monday flashback from friday 02.12.10

So, I totally spaced on doing a flashback photo on friday. Spent a lot of the day getting ready to go to Pasadena and Studio City.

Dropped the kids off in Pasadena at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so Anna and I could go to a wedding reception in Studio City. We ended up staying the night in Pasadena. On Saturday we spent the day going to the zoo, eating lunch in Ernie Jr.'s Taco House, and visiting the compound in El Monte. Then we went home and to bed.

Aaaaanyhow, what about a picture?...

I spent the day preparing a presentation on the life of Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouting movement, to give to my scouts this weekend. Here's a picture of B-P blowing a Kudu horn. It's a horn made from the horn of a Kudu. It was the way the Matabele tribe would warn each other of danger in Africa in the late 1800s. B-P used it to open Scout Jamborees and Wood Badge Training courses.

I know, pretty boring stuff. But it's what's on my mind.

monday music 02.15.10

It's a bit late in the day to be posting my monday music, but better late than never.


Since it's President's Day...

Presidents of the United States of America- Lump

PUSA- Peaches

Fun happy songs.

Happy President's Day!

how bad is it?

I spent most of last week helping out some good friends, the Bocanegras, with their new house. We've done hours and hours of painting, installing laminate flooring, etc. etc. While I've been helping out at the new house, Anna's been watching not only our kids, but their kids, as well.

Since I've spent a great deal of time working, our friends have been feeding me while I'm there. Subway sandwich one day, burrito another day, KFC chicken, pizza, and so on. I knew I was working hard, and hopefully burning lots of calories, so I ate what they brought me. Also, when ever Anna has their 10 year old daughter over, they always bake some kind of goody for everyone. So add some sweets to the mix.

Saturday, we invited the Bocanegras over after church on Sunday, for lunch/dinner since they're old house is in shambles, due to packing. We had chicken enchiladas ready to go. Anna prepared 4 trays! At church, we were invited to eat later in the day with some Tongan friends, the Moalas, in our ward. They blessed their new baby, and had a lot of family in town, and only invited a handful of ward members to have some food. We were lucky enough to be invited... but we already had plans... but I couldn't say no. We decided that I would go by myself, so it wouldn't be weird for us to tell the Bocanegras we had to leave to go have food somewhere else. Plus, this way, we're still honoring the invitation.

I showed up to the Moala's gathering by myself. I got a barrage of questions about why my family wasn't there with me, so I caved, and told them we had invited the Bocanegras over, and didn't want to be rude by changing our plans. Then Sis. Moala said she invited the Bocanegras too! So I had her call Anna and tell them all to come (I forgot my cell). They all came. Turns out, both us and the Bocanegras were among the families invited, but because we had made plans with each other the day before, and not knowing if we were each invited, had not said anything about it. But it worked out.

The downside, to going to the Moala's for food, was we had just finished eating enchiladas at our house. We were already full. But there's NO WAY to get out of eating at a Polynesian gathering! It's IMPOSSIBLE! I tried really hard. Not only is there pressure to eat from the family, but it all looked so good, too! Needless to say, I was hurting by the time I got home. I knew there was no way I was going to have lost any weight this week. In fact, it was really just a question of how much did I gain?

In addition to helping out at the Bocanegras, I was still able to get in 3 sessions of walking this week, including last night. That may have helped keep my weight gain at bay.

I weighed in at 225.2 pounds. Surprisingly, that's actually .8 pounds less than last week!? I was really surprised. It's actually quite encouraging. I won't be able to help as much this week at the Bocanegra's house, so that means I'll be able to eat more "diet" food. I'm hoping to lose a few pounds by next week.

monday music 02.08.10

I've been helping some friends in our ward with painting and flooring their new house since last Thursday. There was one day when almost every time Anna and I spoke on the phone, that there was a Lenny Kravitz song playing...

Here's one of those songs...


This is one of my favorite songs of his. Good stuff.

friday flashback 02.05.10

Sorry it's so late in the day, but I was pretty busy today.

This is a picture I took when I was a kid, with a really old camera that only shot black and white photos. If I remember right, the view finder was on the top of the camera, so you had to look down to frame your shot. I remember taking a bunch of pictures this day. One is of my dad mowing grass in the back yard, another is of a couple toys on the ground, etc. This is probably my favorite from that day though.

A clear example of dog and owner resemblance.

By the way- Fancy (that was the dog's name) was a saluki.

over indulged

Well, I weighed in this morning, and it's not good. I added some weight back on. Oops.

The two days to blame are Saturday and Sunday... ok, and Monday, so that's 3 days.

On Saturday, I started off well- eggs and bacon for breakfast, and a good lunch. But the second half of the day was not as good. The scouts had a pizza fundraiser that evening, and during the activity, we ate some pizza. It was also a "date night" for Anna and I. Our friends in the ward swap babysitting with us, and it was our turn to go out. I had a coupon for Red Robin to get a free appetiser, so we went there. We had a chicken quesadilla for our appetiser. I ordered the turkey burger (kind of on the diet, but not really), and Anna had the Royal burger. But the real down fall was having the refillable rootbeer float! They're nice and big, and oh so good. We put three of them down between us.

On Sunday, a banana for breakfast. A good start. After church, for lunch- pizza (bought from the scouts). Not so good (for the diet, but a really good pizza). Then, that evening, we went to a baptism for Jenny, who lives with my grandfather and his wife Maggy, in Hemet. After the baptism, we went to their house for dinner/refreshments. Cheese tray, fruit tray, homemede chili, sherbet punch, and SANDWICHES! It's been so long since I've had a sandwich, that I ate a bunch of them. Some on crescents, and some on rye bread... all good. Plus there was really good cake. So yeah, not too good for being on a low-carb diet.

It also didn't help that we were sent home with a plate of sandwiches either. I ate a couple for lunch yesterday too. Though I did refrain from eating cake.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Anna was given some cookie dough on Saturday. It's REALLY hard for Anna to pass up cookie dough, so we took it home. We baked them for our family night treat yesterday, and I couldn't resist either. I ate a few too many.

I did get on the treadmill three times this week, including last night (with an additional 10 minutes to boot)... but it wasn't enough to counteract my intake for the week.

I weighed in at 226 lbs. Last week I was at 223.4, so I put 2.6 pounds back on. A lot of that is the caloric and carb intake, but I think most of that is also just the pure weight of the food I ate, and I hope to "drop" a lot of that soon. (What a lovely way to end this post.)

Hope to pull big numbers for next week!

monday music 02.01.10

I can't remember if I've posted this song before or not, and I don't really have the time or energy to find it if I did... so here it is...

Chevelle, "Letter from a thief"



I enjoy Chevelle's music.


That's it.
Short and sweet this week.