empty calories there are in booze? LOTS!

And a strict exercise regime, 1 and ½ hours a day for six days a week. Monday through Saturday or until I drop dead. Also, 40 minutes of walking to work and back every Monday through Friday.

Eating about 1600 to 2000 calories a day, I should have about 3100 to keep my weight where it is now. So far so good.

Did I mention that I’m not smoking either. This one wasn’t so big because I only did it when I drank, and that was on the weekends.

So we got a head start and worked out four times before the new year. I’m glad for that. I finally weighed myself yesterday, Jan the 2nd, and I was at 213lbs. This might sound like a lot to you guys but I was thinking I had gotten up to 220lbs. Sooooooo, I’m already ahead, right?

So here are the stats so far for yesterday.

Calories eaten = 1855
Calories burned = 3634 (exercise, walking to work, working, just living and sleeping)
Net loss -1779
Weight 213lbs


Today I have these stats.

Calories eaten = 1699 (estimating the snack and dinner that I have planned for this evening)
Calories burned = 3798 (exercise, walking to work, working, just living and sleeping)
Net Loss -2099

Weight 212lbs

So, why am I doing all this now? Well, because we have just gone through 10 days of excess, too much eating, too much drinking and not enough exercise. At the end of the holiday season, when you look in the mirror naked, you realize you just need to stop and detox for a bit. Not to mention losing some weight.

I would love to go into the details of the holiday season but I don’t have enough time or space to do that. Suffice to say we all had a great time, especially my mother. And besides, I’m moving ahead right now and would rather focus my attention that way.

I will keep this blog updated with my progress/digress hopefully every day. I hope I will make my goal and look good in a speedo in March. Wish me luck.

Christmas tree purchasing, before and after.

Well, this weekend started off with all the best intentions of getting a Christmas tree on Sunday and doing our Christmas cards then too. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Friday we had two parties to go to, the office Christmas party was from 3 until 5 (two hours, that was just wrong). We held it at a restaurant across the street from the office in the Washington Harbor. It was good enough, I ended up winning the first prize giveaway right when I was commenting on never winning anything. Two $50 gift certificates for BP gas. This was nice but I don’t drive that much, sooooo I swapped with a friend who got a best buy gift card. Everyone was happy.

After that we went to the Bench Gym Christmas party. It was fun and we enjoyed it. It was a bit weird drinking wine at the gym. Great new space they moved into. There old place is now just a hole in the ground.

We then got food at Duplex dinner with Brett and Daniel and went to bed. We had to get up early as we were having a dinner party and we hadn’t gotten anything yet and the main course (BB-Q pork ribs) took close to eight hours to cook.

So off we went to Harris Teater at 8 in the morning on a Saturday morning to go food shopping. $450 dollars later we had everything, shrimp for a pre-dinner shrimp plate, scallops for the starter, apples and cranberries for the desert and 14 bottles of wine for the whole meal. Here was the menu:

Amuse bouche was a collie flower with cumin and parmesan cheese soup.

The starter was seared sea scallops on top of potato cakes on a bed of an assiago, peppercorn sauce with drizzled olive oil topped with cream freche and caviar.

The main was slow cooked pork ribs with mashed sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts cooked with bacon.

Desert was an apple and cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. And some chocolates that Derek brought over.

The next morning we counted the bottles, I think it came out to 15 bottles for 10 people with one not drinking. Well that was definitely what I would call a successful party. I ended up going to bed before most people did. I was just exhausted after cooking all day and I was l little too drunk to stay awake. Mind you it was twelve midnight and I had been up since six that morning. I was going to take a nap but our friend Evegeny from VA beach came up for the party and showed up right with I was drifting away.

Oh well.

Sunday wasn’t our usual Sunday. Thanks goodness. I think we’ve gone off the whole drunken brunch thing at our house. We had a full house at that point as a few people stayed over. We agreed to go to brunch at Logan Tavern, some more friends came over and we headed that way. When we got there the was a 45 minute wait so we went to Makato instead. Ten of us total and we got sat right away. It was fun.

It’s amazing how quickly a buzz will come back when you have a cocktail the day after a heavy night. We were supposed to go get a Christmas tree and do the Christmas cards but that wasn’t happening that Day. We ended up going back to Rob’s house and having a sauna. We then got invited to another friend’s house for another party. We stayed there for a bit and then I was ready to go home but got talked into going out for Thai food. That was a very good thing. I came back and enjoyed the rest of the night. Dave and I were in bed by 10:30 so everything was good.

Monday I get to work and get a message from one of the guys I work with

Him “you here?”
Me “Um, yes, why?”
Him “When are we leaving”
Me “oh shit, I forgot about that”

Anyway, we updated some software on Friday here at our main office. Everything went pretty well except we forgot about a remote office in Arnold MD. That office is connected to our servers by a dedicated t-1 line. It’s not fast enough to install software over. So we had made plans on Friday to go to Arnold on Monday to sneaker net to the computers.

I walked home and got the car. Came back to the office and picked up my coworker. We drove out to the eastern shore and did the install on their computers. We were done and back at the office around 3ish so I dropped my coworker off and went home.

One thing I forgot to mention was that Dave had tasked me with getting a Christmas tree while I had the car and was out and about. On New York avenue there is a place but unfortunately I drove right by it and didn’t think about it. I tell you this because it fits into the story latter. So as I said before I dropped my coworker off and really didn’t go home, I went Christmas tree shopping. On a Monday, after a big Christmas tree buying weekend.

To say depressing is an understatement.

I first went to the local charity lot on 17th street. Oh my god, it was picked over like a turkey on thanksgiving. That and the fact there was no one there to give my money too made me decide go to the Home Depot.

It wasn’t any better. Dave and I went there two weeks ago and it was packed with good looking trees. We decided we didn’t want the tree in our house that early so we didn’t get one. I finally found one that might do, tried to get someone to help but no one was around. I picked it up, went inside and then got into a line that was the shortest of three huge lines. All the construction workers where there buying stuff for their projects so they had lots of stuff. And there were at least 8 or more people in each line. I gave up and took the tree back and went home in despair.

By the time I had gotten home I had decided that we didn’t need a tree and the it was the most bizarre custom anyway.

Take a perfectly good LIVE tree. Kill it, Bring into your home, put lights on it, and then bizarre ornimates. Throw out in two weeks.

Repeat process next year.

So anyway I get home, Dave listens to this and says that we can go back out to the New York avenue place and get one later. After all we do have the niece coming over and we needed to get one for her sake.

So at 7:30pm we head out there. All the trees they have and standing in stands with water in them. The trees a beautiful and in good shape.

But not cheap.

We pick one and this guy comes to help us. He’s talking to us with an east Indian accent, island accent. I talk to him for a bit without making eye contact but when I finally do I’m little bit freaked out. One of his eyes was completely white. I’m not sure what causes that but it freaks me out when I see it. So from then on I had a hard time looking at him. He finally get the tree and cuts off the bottom part and off to home we go. Total price with tipping him, $80. It will be worth it when Dave’s niece comes over.

So we now have a Christmas tree in the house, tonight I will put lights on it that I purchased on the way to work. We then have dinner with friends out. Wednesday we have a friend’s birthday party to go to and then a stopover at Dave’s brother’s new house. Thursday I’m having a dinner party for some people from work and then Friday my mom arrives for the holiday. We’ve decided to have an open house on Saturday for drinks and help on decorating the tree.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a week or two I think you’ll understand.

Happy holidays.

Coffee talk, err bitch!

Ok, so for the last couple of months I’ve been having an extra cup of coffee at work. I didn’t use to do this but the stress from working got me doing it again. So to get an understanding for my morning I’m going to write down my average schedule.

Get up at 6-6:30.

Go down stairs and start the coffee. Empty the dishwasher from the night before while the coffee is brewing.

Get the news paper from downstairs next to the front door.

Make a cup of coffee and then check work emails to make sure that Europe is doing fine and that there are no other big problems.

After coffee starts to work, go upstairs to the bathroom and start getting cleaned up.

Sometimes I will do some stomach exercises if I have time before the shower so I don’t have to do them at the gym later.

Finish getting dressed and say good bye to Dave and head to work between 7:30 and 8.

I arrive at the office and if it’s Monday I buy a new 1.5L bottle of water, if it’s not Monday I go to my cube and get my bottle from the day before to fill it up in the kitchen with our filtered water machine. While I’m in the kitchen doing this I will get a cup of coffee.

Well the last bit has changed a bit and I’m not sure what happened. I use to come in and there would be plenty of coffee made. I could get my cup and not have to worry about the next guy because there was enough. But not anymore.

I’ve had to change my whole routine in the morning to stop by the kitchen before I do anything else and make a fresh pot of coffee before I even make it to my desk because I know there will not be any there waiting for me. I know this is a small thing but It’s gotten to me the last couple of months.

I know I’m not the first one there to make the coffee and that other people are drinking it but just leaving the pot empty or close to it. What happened to human decencies. Thinking of your brother sometimes. Maybe going out of your way to do something nice for someone that isn’t, oh I don’t know, YOU!!!

It’s not the coffee that’s the problem, it’s the total disregard of anyone else other then one’s self that bothers me. UGH……

I’ve gone to the kitchen late to get coffee before and watched someone leave with two cups in their hands. When I went to the coffee machine, it was empty. It was all I could do not to follow this person out and tell them off. And the thing is, it probably didn’t even occur to this person to even think about making more coffee.

This is what the underlying problem is about, the fact that our society has raised our children to be so damned self centered.

It’s not about the coffee.

But boy would it be nice to see someone else making a new pot of the stuff at work every so often.

The Sound of Music and other wonderings.

I think you will find this quite interesting.

Our friend Derek invited Dave and myself over for dinner last night. We had no idea who else was going to be there but graciously accepted. One thing you need to know about Derek is that he has had a fascinating life and has meet all kinds of people from his time working at Cambridge and after from his church goings.

Of course Dave and I get there first, we were running a little bit late too. It just meant more Veuve Clicquot (Champaign) for us. Derek already had his friend, Ralphie baby, there. He is staying with Derek visiting from London where he is retired from the BBC as an actor and producer.

Now being as bad as I am with names I don’t remember the rest of the cast of characters name’s there at the dinner. And this isn’t because I had too much wine or anything like that. I’m on the end of a very bad cold and had a hard time going to begin with so names were going in one ear and out the other. We had a mother show up with her 8 month old absolutely adorable baby. We also had an older, very eccentric lady that use to work for the Washington opera.

All these people with the most entertaining stories. Ralphie baby (whose name I do remember for some reason) had all these great stories about when he was in school for theatrics and who his class mates where. Mind you, I didn’t know most of them because they were English but every so often he would spit out a name that I knew. We also came to find out that he was the producer on Doctor Who, the third rendition. Now if you are an American of my age group, there is only one doctor who and that’s the one with the really big nose and really bad curly hair played by Tom Baker. Well Ralphie baby produced the one before that played by Jon Pertwee. Jon is the same person that comments on the Little Britton comedy show from the UK.

Such great stories.

Now for the interesting bit.

Seems that the lady who was sitting next to me all night does some work for the Kennedy center. She use to be really big with the opera here but retired so now she’s doing part time work. When she worked for the opera every so often she would have to get some “extras” for the shows. So she’s telling about going to JR’s (local gay bar) and going up to boys and telling them that she’s casting for some opera but that she needs men without hair on their chest.

She said she had never seen men pull their shirts off so fast. That had me in stitches I thought it was so funny.

But this is the bit that really got me.

Every since we were children we watched the Sound of Music almost every holiday season. It was a tradition and we can sing all the songs. So there she is in the middle of JR’s getting guys to take their shirts off for an audition when she notices that the Sound of Music is playing. She comments “Oh, the Sound of Music, I was in that. I’m the short nun behind the head nun in the climb every mountain song.”

Well, she was popular before but after that the boys were all over her.

My jaw dropped to the floor. There was someone who was in one of my all time favorite movies sitting beside me for a casual dinner on a Monday night in Washington DC!

I do have to say, my life is never dull.