monday music 05.24.10

Monday music time. I went to the playlist of the local radio station that I often listen to, X103.9FM, to see what I could share. Their playlist is pretty close to KROQ's, so it's all stuff I like.

This is what I chose to go with... The name of the group is Crash Kings, and the song is titled "Mountain Man". They have been compared to the White Stripes as far as their music goes.

I figured it was the best song for today since on Friday I'll be taking some older scouts to a campout called the Mountain Man Rendezvous.

Anyway, I think it's a pretty good song. Check it out.

friday flashback 05.21.10

Flashback picture time...

Another picture from a very memorable family trip to Hawaii.

Ah, yes... no trip to Hawaii is complete without a hike up to the top of Diamond Head. This trip is getting close to being 10 years ago! That's crazy.

That gave me a pretty good idea!... should we plan to go next year since it will have been 10 years? Just an idea, but if it's a popular idea, we should all start saving now.

All I know, is it's fun to all get together, so whenever or wherever is fine with us.

Not too shabby

I ran out of time to do a quick weight loss update yesterday, so here's one today.

Last week I weighed in at 219.6 lbs.

Yesterday I weighed myself, and I weighed 217.0 lbs. That's 2.6 pounds lost. NICE!

I'm really hoping to be at (or under) 215.0 next week!

I'm shooting for 200.0 lbs. by July 3rd. We'll see.

Green grow the garden, oh

This week I have been able to notice how far the garden has come along without having to compare it to pictures of weeks past.

Here are the first squashes I picked. They then immediately chopped up and sauteed for dinner. The zucchini in the middle started to wilt, so it had to get used before it all withered away.


Here's the over all garden this week.

In box one, the yellow squash and broccoli are the Goliaths to the Davids that are the strawberries and other plants. I'm sure I'll be picking some more yellow squashes very soon. I can't believe how many strawberries are growing and that the birds haven't gotten them yet. *I really need to do something to protect them. I keep putting it off.*

I'm almost certain it's the birds and not bugs eating my pepper buds. Guess I'll need to cage this one too.

The broccoli is looking REALLY good these days. Nice and full.

In fact, I cut off the head of the middle broccoli right after taking their picture. That's a whole bunch of broccoli...

Here's the remaining broccoli plant from the first head I picked. I'm showing you the other off-shoots that sprung up.

In box two, the zucchini plants are in full bloom. There are three or four zucchini on them that I hope to pick in the next week. The corn tops are starting to come out. That means they'll be pollinating soon! After that the corn ears will start to grow!

Here's a shot of the corn seedlings. Some are getting over six inches already. I still need to thin it out.

It's all looking quite nice these days.

In stark contrast, I can't keep my lawn green or weed free at all! I admit, I need to be better at watering, but what am I watering, the weeds? Last time I tried a "weed and feed", it pretty much fried everything, and made more room for more weeds! Not cool. I think what I'll do is mow it all super short, try to de-thatch what's in the ground, then put a bunch of new seed down and see if I can get that to grow and overtake the weeds. We'll see.

monday music 05.17.10

In the 90s, there was a group that was CRAZY popular... but you hardly ever hear any of their music anymore. It's pretty much to the point where if you ever listened to their music, you're somehow un-cool. That group was so lame, they were a bunch of no-good hacks, etc., etc.,... whatever.

I used to listen to them, I liked their music, I have most (if not all) of their CDs...

Limp Bizkit!

They used to be HUGE.

Remember Break Stuff or Nookie or My Way or Faith or Rollin'? I do.



Happy monday music.

back to the grind

On monday I decided I needed to rededicate myself to losing weight. All the birthday coupons and deals had been used, so it was time.

I weighed 219.6 this morning. Last week I was 222.8. Not bad at all.

It's been a little tricky having a good breakfast the past couple weeks with taking Jennan to preschool. I feel that having it after getting home from dropping her off is too long after I get up. It's almost 2 hours. Not sure if it's a big deal, but I try to have breakfast within the hour that I get up, so my metabolism gets stoked before my body starts thinking it's not eating, and starts "storing".

So yeah, just trying to eat better, and make sure I walk at least 4 times a week. I'd really like to be under 200 by the time I leave for scout camp in early July. We'll see.

new hobby?

I've been interested in learning some kind of beading technique for a few years now. Never found anyone who knew one that could teach me. Then, one day, I came across a link to a video tutorial for peyote stitch beading. I decided I needed to give it a try. I already had a project in mind... a hat band.

I downloaded peyote beading graph paper, developed some designs, and got some beads. Unfortunately, I was so excited to start, I didn't take any picture of the early work. But here's the end...

Here's what my set up looked like. Red, turquoise, and black seed beads, nylon thread, needles, scissors, pattern, etc.


A little closer look. I needed a band about 24 inches long to go on the hat. I think at this point I have about 2-1 1/2 inches to go.

And closer still. I started on Monday or tuesday of last week, and finished last monday. So about a week. I didn't work on it every day, but when I did, it was usually for a few hours.

Here's the hat with the completed band. The hat was a cowboy hat that I took the shape out of. It's made of a stiff felt. I soaked it in warm water to push out the folds in the top and flatten out the brim. I went for a mountain man or medicine man type hat. I still need to get a feather to put on it.

By the way, the hat is not for me. It's to trade at the scout Mountain Man Rendezvous overnighter in the next couple weeks. I hope to have a couple other items by then as well.

Anyhow, I'm happy with it. Not bad for a first time. I used the cheapest beads I could find, so they weren't very uniform in shape, which made it a little uneven at some spots. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty good.

Like I said, this was made using the peyote stitch. I'd like to eventually try the "lazy" stitch and "loom" beading techniques as well eventually. Looking forward to it.

Greenery

Water and sunlight keep working their magic in the garden...

Here's the overall view. Looking good.


In box one, bushy broccoli and yellow squash. Some of the strawberry plants are gaining some size. The pests still get more berries than we do. Watermelon looks fine... it's just still so tiny. Anna refers to it as our bonsai watermelon plant.

This week I harvested the largest broccoli head. My model Tegan is showing it off. I gave some of it to my mom for mother's day. It's kind of lumpy and uneven, but still good.

Here are the other two broccoli heads. They seem a lot more uniform in shape. The middle one is about 6-7 inches in diameter, and near one is about 4 in. Might be another week or so till I harvest the next one.

Here's box 2 in the shadows. Zucchini is looking really good. Starting to see a lot of blossoms. The corn is getting tall.

Here's the view from underneath one of the zucchini plants. There's one zuc there about 4 inches long so far. There are a couple others about an inch long so far too. Can't wait to start harvesting these!

Corn rows! I'll have to thin this out in another week or so. Might put the ones I pull out in the front yard somewhere. Haven't decided yet. I think there's only a couple that haven't sprouted yet, and probably won't, but there's plenty, so I'm not worried out it.

So yeah, fun stuff. We're so happy about the broccoli! This gardening thing isn't so bad after all.

monday music 05.10.10

Been hearing this song on the radio a lot lately, which is good, because I like it.

Switchfoot, "The Sound" (audio only)

Official video Here.

I have an older Switchfoot CD that I really like. I think I should try and listen to more of their stuff.

Happy monday!

Liam's Birthday Party

Liam had a birthday party last Saturday. I can't believe I forgot to post up some pictures this week of that fun party. Better late than never.

Here's Liam's cake. He said he wanted a "wiggler" cake. Turns out a "wiggler" is a character in some of the Mario video games. Wigglers are basically caterpillars. Here's what Anna came up with.


It was kind of windy so Liam very quickly blew out one candle, and we called it good.

There's the birthday boy... what a handsome fellow.

After cake and ice cream, it was present opening time! Here's one of many pictures of Liam opening his presents. (those are Mario pajamas)

Gotta have a pinata!

Skittles and Starbursts for everyone!

Here's a good shot of Tegan sitting and enjoying some pinata candy.

Liam eating some candy, and looking quite content.

We held this party at the same park that we had Duncan's party at, back in Dec. It's a great little place. Thanks mom and dad for making the drive out.

It was pretty windy, so we busted out the kites we had. Those little kites took a beating in that strong wind. They needed heavier tails to keep from flying all over the place. Our friends brought a huge kite that they have, and it got tossed to-and-fro as well. But still fun.

Good times.

friday flashback 05.07.10

Please fasten your seat belt, and keep your hands and arms inside while we speed down memory lane...

On the back it has written- Jan./Feb. 94 All the bro. and sis. together again.

Another of the many group shots of all of us together. I would be 21 yrs. old, Kelly would be 10, and everyone else falls somewhere in between.

I'm not sure what else to say about this picture. Just glad I have it to share.

Not great, but good (kind of)

I weigh 222.8 lbs. today. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by that number. I thought I was, or would be, closer to 226. I'm still not 100% back on the diet. More like 70%. I think that after this weekend, I will be back to full blown dieting. Anna's back to full time dieting in hopes to winning more money at work's second round of biggest loser. She weighs in the first week of June sometime.

So yeah, back to the grind here pretty soon.

Odelay verde!

Nothing is dieing, so that's good. The corn is blocking the view of the other corn now.


In box uno, the yellow squash is starting to excel. All three broccoli plants have begun to bloom. A couple of the strawberry plants are filling out and are looking very healthy.

Huge blossom on the yellow squash this morning.

The head on the largest broccoli.

In box dos, the corn keeps getting taller. The zucchini are getting big. One of the second generation transplanted broccoli is starting to flourish.

Future dinner!

As you can see, there are a bunch of 2 inch corn seedlings! I'll have to thin them out so they have lots of room to grow and less competition between roots for water. I need to prep another spot to put the ones I remove, instead of just chucking them.

monday music 05.03.10

I had a moment this weekend to watch a recorded episode of SNL. It was a repeat, and it was one I had seen before. The special guest was Zach Galifianakis, with musical guest Vampire Weekend.

Vampire Weekend performed their newest (at the time) release, "cousins", as one of the songs, and the other I had never heard before, but I REALLY liked it. I had no idea what the name of it was, and I guess I never made an effort to find out.

Well, while I was watching it again this weekend, and listening to this other song, I decided it would be my "monday music" post. That meant tryin to find it... luckily it wasn't difficult at all...

It's called, "Giving up the Gun". The video is pretty cool too.

But here's the SNL performance that I think I like a little better still...


Any thoughts?