A goal achieved

I know you all must be sick of hearing this, but I hit a couple of milestones today. First, I officially last 20 pounds since I've started working out again. I'm stoked. I'm under 200 pounds and I'm not that far from my goal weight. The second goal that I accomplished was that I am under 25 percent body fat. Actually, I'm at 23.6% body fat - out of the unhealthy range for men and into the "Acceptable" range. Eventually, I would like to be in the "Fit" range.

All I can tell you right now, is that I am comfortably into size 36 pants and 34s are in sight!

They say nothing motivates like success, and they are certainly right!

We're off to LA this weekend, but it is mostly a social visit which is great. I'm looking forward to seeing our friends and Hal this weekend, sort of a pre-Hanukkah visit.

Have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving Weekend Update

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Weekend. Mine was pretty good.

We ended up with 11 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, Keds' Dad wasn't able to make it this year. His eye issues got the better of him and he wasn't comfortable making the 4.5 hour drive from LA. The dinner was awesome. The food was yummy, the mix of people was just right - everyone participated in some of the conversation.

Then we had a Thanksgiving redux with the Bowens. That was enjoyable. Keds and Jen went shopping while Casey and I chilled at their house and kept an eye on their kids.

Keds is nearly done with our Christmas shopping. I wish I could say the same. I haven't really even started shopping for her yet, but part of that is because I can't keep a secret and also can't resist giving her the gifts.

We started hanging the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations this weekend. The Menorah isn't quite right next to the Nativity set, but they are all up in the same house.

What Thanksgiving weekend wouldn't be complete without a little football. While I've blocked out last Sunday's debacle against New England, today's Jacksonville game was completely different. A 12-man on the field penalty that ends up sustaining a drive that leads to a touchdown, at least two interceptions that lead to six points? Come on. The Bills simply are not a playoff-caliber team right now. I like JP Losman and he is very athletic, but I am not sure he's a good fit for this team. Without a solid running game, there is no passing game. I just hope Marshawn Lynch is back next week against Washington. I'm just hoping we end the season at .500 or better.

Must Read

I think this article is a must-read for anyone living in the Las Vegas valley. It's written by Brian Greenspun, the editor of the Las Vegas Sun. He's one of my favorite columnists and this is something that I think everyone should read.

Read the article here.

Caucus!

Keds and I went to our Temporary Chair Caucus training on Saturday. At first, we were a little apprehensive - not because we don't want to volunteer, but because we weren't sure what to expect.

We showed up at Cashman Center a few minutes before 10 a.m. (which was amazing for us - we usually run late), and are told to park on top of the hill, but we had plenty of time to walk all the way down the hill nearly back out to Washington Ave. where the entrance to the meeting rooms are. We registered, got our name tags and headed into the main meeting room for the introduction.

After starting about 30 minutes late, we got into the meat of the training. The cool thing about the caucus process is that you have the opportunity to support your own candidate, and the fact that delegates are apportioned according to what percent of folks in that precinct support that candidate. The other really cool thing about this, is that it is entirely local. The people in the caucus are those people that live in your election precinct - your neighbors.

My biggest concern though, in this notoriously apathetic state, is that turnout will be poor. The Republicans are having their caucus the same day, so my recommendation is that everyone who is registered with either one of the two main political parties block out January 19th. The total amount of time is less than two hours of your Saturday, and it will keep your home state from being a national political laughing stock. Plus, given the closeness of races in Iowa and New Hampshire, we have a unique opportunity to help shape the presidential race!

Friday Thoughts

A couple of thoughts as we wind down the week:

1. Keds is in LA today to kick the contractor in the backside. Well, hopefully kick him. I'm a little disappointed that it's not done and this guy didn't call us to discuss any delays. I feel like we were taken advantage of.


2. Missed the meeting with Councilwoman Smith. I got my dates screwed up. Oh well. We managed to walk to and from the elementary school, so we got some cardio in for the evening!


3. Has anyone tried the Sugar-Free Gingerbread Lattes at Starbucks? OMG! So good. I was wondering how I was going to make it through the holiday season abstaining from these yummy treats. Now I don't have to!


4. Keds and I watched most of the Democratic debate last night. While the candidates inability to answer yes/no questions was annoying, CNN's blatant desire to illicit soundbites was even more maddening. All in all, though, we enjoyed the debate.


5. Thanksgiving is nearly hear. Keds finished up the bulk of the shopping for the holiday meal yesterday. She just needs to get the fresh veggies early next week.


6. Tomorrow, Keds and I are off to Caucus training at Cashman Center. It should be interesting. We'll let you know how it goes.

That's it for now. Enjoy your weekend!

This was a new one

As someone who has been bad in paying bills on time in the past, I'm no stranger to collections calls. Thankfully, this only happens on the extremely rare occasion that I completely space a bill (like the credit card I never use, but turns out has an annual fee). However, today was something completely different.

I got a phone call from an auto finance place. At first gearing up for a sales call, turns out they are looking for a neighbor of mine whom I don't know personally. This was a first. At least it wasn't for me.

Second, while I don't currently support the Hillary Rodham Clinton candidacy, I think this lunacy about whether or not her campaign planted questions in the crowd is just that - lunacy. Of course they did it. And of course all the other campaigns are doing it. She just got caught. It's no different than making sure hecklers aren't within 100 yards of a camera when a major political figure is speaking. It's the same thing - control the situation. I hate stupid process stories. This is why I am starting to boycott 24 hour news channels

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone out there in blogland had a great weekend. I had a pretty decent one.

Friday started out well. We had dinner and went to Williams-Sonoma with our good friend Jennifer and her two kids to get some things for the house/Thanksgiving. We were hoping to run into a another friend of Jennifer's there, but she wasn't working. Since Jen rarely gets down there, we checked out Gap and Pottery Barn kids. The prices in there were a really good form of birth control, let me tell you.

Saturday was a lot of shopping. We spent 5.5 hours at the mall, mostly shopping for Keds. Since she has lost over 45 pounds and has dropped two sizes, she needs some new clothes. Plus, since we are going to my little cousin's Bar Mitzvah in early December, she needs a pretty new dress in her new size! She's meeting my Dad's entire side of the family, since none of them made it out for the wedding, so she understandably wants to look awesome, which I know she will.

Saturday night, we gambled a little waiting for a table at Cabo, one of our favorite restaurants. The food was awesome as usual, but the service was LOUSY. Our drinks sat empty for a good 20 minutes. He never checked on us, and it's like he disappeared for another 20 minutes when we were ready to go. It was so bad, I was able to convince Keds to ding his tip. She normally starts at 20% and goes up from there. I believe a tip is for good service. You meet my expectations, you get 15%. If you exceed, it goes up with 20%, depending on how impressed I am. But that's me. I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on tipping, to know if I'm just plain cheap or not. After dinner, as we were in line for our 7x points multiplier, we saw Loraloo and her husband, which was awesome, if not unexpected. We visited for like 20 minutes, until the smoke in the casino was really starting to get to me. Normally, I can stomach smoke for a while and only detest it after I leave, but since I'm still getting over this upper respiratory thing, it wasn't good.

Sunday was pretty mellow. Watch my Bills play an ugly game, but come out on top 13-10 over the still winless Miami Dolphins. That made me happy. In the past, they would have rolled over and lost, but the team continued to battle. My only complaint was that DirecTV changed the HD feed to Baltimore-Cincy game, as Dad and I watch the Bills win in *gasp* regular resolution. Oh well. We still won. In the afternoon, Keds and I worked in the kitchen getting things organized in the pantry and moved all of the bar items out of the kitchen cabinets and, well, into a bar. Keds was thrilled to have the cabinet space back, and the casita is becoming more and more complete!

We ran out to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some shelf thingys for the pantry, and our our way back, we say Cubby and Amanda on their way back from church. Since we hadn't seen them in over a year, we decided to tail them. Well, we were a little slow, and when we got to their house, we assumed they were already inside. We knocked on the door and rang the bell, to no avail. However, on our way back home, we saw them stopped a cookie and lemonade stand, so we stopped and chatted for like a half an hour. They also told us we need more pictures on our blogs, so we'll take that under advisement.

After that, I was off to 4 p.m. Mass. I prefer going either Saturday night or Sunday morning, but this worked out OK. I missed half of the gospel reading because our priest is from Sri Lanka and his MTI is pretty strong, but his homily filled in the gaps. Dinner was soup and grilled cheese, which was perfect, and then we settled in to watch some TV with the fireplace going.

All in all, a pretty busy weekend, but enough fun built in so that it wasn't uber-crazy. This week promises to be busy with dinner guests Tuesday and Wednesday, a thing with our NLV Councilwoman on Thursday (thinking up what questions I can ask), Caucus training Saturday Morning and then having friends over for UFC on Saturday night. Oh, and most of our remaining new furniture should be in this week too!

I'm sure I'll post more later in the week. Sorry for the long one today!

Being Sick Sucks

I've spent the majority of this week either fighting off something or being downright sick. It started last week with what felt like an ear infection. So I did the proactive thing and called my doctor. He sent me on my way with antibiotics and all the other fun things you get with an upper respiratory infection. I thought I was starting to feel better when suddenly I wasn't. Basically, I came down with a cold. I nearly passed out at the gym on Tuesday, and that's when I finally gave in to being sick and decided to take it easy.

I'm feeling much, much better now. Keds took great care of me making Chicken Soup and making sure I had plenty of tea with honey.

In other news, I'm loading all my CDs into iTunes. It's not that exciting of a project. Actually, rather tedious, but this way we'll be able to put the CDs into storage.

Life Update 24 October 2007

I sort of stole the concept for the title from Martin, but reformated it so it wouldn't be quite so obvious.

Lots of stuff has been going on lately, namely:

• Monday was our one-year wedding anniversary. I can't believe Keds and I have been married for a full year. It seems like just yesterday we were walking down the aisle at Emerald Gardens.
• Oh wait. It was just two days ago that we walked down the aisle at Emerald Gardens. To celebrate our anniversary, she arranged dinner under the gazebo at Emerald Gardens. Tres Romantique!
• I'm still looking for a new job. It's a lot of hurry up and wait, and you really can't take rejection that personally. What makes it more difficult is that I am looking to either stay in Vegas or work remotely. I'm sure I could have a new job in like 10 seconds if I was willing to move.
• I finally decided on which iPod I want - the 16GB iPod Touch. It's got a good mix of what I'm looking for.
• I'm down about 10 pounds, which is uber-exciting. I can't wait to get below 200, and from there shoot for 180. I've already had to start wearing a belt again, as my pants were starting to be a little on the loose side.
• I am trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watch. If I can keep it to an hour of prime time a day, I'll be happy.
• Although, we did watch The Biggest Loser last night and were absolutely shocked that 1. Neil threw the weigh in and 2. They didn't vote him out. With gaining 17 pounds, you know he'll have a monster loss next week, you would have thought the other teams would have had no choice. Poor Jez... I'm also a little annoyed that they threw that Survivor game play element in there.

That's it for now. No major new furniture deliveries, the rest should all be delivered by Thanksgiving.

It's all coming together

While I'll let Keds go into more detail about what's going on with our redecorating, it's really exciting to me that everything is coming together. Our house is looking more and more like a home. Coordinated furniture and a color scheme that is contemporary, versus say something that my grandparents would have had.

Keds and I are continuing to lose weight, but in a methodical manner that will hopefully ensure that it stays off. The increased physical activity is welcome and we are enjoying the spectacular fall weather.

Nothing says fall to me like Football and the World Series. Unfortunately, the Tribe took an unceremonious beating by the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALCS, but that's why they play seven games. I'm not a huge Cleveland fan, but I like to root for the underdog, so Go Tribe! On the National League side, the Rockies took a 2 games to none lead over Arizona on a bases-loaded walk in the 11th inning. Since we saw the Rockies play in Denver this year, we are rooting for them to make it to the World Series.

Go Bills! That's all I have to say. But how cool is it that at almost any point on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon you can flip on the TV and find football on? We are going to the UNLV game this afternoon with some friends and their family/friends, but it should be a good time. I'm not emotionally invested in either team, which will keep me from drawing ire from the group we are going with (they are ALL BYU fans), so I'll probably just end up wearing my Canisius sweatshirt or something.

With the change in temperature, also comes election season. I'm fortunate that there enough informed people in my life that we can intelligently discuss politics without animosity. What astounds me the most about elections though, is how uninformed the general public is. There is an old adage that all politics are local, but if that's the case why can most people name the president of the US, who probably has the least impact on their daily lives, but most cannot name their State Assemblyman or Senator?

Anyway, have a great weekend. I'm off for a walk or something.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

My name is Ken, and I am a Buffalo sports fan.

There. I've admitted it. Too bad there isn't a 12-step program for people like me. I realized I had a problem as I spoke to the television and let out a string of curses tonight as Dallas kicked a game-winning field goal as time ticked off the clock. Don't get me wrong, the Bills played a great game, keeping the Cowboys off balance and weren't embarrassed on national TV. But a bad interception in the closing minutes along with a failure to recover an onside kick cost them the game.

I will admit that I got really sick of Tony Kornheiser saying how bad things have gotten with the Bills and blah blah blah blah blah. You know what? Everyone knows the Bills were a pre-eminent franchise 15 years ago, but that was then, this is now. These things go in cycles. I just wish our cycle would come back around.

Until then, wish Keds and our pets the best. It's going to be a longggg season. I try not to throw things at the TV.

At least the Yankees lost tonight. I'm now rooting for a Colorado-Cleveland World Series. Seeing the Red Sox make it would be un-American, but thank God we don't have to suffer through another Yankees/Red Sox ALCS.

We've been bugged!

In our quest to drop our unwanted pounds, Keds and I are both working with personal trainers. We found out that the bodybugg was on sale this week. If you watch the Biggest Loser on TV, you'll see the contestants wearing these armbands. That's what this is. The price was TOO GOOD to pass up, so we picked one for each of us.

So here's what it looks like. We are both wearing them constantly, even when we sleep. We then upload our calories burned up to the bodybugg website it gives you a little graph. It's pretty freaking cool.

We are both enjoying our sessions with our trainers. I was in quite a bit of pain over the weekend, but a good soreness. Keds had her first true workout with her trainer to day and she loved it! We are both committed and we are tracking our calorie intake. It's amazing how you adjust your diet once you start tracking how much you eat.

This weekend will be rough. We are off to LA this weekend and activity will be hard to come by. We'll just have to be uber-careful with our menu options this weekend and I'm sure we'll be fine.

Walking is harder than you think

OK. So I had my first "real" training session on Friday. You would have thought I hadn't lifted weight in two years the way I feel and today is Sunday! The first couple of steps are the worst, and today my abs are feeling it. I didn't want to stand up straight, now did I?

Truthfully, it felt good. Plus, Keds and I are going on regular bike rides, so those are fun. Look out Teri! We'll be riding on over in no time! The nutrition plan is going OK. Logging my food is a PITA, but it's a good pain. Keeps me honest.

Weekend is going well. Most of our new furniture is in, we are slated to have our respective offices painted this week and can't wait for the rest of the furniture to come in! Jo and Steve were in town from LA, and it was good to visit with them as well.

Today is a little bitter-sweet. My Bills finally won! 17-14 over the Jets. It was a tense final three minutes, but they pulled it off. Bring on the Cowboys! Sure, they are 4-0 and just blasted the Rams, but they are coming into OUR house. I did catch a little of the Cowboy game today, and it looks like Wade Phillips is finally wearing a headset and washed his sweatshirt. I didn't notice a mustard stain, but it was early in the game.

Today is also the last day of the baseball regular season, while I love the playoffs and World Series, my beloved Oakland A's will not be a part of the post-season. They won't even finish at .500, but hopefully they'll start loosening the purse strings this off-season as they get closer to opening their new ballpark.

Tonight, we are off to Jennifer's to have dinner with her and her kids (and maybe her sister in law). We enjoy our time over there and the kids are a hoot!

Have a great week! I'm getting opinionated, so there may be some other posts during the week so keep an eye out for those.

Back in the Saddle

Well sports fans, if you haven't picked it up from Keds' blog, we are making a full-court press to get back into shape and drop a few pounds. About 4 years ago I had great success with personal training at 24 Hour Fitness. My initial trainer was a flake, but I got serious and became religious about following the meal plan and exercising regularly. My goal is to repeat the same thing this time, only keep the weight off. My initial goal is to get under 200 pounds. From there, I want to get back down to around 180-185. That's a good range for me.

They've changed a couple of things since the last time I used their training. Their nutrition program is entirely online now. Makes keeping track of the food you eat a lot easier. Plus, if you are logging it, you are conscious of what you are eating. We start the weight training piece tomorrow. We are starting with legs, which I hate. I'm expecting to not be able to walk much on Saturday or Sunday.

Add the new bikes that we've got, and I'm hoping to drop some serious weight in no time!

Wait for it...

So last night's HIMYM season premiere was a bit monotonous. The obligatory "Ted and Robin's breakup isn't going to be as smooth as they made it look" episode. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad they didn't have a horrible breakup and I'm sure there are going to be some additional pratfalls this season, but as Lora mentioned in her blog, I'm guess we get to meet "Your Mother" this season.

But just when I was about to write off the episode for being somewhat predictable, came the last bit as the credits were going to run. Slap Countdown. Barney's look of utter horror nearly knocked me off the couch I was laughing so hard...

As premieres come out this week and next, it will be interesting to see what else sticks this week. I've got Bionic Woman, Private Practice and Cane as potential new shows to get into. We'll see what sticks.

A Friday Morning Rant

We were talking to our friend Jennifer the other night. They are now trying to sell or rent out a lovely 2800 sq ft house about a mile from their current residence. To a certain extent, she's not thrilled with the idea of selling it. They originally had the house built to be their primary residence, but then came across their current house with a ton of land and really decent price. So they rented their original house out.

Fast forward two years. Their ARM was getting ready to adjust, as many are right now. However to refinance now would mean to refinance at an Investor Home interest rate, which is higher than a primary residence. Their renters moved out, and they decided to sell instead. They priced it under market value and have not really gotten much traffic. So now they are looking to rent it and which ever happens first, they'll go that route.

She was showing the house to some prospective renters the other night. They are people who are in the process of letting their home go into foreclosure. Their reason is that they "got caught up in the ARM Scam."

WHAT? ARM Scam? Adjustable Rate Mortgages are great products if used right. They can help people get into houses quicker, rebuild their credit and then refinance. Lenders are required to provide you a truth in lending statement that highlights what your payment would be after the rate adjusts. You are required to initial these documents when you receive a Good Faith Estimate. You are shown these documents when you go to the Title Company when you sign all of your documents to purchase your house.

I hate the fact that people are not taking responsibility for their own actions and taking steps to remedy the situation before it gets to foreclosure. Call your lender and see what terms can be worked out. If your lender can't help you, call around and see what other options are available. Are there bad lenders out there? Yep. You need to be careful. But also make sure you are actually reading the documents you are signing and ask questions if you don't understand.

OK. Rant over.

A life too short

I think I'm still in shock. It can't possibly be true. He was a pain in the ass and a little bit of a drunk, but he can't possibly be gone. But he is. I spoke to his mother. She confirmed it. Tom Newman, of my best friends, a groomsman in my wedding and someone who was there in the beginning of mine and Keds' relationship passed away on Friday.

I knew that Tom wasn't doing well. His last e-mail 10 weeks ago indicated as much. He had double hip replacement about a year and a half ago, but then told me he had both of his shoulders replaced and was looking at knee replacement as well. I knew the Bionic Woman was coming back, but not the Six Million Dollar Man. I've made attempts since then to get in touch with him. Pings through Google Talk, e-mails, phone calls and text messages. Hell - Keds and I were just talking about him this afternoon. I missed him so much, but it hurt that he wasn't responding.

It started off as rumor. An e-mail from someone to someone who called Keyser who called me. Since I was in Costco at the time, I couldn't really check but then I decided to call his cell phone and his Mom answered. How horrible is that? To ask a mother if it's true her baby boy is no longer with us. I can't imagine how besides themselves his parents must be. To lose a son at 32 is inconsolable. No word on funeral arrangements yet and they still aren't really sure what happened. But she did mention that he didn't communicate much - he was still in that much pain.

I know that Tom would not want us to grieve for him (OK, maybe a little grieving). He'd rather we all drink a shot of Crown Royal at the Skyline Casino and celebrate life.

Tommy...I miss you and love you. You were like a brother to me. I still can't believe he's gone...

Which one?

I'm torn. Seriously torn. When I got my new phone in September of last year, one of the reasons I got it was because it came bundled with iTunes, but with a 100 song limit, regardless of the size of the SD Card in the phone itself. While I'm not really close to butting up against that limit, the idea of the really low limit is frustrating for me.

So enter Apple. Fresh with the release of the new line of iPods and the iPhone, I'm really really torn. Part of me wants the iPhone, if only because it looks really cool and I like the idea of having one device for both phone calls and as my MP3 player. With the recent price cut, they are even more affordable. But, they only come with 8GB of memory and the idea of having to use a touchscreen to type makes me a little nervous. However, the iTunes Wi-Fi store also looks pretty cool.

But then there are the regular old iPods. The iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone, and is priced accordingly and still has all the web-surfing features that I love about the iPhone, you just need to be in a wi-fi area. The new iPod Nano looks pretty cool. It's a fraction of the price of the iPhone or iPod Touch, and does what I need it to. Then, there's the good old iPod Classic. It has more capacity than I would ever need and would probably work just fine.

So which one should I add to my Christmas list?

We aren't in Kansas anymore

Well, Keds and I are back from the Emerald City. Noooo....not Oz, but Seattle. Originally intended as a trip to mix a little business with pleasure, things changed about mid-week. My business meeting was canceled, but Keds and I still ended up going to visit Janell and George.

Keds went into some of the finer details about the weekend, but my big thing was the purchase of my new laptop. With my current job situation and my only real PC my work laptop, I am goign to need something else. So Saturday, while Janell and Amy were at Janell's stamping party, we went PC shopping. After visiting Costco and a local computer shop, we ended up at Circuit City. They had a nice HP 17" laptop with 200GB of hard drive space and 2GB of RAM, with dedicated video RAM. Pretty sweet machine, at a pretty sweet price. After going back to George and Janell's, talking to Keds about it and comparing against HP and Dell direct prices it was decided this was the way to go. So I hopped onto Circuit City's website and bought it, selecting in-store pickup at the store closest to my house. I got it up and running last night and it's pretty sweet.

All in all it was a good trip, but it's good to be home - for a couple of days at least. We are off to LA this weekend for Rosh Hoshana and to check on the house. It should be almost finished, which is exciting.

Licking my wounds

I usually don't complain and I typically don't like to feel sorry for myself, but right about now I can't help it. One of my accounts is in pretty dire condition. Some issues are of my own doing, most are not. They are operational issues like making sure we have enough agents hired to handle incoming call volume, making sure the agents that are handling calls are achieving their performance metrics and processes aren't being followed. Where I've been falling down is asking the operations team hard questions and keeping an audit trail.

So now this troubled account is being taken off of my plate - which is something my boss and I have talked about - but the positioning will most likely be that I am being made to be the scapegoat and that sucks. I am always one to admit to my mistakes. But instead of the operations team needing to take the drastic action, I feel like my boss is making the dramatic gesture at my expense.

Don't get me wrong - I love getting to work out of the house and it gives me a lot of freedom. But I think it may be time to re-evaluate things.