For the most part. Two full days of eating horrible amounts of sweets, chocolate, and anything else I could get my hands on. Even today, I'm still on the tail end despite attempts to get back on the wagon. I got 20 miles of running in over the last 2 days so that at least helps, but it doesn't quite balance out the amount of food intake. I'll recover starting Monday with a 3-fer (3 days in a row of running) Tue/Wed/Thur leading up to New Years Eve.
Thursday we braved the weather and made it up to north Minneapolis in one piece. On the way home, I hit an exit ramp a little too fast and almost slid off the road. Friday everything was melting due to the high temps, and we made it over to my Mom's house easy. By Saturday, with everything frozen and after 2 days of travelling and food and everything else, we just weren't up to another whole day of travel down to New Ulm (sorry!). We'll be heading down there next Saturday anyway. Here are just a few pics and a video from Christmas.
Oh that chocolate fountain was evil. Someone even tried chocolate dipped cheese. No one was ambitious enough to try chocolate dipped meatball.
Casey getting into her first present opening.
Megan got a lovely new dress. She loves wearing a bunch of different costume dresses we have, but some are getting too small or too ragged.
And finally, although I got a lot of video footage from Christmas, this one is my favorite.
I was describing a work situation to Andrea last night and used the term "Grand Poobah", only to immediately have Megan ask, "Whats a Poobah?" That was fun. Not so fun was when I later said "Fubar" and of course, got the same question.
It's 2pm on this lovely Wed afternoon. I just got back from an 11 mile run, Andrea is off seeing 2012, and both girls are napping. This is probably the absolute calmest moment I'll have for the next few days. I'll take it! I always have mixed feelings about time off around the holidays. Sure, I have a 5 day weekend, but it will feel like much less.
Today at least, is mostly laid back. I might head out here before the big snow storm comes and buy a few last minute groceries to get through the weekend. Then comes tomorrow and the "play it by ear". We are slated to visit family in North Mpls, which isn't that far. But depending on the state of the roads, it will feel worse.
Christmas day should be easy however, as it's just spending all day at my Mom's across town here. The big thing this year is that my Mom is going to setup her Chocolate Fountain she got a few years ago, for the very first time. It should be interesting, I think I'm going to get pictures.
Then Saturday, following Christmas, we are scheduled to head down to New Ulm and visit with Andrea's parents for the day. Again, that trip will hinge somewhat on the weather. I'll brave a certain amount, but we'll just have to see how things are looking that morning.
Too all the workers plowing streets over the next 72 hours, my hats off to you. Thanks for making the roads safer for all the holiday travellers and for giving up your time during the holidays.
My obsessive side wouldn't stop thinking about the filming that happened this week. I kept going over in my head what I wish I would have said, how I wish I would have prepared, and trying to remember what in the world I even did end up saying. I think the worst part is that I feel like I gave video games a bad rap, blaming them for my weight gain. They were a factor to be sure, but they were more my main excuse. At the time, it felt "better" to just lose myself in video games then to face the realities of my bad decisions.
Anyway, long story short, I finally got over myself yesterday and came to a realization. It's just something I did - I'm glad I did it, period. Whatever comes of it, and however it turns out, it is what it is. The bad news is, the actual commercial might not even be put on the interwebs for many months. They are releasing them a few at a time over the next few months. By the time it gets posted, I'll have completely forgot about it. One last thing - they let me take all the pictures I wanted. So here is a behind the scenes shot of where I was.
In other news, Casey offically started crawling this week! Very exiciting stuff. If it wasn't for the bad colds that both Megan and Casey have, this week would have been pretty awesome. Both girls are having hard time breathing at night, and with our luck, Andrea and I will catch it just before Christmas. I'm just hoping they are both a little more healthy in a week.
We also recently went to the eye doctor for Megan, and found that her vision is not improving as much as it needs to. I have a lot of worries about her long term vision, and it's hard to think of the possible negative outcomes. I told the doctor to give me some worst case scenarios last time, because I needed to hear it. Andrea had a GREAT idea recently, to switch to cloth patches instead of the adhesive kind. It's making a huge difference. Megan doesn't mind them, can put them on herself, and will wear them without any fight. We have high hopes these will help over the next year.
Lastly, just a great picture that we took this afternoon while playing around. Andrea's parents came up to visit today, and that was great. We'll be heading down to visit them the next couple weekends as well.
Where to start? I need to brain dump some of my thoughts about today, before I forget. I survived the day of filming, and that's the important part. I'm glad I did it, and to have had the experience, but I'm surprised at how hard it was. For someone who talks about himself all the time, you'd think it would have been easier. But being on the spot, trying to consolidate 2+ years of hard work, and how it was that I managed to do a complete 180 on my life wasn't easy at all.
Oddly enough, part of what made it so hard was just how long ago it all really happened. I mean, it's hard to think that I've actually stopped worrying about losing weight for nearly 3 years now. That's a lot of time to forget who and what I was all about when I was overweight. Maybe I should have gone back through some old blog posts and refreshed my memory!
Everyone said I did a great job, but I gotta be honest and say I didn't feel the same way. I was all over the place with what I was saying and overall, let my nervousness get the better of me. Almost like I was trying too hard instead of just letting my thoughts come freely. My only hope is the magical world of editing can mix things up and put it back together into a cohesive, positive message.
Because really, the message I DID want to get across was simple. If you feel like you want to change, don't wait. Change isn't going to be easy, because nothing worth doing ever is. But if you work hard, you can change, and in the end, it's all worth it. Thank you to everyone out there that helped inspire ME to change.
"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." -- Theodore Roosevelt
I left off with a teaser for this weekend, mentioning an "interview". Let me start with bursting the bubble that it is not work related at all. Now that I've got that out of the way, on to the real "story".
A few months ago, on the way into work I heard a radio advertisement about the "Do Groove" campaign being put on by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The ad said they were looking for people who had successfully managed to lose weight. They wanted people to log on to their web site and submit their story, how they did it, why they did it, etc. I figured, what the hell, I got a good story. Most anyone reading this blog already knows more details than I could submit in a few paragraphs, so as you can imagine throwing together some of the bigger aspects about my journey wasn't that difficult.
Fast forward about two months, I had almost forgot about the thing, and I get a phone call from someone with the campaign. They wanted to do a phone interview with me to hear more about what I wrote. I said sure, and a few days later had a 20-30 minute conversation with someone. I was then called back a few days later after that and told they wanted to have me come in for a casting session to potentially be part of their on-line commercial campaign! Once again, I figured, sure what the hell! That sounds both fun and interesting.
So last week Wed, the day of the nasty snow storm, I had a casting interview session that evening, at 3:30pm. I thought I was totally nervous, which I was, and that there was probably no way they would pick me. I can tend to ramble on and figured my incoherent thought processes wouldn't be what they would choose. But Friday night rolls around, and I get the phone call - they would like me to come in and shoot a commercial!
Now, to be clear, these are webisode type commercials. I have no illusions that I would end up on TV (but I'll keep everyone posted!). It is still cool to feel like... I don't know, maybe my experiences have something worth sharing, in a way that might help someone else. That's a good feeling, and yeah, maybe even a little ego stroking too.
Never in a million years when I started making changes in my life did I think it would culminate into something like this. I'm trying not to make it out to be more than it is, I mean, any yahoo with a digital camera can make a video to post on the internet (i.e. videos I post), but it's still cool to be singled out in this way.
The video shoot is Tuesday next week, with some kind of wardrobe session on Monday. Once things get posted up to the web site, I'll let everyone know so you can go read my story and see how my interview turns out. Here's hoping I don't end up too nervous.
That's me. A week or so back I had planned on taking Wed off this week, for an ear appointment and to be home so Andrea could goto the dentist. Lo and behold, I get to stay home, using sick time, on the day of the horrible snow storm! I also was able to schedule an interesting interview later in the day... but more on that this weekend (teaser!).
Winter is offically here, and it offically sucks. I forgot how quickly traffic becomes an absolute nightmare. This morning I woke up late (6am) and wasn't on the road until 6:30am. It added a solid 10-15 minutes to my commute. Ugh! More motivation to get out and on the road even earlier these days...
The worst part about winter, is that when the commute becomes longer, something has to give time wise. That means less time running or worse, more "skip" days. After being in the car for a solid hour, the last thing I want to do is get on the treadmill for another hour.
Enough whining for now. In other news, Casey is growing up fast. She is trying so hard to crawl these days, just not quite sure how it works. Her upper two teeth are coming in already and she is trying lots of new baby foods all the time. Megan is still... Megan. Might be time to take the advice I've been given and read a few more parenting books.
With Monday off work, this week went by pretty fast. For whatever reason, December always seems to be the "fastest" month of the year. Maybe it's Christmas, maybe it's time off work, who knows. All I know is I'm gonna blink and it's going to be 2010. Twenty Ten. It's weird when you stop to say it outloud. For the last 9 years, we've all been saying "Two thousand and...". But prior to that, we never said "One thousand nineteen hundred and...". Everything was "Nineteen Eighty." Or "Nineteen Ninety Five".
Now, we will enter a transition period. Some people will linger with the current way and say "Two Thousand and Ten". While others will go back to saying "Twenty Ten". Which will you be?
Of course the pending New Year has me thinking about my goals for 2010. I have some good ones, but so far they are all personal goals. I need to do what I did last year and start thinking about goals I want to make for other people. That doesn't quite come off right, because I'm not talking about making goals that I think other people should do. What I mean is, coming up with goals for myself that help other people.
In otherwords, coming up with the things I can do in the next year that help make me a better father, husband, son (& son in-law), brother (& brother in-law), and friend.
I do know that I have a lot of positive thoughts about the future right now, which is very unlike me. It's doubly weird considering all that we are going through right now and some of the family challenges we face on a day to day basis. I mean, it's a monumental task just to get Megan dressed these days. We have fights almost every night once I get home from work, usually revolving around her phyiscal side. Hitting, kicking, biting clothes. I won't even start about bed times and overnights.
Yet somehow, I know it is all going to pass. Megan will grow up, and yeah, it might take a year. Or even two, or hell, even three or more before she gets out of this phase. And during that time I might need to learn how to better deal with her outbursts. But we'll get through it together. I have faith.
I promised 3 days in a row of videos, but the rest of the weekend just got away from me. Sunday we did an awesome amount of family stuff, Casey's first ever swimming trip to the YMCA, Vikings game, and dinner with the family. Made for a fun but long day, with no time for blogging. I even had Monday off work but still had other things going on.
Here is the last video in my video series of blog posts. It was from Saturday this weekend while Andrea and Megan were setting up the Christmas tree. I didn't realize the clip was so long (2:34) when I uploaded it. Hopefully it's not too long as to cause boredom!
Does that video seem familiar? Because it should. Almost exactly three years ago, we saw a similar event. Granted Megan was a little older than Casey is now...
There is always a first time for everything right? I have logged quite a few miles on treadmills, but today I had a new first. I got flung off. It was my own fault, but damn was it funny. See, at the YMCA they have these over head flat screens right in front of the treadmills. I got sucked into watching an episode of "Monk" which I hardly ever watch. So I'm staring up and to the left and not noticing I'm slowly getting off center... I go to stop for a moment, only my feet don't land where I expect them to land (on the edges), BAM, next thing I know, I'm flung completely off the end of the treadmill.
Now, being as tall as I am, and 180+ pounds means the crash and landing sounded much worse then it was. People around thought I could have been seriously injured. I did scrape my leg up in one spot pretty good and got a nice rash burn on my arm but was otherwise fine. I kept running after my spill. The best part was when a few women behind me said, "Don't worry that's happened to me too."
Okay, on to the promised movies for today. These are from Thanksgiving day. This first one doesn't have anything special in it. Just a random 2 minute clip from my Thanksgiving day. Notice all the cheating going on in this game of "Cootie".
This next clip is of Megan playing the tuba. She has never been given specific directions on how to blow, to make your lips do that vibrating thing they need to do for brass instruments. She just sorta does it, and very well. I honestly don't think I could do that if I tried. Papa B says we should definitely consider wind instruments in her future.
I'm currently in the process of uploading another 500 megs worth of movies to youtube. Only a few minutes worth of clips, but dang do I love my new camera.
For that reason, I'm going to do a 3-day series of just movie clips and pictures from the last few days. Fun stuff from before, during, and after Thanksgiving. This year was a nice mellow Thanksgiving, and for the first time since I can remember, we only did one Thanksgiving destination this year. That made things even less stressful and also made it easier to not over eat!
To kick things off, here are a couple videos taken the night before Thanksgiving. I was just going to snap a few pictures when the camera was accidentally on video mode, so I just ran with it. Megan just loves performing for the camera, what can I say!
Gotta love the short weeks. Today just dragged on after 2pm, because I didn't feel like starting anything ambitious that late in the day. The next two days will probably be more of the same, unless I start working on some side projects. You know, that one side project of mine to re-architect a 10 year old software product from the ground up. Hey, I might win the lottery too.
I had a ton of free time this weekend for various reasons, but I didn't get a chance to blog because I was too busying playing a new video game, Dragon Age: Origins. I'm a huge fan of Bioware games and this one is shaping up to be one of their best, if not THE best. It has one minor flaw in my opinion, and I already have a workaround via a user created mod. Gotta love the PC gamer community.
I got about 8 hours of gaming in over the 3 days of this past weekend, which is a lot for me. The progress tracking aspects of the game say I've explored about 10% of the world/game. That's decent if that is the case. I'm not rushing through it or anything, trying to explore everything/do all side quests. If that gives me 80 hours of gaming, I'd be very happy. I think Wolfenstein gave me a whole 15 hours, if that.
Thanksgiving is going to be a lot less stress this year, as we will only have one destination. Less travelling, less rushing around. Should make for a pleasant visit. And more importantly, I only have to worry about over eating once instead of twice! Yes!
At least half the time I take Megan to McDonalds, I see something rather disturbing. Usually my follow up thought is "Man, I should post about that." Anything from worlds most angry parents to the absolute rudest teenage workers, swearing up a storm behind the counter, ignoring people waiting to order.
Usually I end up forgetting or not having the motivation by the time I get home. But tonight was disturbing enough to post. There was an elderly black man working the counter. Clearly he was new and had trouble taking orders. A young boy came up and said they forgot the honey with his order. The man didn't quite understanding him and didn't know where the honey was. Finally a younger white worker came over and showed him where it was. As I ordered, I did my best to patiently order and help the guy out. I even jokingly said, "I'll take 2 of those honeys also, now that you know where they are." He chuckled a little. I watched as the next person ordered in absolute disgust that the guy couldn't take her order in under 10 seconds. Getting verbally frustrated that she had to repeat herself twice that she wanted the MIGHTY kids meal, not the normal kids meal. (I didn't even know there was such a thing). I got sick to my stomach as I listened to the exchange get worse, and had to walk away.
Later, when I took Megan to the bathroom, the younger worker that was helping train the older new guy was talking with another worker. The exchange went something like this:
Guy 1: "Why do they have me training that guy?" Guy 2: "Cause I'm not gonna do it." Guy 1: "I'm not even black, why don't they get one of the black guys to do it."
Now, I'm not going to pretend McDonalds is a bastion of good morals, or that they hire the most quality people, but seriously wtf? I've seen some crappy things there but this one takes the cake. I felt like saying something, anything, about having a little more respect. I didn't because it obviously wouldn't matter. But is this attitude of the next generation? Is this the type of prejudice my kids will grow up around? Is today's youth full of smart ass kids who think they deserve whatever they want? Does asking these questions make me a crotchety old man?
I like to think I'm accepting of different types of people. I might not be 100% comfortable in every situation I could think of, but I can imagine at least trying. Is respecting people and being tolerant of differences something that is taught by parents? I don't recall my parents teaching me anything in particular about that topic. (sorry Mom!) So how did I come to this conclusion that basic respect of other humans is a standard way of living? Who knows... but I do know two things. One, I will never ever let my kids work at a fast food restaurant. (no offense Keara!) Two, I don't know if I want to just "hope" my kids end up with those basic qualities I deem essential to being a "good" person.
Oddly enough, this time last year turned out to be almost exactly the same. Great weather all weekend in the first weekend of Nov, 2008 lead to 3 days and 24 miles. This weekend was no different. Only difference this year was 3 days and 30 miles.
Last night I took Megan to get an H1N1 shot. She was a champ, totally brave. For being so good about the whole thing, we grabbed a couple chocolate dipped cones from Dairy Queen afterwards. Today she said she wanted to be a Doctor when she grows up, like the lady that gave her the shot.
Casey is also doing well, finally over the whole series of colds that came through the house a few weeks ago. Seems to be sleeping well but I know Andrea is still longing for the days where she can sleep straight from 9pm to 7am. The funny part is how I've completely forgotten when that occurs. And if it wasn't for this blog, I'd probably never remember.
It looks like Megan had some long sleeps around the end of July 2006. That would put her at just under 2 years. And then we transitioned Megan to the bed when she was just over 2 years old. Despite the fact that time seems to be flying by lately, Casey being almost 2 years old seems very far off.
Tonight I'm alone with the girls and decided not drag them around to go watch V. Casey has been going to bed around 7pm a lot recently, so I figured I don't need to push it and make her stay awake until past 8pm. I suppose I should actually go, you know, do actual Fatherly type things instead of blog about it.
Not that I actually believe in that sort of thing... but today was certainly amazing. Considering we were within 5 degrees of the record high for this time of year. I left work at 3pm and immediately got outside for a nice 10 mile run. The even better news is I have another one planned for tomorrow afternoon. Awesome way to start out the weekend in my opinion.
Tuesday this week, we decided to put TV at the top of the priority list. We headed over to Grandma Gayle's to steal my TV for an hour and watch the first episode of the new V series. I remember the original so vividly from my youth, I was just drawn to watch the remake. The fact that I was only 7 or 8 years old when the original came out is even more interesting. It was a television mini series, so it couldn't have been THAT bad, but who can forget the famous gerbil eating scene? That's something that stuck with me all these years. Will they bring that scene back? Oh, I can only hope.
Wed night we got to babysit baby Elizabeth for a few hours. My Mom had bought some T-Wolves tickets for my brother and his wife a while back. Elizabeth is only 2 weeks old, so she is still just in that sleep/eat/poop mode. The babysitting was pretty easy, as she was mildly awake for an hour or so after being dropped off, but then slept the rest of the time.
Not much else going on this weekend. On Sunday, Andrea has plans to spend some time with her Mom and hopefully get a small break and some time to herself. I'll be home with the girls all day, but Grandma Gayle will be helping out, taking Megan swimming at the Y, etc.
Good weekend, I'm too tired to post more. Spent the last 20 mins trying to come up with something fun/interesting/thought provoking to talk about, but I'm mentally spent. Everything in my life right now seems to have the volume turned up, and it's becoming hard to concentrate. So in the meantime, just some pictures up for Grandma Gayle.
I should be in bed. I have a bad cold and haven't been sleeping very well. Actually, last night I got a decent nights sleep because I went to bed with Megan in her bed at like 8pm. Andrea woke me up a little after 9pm and I just went back to bed right away.
I spoke too soon about the weather apparently. Tuesday night it was so sunny and semi-nice out, that despite the fact that I didn't pack for an outside run, I went for it anyway. It was a TAD cold in standard shorts and t-shirt, but after the first few miles it was great running weather. With some sunny days in the upper 40s yet to come... Who knows. After doing a full 2 hours on the treadmill last Sunday, I'm dying for more outside running.
Work is getting interesting. Interesting meaning, I can't hardly talk about it anymore, because it's gotten that bad. Thankfully, at this point, it's mostly just bitching and moaning, and not anything real. As far as the bottom line is concerned, the company as a whole seems to still be making money despite some serious attempts to fail at that. Not like what my Mom is going through, who just found out her entire COMPANY is being "sold off". And what is even worse, is my sister-in-law got a job there too, so that's two people in the "who knows if we will have a job tomorrow" camp. I'm gonna take a wild guess that is more stressful than what I'm dealing with.
It's times like these, where I start to think again about how nice it would be not to have to be a part of a system that puts no value in the individual. In other words, finding a way to work for myself and not for some abstract "company" that puts zero value in me. Sure, my manager might shower me in praise, and my co-workers might depend on me day to day. But when push comes to shove, none of that matters. Anyone I work with would stab me in the back to keep their jobs. Restructuring, lay-offs, down-sizing, whatever form it might come in. It's all just a stupid game, with everyone jocking for position to appear the most important so when that day comes, they aren't the one that's out of a job.
Due to a series of events, I find myself with more free time this weekend than I have had in quite some time. My Mom earlier in the week volunteered to have Megan over night tonight, which worked for us. Tomorrow morning, Andrea is taking the girls down to New Ulm and I'll have the day to myself.
What will I do with all this new found free time! Not much really... relax in what little ways I can. Exercise, clean, and if there is a little time left over, play some video games.
Speaking of video games, I'm sorta not happy about my Dell purchase. The damn thing keeps locking up on me, 5 minutes into any game. And it's a hard lock, meaning I have to force reboot my computer. After the reboot, I can then play for whatever length of time and it seems to be fine. I've done some research and found that this particular product line of Dell (XPS 630i) is particularly plagued with hardware problems. Question is: do I feel like figuring it out myself, or do I deal with the Dell red tape and send it back under warranty, with the generic "It locks up on me occasionally, fix it and send it back."
As the continuing rain threatens to turn to snow any day now, I'm wondering if I might not get any more outdoor runs this year. Can you believe November is right around the corner? And Casey is already 5 months old tomorrow! Zang.
We had marked down Valerie's due date as October 21st on our calendar. It was the day I originally remembered being told. And lo and behold, what do we find? Baby Elizabeth born on October 21st, in the early morning hours right before 4am. We stopped by the hospital tonight to get a peek at the newest Anderson on the block.
I'm so excited for my brother, and so nervous right along with him. I know what he is going through in some ways, and not at all in others. Our lives are on such different tracks, that it isn't always easy to relate. I do know he is going to be a great Dad even if he doesn't know it yet. It took me time to figure that out as well. And Scott, if you are reading this, I recommend going back to the start of our Adventure and reading up. Maybe you can find some words of wisdom in my ramblings from those first few weeks Megan entered our lives.
As I pulled into my standard break stop to down my first gu-gel and some water, the sign on the bank said 58 degrees. Perfect running weather! I'm still hoping for one more outdoor run, even if it ends up being in colder weather. But today was perfect and exactly what the doctor ordered. 17 miles where the last mile felt good instead of wishing I was done. There is absolutely no way I could run 17 miles on a treadmill. In fact, I don't even think it would be good for my legs / feet if I could.
The rest of this weekend was pretty low key. With my Mom out of town, and just coming off Megan's birthday last weekend, we didn't have much to do or in the way of visitors. Andrea and I took the opportunity to have a little "YMCA" date, where we dropped the kids off at Kid's Stuff and just spent some time in the pool/whirlpool/sauna. After that, we grabbed 2 Disney movies from Redbox and watched them over at my Mom's place.
This morning, before my run, I took Megan to the Zoo. It's our default activity when nothing else is going on and we just need to get out of the house. It turned out to be a great time and the weather was nice enough that Megan was able to enjoy the outside stuff (new playground and the bears). We also got to see something we had never seen before, they were training the new dolphins! It was pretty cool to see a dolphin know the difference between a blue triangle and a red star shape. And then we had a nice Zoo employee sitting next to us as we watched (there was only a handfull of people there). She was very engaging with Megan, telling her about what they were doing with the dolphins. And Megan kept asking various "Why?" questions and she just kept on answering them.
Megan got up close and personal before I realized we weren't supposed to.
Dolphin learning to pick out a specific shape/color.
Megan and the bears.
The leopard was out - very rare for early morning. This is only the second time Megan and I have seen this elusive guy. The last time we saw him was at 5pm right before zoo closing time.
Figured I might as well do a few days in a row with some pictures. Having lots of fun with the new camera. With an 8gig memory stick, I can take all sorts of pictures and video for a long time. I think at maximum quality, I can take over a full hour of video footage. That's awesome!
I'm hoping that I can get outside this weekend for a decent long run on Sunday. They are promising 60 and sunny. I would kill for that, hell I'd be happy with 50 and sunny. The whole treadmill thing is getting old fast and I've only done it for 2 weeks now. I've even tried hill programs and random settings to try and keep it interesting. That helps, but it is still just not the same. Honestly, I'm also starting to think that subtle differences in muscle usage occurs when on the mill. Enough such that I am sore in weird places that I've never felt when running outdoors.
I honestly can't believe October is already half over. Where does the time go? Within a week or two, my brother is gonna be a Dad for the first time. I can't believe that is happening already! Next thing you know, our kids will be crawling around and playing together. Expect lots of footage of that coming up here by the end of the month.
