mr. blackandwhite

In contempt of Jimmy Page

Hey what's up everybody! It's Friday. Yay. I don't really have anything big to post about but I'm trying to keep the site updated more often now so here's a few miscellaneous tidbits..

I have not mentioned this but over the last few weeks I have been working to drop some weight. I noticed that I had been steadily gaining weight, a pound here, a pound there.. no big deal, right? Then the next thing I know, I've put on 15 pounds! Ack! Not acceptable (note: I have somewhat of a personal weight obsession). So when Patriots training camp was getting started I decided to use the Patriots' preparation for the regular season as a kind of motivator to get myself in shape along with the team. I dubbed it The Training Camp Challenge and my goal was to lose as much as I could before the first regular season game, which is this weekend.

I lost approximately 6 pounds, which, honestly, is kind of disappointing, as I was hoping to do better, but my Wife pointed out that that is a pound a week, which really is not that bad.. So even though I'm not happy with where I am, I feel like I did ok.

I'm going to continue my challenge into the regular season. My new goal: 8 wins, 8 pounds. I want to drop a minimum of 8 pounds by the time the Pats get to 8 wins. I'm hoping The Pats make me work for it and go 8-0.

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I recently found several old friends from college and high school that I have not heard from in many years on Facebook and MySpace. That is pretty cool. I was pretty tight with some of these folks back in the day but when school ended we just kind of fell out of touch. That's how it goes.

When I first signed up on Facebook / MySpace, I was kinda lost. I really had no idea how it worked or what the whole point of either site was but I have to say, it has been a great way to find people. I am psyched to have re-connected with some old friends.

I was thinking of adding this wacky site to my Facebook and MySpace pages so my friends could read it, but I'm still kinda paranoid about the whole 'someone from work accidentally stumbling across my blawg' thing.. So I don't know. I'm thinking about it.. Any thoughts?

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Last night during garage band rehearsal we were horsing around on some song and I was informed by one of the band members that I was 'in contempt of Jimmy Page'. Genius. I found this comment to be hilarious and being the wise-ass that I am, immediately launched into a really bad and poorly played Led Zep medley (sans Stairway, of course).

I may have to try and wedge some Clutch into our repertoire because I've been listening to 'Walking In the Great Shining Path of Monster Trucks' like, non f-ing stop. I can't stop myself.

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At this point I have nothing else to add. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

It feels like a Wednesday but it's really Friday. Awesome.

Hey what's up homies? Check it out it's my first post of 2008. Set your expectations for this post as you see fit. For me, that would be low.

Yesterday I woke up and the temperature outside was zero point zero, Bluto Blutarsky's grade average. This type of weather can best be described by the following quote: 'It's a crappy cold that defines no fun'. Thank you Turtle.

Hmmmm, what else... I am really impressed by the folks that are going to try to post something on their site every day of the year this year. I will not be one of those people, but I am glad that I will get to read their posts on a daily basis. It will give me stuff to read on my lunch break. Speaking of which, today I had a PB&J.; I would rate today's PB&J; as 'ok'. It was not the best I have ever had. I have done better. Maybe next time I should try making a BB PB&J;. Next..

I have been walking on the treadmill every day so far this week. I am also doing sit-ups and push-ups as well as torso twists. I was watching the Miss Hooters 2007 contest over New Years (while my Wife was in another room) and according to one of the hotties in the contest, all you need to do to tone your abs is to do torso twists. Who knew? So I am doing them.

It sucks waking up early to exercise, but I was reading an article in Men's Health while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office a few months ago and the article said that the first place a woman looks when they see a guy is at their chest and their stomach, so when my Wife looks at me this summer, I want her to see washer-board abs glistening in the sun and if waking up early to get on a treadmill is the price I have to pay, so be it. I will pay that price.

And finally (mercifully?) ..

The Patriots were 16-0 during this past regular season and I am still having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the sheer awesomeness of that accomplishment. However, without downplaying how truly awesome going 16-0 during the regular season is, I am more concerned with the post-season and the, hopefully, Three Games to Glory that lie ahead for The Pats. More on that later..

GO PATS

TGIF.

Hey what's up everybody? TGIF. Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I haven't been feeling the whole bloggg thing and to be honest there's not that much to write about around here these days anyway.

Last weekend I put up the Christmas lights on my house. It was around 45 degrees outside last Sunday so I got them up while it was warm. I'm patting myself on the back for that move because it's supposed to be no higher than 30 this weekend. Freezing my ass off on a ladder putting up Christmas lights makes me feel Grinchy.. so I'm glad that job is out of the way.

Speaking of the weather, it is officially too cold for me to want to go outside to exercise. I try to walk every day on my lunch break but when I see the temperature outside is in the 30s or lower, call me crazy but I just don't feel all that motivated to go outside. The place where I work has a small gym and I guess it's time to start heading to the gym instead of outside. Time to pump some iron and get huge. Yeah, that's it. I am fully ready to make the commitment to rock hard abs, washer board style, glistening in the sun. Or something.

I'm looking forward to The Pats / Ravens game this week but I am glad this is the last night game for a while. It sucks dragging my ass out of bed for work after I'm up past midnight for these Patriots games. The Baltimore game should be interesting. We had some good and bad news with the team this past week. The bad news was that we lost Rosie Colvin to IR, but the good news is we are getting Mr. Offense, Defense and Special Teams Troy Brown back.

Colvin is going to be missed. Even though he does tend to whif on tackles at times, Colvin has been a huge factor in harassing the opposition's QBs all year. That is going to be tough to replace. The Pats are going to have to adjust their defense to deal with Colvin's loss. Yes, the Pats linebackers have the skill to be able to move the pieces around, A.D. could take Colvin's role as the edge rusher, but moving A.D. causes another gap somewhere else. The good news is that if there is any coach in the league that can compensate for these changes in the defensive scheme, it's Bill Belichick.

Although it's tough to lose Rosie, I have to say the Patriots have been lucky with a certain thing that starts with an 'i' and ends with a 'y' and has a 'jur' in the middle. I don't want to say it and induce some kind of jinx, but I think you know what I'm talking about...

GO PATS

March Fatness Update...

Ok it's time for March Fatness! It's my once a month update on my perpetual attempt to lose weight. Yes, I realize nobody probably cares about this stuff, but... here it is anyway.

Goal: 155
Current: High 160's.

Eating-wise, I'd grade my last month a 'D'. I fully sucked when it came to my eating the last month. Lots of big meals, lots of late night chips and pretzels, and I've gotten into a bit of a bad habit where I've been drinking during the week. Not only is alcohol fattening, but, weeknight drinking just not a good habit to be getting into. It's not like I'm getting loaded or drinking every night, and when I do have a drink it's usually only one beer or a glass of whiskey and ice, but still, I don't want to have that turn into a 'regular' thing, if you get my meaning... so that is going to have to be curtailed. And I really need to buckle down on the eating, because that is the whole key for me. As long as I eat right, I lose weight without having to get all extreme about it because I am generally very good about exercising.

Exercise-wise, I'd give myself a 'C-'. I did not really do a lot of exercising this month and that is the big reason why my weight has gone up and not down. I came down with a medical condition last month that made me have to stop working out for several weeks, so the exercise was pretty much non-existant the past month. I am better now, so it's time to get back at that starting tomorrow. I am feeling ambitious and may even attempt to run, but we'll see how that goes, since I can't stand running, especially knowing I will get the same calorie burn from walking... but, we will see... It is springtime in a few days and the spring weather makes me nostalgic about when I used to run to get in shape for track and rugby. The wet roads, mud and dirt up the back of my legs and my back, leftover snow still on the ground and cold air in my lungs carrying the scent of spring. Makes me feel like running.

I expect the desire to run will last about 10 minutes.

Alright! That's this month's fatty mcfat-fat update. Hopefully I'll have some good progress to report next month!

Weight loss update...

We are officially in the Dead Zone of sports which, for the most part, leaves me very little to talk about. The Pats are beginning their off-season preparation to make another run at The Superbowl, The Daytona 500 is not for... actually when is the Daytona 500? Is it this weekend? I don't even know, so there you go with that... shows you how much I am paying attention to NASCAR these days... The Red Sox have not started yet and the Bruins and Celtics are both about as bad as I can ever remember them being in my lifetime. So, without further adieu, a weight loss update on my never ending battle with fat. Try to contain your excitement.

As a reminder, the goal is 155 (or less). Currently, I'm around 165. I've been doing so-so with the exercise. I have been lifting and walking consistently, five days a week during my lunch breaks, but I have hardly gotten up at all to walk in the mornings before work. The main reason / excuse for that is that I am woken up almost every night by somebody, (last night I was woken up at 2:30 AM because someone needed some chap-stick, don't ask why because I don't know,) so when 5:30 AM rolls around, I just can't seem to drag myself up out of bed. I'm going to keep at it though and try and get into that groove. If I can just get a few nights of decent sleep it might happen. I am also sure that once the weather turns more hospitable, I.E. not 10 degrees and near-total darkness, it will be easier for me to get up, as I will then be able to start going outside for my walks again. I hate using the treadmill. Very, very boring, though I do get to watch NESN SportsDesk...

Eating wise, I have also been so-so. Portion control has been pretty decent, but I have been eating a lot more junk than I should, mainly on weekends, when I have beer and pretzels or chips and salsa and stuff like that at night while we watch a movie or something. That is an area that can also use some improvement.

Basically I am maintaining where I'm at. The weight is not really going up or down. I'm just stuck. I grade my first month's effort at a C+ and I'll try to make some headway in February...

I'll probably do one of these exciting updates a month. I know this is probably not the most scintillating reading but it can't be all fireworks and bad language around here all the time...

Computer woes...

Remember yesterday I said it should be easier for me to wake up early this morning? I was wrong. It was just as hard getting out of bed this morning as it was yesterday...

Last night the hinge on one side of my laptop's screen broke. Thankfully the display is still working but now I have to figure out how to fix the hinge. At first glance, it does not look like something that can be fixed without getting a whole new display, since the 'frame' that the screen lives in has literally broken right off of the hinge. I don't know if that can be repaired but I'll have to try and fix it as best I can... Yay.

Well holy crap did that ever suck...

My alarm went off at 5:30AM. I promptly turned it off. My backup alarm went off at 5:40AM. I ignored it. I then lay in bed telling my body to get up and get walking on the treadmill. My body was hearing none of it. It was telling me that it was way too warm and comfortable and it wanted to stay in bed. Why not just rest? Start walking tomorrow. What's one more day?

Around 6AM my body finally caved in to my brain's incessant prodding to get up and get going. I went downstairs and walked on the treadmill for about 1/2 and hour and watched NESN SportsDesk.

That sucked getting up but the first day out is the hardest. I hope tomorrow it will be a little easier to drag my ass out of bed and I can start to get a routine going... (Any encouragement / berating in the comments is appreciated by the way. Strange as it may seem, it actually does help.)

Now that I've gained the obligatory 10 pounds in holiday weight...

Time for the yearly 10 pound addition of holiday food related fat to get removed from my body. What goes on in a few weeks can take months to come off, thanks to my wonderful maple tree-like metabolism, but in any case, come off it will.

This morning, like a gahillion other people I'm sure, I had aspirations of getting up early and exercising. And like most of those people, when the alarm went off, I stayed in bed.

Fucking lazy ass.

Actually, in defense of myself to myself, it's not easy to get up at 5:30 if you go to bed around midnight and then are woken up twice in between by people announcing they are going pee or coming in to let you know about their dreams. My children like to do that stuff. We can expect an announcement of a successful trip to the bathroom, or a nightmare on an almost nightly basis.

Well, as part of my revised resolutions for 2007, I will be trying to get to bed, head on pillow, attempting to be asleep, by 10 PM, 10:30 at the latest, so that I can wake up early and exercise.

Ok, since I brought up those damn resolutions, I may as well go through the damn things. They will be quick because they hardly ever change. Lets recap 2006's resolutions:

- Be a good husband and father: Ok, you know what, this should not be a resolution. This is something that should just be. Off the list.

- Be a good employee and try to rise above my current position: What was I thinking when I wrote these? See above. Off the list.

- Get down to my wedding weight of 155: I am almost embarrassed to say that I have been saying that every year for like 4 years now. That is pathetic. The closest I've come is 159. Right now I'm in the high 160's just like when I wrote the same resolution last year. Maybe this will be the year... next...

- Keep up with guitar practice: I think I have finally found a time when I can practice at least once a week. Saturday morning when the kids are watching cartoons and the baby is asleep, I should have at least a good hour a week to play. Ha! I used to play an hour a day, minimum. Yeah well those days are gone. Take what you can get. Next...

- Find a line of work that I enjoy: Phht. Yeah right. Right now I am just happy to be able to collect a paycheck. I enjoy being able to pay the bills. Off the list.

- Write a novel: When, exactly, am I supposed to do this? Off the list. Besides I lost all interest in that.

- Finish basement: HA! I actually wrote in January 2006 that I'd like it to be finished in March. Here it is January two thousand fucking seven and I'm saying the same fucking thing! Actually, that makes me want to choke myself but hey what can you do. Since it is now 95% complete, I can confidently say that the basement will be finished by March of 2007 dammit.

- Build last stone wall in the yard and fix grass bare spots: I'm pretty sure I can do that wall this year now that the basement should be done by spring. And I have to say, I did a kickass job last year with the lawn. The grass looked great all summer (and it still looks good in January ha! No snow on it!)

- Get to work between 8 and 8:30: How about 8:30 and 9:00. Yeah. Now we're talking!

So that makes this years 2007 resolutions:
Go to bed early
Lose weight
Play guitar more regularly
Finish basement
Build final stone wall
Get to work between 8:30 and 9 AM

When Carbs Attack...

I've been doing pretty good with my workout and eating regiment. I've been working out almost every day, some days twice a day, walking in the morning and lifting weights in the gym at work during lunch. Of course, the needle on the scale has not budged off of the 160 line, but it feels good to know that I am at least doing something about it.

Yesterday after the gym I ate lunch but I was still pretty hungry afterward. I was craving some kind of chips or candy or something. I thought about heading to Dunks for a coffee as that usually helps curve my cravings, but I did not. I was pretty busy at work and taking off to grab a coffee would not have been a good idea.

I should have just had some of the office coffee which is not that bad, but instead I caved in and had a soda and some pretzels. Lots of sugar, lots of carbs. Then to top that off, my Wife wanted spaghetti for dinner, so stack some spaghetti and a piece of bread on there too, cuz you've got to do something to sop up the tomato sauce. I did have a salad with dinner so it was not a complete disaster.

I guess it could have been worse. I could have had a beer too, ha.

Before I got married, I used to have a chew after working out to help cut down on the hunger, but I quit that stuff the day I got engaged over 12 years ago and I'm not going back to doing that again, even though every now and then I still do get the craving for a good chaw...

Overall I've been doing good with the regiment. It was a minor setback yesterday but not killer. I'm sure my friend the scale will remain stuck at 160 either way.

Confession time...

Confession:
I ate a bowl of mint ice-cream last night... for dinner.

Rationalization:
- I had a bad day at work and needed something to cheer me up

- I had an upset stomach and mint helps fix stomach-aches.

- Mint ice-cream is not as fattening as say, chocolate ice-cream*, so it's not as bad to eat.

* I totally made that fact up to help myself feel better about eating ice-cream for dinner

Ok, so I ate ice-cream for dinner, but other than that minor transgression, I have been doing pretty good with the eating and exercise and what-not, so the diet damage from the ice-cream is minimal I think... Roll on.

Starting to Feel the Chill of an Early Fall

Last night after work we had dinner in the back yard. It was really nice outside, but a bit cool, which took me by surprise. My daughter actually put on a sweatshirt because she was a little cold. It felt more like mid September, not early August. I'm not ready for Summer to end yet. The weather needs to stay hot for a few more weeks please.

I finally managed to drag my ass out of bed this morning and get out for some exercise. It was cold out! I was wearing just shorts and a light jacket and I was kind of chilly. Damn.

I warmed up once I started walking.

Something about August always makes me feel somewhat melancholy. It's like once August hits, I can feel the Summer slipping away and Winter looming ahead. I try not to think about it, but I can sense the cold and dark weather coming. It's like you can feel it in the air.

In the meantime, we just gotta enjoy this summertime weather while it lasts!

I was very sleepy again this morning. My baby daughter slept better last night, but she still woke up a few times because her teeth were bothering her. When the alarm went off I have to admit I got back into bed, but then my daughter started crying a little so I got up to help her. After she was settled I figured I was up so I may as well get my ass in gear.

My not being able to wake up in the mornings is more my own fault for not going to bed early enough than my daughter's for waking me up. I've gotten into a bad habit of staying up way too late, sometimes past 11 PM the last few nights. I need to get back to getting to sleep earlier so that I don't have such a hard time waking up.

I know if I can get into a routine, I'll be all set. It's overcoming that initial inertia and starting the routine that is the hard part. Well, I got it done today.

Try and keep it going again tomorrow.

Try, try again...

For the past two days I've set my alarm with every intention of waking up and exercising before work. Unfortunately however, my baby daughter has been having a terrible time sleeping the last few days, which means that I have had a terrible time sleeping as well.

My daughter has a tooth coming in and it is really bothering her, so when she wakes up at night, my Wife and I take turns getting up to try and help her feel better.

So this morning, when my iPod, which also doubles as my alarm clock, started playing Turbonegro's 'Remain Untamed' at 5:30 AM, the only thing that remained was my ass in bed.

I'll just have to try again tomorrow.

I suck at losing weight

Way back in March I broke through the 160 pound barrier and finally made it into the 150's. Since that time, I have made virtually no progress on my weight loss.

March to August. That's five months. A person should be able to lose a couple pounds in 5 months, but here I am 5 months later, and I'm still in the high 150's to 160 pound range.

In case you don't know, I am fixated on the number 155. That is what the scale told me I weighed on my wedding day, 11 years ago, and that is my weight loss goal.

My Wife tells me I look fine, so what's the difference between 160 and 155? But it makes a difference to me, even if it makes no sense.

In July I made a concerted effort to dig down and try and get to 155 pounds. I exercised every day and skipped dinner almost every night for a month. I only at dinners on the weekend and during the week I ate no dinner, or if I did have something for dinner, it was a very small portion. I lost 3 pounds. 3 fucking pounds. 157 was the lowest I got.

It was very frustrating, so after my wedding anniversary in July, I decided to take a break from the regimen. After a month of being super-strict, food-wise, I stopped worrying about food and exercise for a few weeks. Now it is time to get back in the saddle and keep at it.

They just recently made a small gym out of one of the conference rooms at work, so I am going to try and get in there 3 days a week and do a little weight lifting. I hope that, plus the daily walk and of course, various starvation techniques, will make a difference.

Yah. I'm going to try and achieve maximum pumpitude. Hear me now and believe me later, I'm going to get down to 155 if it kills me.

It's 5 pounds for crissakes. Why is this so damn hard? Maybe I'll just go on an all gin diet. Yeah thats it. Gin during the week and beer on the weekends. Ok. Maybe not. Stupid body. I suck at losing weight.

Starting over...

I've done a pretty poor job of getting back on track with my daily exercise routine. I've managed to get up and get outside only one day each week since I started again, but I just kept telling myself to keep trying and to start over the next day.

Well this week I've actually managed to get my tired self out of bed to go outside and exercise for two days in a row! Woo! I'm on a roll now. This morning I even ran instead of walking! Well, I jogged. Whatever. It was faster than walking.

I'd rather just walk, because I hate running, but I need to kick things into a higher gear with this whole losing weight thing.

I'm also back on the 'looking for people to jam with' list. This is a subject that I have found difficult to get my thoughts together on. I've actually tried to write a post about this several times but my thoughts surrounding the whole series of events are kind of mixed up and jumbled.

It turns out my latest stint playing with the band I was briefly in just did not work out. I thought that things were going well but I missed a practice one week so that I could install the floor in my basement and the band leader got all pissed off about it, to the point where he could not even respond to e-mails for over a week. I thought that his reaction was a bit over the top and ridiculous, and it really annoyed me that he was so angry about my not being able to make practice that one week.

Practices were on Sunday afternoons and I had told them right from the start that there would be times when I would not be able to come if there was something going on with my family or work that needed to be done at home. Everyone in the band seemed cool with that, until it actually happened, that is.

I was going to try and just blow the whole thing off but the issue with my missing practice did not go away and I decided that it was not in the best interest of either myself of the band to continue with them. I realized that I was not going to be able to give them the kind of commitment that they were going to need to accomplish their goals and from an irrational, emotional standpoint, the fact that the band leader was so pissed off at me made me even more pissed off at him and the whole situation. I thought it was asinine and it got to the point where I just did not want to deal with it. I was in this for fun, not a hassle.

I thought about trying to keep going with the band and see if things would work out, but my gut was telling me that it was not going to happen. I was at the point where I had become so annoyed with the whole situation that I would not have been able to let it go myself, so I told them thanks, it was fun and wished them luck. I realize I was probably being a little bit irrational about the whole thing, but sometimes you just have to listen to your gut. Most of the time, your gut is right and your head is wrong.

So now I'm back hoping to someday find some people I can just jam with and not have to worry about learning songs that I don't really like as fast as I can. I'll probably put another post up on Craigslist after my basement is finished and I have a cool place of my own to do some jamming.

Every time I do this whole band thing I learn a little more. I've been playing my guitar for a while now but I have not been in a lot of bands. I'm basically a newbie at this whole thing. I did not think it would be so hard to find people in common to just hang out and jam with. I'm sure my time constraints and grown-up responsibilities do not help the process. I'll just keep at it. Next time I will be a little more strict too, NO Beatles tunes.

Bitchy body...

5:30 AM:

Body: Oh my god. DUDE. What the fuck?? What fucking time is it?

Brain: Time to wake up fatty.

Body: Oh for cryin' out loud... The sun's not even up yet!

Brain: Technically it is.

Body: Grumble... now what the devil? What are you doing now you effin tool?

Brain: Stretching.

Body: Why? We never stretch when we walk.

Brain: We're done with the walkin' vag-boy. We are running now.

Body: WHAT??

Brain: Just shut up will ya? Jeez you're a pain in the ass.

Running:
Body: Oh my god dude, you suck!

Brain: You are flabby, you are weak. I am sick of what I see in the mirror. Deal.

Body: What do you care? You're married, you've got 2 kids and another one on the way. Dude, you are done impressing chicks so flab-out. Who cares??

Brain: Me

Body: Well for chris-sakes, can we at least get some tunes for this torture?

Brain: iPod's still in the shop. Believe me, I'd love to drown you out with some Maiden right now. Just pick em up and put em down Pizzaria Uno boy.

I want a perfect body, and a matching soul...

'This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the dark side of the force food'

Between Halloween and my vacation to St. Thomas, I had packed on a few pounds, but I managed to get it back off before Thanksgiving.

The day before Thanksgiving I was back down to my summertime weight. Now, in the short span since Thanksgiving, I've managed to gain all that weight back. I am a fat fuck and now it all needs to come off before Christmas.

This time of year is always tough on the old diet-plan. There's too many goodies around and too many excuses to eat them. Its kind of frustrating how easily I can put the weight on but how difficult it is for me to get it back off, but that's just me. I've got the metabolism of a maple tree. Thanks God.

I've had a very hard time getting my lazy bonez out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM to go out and walk 2 miles in the oh-so-inviting darkness. (Of course, going to bed before 10:30 at night would probably help...) I need to get back on the program and stop with the goodies at night.