baby june

I have the awesome privilege to be in Chambana with my best good friend Brianna and her husband to celebrate the newest addition to my extended family. June was born just a few days ago, and has been so much fun to watch, cuddle, and sniff. Oh, the sniffing! New babies smell so nice.

Birdy is off gallivanting with her cousin Brenna in Vancouver and having the time of her young life. The Hoosband is playing all the music he wants and eating Hot Pockets. I think it's a win-win for everyone.

birdy's bookshelf

Birdy loves a good naptime or bedtime story. These are the current favorites...what were yours as a kid?

oh, have you been here all along?

Um...hello?

Hello?

Anyone here?

No? I guess I understand. It's been, well, a while. Sorry for that. I go through periods where I'm totally in to writing and post a lot (or write a lot in Word or my journal) and then periods of silence for whatever reason. For the last month, I just haven't felt like I have had anything to say, which is sad, because a lot of fun stuff happened.

Here's a little list of interesting things that have developed since my last post:

• I had wine in a theatre
• Remember Me is a terrible movie. I recommend bringing wine with you when you see it.
• I had brie in a toasted sandwich. Sorry cheddar, move on over.
• We celebrated Birdy's birthday.
• I made an 11 layer cake.
• I've gotten in to geneology. I have a relative named Orris!
• I haven't lost any weight.
• But I have been more active.
• But I haven't lost weight.
• I'm planning on cooking dinner that involves tofu for my family tomorrow. Any and all well wishes appriciated.
• The Hoosband's parents visited.
• I've been to the Tech Museum.
• I had to watch the Star Trek movie.
• I bought an AWESOME rug at Ikea.
• Many of you are jealous that there are 2 Ikeas within an hour of here.
• I just think that might be a good reason for YOU to come and visit us!
• My brother, my friend Anita, and my friend Jessica are going to visit in the next month.
• I love my brother.
• Birdy is a terrible two year old.
• Birdy is also an incredibly sweet two year old.
• We welcome any and all two year old parenting advice.
• I've taken some great photos. Perhaps you will see them before the year 2050 ends.
• Did I mention the sweet Ikea rug? It's sweet. It's also red.
• MSN messenger now works on my computer. Let's chat, amigos!
• I discovered an amazing curry sauce in, of all things, a Weight Watchers cookbook.
• I haven't lost any weight. I blame the curry sauce. It turns out that just becuase it's a WW recipe doesn't mean you can't just drink glasses of it. Weird, I know.
• Parenthood is an amazing show. Please to watch and enjoy.
• Birdy got a guitar (ukelele) from my Best Good Friend Brianna. She now walks around strumming and singing the alphabet song from A-F.

So, here's to a month with more in-depth hard-hittting information about your favorite California girl. Unless you have another girl who is a bigger favorite. If that's the case, then I hope I'm your number 2 girl. At best your number 5.

If it's lower than number 5, I don't want to hear about it.

I miss everyone. That is all.

paging carrie bradshaw

The real question is, if I had these $695 shoes, what WOULDN'T I wear them with?

what is up with cake?

Seriously.

If there is one thing that I want more than anything else right now or 89.4% of any given day, it's cake. Cake with good frosting, like the kind you make. The stuff in the can is good for graham crackers, but not cake. Not delicious, crumby cakey cake. Oh cake. The cake need comes once or twice a month, and usually I make a cake or brownies or something, but you should be proud. I've only make a cake-like item (chess bars, which should have been better than they were, but were still cakey enough that I ate more than I should have) this month, and I think that is much to be proud of considering the last 5 months had a birthday, Thanksgiving or Christmas in it, which is a whole lot worse than cake just once, you know? It's like I'm in the negative for cake eating. If I think about it long enough, I'll find some way to figure out that all the past pieces of cake are cancelled out because of this recent stand against cake making.

Writing about how much I like cake is surprisingly not helping the cake craving that I'm trying to ignore.

I begin to see a root of the continual chubbyness.

However, it should be noted that I have worked out three times this week, and tomorrow will be number four. And I've lost a few pounds since starting.

I will say that the prospect of losing weight is a little scary for me. I almost have to not think about the healthier choices I'm making because it stresses me out as much as it does. The reason for the stress is stupid too--if I lose the weight I want to lose, then I have to keep it off. And that seems incredibly intimidating, since I never set out to gain the weight that I did, you know? So what if I become wildly successful on this journey into sweating for the fun of it and then I fail all over again?

Ma would tell me to stop borrowing trouble. Ma would be right, but Ma also ate salt pork every day and her family almost starved to death in the Long Winter, so I think Ma would say that I'm worrying about the wrong things.

Sheesh. What a convoluted post. I blame it on the cake.

stuff and junk

We've been out of the YMCA loop for a week, since Birdy got the sniffles and the runny noseles two Saturdays ago. Since then, I've worked out once. I felt that it made me sore enough for six workouts, so it all evens out in the end. :-)

But today, I am back in busniess.

I ran for five straight minutes. I feel pretty proud of myself, considering the last time I did that was about a year ago. What makes me laugh is how I kept myself motivated during the longest 5 minutes of 2010: "yes, this sucks, but isn't intense nausea even worse?"

If this is how I'm going to get through this whole business, I think "this is better than throwing up" is a good slogan.

Do you have a slogan for your weight loss?

jelly belly, the lamentable part deux

Today, I went to the YMCA.

At 6:30am.

And weighed myself. With the trainer.

And then did a body fat composition test. With the trainer.

And then kept my face carefully neutral when I saw my percentage. In front of my trainer.

Has anyone ever done that? The body fat thing? Because holy melty cheese nachos, Batman, it's intense. I have a system when it comes to numbers and my body. When I weigh myself, I think of a number that is a few pounds heavier than I think I will be, kind of like a worst-case scenario situation. That way, when I do step on the scale, it's always with the attitude of "it could be worse." This makes me feel better about myself. It doesn't make me feel better about myself when the number is much, much, much higher than my mentally prepared already high number. And that is what the body fat composition test did for me. Yikes.

I mean, I know I'm overweight. I know that "medically" I'm "technically" "obese." But what do "doctors" know, really? Well. I guess more than me. Because the body fat test was a big wake up call for me. Peeps, I have some issues and I need to deal with them as soon as possible. I find the segment on the Biggest Loser where the doctor goes over their health risks and numbers related to their weight, and think to myself that I'm not that bad. I don't weigh 250 pounds, or 300, or 400, and I take comfort and feel smug with those thoughts. Even at my most fit, I was 150 pounds and not necessarily skinny. I don't have the build for that, I think. But today, I realized that I've been living in a fabricated dream world where I think I'm okay and that I don't really have a problem.

I have a problem.

Because many things haven't worked for me, I'm trying something new. Remember when I said this was a shame based Puritanical society I run at this here blog? I'm going to take advantage of that and start posting weekly updates on my progress. Or my backsliding. Or my stagnation. But the big thing is that I'm going to start being accountable for what I eat and how often I work out. But mostly, it’s about humiliation. I think that might be good for me. For more on another very funny guy who lost weight using humiliation and a whole lot of biking, check out Fat Cyclist, who isn't fat at all anymore.

So.

Without further ado, here we go (you can feel free to stop reading now, if you'd like):

Weight: 225
Body fat: 43.7% (Thank god I have big bones??)
Pants size: 20

Ugh. That was rough. But I feel better. I think.

Photo from Cathy Zielske

jelly belly

This last weekend while my parents and brother visited, we made the pilgrimmage to the Jelly Belly factory. And internets, it was pretty cool. We went on the free tour, which allowed us to spend our money elsewhere in their factory store. Needless to say, many beans were purchased, and many beans were consumed. Yummy.

However.

I think I may have overdosed on the candy beans since last Friday. I have a headache that I believe is from the sugar, and is threatening to derail any progress the 30 Day Shred has made. Boo.

 

white all night!

My fellow internets, can we talk? I'm rarely passionate about pop culture or celebrities in general. But I feel a need to stand up for Coco. I mean, seriously. SERIOUSLY.

I love Conan.

He's just so tall. And his hair. It's so floppy, it's surpassed silly and soared on to awesome. I mean, seriously. LOOK AT IT.

And also, we need to talk about how funny he is. 1864 Baseball? Classic. Conan goes to Ireland? Amazing. Conan goes to Finland? Even better.

But Jay. Oh Jay. You had a 6 year heads up to when you were leaving. And you can't bow out like a decent person, and instead you selfish choices and try to blame the netword execs. Also, you can't make those jokes about it because you are the guy causing the drama. I mean, you had a great career as the host of the Tonight Show. But you're time is over. It's time to pass the buck. I mean, seriously. PACK UP THE CHIN, MAN.