Saturday, June 21, 2008
What did you do in the Great Summer of '08, Daddy?
Saturday morning. Prior to "headin' North" (Nephi vernacular for goin' up to Utah County) for Liam's birthday party at Chez Palmer de Springville, I decided to do the monthly camera dump. I picked a select boring few to post here. Basically from a couple weeks ago, when we thought we'd head up the Nebo Loop to explore Payson Lakes. Hey--we though-- it's June! It'll be brilliantly warm! Not. Good thing Agi helpfully pointed out that, despite it being 80 degrees in Nephi, she could still see the snowpack up range. So we packed sweaters and blankets just in case. Good call, Eubanks. It dropped 35 degrees on the drive up and was plenty chilly.
Beautiful area though! Maybe by late July it will reach 65 degrees....
Also kicked in a couple pics of Ashton enjoying the dual slipinslide I set up in the backyard....
Enjoy....
..........................Behold, the Cracka Waterpark......................
Right out of a Norman Rockwell, right?
Ali: TAKE ME HOME NOW!!!! I'M COLD!!!!!
Purty...........
Andrew overlooking Utah Lake to the North
Beautiful area though! Maybe by late July it will reach 65 degrees....
Also kicked in a couple pics of Ashton enjoying the dual slipinslide I set up in the backyard....
Enjoy....
..........................Behold, the Cracka Waterpark......................
Right out of a Norman Rockwell, right?
Ali: TAKE ME HOME NOW!!!! I'M COLD!!!!!
Purty...........
Andrew overlooking Utah Lake to the North
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Global Warming Clip of the day...
Courtesy the gents at South Park.... Still the place for the best left-lampooning satire on the web. This clip is clean, for those of you who wonder--well worth viewing!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Cool story on new Filipino singer for JOURNEY
Found this video the other day on youtube-AWESOME STORY! Also reminded why Journey was one of the best bands to listen to in the car when I wanted to stay awake on long road trips... This whole story is pretty compelling. This guy sounds just like Steve Perry, the original Journey lead singer, only BETTER.
Spreading the Gospel of Coldplay...
Took a break this morning from sending out the umpteenth resume to the umpteenth possible employer on the umpteenth jobsite (I moved well past Monster and HotJobs to include CareerBuilder, TeleportmyJob, and about a jillion other sites...) to listen to the new Coldplay album. It had been pre-ordered a couple months ago and I finally got the download notice last night. WOW. Awesome stuff. Really really strong album. these guys are perilously close to kicking U2 out of the top heavy-rotation slot on my ipod.
Sweet stuff-particularly the tracks Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends.
If you have not yet joined the Church of Coldplay, highly recommended that you do so. Pretty sure one can maintain memberships in both. Each album has been better than the previous...
In other fun news we had our Ward's annual "Movie in the Park" night, last night. Our activity chairman runs a mobile party-planning/entertainment business, so once a year he sets up all his movie gear and snack stations in the Nephi park and treats the ward to a big screen movie experience. It was a blast--the whole ward came out with blankets and lawn chairs and watched National Treasure 2, and had nachos, popcorn, candy and soda while just kicking back and visiting with everyone. I have decided that small towns are awesome. Sure big cities have the theater, opera, 24 hour Chinese takeout/delivery and a huge section of town dedicated to drugs and hookers, but where else but a small town of 5000 people can an entire group commandeer a public park, with the cities blessing, to openly flout Hollywood copyright restrictions and put on a Dolby Digital show for the ward? SWEETNESS.
Agi and realized again what a cool place we've moved to--just sitting there in the cool dark of the evening chatting with our new neighbors, while all the neighborhood kids played together on the park equipment, and all the young men ran around shooting each other with marshmallow blowguns fashioned out of PVC pipe and duct tape. We met a new set of Catholic neighbors who came out to have fun as well (we are now no longer the newest family in the neighborhood) and we'll have fun with them talking about about becoming the fish out of water--they being the only Catholics in a sea of Mormons, and us just coming from a place where we were the only Mormons in a sea of Catholics, albeit non-practicing ones...).
Small-town life rules. Nights like last night make up for paying a little more at the grocery store or only having one Mexican restaurant to choose from instead of 10. We love it here.
On a related note--In the interest of ensuring we can stay in this awesome small town--I'd like to ask you all to kindly include us in your prayers and fast next month. I'm not one to typically ask for anything, but we could use the extra help and support your thoughts, prayers, and fasts could provide. I really need to find a job, and it is getting a little frustrating dealing with the non-success I've been finding in the past few weeks. I have come to realize I am likely not going to get anywhere on the "non-strength" of my own spiritual efforts, so please add your efforts to my own little weak ones. THANKS.
Sweet stuff-particularly the tracks Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends.
If you have not yet joined the Church of Coldplay, highly recommended that you do so. Pretty sure one can maintain memberships in both. Each album has been better than the previous...
In other fun news we had our Ward's annual "Movie in the Park" night, last night. Our activity chairman runs a mobile party-planning/entertainment business, so once a year he sets up all his movie gear and snack stations in the Nephi park and treats the ward to a big screen movie experience. It was a blast--the whole ward came out with blankets and lawn chairs and watched National Treasure 2, and had nachos, popcorn, candy and soda while just kicking back and visiting with everyone. I have decided that small towns are awesome. Sure big cities have the theater, opera, 24 hour Chinese takeout/delivery and a huge section of town dedicated to drugs and hookers, but where else but a small town of 5000 people can an entire group commandeer a public park, with the cities blessing, to openly flout Hollywood copyright restrictions and put on a Dolby Digital show for the ward? SWEETNESS.
Agi and realized again what a cool place we've moved to--just sitting there in the cool dark of the evening chatting with our new neighbors, while all the neighborhood kids played together on the park equipment, and all the young men ran around shooting each other with marshmallow blowguns fashioned out of PVC pipe and duct tape. We met a new set of Catholic neighbors who came out to have fun as well (we are now no longer the newest family in the neighborhood) and we'll have fun with them talking about about becoming the fish out of water--they being the only Catholics in a sea of Mormons, and us just coming from a place where we were the only Mormons in a sea of Catholics, albeit non-practicing ones...).
Small-town life rules. Nights like last night make up for paying a little more at the grocery store or only having one Mexican restaurant to choose from instead of 10. We love it here.
On a related note--In the interest of ensuring we can stay in this awesome small town--I'd like to ask you all to kindly include us in your prayers and fast next month. I'm not one to typically ask for anything, but we could use the extra help and support your thoughts, prayers, and fasts could provide. I really need to find a job, and it is getting a little frustrating dealing with the non-success I've been finding in the past few weeks. I have come to realize I am likely not going to get anywhere on the "non-strength" of my own spiritual efforts, so please add your efforts to my own little weak ones. THANKS.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
weight update...
Just a quickie note--finished my ten day fast last night (celebrated with a decidedly unhealthy grilled cheese sandwich) and the final tally was 235! I lost a solid net 17.5 pounds in 10 days, after regaining 3 pounds in water overnight. I kinda sorta min-broke the fast Tuesday at noon, when, in having a business lunch with an old colleague, ordered a salad w/shrimp on it. So that alone probably prevented me from dropping the additional 2 pounds.
BUT HEY! 17 pounds in ten days... Fruits and veggies until Sunday night, and then I'll do another 10 day fast. I have also started my local gym membership at Nephi's one fitness center (for a small town, its pretty nice) so I'll be hitting the treadmill and weights every day as well. Agi is now on Day four of her 7-day fast, and feeling pretty good.
I have a preliminary weigh-in & physical with the National Guard on July 2nd at Camp Williams, to keep that option open while I explore this COlorado possibility with the Target DIstribution Center in Pueblo. I should be wrapping up the next ten day fast about a week before that physical, so with the exercise as well I should be in pretty good shape for it. At least that is the plan.
Speaking of the COlorado job, I had a great second phone interview yesterday and should know more by next week. Heck of a commute, if that pans out, but the pay is NICE and I'd have the option of having a three-day work week. If it doesn't pan out, I feel pretty good about going back to the Guard, freshening up my skills there, learning a new language, and going full-time. Decisions, decisions...
BUT HEY! 17 pounds in ten days... Fruits and veggies until Sunday night, and then I'll do another 10 day fast. I have also started my local gym membership at Nephi's one fitness center (for a small town, its pretty nice) so I'll be hitting the treadmill and weights every day as well. Agi is now on Day four of her 7-day fast, and feeling pretty good.
I have a preliminary weigh-in & physical with the National Guard on July 2nd at Camp Williams, to keep that option open while I explore this COlorado possibility with the Target DIstribution Center in Pueblo. I should be wrapping up the next ten day fast about a week before that physical, so with the exercise as well I should be in pretty good shape for it. At least that is the plan.
Speaking of the COlorado job, I had a great second phone interview yesterday and should know more by next week. Heck of a commute, if that pans out, but the pay is NICE and I'd have the option of having a three-day work week. If it doesn't pan out, I feel pretty good about going back to the Guard, freshening up my skills there, learning a new language, and going full-time. Decisions, decisions...
Saturday, June 7, 2008
musings on weight loss...
Update time...
As the title states, this will be a short entry on the my recent thoughts of weight loss. As everyone who knows me knows, ever since leaving the Utah National Guard and parking myself for good portions of the day behind a desk in 2003, I've ballooned up like crazy. Basically from 200 pounds to 250. Yecch. Now that I am home and contemplating the future (including a very possible return to the guard full-time), I am looking at ways to quickly and efficiently drop some poundage.
We live next to the Nephi City cemetery, which has 1.5 miles of wide, shaded, walking space, so a round trip from my house, through the cemetery and back, runs just over 3 miles. It makes for a nice brisk walk, and I am getting up to the point where I'll actually jog it. For now though, its a nice 45 minute power walk. Still found it to be too slow in helping me drop weight, so I am adding to it with the following:
I've read up a bit on the concept of 'fasting' for better health (spiritual, mental, and right now most importantly--for me--physical) and was intrigued. There is a plethora of info out there supporting the idea that extended fasting (I am not talking the traditional two meal, 24 hour fast that we typically do each month via our church responsibilities) is actually the best thing we can regularly do for our bodies. Basically by giving the entire digestive system a chance to rest and recover from the loads of processed crap we put into it, we emerge refreshed, invigorated, and sporting a sharp mental clarity/acuity that has been lacking.
There are 3-day, 7-day, 10-day, and even 40-day fast period "guides" that are readily available online. I read through them all and decided to really give the ten day fast a whirl.
I started Sunday night, following family dinner at the Cranes. To put it bluntly, for the last 132 hours I have subsisted on a daily diet of lemonade (made of purified water, freshly squeezed lemons, a few tablespoons of pure maple syrup, and a pinch of red cayenne pepper) and a nightly cup of herbal tea. Nothing more. No solid foods whatsoever.
Spartan, it is. I'm getting roughly 800-1000 calories a day, essentially from the maple syrup content of the lemonade, so it isn't like I have completely starved my body into some health danger.
Here's the kicker--after 5.5 complete days of these (halfway through my designated fast period) I feel FREAKING AWESOME. Seriously. Energetic yet calm, incredibly peaceful (no small feat considering the stress in my life recently) and flat out GOOD.
The hardest day was 2-3. That was the point where my body tried to kill me--saying HOLY CRAP PUT SOME FOOD IN MY BELLY! I've gone 24+ hours before with no food, so the end of day two was really the point where I'd hit my natural limit. I pushed through it though, and by mid-day 3, hunger was completely gone. I mean completely. Don't get me wrong, the SMELL of food drives me crazy, but not from hunger. I honestly feel like a have a comfortably full stomach. I read that extended fasts really trend to sharpen your senses as the body purges off all of its built in toxins. I'm not going to speak to the whole "toxin" idea, but I can say that my sense of smell is supercharged. SO the smell of food is particularly intense and inviting, but doesn't induce hunger per se.
At this point I feel like I could take this thing indefinitely. Obviously I am going to hold it to the 10 day period I mapped out, and on days 11,12,13 gradually reintroduce food back into my system, starting with chicken broth and soft fruit, and then building back into a regular diet by the end of day three (post-fast). Its a great chance to press the restart button on my
entire system, and to 'restart' by eating healthily afterward. Fresh fruit and veggies, lean cuts of meat, no junk food, soda, etc...
Now for the kicker--like I said, I am halfway through the 10 day fast--(meaning I'll stop this next Wednesday night (June 11th), and be back to a somewhat normal eating schedule by Sunday the 15th) and I have dropped --in 5 days-- 16 pounds. From 252 to 236. Agi is freaking out. She is claiming there is no way this can be healthy--that much loss in so short a time (frankly it is accelerating now). All I can say is that I feel GREAT. I am still working out in the yard, going for the occasional walk, and playing basketball with the kids. And all I am putting into my body is 8-10 glasses of maple-syrup infused lemon water, additional glasses of water, and a nightly 8 oz. herbal tea.
I have tons of energy. No headaches, no other aches, no weird or out of the ordinary body issues, nothing. And a real serene (I cringe at saying it--but 'zen-like') outlook right now. In a nutshell I feel fine. No, more than fine. Great. Outstanding. I even had a previously scheduled mini-physical checkup for a health insurance policy on day three of my fast, and I came through with flying colors--totally normal heart rate, blood pressure, etc...
So. I'll throw another entry on Wednesday after I finish with the final tallies of my ten-day fast. I had hoped to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. NOW it is looking like I could easily lose 20+. In ten days. Yowza!
As the title states, this will be a short entry on the my recent thoughts of weight loss. As everyone who knows me knows, ever since leaving the Utah National Guard and parking myself for good portions of the day behind a desk in 2003, I've ballooned up like crazy. Basically from 200 pounds to 250. Yecch. Now that I am home and contemplating the future (including a very possible return to the guard full-time), I am looking at ways to quickly and efficiently drop some poundage.
We live next to the Nephi City cemetery, which has 1.5 miles of wide, shaded, walking space, so a round trip from my house, through the cemetery and back, runs just over 3 miles. It makes for a nice brisk walk, and I am getting up to the point where I'll actually jog it. For now though, its a nice 45 minute power walk. Still found it to be too slow in helping me drop weight, so I am adding to it with the following:
I've read up a bit on the concept of 'fasting' for better health (spiritual, mental, and right now most importantly--for me--physical) and was intrigued. There is a plethora of info out there supporting the idea that extended fasting (I am not talking the traditional two meal, 24 hour fast that we typically do each month via our church responsibilities) is actually the best thing we can regularly do for our bodies. Basically by giving the entire digestive system a chance to rest and recover from the loads of processed crap we put into it, we emerge refreshed, invigorated, and sporting a sharp mental clarity/acuity that has been lacking.
There are 3-day, 7-day, 10-day, and even 40-day fast period "guides" that are readily available online. I read through them all and decided to really give the ten day fast a whirl.
I started Sunday night, following family dinner at the Cranes. To put it bluntly, for the last 132 hours I have subsisted on a daily diet of lemonade (made of purified water, freshly squeezed lemons, a few tablespoons of pure maple syrup, and a pinch of red cayenne pepper) and a nightly cup of herbal tea. Nothing more. No solid foods whatsoever.
Spartan, it is. I'm getting roughly 800-1000 calories a day, essentially from the maple syrup content of the lemonade, so it isn't like I have completely starved my body into some health danger.
Here's the kicker--after 5.5 complete days of these (halfway through my designated fast period) I feel FREAKING AWESOME. Seriously. Energetic yet calm, incredibly peaceful (no small feat considering the stress in my life recently) and flat out GOOD.
The hardest day was 2-3. That was the point where my body tried to kill me--saying HOLY CRAP PUT SOME FOOD IN MY BELLY! I've gone 24+ hours before with no food, so the end of day two was really the point where I'd hit my natural limit. I pushed through it though, and by mid-day 3, hunger was completely gone. I mean completely. Don't get me wrong, the SMELL of food drives me crazy, but not from hunger. I honestly feel like a have a comfortably full stomach. I read that extended fasts really trend to sharpen your senses as the body purges off all of its built in toxins. I'm not going to speak to the whole "toxin" idea, but I can say that my sense of smell is supercharged. SO the smell of food is particularly intense and inviting, but doesn't induce hunger per se.
At this point I feel like I could take this thing indefinitely. Obviously I am going to hold it to the 10 day period I mapped out, and on days 11,12,13 gradually reintroduce food back into my system, starting with chicken broth and soft fruit, and then building back into a regular diet by the end of day three (post-fast). Its a great chance to press the restart button on my
entire system, and to 'restart' by eating healthily afterward. Fresh fruit and veggies, lean cuts of meat, no junk food, soda, etc...
Now for the kicker--like I said, I am halfway through the 10 day fast--(meaning I'll stop this next Wednesday night (June 11th), and be back to a somewhat normal eating schedule by Sunday the 15th) and I have dropped --in 5 days-- 16 pounds. From 252 to 236. Agi is freaking out. She is claiming there is no way this can be healthy--that much loss in so short a time (frankly it is accelerating now). All I can say is that I feel GREAT. I am still working out in the yard, going for the occasional walk, and playing basketball with the kids. And all I am putting into my body is 8-10 glasses of maple-syrup infused lemon water, additional glasses of water, and a nightly 8 oz. herbal tea.
I have tons of energy. No headaches, no other aches, no weird or out of the ordinary body issues, nothing. And a real serene (I cringe at saying it--but 'zen-like') outlook right now. In a nutshell I feel fine. No, more than fine. Great. Outstanding. I even had a previously scheduled mini-physical checkup for a health insurance policy on day three of my fast, and I came through with flying colors--totally normal heart rate, blood pressure, etc...
So. I'll throw another entry on Wednesday after I finish with the final tallies of my ten-day fast. I had hoped to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. NOW it is looking like I could easily lose 20+. In ten days. Yowza!
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