Thursday, February 28, 2008

Take This Fat and Shove It!

Blech - its been a crazy morning at work - I'm sick of spending my time cleaning up messes made by other departments...

I weighed myself this morning - down to 313 lbs - thats a loss of 7 LBS!!!

Of course the first few weeks are the easiest, but still whatever I'm doing its working!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

In the words of Whitesnake, "Here I go again on my own"

Well, I've started school again... my class is Global Business Strategies. I can't wait to be done and have both my Business Management degree and my Business Marketing degree...

I will be weighing myself tomorrow... I'm not overly optimistic, but I have been eating a lot more healthy as well as hitting the gym (well only once...). Only time will tell.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Once Wins!

Shannon and I celebrated Oscar night with Charlie, Sarah Burns & Chris Pletcher. We all sat back, ate pizza, had a drink or two and watched Jon Stewart host the most enjoyable Acadamy Awards since David Letterman hosted. The best part of the night was when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova took home the Oscar for best song with "Falling Slowly" from the movie Once (probably my favorite movie of the year). No Country For Old Men snagged three awards (best picture, best director and best supporting actor) which was no surprise as it deserved the awards. I was also happy with Diablo Cody's win for best screenoplay for Juno and Daniel Day-Lewis's win for best actor in There Will be Blood. I haven't seen the movie yet but he is such a bad-ass that I couldn't imagine anyone else winning. Also, Seth Rogan & Jonah Hill as presenters was amazing.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Weigh In

Well, the beginning weigh in is 320lbs.

In the words of some rapper, its time to "drop it like it's hot!"

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bad News and Good Times

A few weeks back I went to Kaiser for a cold, and found out that according to the ADA or Goverment Medical group or whoever the hell establishes medical guidelines that I was morbidly obese (based on my BMI) and that my blood pressure is high. Fantastic!

So I'm going into super healthy mode, and try make myself healthier and skinnier. I will let the universe help keep my accountable by posting my weekly weight in my blog, which will keep my at it because I will feel like a loser if I'm posting constant gains.

Blech!

On to other, and definitely better news.... Shannon and I took this weekend as a chance to get away for a while. Around 10am on Saturday we jumped in the car and headed down the PCH - our final destination being San Luis Obispo. The 101 would have been quicker but driving along the coast provides much better scenery. About an hour past Monterey we pulled off to the side of the road and ran around the beach for a while (I was ever so careful not to get sand in my shoes as sand is in my top five hated things).

After wearing our out of shape bodies out, we jumped back in the car and finished the drive to San Luis. We were staying in the Madonna Inn, which is a crazy hotel (check it out at www.madonnainn.com). As you can see from the pictures our room (named Love Birds) was very green.



Woodstock's Pizza was our first stop in our trek to downtown SLO. Afterwards we walked around for a while then headed back to the hotel to hit up the hotel bar, which according to the info in the room, was fantastic. The info was wrong, the bar was filled with old people, didn't have a great selection. Not wanting to wait around for a seat in a 2nd class bar (the only 2nd class thing about the hotel) we walked over to the grocery store and bought some vodka and cranberry juice along with a variety of snacks.

The next morning we went back to SLO to eat breakfast at F. McLintocks, walk around for a while longer and then headed to Pismo Beach. Shannon has always wanted to eat at the Splash Cafe, as I have talked about countless times during the five years I've known her.

Upon arriving and (finally) finding a parking spot, we headed over to get some of the famous clam chowder breadbowls. However, we saw the line wrapping around the building, and while this is a common occurance, neither of us were that hungry and figured the line would be shorter after about an hour. We walked around the shops, walked out on the peer, watched people fish (and not catch a thing) all the time waiting for the line to die down and for our stomachs to start talking to us.




Once our stomachs started, we headed back, but unfortunately the line was still massive but we figured "oh well" and got in the line. Nearly an hour later we had the breadbowls and were able to dig in - and MAN! they were good. Shortly after finishing our late lunch, we jumped back in the car to head home. We had a great time and are looking forward to the next time we can get away for a couple days....

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

McCain May Get The Electoral Vote, But Huckabee Scores My Popluar Vote

As far as the Republican candidates go, McCain may be the front runner and undoubtedly the more experienced choice, but dammit man there is something about governors from Arkansas that makes them so personable. Bill Clinton, while a liar and cheater, seems like he'd be a great guy to throw a few beers back with... and Mike Huckabee is the same way. From the Chuck Norris campaign ad, to his appearance on the Colbert Report (thanks D-Bo for the link) - its obvious that he has a great sense of humor.

In other news, Shannon and I are headed down to San Luis Obispo this weekend, and I'm excited - its been a loooooong time since I've been down there... it will be interesting to see if its still the way I remember.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Diageo to sell Ketel One in $900 million deal

My (spirits) world got rocked today at about 4pm when I learned that Ketel One is now going to be a Diageo brand...

The Nolet family (which owns Ketel One) and Diageo are forming a company and Diageo is paying $900,000,000 to be the exclusive worldwide distributor.

Usually we hear rumblings of upcoming sales, etc. but this one was just out of the blue...

Ketel One has always been the "little brand that could", only having two products, Ketel One U.S. and is pretty darn tatsy in my opinion. Now they are part of the biggest spirits company in the world. Part of me is worried that Ketel will lose the individiual feel it has, but on the other hand Diageo obviously knows what they are doing when it comes to marketing...

It will be interesting to watch for sure. Here's hoping that the Ketel One employees either retain their jobs or find something quickly.

It looks like Diageo decided not go for Absolut, which is being auctioned off by the Swedish Government, for six to seven billion dollars. I think its a good move - go for Ketel which still has a lot of room to grow, and only spend about 1/7th of what you would have on Absolut.

Now i'm interested to see who will get Absolut; Foturne Brands (Jim Beam), Pernod-Ricard (Kahlua) and Bacardi are all in the running....

THROW UP THE HORNS!!!!

LIVING SACRIFICE has returned. Founding members Bruce Fitzhugh (Vocals / Guitar) and Lance Garvin (Drums) have reunited with Rocky Gray (lead guitar) and Arthur Green (bass). The band will be on tour this summer and we are already writing material for our brand new album, which will be released in 2008.

Word is they are touring with Demon Hunter and The Famine...


This is the best music news I've heard in a long time.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

The Tri-Valley Whiskey Society Kick Off

So last night we had the first meeting of the Tri-Valley Whiskey Society - had a great turnout - and we are all excited for the next one... head over to www.t-vws.blogspot.com if you are interested in joining us! We had 12 people show up, and blind tastings of Bulleit, Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark & Knob Creek (all bourbons). Ron nailed the exact order - good job Ronnie!

Today is the Super Bowl and it should be a good time!