Went 2-2, +1.29 the last few days.  Only up in that span because I put more stock in the Tigers in game one on their trip to Minnesota than the other three games.  Today I looked at a few, but not too in depth.  Might be over analyzing the games lately, so I'm going to let feel dictate the games below tonight.

LAD -127 @ 1.27 units (Win, +1)
CWS +100 @ 1.5 units (Loss, -1.5)
CIN +1.5 -200 @ .4 units (Loss, -.4)

Backing down a little on my units per game now that my virtual bankroll is a little bit smaller.  Had I kept the units small to begin with, I wouldn't have dropped into the lower bracket so quickly, but I've got to press when I think I have the advantage....at least I believe I do.  We'll see.  Hopefully I can start another great run today and not worry about it at all.

Totals to date:
35-29, +6.02 units

Update 4/27/14:

Game results and totals above have been updated.  Looks like my big "feel" game yesterday was my downfall....but that doesn't stop me from trying again today.  I got a feeling on this one.

PHI +115 @ 2 units

Phillies can show they are the better team today by taking 2/3 from Arizona while on the road.  Tough to get a series win on the road, but I think they do it....and I was ready to lay for this game, so the fact that I am taking makes it that much better, and worth an extra unit.

Time to Upgrade

Long gone are the days where I used to know every matchup in the NHL and NBA playoffs when they start.  About halfway through round one of both, I can probably get 75% of the matchups and maybe who is in the lead....but that's really asking too much.  I only bring this up because I find it interesting that I am looking more into how well I can predict outcomes versus the spread in more and more sports, when I am paying less and less attention to them.  Then again, my life has never been without contradictions.

Even with the NFL, which I absolutely love, I am paying less and less attention.  The 2014 schedule was announced today, and I am yet to take a serious look at it.  I took a cursory glance at the schedule for the Lions, but nothing else.  I didn't even pay attention to who they play on Thanksgiving this year.  I know the options were very limited though....when the list of 2014 opponents came out, I noticed we had very few home games versus AFC teams this year (I want to say 2) and they have to play an AFC opponent this year because we played GB last year.  I dunno.  I'm sure I'll check right after I post this, just to quell my curiosity.

Speaking of predicting sports outcomes, the last 7 have been very unkind to me.  The Tigers have lost to the White Sox 2 out of the last three days, and I was on the Tigers (laying a pretty steep price) for both losses, but NOT on them for the win.  This is the art of picking MLB games I need to pick up.  I can get a decent feel for who will win how many out of each series, but if you guess wrong on two of the three days, that's not going to do you any good.

My last 7 picks went 2-5 for a total loss of 7.31 units, cutting my season total by more than half.  Time to reassess my unit amounts for each game, as that seems to be doing me more harm than the actual losses.  Totals are below.

Totals to date:
32-25, +5.63 units

On the non-sports front, a few things of note this week.  Purchased new phones for Little Miss and I today.  We are now the proud owners of Samsung Galaxy S5s....kind of.  The store had no phones in stock, so they are being shipped to us and should be at the house by Friday, but we had to go into the store to get the buy one, get one promotion on the phone....kind of.  Unbeknownst to us, the promotion had ended on Sunday.  That also was unbeknownst to our salesman, Sean, until he tried to put the order in for us.  You see, today was the third time we were in that store since Friday, when we took my parents in to upgrade their phones (which is a story in and of itself) and had seen the ad for the promotion each time, which is why we went to the store to buy them instead of just upgrading online like normal.

Anyway, after Sean walked away to place our order, he ended up talking to someone else in the store with a Verizon Edge t-shirt on, I'm assuming it was a manager, even though the t-shirt would have made me think otherwise.  When he returns to talk to us, he informs us that the promotion had ended on Sunday, and that we'd have to pay the upgrade price of $200 for each phone instead of $200 for both.  At first I was kinda bummed and all like "okay....I guess we'll do it because we want that particular phone", but when Little Miss pressed more about it and I found out the manager had come and actually pulled the posted BOGO price cards out from under the phones right behind me while Sean was breaking the news to us, I was resolute about getting that promotion.

At first I asked to see the cards, which were taken away less than 5 minutes before I asked, so I could take a picture of it and the fine print to make sure it didn't have an expiration date on it like some of the other cards there did.  The manager had Sean tell us he had already placed them in the "burn box" and we were out of luck with that.  That was #2 and #3 (with sneaking in behind me to get the cards #1) in terms of problems I was holding against the manager.  First, I believed it to be BS that the cards were irretrievable and he just did that to stonewall us.  Honestly, I might have done the very same thing....but I would have addressed it personally, and not made the salesman explain it.

Of course, that wasn't good enough for me.  I asked Sean to have the manager to give us a signed statement that those promotion cards were out when we placed our order, because state law says that it would have to be honored, and I would contact the corporate office to try and get the difference back on our order.  After a few minutes, Sean returned and let us know the manager would honor the BOGO offer for us, and showed it to me on the order screen.  He also covered for the manager by saying he was on the phone with his supervisor working all this out.  At that point it didn't really matter, I had already discounted the manager's effectiveness at that time and was completely unsurprised at that point that he wouldn't make contact with us at all.  In my experience, it's always best to address things like this in person, no matter what the answer is going to be.  But, again, it didn't matter at that point, and Sean was much better at handling the situation than we had any right to expect.  Definitely an excellent salesman.

The other non-sports front I was referring to above is the fact that I am applying for a new job, not with my current company....and not in my current state of residence either.  I won't go into detail about it, but I haven't been this excited for a job prospect in a long time.  Whether I get the job or not, I know it is something I would excel at and a job I would like going to every day, and it's nice to know that opportunities like that still exist for me.

I think I've rambled on enough for one day, so it's off to check out a few things about the phone I forgot to look into before signing the dotted line today, no deal-breakers obviously, but a couple things I want to know about before I get the phone in my hand in a few days.

Bigger Units

Only 5 picks over the last two days, but two of those involved pretty large units on the line.  Yesterday I got down on Pit -118 @ 1.4 units and DET -115 @ 4.6 units.  I was sure the Tigers would get their bats going this weekend, which they did by scoring 6 on Friday, but I had no idea the Angels would hang 11 runs on us.  Boston came through with my first big pick of the season last week, and my faith in the Tigers erased that effort.  Hey, I thought I had a significant edge at the price I saw, and went for it.  Kinda like Blackjack, you need to bet big when your advantage is the biggest to make money, and that's the thought behind that pick.  Either way, I lost both for a total of -6 units.  Below is my updated record so far this season, with today's picks below that.

Totals to date:
30-20, +12.94 units

Cle -118 @ 1.18 units (Loss, -1.18)
Atl -128 @ 1.28 units (Win, +1)
Tex -117 @ 5.8 units (Win +4.96)

I've already talked about how I like to go against teams who scored in double digits on the previous day, like Texas did last night against Chicago, but I still think this matchup today is heavily in Texas' favor and have no qualms with a high unit pick. 

Update:
Results for today's games have been added, totals updated.

VAST Is.....

I hadn't heard or even thought about this song in years.  Heard it on iTunes Radio tonight and had to listen to it a couple more times, as well as check out the video of course.  I liked this song SO much when it came out.  I don't think I ever bought the CD, but thanks to Napster (which came out not too long after this song became popular) I had digital copy of it to listen to, well before I had my first iPod.

I, I looked into your eyes and saw
a world that does not exist
I looked into your eyes and saw
a world I wish I was in

Funk Breaking, Postponed

Looking over the schedule for today, I saw plenty of games I thought would be fun to watch....but that doesn't translate to games I want to pick all that often.  Generally speaking, any game I think will be fun to watch is a game I think will be close, and can go either way.  When you're picking winners and losers and have something riding on it, those are exactly the type of games you want to avoid.  That being said, I found 3 games I liked and 1 game that I loved today.

KC -117 @ 1.4 units (W, +1.2)
SD - 141 @ 1.41 units (W, +1)
Det -143 @ 2 units (L, -2)
Bos - 124 @ 5.2 units (W, 4.19)

Totals to date:
28-17, +14.16 units

2 of my three winners, including my big Boston pick, needed extra innings to come through.  My luck this past week in games like this will certainly temper my frustration when the market adjusts itself down the line and I start losing games like this.  Well, it'll temper it as long as I can remember this.  For now I just feel fortunate to have things bouncing my way, and hope it continues for a while.

A few days ago I proclaimed to a friend, and fellow Tiger fan, that I thought the team, especially Miggy, were set to break out the wood against Cleveland this week.  We've only got one game of this series under our belt so far, with only one left considering we got a snow day on Tuesday, but it looks like I was a little off on that one.  Hopefully they break out of this funk soon.

Less Than Expected

Had planned to do a decent bit of research into tonight's games during this afternoon.  Got way too busy to even think about that, but did have a few games I could research when things settled down.  As such, I only took two games tonight.  Both the Padres and A's are -117 against the Rockies and Angels, respectively, and I got .7 units on each of the games.  I think the Padres are the better pick here, and I'm not sure why I got down the same amount now for both in hindsight. 

I really like the A's chances, considering how hot their pitchers are right now, and the crazy output the Angels got from their offense last night, beating the Mets 14-2.  I like to bet against a team who scored more than 10 runs the night before.  Especially when that 10+ run game was against a team markedly worse than the next team they'll be playing, and the more runs above that 10 run line the night before, the more I'll like the other team.  The only thing that could have made this look better to me, is if it was in Oakland.  Oakland plays well on the road so far this year at 5-1 (5-0 as the favorite) and the Angels just won their 2nd home game of the season last night....but it's still a home game for them.

The Padres showed me that they can play with the best of them when they took two of three from the Tigers this weekend, and I don't think you can call the Rockies the best of anything right now.  I could see a little bit of a letdown here, but after rocking the last series at home, I have to believe they take three of the four games they'll be playing against Colorado the next four nights.  Only time will tell.

Totals to date:
25-17, +9.77 units

Update (4/15):
Looks like both teams bailed me out late in the games last night.  I'll try and remember that later on down the road when another one of my picks gets blown late in the game.  Record above updated to reflect the two wins for +1.2 units last night.  Nothing going tonight.

You Gotta Know When to Hold 'Em

Had a pretty slow week for my picks.  I only picked 10 games going into last night.  I was up 1.77 units on a 6-4 record, which I was pretty well satisfied with.  Yesterday, I had some time to really dig into each of the games on the board, and found 5 that I liked.  I was stoked to see that all five picks were right, but it's not a huge surprise because all the games I picked were slight favorites.  Regardless, those five boosted my record on the week to 11-4, up 7.76 units for the week.  In one good day, I more than made up for my bad streak to end last week.  I had hoped to keep things rolling again today, but when I was able to do any research on the games it was 3:45, I only had a handful of games to choose from, and not much time at all to look into them.  So, I took Sunday off.  Hopefully I am saving it all up for a good Monday, but we'll see.  There's only 9 games tomorrow, and I don't see anything that jumps off the page at me just yet.

Totals to date:
23-17, +8.57 units

Easing Off

It's a lot harder to look into MLB matchups on my days off, so Thursday and Friday might be light on picks all season long.  This week I only made 1 pick on Thursday and 3 on Friday.  Thankfully I took it easy, since my record with those picks was only 1-3.  Below are those four picks, as well as my three for today.

(4/3)
Seattle/Oakland OVER 7.5 -125 @ 1.5 units (Loss, -1.5)

(4/4)
Pittsburgh -118 @ .75 units (Win, +.64)
SD -112 @ 1 unit (Loss, -1)
SD -1.5 runs +150 @ .8 units (Loss, -.8)

(4/5)
Seattle -125 @ 1.25 units (Win, +1)
Washington -1.5 runs +147 @ 1 unit (Loss, -1)
Boston -1.5 runs +108 @ 1 unit (Loss, -1)

Run line picks have always been tough for me to hit consistently, and I usually tend to avoid them because of that....but you can't get better at something without actually doing it, so I am going to sprinkle some in here and there.  I'll update my record and +/- for the season when today's games are final.

Update (4/6):
Today's picks are below.

Blue Jays -118 @ 1.18 (Loss, -1.18)
Reds -104 @ 1.56 (Win, +1.5)
Nats -104 @ 1.56 (Win, +1.5)
Rays -104 @ 1.56 (Loss, -1.56)
Royals -122 @ 1.22 (Loss, -1.22)

Totals to date:
12-13, +.81 units

Wednesday Night 6 Pack

Woke up a little too late, and a little too uninterested, to check out the line on the Tigers today.  I doubt it would have had any impact on my picks for today, considering I was confident they would win today and Scherzer on the mound would jack up the line too high for me to lay.  Aside from that, I was surprised to find a lot of games that I did like today.  I was a little concerned that I liked mostly away teams, only one of the 5 sides I played was a home team, but considering I am doing this to see how good my handicapping is, and I'm not actually betting, I went with everything I liked.

Red Sox/Orioles Under 8.5 +100 @ 1 unit (Win, +1)
Red Sox -114 @ 2.5 (Win, +2.19)
Nats -128 @ 1.28  (Win, +1)
Pirates -150 @ 1.5 (Win, +1)
Dodgers -107 @ 1.7 (Win, +1.59)
Cards -117 @ 1.17 (Loss, -1.17)

The first three picks have won, the Pirates are in a game that won't end right now.  The Cubs went up 3-2 on them in the top of the 12th, then Pittsburgh tied it up and got the bases loaded with McCutchen up to bat.  He got the count full and promptly struck out.  Oh well, at least the pick is still live.  I'll update all the results later, when all the games are complete.

Update:
All the games are final, and all but one fell my way.  These are the days I wish these were bets instead of picks.  As long as I don't take a huge dump the next couple days, I should have a pretty good starting week.

Totals to date:
8-5, +5.43 units

Opening Day

It's always a big drunken mess in Detroit for Opening Day.  The last few years, I have been fortunate to have it off and avoid the mess, or attend at my leisure.  This year, however, they moved our Opening Day to a Monday, and I was forced to drive into the city around the same time the game was starting.  The drive was a little slower than normal, but nothing outrageous until I hit the exit.  Long story short, it was so busy downtown, it took more than 45 minutes just to get off the freeway.  In that time, where 99% of us were being patient and waiting our turn for the light, one of the less than patient people tried to shoehorn his way into my lane between my car and the one behind me, misjudged where his front end was, and rubbed my back panel.  Ugh. The scraping sound of car on car contact made me look into my mirror, and I was pretty shocked to see my car was part of that noise.

The only good thing about being completely stuck in traffic at that time was that I was able to get out, check the damage, confront the guy who hit me, and snap a picture of his license plate with my phone.  After a long, drawn out argument about pulling over to trade info (he wouldn't admit there was any contact between our cars) I got him to pull over and trade info.  After looking at the matching damage on our cars, he admitted he was in the wrong and would pay for the damage without reporting it to the police.  I let my skepticism be known, and reminded him I have all his info and his insurance company would know right away if I had any issues getting him to pony up the cash.  During all this, a nice woman approached me in my car and handed me a piece of paper with two names and a phone number on it, saying they would act as witnesses for me if there were any problems.  Hopefully there won't be any issues, but only time will tell.

Aside from that, Opening Day was a mixed bag for me.  The Tigers got the win, which is always nice....but of my three picks for the day, that was the one that would pay the worst, and is the only one I won for sure.  Atlanta was blanked, and Cincinnati is currently in the 9th down 1-0.  I wouldn't be surprised if it ends that way too.  It would be fitting for the 4 teams I picked to score a total of 5 runs.  Oh well, no matter how poorly I do, I am going to stick with the picks.

Update:
Games I picked are now all complete.  1-2 on the day for -1.65 units

Totals to date:
1-3, -2.75 units

Update #2:
This might be throwing good money after bad, but I'm on the Mariners tonight vs the Angels.  1.5 units at +114.  Win or lose, I think this is the right side of this line.  I think the early season lines on Seattle will be exploitable, especially in their own division.

Update #3:
Got down on Rangers -140 for 2.8 units and Brewers -114 for 1.14 units on Tuesday.  Rangers win (+2), Brewers lose (-1.14) and the Mariners won on Monday (+1.5).  Those three bets total +2.57 units, bringing me almost back to even for the year.

Totals to date:
3-4, -0.18 units

Slow Start

So, with a late rally last night, the Padres came back to beat the Dodgers, and sink my opening night bet.  Today, I have three picks to put in before fighting the opening day traffic on my way to work.  While betting on the Tigers with JV on the mound is an expensive proposition, I gotta do it just because it's opening day.  But -150 against a solid team like KC who always seems to give the Tigers a game anyway, definitely feels like I'm getting the worst of it.

Tigers -150 for 1.5 units
Braves -115 for 1.15 units
Reds +115 for 1.5 units

0-1, -1.1 units so far this season.  Hopefully I'll get back above zero with these picks today.

Opening Night

Yes, I realize this pic is from last year....but since this blog has been stuck in 2013 for a while, I figured it was rather appropriate when I saw it in my image search.  In an attempt to revive this old blog, I'm going back to my roots.  Gambling.

When I started this blog, it was fueled by my love of poker, poker blogs, and the poker blogging community.  All of which revolved around gambling.  The debate on whether poker is more of a skill game or a gamble could potentially go on forever, depending on your personal definition of what a gamble actually is, but poker isn't the only form of gambling in the poker world.  Most people who have the nerve to sit down at a poker table occasionally, much less on a regular basis, have some other form of gambling in their life.  Pros often refer to these as leaks.  Taking your hard earned money from the poker table to the craps or blackjack table, where the house always has an edge and will eventually win, is a leak in your virtual bucket of money.  Casino gaming is a very popular leak for poker players, but definitely not the only one.  Sports betting is a big one too.  I don't know a single person who plays poker and doesn't also fancy themselves as a handicapper.  This definitely includes me.

Now, while I haven't played live poker in at least a couple years, and even longer since I've played online, I still have my poker wits about me.  Almost every day of the week, I find myself less than a block away from a casino that has a poker room.  At this moment, there are three within walking distance for me.  Four if you count the one across the river in Windsor....but I think they frown upon foot traffic on the Ambassador Bridge or in the tunnel.  While I rarely step foot into any of these casinos, and never into the poker room anymore, I am pretty confident that I could at least hold my own in most of the games in there still....assuming I had a bankroll to do so.

Since I no longer exercise my poker muscles, I have been working out the handicapping ones a little more of late.  It used to be just NFL football and NHL hockey, the sports I know and watch the most, but I've been paying a little more attention to other sports the last few years, and trying to design my own handicapping strategies in each.  So, as a way to help revive this old, lifeless blog, I am going to start up an old bit I did a couple years ago on the D Sports Weekly website, and pick a bunch of MLB games against the spread throughout the season and see how I do.  Last time I tried I started out pretty well, waned a little in the middle of the season, and then the podcast/website lost some steam and I don't believe I finished out the season.  Hopefully I can make it all the way through the World Series this year and get a decent gauge of my MLB handicapping prowess.  At the very least, it will give me something to waste a little time the next few weeks....

Only one game on tonight, and I'm not as familiar with NL teams as I am with AL teams, but I'm picking the Dodgers (-110) over San Diego for 1.1 units.  I'll try and post all my picks before the games get started, but I have a log on my phone that will keep track of my picks, the stakes, and what line I got in at just in case I have to add them after the fact.  I'll also update my W-L numbers and units +/- as often as possible.  Last time I did this, it was 10 per week.  This time around, I'm going to go with whatever I WANT to play.  This should give me a more accurate assessment.

I think I've covered all of the....bases....for this bit here, so I only have one more thing to say tonight.  Go Dodgers!

Two Bad....

....weeks that is.

Today marks day 43 of our 300/365 challenge.  I have lost 2.6 lbs.  My diet for the first month was never spectacular.  I'd have great stretches of good eating, followed by not quite as long stretches of eating poorly.  When I try to eat better, I tend to go back and forth like that a lot.  What really helped the first four weeks is that I was in the gym nearly ever day.  I missed four workouts in the first four weeks.  I missed seven in the last two weeks.

Over the last week or so, I just haven't had any desire to go to the gym. That is starting to change for the better again. Going to bed last night, I was looking forward to working out this morning and made sure my alarm was set appropriately. Without much sleep though, I couldn't drag myself into the gym today....and lost another day in my challenge. Tomorrow won't happen that way though. No matter how much sleep I get or not, I will have the time before work to make it up to the gym....and there is no way I skip it.

The way this challenge is going, I need a little bit of a kick start.

Another Notch

While my weight might not be dropping too fast, I was really encouraged tonight when, even after a good sized pasta dinner, I put on my belt and got back into the notch I was at before the honeymoon.  I weighed about 10 lbs less when we left for Antigua, but I can tell my body is getting back to that point now even if it's not showing on the scale.  Considering I went home and ate a medium Primo's pizza all by myself on Monday after writing my last post, and the fact that I have Como's pizza in my near future, I am highly doubtful that I'll drop any weight by the time I weigh in on Monday.  Just trying to keep myself positive here, and this notch will give me something positive to hold on to.

Speaking of Monday, LM and I tried out our new massage table that night as well.  I've been thinking about getting one for a while now, and I think getting massages in Antigua really helped sell LM on the idea.  Now I just need to make sure I get her to let me rub her down at least once a week.  :-)

Looking forward to a couple days off after tonight.

401

So for some reason, the fact that last week's post was my 400th published post here completely didn't register with me while I wrote the post.  I probably wouldn't have changed anything I wrote about if I had remembered, but I probably would have used a different title, which means I wouldn't have found that perfect picture for the way I was feeling at the time.  All in all it worked out fine, and now I can get on with post 401.

HAVE

Until I realized this was  post 401, I was going to use some form of my workout/weight loss status as the title.  As it is now, the 401 title led me to the above photo, which I think is as perfect as the last picture.  My weight loss/workout program is going well.  I haven't missed a day at the gym since my last post (14/15 days now) and I weighed in at an even 258 lbs this morning.  I'm down just over 4 lbs in 15 days, which is a good drop for me and a couple lbs ahead of my pace weight.  Again, I want to stay out well ahead of my pace weight because I tend to plateau for a week or more at a time at certain weights.  This 2lb cushion is nice, but we want more, we want more....

YOU

I'm also contributing this extra loss to the fact that my weight training wasn't as hard as it normally is Thursday-Sunday.  With the British Open being played over the weekend, and the time difference meaning the players I wanted to watch were playing at my normal gym times on those days, I spent a lot more time on the treadmill than normal, and less time lifting.  I had one hard training day in those four, but I don't think it made up for the other three days.  Hopefully I am wrong and I am just burning fat more efficiently now so this weight loss continues, but we are only 15 days into our challenge...so it's way too early to tell.

SEEN

The biggest part of all this for me is going to be my diet over the next 350 days.  My diet isn't great by any stretch of the imagination.  I love foods that are bad for you in more ways than one, and sugar-filled drinks.  But, even with my love for bad foods, my daily diet isn't too bad, even when you consider my cheat meals I figure in every now and then.  And again, it's way too early to gauge how that will work for me.  I plan to tweak my diet and cut the cheat meals as time goes on, but not completely out.  I don't have the constitution to do that right now.  If I try to go cold turkey, I will fall off the wagon and take a long time to get back on.  Hey, it took me a long time and a lot of work to get this fat....it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time to get back into good shape.

MY

Speaking of cheat meals....I found a place near the house that has what look to be pretty awesome stuffed burgers.  I was hooked when I saw a picture of one online last week, but have yet to try it.  It did, however, influence my dinner choice on Friday night.  LM and I did a double date night with SO and Shy that night, starting off with dinner at Champ's.  It had been a while since I had been to Champ's, and even longer since I have eaten there, and they had a new menu.  On this menu....a stuffed burger.  Bacon, cheese, and onion all inside the patty.  Yum.  Much better than the time I tried to make these on my own a few years back.  I don't think it's all that hard to do when you have the right ingredients, but when you are frantically searching for something to put inside a burger, as you are making the patty....you aren't prepared enough.

BASE

After Champ's we walked over to the movie theater and watch The Conjuring.  Not sure what the name of the movie has to do with the movie itself, because what I saw was pretty much the opposite of conjuring....but I guess calling it The Exorcist or anything like that would have been a bad move anyway.  The movie was ok, which is saying a lot considering I usually think all scary movies are just dumb, and it made the ladies jump and/or lose their breath more than a few times.

BALL?

In other news for the week, LM got a BRAND NEW BIKE.  That topic, along with troubles with my own bike (The X) were supposed to be in a post a couple days ago, but I never got the chance to put pen to paper until today.  Hopefully sometime soon we'll get the chance to combine the bikes and stuffed burgers into a post about a cheat meal that I have to peddle my ass off to go eat.  As a matter of fact, it will have to be soon if I have any hopes of hitting my weight loss goal by next summer.  Cheat meals will be few and far between in a couple months, and winter weather will get in the way of biking anywhere around that time.

A Whole Bunch of Nothing

Either my blogging rust is showing, or this site just sucks now.  Actually, I am thinking it's a little bit of both....but there are some serious flaws with this site when the body of drafted posts just disappear.  

 So here I am, trying to complete one post out of three in a span of 11 days. The pace isn't all that brisk, but I was really pleased with the previous two I had tried to put up since the 4th. Alas, all I have now for the 4th of July post where I talked about the BBQ with my family and friends as well as the wedding, is a picture of the faded chalk flag the girls drew in the driveway. I love the picture, and wish I would have taken one before it rained on the chalk, but there was a lot more in that post I wanted to put out there. The main subjects of yesterday's post are a lot easier to remember, since it was only about 24 hours ago and I was just talking about things that happened on Saturday. The post covered coming into work early for training, lunch at Bucharest with my beautiful wife in my free time between training and the start of my shift, Scherzer not becoming the first MLB pitcher in history to go into the All-Star break 14-0, Lincecum getting a no hitter, finishing the first season of Breaking Bad, and verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. It's not often I really like my own posts, but that one I did....and now it's reduced to the above list of events. Seeing as there is no use in crying over spilled milk, unless you are doing so to get someone else to clean it up for you, I am moving on to my next post....and carefully making sure I don't have this one disappear. So, sometime before the wedding, LM and I decided that we would challenge ourselves to continue working out when we returned from the honeymoon. The last trip we took alone was to Vegas last year where we got engaged and we worked out a lot before the trip, but fell off the wagon afterward. To avoid that, we challenged ourselves to get in 300 workout days in the 365 following the honeymoon. Although, that had to be pushed back a little because of the injury LM sustained at the end of her bachelorette party and we are just starting week two of our challenge today. We are now on day 8, and I have gone 7/8 while LM has gone 8/8. Had it not been for the aforementioned training on Saturday, I would also be at 8/8. While it wasn't a workout day for me, it also wasn't a rest day considering how very long my day was. Eating well goes hand in hand with the workout program, but is always tougher for me to do. Last week I did pretty well for most of the week, but really went overboard on Thursday which kept me from losing much weight at all. Last Monday I had a starting weight of 262.4 lbs. This morning, I weighed in at 261.2. To reach my goal weight of 202 lbs by the end of this challenge, I need to lose 60 lbs. If I can keep this pace up, I will more than reach my goal in a year. The problem is, I can't count on a slow and steady pace. I have a history of getting stuck for a while at certain weights, 260 lbs being one of them, and need to have big loss weeks here and there to make up for the plateaus that I will undoubtedly encounter. All in all, week one went pretty well. I just need to keep my nose to the grindstone, and my hands off the crappy food I tend to crave. EDIT: Looking at this completed post, I see the formatting doesn't work correctly now either. My apologies for this long ass, single paragraph.

The 4th....

Bleh

Such is my day.  Plenty of things to talk about, read about, watch videos about....but I want nothing of that.  I have an urge to do absolutely nothing until the Redskins game comes on....and then I just want to sit there and watch it.  I'm super hungry, but don't want to eat.  I am pretty thirsty, but don't want anything to do with that bottle of cold, refreshing water right in front of me....and I don't want to get anything else.  Hell, I have brownies within arms reach, and haven't had a single one yet today....and I effing LOVE brownies.

Just kinda feels like I wasted another day....and I'm getting to the age where that actually matters to me now.

End of Days

We are now 30 days from what some claim to be the end of the world, based on the Mayan calendar ending on December 21st, 2012.  I'm not even going to get into what I personally think about this prophecy or those who want to spread this as gospel....because I'm sure my thoughts aren't anything new to anyone who doesn't blindly believe things like this, and have been voiced by many, many people who are much more capable of putting these thoughts eloquently.  Instead, when I realized we were a month from December 21st, my thoughts swung to what I would do with my last 30 days on Earth if I knew for sure they were upon me.

Now I've never liked the term "Bucket List", kinda cringe when I hear it really, but I have had a list of things I want to do/see before I die for much longer than I can remember this term being around.  It all started some years back, in the bedroom of my childhood home....and pretty much on a whim.  I was somewhere in my teens, but I can't remember the exact age.  Truth be told, I was probably in some state of temporary depression due to a personal relationship not going the way I wanted, and contemplating what may lie ahead for me in life.  You know, normal teenage crap you think is all important and exclusive to just you when it's happening.

Anyway, I remember grabbing a piece of paper....a notebook actually, because most of my teenage creativity was poured into random notebooks, and jotting down the title of "Things I Want to Do Before I Die".  While most of the things I thought were of uber importance to me at that time in my life are actually pretty laughable now, and most have been forgotten, this one actually stuck with me for years, and to this day actually....hence this blog post.

For several years I had this list packed away somewhere safe and added to it whenever something popped into my head, and I was fortunate enough to cross a few things off that list too from time to time.  It was one thing I was sure I would always keep close to me....especially considering that I truly didn't believe I was going to live past the age of 30 for most of my life before I actually turned 30.  Even though this notebook, which had a lot of other random thoughts and quotes in it, meant a lot to me, it somehow got separated from me while living in my second house....something I'm still unhappy I let happen, even though I have no idea when or how it actually happened.

Anyway, I can remember the very first thing I wrote on that list, and that is still number one to me since I haven't done it yet, and that was to see the pyramids in Egypt.  So if I knew that I only had 30 days left to live, I would definitely find a way to get myself, LM, and the kids to the pyramids and finally see them in person.  While that may not be the very first thing I would do in my last 30 days, just because of the logistics of it all, it's the very first thing on my list, and would definitely get done at some point.

Hopefully I'll be able to get 30 things up here in the next 30 days, probably not in 30 different posts though considering my past record for things like this and my super low post count for the year.  But considering this is something that is going to affect my life in one way or another in the future, I'm sure it'll be on my mind enough to get me to post at least the most important ones.

Grainy

Trudging off to work on Wednesday nights is never fun, but when I'm packing up the beginnings of a migraine to come along with me....it's downright terrible.  Just about everything I do at work can make a normal headache turn into a migraine, much less an already bad headache.  Just the setting alone can give me a headache, throw on top of it the terrible hours, the quick change in the weather, and a problem getting restful sleep....ugh.

That all being said, I am really looking forward to the couple days I get off after all this.  I need to suck it up and power through this night.  Something else I really need to do....stop writing this blog.  The computer screen is making all this head pain a hell of a lot worse.