The Shrinking Giant

First days

2011-07-06T21:20:00.001-05:00

So im not sure how frequently i'll post, but so far this week I've been sticking to the diet but not yet the exercise. Today I had like 1500 calories total which is less than half my RDI. I was pretty hungry by dimnertime, I just hope to keep it up until it becomes habit.

The new-new plan

2011-06-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

So I've been dieting for... a couple months now really. Still just limiting my carb intake. I've even been exercising sporadically some. Anyway I want to start a more definite plan. I seem to do better when I feel at least somewhat accountable, as such I'll be keeping account here. I plan to start in earnest on the 4th (I'm patriotic that way) but I've been doing a little bit here and there in preparation.

Diet:
I'm going to use the Calorie Counter app from Fatsecret to track my intake. It is my plan to replace two meals (breakfast and lunch) with shakes and have whatever Mary makes for dinner. It's a bit of a hassle to enter in Dinners this way, but I'll try to guestimate what I have. I'll likely still have snack nuts in the evening. Oh, and I'll also take a daily multi-vitamin just in case. I already drink water by the vat-load so I'm sure that won't be an issue. I know this might not be the most sustainable plan, but it is simple and clear cut so I suspect I can follow it for now. Let's say 9 weeks at least.

Exercise:
I'm going to take a stab at this C25K thing that I see other people doing. I'm going to use my elliptical and probably at a pace slower than an actual jogger, but still it is a neat program and hopefully I'll be able to follow it. Maybe someday I'll transition to actual running, but I'd surely hurt myself if I tried it now. So that's three days a week of cardio. I'd also like to add in some weights and I have free access to two wellness centers so I should be able to do that. But... I'm pretty lazy and scheduling in that change on top of the others might not happen anytime soon. I'll just set a vague goal of doing that at some point and leave it at that for now.

Week One

2010-04-04T08:50:00.002-05:00

Weight: 363.3

So 5.7 pounds, not a bad first week, eh? So Here's what I've got for a plan so far... My Sister's wedding is coming up in May, and so we are trying to save money for the trip to Virginia. So my diet is cobbled together from cheap food, and stuff that we already have around the house. So my general scheme is Slimfast for Breakfast. We have several tubs of powder in the pantry from previous diet attempts. For lunch I plan to have Ramen Noodles; I can eat these things for months before I start to get sick of them and at $0.18 per serving you can't get much cheaper. I'll eat whatever Mary makes for dinner but the goal will be to keep it "sensible." The challenge there is assembling the recipes for what she makes so that I can record (with reasonable accuracy) the nutritional information for my dinners. But FatSecret.com does have a recipe function to enter that stuff so it isn't too painful. So that's it. I guess my goal is to keep below 75% of my RDI which I did everyday except yesterday. The problem was we went out for brunch after the St. Ann Easter Egg Hunt. I had an avocado and bacon burrito from Denny's. Costs money AND has lots of calories, so definitely off diet. I guess having an RDI of 3400 makes it easier to stay under, but I suppose that ought drop as I lose weight.

So while I'm pleased with week one, I also think that increasing my activity level (exercising) will be an important part of this process moving forward. For my first step I called and canceled my lawn service. Geovanni Novoa did an AWESOME job on my yard and was super cheap, but to save money AND lose weight I'm going to cut my own grass this season. I'm ruling out my old friend the Elevator as well. When I drop below 350, I'll add in the elliptical, when I drop under 325 I'll start going to the gym, and when I get under 300 I'll reward myself with a WiiFit, and at 275 I'll buy a bike. Reasonable Milestone's, no?

FatSecret

2010-03-29T11:27:00.003-05:00

Weight: 369.0

So I've registered on fatsecret.com and downloaded their Android Mobile App. I bought a scale and did my baseline weigh-in. So for the first bit I'm just going to count and reduce my calories. After I get that change down, I'll start adding in aerobic exercise, then later I'll add in time at the gym. Then I'll buy a wii-fit and a bike. But I don't really have a timeline for any of that yet. The link above should take you to my fat-secret journal page, but I'll try to post a summary here every week.

Oh I should post up a summary of stats here too... like measurements, and a 'before' photo... maybe I'll get on that this week.

Geek cool

2008-04-23T09:53:00.004-05:00

Dr. Jamie complained I never update this blog. Which is true, but today someone suggested I blog an event that happened so... here it goes:

My daughter was recently taking ice-skating lessons, and at the mall with the ice rink there is a Games Workshop store. We were walking by and Alice wanted to go in and check it out. If you aren't familiar, Games Workshop makes miniature doodz to fight with. That is to say they craft 32mm scale sci-fi and fantasy figures that come with rule books to recreate sci-fi and fantasy battles (in miniature). Anyway, while we were walking through the store Alice started asking me questions and the reaction from the dorks doing table-top battles was great:

A: What are those boys doing!?
M: They are playing with their miniatures.
A: Why are they playing with their m- misatu- ... why are they playing with their little toys?
M: Some boys like to play with their little toys honey. [Glares from assembled dorks]
A: What are they going to play?
M: Well it looks like they are going to have them fight. [Rolling eyes from dorks]
A: What are these dices for? [picks up a d6]
M: Dice. They are to see who wins the fights.
A: Oh. I hope this horsey wins. [reaches for Bretonnian Knight]
M: Me too honey, but don't touch their toys.
A: But it's pretty.
M: Oh yes honey it's a very pretty horsey, but that boy is playing with it right now. [said dork nervously eyes child near his knights, presumably afraid she might mess up his formation. Actually at this point everyone in the shop is staring at us, and I get the uneasy sense that I don't belong.]
A: [to another dork, while pointing]. Hey, I like your dragon!
M: Actually honey that's a Wyvern. [Everyone immediately returned to their games, the non-dork had outed himself as one of their own.]
Dork: Thanks. I painted it.
A: Oooooh it is very pretty. Can I pet it?
Dork: [nervously.] Sure.
M: Be careful honey they are delicate.

We looked around for a Griffin but not finding one we left the store. In the interest of full-disclosure, I'm a huge dork (both quantitatively and qualitatively) and I even used to play with miniatures as well, but not in the last ... five years or so.

This one is for Aunt Debbie

2008-01-04T14:47:00.000-06:00

A direct link to our public gallery:

HERE

Wine at Face Value: Mallow Run Chambourcin

2007-08-06T17:25:00.000-05:00

Wine at Face Value: Mallow Run Chambourcin

My Wife has started her own blog. It is a blog of the various wine's we try and her facial (non-)expressions after tasting each wine. I think it will be a fun way to track our wine consumption and track which ones we like.

It's a Boy!

2007-06-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

Rhys Thomas Harden was born at 3:43AM on Friday June 29th. He weighed eight pounds and fifteen ounces and was 21 inches long. And he's my baby boy! He had been scheduled to be born on Sunday morning at 6AM, but he came to us early. The last couple of days have had me running all over the place, grandmas have come to visit, and Alice has been ferried back and forth from the hospital a few times. She really loves her new baby brother and likes to hold and touch him. Mary is doing fine, her pain is way down and she is up and walking around and everything now. If things keep going well then they'll come home on Monday! There are more photos in my picasaweb album.

Handy Man

2007-06-28T19:32:00.000-05:00

The title of this port refers of course to my recent forays into the use of tools to repair and install things; not, as you might have first thought, to my nickname at highway rest stop bathrooms. Recently I made the switch from Cable to DSL for my broadband internet. This move was motivated by the $30 difference between cable internet and DSL, although I get about a 10th the downstream and half the upstream that I used to have. The other problem I had is that not one phone jack in my house worked after the AT&T technician activated the box on the outside of my house. I called AT&T, and they told me they'd be happy to install a jack for me, for only $250. That's what I call motivation. A new Lowe's opened up the road from me so I decided to tackle it myself. Some of these tools and supplies I already had, and some of them I bought.

Tools and Supplies:
Cordless Drill (Ryobi 12V)
3/8" Installers bit (It's like a foot long)
1/2" Spade bit
Tape Measure
Phillips Screwdriver
Stud Finder
Keyhole (drywall) Saw
Spool of 6-wire phone cable
Flashlight
Dowel Rods
Wood Glue
Low-Voltage interior wiring box
Phone-jack wall plate

I cut and stripped one end of the cable and wired up the tip and ring
wires for line one (red and green) and two (Black and yellow) to my
phone box (although I'll only be using line one). I ran the wire to a
whole int he foundation where the AC piping runs and fed it into the
crawlspace. I found two studs between which I wanted to mount my phone
jack and traced the wiring box on the wall. I drilled two holes in the
drywall on the topright and bottomleft corners of the box, then cute
out a rectangle with the keyhole saw. Then I Measured from the inside
and outside and determined where I should drill up to be inside the
wall of the computer room below the new hole. Mary tried to help from
upstairs while I drilled, I made two holes with no luck, through the
third I could see a spot of light. Mary determined this was in the
kitchen and I was poking out of the floorboard. Adjusted about a half
inch, and came up in the right spot and fed the wire to Mary. I used
doll rods and wood glue to plug the other holes I made just in case.
Back upstairs I stripped wires and wired up the jack and mounted it to
the box int he wall. hooked up a phone and had Dialtone. Huzzah for me
the wire runner.

But wait, that's not all. The Hatch on the back of my Prius has been stuck for a few weeks, it hasn't been a big deal so I was going to wait till my next oil change and have the guys look at it. But they told me they couldn't fix it, and I'd have to take it to the dealer and that it would cost hundreds of dollars. With my new found confidence after the DSL, I decided to DIY. Or DIM I guess. Anyway I had to take off about 6 panels in the back while I was wallowing over the folded down back seats. Then I was able to pry the latch open. I then could un-bolt the whole latch assembly, unplug it un-route wires and remove it. So under closer scrutiny I found a small thin metal wire like a ... maybe like a staple form a staple-gun, but it was about three inches long and had wrapped around the mechanisms that release the latch. After removing it, I still had to bend a piece that had gotten distorted by the stupid wire. And grease things up so that it all moved smoothly again. After putting it all back together I was pleasantly surprised that it worked. HA HA!

Getting my Summer On

2007-06-12T12:09:00.001-05:00

It's summer now and there are things that are done in the summer.

First and foremost the due date for little Mr. Harden is July 1st, although he is quite big already so he might show up early. Anyway we are excited and are getting the house in order for everything. My Cousin Adam is moving to St. Louis for his residency and with his moving truck my Mom is sending all kinds of baby stuff including my crib. So that's all good.

Other big news is that I got a part in a short horror movie that is shooting here. It is just a 3 minute short bt a local guy, but I got the part of the killer by submitting this photo.

And the rest of my time is filled by computer calls with flurries of neuroscience.

Over the top

2007-04-22T17:40:00.000-05:00

Today we saw some sites. One of them was this white horse on a hill next to an obelisk. All of this is very old, but I don't remember the names of the places. Clerbinshire or Derbiskville or some such. Anyway we walked to the top of this hill. It was a rough hike for me, but I made it, thanks to hiking class at USI. In any event here are some photos at the top.

Churchyard

2007-04-20T07:21:00.000-05:00

This is at the churchyard where the wedding will be. We were just here for rehearsal, it is a really beautiful village named, Castle Combe. As you can see here Matt and George are really excited.

Bath

2007-04-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

Right now I'm in England. I'm here for my best friend's wedding and that's really cool. I probably won't post much here this week while i'm here, but I'll try to moblog up photos from my cell-phone and you can check other photos in the April Gallery. The flight was terribly uncomfortable, if you didn't realize, I'm kind of a giant and there is no way for me to sit comfortably for 6 hours. There were in-flight on-demand movies, so I demanded an episode of the Simpsons, and School for Scoundrels and Stranger than Fiction. I had already seen stranger than fiction, but School for Scoundrels was great. I'm sorry if this post as been disjointed I haven't slept in ... well a long time (I can't do math either).

Jack talked Thai real well.

2007-04-15T21:37:00.000-05:00

Today Mary and I went to the Thai Festival at a Wat Phrasriratanaram, a Buddhist temple in Florissant. It was awesome, the photo is of a parking-lot sized parade that came through the fest, complete with giant golden fingernails, kids dressed in bright colors and a guy with a mini-gong. The main attraction was the food that was at various booths set-up by local Thai restaurants. We had chicken satay, thai meatballs, some sort of cake (Roti maybe) and a great chicken eggplant meal. But I also had the worst thing ever. EVER. Mary went to get some Chicken Basil Curry or somesuch, but they were out, and instead she got, "something green curry," so I took the first bite. It was so awful. I immediately needed to get it out of my mouth, but we were enthronged by Thai Buddhists. I just kept chewing all the while trying not to think about the disgusting rubbery slime plank that was in my mouth. It is as if someone had used gelatin to thicken snot. They should've sent a poet. I don't have the words to describe how bad this was. While I choked it down Mary did some investigating and found out that what I was reverse-vomiting into my stomach was in fact catfish. Catfish! Catfish green curry. Why would anyone make such a dish, let alone trick people into eating it. That just makes me think these Buddhists were irresponsible. But then again everything else about the event was fabulous. We even went int he temple and caught a brief Muy Thai kick boxing bout. All in all it was a good time and I think everyone should go. Just don't eat the catfish.

MEAT!

2007-03-25T16:57:00.000-05:00

I saw this sign on a meat packaging plant in Greenwood, IN this weekend. What a deal!

Somatopsychic

2007-03-21T08:21:00.000-05:00

I decided to start a new blog dedicated to neuroscience and my grad school experience. It is called Somatopsychic, and it is still hosted on the blogger network. Nothing much there just yet, but I plan to add too it all week.

Prodigal Hat

2007-03-14T14:19:00.003-05:00

Oh what joy is a hat! I lost this hat several weeks ago when my hair was at it's most fierce and the hat was most in need. But lo today it was found. Behind Griffin's Room (which is code for his kennel). I don't know why finding my hat makes me giddy and apparently old english, but the important thing is I have my hat. And as you can see, that makes me happy.

King's Forest

2007-03-12T08:35:00.001-05:00

Somewhere between where I park, and my office is this sign. I pass by it a lot and everytime I wonder at it's meaning. The first two words, "Fishing Prohibited," make perfect sense aside from unnecessary capitalization. I get that. But then it starts to fall apart. "Research Lake." What does that mean? Are they researching the lake? Or is the lake an implement for research? In either case there is a fountain in the lake, which I'm almost certain isn't found in natural lakes, so maybe it's not naturalists researching the lake, but landscaping artists instead. Or maybe it is just a cage for the fish upon which research is conducted. In any event, how does the research status of the lake affect the fishability of it. Does knowing it is a research lake make me less likely to fish in it, I mean above and beyond the "Fishing Prohibited" portion of the sign. Without doing some research of my own, I'd imagine that reading the first two words of the sign account for the majority of the variability in the population's willingness to fish in the lake, given the first four words. Oh but there's more. The symbol at the bottom of the sign begins a whole new stage of analysis! The Skull and Crossbones!? Does this mean that the lake is poisonous? If it is, then maybe we shouldn't be letting geese swim around on it, or fish in it for that matter. Or maybe it is the fish that are poisonous, but why would you create poisonous fish to research? Or maybe it is a threat, implying that if you fish here, someone (hopefully a Pirate) will kill you. Which, while I admit makes me less likely to go fishing, I feel is a little harsh for a research lake. I just don't get it.

Ice Cream of the Future

2007-03-10T14:12:00.001-06:00

Today Alice and I went to the Zoo after tumble Tots. She loves the Zoo, and we go there at least a few times a month. The weather was really great though, so the Zoo was jam packed with people! None of that matter to Alice though, she just wanted to pet goats, rabbits and snakes. When we were going to the reptile house Alice was dragging a bit, and I told her, "C 'mon Buddy!" but she corrected me, "I'm not a buddy I'm a honey." So cute!

Tumble Tots

2007-03-10T10:41:00.001-06:00

Alice loves the trampoline! That blurry bit is here streaking across the long skinny tramps here at Gateway Kids World. Today they are playing the Best of REM during open gym, and Alice is making up a missed class so she's had two hours of jumping, and tumbling, and listening! It really is a great class, she loves it. I hope that she gets over her falling fear here and picks up some balance too, she normally isn't very coordinated, but she is getting better!

Birthday Cake

2007-03-09T14:24:00.003-06:00

Today was a Dr. Zuleyma's birthday. At the ABDG group she was served this cake. You can never really tell with the biology department, but I suspect the spiders are fake.

Strange Dream

2007-03-07T18:57:00.000-06:00

Recently we had a discussion about dreams in my cognitive seminar, I don't normally remember my dreams, and the context of our discussion didn't really have anything to do with dream interpretation. But for the first time in a while I remembered my dream last night. It was a strange, vaguely Kafka-esque one too. I dreamed that I was rushing to the hospital cause something was wrong with my babies. They took me to the ER where a nurse felt lumps in my arm. She told me it was too soon but they had to come out now. She whipped out a knife, like one of those folding knives people keep in their pockets, thumbed open the blade and sliced my right arm open. Out came a translucent brown ichor with about a dozen beetles or roaches in it. The bugs all were motionless except one whose legs were wiggling. I started crying and said, "Oh please little Andy or Jenny, you can make it." The nurse told me he had to be rushed away but a tech would be right in for the others. Then they put a patch on my arm to cover the gash (which still wasn't bleeding). That's all.

This is a Test

2007-03-07T16:25:00.001-06:00

This is a test of MoBlogging. If you can read this, I can MoBlog.

Fear of a Bot Planet

2007-02-26T19:21:00.000-06:00

Tonight Alice and I were playing, and I was pretending to be a robot. She was pretending to be a human trapped on a robot planet. Here is an excerpt from our super-sweet play:

Mitch Bot 2000: I am Mitch Bot 2000, Hello Alice-tron 3!
Alice: I'm not Alice Tron I'm just Alice.
Mitch Bot 2000: That does not computer. Would you like a bath in boiling hot oil?
Alice: But I'm not a robot I'm a person.
Mitch Bot 2000: What is a person?
Alice: I wear clothes.
Mitch Bot 2000: Robot Clothes?
Alice: No, I have real eyes, real nose, and a real mouth.
Mitch Bot 2000: Robot node, robot eyes, and a robot mouth?
Alice: No I am a person and I have a heart!
Mitch Bot 2000: What is a heart?
Alice: A heart is for loving people.
Mitch Bot 2000: Robots do not love.
Alice: But you're not a robot!
Mitch Bot 2000: Yes I am.
Alice: But you love me.
Mitch Bot 2000: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwh.

Nickname suggestions are in - News

2007-02-15T15:34:00.000-06:00

Awesome. Here at UMSL (home of the Rivermen) there is a campaign to find a new nickname. One of my two suggestions has made it to the final six. I suggested Archers, and Dumbsels.

Nickname suggestions are in - News

Here is a transcript of a discussion I just had about it:

Matt: I like Archers, too.

Aviators is good, though.

Mitch: Archers is better though. Cause we could have a long bowman at a basketball game fire a flaming arrow in a parabolic arc and photograph it from the side with an open shutter so it is a big gym full of fans, and a flaming Arch.

Jsut because campus is near the airport doesn't mean aviators is a good choice.

Stupid planes and their noise

No man. Archers is where it's at.

In fact, I think Mudcats is the only serious competition against Archers. Red THunder is non-sensica, Aviators is a stretch, Tritons is cool, but greek mythology is out. And who wants to vote for the incumbant rivermen?

Matt: Aviators comes from Spirit of Saint Louis, not the airport. Lindburgh.

You moron.

Mitch: Lindburgh can't even hold onto a baby, I don't think he is the sort of "hero" we want representing our community. And if he loved it so much here, why did he live in New Jersey? He only named his plane after us because this is where the money came from!

Digested

2007-02-06T14:01:00.000-06:00

Yeah yeah it's been a while. Anyway I have lots of news. So we moved into our new house. Things went pretty smoothly really. It was winter break so I was able to pack everyhting while Mary worked, and we managed to get everything out and the old place cleaned up by New Years (for which we did nothing special). We're still unpacking, but it is going pretty well. We have a lot of crap and finding a place for it all to live for the next three to five years is a daunting task. All the furniture is squared away thoguh and most of the boxes have been unpacked. I've also done some handy work, I've replaced door knobs, and I built shelves into a coat closet to make a pantry. My next project is going to be insulating the windows with this shrink wrap stuff, and putting insulation in the crawl space. At school I landed a Graduate Research Assitantship which pays me a stipend and provides full tuition remission. As such I picked up an extra class this semester, so I'm taking both Multivariate Stats and a Cognitive Seminar. By Assitantship is with Dr. Barb Bucur, and the fist things I'm working on are a website for our lab and learning E-prime for creating experiments. I set up a web-cam in my office too so that all of you can view science in action without being creepy in any way. We also had our court date for custody of Alice on January 10th. I was a witness and so didn't get to see much of it, but I feel it went as well as it could have, the Judge has 90 days to make a decision so now it is just more waiting. Agonizing waiting. Then the last piece of big news is one I've been holding back, but Mary and I are pregnant! Yup, we just had her 18 week Ultrasound, and this summer we'll be the proud parents of a baby boy! I'm a little nervous about having a boy as I was a terrible child (and subsquently an awful person). But it is so exciting! My Mom isn't as excited as I'd like her to be, I mean I'm sure she'll get better over time, but right now I think she just sees baby Moses as an expense instead of a bundle of joy.

Christmas!

2006-12-25T09:43:00.000-06:00

2006 December

The Way We Were

2006-12-14T21:27:00.000-06:00

One of the things I miss most about the Hospital where I used to work was the constant wave of controversy upon which I could comment. I really enjoyed crafting arguments and spinning tales to try to mediate the rampant craziness that went on there. Fortunately I still occasionally hear a tale about a thing or two. The new CIO decided to re-brand the Christmas Luncheon to the Holiday Party. This could be because he came from the left coast and that’s how they get their party on in the warm California sun. But whatever the reason, this enraged the Help Desk (where I hung out most of my time there), so much so that they held a boycott and ate lunch elsewhere that day. I’m sure they claimed it was because they want Christmas and not Holidays, and maybe they are disappointed in that, I know I am. But, I think the real reason for the anger is because it was the new boss that made the change. He isn’t well liked. I mean I only worked for him for a minute and I already didn’t like him. I think the best descriptor I heard for him in my time there was “pod person” as he doesn’t have a personality, isn’t loyal to his employees, and meddles in everything. Putting the many many flaws of the new boss aside, the Christmas Lunch wasn’t about being a Christian, or celebrating the hospitals Christian heritage, or any of that. It was about the whole IT department getting together as a family to share a meal together. Sure gifts were given, prayers may have been said, and the halls were truly decked, but it never felt like a religious observance to me. It felt like a party. Despite the vile nature of the host of the party, ditching your family to try to uphold a grudge seems petty. They should all know better. Things get worse though, as apparently boss decided to confront the boycotters face to face about it (his mistake) and they all voiced their religious concerns about attending (just tell him you don’t like him already!). I really wish I could’ve been there for this as it is just the kind of fiasco I thrive on! Oh well, I’m sure something like that will happen at school sooner or later.

All should love them

2006-12-09T09:04:00.000-06:00

Anxiety status downgraded

2006-12-07T12:51:00.000-06:00

Yes I've lowered the anxiety threat index from mid-grade to low-grade. There are two factors here, one is the end of the semester at school, but the big one is the house. Yeah it looks like I will be a homeowner. So more details. The home is is St. Ann, MO which is in Saint Louis County (so my mailing address is still St. Louis, but it could also be St. Ann (I don't know either)). It is in the Pattonville school district which is a good thing and it is near a large park. There are still two things that could go wrong, something with the Title, or something with the financing. I'm getting my Mortgage through Wells-Fargo and the guy I'm working with says it all looks fine, but the final word has to be said before the 14th so who knows. The title stuff is done by the 16th and our closing date is the 21st. I plan to hire movers to come move all of our furniture so if any of my friends would like to help me move (and by that I mean watch the movers) let me know. But Mary and I will still have to pack and unpack all of our ... things, so we'll keep the index at low just in case.

A message from God

2006-11-29T13:40:00.000-06:00

Today I received a message from God in the mail. For the last three months or so I've been growing out a beard. Okay it's not a beard. It's more of a fuzz. Some of you may remember my past facial hair attempts, this one is no better. God told me to quit. He sent me a Gillette Fusion in the mail. I can only assume that he either wants me to shave this beard or lacerate myself on the multi-bladed monstrosity that sits on my table. Of course I'm defying his commandment yet again and will continue to boycott shaving at least until memorial day. In other news we are getting really close to getting a house. It is so much freakin work! There are papers upon papers to sign, and re-sign and initial and negotiate. Here's the rundown of how it has gone:

1. Go to open houses and decide we want to buy a house
2. Check with banks about loans.
3. Find a real-estate Agent (Dale M Weir and she's awesome)
4. Pour through hundreds of home listings on-line
5. Spend days looking at dozens of houses in person
6. Pick one.
7. Jump through (flaming) hoops for Wells-Fargo loan people.
8. Put out a contract on the house.
9. Negotiate price.
10. Pay for and attend building inspection of house and find out the many things wrong with it
11. Ask for all that crap to get fixed.

That's where we are now. If the Seller agrees to fix everything then we are golden. But it is more likely that she will offer to fix some things, then negotiations on what she will and won't fix go on until we reach an agreement (within 10 days) or call the whole thing off. If that happens I have to get home-owners insurance, a spot survey and some sort of title check done. If all goes reasonably well our closing date is set for December 21st so we'll be able to move-in before the end of the year! Whew! Then of course we'll have to throw a bash and invite everyone (both people) we know.

On the shrinking front: I haven't been to the Gym this month, and while I did eat a lot over Thanksgiving, I think I've been doing pretty well otherwise. I'm sure I won't have time to focus on any of that over December either as I'm applying for PhD programs, adjunct teaching positions, and with any luck moving. Maybe 2007 will be better for shrinking.

Nightmares and Civics

2006-11-09T08:57:00.000-06:00

I know it's been a while. I've been busy. Firstly Mary and I are considering buying a house. We have no money, bad credit, and whatnot but that doesn't seem to be a problem for some lenders. It is really nerve-racking though cause I feel like we are hanging by a thread on the financing (could fall through at any given moment) but at the same time am hopeful about finding a place. It is a nightmare of paper-work though and we are already tired of house hunting.

I voted in the recent election and while I am pleased with the results I am also very disgusted with myself. I feel like by participating in the system I am endorsing it, so now it will all be my fault. I feel so dirty after voting and scrub as I may I can't get clean (Just kidding I don't bathe). Anyway I don't like the process, I am even more disenfranchised now (even though the people I voted for won) and I hope never to vote again.

Lastly, I'm sure you've all seen this on a variety of blogs, but here it is again:

Ow.

2006-10-11T07:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first day of working out. Kristin came and got me around 13:45 and we went to the gym on campus. She showed me the machines and told me how they work. We worked on the weight machines for about forty minutes. I did arms and chest exercises, and tried to do enough weight that I could just do 3 sets of 12 reps each. After all of that we did 20 minutes on a exercise bike, which was the sweaty portion of the exercise. This morning I really feel the pain in my shoulders and arms. Kristin assures me that this is normal, and good. So all right. Anyway, I'm planning to go back today to do legs and Core. I'll keep posting here as things happen. If any of you have any weight-training advice I'd love to hear it, just post a comment! I'm sure I don't have enough metrics up here. I'll weigh myself, and try to get Mary to take my measurements, and I'll record what weight I'm doing on what machine and get all that up here. That'd be helpful right?

Rats

2006-10-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

Kay, don't read this post. So I've been working with my rat now for a week and I've decided to give her a name. Firstly let me describe a bit of what it is like working with a rat. I give her an injection each morning, I can't really talk about what I'm giving her, but let's just say it's "Blue." So once my rat is good and strung out on blue, I do a test. There are three tests we do. The first is Play-fighting. This has not been as fun as I had hoped. I was imaging some sort of rat UFC, or rat-dome where two rats enter and one rat leaves. I put my rat and a target "Control" rat in a terrarium and theoretically watch them wrassle. In practice they huddle near each other and poo. Another test is object recognition, where I show my rat novel things and time how long she sniffs them. So far she seems ambivalent about these allegedly interesting objects. Lastly is the open field test where I put her on a table with a grid and count how many squares she moves through and how many times she rears up. This is the worst because I have to watch a stop-watch, use click-counters in each hand, and jot down numbers every minute. It's like juggling science. Not to mention this last time she jumped off the table to scurry about the room. After we do this for a few weeks she will be sacrificed which I will get to do, and then a necropsy. To be honest I'm not sure how this end of life situation will work out, but I'm looking forward to it. In any event I've named my rat, Jondi.

A new Puppy

2006-10-07T19:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of our new yet-as-unnamed puppy.

Top contenders for names have been:

1. Mason
2. Bacon
3. Duncan
4. Gylph
5. Rufus
6. Percival
7. Galen
8. Roman
9. Henry
10. Griffin

Anyway, we can't choose. Mary thinks he has an "old-man" face, and that's probably true. He is a Beagle/Boxer mix and is about 5 months old. If you have any suggestions please go ahead and weigh in.

Mark Twain

2006-10-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Recently my step-mother sent me an E-mail after reading my blog, I'll put it here:

"Hey Mitch,

Was reading your blog and saw the stuff about  wanting to join the community center. Why don't you just go over to the school  gym during your school day? Build the time into your schedule. http://www.umsl.edu/services/recsport/facilities.htm

I've all of a sudden gotten into exercising,  myself. Went on a 25 mile bike ride the 1st of Sept and did not do well, so Cole  made up a training schedule for me and I did a ride of 31 miles yesterday, and  it was a piece of cake. So, now have joined the gym and will probably move in  there and become lean and hard as a stone. 

Sounds like all is going well out there; am glad  married life and parenting is agreeing so well with you. 

I'd still love a visit from all of y'all, whenever you get this way."

This turns out to be great advice! Today while I was walking through the building to place a note on a bench, I ran into my new friend Krisitn. Krisitn and Liz are roommates I think, and Liz is a Neuroscience girl so I see her all the time and we are friends too. Anyway, Krisitn asked if I knew that there was a gym on campus, and I told her I had just found out about it, and she told me it was free, and so on. Anyway Kristin invited me to go to the gym with her every Tuesday and Thursday at 2pm, so it is my plan to do that. She'll run, and I'll elliptical and then we will both do weights. I should be able to make it back to my class at 4 so it fits into my schedule well! I have slacked off on the walking home this week (as I've been driving to school with Miss Alice) but I think I'm still prepared for working out. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Hugs and Keys

2006-10-05T13:35:00.000-05:00

Today I found keys in the hallway at school. My instinct was to grab them, so I did. Then I got to thinking about what to do with them. First I tried to find a lost & found, but apparently there are none here, or no one working at them anyway. So I went back to where I found them and left a note about the lost keys and where to find me (S442-C). Not long after a pair of girls came and were so overjoyed about finding the keys that they gave me a hug. I'm not very good at altruism or being responsible, but I think this time it went well.

Dinner at Wapango

2006-10-04T20:40:00.000-05:00

Last night we went to dinner at Wapango. It was Mary, Alice, Me and out friend Jamie. It was an awesome time. The restraunt really looks great, and the food was fantastic. We started out with Empanadas de Queso which were fantastic. Alice love them too. The cheese that was in them was so creamy and smooth that when you bit into the pastry shell it was just like biting a cloud of delight. Mary and I also had cocktails, I had a Mojito and Mary had something with basil. Both were good but I much preferred the Mojito, I also sampled the blood orange mojito which was even better! For meals, I had Cayo Chicken, which was a chicken breast served on a bed of the cutest pasta I've ever eaten, all topped with sauce and onion rings. Mary had Tuna which was so good, and Jamie had Coco Pollo salad which looked great (and was huge!). Alice of course had chicken nuggets. Desserts were grand as well and we had three, Flan of the month (rum!), Quatro Leche cake, and Chocolate Fritters, all of which were so so good. Anyway, if you haven't been to Wapango, go there now.

Civics

2006-09-26T12:24:00.000-05:00

Ick.

I registered to vote. I was told I should if I want to decalre state residency, so my longtime stance of political apathy has been broken. Yes. Okay, I realize that I don't have to actually vote now that I'm registered, but then I still get counted as a non-voting registered voter so I figure at this point I might as well. Anyway, I've been trying to get to know the candidates, since I have some important races here.
For one there is a US Senate race here and it is important if the democrats want to get a majority back in the senate. This one plagues me. I dislike both Claire McCaskill andJames M. 'Jim' Talent. And I do kinda like the Libretarian candidate, Frank Gilmour, but since the race is so tight between the other two I feel like I don't have the luxury to vote for the guy I like best. Meh.
Secondly, I've got to vote for a US House rep too, this is tough to, one one side I've got Lacy Clay the incumbant democrat, versus Mark Byrne. This one is tough too. I'm not really opposed to the war in Iraq, I feel that as long as our soldiers are targets over there, we civllians are less of a target over here. So their split on that issue doesn't bother me, and Byrne is refreshingly wary of the Patriot Act. Unfortunately we split on Education, Abortion, and Immigration. So I think I'll vote for Clay, but I could still be swayed.
So then on to local elections, I've got to vote for State auditor, senator (24th district), and representative (73rd district). State Auditor is a tough one, but I'm going for Charles Baum since he is a 3rd party and thus less vested. He also seems to have a lot of practical financial experience so perhaps he can bring that knowledge into the politicized world of state finances.
I'm still up in the air for the senate because I can't find any info about the republican challenger
John W. Maupin, so it looks like I'll go for incumbant Joan Bray. And lastly in the House 73rd district I gotta vote for Margaret Donnelly simply because O'Sullivan's website is SO lame. I mean compare it to Donnelly's. Maybe if O'Sullivan updates it before the election I'll change my mind.

Meh

2006-09-24T01:25:00.000-05:00

This is the story of a drunk girl. But before I can get to that you have to know some things.

1. My home internet connection was severed through a bizzare and arcane process. As many of you know I've lived in St Louis since June. I've had High Speed internet from Charter Communications since I moved into my appartment. Also there are two apparentments in my building, and only recently has the upstairs appartment been rented. The upstairs appartment is Apt A. Mine has no Apt letter. Well Friday morning my Internet stopped working. I had things to do but I called Charter around 3ish. I got disconnected. I called back, finally got tech support. The lady had trouble figuring out the problem, told me it was my account and tried to transfer me to billing, and I got disconnected again. Called back talked to billing, my account is paid up in full, so I got transferred back to tech support. They tried to step me through what I had been doing before, I cut the girl off and told her I'd been through all that, so then she was looking at different things, and then saw that there was a problem with my account and tried to transfer me but I got disconnected. Then I called back and talked to a good tech support guy, he found out that my account had been de-activated when new people activated an account at my address (Apt A) I told him that Apt A wasn't my address, so he got me to the accounts department to get my address corrected. Unfortunately they couldn't just change the address since someone lived there. So after convincing them that I haven't moved, they added a NEW address in for my account. But then I got disconnected. Called back, turns out that the new address is flagged as not-serviceable. They have to submit forms to get it approved for service, which will take 7-10 days to process. So to make a long story short (far too late), through no fault of my own my cable internet service has been cut-off for at least a week.

2. I work an on-line Q&A job where people txt me questions and I research answers, but this job requires me to be on-line and today I was scheduled from 8pm to 2am.

3. After an exhaustive search I found a 24/7 Coffee shop that has free WiFi. Coffee Cartel. And I love it. Although there must be bars around because there are many many people in the streets and coming and going.

Well this drunk little girl (must be a Junior?) has stumbled past me to or three times. She fell over a chair at some point but was uninjured. At this point she had other friends with her to corral her. But, eventually she goes outside and nearly fell again but instead upset an umbrella table and her friends are no where around. She sits down at the table with the folk that were already there. After a few minute she tries to stand up, but catches her flop on the chair and slams her face forward into the table, she falls flat on he back on the ground next to the table out cold. As the people around try to help her up, she is laughing far to hard to be helped up. Like a snowman unmelting she makes it to her feet, and sloshes out of side. Within a minute a paramedic is asking around for her, apparently being called in to help. The moral of the story is to always make sure your friends won't abandon you when you are drunk, even if it is you that ran away from them.

A day with Alice

2006-09-10T09:07:00.000-05:00

So today Mary had to work, and Alice and I stayed together all day. Firstly we watched a lot of Spongebob from breakfast to lunch really, but then we were ready to get dressed and head to the Zoo! First we saw the goats again, which is a favorite, and spent an hour or so brushing them and feeding them sticks. Then to the playground where Alice pretended to be a spider. Also there are fountains for kids to paly in, and Alice did that for a while too, I had told her not to get TOO wet, and she managed to just get Damp +2 but not all the way to Extremely Soaked. We got to pet a snake and a guinnea pig in another building and Alice even said she wanted to get a soft snake for home. Probably not. We shared a corndog while watching the seals, and by that time Alice had dried so we could see the penguins.

After the Zoo it was time for the Hamster Derby at the Olive St Petco. Heather's hamster Marley was competing and so we went to show our support. Alice really liked playing witht he hamster ball, and was really good around the little rodents. I was afraid she would snatch one up and squish it in her hand, or get bit. But she didn't grap at them, and even pet Marly's tail-end a little bit (under close supervision). Marly placed 2nd and there was much cheering!

After Mary got home we stopped at Kohl's to check out a sale, and then for dinner we went to a Chinese sit down restraunt, Wei Hong. It was fantastic. I had Beef and Bitter Melon, which was strangely good. Mary ahd Walnut Shrimp, which I didn't liek as much, but she didn't care as much for my bitter melon so I guess it all evens out. Alice was a good girl too, and had some Crab Rangoons and Egg Drop Soup. She even tried the sweet red beans that we had for dessert!

Parking Dispute

2006-09-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Heather called in the morning and said she wouldn't be co ming in due to a parking dispute. Today I got the whole story, and while this isn't really my story to tell it is just too good. Here it is as best as I can recall:

"In the MSC parking lot the army had roped off something like six spaces, and then they had a truck parked in another student parking spot. I pulled up and asked them to move the truck since that was student parking and I pay for that. They told me the guy with the keys wasn't there, and then a bunch of guys came out of a trailer and told me "there was no problem" and that I should jus move along. Well I wasn't intimidated and so I just got back int here face, and things started to get out of hand. I threw my syrup on the ground near them, and tore down their ropes, then pulled my car into that space. That's when they got really threatening and told me they would key my car, and all that. So I flagged downa campus security guy and he come over and after tlaking for a while he told me that I just needed to move, and was totally on the side of the army guys. After more arguing I got in my car and called you [That is to say me, Mitch.] and then called the campus police [There is apolice sub-station on campus]. They sent three officers out and they tried to calm things down. They put me in the back of a squad car and asked me a lot of questions, like if I had been taking my meds and stuff, and they tried to get me to go to the crisis intervention center, but after a while everything calmed down, and I decided just to go cause I couldn't really trust my car there."

Wow!

According to Plan

2006-09-07T09:54:00.000-05:00

So all week I've stuck to my plan. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I took the Metro to school, and when I metro'd home I included a mile walk (and will again today). As a by-product of all this public transit, I've had to ride the campus shuttle a couple of times too. For those of you not familiar with UMSL's campus it is divided into two sections, North (where my Office is) and South (where the Child Development Center is) and each morning after dropping Alice off I catch the shuttle to North. Every day the bus driver has been on her cell phone, which you might think would be harrowing (you know big bus, distracted driver) but actually it didn't seem to make a difference. And then on yesterday when I rode over for lunch with Alice, she was STILL on the phone, so I suspect she stays ont he phone form 7am to 2pm for her whole shift.

The Office

2006-09-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

Here are two pictures of my Office. You can see Heathers desk, and my Desk. As you may have noticed Heather has the "good" desk, but I've actually grown quite fond of my work area. I have three dwarers and a slide out sandwich tray. My TruFlat desktop allows me to stack and pile more efectively, and my looming Conquistador looms mightily above, a constant reminder of things yet to come.

In other news, Alice was great on the Metro today. She loved the train and looking at all the things out there. In fact the whole commute was smooth as silk. Mary is a bit down on the whole Metro thing, but she dropped us off at our first train (at Brentwood Station) about 45 seconds before the train arrived, we had a short lay-over at the transfer, and the walk from the station to Day Care wasn't anything at all, in fact Alice walked on her own the whole way. Daycare was glad to get Alice back, and I'm planning to go over and visit at Lunch time, she so loves it there. Mary is going to pick her up from school after she gets off work, but I plan to Metro home again.

No Sooner Spoken Than Broken

2006-09-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

So I broke my camera. Not too bad, but the screen is cracked and not working. I can still take pictures, I just can't do anything with the settings or menu. So that sucks. I'm not sure how it happened, I had it in the case the whole time and was very careful, but ... oh well. I wonder if there is some sort of fix-it policy. I know such things exist. Hrm. UPDATE: Well I checked out Cannon's site and they have a handy little tech support page and it tells me I'm out of warranty and that it'll cost $97 to get the camera repaired. I have a Canon Powershot SD300 which is a 4MP with 3x Zoom. On Amazon I could get a new Canon Powershot S400 with 4MP and 3x Zoom for only $109. So I think I'll just make do with this broken one. UPDATE: I found a repalcement LCD online for only $65, so maybe I'll get that and fix it myself!

Well we went to the Zoo with my Mom this weekend. It was a fun trip! We got to see more of the Zoo and Mom even bought us a membership so I'm sure we'll be heading back several more times this year. Alice really liked the children's zoo part (with playground and goat petting) and she LOVES the penguins. We also got to see the baby elephant which was just adorable! It is a good thing we went early though, by afternoon the line for the baby was so very long!

Mom also wanted to go shopping to buy things to organize our appartment, which was an arduous process, I mean I think it's great that my Mom cares and wants to help, but I don't want her to clean and organize when she comes to visit. I'm sure Mary doesn't enjoy it either. Alice was indifferent. But we had dinner together and just had a generally good time.

FOUND!

2006-09-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

I found my Camera. My Mom came to visit today, and when we got in her car Alice found my camera. Now my Mom calims that she searched the car, but that claim seems dubious now. Anyway, Huzzah! Here are some of the pictures that were on the camera:

Much more better

2006-08-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

So for 2 out of the last 3 days I've managed to use the eliptical for 20 minutes and I stuck to the diet plan everyday so far. I do however need to find the AC adapter for the eliptical so that I can use the programs and timer, and yes this means I've done it without any resistence so far. I still have worked up a sweat and everything (because I'm that out of shape), but being able to do the classic "Hill Run" would be more fun. I didn't metro yesterday as I had to go back to AB to finish fixing a printer (which I actually couldn't do since the part didn't come in), but this morning Metro went much smoother, total travel time down to 28 minutes. Now if I can just line things up as well for the return trip.

0810 Board 02 WUSTL-RED bus
0831 Arrive at Delmar Station
0833 Board Westboud Train
0838 Arrive at UMSL-North Station

I've been planning out my return trip, and I think I've got it. If I catch the 5:27 or 5:47 train out of UMSL-North, I can make it to the Forrest Park Connecting Station in time to catch the Southbound train to UC/Big Bend station, and then Walk about a mile home. Adding in this longer walk cuts my trip time down to less than 45 minutes. If I catch the 5:37 train out of UMSL-North, then I can catch the 16 Bus at Delmar Station towards the intersection of Bellebue and Clayton which is about a half-mile from my house, and also about a 45 minute trip. I really like these plans because adding in the extra walking is also good for health.

UPDATE: I actually made the 5:27 train (with almost 45 seconds to spare) when class got out at 5:16, AND I made it home at 6:13 so that made a total travel time of 46 minutes. Great!

Tale of an Iron Rider

2006-08-29T09:11:00.000-05:00

Today I took the Metro to school. UMSL has a deal with city metro so student get a steeply discounted rate on a MetroPass for the semester. It costs $45 for a student pass for the semester, and if I bought the same pass in the World it would cost $60 per month. It is my plan to take the metro Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but still drive on Monday and Friday so I could do OnForce jobs as they appear. Mary is off work Mondays, but on TWR she could drive Agatha to her work and save on gas. Then on Friday she can drive Philippe (her Ford Focus). It is 7 miles from home to school, and Agatha gets about 42 mpg on the trip so that's about .17 gallons of gas. At $2.63 a gallon, that is $0.44 per trip. Two trips a day, three days a week from now for sixteen weeks until the end of the semester is 96 trips or $42.24. For Mary it is a 15 mile commute to work, at an estimated 24 mpg, that's .63 gallons of gas for Philippe or $1.64 per trip. Compare that to Agatha's 42 mpg or .36 gallons (about $0.94) which is a savings of $0.70 a trip. So for the 96 trips that Mary can use Agatha instead of Philippe to get to and from work, will be a savings of about $134.40! So that would bring the total savings of metro to: $131.64 ($42.24+$134.40-$45). And that is not counting the imagined savings of less mileage on our combined cars resulting in fewer maintenance costs. And that's all figuring on today's gas price, but of course YMMV.

There is still some experimenting for me to do to find the most efficient route to school. The Bus line that goes by our house goes to two different metro stations so the ratio of bus-time to train-time may be able to be tweaked. But in any event here are today's stats.

0742 Left Home
0748 Arrived at Bus Stop
0758 Boarded Westbound Number 2 MetroBus (WUSTL-RED)
0808 Arrived at Richmond Heights MetroLink Station
0817 Boarded Eastbound train terminating at JJK
0827 Arrived at Forrest Park Transfer Station
0832 Boarded Westbound Train terminating at Lambert
0841 Arrived at UMSL-North MetroLink Station
0852 Arrived in Office

So all in all a seventy minute trip. But that bus line (WUSTL-RED) also runs westbound to the Lambert-Shiloh train line, which means that if I boarded the bus going the other direction, I could bypass the wait at the Richmond Heights station, and the wait at the transfer station, although I don't know how long that bus trip will take. I also don't really have any inkling of how long it takes to drive to campus, but I'll note that on Friday.

Shakin it up

2006-08-28T14:26:00.000-05:00

So I recently did an inventory of all my remaining Optifast crap as Mary suggested. I have 180 products in total. So my rough-shod plan is to have three a day between 7AM and 4PM and then an appropriate portion of dinner in the evening. I think this will be the best way to use them up, diet some, and it'll be an easy and economical way to take my lunch to school. So that should last for about three months I guess. After that maybe I'll continue with some OTC meal-replacement formula, or perhaps I will try to low-carb it again. We'll decide in `07! Mary is quite wary about joining the community center (with gym) so instead my swet wife rearranged some furniture and hauled our Eliptical upstairs from the basement so that I could use that. While I do feel that anaerobic exercise will be a must for me to continue to lose weight, proving that I can get into a fitness routine on the eliptical will be a good first step to justifying shelling out a bunch of cash for the community center. To that ends I plan to try to use it for 20 minutes a night at first, and gradually working up to more, but to use it five nights a week Monday through Friday. At some point I'll buy a scale and start posting daily weights again. That'll be fun.

One Week On

2006-08-25T12:53:00.000-05:00

This is my first week of school and it has gone well. I only have one real class, but it will be a lot of work I'm sure. It is a Stats class and it looks like we will jsut zoom through, and we have to do most of the work by hand, although some will be on SPSS. I've done a lot of reading this week, digesting papers relevant to the research we will be doing (involving juvie rats, their ability to remember and various drugs we will give them). As you can tell I was able to do a lot of work on my blog and other stuff that needed doing, but I've been to busy. That's because things have been a little slow on the actual work as the research ramps up in the lab. I did get to meet all my fellow grad students (I think there are 6 in my program) and of course my office mate Heather (today is a green day). I got a line on a Cello for Mary but it is $300 so I don't think I can swing it right now. And it isn't electric.

Vita

2006-08-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

While hanging out in my office today I put my vita up on Writely. http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=ddttqtf6_0d4wz9c

First day of School

2006-08-22T12:10:00.000-05:00

So Monday was my first day in the office. I met my office mate (Heather), and jsut sorta hung out. I talked to the other grad students (Josh, Nikki, Susan) and found out that I'll be de-genderizing rats later in the week. I had to watch a video about cruelty to animals and how to be an ethical researcher. It was very funny that the speaker int he video was Dr. Glen Geelhoed Director of George Washington University Infectious Disease Dept, who spoke at the Panetics thing I was invited too back in June. Small world. Also in a conversation with my office mate, she began a story, "I'm an only child and I lived at home all through my undergrad, well I tried the dorm for a semester but it didn't work out..." At this point I forecasted her very next sentence and when she spoke it aloud I almost laughed. The sentence was of course, "I don't get along well with other girls, all my firends are boys." If Heather reads this I hope she doesn't think it a slight, I've met many girls who use this line, and it just seems to be thematically correct for her (based on the hour we've talked so far.) Anyway, so far so good. Oh and as both of my faithful readers will have noticed, I back posted the last couple posts to get caught up, but loosing my camera has been seriously dmeoralizing. :(

Happy Birthday

2006-08-17T23:04:00.000-05:00

It was my Birthday today and it was just fine. Mary got me two new T-shirts, one is Serenity, and one is Boondock Saints, Hooray! Alice got me a "nice snake" it is a water toy. Fun fun! Mary's family also has a tradition that on your birthday you can have hwatever youw ant for dinner. I chose Mousaka. MOO SAH KAH! I love this stuff and Mary is SUCH a good chef. Anyway, Jamie came over for dinner two and we played Hungry Hungry Hippos and Candyland. All in all a greatly fun birthday. I'm deeply moved that Mary went to the Mall to get my present, she's a sweetie.

A glimpse into the future

2006-08-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

So we went to pick up Alice, and Kayla. Kayla is Mary's friend Christina's daughter. She is 9 and is friends with Alice (She is Mary and my friend too). We had invited her to come visit for a week for fun at the end of her summer. Anyway, after the exchange we went to Vincennes to visit my Mom. We had a good time with cook outs and park trips and all that jazz. The bad news is I lost my camera somewhere in Vincennes, so no more pictures. The key features of the week with Kayla were Radio Disney, Constant Nay-saying, and screaming. Kayla, who is normally a cool kid, antagonized Alice constantly during the week which resulted in screaming. Whenever we were in the car we listened to Radio Disney which seemed to me to be a crappy CD that had been left on loop. And then no matter what we did Kayla complained. Oy, she complained at the Zoo, she complained at the Brussels ferry, I mean everything! But it isn't as if she had a bad time. I mean even though she complained the whole time at the Zoo, later she talked about how fun it was and how much she liked it. Well we had to go see the lawyer on Friday so we drove her back to Indy. Let me telly ou driving in Agatha with Alice, Mary, Kayla, AND the Dog is quite a tough trip. We ended up having Ruby ride in the trunk on the way to Indy and she did okay with that. We made the trip late at night so everyone would sleep, a brilliant plan by Mary!

Murder by Death

2006-08-05T07:38:00.000-05:00

My good friend Justin came over from E-ville to visit and go to a concert. The concert was Murder by Death and they were playing at the Shlafly Tap Room. I already like Murder By Death ever since Mary played them for me. I especially have enjoyed there songs about Zombies in the Old West. Or whatever. Anyway, I like them even more now. One thing I hadn't expected was the lead singer. He was a small guy with a big head and small neck, kinda like that guy who played Plague on Hackers. He has a big voice though and it is need to see it come from his scrawniness. The second thing about seeing them live was the electric cellist. I know Mary reads my blog, but this girl was hot. She had man hands, and beefy arms, which I enjoy, and then she had an androgenous face which I also like. I don't mean manly, she just lacked the feminine definition in the face. Not only that, the back of the electric cello has some sort of bars on it, which apparently are tit-massagers. I dunno what there purpose was, but I think that they are the only thing holding Mary back from becoming an cellist herself. I am looking around for deals on Electric Cellos if any of you know someone with one for sale, let me know. Mary also hawked my hair for the concert which turned out great. Afterwards we hit up the IHOP for coffee and chatting. What a fun evening.

Douglas Bluff

2006-08-01T14:41:00.000-05:00

I just got back from vacation! Mary's family has land around Kentucky Lake in Tennessee and every year they gather at a cabin in the woods for vacation. This was my second trip, although last year when I went it was a dead-zone for the blog. Oh wait, no I posted about it on Myspace... that's right, here is the link which works. Well this year I went tubing for the first time. Getting into the lefe vest was a challenge, although it was easier than it was last year (when I went jet-skiing). I have a video of Diana, my sister-in-law on the tube which is now on Google Video. I also went fishing in the creek again, that is a blast. I've never fished but for these two years in Tennessee but I do enjoy it, I caught a Bass this year and the fight was fun. I worked on baiting my hook, and collecting my fish like a real fisherman too. I videotaped the cleaning process too so that I could learn, maybe that'll be on Google Video too.I ate so much while I was there, well I had huge dinners I guess, but then again I was more active than ever while I was there. I walked around all over the place, swam against currnet, and other physical activities too. I also tried to get Ruby to swim, she is part lab and has webbed toes but she isn';t too excited about the water. Using fetch I was able to get her out in the lake a ways, but in the creek the current scared her too much. I posted a whole photo album off my web page, and it include pictures from Aunt Terry's binocular camera too. I got a wicked sunburn and I am really glad we left before the heat wave hit Tennessee.

Getting caught up

2006-07-27T10:09:00.000-05:00

The other night we had dinner with an old friend of mine from high school. She is a doctor doing her residency in St. Louis right now. Which reminds me that I could be done with school if I had gone straight though, but then again I'm glad I didn't, I think my other life experiences have made me a better person and I'd hate to trade that away for anything. Regretlessness aside, it was fun to chat with her and catch up. She has done a much better job of keeping tabs on people we know and gave me the scoop on many of our classmates. Also she apparently read this blog... all of it. I'm always a bit disconcerted when someone tells me that, because this thing dates back a while and I can't remember what all I've said, and what all has happened. I looked back over things and I think I'm going to try to put some more focus on weightloss. I have been trying to keep a reasonable diet, but that has always been tough for me. I eat salad, but also ice cream. I've been working on a roughshod plan in my head and I think I'll propose it here. I have a lot of Optifast product left over, so I think I'll try to use it all up (Mary will love having the cabinet space) before school starts. We need to join the community center so I can go to the Gym a few times a week (this is the biggest hurdle for me as I've NEVER had a workout habit). I'd like to buy a scale so I can start posting daily weights, and I'd also like to start posting more about what I eat in a given day to help with accountability. These last two work better if I feel like someone actually reads my blog, so hassle me when I fail.

Twins?

2006-07-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

My friend Jake was sighted at my appartment this weekend. Isn't he bigfoot like in his stalkings? We hung out and saw a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Tivoli. It was really cool to see it with a an audience in the theater, although it was clear that some girlfriends had been drug there. Mary, of course, loves it already, and Jake too. And they server beer at the Tivoli so... yeah even better. The next day I found it strange that Jake want to dress up like me, he was all excited about looking "mitch-ish" while wearing the same outfit as me. That doesn't SEEM healthy. But you can never tellw ith Jake. We drove around, and played at the science center for a minute, but I didn't really have a plan so not much happened. I hope Jake had a decent time and wasn't TOO bored. But I do love visitors!

More shadiness

2006-07-22T10:01:00.000-05:00

Before Alice left we had to have a talk. Alice told me that she loved her Daddy more than her Mommy. I asked her why she thought this and she responded, "Daddy told me he loves me more." So I talked with Alice about love for a while, I explained that love was like a lightbulb and that it was on or off, and that Daddy and Mommy both love Alice very much, and that niether of them loves her more than the other, and that she loves them both the same too, just like she loves lots of people. She seemed to accept what I was saying, but it is hard to be sure with kids. But this has made me so angry. I mean, I understand if BabyDaddy wants to "win," if he is so concerned with making Mary miserable, that he is willing to fight tooth and ass to do so. I get that. But what is unacceptable is to USE Alice like a tool. Not only is she a human being, the use of which violates my Deontological viewpoint, but she is his daughter and a child. It is not in Alice's best interest to be used. Ever. Mary and I could be doing the same thing, we are very persuassive and Alice listens to us, but we don't. Why? Because it would be wrong to use her like that; it hurts her to be used. Reports are that BabyDaddy isn't an idiot, and if that is the case then he should know that it is wrong to manipulate his daughter, and if he knows, and does it anyway-- well in my mind that makes him Evil. What a choad.

Storm

2006-07-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well there were huge storms in St Louis. It knocked power out for like half a million people. We didn't ahve power for about four hours, but that is nothing compared to the rest of the city who STILL don't have power now. All kinds of gas stations and restruants are closed, and all the stores are out of Ice. It is so hot and people don't have A/C! Well I did snap a picture of the sky after the storm, it was odd since it had gotten so dark during the storm and right after the main body of storm passed it was sunset, but still so cloudy, so everything took on the firery orange hue. Well you can see.

Off with her head!

2006-07-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

This last weekend Mary and I had been playing to take Alice to the Levy to watch the free Better Than Ezr a concert, but at the last minute we changed our minds. Mary saw an advert for a Bastille Day celebration in the paper which included a Mock Beheading! Maybe we'd been watching too much Alice in Wonderland (for we had been watching it a lot) but it was quickly decided that we were going to Soulard to see the execution. Problem one was finding an ATM once we got there, I need to learn to stop BEFORE going places, but we managed to get cash for smokes and beers and even lemonade. A band was playing, they seemed to cover a lot of poppy punk stuff, and also Zepplin. Before long though a Mob came marching down the street on the heels of a Horse (which we later found out was named Napoleon) and Carriage. The King and Queen came out and were told, to their dismay, that this was not a final stop before they have Holiday in Spain, but in fact it was their execution! They were read a decree pointing out that Marie was an "ignorant slut who deserved to die." Historical accuracy not withstanding, they soon found their heads in the guillotine, which severed them completely. Or rather they handed the executioner Styrofoam wig-heads. It was all so fabulously campy. The band played more and we milled about for a little bit, but that seemed to be the end of the festivities for us. Except on the way home we stopped at Serendipity for Ice Cream and on the way we passed a shoppe with the most wonderful Mexican dead things. Here's a picture, but they looked like the denizens of Grim Fandnago!

Web Toon

2006-07-14T11:10:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a lot of webtoons lately, like Married to the Sea, and Toothpaste for Dinner, so I thought I'd make a web toon. Here it is:

What about 'Cripsy'?

2006-07-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

We went to Suson Park on Sunday. We've been trying to go to different parks to find our favorite. This park has a farm in it. Alice loved seeing all the animals, she especially likes chickens. Mary loved the little piggies, and I was happy with the loud peacock. The park wasn't bad, even though nothing was really going on in the farm and we just wandered around. There were lakes with fishing too, and I think Alice might like to go fishing someday soon. We'll see.

With a little illumination

2006-07-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

Well Alice is back and that is awesome! Although something fishy happened. Almost immediately after we were in the car Alice proclaimed to her mother, "I don't want to love Mitch, I only want you and Daddy." And yeah that hurt my feelings just briefly. I mean, I know that she was coerced into making that statement, and I have a good guess as to who might have been coercing over the last two weeks, but I also know that such things don't stick. In fact the very next day she loved me again. Maybe that isn't clear, I have no doubt that she always loved me and was just trained to say otherwise, and that kind of learning just won't stick. Nothing much else is new, both Amy and Justin came to visit and that was awesome! I love having guests. We didn't really DO anything just hung out and chatted and grilled. Oooh which reminds me, my Mom had sent us a gift of Omaha Steaks and they were packed in Dry Ice which sublimates in water. I played with it for quite some time, because science is fun (I'm not sure if Mary agrees). Also I found out that Sleep Apnea disqualifies me for some insurance, which means I'm still on temporary insurance until I find something.

Fourth Julius

2006-07-05T01:05:00.000-05:00

My Sister-in-law (Di) and Cousin-in-law (Neal) came to visit for the 4^th and they wanted to check out Fair St Louis and other things. We went first to a tattoo parlor cause Neal wanted to adjust a tattoo he had. We had stopped in the night before but they didn’t have time to do anything but to come back the next day, so that night we came home and Mary made us a fabulous BBQ rib dinner on our new grill. Anyway, on the fourth we spent a couple hours at this joint waiting for an artist who told him that anything he did would just look like shit. So a big waste of time. Then we went to the riverfront because Di wanted to go up in the Arch, we got three tickets (Mary didn’t want to go) and took the tram up. The Tram is tiny by the way, a four-foot door leading into a pod that holds five cramped people. Anyway we took some pictures as you can see, and it was a fun time. Then we went to the Eats bridge and had some dinner, which was fabulously delicious. Things started to take a turn though. Neal had been rude to some Arab women earlier demanding that guards search them and whatnot, but now he was starting to rant about all the various minorities out at the fair, and his attitude was getting steadily worse. Mary and I tried to ignore him, and we walked the fair and found a Segway booth. Yeah I know! I got to ride one and everything, it was fun. It is a little bit disorienting to be on a self-leveling surface, but after a bit I think I got used to it. They offer tourists of Forrest Park which I think would be awesome, but they are like $70 so I’ll pass. Anyway after that Mary and I split up to get different foods to share, she went for a kebob and I went after an Elephant Ear. Well the elephant ear stand had a crazy scheme planned. I waited in line, and ordered my ear, and the lady gave me a chip and told me to get in a different line to wait to pick it up. I complained to her, “That’s not cool, I mean that’s like watching the sequel to a movie I didn’t even like.” But I waited in line … again. The upshot is the elephant ear was amazingly good. I mean funnel cake, not elephant ear. Anyway, when I met up with Mary Neal had stormed off. Apparently he started an altercation with a woman of color and when Mary rebuffed him he flipped. So we got two beers each and went to the car to wait the last ninety minutes for the fireworks to start. Di made the mistake of telling Neal where we were and he came and sulked around for a minute, and then he threw a beer can that sloshed on me quite a bit for some reason. But still we just ignored him, but that wasn’t enough for him. Here’s the replay.

Neal: I shouldn’t have come here I’m pissed!

Di: At St Louis or us.

Neal: You!

Di Why are you pissed at me?

N: Not you, Mary.

Mary: *Raises eyebrows*

N: You stupid fuckin Bitch! You’re a goddamn asshole! You don’t tell me what to do!

M: Don’t think you are getting back in the car after that.

N: That’s fuckin fine, I’ll take a cab to my car and go home.

D: And leave me here.

N: If you’re going let’s go.

D: Just go.

Then Neal stormed off again. He came back once and Mary asked for an apology but he refused and left again. Several hours later after the fireworks (and a few calls to other family including Neal’s mom) we came home, Di got together her things and left with Neal for Indianapolis a few hours early. It was fairly dramatic, but Neal was WAY over the line calling Mary those things. Now he is claiming he was just joking and that Mary should’ve known that, but still refuses to apologize. Wheeeeee! But at least the fireworks were spectacular, albeit brief.

Wild Kingdom

2006-06-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

J-fab called me out today. She asked where the pictures of my appartment were, and she was right to ask. I've been promising htem forever but have been slow to upload them. Well today Mary and I spent the whole day cleaning (actually we've spent the whole week cleaning). Partly because we don't have anything else to do, and partly because my Mom is (allegedly) coming to visit tomorrow. Well here is photographic evidence of our efforts. On the left you can see the front door and Loveseat, as well as some lovely Alice art. On the right you can see the view from the front door. If you cound carefully you can see no less than five computers. These photos are already a bit dated as Mary has populated the mantle with more pictures and art! Things are shaping up nicely. I also found two critters while cleaning today. On the left you can see a spider I found sealed in a plastic box, so perhaps (s)he is from Greenwood... and on the right you can see a bat that was hugging an exterior wall. I passed the bat while taking out the recycling and nearly jumped out of my skin two steps past it when I realized what it was! Then I was all excited to have a bat living with us. I mean, I suppose they are vermin and probably a vector of disease, but they eat bugs right? I like things that eat bugs. Like the spider I freed in our front yard. Lastly, Mary and I went to see Superman Returns, and I can say that Superman 2 is still the best of the series, but this one was good too.

School Stuff

2006-06-26T23:37:00.000-05:00

This is the building I went to today, and apparently will be spending a lot of time in over the next few years. Apparently it is a hodge-podge of smaller buildings that have grown together over the years. Yeah, so I had to go to meet with my advisor, George Taylor, and talka bout what I'll be doing in the fall, which classes to register for, and all that jazz. Things were smooth, he said there was only one other new student, Heather, and she and I would likely share an office. I signed up for a stats class, directed reading and directed research. I got to the registrar, computer services (to get my new school email so I could finally change my Facebook!) and financial aid. It all went very smoothly. The girls at the financial aid office however commented on my legs. They apparently liked my calves and kinda went on about them. Of course this NEVER happens to me, so I was shocked and assumed they were delusional which I think only egged them on more. I also managed to get our wedding photos uploaded to a web gallery, so you can check them out here.

Exchange

2006-06-24T23:34:00.000-05:00

This was exchange weekend. We had to give Alice to BabyDaddy for two weeks. This time it was agreed that we would go all the way to Greenwood, and he would come all the way to St Louis in the return trip. We had to go to the wood anyway for errands. Alice was more than a bit nervous about it, I kept trying to re-assure her that it was going to be a fun visit to Daddy’s and that all of her toys and room would still be here when she got back, but she still seemed a bit on edge. It is very hard on Mary too. She is doing so well, but I know it must be harder on her. I’m trying my best to keep things positive and have lots for us to do (not really a problem). I joined Netflix recently (add me as a friend if you have it too, I’m in under my cyberdude email), and have started getting some DVDs, we started with some John Waters films that were so gross. Fun though.

Presentation?

2006-06-20T11:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, I know a lot of you are curious how my presentation went (for those who don’t know, I was presenting a paper at an invited talk to the international society for panetics in Washington, DC). The event was at the Cosmos Club near DuPont Circle in DC. The Cosmos Club founded the National Geographic society by the way. Anyway, there was lunch served, I met several of the members of ISP, and then the speakers began. The first was Dr. Glen Geelhoed Director of George Washington University Infectious Disease Department, he spoke about his many trips to Africa to provide hope (and healthcare) to the third world. It was a bit shocking, but amazing. After a break came Dr. Jon Cohen Director Princeton Center for Brain Mind Research. I was nervous that he was speaking before me since he was referenced in my presentation and had worked on much of the research my paper was about. In fact, when he started to speak he went over everything that I was about to tlak about! So I was desperately trying to thin of an impromptu speech to fill the void where mine once was. Fortunately since both he (Dr. Cohen) and Dr. Geelhoed went way over time, they cut my talk, and instead had me kick-off the question and answer session. As it was, everything went well in my opinion in that I got to meet some great people, see two insightful presentations, and get a mini-vacation in DC paid for by ISP.

After the presentation I had to dash to the metro in the rain, in an effort to get to the airport in time for my flight, I made it just in time to find out my flight was delayed. The plane I was supposed to get on was grounded in Norfolk. Then it was delayed again. Then again. Apparently Regan shuts down at 10pm with no more flights, and my plane left Norfolk at 9:33pm and it is a 26 minute flight from there so it wasn’t going to be able to turn around and fly back out. So my flight was canceled and the rude-ish man at the gate counter rescheduled me for the next morning, telling me that the other flight to STL was full. A few minutes later I heard an announcement about that other flight so I checked it out, and it wasn’t full, in fact there were four or five empty seats. Maybe more! I got a great seat at the front of the plane and was on my way home to STL! Then three amazing things happened. One, for the first time ever I took off at night, I got to see all the suburban lights of DC and it was amazing! Then as we flew past a storm front I saw twenty minutes of amazing cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning! And lastly as we came into STL we flew over the Arch and downtown which was just gorgeous at night! I’ve used too many exclamation points!

Old friends

2006-06-18T03:05:00.000-05:00

Spending time in DC has been quite fun. We (Matt, George, George’s brother Nick, and I) drove down to Richmond today to visit our friend’s JP and Sherry. I haven’t seen JP in at least a year since he got married and moved out here. My friend Amy was also in the area and came to visit, and my brother Cole managed to make it out as well. It was quite the hoot-nanny. Traffic on the way was terrible, but we got there in time for the start of the America – Italy World Cup match at 3:00 and that is when we started drinking. By the time Cole got there at 9:00 I was already quite toasty, but we had a great time trading stories, and watching Big Trouble in Little China. I felt like a good time was had by all and even if that was not the case a good time was had by me. I like seeing all these people and I hope we can keep in touch, I’m terrible at that kinda thing though, but with any luck I’ll manage to e-mail and blog about things enough that we don’t lose touch. Opportunities like this one, for us to all get together I think are really the best way though for us to keep up, and I can’t wait for the next one, hopefully in Saint Louis! Matt drove us home int he wee hours of the morning, I tried to stay awake as best I could for the drive back, and I think I managed to keep conversation going up until the end, but I'm almost certain Iw asn't making any sense by the time we were back in Arlington. Matt asked me about directors I like, and I was hard press to pick some out, but I went with Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, and Wes Anderson, for my top three. How bout you?

This day in sports

2006-06-17T02:04:00.000-05:00

Mary and I have been trying to find a super wal-mart without much luck. In a brilliant stroke Mary entered Walmart supercenter into Agatha and we found one, but it turned out to be a plain old wal-mart. I know there must be some around! After picking up some supplies at the wal-mart, we had lunch but it was time for me to get to the airport. Alice was a bit confused about me leaving, she was so sad! While IW as waiting for the plane I got the second half of the Angola - Mexico game which proved to be a stunning upset for with Angola managing to tie Mexico nil – nil. Flight went well and came in on time at 7:30, although Matt, due to some problem, believed that I wasn't getting in till 8:30. But it was no biggie, we came back to his place and after the Yankees – Nats game George, her brother Nick, and some criminal I hadn't met came to visit. I don't think she was really a criminal, she was just Australian, but you can't be too careful. We had some beer and pizza and stayed up playing Super Monkey Ball 2! Tomorrow we are off to Richmond and I even got word from my brother Cole that he is going to make it there too. Should be fun.

Almost working

2006-06-14T20:16:00.000-05:00

This morning the guy from charter came and hooked up my internet. Poles had to be climbed, dungeons explored, and forms signed, but in the end it was worth it. I now have my very own broadband connection. Which also means my VoIP is working. I was very disappointed to find that the VoIP router Vonage sent me (Linksys WRTP54G) doesn't do QoS for Voice traffic! So I had to hook up my WRT54G (v1) and flash the firmware and now things seem a little better, but still too much activity makes it unspeakable. GRRR! If any of you are using VoIP, let me know what you do. I read I can get some third party firmware to route the voice traffic, but... *shrug* I hope this doesn't lead to buying another piece of hardware. >:( Anyway, we also did some swimming today, as you can see. Also I almost worked today... Almost. I'm doing some computer tech work through digicom computers, and the way it works is work orders get doled out to technicians who choose to accept or reject them. This morning I accepted my first one, but about 30 minutes later they called and told me to cancel. I still get $30 for that, but the job paid $150 if I had actually gotten to go do it. Oh well, maybe next time. Otherwise, things are really shaping up in the house, so when I get back from DC I should be able to post some pictures of the place. Speaking of DC I need to do some practicing and pack my crap, since I fly out on Friday.

Moved?

2006-06-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

So I’m living in Saint Louis now with my family. We got in Saturday afternoon and unloaded the budget truck. I’m in a two bedroom apartment which is part of a duplex. I live in a section of town (or maybe it is a town unto itself) called Richmond Heights. The neighborhood seems great. There is a Schnuck’s nearby and a movie theater, and all the good stuff. After we spent some time setting up Alice’s room (we thought it was a good idea to get her room done first), we all went to Pointer’s. “We all” refers to Mary, Alice, Neal, Di, (who came to help) and myself, and “Pointer’s” is a pizza parlor you might have seen on the Food Network, or read about in Newsweek. You see, Pointer’s has a challenge, if you and a friend can eat their 28” Pointersaurus pizza in less than an hour they will give you $500! Well while we weren’t going to attempt the challenge, we did get the Pointersaurus (more to show that it couldn’t be done) to share. Even with the five of us eating we took half of it home! I wish I had taken a picture of the pizza it was SO giant! I think people hear 28” and they assume that it is twice as big as a large (14”) pizza and so two people could easily eat it, but they are so so wrong. The Large (14”) pizza is about 154 square inches of pizza, while the Pontersaurus is over 600 Square inches! Or nearly four times the pizza of a large! Anyway, Sunday we took the truck back and hit up the Home Depot, got the Washer and Dryer working, and got much moved around and unpacked. Mary did the unpacking, she unpacked nearly the entire kitchen! I tetris’d the living room to try to get things into position and started moving things to the basement storage. I moved all of my “game” books to the basement, and that is strange for me, but I just don’t see me using them, I don’t know why I keep them, but I already gave away or sold all the ones I didn’t care about and so these core few (boxes) are just dear to me. I also sent a box of Warhammer 40K miniatures to the basement where I’m sure they are just inches away from becoming trash. As much fun as I had with it, there is just too much overhead for me to enjoy playing anymore. A quote about childish things comes to mind but I feel I’ve just got new childish things (mainly computers) that I play with now. Speaking of computers I think I’m nearly set-up in that department, I’m posting off a neighbors wi-fi for the moment (thanks anonymous person that has an unsecured AP which I assume was left unsecured in an act of altruism), but I think I’ll be able to get my cable modem hooked up Wednesday if we can keep up this pace. In any event, I’ll upload some pictures of the new place after things get settled. I am checking email at least daily, so go ahead and correspond as much as you like ;)

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2006-06-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

My step-daughter's father (hereafter: BabyDaddy) filed a request for an emergency restraining order to prevent Mary from taking Alice out of state. The Good news is that no restrictions were placed on Mary about moving, and we got a temporary child support agreement signed. The Bad news is that the judge ruled that Mary and BabyDaddy would split parenting time until our hearing in September, which iwll mean weekly drives to a midpoint to trade off.This is devestatingly bad news and Mary is beside herself, but I'm here for her in any way I can, and I'm sure we'll get through this. Wish us luck!

On the lighter side Mary and I have been playing DDR Mario Mix for hte game cube, fun! The game even has a workout mode which I will try the rest of the week to get some exercise until we are in St Louis. It is fun and silly, although the songs aren't as good as the "real" DDR games, I still enjoy it. I'm doing better on my diet, I've kept my calorie intake low, and I'm replacing breakfast each day with Optifast. I'm going to try to replace lunch tomorrow too.

Pack it in

2006-06-03T15:29:00.000-05:00

Well I spent three days packing with a handful of breaks. One break was to go see X-men 3, which was sorely dissapointing. I mean I haven't been this dissapointed since Bourne Supremecy or Mission Impossible 2. Ultimately it must be Ratner's fault, but I really feel he was working from a week script. Anyway, I got all my things packed and moved to St Louis. I hired moves to load a uhaul, then I drove it to STL and a second set of Movers unlaoded it. Driving the Uhaul sucked because there was no cruise control, and the speakers didn't work for the radio, but I made it okay. All in all it cost less than $500 and took about 12 hours including the drive back to Evansville. So I'm officially moved. Now It'll be up to Mary's for the rest of the week, then she'll move this next weekend.

Oh yeah, the diet

2006-06-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

Some of you may n oticed I haven't posted mucha bout my diet or weight or exercise or anything of the sort. Well from my bacehlor party to memorial day I've sort of been on vacation from dieting, and from time to time I even went a little wild on what I was eating. But I was getting married and all that so that is a valid excuse. However now I'm trying to get strict again. In fact, I have a lot of leftover optifast and I'm going back to the shakes to replace some meals. I'm going to try to be really strict and keep my calorie intake under 2000 a day, and also to keep my activity up. These next couple days I'm in Evansville (Yup I'm in Evansville till Saturday) packing so I think that will be enough exercise for a while. Then after the big move to STL, I'll be back in Indy packing. I don't yet have a scale (which is probably good so I can't see how much I'ce back-slid) but after things settle down in STL I'll be going to the gym and surely there will be one there, or if not I will get a good one for home.

Back home again

2006-05-30T14:53:00.000-05:00

After we woke up late we mad e a leisurely trip back into Indiana. Things were pleasant as we slid across Ohio we listened to a lot of Haughty Melodic by Mike Doughty. I think we listened to it three times, he's just so cool! We went over to Mary's Mom's house -- I guess my Mother-in-law's house rather, and had dinner. Judy made Corn dogs that were absolutely delish! We lazed about the rest of the evening and visited with my new family, then rented some movies. We got The Guru which cracked me up, I wish there were more Indiana (Dots not feathers) stars they are always so funny! (Exhibit A: Van Wilder and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle). We also saw Haiku Tunnel, it was a smaller film but it was a very funny office comedy, a very worthwhile watch. Tomorrow we get Alice back and that is so fabulous I'm very excited to see her again! But then wedding I'm heading back to E-ville to pack up and get moving to St. Louis which I guess I'll be doing Saturday. Wheeee!

Accidental Chocolate

2006-05-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

So we left NYC today. There was some kind of street fair going on which Mary and I perused for gifts, but while there Mary spied a psychic and so went to get her palm read. It was $15 and she told Mary to be careful with a pregnancy between now and August, which is wise because that would make her pregnant over flu season, and we all know what happens to babies born in Feburary! We eventually made it out of the city and began the long drive home. Pennsylvania is a long state, and while we were driving through it we saw signs for Hershey, PA! I remember taking the factory tour as a child (or at least I think so) and we decided to stop by and check it out. Well apparently it has become an amusement park, Chocolate World had roller coasters and more. No more factory tours though, instead we got to watch a 3-D movie about the history and production of Hershey's candies. It was glorious. We also at at a small diner in Hershey on our way out of town, the Coco Diner. We almost made it out of PA (got to Washington) before we decided to stop for the night. I called around to get a cheap room at the Red Roof Inn, and we even had time to catch the Da Vinci Code at a local theater. I'm not a fan. I mean, the movie wasn't bad, it had good acting, good use of effects, well directed and all, but I still didn't like the plot. Oh well.

Better and Better

2006-05-27T19:35:00.000-05:00

The conference was great. I fielded some questions at our poster and met several people who were presenting ideas I was interested in. However the Highlight was a presentation from Earl K Miller about learning and cortical structures. Kick ass research. Later there was confusion between Mary and I. Here I’ll give you the text run-down:

Me: Is there a boat tour soon? Want to go to the statue of liberty?

Her: there is a 3 hr one @ 2 3o

Me: Keen. Matinee Show? Lunch? Staten Island Ferry past Statue of liberty? Ground

Zeron? Thrift shops in the Village?

Her: Well?

Me: What do YOU want to do? I’ve been doing my thing all day.

Her: Instead of spending 3o min texting me u could ve been here by now (At this point Mary leaves the Sheraton to go to the Mariott)

Me: Agreed. But if you wanted a show I’m right by the booth, and jake wants to know what we are doing. Do you want me to leave him to his own devices and come to you, because I will in a heartbeat. (I’m right by the TKTS booth at the base of the Mariott)

Her: Food then boat come down now

Me: OMW (I leave the Mariott to go to the Sheraton)

Her: Come on

Me: Where are you? (I’m in the Sheraton Room 1018)

Her: At the entrance between the color purple and lion king (She means at the Mariott)

Me: Go the Room (type-o, should’ve read In the Room)

Me: Oh, I’m in the room. Coming down. (I go to the Sheraton Lobby)

Her: What room?

Me: 1018

Her: W t f ?

Me: I’m by Mars 2112

Well we eventually meet up, grab a hot dog and take our three hour tour. It was tense at first because off the confusion, and I was SUPPOSED to wake Mary up this morning to say good-bye (can’t win in the mornings ;) but the boat cruise was so great. Very chill and we learned lots and saw lots. After the boat we walked Times Square and visited the Virgin store. It was huge, and Mary found a snow patrol T-shirt! Then we wandered to a Greek restaurant near our hotel, Molyvos. It was delish as well! Now we are considering going to a movie or to a club. But we’ll see.

In a mood

2006-05-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

Mary was in a foul mood from the minute I woke her up this morning. It was probably because I woke her up this morning that put her in a foul mood, but I woke up a bit after seven, got ready, went and got bagels, made coffee and spent an hour reading the doctor who wiki articles that I could find. I was bored and in Manhattan. Anyway we walked to the Met first thing. On the way Mary got her photo with a dedicated park bench. We spent several hours there it was really cool, we saw lots of arms and armor, as well as Egyptian art and classical statuary. The Modern art exhibit was also great, with lots of Picaso and others. Then Jake txt’d me about a speaker at APS and Chris msg’d me to tell me he didn’t have enough cash on him to buy us tickets to the show he was going to. Mary and I cabbed it back to the hotel, and I ran down to the TKTS booth to get tickets and then go into the APS convention to see a panel discussion. Mary stayed in the hotel and apparently napped, I txt’d her a few times to ask about our later plans, but she was unresponsive. When she did answer she ended up coming to the Mariott (where we were after the panel) and then she, Jake, and I made a run for dinner. We didn’t have much time since the show starts at 8, but we went to dinner anyway. Chez Josephine was awesome and they were very very speedy, we still had to make a mad dash for the theater but we made it in good time. Mary said during dinner that we should've just gone there after the show, and maybe she was right, but that is something we could've talked about before dinner, and besides after the show all she wanted to do was go back to the hotel. Sweeney Todd was… well it was alright, I guess I just like comedies better. Teh staging was really cool, and all the music was produced by the actors. Maggie and Julie were there as well as Jake and Chris and Erin. Mary met them all, but instead of going out with them for drinks or whatnot, we went back to the hotel and I’m writing this now while Mary showers. Too bad she was in a foul mood for dinner, the play, and meeting all of my friends. But since she will get to sleep in tomorrow may be better. Just to be clear I acknowledge that this may all be my fault.

First you've got to do the Truffle Shuffle

2006-05-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

So this morning Mary and I decided to switch hotels. HoJos was great and all but with the NJ Transit problems yesterday the delays or expense of taxis made getting a hotel seem like a much better choice. I called Orbitz and they were so super helpful, they cancelled my HoJos reservation, refunded me money, and even helped me book a room at the SheratonManhattan where I am now, yay Orbitz. We hit up the TKTS booth to get show tickets, Mary chose Avenue Q after seeing a muppet in the poster. We had seen Madame Tippytoes house of wax on our harrowing drive to the hotel, and it was near so...

These are just a few of the pictures that were taken, but needless to say there were many pictures, so many in fact that Mary got sick of photos. We tried for the boat cruise again but were foiled by schedules, this time we wrote it down. This left us enough time to get back to the hotel, change clothes and head to dinner. We just ate in the hotel restraunt, Russo's, but I've gotta say my Sesame Encrusted Tuna Steak was amazingly fabulous. But time was running short and we really had to hoof it to make our 8pm curtain call, Mary was wearing heels but she can really move it. Wowee wow wow! Anyway, the show was hilarious, a sort of an almost-feel-good-but-life-sucks comedy ... with muppets. Ont he way back to the hotel we stopped for Tasti D-lite and the counter clerk thought we were British.

First day in NYC

2006-05-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

This was our first day in New York City, and it was eventful! We actually got to our hotel (The Newark HoJos) yesterday afternoon, but the only thing we did was order a Brazilian Pizza from a parlor we passed on the way to the hotel. It was amazing as it had, Ham, Bacon, , Mozzarella, Onions, Corn, Heart of Palm, Tomatoes, Pineapple, and Oregano. So delish! Anyway, this morning we got up at the crack of ten to head into the city. Our transportation was a airport shuttle, then the Airlink monorail, then the NJ Transit train to Penn Station. It cost $14 and took thirty minutes or so. We had to be at the Ed Sullivan Theater by 3pm but otherwise had no plans so we wandered, stop for breakfast at some sort of café, then into Central Park. We chilled for a bit at Strawberry Fields, then went back to the Late Show. There was already a queue forming but eventually we got in and got our tickets and were told to come back at 4:45. We had lunch at a bagel place across the street (not Hello Deli). I bought a messenger bag for $30 from a street vendor, and filled it with gifts and bagels. By then it was time to head back to the theater. We got in and got our seats, they were probably not visible to home viewers, but we got to see Jennifer Aniston and Rob Zombie, hella fun! After the show we had dinner at the Playwright’s Pub and walked to the western edge of Manhattan to see the Aircraft carriers and other navy boats docked. Yeah, apparently it is “fleet week” and the city is crawling with sailors. The waterfront was pretty at night too. Must’ve been about 9pm by the time we got to Penn station and caught a train back to NJ, unfortunately our Karma must’ve been bad. Some sort of power lines fell on the train shorting it out. There were huge flashes of light and the train shuddered to a halt. We had to wait for over an hour for electricians to arrive, and then a rescue train to evacuate us towards our destination, didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11! Hopefully tomorrow’s train rides won’t be as … eventful.

Honeymooning in DC

2006-05-22T17:42:00.000-05:00

So for the first part of our Honeymoon Mary and I have driven to Washington, DC. We spent all day Sunday driving with Matt and George (we left in the early afternoon). But today Mary got to sleep in (gloriously), and I began looking at things we might do in NYC, I'm hoping to get tickets to the comedy cellar to see Jim Norton and other comics, but Mary is unsure. We got up early and went to visit my Dad. I hadn't been back to Arlington since his funeral, it was sad but otherwise not bad, I think we might go back on our way back from honeymoon to leave a flower for memorial day. After that we went to Matt's work to visit and have lunch. After lunch we stalked about the Mall and viewed interesting DC things while avoiding the throngs of summer tourists. Now we are chilling at the apartment until we head off for a seafood dinner ... somewhere. Anyway, I'm sure to most more later int he vacation. Hope you are all having half the fun I am!

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Harden

2006-05-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

Wow! I’m married now! Last night was my wedding and it was the most fabulous wedding I’ve ever attended. Well I mean obviously cause it was mine but I mean besides the getting married part. We woke up early and roused Matt and George (who flew in from DC) had stayed with us the night before (we watched Ultrachrist). Then it was off to the rehearsal breakfast at Kathy’s Kopper Pot, all the people who were in from out of town were invited, I was a bit disappointed that my Mom and Nana didn’t make it but salright. We milled about the restraint till Noon then went to rehearse the ceremony at Valle Vista. Dixie, our minister, was a bit nervous too since this was her first wedding, but after an hour or so we all knew our parts and places. Then it was Free play for Matt and I until 5pm. We went to an arcade, and then to go change. Then was the waiting game till 6:30 PM, I got to hang out in a lounge, watch people arrive, and have a few beers. The ceremony was awesome, 7 minutes and blam I was married. A whirlwind of well-wishing and hugs, then pictures, and a buffet (with a man carving meat). I was SO excited that my extended family from Virginia was able to make it out, I hadn’t seen those guys in YEARS and I don’t want it to be that long again! Justin sang Tracy Chapman’s The Promise for our first dance, but then it was open dancing the rest of the evening. Mary had planned a special surprise for me and I’ve got to tell you, I was touched. She blindfolded me and had everyone put on party hats, then we all did the Timewarp! How fantastical! She sooooooooo loves me. After the reception, an elite cadre of wedding-goers went over to Wilson’s for Karaoke, and more drinks. My brother tore up the mic with some songs and I got a bit hacked up. But it was such a fabulous time, and in spite of all the alcohol imbibed, I still have no hangover. Thanks to all of you who made to the party and I hope you had even half the fun I did!

Update: Here is a picture of my ring, more to come.

An Update?

2006-05-11T12:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, so much for updating. Anyway, here is what's going on. I'm nearly done with the Optifast program, I've lost 75+ lbs. The challenge is going to be keeping it off while so much is going down. What is going down you ask?

I just graduated from USI with a BS in Psychology
Quitting my Job at Deaconess
Going to Grad School in the fall at University of Missouri - St Louis
Getting married next Friday (May 19th)
Honeymoon in New York City
Presenting a poster at APS
Moving to St Louis the first week of June,
Starting work for Digicom Consulting, continuing work for Re5ult, Ltd.
Moving Mary to St Louis in the middle of June
Presenting a paper at the ISP

Let me elaborate on these things. First graduation was great. That is one more item I can cross off of my list. It took a while, eight years I guess, and I took a strange and wandering path through academia, but I made it. Mary threw me a grad party for me which she catered, it was so very nice, and a handful of people came and fun was had by most. May 17^th is my last day at Deaconess. I’ll be sad to leave, but I’m sure its for the best, and it seems the timing is right for the move. Ever since the new CIO things have been a bit tense. I’m a bit nervous about insurance, but apparently I can get COBRA to cover me over the summer until I start class in the fall and get Insurance through school. Speaking of which, I did get accepted and decide to go to UMSL to study Behavioral Neuroscience in a terminal Master’s program. I do hope to pursue a PhD after this, but UMSL’s program seems to be focused on topics that I already like, and I’m very interested in doing more research. But before all that is my wedding! I can’t believe it is so close, I’m so excited about this. I think the wedding will be great, a short ceremony with a long reception. Turnout has been amazing; we sent out 80 invitations and our guest count is up to 140! While the road to planning the wedding has been rocky at times (thanks Mom), none of it would’ve been possible without my Mom’s support in putting this shindig (hootenanny?) together. Mary has done an amazing job dealing with things as they come up (and they have) and I really feel that it is going to be a great party. After the wedding we are heading to the east coast – first to DC (with Matt and George) and then to NYC for a week. All I have planned for NYC is a hotel room, but I figure there will be all kinds of things for us to do. That’s not totally true, I’m also planning to attend the APS conference and present a poster based on the research I (and many others) did this last year. This’ll be my first real big conference and I’m excited to check it all out! When I get back from NYC I’ll begin the move to STL, which will be a logistical nightmare to be sure. I’ve got an apartment, and I think I’ve got all the utilities and what not prepared so that’s good news. But I’ve already lined up work through a friend so that I can do computer tech work, and I’ve got my swank question and answer job set-up as well. I tell you more about them after I move. But then shortly after that Mary is going to move to STL as well. I’m only slightly nervous about living with Mary and Alice full time, it should be fun and I think we are both laid-back enough that no matter what challenges we face will push through them. Our apartment is a bit small-ish though so getting all of our crap inside will be challenge number one. I’ll post up some pictures when I get a chance. Lastly in the news I’m going to be presenting a paper I wrote (and published in Amalgam) at the International Society for Panetics in Washington DC on June 19^th. This bolt from the blue, struck when I got an E-mail from the ISP President Phyllis Haynes asking about my availability after reading my paper. I’m a it flabbergasted, but I think this will be a great opportunity as I am very confident in my speaking ability and I’ve been reading up on morality, and bioethics lately anyway. I just hope I give them their money’s worth. Whew! Well, that sums up the chaotic whirlwind I’m about to enter, but I do hope to keep updating my blog (and moving to more of a lifelog format) in the coming months so that everyone can keep up with me.

Day 57

2006-03-29T23:18:00.000-06:00

Weight 304.1

I'm so close to being under 300, I haven't been under 300 ponds since high school. How exciting. Sorry for the lame brevity of last weeks post, but there's little to report. However I found a belt that I used to wear in high school. It is a braided leather belt so you can make it as tight as you want. It's not very fashionable but it works great for hiking class until I buy new pants, (or a better looking belt). I'll try to remember to take some photos of me to upload soon.

Day 50

2006-03-22T15:17:00.000-06:00

Weight 311.2

That is all.

Day 43

2006-03-16T16:54:00.000-06:00

I started my Hiking class today. Well actually I started Teusday, but today was our first Hike. We hikeed int he woods for like 40 minutes, and it was rough. Going uphill almost killed me, and I nearly fell when jumping across a stream. I also don't have anyone to talk to while hiking (not that I have any breath) so it was kinda boring. I did listen to other peoples conversations though and I began to hate them. It is probably just a combination of physical activity and an outdoors setting, but the babblings of my classmates wasn't well received. I mean, I try not to hate but they just make it so easy. Next weel we will be hiking for a full hour. Joy.

Day 42

2006-03-15T19:50:00.000-06:00

Weight 324.5

Yeah, a 2.5 pound gain in just a couple of days. I chalk it up to my last weigh in being at an off time (Friday Morning(.. But I felt as though the nurse thought I cheated on the diet, but I haven't. I'm sure next Wednesday we will have another loss. I'm a terrible blogger, and I've been toying with the idea of just lifelogging everything as well as the diet. What do you think?

Day 37

2006-03-10T00:35:00.000-06:00

Weight 322

I did get a weigh in this morning, so things are looking good, I've lost 43 lbs in total so far, so that works out to 1.16 lbs a day! Which if I continue at my current rate of loss I would end the 12-week fast at 267 lbs! I also got some lab work done for insurance purposes and here are my results:

Total Cholesterol: 175 (-71)
HDL: 23 (-21)
LDL: 111 (-36)
Triglycerides: 208 (-65)
TC/HDL: 7.6 (+2)

So while my Total Cholesterol went down, my Risk Ratio actaully went up since I also lost a lot of HDL (Apparently the good cholesterol).

I also scheduled an appointment for Thursday to go to the Fitness Center here at Deaconess and Bethany is going to show me the equipment and give me a work-out routine. I actually hope to develop a habit of going to the gym. As far as activity goes, my Hiking class starts Tuesday so at least two days a week I'll be getting in some exercise.

Day 36

2006-03-09T22:24:00.000-06:00

Astute readers may have nticed the lack of a weigh in yesterday, that's because I missed it. I had to go to St. Louis for a grad school interview at UMSL. It was a blast really, and everyone was friendly, the campus looked nice and they seemed to have a decent program. But they could only offer a MS, and that's expensive. It'll cost so much! I'm stll thinking about it though. The other grad students took me out to dinner, which was nice, but I jsut had one of my shakes and a lot of water. I should get my weigh in done tomorrow I hope, and that'll set everything straight.

Day 28

2006-03-01T22:03:00.000-06:00

Weight 335.2

So here it is ONE week since my last post. But what can I say, this diet is really boring. I drink shakes ... end of story. Well almost, I'm going to try to start upping my activity. Tomorrow I'm calling the Fitness Center at work to set-up a time where I can come over and they tour the gym to me. I'm hoping to get a regimin started next week since it is my spring break. When I go back to school I'll be starting my Hiking class (joy) and so that'll help on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then I also have the Eliptical at home to try if the Gym doesn't work out (so to speak).

Day 21

2006-02-22T23:56:00.000-06:00

Weight 341.0

So that means I lost 7 lbs since last week and 23 lbs over all. So far so good. I've lost almost all food cravings now. Food looks just as blah as my shakes. One of the ladies in the program with me said that the flavor extracts make a huge difference to the shakes. Like mixing a vanilla shake with coconut flavoring is good. So I might give it a whirl. But I dunno, I kinda like it that they aren't good. It makes it more ... even. Besides I think if I actually had to prepare and mix them, I would like them even less (since their best feature is ease of use). I had to have two shakes before bed last night because I had forgotten to drink them during the day. I think I'm going to set-up alarms on my phone to try to remember to drink them all.

Day 16

2006-02-17T16:25:00.000-06:00

So I was thinking in the shower this morning about food and weight. I used to think of it like a warehouse. Product comes in, some of it gets used, and the left overs get stored. Now that I'm on this diet not as much product comes in, so stuff gets taken off the shelves and used. But I think that analogy is a little too sterile, I mean this is a biological process. So it is more like My body is made up of millions of hungry mouths (cells) and I put in food which gets broken down and delivered, and the left overs get turned into other hungry mouths. But not that not enough food is coming in to feed everyone, they are eating each other. A cannibalistic frenzy within my body. I found that thought very disturbing. Although, if you are what you eat, then I'm more me now than I have ever been before, and that's quite heartening.

Day 14

2006-02-15T13:10:00.000-06:00

Weight 348.5

So I think this weeks results show that last week WAS in fact in error. I'm not sure entirely what might have caused the error but there is no way that I gained weight on the diet. But anyway, they were concerned about my rapid weight loss the week before so they upped my shakage too add one more. I added a chicken shake cause I like those the best. I also found out we can have low-sodium chicken broth, which is good cause I like hot drinks.

Day 13

2006-02-14T23:53:00.000-06:00

I just barely got all my shakes in. I just had a strawberry and that's it for the day. I don't have a complex, nor am I developing one, I just forget to drink them. I did however ahve some fun with a vanilla shake earlier. I blended it with ice in the blender to make it like a real milkshake, and it was quite tasty. It also helps to get my H2O up for the day and that's always a good thing.

Day 12

2006-02-13T22:01:00.000-06:00

I used gum for my trip home from Indy. I had a single piece of sugar-free gum for the three hour trip and it did me well. I didn't feel the urge to get fast food as bad, and it gave me something to do while I drove. I think my normal practice for the drive is going to be to have my snack bar and a stick of gum on the road, that makes it not so bad. Also going back to un-chilled drinks today was a bit tougher, I think I might start storing my drinks in the fridge here at home, but the ones I take to school will still likely be warm. Oh well.

Day 9-11

2006-02-12T23:52:00.000-06:00

I did something bad. I didn't cheat per se, but I missed two shakes on Friday. Taking me down to 640 calories for the day. Yeep! At first I couldn't understand how such a thing could happen. I mean they are ALL I get to have and yet I skipped two. Then when I almost did the same thing on Saturday, I realized what was going on. Since I didn't feel hungry anymore, I was forgetting to eat all together. See normally I'm hungry so I eat, then I'm not hungry. But now I don't get that differentiation of feeling anymore. I can only imagine that this is how Anorexia starts. It has become a chore to drink my shakes. I think to myself (and sometimes vocalize), "Ugh! Shake-time again." It is a good thing that I've got the snack bar, or else I'm sure I'd find it a chore to chew once I go back to real food. I was good the rest of the weekend and managed to drink all my shakes. I think having a set schedule will be a must for the coming week though.

Day 8

2006-02-09T21:48:00.000-06:00

You know that feeling you get when you want a particualr food? You know, when you are driving and think to yourself, "I have GOT to have a chicken baja gordita!" Well we generally call that feeling a craving. What I have now is that same feeling -- except for EVERYTHING. I''m driving down the street and I think, "I've got to have ... well any of these restraunts." Never in my (sober) life have I ever said, "Oh yeah! Denny's!" or "Mmmmm cold, dry hamburger helper that sat on the counter for hours." But I've held strong and managed to avoid giving into temptation.

Day 7

2006-02-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

Weight 346 lbs

So wow! I lost 18 pounds. That’s good news. Although, I am a little suspicious about the results, seems like too much to be possible, I guess if I keep up this rate though I’ll know. I had gotten confused and showed for the meeting about an hour early, but otherwise things went smoothly. My Blood pressure was even good, 120/78 I think. Three new people joined our group so that made the group session a little more fun we did some activities and what not. I don’t really want to discuss what we talk about in group here partly because it is all supposed to be confidential and partly because I’d hate to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of Novartis Nutrition Corporation, but it seems that no one liked the soup, but did look forward to the snack bars. I had trouble drinking all my stuff today. It’s 22:00 and I still have two shakes and the chicken soup left. So I guess I’ll binge.