06.19.08

Hello again, hello…

Who doesn’t like Neil Diamond? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

So here I am keeping up with my pledged monthly update. HA! I tricked you there didn’t I? It’s not supposed to be a monthly update at all! Anyway, as luck would have it, June has turned out to be an incredibly busy month which is a good thing. MK and I haven’t had a free weekend since early May and we won’t have another one until late July. I would say that is awesome but my home owner’s association probably wishes I would mow my grass more often – so it’s only kind of awesome.

We’ve been meeting and shooting some really cool couples lately – you should be seeing them here over the next few days. We’ve also got some big news for the business that we’re not quite ready to announce yet so stay tuned for that. I am sure you’re also dying to know how softball is working out this summer. Well, I missed the first two games of the season. The first game, which the team won, I was still resting the injury. The second game, a loss, I had a portrait session. This week’s game, my first game back since rehab (the injury – not Betty Ford) was this week and we lost 7-9. I am happy to say though that the injury is 100% healed and it felt really good to be out there. Unless you count the losing part (which that Parks and Recreation Dept. does) that part didn’t feel so great.

I am also not so proud to report that I took a solid 3 weeks off the Wii Fit. I did get back on today though and it was nice of the Wii Fit to not only chastise me for taking so much time off but also to make fun of me for letting my balance slip a little. Gotta love technology. Anyway, for those keeping score at home, even without the intense training of the Wii Fit, I somehow managed to knock seven pounds off the ole frame which brings me to a not quite sveldt 226. Still a few cheeseburgers away from my sub-200 goal but better than where I was a couple of weeks ago.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen – a Cliff’s Notes version of where we’ve been for the past three weeks. While we’re here, I would love to get some recommendations for new polls I can put here on the blog. Maybe we can mix in a prize for any poll suggestions we actually use…

Brian

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05.21.08

Wii Fit…

I am having a Wii fit this evening. So unless you live in a cave, you’ve probably heard of Nintendo’s new Wii game, Wii Fit. It’s basically Nintendo’s valiant effort to get hardcore gamers like myself to be a little more active and a lot less fat. So like all really cool video game stuff, of course there are lines of people waiting to buy the latest and greatest the day it comes out and today was no different for Wii Fit.

So I took a little break from work this morning and ran over to Best Buy when it opened only to find a pretty good size line of people waiting to bogart all the Wii Fits. I got in said line and waited my turn only to come up second in line when they ran out. That was below average. Not one to be deterred in my mission to get skinny, I went to my secret weapon and I was able to score one of those little holy grails.

So there I was, staring at the Wii Fit all day waiting for MK to get home so we could set it up. When she finally did get home we went through the whole setup process. One funny thing, for those of you that own Wii’s and have created your own Mii, when you enter your height information and weighing yourself, in spite of your efforts to control your own physical appearance, Wii will modify your Mii’s appearance to match your actual height and weight. What was NOT so funny is apparently, according to the Fitness Gestapo at Nintendo, I am obese. Needless to say, instead of having a sveldt, studly looking Mii I now have a pudgy little Mii.

If I could return this game I might. Heh, just joking… probably… So far, Fit is pretty fun. Because I love and trust both people that read this blog, I am going to report my weight in what I intend to be weekly Wii Fit updates so you can follow my success and failures.

Week One – 232.

Here are some pictures of our first night futility for your viewing pleasure…

Brian

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Kate - Hi,

You might remember me…I’m the flute player from the two weddings on Friday and Saturday :] I’m also a photographer [although not nearly as established] and so I looked up your website. You take amazing pictures…I had so much fun looking through all of them!

-Kate

joe - ha! you and i are a lot alike.. both photogs… both got pudgy Miis… i just got my Wii Fit the other day for the woman and i to play with.

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05.16.08

Dear lady in the Chik-Fil-A drive thru…

I don’t do this very often BUT, I’ve got to release a little steam this morning… So it’s no secret that people in drive thrus (bank, fast food place, dry cleaners – whatever) REALLY annoy me when they don’t have a clue what they’re doing BEFORE they get in line!

So this morning I decided a nice Chik-Fil-A biscuit would be a delightful way to start the day. So I drive to my friendly neighborhood C-F-A and assume my position in the drive thru line. I am only moderately paying attention because I am lamenting the fact (basically I am sitting there daydreaming) that because of the Writer’s strike earlier this year, we got ‘short-seasoned’ on some of the best TV shows – The Office for example. So I am thinking about some of the hilarity that happened in last night’s season finale when I notice the lady in front of me is taking an inordinate amount of time to place her order. So as I start paying attention, I hear the person working the drive thru ask if she can help the lady in front of me who replies ‘still not ready yet…’

What the $&#*%  ???

I mean seriously! There are exactly TWO things you can order at C-F-A for breakfast. A breakfast biscuit or a box of mini breakfast biscuits. How the HECK do you NOT know what you want??? I mean heaven forbid this indecisive obstruction to progress actually get out of her car and walk in to place her oh so uncertain order.

some people…

Anyway, that is all I have for now. My chicken biscuit was awesome by the way… 🙂

have a great weekend!

Brian

Posted in Food,Personal,Philosophy,WTF?!?
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05.09.08

Paintball and other oddities…

From time to time I do the occasional thing that has no meaning and no real purpose. For the most part MK puts up with this kind of non-sense and allows me to have my fun. The current oddity is paintball. I don’t know why but I’ve just recently decided that I need to get active in paintball. So I did all my research, hung out at the local paintball mart asking questions and I’ve scoured the internet for opinions and reviews on equipment. I made my selections and I’ve purchased enough paintball gear for myself and two other people to play. I’ve been trying to get my friends to make more modest investements so that we can get a friendly little game going but so far I’ve had no luck.

I am seriously at the point now where I might just hang out in front of a few of their homes for a while and wait till they are leaving for work and just light them up with a few hundred rounds of neon paint. That would have to make them seriously consider an investment in equipment if for no other reason than payback!

It hasn’t come to that point yet but for the two or threee friends I have that can actually read AND have interenet access – you’ve been warned…

Other oddities of interest… let’s just say that our softball team had a less than stellar season. After getting bumped up to a more competitive league at the end of last year, we decided to head back down to the lower league and sandbag some more until they forced us back up. Winning with the lower league vs. losing in the upper league? That seems like a pretty easy decision right? But wait, it gets better…

So there we are, beating the snot out of the Hard Rock Cafe in our first game. Totally confident going into our next game, we lose. Third game? A loss. Fourth game, fifth game? Losses. For our sixth game, we got to play Hard Rock Cafe again got our second win of the season.

It is worth noting that between our second loss and our third loss, I sustained a pretty significant injury to my hamstring. In fact, all the guys on the team started dropping like flies. Jeff hurt his knee and could hardly run, Mike hurt his back and had to take 4 week off and the other Jeff had to travel for work and was gone for 3 weeks. I was reduced to playing catcher and hopping along the bases when I hit because our team basically resembled a MASH unit. We didn’t have enough guys to play and since I was the least injured, I had to suit up.

So there we were, at our last game of the season last Tuesday, our record, 2-7. Our coach, Jason, had lunch with David and I earlier that day and he told me everyone would be at the game that night, mostly healed and so I didn’t have to play if I didn’t want to. We get a one month break between seasons so I thought this was a great opportunity to start rehabbing the hamstring. I had every intention of showing up and cheering my team on but as fate would have it, I fell asleep on the couch when I got home and missed the game.

So what do you think happened? That’s right, they CRUSHED the other team to end the season on a high note and I was no where to be found. Now I can’t go and blame the other seven losses on the fact that I was playing injured all season since clearly they didn’t need me. I am hearby officially on suicide watch… 🙂

Anyone want to play some paintball?

Brian

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05.08.08

The Tree Whisperer…

So last year my wife and I decided to plant some trees in our back yard to, hopefully, some day give us lots of color in the Fall. Of course, we also wanted some shade in the summer but when you live in Texas, that goes without saying. So I found this place online that sells really cool, somewhat exotic trees. I would like to say that “we” decided on the trees but Mary Kate kept saying “BONSAI” and going Karate Kid on me whenever I wanted to talk about it so she was of no help what so ever. So “I” decided on the Autumn Blaze Maple and the Autumn Purple Ash. Both awesome trees.

So I order these trees online and it says it will take about a month for them to arrive. When they finally did arrive, I was a little shocked and disappointed. First, they came in two seperate boxes and when I opened them, they both had the roots in little ziploc bags with mostly melted ice. Second, they were just a couple of sticks. The Maple was about 2 ft long and the Ash was about 1 foot long. No branches, no leaves – just two sticks with dirt on one end. I was a little disappointed with how little they were too but at the same time, I was looking forward to a day 50 years from now when I could tell my neighbors grandkids that I remember when that tree was just a little 1 foot long stick. Anyway, there was plenty of disappointment to go around when it came to the delivered product.

So the trees came with directions that said I should put them in a pot with really rich soil close to where they would be planted so they could acclimate for a month or so. Mission accomplished on that. It also said to give them lots of water for the first few months. Mission accomplished there too. I eventually did put both trees in the ground.

Fast forward a few months and the Maple starts growing taller and growing leaves right away. I would bet it has grown two feet in it’s first year. The Ash on the other hand, doesn’t appear to have grown an inch and all last year it only produced one leaf. Eventually, as Fall and Winter set in, both trees lost their leaves. Fast forward a few more months to Spring of this year and the Maple took off like gang busters already growing about a foot and it has maybe 100 or so leaves on it. The Ash on the other hand, looked like just a little stick in the ground.

My wife taunted me and told me that my stick was dead and that I should get a new one. I assured her that the tree was in there and just needed some proper care and maintenance. So I fertilized the area and started watering a lot. Almost a month to the day that my wife called me a tree killer, I am happy to report that the little Ash has grown a solid six inches and in addition to the 20 or so leaves it is currently sporting, there are new leaves popping out almost every day! I totally saved that tree’s life and it feels great!

brian

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