Here I sit, yet another week between posts. I've been struggling with the direction to go with my blog. In my mind, I see my blog as a windowed view into my life. The question is, does the window have blinders? For a long time, I feel like I've put filters on my posts based on "who might read this?", "what will they think if they do?", "will their opinion of me change?". I've come to the conclusion that this line of thinking has just killed my motivation to write anything at all.
You know what I've decided? Who the fuck cares. It's my blog, my thoughts, if someone reading it can't handle it, tough. It's who I am and that's all I know, and all I have to offer! So expect to see more posts 'round here. I might even change up the look and feel or... heaven forbid, even change my entire blog name!
In truth, the change to the blog isn't the only thing I'm needing to make. I've been struggling with motivation in other areas as well, particularly my running. The status quo worked for the weight loss, but it's becoming painfully obvious that staying motivated during "maintaining weight" is a much bigger mental challenge.
Finally, I need to make changes in other areas as well. From working on getting Megan to bed at a normal time (i.e. not 11pm), to getting to bed at a normal time myself. I've been staying up until midnight a LOT lately, which I know is not healthy. Just because I CAN handle staying up until midnight, doesn't mean I SHOULD be. I know that it effects my mood, which then effects my decisions, usually resulting in bad decisions. (i.e. not exercising, over eating, or spending too much time on World of Warcraft).
In the spirit of change, I even did something different at work today. Someone I work with has, in my opinion, put in a lot of effort recently. Practically doing the work of 2-3 people. I decided to make sure this effort was noticed and wrote up an "employee recognition" email to my boss. My little attempt to do something without my own interests in mind.
Have to cut this short, dinner is ready!!!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Staying Positive
Or trying to anyway. Aside from work, things are great. I just haven't been motiviated to post, as mentioned previously. I suppose the best news is about our roof, insurance company, and neighbor. Basically all three are positive!
Our neighbor is on board with getting the roof replaced, and he actually owns a large scale construction company and has contacts that will be able to do the job at a very good price. On top of that, our Insurance adjuster came to the house on Tuesday and agreed that there was significant hail damage and that everything will be covered. Things have worked out with the best possible outcome!
I got out to see Harry Potter this past weekend. It was okay, but I can totally see why my brother gave me the report that he did. It really was just a bridge movie, and it didn't seem to have much plot of it's own. I also got two good runs in this weekend before this crazy heat wave.
If all that wasn't enough, I also finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft! Yes, a huge goal, I know. I got a little crazy over the weekend and just got it done so now I can relax a little and start to enjoy the new things I get to do at the maximum level. Basically there is a small group of people I'm playing with, that my co-worker introduced me too. So now I get to join them in some of the things they do within the game. Should be lots of fun!!
But work... oh work... why must you ruin it all?
Our neighbor is on board with getting the roof replaced, and he actually owns a large scale construction company and has contacts that will be able to do the job at a very good price. On top of that, our Insurance adjuster came to the house on Tuesday and agreed that there was significant hail damage and that everything will be covered. Things have worked out with the best possible outcome!
I got out to see Harry Potter this past weekend. It was okay, but I can totally see why my brother gave me the report that he did. It really was just a bridge movie, and it didn't seem to have much plot of it's own. I also got two good runs in this weekend before this crazy heat wave.
If all that wasn't enough, I also finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft! Yes, a huge goal, I know. I got a little crazy over the weekend and just got it done so now I can relax a little and start to enjoy the new things I get to do at the maximum level. Basically there is a small group of people I'm playing with, that my co-worker introduced me too. So now I get to join them in some of the things they do within the game. Should be lots of fun!!
But work... oh work... why must you ruin it all?
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Where does the time go
Despite the many strikes against me - going on 5 hours of sleep, stressed out about work, a complete lack of motivation... I somehow managed to push out an 8 mile run tonight. I seriously wanted to quit after 3, but managed to keep going. Might be my last out door run for awhile, it looks like a heat wave is headed our way.
I'm back to that "I don't feel like blogging" attitude. Most nights I feel like I'd rather be spending my time either exersizing, spending a few hours with Andrea & Megan, and unwinding with World of Warcraft. (level 66 if your curious, still 4 more levels to go) On top of all that is of course the fact that I have nothing to post about.
How about some more good news? I just found out I didn't get selected for the Twin Cities 10 miler. That sure put a damper into my spirits regarding running and training. It can be really hard to put the miles in, when you don't have something your working towards. I'm still going to try and shoot for my yearly goal of 1200 miles, but I'm not really doing the math yet on how close/far off I am to that goal. I know I'm in the right ball park still...
The latest stress is our home owners insurance. If you remember, I mentioned before how our insurance company just decided to drop us at random. The problem is, we need to get our roof replaced. It's 14 years old and had the hail damage from last summer. Why did we delay? Why did we sit on this? I don't know, so please don't ask. What we do know is that our neighbor already put in a claim and got his insurance check. But at the time, he told us he didn't want to replace the roof, and so we were like "Okay thats fine..."
Thus the problem. Now that our insurance is dropping us, we have to get a claim in to get an insurance check AND get the roof replaced within 6 months. That means I'll have to goto the neighbor and get him on board with a roof replacement. What if he doesn't want to? What if he blew the insurance money he already got? Or even worst case, what if our insurance company refuses to play nice and not accept our claim?
Blarg... I don't know what to think. I do know one thing - Andrea and I have learned we don't want to live in a twin home. Moving is on the agenda, and I can see it happening within the next 2-3 years. And when we do move, it will definitly be a single family unit. Anyway, going to stop thinking about it now and go space out with World of Warcraft!
I'm back to that "I don't feel like blogging" attitude. Most nights I feel like I'd rather be spending my time either exersizing, spending a few hours with Andrea & Megan, and unwinding with World of Warcraft. (level 66 if your curious, still 4 more levels to go) On top of all that is of course the fact that I have nothing to post about.
How about some more good news? I just found out I didn't get selected for the Twin Cities 10 miler. That sure put a damper into my spirits regarding running and training. It can be really hard to put the miles in, when you don't have something your working towards. I'm still going to try and shoot for my yearly goal of 1200 miles, but I'm not really doing the math yet on how close/far off I am to that goal. I know I'm in the right ball park still...
The latest stress is our home owners insurance. If you remember, I mentioned before how our insurance company just decided to drop us at random. The problem is, we need to get our roof replaced. It's 14 years old and had the hail damage from last summer. Why did we delay? Why did we sit on this? I don't know, so please don't ask. What we do know is that our neighbor already put in a claim and got his insurance check. But at the time, he told us he didn't want to replace the roof, and so we were like "Okay thats fine..."
Thus the problem. Now that our insurance is dropping us, we have to get a claim in to get an insurance check AND get the roof replaced within 6 months. That means I'll have to goto the neighbor and get him on board with a roof replacement. What if he doesn't want to? What if he blew the insurance money he already got? Or even worst case, what if our insurance company refuses to play nice and not accept our claim?
Blarg... I don't know what to think. I do know one thing - Andrea and I have learned we don't want to live in a twin home. Moving is on the agenda, and I can see it happening within the next 2-3 years. And when we do move, it will definitly be a single family unit. Anyway, going to stop thinking about it now and go space out with World of Warcraft!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Not so lazy Sunday
Because I ended up doing a somewhat intensive run Friday night, I delayed a long run until this morning. Got a solid 12 miles in at a decent pace. Actually, I didn't monitor my pace the entire run. This goes back to when I first started using the heart rate monitor. Instead of constantly checking my pace or distance, I was only checking my heart rate. The goal being to keep my heart rate below a certain level. It seemed to work out much better, as I never felt like I was running too hard.
Although I mentioned seeing Harry Potter this weekend, my brother reported that it was only mediocre. Good, but nothing special... So I compromised and went to see Die Hard 4, because everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Andrea wanted to see that more then Harry Potter. It was a fun movie, a bit over the top a times, but still fun. The jet scene at the end was really the last straw for me where I went, "Okay... come on, that is just TOO much." It was like Bruce Willis just wanted to make the most macho, big explosions, huge stunts movie that he could. And in that regard, he succeeded.
Speaking of my brother... I haven't heard how the rest of his move went. I only helped for about 3 hours on Thursday night, I didn't stick around for the unpacking. For the most part, they planned to just unload the back of the truck into the garage/living room and then slowly bring stuff in over time. I did get to see the place they are moving into, and it is very nice. I think the change will do him good, and the extra space will help. Hopefully they will have us over once they've got everything settled.
Rest of today I'm going to rest and play some World of Warcraft... My character is level 64, so just 6 more levels to go. (70 is the maximum) Should take somewhere around 6-8 hours per level, so only about 40 hours to go! A simple work week, no problem!
Although I mentioned seeing Harry Potter this weekend, my brother reported that it was only mediocre. Good, but nothing special... So I compromised and went to see Die Hard 4, because everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Andrea wanted to see that more then Harry Potter. It was a fun movie, a bit over the top a times, but still fun. The jet scene at the end was really the last straw for me where I went, "Okay... come on, that is just TOO much." It was like Bruce Willis just wanted to make the most macho, big explosions, huge stunts movie that he could. And in that regard, he succeeded.
Speaking of my brother... I haven't heard how the rest of his move went. I only helped for about 3 hours on Thursday night, I didn't stick around for the unpacking. For the most part, they planned to just unload the back of the truck into the garage/living room and then slowly bring stuff in over time. I did get to see the place they are moving into, and it is very nice. I think the change will do him good, and the extra space will help. Hopefully they will have us over once they've got everything settled.
Rest of today I'm going to rest and play some World of Warcraft... My character is level 64, so just 6 more levels to go. (70 is the maximum) Should take somewhere around 6-8 hours per level, so only about 40 hours to go! A simple work week, no problem!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sun and Rain
It's always tough going back to work after a long break. This week is no exception, as work continued to stress me out. The blow has been somewhat lessoned by the fact the company is doing well enough to give everyone bonus checks. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.
It finally cooled down enough to do an outside run and what happens? It rains on me! It wasn't too bad, it must have only rained for about 5 minuted at most. Directly after the rain, it was pure sun shine, no clouds, very nice. I would have liked to go longer but needed to get home in time for dinner.
Tonight Andrea is having a Mom's club business meeting at our house, so Megan and I have to stay down stairs while the women folk do thier thing up stairs. Not like that's very different from our typical evenings, other then the fact that I'll get to sneak up stairs for fruit & cake.
I completely forgot that the newest Harry Potter comes out today. Not sure why they picked a midweek release, needless to say, I won't be getting around to seeing it until this weekend. My brother is going tonight, so I'm sure he will give me the low down tomorrow. I am helping him move for what must be the third time. (third times the charm?) They are moving into some very quality town homes in Burnsville with another couple and one other person. There will be a lot more space and 2 floors seperating the guys loud TV's / late night video game playing from the bed rooms. Should be nice for anyone living there trying to maintain a semi-normal sleeping schedule.
Not much else going on this week or weekend, so don't expect much in the way of blog posts. Don't see much point to wasting good blog space with me rambling on about nothing much at all. Wait... that's just what I did. Okay, enough of this, time for video games!!
It finally cooled down enough to do an outside run and what happens? It rains on me! It wasn't too bad, it must have only rained for about 5 minuted at most. Directly after the rain, it was pure sun shine, no clouds, very nice. I would have liked to go longer but needed to get home in time for dinner.
Tonight Andrea is having a Mom's club business meeting at our house, so Megan and I have to stay down stairs while the women folk do thier thing up stairs. Not like that's very different from our typical evenings, other then the fact that I'll get to sneak up stairs for fruit & cake.
I completely forgot that the newest Harry Potter comes out today. Not sure why they picked a midweek release, needless to say, I won't be getting around to seeing it until this weekend. My brother is going tonight, so I'm sure he will give me the low down tomorrow. I am helping him move for what must be the third time. (third times the charm?) They are moving into some very quality town homes in Burnsville with another couple and one other person. There will be a lot more space and 2 floors seperating the guys loud TV's / late night video game playing from the bed rooms. Should be nice for anyone living there trying to maintain a semi-normal sleeping schedule.
Not much else going on this week or weekend, so don't expect much in the way of blog posts. Don't see much point to wasting good blog space with me rambling on about nothing much at all. Wait... that's just what I did. Okay, enough of this, time for video games!!
Sunday, July 08, 2007
The End
Of the weekend! Due to unforeseen circumstances, we weren't able to get out to see Live Free or Die Hard, but that's okay. I'll probably hit it up on DVD when it comes out. The end of the weekend unfolded as one long relaxation event. I got one minor run in, and that's really about it. Tonight Andrea and I capped off the weekend with some beer and pizza, something we haven't done for quite awhile.
Thursday night we headed out to the YMCA for some family swimming. The bad news is that the family pool was closed! There was one lane of the lap pool available for open swim, so we made the best of it. Megan had a great time, I think we will plan another swimming event soon.
Friday we had made plans for Megan to be babysat between 10am-noon. We ended up using the time to watch the movie Shooter, which we had from Netflix. It was a pretty good movie, nothing too spectacular.
On Saturday, Andrea's parents came up for a visit. It was good to see them both, they brought up some sandwich fixings for lunch and stayed until Megan's nap time. Today, I had planned on getting a nice long run in, but decided on skipping in favor of... sleeping in.
In other news, I've finally taken the next step in some goals I set for myself earlier this year. You might remember how I mentioned about biking trails I wanted to check out. Obviously, the key to that is having the ability to transport my bike to said trails. I finally got around to being able to do that, thanks to my friend and old college roommate giving me a car bike rack he wasn't using.
Now that I have it hooked up, I think I will actually start to plan some trips and get some long bike rides in. I'll probably wait until this heat wave ends and it gets a little cooler outside.
Thursday night we headed out to the YMCA for some family swimming. The bad news is that the family pool was closed! There was one lane of the lap pool available for open swim, so we made the best of it. Megan had a great time, I think we will plan another swimming event soon.
Friday we had made plans for Megan to be babysat between 10am-noon. We ended up using the time to watch the movie Shooter, which we had from Netflix. It was a pretty good movie, nothing too spectacular.
On Saturday, Andrea's parents came up for a visit. It was good to see them both, they brought up some sandwich fixings for lunch and stayed until Megan's nap time. Today, I had planned on getting a nice long run in, but decided on skipping in favor of... sleeping in.
In other news, I've finally taken the next step in some goals I set for myself earlier this year. You might remember how I mentioned about biking trails I wanted to check out. Obviously, the key to that is having the ability to transport my bike to said trails. I finally got around to being able to do that, thanks to my friend and old college roommate giving me a car bike rack he wasn't using.
Now that I have it hooked up, I think I will actually start to plan some trips and get some long bike rides in. I'll probably wait until this heat wave ends and it gets a little cooler outside.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Vacations Rock
Maybe I should take more of them? A few days ago, something very strange occurred to me. I was reviewing my available vacation time at work, and it dawned on me that I had achieved something never previously done before. I had reached the MAXIMUM allowed saved up vacation time. That seemed crazy to me, as I'm the first one to take time off when I have it. I feel like this must mean something... but what it means, I'm just not sure. I think for now, I'll just assume it means I need to TAKE MORE VACATION!
That's just what I'm doing this week, and so far it is great! So much fun, I can't even cram it all into one post I think. Tuesday was my brothers 26th birthday. Due to some miscommunication we almost weren't able to join him for dinner, but our other engagement was called on account of rain. That made our choice for us, and we headed to Olive Garden.
After that, the rain stopped and we went ahead with our other plans, which was to visit the Family Fun Night at Hayes Park, part of the July 4th festivities in Apple Valley. It was a lot of fun, Megan got to dance, jump in a bouncer, and most fun of all, check out a petting zoo! (pictures below)
Yesterday we enjoyed the movie Transformers. I can't say enough good things about this movie, it was by far the best movie in 2007. I'm going to see it again, no doubt. After the movie, I got a good (and very hot!) run in over to my Mom's, where we had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ. No fireworks this year, besides, they are a tad overrated anyway.
If all this wasn't enough, somewhere within the next half hour, my brother is coming over to babysit for us! Andrea and I are going to get yet ANOTHER movie in, Live Free or Die Hard. Talk about fun filled vacation, and it's only Thursday!!
Check back later this week for even more reports, and some news on some of my year goals that I'm working on.
Megan & Grandma with some clowns. She didn't seem afraid of them at all.
Megan enjoying the jumper.
Megan introduces herself to the baby calf.
And then gives him a nice pat down.
Megan really liked the little goats running around, she got so excited when they ran up to her.
It's hard to tell, but that big llama swung his head around... I swear he was either gonna give Megan a big kiss or try to take a bite out of her! She didn't even notice it...
That's just what I'm doing this week, and so far it is great! So much fun, I can't even cram it all into one post I think. Tuesday was my brothers 26th birthday. Due to some miscommunication we almost weren't able to join him for dinner, but our other engagement was called on account of rain. That made our choice for us, and we headed to Olive Garden.
After that, the rain stopped and we went ahead with our other plans, which was to visit the Family Fun Night at Hayes Park, part of the July 4th festivities in Apple Valley. It was a lot of fun, Megan got to dance, jump in a bouncer, and most fun of all, check out a petting zoo! (pictures below)
Yesterday we enjoyed the movie Transformers. I can't say enough good things about this movie, it was by far the best movie in 2007. I'm going to see it again, no doubt. After the movie, I got a good (and very hot!) run in over to my Mom's, where we had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ. No fireworks this year, besides, they are a tad overrated anyway.
If all this wasn't enough, somewhere within the next half hour, my brother is coming over to babysit for us! Andrea and I are going to get yet ANOTHER movie in, Live Free or Die Hard. Talk about fun filled vacation, and it's only Thursday!!
Check back later this week for even more reports, and some news on some of my year goals that I'm working on.
Megan & Grandma with some clowns. She didn't seem afraid of them at all.
Megan enjoying the jumper.
Megan introduces herself to the baby calf.
And then gives him a nice pat down.
Megan really liked the little goats running around, she got so excited when they ran up to her.
It's hard to tell, but that big llama swung his head around... I swear he was either gonna give Megan a big kiss or try to take a bite out of her! She didn't even notice it...
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Mom's Club Picnic
At the last minute, I remembered to bring my camera along. Actually, we were already out of the driveway and Andrea remembered. The crappy part is, I didn't charge the batteries, so I was only able to get a couple of pictures. Thankfully, they were all pretty good ones.
Megan playing with one of the lawn games we brought, Ladder Golf.
Megan showing the older boy the obviously easier way to throw the bean bags into the holes.
We had two tables full of food, and one person making hot dogs on the grill. There was more then enough food for everyone.
Megan and I enjoying the swing.
Posing with the party viewable in the background.
It was a great event, Andrea did a lot to organize and bring it all together. No kids were injured and everyone had a fun time. We were exhausted after we got home, and so enjoyed the rest of the day just relaxing.
Today will be much of the same, although I got a short bike ride in this morning and hopefully we will visit a park this evening for something fun to do. This last picture was taken a few days ago by Andrea. She came into Megan's room to find her having done this all by herself.
Megan playing with one of the lawn games we brought, Ladder Golf.
Megan showing the older boy the obviously easier way to throw the bean bags into the holes.
We had two tables full of food, and one person making hot dogs on the grill. There was more then enough food for everyone.
Megan and I enjoying the swing.
Posing with the party viewable in the background.
It was a great event, Andrea did a lot to organize and bring it all together. No kids were injured and everyone had a fun time. We were exhausted after we got home, and so enjoyed the rest of the day just relaxing.
Today will be much of the same, although I got a short bike ride in this morning and hopefully we will visit a park this evening for something fun to do. This last picture was taken a few days ago by Andrea. She came into Megan's room to find her having done this all by herself.
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