7-17-10 Saturday (Big Daddy’s Bust)

Jim found out there was going to be some “drum circle” over at Freedom Park.   Now recently I’ve been exposed to 2 drum circles or so we think.  One in Asheville – people in a park beating on drums on a rhythm.   Another one in DC, same kinda thing.  Is that a drum circle?  So as I type this entry, I Googled it and discovered the definition is pretty loose.  They can be large, they can be small.  They can be in a circle or not.  So basically a group of people in a park playing drums.  Cool.  We’ll go.  Not quite.  We didn’t get moving in time.

We had to stop at the bank and get a few DMV documents notarized so I can get North Carolina plates issued.   For the first time in our lives, we’re gonna get vanity (personalized) plates if possible.  The tags will read JAG1 and JAG2.  We use JAG a lot.  In fact it was our cats name (now someone else's cat).  We have a nice mirrored license plate that read “JAG” on the BMW but moved it to the RV when we hit the road.  Our email address contains “JAG” in it.  Jim came up with it several years ago to be an acronym for “Jim And Garret”. 

After Bank Of America we went to Freedom Park in hopes we’d catch some of the drum circle.  No such luck but we did enjoy our first visit at the park.  We walked the full loop around.  The outdoor temperature of 87 was nearly perfect.  Maybe a little cooler would have been great.

What another great park!  Here’s the park’s website.

 

And that my friends, is a piece of paradise, in our backyard.  I love it!

We departed the park and headed for lunch.  Jim had a BOGO coupon for a slice of pizza a Fuel.  Turns out he left it on the counter at home.  We decided to give Big Daddy’s Burger Bar a try.  We got in, sat down and looked over the menu.  The burger toppings as well as the burger options seemed endless.  I had decided I’d have a black bean burger or Portobello burger – if a server would ever show up.  No greeting, no drink order, no nothing.  Eventually I looked at Jim and asked, “Ready?”  We got up, stopped by the front desk, told the manager that it was our first visit and most likely our last.  Off we went.  We have 0 tolerance for not even being greeted by a server.  It’s happened several times to us and we don’t bat an eye.  We leave.  Maybe we’ll go back – maybe not.

Eating at home worked out just fine.  Healthier too!  We spent the evening having a Desperate Housewives marathon and we have more to go.

A year ago?  Not much.  Relaxation poolside.  A little cleaning.  Meeting and making friends.  Read about it here.

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7-16-10 Friday (Slow Cookers Require Power)

It was a great start to the day.  Last week I didn’t see the trash men.  I got to catch the trash picker-uppers in action.  Yes, I even caught a photo of the robotic claw doing it’s thing.  Friday’s are so awesome.  I can continue to live once again.


Unless any of you are really curious or depend on it, I’m going to stop posting my daily list of points/foods.  It doesn’t take that long to do but why bother if no one cares?  I was mainly doin’ it for my friend Tim but he doesn’t look at it closely anymore stating that he’s got the idea.  If anyone else wants it, I’d be happy to do it.  Comment or drop me an email.   I spelled out the email address cause I see other people do it.  I think it has to do with avoiding spam?  Anyone?

Around 5 pm, the power went out due to a storm.  I had a crockpot meal cooking damn it!  Closer to 6, still no power.  I told Jim to skip the gym.  6:30, no power, the automated service says it’s due to be restored by 8pm.  Jim suggested Macaroni Grill for dinner.  I guess because I had just talked about not cheating much at all to a couple of friends today, I was eager to indulge tonight.  Bad me.  Not only did I cheat tonight but I REALLY cheated, ate like a pig and nearly blew all my weekly points away too. 


Using Duke Energy’s automated service, I requested notification of restored power via my cell phone.  After dinner no call (I called them again and the ETA was changed to 9pm) so we decided to walk off some calories in the mall. The problem is we ate Dairy Queen Blizzards.  Oy. 

I have several goals I wish would just fall into place.  I want to be that person that loves to exercise.  I want to be the person that can’t eat like I did without becoming ill.  I want to “pay” for it.  I want to “learn my lesson” for eating that way.  That would be a nice incentive to be fit.  I want to be that person that can eat a little of the dumb foods and be full.  Someone who could have a tablespoon of ice cream and complain it’s too sweet.   I want to eat a 1/4 of my portion and say, “Oh, I’m so full, I don’t know how people do it.”
It was now 9pm and no call.  Jim suggested I call the house and see if the answering machine picks up.  Brilliant.  It picked up!  Yay.  Well we didn’t go straight home anyway.  We decided to do some exploring.  What’s up this road?  What’s up that road?

I classified this post as a MISadventure mostly for the power outage but I’ve realized that the bigger deal should be about the way I ate.  

Washing machine repair.  Toilet repairs.  Adding another room to the RV.  Socializing with old and new friends.  See it here.

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7-15-10 Thursday (No Pain, No Owww)

My boobs hurt.  Luckily the ab pain is very minimal.  Yeah, yeah, no pain no gain.  I’ve been thinking about doing the P90X work out.  It’s an intense 90 day exercise video program.  My friend Jodi has been utilizing this program for a long time and she’s looking like she has.  The thing is I’m finding that it wants an hour a day, every day.  Sure, being unemployed (don’t rub it in), I have the time BUT I think this might be a little to aggressive for Jim and I right now.  I need to talk to Jodi, who’s on vacation in Vegas right now, a little more and get her input about it.  Is it possible to scale the program down and skip the gym?  It takes about 20 minutes each way to get to/from the gym.  There’s some of that hour right there but we don’t go to the gym every day.  It has 12 DVD’s and you can click here to see what “Plyometrics” is and get any other info about it.  Anyone know someone who is on this program?  What’s your thoughts?

Above: A sample from the manual.  Week 1-3 “do” these videos.

  Above: My $20 purchase at Walmart.  Good deal.

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It’s weigh-in day! 

And… when losing is a good thing:

      

A year ago I lost some skin but gained a repaired refrigerator but then gained a broken toilet.  Onward to a gay campground that we were at a year ago prior.  Check it all out here.

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7-14-10 Wednesday (Degrees Of Protection)

2 years ago we picked up the RV from Charlotte RV Center in Port Charlotte, Florida.  Who would have thought that 2 years later here we are in Charlotte, NC.  Hmmmmmmm.  It was on this day 2 years ago that we also tried getting the BMW up on a trailer.  Our friends Mike and Dave accompanied us.  Here’s their comment from that day:

Sorry to go all two-years-ago-we-did-this crap with you but it was such a life changing event.  The finality of receiving the RV.  The tow trailer not working out ended up being a wonderful situation.  Because of that, we bought a Jeep and had so many great off-roading adventures.

Let’s get the photo of me over with.  I’ve had 2 requests (Jodi & Peggy) to see what the new me is looking like.

 

I’m very pleased with the results.  I still have a little gut and some back fat to get rid of.  I’m wearing a smaller polo shirt too.  While in DC I wore (below) a large pink polo.

I went to BJ’s today.  I wanted to pick up a quart of deodorant.  This is why I shop at BJ’s because they make it so darn easy to compare odd measurements.  Check out the unit pricing in the lower left corner.  I know I’ve bitched about this before.

So, I went to the gym a little earlier today so that in addition to cardio I could do some core (abs) and chest/back stuff.  I TRIED core.  I could barely do 15 crunches.  The pain was horrifying and my body went into wet noodle mode.  I just couldn’t even sit up anymore.  I moved on to chest/back and worked out until exhaustion.  I still had time left over waiting for Jim so I did some leg work too.  I don’t even look forward to tomorrow’s pain in so many different places.

Here’s my usual list.  I’m only logging my cardio stuff.  It’s just too difficult to log in each exercise.

 

We made it to Georgia in one day’s drive.  We’ll get the fridge fixed and then move on to Unadilla, GA.  Read about it here.

7-13-10 Tuesday (Doe, A Deer)

7 years ago today, we put a deposit down on property and later built a custom home that we both loved.  Some day, we’ll build again.

   

 

I have 360 or more photos documenting each part of the build but I’ll spare ya.

This morning Jim spotted a doe and her fawn just on the other side of our back fence.  He called me downstairs to see them.  The fawn was playing (running around).  We went upstairs to a window that helped see them a little better.  By the time I got the camera situated they were gone.

I had a pretty full day of applying for jobs.  Jim polled some coworkers about employment agencies (head hunters) and so I checked all those out.  Setting up accounts, faxing, filling out applications and such surprisingly filled a lot of my day.  I even took a typing test for the hell of it (I scored 54 WPM). 

Some where around late afternoon my upper abs were hurting.  I was worried about the pain because it felt like I had hurt something badly.  I thought about it and realized that if I had torn something it would have hurt at the time of the injury and not a day later.  I just don’t know that I’ve had upper ab pain before.  I did 100 of cross crunch type thing and 45 of a regular plain Jane.  They’re not anything I’ve never done but perhaps it was because my body has changed in the last 2 months – less squishy stuff.

Jim went to dinner with a co-worker, Beth.  I was invited but bailed out for several reasons.  The first being I dislike the place Jim had in mind (CiCi’s Pizza).  The salad bar there isn’t all that great.  And finally, he deserves social time without me.

For dinner I had Morningstar Farm Veggie “chicken” patties.  Tasty.  I liked them.  I tried them because of the $1 off coupon attached to the box. 

We spend our last day in New Orleans.  The fridge stopped working – partially.  Check it out here.

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