Outside

Spring is on the way, which will be nice because it brings some great things like golf, warm weather and fresh air. The downside is that it also brings yard work. That neverending effort to make your house look nice from the road so that the neighbors don't complain. You can spend a lot of money on a nice house marker or tons of mulch or lots of other things, but doesn't it just boil down to keeping the neighbors happy? Obviously you take pride in your own house and having it look nice but couldn't it be said that it means a lot to you because of what you imagine that other people think when they look at it? Not that I'm championing a cause for 5 foot tall grass or anything, I just think it's funny sometimes how we justify things. Even things that seem important. I'm not going to neglect my yard, but I might scowl at my neighbors when I see them because it is all their fault that I have to do all this...

Trunk Please

So for those of you that have a car with a trunk. Do you have any idea what's in there? If you do, when was the last time you used any of it? I'm sure some people have tons of Emergency Supplies that they will probably never use. In my case I have my golf clubs. I don't have room for them in the garage and I'm too lazy to take them in and out of the car every Tuesday during the summer so I just don't. So basically I have a trunk that is completely useless should I ever need to....well... ok so I don't really need it. The only time it has ever been a problem was when the van was in the shop and I forgot to take out the clubs until after we had already bought our groceries. Talk about creative stacking. Ok well I guess I don't really have a point today. That happens sometimes.

Silly Arguments

Have you ever gotten into a silly argument that you never really cared all that much about but once you got started, you just didn't want to back down out of principle? It seems really silly to fight about the thing in question, however you don't want to "lose". My wife and I had one of these silly tiffs recently about Pens. Yes pens, we both wanted the same pen for yahtzee and like any good husband I eventually gave in, but it was just silly in the first place. Why do we care so much about being right, or "winning" an argument no matter how silly? It seems like we could do a lot better to just let things go sometimes. Pick your battles so to speak. Easier said than done, I know...

Beware: Work Ahead

It will be nice once we get moved. Assuming that we find the perfect balance between usefulness and frugalness. I just hope that I can find a way to be happy in both areas but I doubt that that will be the case. The down side is that we will get to do House Painting again. The most dreaded task of any new home owner. The wall must always be repainted because once you are moved in, it becomes extremely hard to justify moving everything around to get it done. I think I hate doing it so much just because it's such an arduous task and there is very little of it that sparks my interest. At least we don't have to do it that often, and I guess the joy of being moved and having that behind us will make it a little easier to deal with so I won't complain that much. Ok so I probably will...

No Vacation For Me

Unfortunately, but smartly, we have decided to forgo a vacation this year. We are taking our trip to Nashville for me to run the half marathon but we hopefully won't have to spend much to do that and it will only be for a weekend. The big discussion is were to go next. A friend of mine goes to the Outer Banks a lot. No idea if they use Outer Banks Rentals or not, but he really does like it. We both would love to go out west although my wife is very interested in a beach vacation as we haven't done one in a while. I'm ok with that as long as there are some golf courses nearby. I'm not a big beach guy but it is her turn. At least we have plenty of time to decide and plan what we are going to do.

We Will ShamROCK You!

We went to Old Navy yesterday to try and find the girls' Easter dresses. Unfortunately they only had summer clothes in stock which of course makes perfect sense for mid February... But they did have plenty of irish gifts and clothing out on display. One of the things they had was a shirt that had "I [shamrock leaf] you", like "I [HEART] You" might look. I couldn't determine what this should mean exactly. "I shamrock You", or just "I 'rock you". I have no idea. I guess any shirt that confuses those around you is cool and interesting these days. At least it wasn't a spade symbol..

Good People

I was really proud of our church in the last week or two. We had a family whose house burned to the ground in a fire. Fortunately, they weren't home and they got there in time to get their dogs out so there was no loss of life, but there was a total loss of all things material. Our church took up an offering for them to help until their insurance money kicked in and we raised sympathy gifts of over $3000 in the first week. I was pretty proud that our church was able to respond in that way and it made me glad to be part of a church family that will help to hold each other up in that way. When my wife was on bed rest a couple of years ago and couldn't work, we received similar gifts that helped us greatly and taught us to be better givers to those around us. We aren't perfect but we definitely try to show compassion a lot more these days. The trend has been set so hopefully we can keep it going.

House Time Again Soon

Well we'll be trying our hand at selling our house again come April 1st. We'd really like to get moved into town so that we are closer to everything. And we need a bigger house as we would like to have a third child in the future. I've seen some cool places to check the listings, like Cary NC Real Estate that could help us find the right place. I'm just torn between saving money with a lower house payment and getting something that will fulfill most of our needs but not saving that much money. I guess it will all depend on what is available once our house sells, assuming it does. That is the main hurdle to jump before anything else matters so hopefully the market will change for the better soon.

Half Way, almost

Yesterday I ran 6 miles for my half marathon training. Talk about a Metabolism Booster, I've been eating like a horse this week with all the miles I've put in. It took a lot out of me to run that far. I was good and ready for bed last night at 9pm. Unfortunately we couldn't get our youngest daughter to stay in bed until 10 so I didn't quite get to bed as early as I had hoped. Then she got up twice during the night. She is still fighting off a cold so I guess that is to be expected. She has never quite been as good a sleeper as our oldest is.

I have to say that only being halfway home on my mileage is bittersweet. Good because I've made it this far, and bad that it was that hard. I think I was just overtired from my running earlier in the week and the fact that I missed a long run due to illness.

Anyway, only about 10 weeks till raceday so I still have a lot of work to do.

Annoyance Update

I'm really starting to get tired of all this. The last two months, fitness wise, having done nothing but make me angry.

On Jan. 11 I got my body fat tested and was all the way back up to 15.05%, presumably thanks to the holiday eating. So I absolved to be extremely good for the next month while continuing with my running and lifting and see where that left me.

I was pretty confident going into my body fat test today as I had lost 5 pounds this previous month.

Then I got my results....

Turns out I only lost 2 pounds of fat and burned 3 pounds of muscle. So after all that I'm now at 14.25% body fat and 3 of my hard earned pounds of muscle are gone. Needless to say I was not very pleased with that result. According to the trainer, the running is going to cause me to burn some muscle and there isn't much I can do about that. I want to complete my goal and run the half marathon but I feel like my idea of setting an athletic goal has taken me farther from my fitness goals instead of closer.

I'm really frustrated right now and I'm not sure where to go from here. Have you ever heard someone say "I tried tons of different things for years before I found something that worked"? Well I think that's where I'm at.

So far my lowest body fat percentage came after a month of really heavy low rep lifting, in which I was not really trying to create a calorie deficit. Obviously I can't go back to that right now because I have a half marathon to train for. I'm still going to finish that goal but my eating is going to have to change. If eating less is going to cause me to burn muscle then the best I can hope for is to eat more so that the food gets burned instead and I hang onto the muscle. It probably won't work, like everything else I've tried, but I have to try to keep from losing as much muscle as I can until this half marathon is over and then I can go back to heavy lifting.

This is all very frustrating. No wonder people just give up and quit. Being fat and lazy is a lot easier.

I'm not going to quit, but I'm definitely frustrated. If I hadn't paid for this half marathon I would probably just quit and go back to lifting but I hate to say I'm going to do something and then not do it. At this point though, it's looking very unlikely that I will get to my body fat percentage goal for a very long time.

Almost Time Again

Well it's almost that time again. The time we have all been waiting for. As if I even need to tell you that the NBA All Star game is coming up. Probably the least watched sporting event this side of the World Bridge Championships. Although if you aren't like me and you actually care then this would be a great time to head out to Vegas and buy some tickets. If you have any money left after that you may want to drive by some Las Vegas Luxury Condos, as you could probably move in next to your favorite star. Now I don't know where the NBA players actually live so moving in may also be a great way to avoid them. Either way, Vegas is the place to be.

Super Bowl Bonus

So if you just won the super bowl and your done with the Disney world thing, what are you going to do next? Maybe spend your hard earned millions on something fun to celebrate. Perhaps check into some Orlando Pool Homes, private islands, or maybe even a few Ferrari's just for fun. It has to be fun to have to make decisions like that although money brings as many problems with it as it does benefits. (easy for me to say when I don't have much). Personally I like the idea of just being able to afford to not work. I would love to just have the time to pursue my own interests without deadlines enforced by others. Obviously my God and my family would still come first but a few more golf lessons would definitely do me some good.

A Toughy

Do you ever get stuck trying to figure out what the right gift is for different occasions? Whether it be a birthday party, first communion gifts, anniversary gifts, etc. We have trouble with that all the time. We've got a first birthday party coming up for a friend and we have no idea what to get them. We don't have a ton of extra money but we don't want to spend such a small amount to seem rude or such a large amount as to break the bank. It's really hard to find the balance. Then there's the problem of having no idea what that particular child is into. A Barney gift might steal the show, but not if Elmo is the big star in their house. Oh well, I guess it's the thought that counts, right?

A Chili Night

Last night we hosted the Super Bowl party for our small group from church. Oh and if anyone from the NFL is reading this, our TV is only 27 inches and we don't have cable, so don't bother suing us. Not to mention the fact that it wasn't church sponsored and we didn't charge admission. Of course it might still be illegal to watch the super bowl unless you watch it on a black and white TV in a cave, but if so I have to wonder why the NFL is trying so hard to tick off their fans. Maybe they are tired of being so well-liked and popular.

Anyway, we had a lot of good food last night and for the second weekend in a row I ate way too much of it. I feel disgusting today and probably won't eat much as my stomach feels like a churning cauldron of crud.

My wife and I's contributions were potato soup and chili. At the end of the night I started helping clean up the kitchen. At this point only one other couple was still there. I grabbed the leftover pot of chili and opened the fridge to put it in. At that point it was one of those slow motion moments where you hear the guy yelling "NOOOOOOOOO" in a weird low voice, as I felt the chili pot slip from my hands.

The chili bomb hit the floor and detonated. (a great weapon if America ever declares war on vegetarians). Chili shrapnel flew everywhere. My socks instantly became residents of the garbage can and I started to survey the full extent of the damage. Our fridge was coated in chili and several splotches had made it to about 5 feet up the wall, not to mention the heaping mounds of beans and meat now occupying the floor.

Thankfully our friends stayed to help us clean it up. It was pretty funny and really gross at the same time. Just imagine someone using the dust pan to scoop up large globs of chili off of your floor to throw away. I don't think any of us will be eating chili again anytime soon.

Pictures were taken and I will post them as soon as I get them. My fault or not this was too funny not to share. I think that as far as WKD's go (weapons of kitchen destruction), this one was very effective.

Four Alarm Frozen

So yesterday was interesting. I dropped my car off to get some work done and we decided to stop on the way to church and pay for it, but then leave it there and pick it up on the way home.

For some reason I decided to lock my car before we left the service center. No idea why as I never lock my car. I'm claiming temporary paranoia.

Added to this story is the fact that when I dropped off the car, I accidentally mistook the valet key for the spare key, and gave them that one to use. It didn't cause them any problems, but I wasn't so lucky.

So we stop on the way home to pick it up. My wife leaves and I go to start my car. First of all, the alarm goes crazy when I unlock the car with the valet key, which doesn't worry me much as my car is typically very touchy when it comes to the alarm going off. The problem arises when I realize that the only way that I can shut off the alarm is to click the door unlock button on my keyless entry fob, which is at home....

So I try to start my car with the valet key and nothing happens. Whatever I did has sent my car into berserk mode and so anything I do causes the alarm to spaz like a teenage girl at a shoe sale.

To recap, it's cold, really cold, my wife is gone and I can't go near my car without annoying every neighbor in a 1 mile radius. Fortunately for me, I had my cell phone so I called my wife and told her to get my real keys and bring them back to me. That left me with about 20-25 minutes to just hang out in the cold. Fortunately I'm also paranoid (read prepared) so I always keep my triple thick toboggan and my snowboarding gloves in my car. It cost me another 30 second round of alarm screaming to retrieve them, but it was worth it.

The moral of the story? Throw your valet key into the nearest furnace and always keep warm stuff in your car in the winter...

Oh and cell phones are pretty cool too.

A Poplar Hobby

Yes I spelled the title that way on purpose..

Wood working is cool. It's one of those things that I really wish I had the time and money to really pursue. My grandpa was a carpenter so I guess it's just in my blood. I made the crib for our kids with some help from a friend with a wood shop and some know-how, and it was hard but I really enjoyed it. I hope someday that I will be able to do more stuff like this but right now I just don't have the money to buy the equipment or a big enough space to work. Hopefully it will work out someday but for now I will just have to buy my furniture like everyone else at places like Powell furniture .