Day 410 - Have I Bored U Yet?

Welcome to Wednesday, Welcome to June; yes it is June already!

I'll resume the 14 part series on Leadership Traits soon. I never intended to present it 14 days in a row but to break it up over several weeks. Remember I have BADD, Bloggers Attention Deficit Disorder ADD, so I tend to jump topics from day to day without much rhyme or reason at times.

Actually I am way short on time this morning. We are moving within the office here. We do this every 12-18 months, shift everyone around to a different location within the corporate campus. Today is that day, today I am moving 14 columns to the north and 7 rows to the east. Our buildings are laid out like spreadsheets and cubical locations addressed similar to how a cell in a spreadsheet is addressed. Have I bored you yet? Have I scared you away from wanting to work here?

Anyhow, as I am short on time, let me share some recent photos of my days...
Up to there, my son's t-shirt he wore to the YMCA last week; hilarious.

And here Andrew is at the gym getting his curl on...

Ashley waiting for her cheesecake to arrive; we were at the Cheesecake Factory, what else would one wait for there?...

Cameron cleaning his rifle, notice the cat on the chair next to him? No animals,or cats, were hurt in publishing this post...

The family photo for Ashley's graduation; nice to see the boys dressed up for the occasion...

Me at the YMCA last week, taking a breather between sets I think...

My wife and Squishy after graduation; she has not let her go since...

Ribs going into the smoker on Memorial Day; they were my best yet!

Enjoy Your Wednesday!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 224-226 Unplugged & Recharged

Good Morning Everyone! Hope all had a great weekend, and great holiday weekend at that. Did you?

Mine was quite good. For the most part I unplugged after Friday morning's post. A combination of allot planned with the family and just a need to mentally take a break from all of the structures that are my daily norm. Call it a mental vacation without going anywhere, just putting my mind at ease on other things.

A good decision too as I am ready for the new week re: work, home and health.  My brief stint away was not an unhealthy deviation from good sense. Had it been I wouldn't call it unplugging but rather unproductive.

Friday was largely spent at a wrestling tourney with Ryan which I spoke of with Friday's post. Ryan is a sophomore who wrestles on the J-V team. He was called up to the varsity team for the tourney to fill a void at his weight class; 189 pounds. His coach was upfront with him that this would be tough facing juniors & seniors many of whom have gone to state before. Just do the best you can for as long as you can and don't worry if you get your butt kicked. He lost both of his matches but he held his own. Mommadesure he knew that while he was beaten but his butt was far from kicked...

Before all of that wrestling excitement Friday morning started with my dropping Ryan off at the high school and then racing off (I almost typed 'scurrying', but I don't scurry!) to the sporting goods store for my foray into Black-Friday early bird madness. I do not hit the stores in the dark-hours on Black-Friday or any day no matter what the savings. But this store had a dang good combo deal on a 300-pound set of olympic weights and bar (pictured above) so I ventured into the madness. It wasn't too bad as the looney-tunes that camp out and lose sleep over sales had come and gone by the time I got there. Picked up a bench with leg attachment to use the new weights with. Oh these are not gifts, well I guess you can say they are for me and anyone else who wants to use them. But no wrapping paper needed. Came right home and set it all up in the brief window of time I had before it was off to watch wrestling.

Saturday was all about holiday prep. My wife and I took got in some shopping in the morning after breakfast allowing all of that day's early a.m. shopping-crazies to get in and out before us. Back home for a bit I got in the first workout on the new weights before rallying the boys to bring up the bins of holiday decorations and get that stuff out on the lawn. Well, we got started on it but soon came to remember that at the end of last year I threw away many items which were either broken down, tattered or just no longer wanted. This left us with way too little for the job. So off my wife & I went for another round in the stores to replenish the holiday decorations and as well we picked up the Christmas tree. Got a good one too, this thing just sucks up water like a sham-wow sucks money from the pockets of the easily entertained. Came home, got all of that set up and done which wore me out more so than the weights. Topped the day off by escorting my son and his girl friend to the movies. They made sure to sit on the opposite side of the theatre from my wife & I while we took in Due Date. ZZZzzz, I was ready for bed before bed was ready for me.

Sunday, a mix of fun. Up early and out the door with Andrew for a few hours of hunting on the last day of the regular gun season. We saw nothing, except other hunters; no deer for me...

We got in a good dose of cardio walking all over the public wildlife area we opted for this day. After coming home, a hot shower and a bowl of cereal; my wife & I were back out hitting various stores to try and knock out more Christmas shopping. If I had to guess we're about 60% done which means we'll go back out for the rest next weekend.

When we got home Andrew & I played darts on last time for the weekend. He has finally improved enough where he wins 1/2 the time. Over the course of the weekend he has amassed two more wins than I had so he was on the verge of winning a weekend series for just the second time. Bang, bang, I won two games quick and the weekend series was tied at 12-12... one more had to be played and nothing should ever, never-ever, end in a tie; right? Perhaps I should have settled for the tie as he rocked me in the deciding game. Man, next weekend he is so mine!

Ok, that is it; my weekend wrap up. Good fun, good time unplugging, good to ready to go for a new week.

Are you ready for the new week? 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 223 - Post Turkey Ugh

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving was filled with good food and time with the family. I ate well, and didn't over do it. Oh I wanted to. That turkey was calling me to come and get some more of that succulent breast meat. Those mashed sweet potatoes were singing a seductive song which was so lovely. And the pumpkin pie, it just had to sit there and use ESPN to keep it's presence on my mind. Yeah, I so wanted to go and load up a second plate, but I abstained. What a difference a year makes. In years past I would have loaded up two and three plates before surrendering to my recliner for an afternoon nap.

Hope all that are out shopping in the early dark hours of the morning survive the madness. You wont ever catch me out there shopping when the body should be sleeping. This morning I am headed out early though; need to drop my son off at school by 6:30 a.m. so he and his wrestling team can make the not-quite-an-hour'ish trip to Barrington for a tournament. He'll spend all day today there and if he is not eliminated all day Saturday too. Thankfully his practice yesterday was in the morning so it didn't interfere with family plans. The tourney starts at 10 a.m. so I will have time to get in some exercise before heading down myself to spend the day watching the action.

Is the exercise in your plans for today?

Some exercise can help shake free the ugh feeling you may be feeling from over doing it yesterday.

And if you didn't over do it, just get some exercise in just because.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 133 - Saturday Soccer Shopping...

The past couple of days I got in the exercise. A 3.6 mile walk on Thursday and on Friday I did my home gym routine, push ups & sit ups. Feeling good about the exercise this week. Food has been good too, very few bad choices all week actually.

How has your week been?

Before you go & enjoy your Saturday, enjoy these funny health/food 'facts' (their claim to being facts are not mine, source)...

• The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced. (That must have been a very liberating moment)
• Seaweed is used to thicken ice cream. (So, then it is a health food, no?)
• Coca-Cola was originally green. (Wouldn't the be cool!)
• Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them. (So much for my aspirations to join NASA)
• There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes. (No way, say it aint so)
• The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. (Hmm, no eating a corn flake box doesn't sound so bad)

Today we have a soccer game to attend for one of our sons, Ryan, pictured above running out to join his mates when announced earlier in this weeks season opener. Then we'll be off to run a mess of errands including my wife shopping for a dress to wear at a wedding she is in next Friday. We'll end the day with a relaxing dinner at Bonefish Grill, on of our favorite seafood restaurants. This will be to celebrate out anniversary of a week ago when my wife wasn't feeling up to going out.

Sunday we'll just chill, or so is the plan. Some where along the way this weekend I'll get in some more cardio.

Got plans to exercise this weekend?

Got plans to eat amazing - healthy food?

Got plans of any kind?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

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!!