Well, now guess who's sick?

Well, I'm feeling a little bit better, but my cough is nagging. no nap today, I toughed it out. I really was feeling like shit, ever since Wednesday. well, it was bound to happen. I wasn't sleeping well, my immune system was probably low and shazam, I got sick.

I went to bed about 40 minutes ago and now the little one is a little wheezy while he's sleeping. I gave him some cough medicine and we're giving it 20 minutes of so to kick in before we consider taking the sprout to the ER.

I'm up for the 20 minutes.

I hate being sick over a nice 4 day weekend only to be well enough to go back to work on Monday. So much for my glorious plans of working out like a carthorse this weekend. On the other hand, I didn't eat a whole lot, so maybe it'll all balance out. My 5 pound goal is probably completely shot to hell though. Ah well.

I'm hoping we do not have to take him to the ER because, quite frankly, the ER blows. We had to do it once before when he really had the croupy cough one night and they said it would help to take him outside as the cold air should help. We put the air conditioner on in the bedroom. Yes, you read that right. My guess is that ought to help. He's actually sleeping so I hate to think about taking him out in the crap weather we're having if we don't have to, you know.

Well, time is up. I'm gonna go check on the boy.

Not dead, sick.

Yeah, that'd be that. Need naps.

Now I really feel like a jerk...

You know, when you’re feeling down, sometimes the man upstairs will give you one of those “Oh, yeah?” moments. You know, where you’re feeling mopey and dumped on and sorry for yourself and that you have the Reverse Midas Touch* but then God says “Oh yeah? Yeah, I can see how bad you have it. Indeed, it sucks to be you, sure. Do me a solid though, and check this out for a moment…” and promptly smacks you across the face with the cold fish of reality.

WARNING: Legitimate heartbreaking content included in the following links!

DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BAWL YOUR EYES OUT. THAT IS YOUR LAST WARNING!

http://www.komonews.com/news/34851839.html
http://www.komonews.com/news/problemsolvers/34862329.html
http://www.komonews.com/news/problemsolvers/34241094.html



Now, I really feel like a jerk for being the sad-sack SOB I was this morning, and so I should.

Rest in Peace Brenden Foster. You handled yourself with far more class and dignity than a lot of adults would have. Shoot, I know you handled yourself better then I would have. Eleven years old and you’re just glad you got to ride the ride for as long as you did.

The world is a better place having had you in it, for the short time you were here. If there’s a heaven, you’re undoubtedly in it.




*you know what I mean, where you feel like everything you touch turns to shit and garbage?

Week 24: 256.9! :sigh:

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 255.0
Current weight: 256.9
Lost this week: 0! Up 1.9
Total lost to date: 7.3…not nearly enough to make a difference, is it?
Goal for this week: 5 pounds. Yes I am 100% serious

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 76.9

I’m not surprised, I haven’t been doing anything. Lately I have been tired and annoyed. I got my first halfway decent night’s sleep since last Monday. I went to bed at 10:30 and got up at 6:30 and actually felt a little rested.

I am developing a cough (hooray!) so we’ll see if last year’s completely awesome cycle can be repeated. In 2007, I got sick at Thanksgiving for two weeks, then recovered for two weeks, then got sick for two more weeks, and so on, and so on, lather, rinse, and repeat, until my son’s birthday in APRIL 2008! If I start this again this year I’m going to flip my goddamn wig. It was absolutely maddening last time.

Now, before you tell me “Well, Chunky, if you were in better shape you probably wouldn’t get sick so much,” let me tell you that I realize that, OK? That doesn’t make it any easier.

The coffee at work tastes funny today, although that may be due to me having to use actual sugar, instead of Splenda, which we are out of.

Which, I just realized my friend gave me a full box of…

Sheesh.

I just want to go to bed and press “reset.”

Really!?! What, we're out of Tang or something?

Read this morning that one of the things they are installing in the International Space Station on their current mission is a machine that will recycle the astronaut’s sweat and urine into drinkable water. No, really!*

Here’s the article: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/nasas-space-shu.html

And you think dehydration’s a harsh mistress here on earth!

Anyhow, I feel pretty good today. This is likely to change a little this evening, however. Band practice tonight, and I’m bringing 2 guitars. I’m gonna try and do the whole thing with the SG because
1) It’s lighter and
2) I need to see if it’s going to stay in tune since I had the headstock repaired.

That’s that for now.

Oh, before I forget, why didn't Amy C vote off Vicki on Biggest Loser last night. Argh! Vicki is such a low class conniving asshat, that I am sure this will bite Amy C on her ever shrinking buttocks.



*Honest!

Week 23: 255.0!

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 255.0
Current weight: 255.0
Lost this week: 0!
Total lost to date: 9.2 pounds
Goal for this week: let’s try this again! 1 pound, just to pass the 10 pound mark! Was that clear enough?

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 75


Another night of tossing and turning, another night of very odd dreams. My neck is killing me today, I’m having a lot of trouble moving my head quickly, and boy howdy, I am in a foul mood.

Ornery like your maiden Aunt’s three hundred year old cat. You know the one, weighs like 12 pounds, deaf as a post and Aunt Gabby is the only one allowed to hold Mr. Rupert T Fufferkins. Ugh. I also dropped my kid’s waffles (buttered AND syrupy of course!) on the floor this morning, and swore like an Italian truck driver.*

I’m OK with today’s number, because I bet it’s lower in real life because I’m also bloated as all get out. The answer is most likely more fiber. That’s the answer to a lot of things.


*What? I’m serious, I said “Ah, fongul!” which simply has to be spelled wrong. What can I say? I swear phonetically. When I drop something and say “shimata!” I am not thinking in bloody kanji!

Attn Kids: Stay/Get in shape now. It's seriously for your own good. Lord, I hurt.

The Final ERGS!/Hunchback show at Asbury Lanes Saturday night was a doozy, let me tell you! I somehow managed to survive despite not taking a nap!

Lemuria opened up and, wow, what a band! Their recordings do them no justice at all. This merely reminded me that I need to get their new album (OK, “new” is relative as it came out in February or something). I’m not super crazy about Hunchback, but they were pretty good.

I have previously described the Ergs as a “machine” but Saturday they were more like one three part animal, melding with the crowd until it was all one giant, sweaty, throbbing organism.

I am not as young as I once was so I promptly removed myself from the pit and watched the show from various other vantage points around the venue. I got to meet some people I have wanted to meet for a while, and catch up with some others. By the time I crawled into bed at three forty-five A.M. I was completely spent.

Yesterday I felt OK, a little stiff, but nothing crazy. Today I am like a victim of a blanket party.

One more reason to get in shape kids. After you’re thirty-five, shows will kill you if you don’t get in/stay in shape.

Photographer Marc Gaertner took some pics of it. Only the matinee show is up, you can view them here:
http://www.photo.marc-gaertner.de/zenphoto/index.php?album=2008%2F11-15-final-ergs%2Fearly

Thank heavens I didn’t go to the Philly Show at Khyber Pass. There are pictures of that as well, and holy crow, it was like the trash compactor scene in Star Wars, only with sweaty punk rockers.

I should be recovered enough for my bands show Saturday which will enable me to be a basket case this Sunday as well!

Fun Size (Please note: this post does *not* refer to short girls)

I had a fun size Nestle Crunch bar today because I was craving chocolate and all my other options were either

1) Fricking Ginormous or
2) Not real good candy

There was other candy around, sure. The first phase of Eating Season (Halloween through New Years, with a brief reprise at Easter) may have been defeated, but pockets of resistance remain! The person across from me has these little plastic bottles with powder candy in them. As I am not 11 years old anymore I simply cannot consume that kind of candy without upsetting my delicate constitution. Plus I’d probably get all snoozy like an hour later.

The only thing a Fun Size candy bar does for me is make me want additional Fun Size candy bars. Not so much ½ hour later or so, but right after I was like “Well, that was a nice suggestion of a snack. Where can I get more?” Now I appear to be OK.

That is all!

See you at the ERGS! show on Saturday night, kids! Woo!

Oooo! This is so going in my blog!

Business first:

We had our busiest day ever here at the Sporty by Forty ranch last Thursday with a whopping 15 unique visitors. Why Thursday, I wonder?
I’ve been trying to make sure I put tags in the tag are for my blogs, but I am spotty at best.

One of these days I am going to update all tagless entries.

Now, on to the topic at hand:

One of the drawbacks to people knowing you have a blog about trying to get healthy is, when they see you eating something that is obviously unhealthy they invariably go “so, are you going to put in your blog that you ate all those chips/cookies/etc?” This happened at my niece’s birthday party this past Sunday.

Now, I know when I go to things like this, that it is futile to try and stick to any sort of strict eating rules. You have to plan ahead for this type of thing. I try my best, but, like any other social animal I graze in groups. So, when my mother in law busted out the chips and dip I took a small plate of them, no dip. Not a big fan of dip. I sometimes use applesauce, but that’s not important right now!

Anyway, despite best intentions, I packed a decent amount of chips into my gaping maw. So my brother in law asks the above blogging/chip consumption question. I tell him "yeah, I’ll reference it in some way if I can cram it in where it’s relevant." Then I got to thinking, a lot of people I know read my blog, and you have to wonder when they see me if they are like “Hey, it’s working” or “Well, he is trying, bless him,” or “For crying out loud, would you look at the size of that guy? Did he walk by a bakery and just lose all control?”

Not that it matters, really. I’m pretty much beyond what others may think in the grand scheme anyway, it’s about how I feel and look to myself.

Stuff:
Watching The Biggest Loser last night reminded me that I’d like to get one of those plastic aerobic steps to add to the home arsenal. Back before I saw the use for them, I used to see them out for the trash (some of them brand spanking new!) but ever since I thought to myself, “Self, you ought to grab a set the next time you see ‘em” it’s been absolutely nothing! Not even at the flea market or garage sales. I could have built a goddamned fort out of all the ones I let go to the landfill and now I’m being punished for some reason. I don't want to buy a new set when it it's a historical fact that these frequently line the streets for free. Low-hanging fruit, my friends!

Addedum:

My good friend and pseudo-cousin* Rob co-hosts an informative, funny and frequently profane podcast ostensibly about X-Men comics, but does, on accassion, stray off topic.
http://www.uncannyxcast.com

good stuff, but not for the under 16 set, just to be safe.



*You know, our moms were friends for 11 billion years, the kids called your mom "Aunt So-and-so" and vice-versa.

Week 22: 255.0!

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 258.5
Current weight: 255.0
Lost this week: 3.5
Total lost to date: 9.2 pounds
Goal for this week: 1 pound (just to pass the 10 pound mark!)

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 75


THAT’S RIGHT!

It’s not record breaking, it’s not earth shaking, it’s not even the most I have lost in 1 week, but it’s down so there you go. I am happy. By next week I am hoping to be back in the 10 pound club, and after that, well the sky is the limit, isn’t it?

OK, really 75 more pounds or so is the actual limit.

I’m pretty pleased. I’m trying desperately to get used to being up early again and exercising and it’s been tough, but we* shall overcome.


If you’re looking for an MP3 Player for the gym or jogging you could really do a hell of a lot worse than this. We have the 1GB model that we put our son’s music on to play in the car (through the radio! We’re not putting headphones on him so hang up the calls to DYFS) and it’s terrific. It’s probably the best sounding MP3 player I have ever heard, and I have heard plenty. It’s as good if not better then my wife’s old Rio Carbon, which ruled, but was stolen by the day laborers at the car wash. That was a 4GB and it was on a tiny hard drive. The Sansa players are solid state, so even if you run like Phoebe on Friends, no skippage!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/sandisks-sansa-clip-upgrades-to-8gb-stays-tiny/

One of these days, when my Dell gives up the ghost, I will try and install a 32 GB Compact Flash card in place of the 20 GB laptop drive that’s in there. I don’t know if that will even work, but I’d love a 32GB solid state MP3 player.



*”we” meaning “me!”

Missed Connections- You: Snazzy NJ-based fitness facility. Me: fat dude.

I didn’t get together with Gym yet. I did, however take a nice almost hour long walk yesterday. By “nice” I mean painful and sweat inducing, so that’s good. I also picked up my hefty lottery winnings from Wed night’s Cash 5 drawing (Eleven dollars, thank you very much!) so that was cool as well.

I walked up at the waterfront today* because it was kind of nice out. There I saw a woman who looked remarkably like actress Lalla Ward, but with wavier hair. Not like she looks now, but like she looked in 1982. She was walking a cocker spaniel and I though to myself, “Yes, I can totally see Lalla Ward having that kind of dog.”

Now I know it wasn’t the ex-Mrs. Tom Baker (this woman was in her 20’s for one reason) but if it was I’m pretty sure I’d go back Monday morning with my Who DVDs like some sort of stalker/nerd hybrid.

By the way, I started a Facebook page and have no bloody idea what I am doing. Is it me or is it very cluttered?




*Yeesh! That sounds like I was trolling for dockworkers or something…

Reconciliation

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and to all our ships at sea, I have a confession to make.*

I need to make reconciliation, and it needs to be done, here, in a public forum.

I have been separated from Jim for many months now, and it’s high time we get back together.

Oh, crap, I’m sorry. Did I spell that as “Jim?”

Silly me, I don’t know where my head’s at! That’s supposed to be “Gym.” You know, spelled G-Y-M! ** (last name is "Nasium." Yes, I went there.)

Dear Gym,

I miss those early morning walks, Gym. You remember, where I’d come by and we’d watch the news together or listen to some Old Time Radio shows while walking…

I miss the way my heart would race when we were together!

I remember how good you made me feel!

Remember how much I would sweat when we were together, Gym?

…erm…uh…Hold the phone there, folks…

Ok, I may have overdone it and hit the Creepy Allegory Zone with that last one. Sorry about that, kids. Heh.

Anyway, I miss you, Gym.

I’m coming to see you tomorrow! I’ll wear those ratty shorts and the tiki shirt that I know you like!

(cue music, cut to me running across a meadow and then stopping half way because I’m winded…)


*OK, two confessions, actually. The second one is I couldn’t remember how to spell “reconciliation.”
** not to be confused with “Jym,” long time drummer for the Mr. T Experience. We’ve never been linked romantically, but the man is one hell of a drummer!

Diabetus!

So Janet saw the pic of me playing and thought it was a picture of Wilford Brimley.

Wilford sodding Brimley!

The sad thing? I can kinda see it.

Week 21: 258.5!

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 257.2
Current weight: 258.5
Lost this week: 0 (UP 1.7! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD)
Total lost to date: 5.7 pounds
Goal for this week: not shoot self in face :) (I'm JOKING!!!!!)

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 78.9


OK, look. Let me get this out of the way first:
Go vote. I’d like to say “I don’t care who you vote for,” but I’d be lying ;)

Anyway, as promised, here’s the picture from the video:
(There’s supposed to be 2 of them, but I botched something in the saving…)
WTF!?!?!?!?!


Christ Almighty, I look like a water buffalo with a guitar!

They say the camera adds 10 pounds, and in my defense there was probably around 6 cameras pointed at me, but still!

And here’s me, about a year ago looking, as promised, positively svelte in comparison. Screw that, in comparison, I am a goddamn supermodel! I was about 245 pounds here.




I mean, really, what the hell am I doing to myself?

The Finger

Sorry for the gap, kids, but I had tons to stuff to deal with since Wednesday. For example:

Thurday night was the Grover Kent mini-set. It went well, but I felt like I played for like, three days as opposed to 10 minutes.
They also fixed my heat and I was unable to tun it off until Friday afternoon!
Additionally, my son got a double ear infection! Poor little dude wasn’t even pulling on his ears. We got him some anti-biotics and he’s a lot better today.

I saw a video of our set and man alive, if I ever needed any visual evidence that I am too fat, I got it. I’m going to try and capture a few frames and post it so the world can marvel at what the blazes happened to me. 12 months prior we played a show and I look positively svelte! I’ll post that too.

We bought one of those F’Real milk shakes to try and get Owen to eat something for his antibiotic last night. My wife told me to throw it out after he wouldn’t have any, and I was like “I kind of want this…”

Mind you, they have about 50 grams of fat in them. Yeah, you heard me, fifty grams of fat. Jeez, that’s like eating lard or something, only in Vanilla shake form. How the hell can they sell these things? It makes me so jealous of people with peppy metabolisms. I ended up having two sips and chucking the rest.

My arthritis is driving me around the bend today. I just took some more advil to see if that’ll help but it‘s fricking miserable. I can’t close my right hand into a fist completely as my middle finger is swollen and stiff. Nor can I straighten my F-U finger out completely. It sucks. At least I am not getting it in my fretboard hand, as of yet anyway.
I did have a nice power nap today then I changed the air filter in my car. Pretty good lunch hour