This blog is not a sexy blog nor a particularly funny blog. Think of it like your local water cooler where people meet to exchange stories. I will share what is going through my head at the time. Feel free to do the same.
Welcome to my little corner of the Internet.
First I hope everyone is bring in the new year with a bang, but safe at the same time. Best wishes for a wonderful new year. May it be filled with all you want and need and enough strength to get through the harder parts.
I hope you have some fun plans for New Years Eve. I do not do much for New Years but this year I am doing even less. I will not be going out. I will not be having anyone over. Instead I will just be home. I may splurge a little but for the most part I will be doing my list.
Last night I decided that there were a few things I wanted to get done before the new year arrives. The list grew from an item to 6 items now I believe. Luckily I have 2 items already done.
After that list I have another shorter list that will take longer. I intend to do those, mostly cleaning and organizing, over the next two days that I have off. That should give me a great start into the new year. Oh and I forgot to mention I will be getting serious about losing the weight with the new way of eating, eating for life and with exercise. If I can accomplish all of that I will be very happy with start I give to the new year.
Now you know my plans for the new year. Boring but it will feel great in the end.Happy New Year
Billy Ray: Merry New Year! Beeks: That's "happy." In this country we say "Happy New Year." Billy Ray: Oh, ho, ho, thank you for correcting my English which stinks! --Trading PLaces
I had a hard time coming up with something for new. I thought about my NEW van. Well at least it is new to me. I also thought about the NEW piece of siding I put on the back of my house. But in the end I thought I would try this.
This is a picture of my brother and his soon to be wife lighting the unity candle. This signifies the joining of two seperate lives into one NEW life. They have been married a little over 6 years now.
And I thought I would toss in one additional of the two of them just because.
Thanks for visiting. Have a nice weekend and Happy New Year to you.
Christmas went well. My sister celebrates with our family on one day and his family on the other day. This year was Christmas Eve for us. We ate a bit of ordervies, did some taking, some more munching and more talking and finally had dinner. After dinner and teasing my niece about not opening the presents since she was making such a big deal of it. (Imagine that, an 11 year old wanting to open presents) we sat down for the big moment.
Everyone did pretty well. I ended up with a shredder. Yea, no more junk mail. I hate to throw anything away that has my address in it so I tend to shred it instead. I also got a couple of Peanut items (one can never have to much peanuts). I also had people help me get a flash for my camera. Oh and I got an Uncle book from my niece. I did OK considering I was expecting a lump of coal.
I also picked up a piece of exercise equipment, an elliptical trainer, to help me with losing weight and just being active in general. The workout already started. The unit weighs about 250 pounds and I mossed it in by myself. I really hate to ask people for help if I can avoid it. Now I have to put it together. There are like 1,000 parts. Good thing I have a 4 day weekend.
Work has been crazy as we always have lots to do at the end of the year. Planning on training some new people that will be starting at the beginning of the year will prove to be much more challenging than expected. It should be a busy 3 weeks.
We have an impromptu pot luck tomorrow at work, I think. I never did see if anyone else was bringing in anything. Oh well, no one can accuse me of not being a team player.
I found out tonight that I do not have any plans for the new year. Oh well, it will keep me from munching on things I should not munch on. Speaking of which I ended up gaining a little of the last week and for the week I am up a half pound. However, I am down 12 pounds over the holidays. I think that is a big success. I have a long way to go but I am happy to make it through the holidays.
Oh one last thing. I found out my best friends son is getting married. They were on and then off but not quit broke up, now they are back on. I am excited for them. That and I really like the bride to be to. She has always been super to me. But that is not the reason I am most excited. I have the camera, a decent lens, a nice flash... I can’t wait to take pictures, not that I am the photographer but I love to take pictures. It works well, I take candid pictures, the hired photographers usually take posed pictures, required pictures. You know, bridal dance, cutting cake, toast, caring the bride out the door, etc. I do that but also the aunts and uncles and friends and anyone having a good time. Sure wish I had a wedding coming up before the end of June so I could practice. Anyone getting married?
I want you, Mallory! I want you! I can take you with one brain tied behind my back! –Family Ties.
I am off ... to celebrate Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas, let me wish you a safe and happy Christmas (or what ever you do celebrate) filled with family and friends. And to every here is wishing you a new year filled with all your hopes and dreams.
I sure hope Santa does not bring me a lump of coal!
Rats. Nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish there weren't a holiday season. I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it? --A Charlie Brown Christmas
OK, I always try to look for an unusal angle when posting a picture. So here is my take on the theme for this week. First we have a picture of the head outside my house where the electric LINES connect from the outside utility pole to my house.
And the last one is one more picture, only this time it is the electic LINES inside my house running hither and yon. By the way, what is hither and yon anyway?
I suppose if I was real good I would have included a picture of the LINE going to the pole, the LINE going between poles, a transformer with LINES connected and finally a Hi Tension transmission line tower with electric LINES that are very high voltage. If I were really good it would have started out with a picture of an electic plant with the lines coming out. You will just have to settle for these two pictures. The squirrels did not give me permission to post the pictures of the LINES outside of my house. :)
Thank you for visiting and have a great weekend.Best wishes for a safe and a Merry Christmas to you and your family should you celebrate this holiday.Hope you have an even better new year.
The world lost a wonderful person yesterday, Charles “Mad Dog” Thornhill, at a very young 62 years old. Charlie came to Michigan State University to play football and did he ever. Charlie was a line backer that really made a difference. He played in 1965 and 1966 National Championship teams and you did not want to get hit by him. His career made a name for him. He bleeds green and everyone always wanted to interview him at the beginning of a new season and before the games. He was at awards banquets and often time spoke to the team before the game. You would think her was the coach. But this is not what made Charlie great.
I met Charlie a long time ago and I loved him once I got over the initial shock. You would swear he was going to tear you apart but Charlie was an awesome person. I talked to him about football some but I talked to him about so much more. I learned a lot from him and I almost always walked away learning something and all fired up. I loved talking to Charlie. As much as I hated to see him go, I was excited about him retiring next year.
One of the things about Charlie, he never wanted the lime light. Oh sure he did great in front of a crowd but he really just wanted to be in the background. One of his favorite things to do was motivation speaking to kids, especially the kids that were troubled. That was one of the things he planned to do once retiring. That is one of the things that, at least for me, was the greatest things about Charlie. The other thing, I think everyone loved Charlie, well maybe not the 1966 Norte Dame team but you can not please everyone. I watched some pretty young kids meet him before. They wore worried at first, so was I. He commanded attention and respect but, in the end, everyone loved him.
I was crushed when I saw that he had passed yesterday evening. I will so miss Charlie and I know I will always remember his birthday, April 1. Now I hated to post about this at this time of the year but I just felt I needed to. I hope you will walk away with something. Remember your parents, your siblings, your friends, even your pets will not be around forever. What ever you do, don’t forget to tell them how much they mean to you. Don’t ever regret that you did not say what you wanted to say. Don’t let silly little disagreements keep you away from your loved ones. Some day they will not be there. Charlie sure wasn't. I saw him yesterday morning and now he is gone.
Rest in Peace Charlie.
Well, uh, [Pointing to Mad Dog] That's a linebacker –Amazing Grace and Chuck
I am at my Sisters and, even though I brought my computer, I have been BUSY!!! It has been fun seeing my neice in a basketball game and cheerleading too. She was in a compitition on Saturday and they placed about middle of the pack. The last two years they went to nationals so that is not bad at all. Guess you can not go every year.
I have had time to visit with the folks and that has been great. I tried to buy an eliptical trainer but it turns out that all they have is the floor model. Sorry, not buying something like that used. So now I need to look at a slightly better model and see what happend.
My new way of eating is suffering. I am not doing what I should be but I am partially. I guess I will try harder but at the same time I am learning what I am doing and learning how to deal with those off situations. I am dissapointed that I did that but I am happy that I will continue. I think that is important. If you slip there are built in ways to deal with it and I am starting to understand that. I finished reading my book and Eating for Life. Things are a little clearer and it is hitting home why I need to adopt this, It is important.
Well I will be back in a couple of days. I just ment this to be a, sorry I am gone post. Sorry it is so jumbled up.
Christmas is just around the corner...
I didn't know that playing hookey could be so much fun. --Hercules
I do not know if you have ever heard a horse race being announced before but that is where the title for this post comes from. That is typically what you hear when the horses first come out of the starting gate at the beginning of the race.
Well I have been on the diet for about a week. First thing I think I will change is lose the word diet. I need to change my frame of mind. I have proven to myself that I am more than capable of losing weight. What I need to do now is work on how I keep that off while I am losing the weight. That way when I get to a healthy weight I can maintain that weight.
The number for week one is
Now I am not going to be posting about this. That would be boring. I may from time to time mention things. I think instead I will take the above picture and keep it up to date and off over to the sidebar. Anyone interested can see what is going on. Also, maybe it will add just a little kick in the pants for me to keep on the straight and narrow.
Well since I am posting about this lets talk about it just a little. What I am trying to do is focus on a change. First change is to eat more protein and less carbs. What carbs I do eat make sure they are good carbs and not bad carbs. Pay attention to portion sizes. Eat six smaller meals a day rather then two or three. This is all new to me so it is a big work in progress. I can't wait for a few weeks down the road where I settle in.
Next thing I need to do is the exercise. I probably will start out with all aerobics. In the end it will be a aerobics every other day and weight training on the other days. I am suppose to take a day off once a week, both on the weight loss and the exercise. I am not sure I can afford the exercise break. Maybe I will just substitute a walk but not push myself then. The workouts are not much. 30 minutes of aerobics, 20 minutes of weight training. Something I should be able to find the time to do.
The reason I say I do not know if I can afford the break is I am diabetic. I need to be active daily. I think eating 6 times a day will also be a good thing to help keep the blood sugar at a more even level. Eating carbs that slowly release (good carbs) will also be a good thing. I can not help but believe these changes will be a very positive thing for me.
Yesterday was a very pleasant surprise. I was putting on my pants, one leg at a time. When it came time to fasten the belt, I noticed I was able to take it in a notch. Now a notch is about 1 inch I believe. In the past I have noticed that when I lose 5 pounds I also lose about an inch around the waist. How exciting. I was getting feedback that things were working even without stepping on the scale. It is stuff like that that will keep me going. That and the positive changes in my health. I have noticed a change there too. Yes it is minor but it is there. All this from one week. When I get the exercise working for me it will be just super.
This past week has been hard. We had an office Christmas party. There was tons of snacky food and deserts around. Guess what, the left overs followed us and showed up at work. They are still there (we always have tons left over). I have been bad. I have eat things I should not, most notably cheese but also crackers and a few other things. So it has been off to a shaky start but you know what... I consider that OK for now. I mean at least I am started before the beginning of the new year. I will keep the holidays from turning into a time when I gain weight to a time when I either maintain or lose a few pounds. That has to be positive. Also as I get this puppy underway I will enforce my will as I see results. Yes the holidays is not an easy time to try and lose weight but it will work out just fine.
Well I have bored you long enough. Look for the scale to show up on the sidebar once I get in and update the template. With luck I will be a big loser in the coming weeks and months. First you need to take your first steps, baby steps, and I have done that with one week under my belt.
You put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking cross the floor. You put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking out the door --Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
I decided to do some Christmas shopping yesterday. Yikes, I waited to long. Some of what I am looking for can not be found. I have an idea where else to look tonight. If I do not find it then it is online time and hope it makes it hear in time. Something else I actually found and it was surprisingly cheap. That worries me. Now what do I do?
I really hate Christmas shopping. I would much rather just get together with the family and enjoy each others company and forget this exchange. Well except for my niece. She is 11 and I think we all should be spoiling her.
I have to come up with a list for someone to go shopping. I don’t want anything, Well actually I do but it is not something small or inexpensive that can be given as a gift. I tossed out one idea and had several people bite. YEA. They contributed money toward one present. I will pay most of the bill but they will make it easier to get it. My new flash for my camera. It already arrives. I want to open it but ... I ... can’t. Oh well.
Any ideas what I should be asking for? I suppose there is always underwear.
Oh, I was just smelling - smiling. I was just blouse - browsing. I, uh, heh heh. Well, I guess it just wouldn't... Oh hee hee, it wouldn't be the Christmas shopping season if the stores were any less hooter than they - HOTTER than they are. Whew. It is warm in here, isn't it? –Christmas Vacation
Yesterday I decided to go see a movie. I Checked my favorite cheap movie house and saw that there was a movie playing staring Denzel Washington. Now I don't know about you but I have this short list of actors and actresses that, when I see they are in a movie, chances are I will love the movie. Well Denzel is on my list.
The name of the movie is Deja Vue. Now most people are probably not living in a whole somewhere like me and already knew of this movie. Not me, this is the first I knew of it. The Internet Movie Database rated it a 7.1 but I really do not believe their ratings as I have seen some other pretty goog things rated down and other stupid things rated up. Besides, what makes a movie great to me may very well ruin a movie for you anyway.
Denzel plays an ATF agent in New Orleans that ends up investigating a terrorist event where an explsion on board a ferry kills over 500 people. Now just as someone trying to peace everything together this could have been fun but they had to toss in a few twists. One person that left a comment on IMDB wrote in part " deja vu has everything: sci-fi, action, adventure, drama, romance, thriller, mystery, etc" They are right. I loved it and I thought the acting was great.
Now if you go into this and try and poke holes in the story, you can but if you just go in a try to enjoy it you will enjoy it. Altough it is rated PG-13 it is not exactly a family video as some PG-13 movies can be. It says rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality.
Now if you love Denzel like I do you will enjoy this movie. I think it is at least worthy of renting it if not actually seeing it at the movies. I am glad I saw it.
Well, change businesses. Ooh, wow, total deja vu. --Gilmore Girls
I thought I would just go simple this week. This picture was taken at a wedding I attended this year. The bridesmaid's wore red. This is the second wedding in a year that Red is one of the main colors. I love it since RED is my favorite color.
For some reason when I see this picture it says "Lady in Red" to me. Kind of appropriate when you think of it since I hear the song "Lady in Red" at a lot of weddings.
To answer a few comments I thought I would add a few pictures to this post that are really not related to the hunt. These are of the bride, groom, and wedding party at that wedding. These pictures a way to dark despite my having lightened them. The onboard flash just could not handle the darkness and the distance, something I have since taken care of with a nice new flash.
A friend of mine went to see a concert yesterday. She went to see Aerosmith. She has seen them once a while back and really enjoyed it. I am sure she will have a great time.
Now all this started me thinking. I would love to see a concert. I have not seen all that many in the past. We have Boston, Joe Jackson, many concerts but Chicago, The Romantics. Yes I was a child of the 70s. One band that I hear puts on a great concert is Peter Frampton. I love Frampton, I have since the album Frampton Comes Alive back in 1976. So I start doing my research. I look up an official Frampton web site. We they are still performing and they even released an album recently. I bring up Music Match and listen to the album while I continue my research.
It seems that have tours listed through some time in May and the will be stopping in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 14. Well I let that sit for a while but last night I woke up and could not get back to sleep so I started scheming. I am 4 hours away from Indy. Making a 4 hour trip down there for the concert might be able to be done but coming back that same day just will not happen. That would mean a stay somewhere. We have 8 hours of gas to think about. I do not see being able to drag someone down there to see that concert. I mean near by maybe, but not under the circumstances. I have the Kentucky Derby Festival coming up that I will be down for anyway but that would not be for a few weeks but still. What if I were to drive to and visit with friends after the concert and stay the weekend in Louisville. Then fly home and return when I would normally be driving down.
No more sleeping. I pull up the ticket info and about $270 dollars later and much twisting I just do not know. That is a lot of money. Maybe I will just put that in the back of my mind and see if anything changes. Also maybe when they add more stops they will come up to Michigan and make things a whole lot easier. It is funny, before all this planning, making a trip to Detroit for a concert sounded like way to much work. Now however I am looking at it as only being 2 hours away and Grand Rapids would be even closer. I might even be able to drag someone with me. Oh the possibilities.
Maybe I should just do our Common Ground event that hits Lansing every year. They usually have at least a few bands that I really like. Hummmm...
Don’t mind me, my mind is over tired and obviously in need of something. Maybe some common sense. Welcome to my scary mind..
I know what high people look like. I went to a Seals and Crofts concert last summer. --Freaks and Geeks
I checked a few resources and they seem to say that if you were to drink 15 liters of water a day that would probably be a bad thing. Also if you drink to much to fast it is not so good either but they did not say what that might be. So my 4.5 liters (or so-just about 12, 12 ounce cups) of water is safe. Boy my body is having fun adjusting. If that does not settle down over the week I think I may need to reduce the intake. Of course I have not started exercising. If I was doing that it would be different too. For now, however, should you see me scooting toward the bathroom, for heaven sakes, GET OUT OF THE WAY!
I am not ready for this cold. Anybody have a nice warm place to go? It does not have to be real warm. I would settle for the 60s or 50s in a pinch. This bellow freezing just has not settled in for me yet.
Why can't I think of anything to write? Anything, anything? I got nothing...
It's no use we're gonna drown! We're gonna drown! --Timon and Pumbaa
OK, enough being lazy. I was trying to get a few things done in my never ending garage project so I could get the boards I have outside back in the garage before the snow hit. I managed to get that done so time for an update.
Boy the garage is coming along nicely finally. I think it should be ready for me to finally park back in the garage. Yea.
The diet has been postponed a day as I was not ready so with luck that will start tomorrow. I am pretty excited. I get to eat like a thousand meals a day of course each meal is pretty small. With luck the exercise will start tomorrow too. Nothing fancy, just something to get me started.
I ordered what will end up being a Christmas present of sorts. I am paying for a little over half of it but that is OK. It will allow me to take flash pictures over 40 feet away, possibly 90 feet. No one will be safe now. The main reason I am getting this is for taking candid pictures of people indoors. Typically I am far enough away that people do not see me and they act natural. I so love the candid pictures. They especially are nice at a wedding. So if you ever see a blinding light off in the distance in the direction of Michigan in the United States, don’t worry, it is just me. Now all I have to do is save up for my lense. It is more expensive than the camera and the flash put together but it will be worth it. I am going to need my weight training to make sure I can handle that lense. It is a 70mm/200mm continuous F2.8 canon lense. I have used it a couple of times and the is one sweet lense.
Work went well finally. I have been trying to figure out what is going wrong with a program I wrote. No one has complained but the program has logged error and three separate peoples machines, each on a separate day. There are about 45 people running to. Finally today I think I figured out what the problem could be. I started to make the change and should be testing and forcing and update sometime tomorrow. Sometimes I hate working on computer programs. Other times it is very rewarding. Today was one of the good days. Now if only I could write something to make me rich.
Well back to the garage. If you have an idea for a winning program to write, please let me know. There will be a finders fee, promise.
Uh, I think I got better things to do than watch a bunch of cheerleaders flash their panties at brain-dead jocks. –Joan of Arcadia
From home at least. We are closed at work so I am heading home to deal with the ice and approaching snow. Hopefully my Internet connection will be working again soon so I can make a real post.
In case it is not let me just wish everyone a great weekend.
I have been tagged. I did something similar to this before I realized I was tagged. Here goes.
Each player of this game starts with the “6 weird things about you”. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you are tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog. Well I am afraid I may participate in tags but I just do not tag people. Feel free to tag yourself if you like. Here is my 6 things.
I am a techi fan big time. Lets say we go to a play (which I love to do by the way). You may notice the actors or the lines, or who knows what about the play. Me, I am paying attention to the lighting, how crisp the changes are, do the spots follow properly? How is the sound. On and on, I live for that stuff. I have only helped out with sound and light a handful of times but I do have a big mixer board, a snake, microphones, microphone stands, recorders ... I used to tape open microphone nights for a friend.
I have always been overweight for all my life except for a couple of times. I am such a yo-yo dieter.
I am not a huge sports person but I do have my favorites. To watch, I love the NHL and Saturday College Football. To participate, I love volleyball, racquetball, wallyball, and more recently cornhole. Oh I so forgot curling.
I have come a long ways and have a pretty good job but I have never received a college degree.
I started wearing glasses for being near sighted at a very early age. I was very hard on my glasses, when I could find them that is. I finally got good about always putting them in the same place and I also got a pair of metal rim glasses that really stood up to my punishment. About 5, 6 years ago I had LASIK done on my eyes. It has so been worth it. I have 20/20 in one eye and 30/20 in the other I believe. It is funny however, I developed habits from wearing glasses and contacts. When it is raining I look down so as not to get it on the lense. When I get my hair cut I close my eyes to keep from getting a stray hair under my contacts. I probably will always do that.
I have always loved music. In 8th grade I joined the band and the conductor talked my parents into having me play french horn. I never was any good as I played third and fourth chair parts all but for 2 days at band camp when I was first chair. That got corrected fast Once out of band I got a keyboard and play around with it even if it is only 1 or 2 fingers at a time. I also have a flute I dig out every now and then and play around with. I really need to get into playing with midi.
If I could offer one piece of advice to the planet, it would be this: Don't marry for looks alone, and I'll tell you why. In a few years, when Barbara's boobs start sagging, she can get plastic surgery, have them lifted, move the nipple wherever. You can actually go to a titty bar, pick out a set of titties and say, "I want those titties on that woman." If her belly gets too big, she can get a tummy tuck and have a belly like a cheerleader. If her vision goes bad, you can have LASIK surgery and have 20/20 vision. If her hearing goes bad, they can install a device in her ear that will give you hearing as clear as it was the day you were born. But let me tell you something, folks: You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take; there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever. --Ron White: You Can't Fix Stupid
