Aren't Kids Sneaky Inspirations?

A great weekend for my wife & I. We went to see Ashley at college & got there just in time for her soccer game. They won, but she did not play. Being one of two freshman on the team playing time has to be earned. She played in their first two games. Go figure that the game she gets zip time is the game we drive 4 hours to go see. Oh well, we went to see her much more than we went to see her play.

After the game we went back to her dorm room; not as neat as it was when we dropped her off there a month ago. We met some of her new friends who were on their way out to go bowling. We took her to dinner somewhere she loves to go; Olive Garden- yuck! There we chit chatted for a couple of hours and just hung out. All seems to be going well with her at school. She adjusted much quicker than we expected. Not that we expected her to have any serious issues with the transition. It is very pleasing to know that your kid was able to leave home and take flight in a big way. Oh she has a long flight ahead of her, but so far she is soaring.

Here is a fun picture I snapped on the way home yesterday...

A tanker truck filled with coffee; wonder how many cups that equals?

We didn't take too  many photos on the trip, and I don't have anymore to share here right now; but there is one photo that I wish I had taken but didn't.

When we were in Ashley's dorm I was reading what she had scribbled on her white board. Allow me to note here that her white board looks marvelous as it was expertly hung by a master of stuff hanging a month ago. Ok, the hanging bit was not really the marvelous part. What was marvelous was what she had scribbled. Any guesses what she had written there?

Nope, not how much she misses us.
Nope, not when she is coming home next.
Nope, not even what she is going to buy us for Christmas.

She had goals writing on her board. Those objectives she considers so important that she wanted daily reminder of them. Huh, what a novel idea...

Decide what is important to achieve, commit it to writing, and display it in a place that when you wake everyday, you remind yourself of what is important to you.

Aren't kids sneaky inspirations? 

I'll be buying a white board today after work.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Squishy Time

Hope all had a great week and are set for a great weekend.

Myself, a decent week. Found some of my mojo, still need to find more; a week at a time for now.

This weekend my wife & I are off to visit our daughter at college and see her play in their weekend soccer game. Looking forward to spending away from home with my wife and catching up with Ashley.

Our daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. Her college is nothing like Hogwarts however. Some colleges do pride themselves, and market themselves, in their similarities to Hogwarts. Apparently Yale University is considered to be the most Hogwarts like in America. A campus known for it's towers, courtyards, arches and gothic architecture. Under one library a tunnel leads to another library and onward through a vast underground network of passageways. The administration process places incoming students in one of twelve residential colleges, but no sorting hat is used. And to secure its spot as Hogwarts like, they offer a class called "Christian Theology and Harry Potter". I'm sure our daughter would like to take that class. And she can, just as soon as she applies to Yale and pays for it.

Have a great weekend whatever you do!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 457-458: In Heat Monday

Good weekend for me, hope yours was good as well. Some of my highlights...


As noted already my wife & I started our weekend with a date night & saw Winnie The Pooh movie which I have renamed appropriately The Eeyore Movie. Best line from the movie, "Send the Pig." -Roo

Did C25K-W1D1, felt great.

Brunch w/ Mom. Gave her a gift from Hawaii; Koa wood wine stoppers. She gave me my birthday gift; Bass Pro gift card which I'll use towards my hunting license; sweet!.

Saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Should rename this film to "HP7, The Rise of Neville Longbottom". We went at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, my wife & I were the youngest in the theatre by at least 10 years, kind of funny.

Grilled a delicious Garlic-Dill Halibut fillet. OMG it was so good.

Went to see son play in a soccer camp, on way home we got some ice cream because y'day was national ice cream day; I went with pretzel-marshmallow ice cream! Thankfully it wasn't liverwurst day.

Listened to the world cup game on radio, what a let down that was. You are welcome Japan!

Wife downloaded all of the Hawaii pictures from the cameras. Up top there you see one of them, our deep sea fishing trip results; 2 mahi-mahi (left) and 3 skipjack tuna (right).

Monday is here & so is the heat wave. Bring it on I say, but please let the power stay on. Today we get to better ourselves in any & every way we choose. How cool is that?

For me that means doing C25K-W1D2 after work. Going to drag our youngest son with me, he jiggles more than he ought to.

What about you, at days end how will you be better than when you woke up?

 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 332 - Soccer, Spring & Surprise

Yesterday I got in 2 miles on the elliptical and kept the calories to around 1700; fairly even split as far as nutrients go. So a decent effort getting this mission re-saddled and on the path again. Could be better, and that is what today's goal is.

How was your Monday eating & exercise?

After my wife & I exercised yesterday (she did treadmill while I did elliptical) we caught our breath and headed out to attend my daughters first soccer game of the spring season. Bbrrrr, spring my @$$... at 34F there was no spring to be found. She is a senior, so this is the last year we have to endure soccer starting before spring officially gets here and before Momma Nature gives us a break. Everyone was dressed for ice fishing, as pictured above (my wife in red coat center-right), even the players. Sadly, we lost 1-3, which made the game colder.
 
Speaking of my wife she has a birthday coming up in May. Plenty of time yet to get the birthday party planned and gift figured out, but I've known for a while what she was going to get got her fortieth. She's been drooling over these ever since they came out a few of years ago and were pumped up in the Transformers movies. This weekend I figured it'd be a neater surprise to give it to her a couple of months early...

 


Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 165 - Got Handbook?

Tuesday was an 'A' effort by myself. Exercise was had and my eating was akin to that straight out of a diet handbook. If only there were such a handbook that was perfectly tailored to me. And there were one perfectly tailored to you. If only...

Well, lets noodle that for a second or three. Mmm, noodles; um focus!  Over the years and my dozens of weight loss attempts I have probably purchased, borrowed or stolen (borrowed & never returned) a book on this diet plan or that diet fad for each attempt. Oh the money I've donated to this gaba-bazillion dollar industry.

In no way am I saying it was all good money thrown at bad information. Applying honesty to my thoughts, and I must, I did benefit from those past attempts. My brain has knowledge packed in its corners from what I've read, listened to, seen, etc. during each of those previous attempts.

Today, on this mission; my final mission that will take the rest of my life to enjoy. Today, I have come to believe that I finally have the ONLY handbook to follow. It doesn't come from a book store, or online store, or from a neighbors collection.

My handbook follows no one diet & exercise plan. Simply, I do not believe there is a handbook out there that is perfectly tailored to ALL of us. Although that said, most all in the end break down to a common thought; eat better and eat less than you burn and burn more by moving more than you move now. Huh, so what is the difference in all those books, plans, and the like for sale out there?

That is up to you to decide. For me, I've decided that the best approach for me is a slow and steady track towards a better me. Where did I come up with that. Just from experience, from my collective learnings, failures, and shaping how they can help me achieve what I current want to achieve. I do not want to fail & quit a mission ever again.

And fail I will not. Because I have found my handbook. It has been so close at hand for so long. It is in my head. I believe I know what will work for me because I have taken the time to give it thought, come up with an approach I believe in, and am doing it.

Trust yourself. Believe in yourself. You know you better than any book, anyone else. Take the knowledge you have assembled, seek more if you feel necessary, and then you determine how to do this. Follow a commercial plan, or not, your choice. Follow what you so fully believe in that you can put your complete trust behind it. Find that, come up with that, and I am betting you (and I) will never fail & quit a mission ever again.


What does all of that have to do with that photo up there? Not a thing. That is my daughter who worked the concession stand during my son's varsity soccer game yesterday. My exercise was to walk around the high school campus for an hour before the start of his game.

When done, I stopped by to razz her (my job) and get a drink to chug-a-lug during the game. Yeah, I know, it is a diet soda versus a bottle of water. My taste buds were wanting more than no taste. Look at all those wonderful treats beside her; amazing how there is not a healthy item to be found there. maybe the popcorn can be considered a healthy item. Simply, they know they'd sell far less, thus raise far less for the school, if the options were not those you see there. Sad, but true lesson in what is considered (right or wrong) to be really important I suppose.

What are you snacking on today while you ponder the handbook inside of your head?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Me sweat'n my bum off @ game y'day (the pic I couldn't get to load w/ my day-100 post)

At Arrowhead for the Manchester United tour ~ Go KC!

Day 83 - Pix 4 U

Slightly different kind of post today for me, one based in pictures...

Food, I have to have food in a pic right. There on the upper-left you see lunch from yesterday, Whitefish Salad, from the South Gate Cafe where my Mom took me for my birthday. Not sure why the pic came out looking so blusih. It was excellent! What is your take on fish skin? I don't care for it much unless it is cooked up to a crunch. Like poultry skin it does allot to add flavor to the meat but I find unlike poultry the fish skin itself is not a savory and this I usually strip it off after cooking and discard.


Below is my oldest son Andrew. Wednesday night we went to see a minor league baseball game. Anyone else here like minor league baseball? The Lake County Fielders are a new single-A team that is owned by Kevin Costner which he founded for Lake County. A great idea and we went to support them. The problem, well look at Andrew. He is all wet. Minutes after buying our tickets and getting our peanuts and drinks the skies opened up in a big way. Here we are standing under a concessions canopy waiting it out. But the game was cancelled. So we will go back another day with our rain checks.

Below is a fruit stand where I like to get locally grown fruit & veggies. The day I took that picture I hauled away a steal of a deal on bing cherries. Who here doesn't like cherries?

Below is a picture of our oldest Ashley taking a chomp out of a buffalo wing. Wings, is there a better bar food? This past Tuesday I worked from home and we had a power outage. Now outages always occur at the worst time of day tight?Yep, minutes before the start of the World Cup game between Uruguay & Spain. So, power out means internet out means I can't work; perfect! Off we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game and eat some wings. I was good, I only ate 3 of her 12 wings and I ate all of the celery.

Below is a picture of the middle son Ryan. Here he is hamming up a shot for me to send to his mom. Why I felt the need to send her this shot I am not sure, just having fun I suppose. Subway in hand, he wasn't in as good of a mood as the picture suggests. This was last week and he had tweaked his back at wrestling camp. We were waiting for CVS to fill his script for muscle relaxers so we thought we'd stop in for lunch at the Subway next door. The Subway Diet, a joke or something to consider?

Last but not least... Click here to see my fresh off the press 30% progress pictures.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!