Back to Routine

Today Mel and I drove to the convenience store just west of the Meskwaki Casino in Tama to meet my sister-in-law and brother-in-law from Ankeny to get Emma back from her week at their house. It was really good to see her again. She seems to have grown while she was away, and we learned that she rolled over from her back to her stomach this past week. We haven't witnessed that yet, although it looked like she was about ready to roll over for us this afternoon.

After we got back home, our lives are returning to our everyday routine. My mother did stop by for a few minutes after dropping my sister's friend off at the airport here in Cedar Rapids, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened this afternoon. We did some grocery shopping, but that was all we really did. I am returning to counting my Weight Watchers points. My weight this morning was at least four pounds greater than it was before we left for RAGBRAI. I think that if I follow the plan very closely the next couple days, I should at least be at the same weight that I was prior to RAGBRAI. One might think that riding a bike over four hundred miles in a week would really help in weight loss, and I suppose it might if I didn't increase my calorie intake as much as I did for the week.

Tomorrow I head back to work. I am sure that I'll have a couple hundred emails to read through when I arrive in the office. Several of them will probably be notices that people are out of the office or leaving early to work from home. I really wish people would stop sending those emails. If someone really feels the need to send such an email, he or she should just send it to the people to whom it would be relevant. There will also be a fair share of emails about network issues, which I normally ignore when I receive them. Oh well, I guess I won't have to find something to keep myself busy when I arrive at work tomorrow.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Saturday

RAGBRAI XXXV finished yesterday, going from Dyersville to Bellevue.

This is the first of the sizable hills on Saturday. This one was shortly before Bernard, Iowa.


Here, several of the Superior Hawgs are getting ready to depart Bellevue for home!


That's it for RAGBRAI XXXV. Be sure to check out Dave's RAGBRAI Page for more photos and stories from the Superior Hawgs' bike ride across Iowa this year!

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Friday

These are some photos from Friday's ride from Independence to Dyersville.

Mel is standing in the kybo line in Manchester. She's the one to the left of the guy in the Hawkeye jersey.


Here's a bike with a giant purple stuffed lobster riding on the back.


This is one bike I would not want to be riding!

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Thursday

I didn't take any photos along the route on Thursday from Cedar Falls to Independence. This photo shows several of the Superior Hawgs riding in the back of a pickup truck to downtown Independence, Iowa, for dinner.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Wednesday

On Wednesday, we rode from Hampton to Cedar Falls.

We stopped for Chris Cakes for breakfast.


Here's a shot of my sister riding on her way to Cedar Falls.


Cyclists ride past the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Tuesday

On Tuesday we rode from Humboldt to Hampton.

This is Alexander's Kitchen Klatter Band in Alexander, Iowa. They were joined by a RAGBRAI rider for a song or two.


On Tuesday we crossed over Interstate 35.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Monday

These are the photos from the second day of RAGBRAI XXXV, riding from Spencer to Humboldt.

This is the line for pancakes at the fire house in Webb, Iowa. We stood in line for about an hour, making this the longest time I have ever stood in a line on RAGBRAI!


Here are Mel and me somewhere along the route. The fact that we were both wearing the same color was a coincidence. We didn't discuss our wardrobe for the day ahead of time.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: Sunday

Here are some photos from Sunday's ride from Rock Rapids to Spencer.

Mel is riding her bike on the way to Ashton.


This photo shows cyclists riding by the grain elevator in Ashton, Iowa.

RAGBRAI XXXV Photos: On the Way to Rock Rapids

Mel and my sister enjoy lunch at McDonald's in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on the way to Rock Rapids for the beginning of RAGBRAI XXXV.


Here is a good portion of the Superior Hawgs on our team bus.


And here's the Superior Hawgs bus crew, Larry, Wally, and Jerry.

RAGBRAI XXXV: The Rest of the Week

When I wrote my previous blog entry on RAGBRAI during the day on Wednesday, I indicated that the day hadn't been going too badly. I may have spoken too soon. Well, the day still wasn't too bad, but after leaving Applington, the wind picked up, making the remainder of the day a bit more difficult. When I made the last turn before getting to Cedar Falls, I was able to see the top of the UNI-Dome, although it was ten or so miles away. It was kind of like the feeling of seeing a grain elevator or a water tower, indicating that the next town is near, but it was still quite a ways away. After cleaning up upon arriving in Cedar Falls, Mel's aunt and uncle, as well as her cousin's daughter, picked us up so we could go to dinner away from the RAGBRAI crowds. We went to the OP on University Avenue, where we proceeded to have some delicious pizza. After dinner, we were dropped off near the UNI-Dome so we could do some shopping at the bike expo. Unfortunately, the T-shirts that we had hoped to buy were sold out in out sizes. I guess that when you see a T-shirt you want on RAGBRAI, you should buy it then, because if you wait, they may run out.

All week, Mel's right hand had been bothering her, imparing her fine motor skills. Concerned about this, she called My Nurse to get some advice. She was advised to get it checked out at the hospital emergency room. Being that we were ready for bed, we waited until the morning to do this. My mom took us both to Sartori Memorial Hospital in Cedar Falls to have her hand looked at. After spending a couple of hours there, the solution was for her to increase the dosage of her anti-inflammatory medication. Then we were let go. Unfortunately, by this time, it was nearly 9:30, which would have given us a very late start for our day. So, we had my mother drop us and our bikes off a couple miles to the west of Dunkerton, where we resumed our bike ride across Iowa. This cut out day's ride to about 33 miles, which was enough with the heat of the day.

Thursday night there was a thunderstorm while we were in Independence. Fortunately the winds were not too strong. The tent managed to keep most of the rainwater out, with just a little getting in when Mel left the tent briefly during the storm. So Friday morning, we packed up our wet tent and set out for our ride to Dyersville. The weather was really nice with cooler temperatures than the earlier part of the week. Despite the fact that we rode twice as far as we had the day before, we both felt that it was an easier ride. I guess the lower temperatures really helped.

Saturday morning, after packing up our tent for the last time on RAGBRAI XXXV, we set off for Bellevue. Not wanting to keep everyone waiting for us, and wanting to make the 1:00 meeting time in Bellevue, we didn't stop as often or for as long. We did stop for breakfast in Cascade where we had Chris Cakes pancakes, which Mel had not yet experienced on the ride. Our next stop was in Bernard where we just had some Gatorade to help replenish ourselves. We had hoped to stop in La Motte for a bite to eat, but they seemed to be all out of food, with the exception of corn on the cob. We did wait about half an hour in line for some drinks though. So after having out drinks and eating the Cliff Bar I had on my bike, we set off to finish the ride.

Saturday was by far the hilliest day on the RAGBRAI route this year. There were some pretty steep and long hills to contend with, but that is to be expected as one approaches the Mississippi River valley. By the time we saw somewhere to get food, Tender Tom's Turkey, the line was really long; probably due to the lack of food in La Motte, and we had fewer than ten miles to go, so we continued on. We managed to get to Bellevue and reach the Superior Hawgs bus just short of 1:00 in the afternoon. After loading up the bus, we were on our way back to Evansdale by 1:30.

I had a really great time this year. As I often do, earlier in the week, I was thinking that this would be my last year to ride on RAGBRAI. However, as the soreness continued, but with the feeling of being more in shape for the ride, that thought went away. Now I can not wait until next year when Mel and I can ride on RAGBRAI XXXVI!

RAGBRAI XXXV: The First Three and a Half Days

I haven't been blogging much this week because I have been riding my bike across Iowa on RAGBRAI XXXV. Today is the fourth day of the ride. Our trip to Rock Rapids on our team bus on Sunday was fairly uneventful. We actually made it all the way without anything on the bus breaking down.

The first day of riding on Sunday wasn't too bad, although it was pretty windy, and of course, we were riding into the wind for a good part of the day. There were some small hills, but overall they weren't too bad. The wind really picked up for the final third of the day, so that wasn't too good. We had a good camping location in Spencer that night, so we were able to get some good sleep, unlike the previous night in Rock Rapids when the bad playing downtown kept me awake until almost 12:30 in the morning!

Monday's ride from Spencer to Humboldt went alright, but we did have an hour-long wait in line for breakfast at the Webb fire station. On top of that, Mel's bike needed repairs not once, but twice! We did stop at Mel's parents' house a few miles out of Humboldt, so we didn't make it to our campground until about 5:30.

Yesterday, we rode from Humboldt to Hampton. It was a bit hillier than I expected it to be, with this year's RAGBRAI route being one of the least hilly routes ever for the ride, but the headwinds were not nice, especially since we were riding into the wind for almost half of the day. We did have a delicious spaghetti dinner at a Lutheran church in Hampton, complete with corn on the cob that was picked fresh that morning!

As I write this, I am sitting in the Iowa Telecom trailer in Applington. We have about 25 or so miles left on the route today. Mel was feeling a bit sore and still tired from yesterday, so she is riding the Superior Hawgs bus today instead of her bike, so I am riding with my sister Rebecca and her friend Janelle. The route hasn't been too bad today, although there have been some hills. After the hills, Janelle and I have to wait for my sister to catch up, since the hills tend to slow her down a bit. Anyway, I better get back on the bike so I can get to Cedar Falls.

Bill O'Reilly is a Primate

Apparently Bill O'Reilly thinks that the pope is not a primate. In a segment of his show the other day, he showed displeasure in, among other things, a comment on Daily Kos in which the pope was called a primate. I don't know what his problem is since the pope is in fact a primate on two different counts. First, one definition of primate on Merriam-Webster Online says a primate is, "any of an order (Primates) of mammals that are characterized especially by advanced development of binocular vision, specialization of the appendages for grasping, and enlargement of the cerebral hemispheres and that include humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms (as lemurs and tarsiers)." Secondly, the same entry says that a primate is also "a bishop who has precedence in a province, a group of provinces, or a nation." Again, this seems to me to describe the pope. Either way, I think I can be fairly confident in saying that Bill O'Reilly is a primate!

Severe Weather

For the third day in a row, it looks like we may be in for some severe weather. As I write this, there is a tornado warning in Grundy County, not far from here. It looks like the storm is heading this way. Yesterday we had severe thunderstorms early in the morning and the day before was quite stormy as well.


I just hope that the severe weather stays away next week during RAGBRAI. For the past two years, there was severe weather overnight at least one night. I didn't have much of a problem with it last year, although as I took shelter in our team bus, I was afraid that my tent poles were going to break. The year before was a different story though. On Sunday night of he 2005 RAGBRAI, there was an intense storm. I decided to take cover in our bus as my tent was being blown down on to me. However, after I fled the tent, the wind caught it. Unfortunately I didn't have the stakes in very good and the tent started to blow away, ending up in a fence just a few feet away. My tent did end up getting some tears in it, which I mended with duct tape for the remainder of the week, and all of my clothes in the tent were soaked!

Weight Watchers Week 12

Losing an additional 1.8 pounds this week, I have increased my total weight loss to 24 pounds, making this week the week I achieved my 10% target, the point at which I lost 10% of my weight. I am now down to 207.2 pounds! Because I'll be on RAGBRAI, I will not be weighing in next week. I am also not going to be as careful about tracking my points for the week since I will be getting plenty of exercise. Besides, I'll need all the energy I can get.

Thunderstorm

Yesterday I got stuck at work late because of a tornado warning in the county in which I work. The sever weather continued into the night, with our weather alert radio going off five times in the night. At one point, I decided to get out of bed and check out the weather. I shot a video showing the river of rainwater running down my street. About two minutes and seventeen seconds into the video, there is a close lightning strike!

One Week

One week from now I will be sitting outdoors somewhere in Spencer, Iowa, having completed the first day of RAGBRAI XXXV. In order to train some more this weekend, Mel and I took Emma to Mel's aunt's house in Robins Saturday morning, so we could both go on a lengthy bike ride. We rode for a couple of hours before we returned to pick Emma up. We went out again today for a shorter ride. Since we had Emma with us, we had to take turns riding while the other of us walked, pushing Emma in her stroller.

On a more serious note, the mother of a good friend of mine passed away early Saturday morning. She had been suffering from cancer for several months. I'd like to think that I can relate to what my friend is going through since I lost my father just over two years ago, but everyone is different with how they deal with loss. Also, with my father it was completely unexpected, but she had known that this was coming. Either way, dealing with the loss of a parent is tough. And to make matters worse, she isn't returning to Cedar Rapids until tomorrow night, after the visitation at the funeral home begins, since she had to book a flight back from Las Vegas. Mel and I will wait until she gets back to attend the visitation so we can extend our condolences to her in person.

Fish Issues

A few days ago, the pump for the filter in our aquarium quit working. I finally made it to the pet store tonight to look for a replacement pump. Unfortunately, the pump we have is so old, that the pet store no longer carries it, nor do they have anything that is remotely similar. We should be able to replace it with a different style of pump, but I wanted to make sure it would fit before buying it. It looks like it will work, so I will be picking it up tomorrow.

Sleeping Baby

After dinner tonight, Emma and I went for a forty-five-minute walk. Well, I did the walking, she came along for the ride. I decided that I really needed to get some exercise, since I hadn't really gotten any exercise since Saturday. I am looking forward to this Saturday, when we drop Emma off at Mel's aunt's house here in town so we can both go for a bike ride that's longer than an hour.

Right now Emma is sleeping. I love to look at her while she sleeps. She just looks so peaceful lying in her crib with her arms outstretched and the pacifier bobbing slightly in her mouth as she sucks on it in her sleep. Tonight was nice in that she didn't scream too much. It really helped that I had her bottle ready before she was hungry. She took about six ounces of her last bottle around 8:00 tonight, then she fell asleep as I held her. She did wake up briefly when I put her down, but she quickly fell asleep.

Weight Watchers Week 11

The weight loss has resumed! After gaining 2.2 pounds, I managed to lose 3 pounds this week, bringing the difference between my starting weight and my current weight to 22.2 pounds. If I manage to lose at least 0.9 pound this week, I will have lost 10% of my initial weight!

Emma and Me

It's that time of the month again when Mel has to work the second shift all week. That means it's just Emma and me home at night. While I do enjoy the quality time with my daughter, it can be a bit frustrating trying to get things done, such as cooking dinner, while taking care of a three-month-old. When she goes to bed though, I have a chance to get a few things done. One of the things I hope to accomplish this week after putting Emma to bed is getting our personal web site updated. I have some videos of Emma that I want to put online for my family to see, but I haven't had the chance to get it done. I also want to get some photos loaded onto the digital picture frame that I got for Father's Day. In fact, that's what I am going to work on as soon as I finish writing this blog entry.

Bike Ride

I had a good time on my bike ride today. After dropping Emma off with Mel's aunt in Waterloo, I headed to the Shell Rock trail head of the Rolling Prairie Tri-County Trail. I got there a bit early, so I decided to get in a few extra miles before the ride started. I ended up riding about five miles before the official beginning of the ride. It was pretty hot today, but I didn't think it was too bad. RAGBRAI is likely to be just as hot in a few weeks, so I better get used to it now. One thing that made the ride somewhat difficult is that the portion of the trail that we rode--from Shell Rock to Clarksville--is not paved. Instead, it has a crushed limestone surface. This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't have road tires on my bike, but unfortunately that's all I have. The trail is supposed to be paved in August or September of this year, so if they hold this ride again next year, it should be a much smoother ride.

Cycling and Back to Work

Mel had both yesterday and today off from work, not for the Independence Day holiday, but because she has to work this weekend. Since Mel had the day off, and I didn't have much to do at work, I decided to take a personal day yesterday. Because it was a weekday, we were able to take Emma to day care and then have the day to ourselves. This allowed us to go on a bicycling trip together. We ended up riding for an hour and a half. This was the longest either of us had ridden yet this year training for RAGBRAI which takes place in just a few weeks. It was a pretty good ride. Tomorrow, I am going for a bike ride again. This time it is on a bike ride to benefit a scholarship fund that was founded in honor of Mel's cousin who passed away in June last year. It starts in Shell Rock, Iowa. Unfortunately, Mel has to work so she can not come. I will be riding for both of us though.

Today I went back to work, after having two days off in the middle of the week. I did not have much to work on for the project to which I am currently assigned, so I helped out on a different project. I was glad to have that work to do, since otherwise I would have been quite bored all day. Well, after this day of work, it's time for two days off once again.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day everyone! As I stated in the previous posting, we went to Mel's cousin's house across town last night for a Fourth of July cookout. It was a fun time. There were a lot of guests there, including lots of kids. Emma wasn't even the youngest there. There was at least one baby there who was younger than she was. We were out pretty late, not getting home until almost 11:00, well past Emma's bedtime. She did sleep quite a bit while we were there though and still managed to wake up at 5:45 this morning, keeping me from being able to sleep in on this day off from work.

Weight Watchers Week 10

Well, it finally happened. For the first week in the ten weeks that I have been on Weight Watchers, I had a net weight gain for the week. It really doesn't surprise me. This week has been a particularly bad one for watching what I ate. I did pretty good through Saturday, but I ate too much food at the family reunion on Sunday, and I didn't pay attention to my points there. Then before going to the Weird Al concert that night, Mel and I went to Carlos O'Kelly's for dinner where I also ate too much. Then last night, we went to Mel's cousin's house for an early Independence Day cookout where I also ate a bit too much. I have no doubt that I will do better with the Weight Watchers this week. I just need to be sure to count the points on everything I eat! Oh by the way, my weight gain for the week was 2.6 pounds, reducing my weight loss since beginning Weight Watchers to 19.2 pounds. This makes my average weight loss per week 1.92 pounds, which is still pretty good though.

Weird Al

While we had a family reunion around lunch time, the real excitement of the day was in the evening. After learning that he was coming to Cedar Rapids to perform at the Paramount Theater, I won a pair of tickets to the Weird Al Yankovic concert from Z102.9, a local radio station. It had been quite some time since I had last seen him perform when he toured following the release of his Running With Scissors album in 1999. I had also seen a performance of the Bad Hair Day tour at the Paramount Theater. Having seen Weird Al in concert twice before, I knew that this would be a terrific concert. Mel had never seen him perform before. Neither of us was disappointed in the concert!

Like previous Weird Al concerts I had seen before, there were plenty of costume changes. Not only did he perform a lot of songs from he most recent album, Straight Outta Lynwood, but he also included plenty of songs from his previous albums. While he changed costumes, fake interviews between Weird Al and other musical celebrities were shown on the video screens. Some of them were the same as ones I had seen in his previous concerts, but others were new.

I wasn't the only one in the audience who had seen some of those clips before. Seated right in front of us in the theater was a somewhat heavyset man wearing a baseball cap and an autographed Weird Al Yankovic jersey. Not only did he mouth the words to all of the songs, but he was also mouthing along with the words in the video clips! Besides that, he attempted, with a high degree of success, to mimic all of the gestures Weird Al did in his performance and in the video clips. This guy was a bit distracting, but it didn't detract much from our enjoyment of the performance.

One thing I have to remember before I go to another concert though is to bring along a pair of earplugs. My ears are still ringing slightly from the excessively loud noise. I know, that makes me seem like an old man, but I would like to be able to hear future concerts.

I took along a digital camera and got a couple of photos that turned out somewhat. The first one shown below is of Weird Al wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants shirt and a tutu with boxers with hearts on them underneath. This was the end of his removing pieces of clothing during his performance of "You're Pitiful," his parody of Jame Blunt's "You're Beautiful."

The second photo was taken during the beginning of the encore in which he sang a song about how everyone has a cell phone. People were waving their cell phones in the air during the song. This preceded his performance of the song "Albuquerque," which ended the concert.

I am very much looking forward to when Weird Al Yankovic releases another album and goes on tour again. I'll be sure to be there. This concert was more than worth the thirty-dollar price that the tickets cost, even though we got ours for free!

Witt Family Reunion

Yesterday we all went to Keystone, Iowa, for family reunion. The reunion was for the part of my family that is related to us through my maternal grandmother. Aside from my mother, my grandmother, an aunt and uncle, and my cousin and his wife, we didn't really know anyone there. There were a couple of relatives who we see semi-regularly, but to the rest of them our identities were as much a mystery to them as theirs were to us. That made things a lot less awkward than it would have been had I been expected to know who everyone was. I think we are planning another reunion for next summer. If we start going to these things more regularly, I fear that before long, I'll be expected to actually remember who everyone is!

Friday and Saturday

Yesterday I needed to be away from the office, but I still had work to be done, so I spent that day working at home. This gave me the chance to get together for lunch with Homercles. We both enjoyed the lunch buffet at Godfather's Pizza in the Town and Country Shopping Center. It was pretty good, but I ate more than I really should have. I did stay within my Weight Watchers points, including my weekly allowance in addition to my day's points, but I still could have eaten a bit less.

Today, after a weekend of no bicycling, Mel and I had the opportunity to go for a bike ride. Once again, one of us rode the bike while the other pushed Emma in her stroller. We then changed places. On my bike ride, I rode part of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. The part I rode on has an asphalt surface, but that stops just a few miles north of the start of the trail in Hiawatha. After that, the trail is crushed limestone for some distance before it turns back to asphalt. I really wish the remaining part of the trail could be paved. That would make it a lot better to ride on, making it easier to ride all the way to Waterloo.

We also finished working on the garden in the backyard today. Last week I promised some photos of that, but I didn't get around to taking the "after" picture yet, so I will post the photos later.

Freedom Festival

Last night, Emma, Mel, and I went to our first event of the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival this year. It was the Balloon Glow at Brucemore. We showed up around 6:30 when it wasn't yet too crowded, but by the time we left shortly before 10:00, it was quite crowded. A lot of people came out to see the balloons glow in the night sky. We got the idea of going when Mel was talking with one of the people she goes to Weight Watchers with. The friend there mentioned that she was going to the Balloon Glow, and asked if we wanted to come along. Besides watching the hot air balloons inflate and glow, there was live music and a lot of food booths. We had already eaten dinner, so we didn't partake of any of the food offerings other than a couple bottles of Diet Coke, but we had a lot of fun. I think we'll have to go again next year when Emma might appreciate it a bit more.

Weight Watchers Week 9

Despite my thoughts to the contrary yesterday, my weight loss has continued for the ninth consecutive week. The week I lost an additional 0.6 pound bringing my weight down to 209.6 pounds, for a total weight loss of 21.8 pounds since beginning Weight Watchers nine weeks ago. This now brings my weight to the least it has been since I began recording my weight on a semi-regular basis at the beginning of the summer in 2004. In all actuality, it's probably the lightest I have weighed since before I graduated from college.

Lots of Visitors and Yard Work

This weekend was a very busy one for us. On Saturday we all went to Waterloo. Mel went to the home of a friend of hers for a Tastefully Simple party. While she was there, Emma and I stayed at my mom's place where I did a little work and we all watched the movie October Sky. My mom has been trying to get me to see this movie for a while, but I had never gotten around to viewing it. It was a pretty good movie.

On Sunday we decided to forgo our bike riding so we could finish working on the garden in the back yard. After several hours of digging up weeds and stumps for bushes, we are almost done. We went through forty-four half-cubic-foot bags of rock. We ran a bit short on rock, so this coming weekend we will be finishing up. When we do, I will be sure to post some before and after pictures.

The reason we stopped working on the garden when we did Sunday was that we had a couple of visitors. My friend Anna, who lives in Las Vegas, and my friend Homercles, who lives a few blocks away from us, stopped by for the evening. We hadn't seen Anna since December. It was good to have a chance to catch up with what has been going on, although she does read this blog, so she knew for the most part what Mel, Emma, and I had been up to. We had Godfather's Pizza for dinner since that is something that Anna can't get in Las Vegas.

Between the Godfather's pizza, and having a steak at Applebee's Saturday night when Mel, Emma, and I went out to eat with my mom, I would not be surprised if my eight consecutive weeks of weight loss changes to a slight upward turn this week. I'll find out about that tomorrow. I did not keep very careful track of my Weight Watchers points this past weekend at all.

Yesterday, Mel's best friend Heather, who lives in Ohio, came for a visit. She had been visiting her parents in western Iowa and drove over to spend the day with Mel. They seemed to have a good day. Mel hadn't seen her in about a year and a half, so when Heather had to leave, it was way too soon. Hopefully Mel and I can get together with Heather and her boyfriend in Las Vegas this spring to celebrate Heather's thirtieth birthday, which takes place this December.

T.G.I.F.

I am so glad it's finally Friday. So I don't have to go into the office tomorrow, I do however have to work though. I haven't had a work week in which I worked over forty hours in quite some time, so I suppose I was about due. I had a bunch of test items that I was supposed to review by the end of the day today, but I didn't have enough time. I'll do what I can this weekend, but they probably won't get done until some time on Monday. That should be just fine.

Right now, Emma and I are home alone since Mel has to work until 8:00 tonight. That means that I got to pick Emma up from day care today instead of dropping her off. It's more fun getting her than it is to drop her off, although I have to say that she doesn't seem to mind going to day care. Hopefully she keeps that up.

Weight Watchers Week 8

I managed to lose an additional two tenths of a pound this week for a total weight loss of 21.2 pounds since beginning my diet eight weeks ago. I was actually anticipating gaining weight this week. With going to Hardee's for dinner on Thursday and eating a little bit too much potato salad at my grandmother's house on Saturday, I ended up exceeding my weekly points allowance by two points.

I just got off the phone with my friend from Las Vegas who is in town visiting family this week and she'd like to get together with Mel, Emma, and me for lunch or dinner on Sunday. Mel and I are already planning on eating out another night this week, so I am going to have to be careful with the points this week if I want to continue with my weight loss, but I think I can do it.

Day Care

As Mel has been back at work since last Tuesday, and I had to return to work from my week off, today was Emma's first day at day care. I was the one charged with dropping her off this morning as Mel has to leave for work before our day care provider begins working. It was harder that I thought it would be. This was the first time that we left Emma with a relative stranger, not including the time she was in the nursery at the hospital just after she was born. Everything seemed to go pretty well though. She slept for about three hours while she was at day care today, and she didn't cry at all. Apparently it wasn't until she was on her way home with Mel, that she started to get fussy. Hopefully things will continue to go this smoothly.

Dinner at Grandma's

Yesterday afternoon, Mel, Emma, and I went to my grandmother's house in Keystone to visit and for dinner. When we arrived, my mother was already there, and later, one of my cousins who lives in Germany, his wife, and kids arrived. They are in the States for a few weeks to visit family. It was nice having dinner with just the nine of us. With a smaller group, it was easier to spend time visiting with the others. It was really good to see my cousin's three-year-old son and year-and-a-half-old daughter. It took them a little bit of time to warm up to Mel and me since it had been a while since they had seen us, but once they remembered who we were, they were a lot of fun. Next month, my other cousin who lives in Germany will be home with his family. I hope we are able to arrange a time to see them as well.

Hump Day

Partway through the day today, my week off from work was half over. I really wish I could stay home longer than just this week, but alas I must return to work on Monday. For a period this evening though, I was wishing I wasn't home alone with Emma. She just kept crying and crying. I was unable to console her. I tried feeding her, changing her diaper, holding her, and setting her down, but none of that worked. I had to give her a bath tonight, so I decided to try that. I had Emma undressed, sitting on her towel, when Mel called from work. I put the naked baby down in her basinet while I answered the phone. She seemed quite content lying there in the buff, so I talked with Mel on the phone while Emma happily waited for me in her birthday suit. She did pee on the towel while she was lying there, but everything was fine. I guess she likes to spend some time without her clothes. Things went well for the most part after her bath. She did cry a bit once I got her dressed, but the onesie I put her in was a bit tight, so I changed her clothes and after about ten minutes, she calmed down again.

Weight Watchers Week 7

I lost an additional 2.6 pounds this past week for a total weight loss of 21.0 pounds since I began Weight Watchers online on April 25. This is the second week in a row that I lost more than two pounds. I didn't lose as much as last week, but I still lost too much weight this week. The Weight Watchers website once again warned me that by losing more than two pounds in a week, I am at a higher risk of regaining the weight, of dry skin, or gallstones. I really need to try to use more of the points I earn from exercise.

I am actually surprised that I lost this much weight this past week after going to Mel's parents' house this weekend for an early Father's Day and family birthday celebration. I ate a bit much--two hamburgers and one large bratwurst, as well as a few side items--so I was really careful about not exceeding my points on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday Mel and I went to Applebee's with Wendy, a former coworker of mine from when I taught at Highland. There I had one of the Weight Watchers entrees, the Cajun Lime Tilapia, as well as the Onion Soup Au Gratin. Both items were very tasty, however had I know how much my weight would be down this morning, I may have had a burger instead.

Daddy Day!

Today was Mel's last day off before returning to work, so she met her mom and her aunt at the Meskwaki Casino for some gambling fun. That left me alone with Emma for most of the day, until Mel returned home from her gambling expedition. We had a lot of fun together today, after taking out photo in our matching shirts, we headed out shopping, stopping at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. After screaming a bit in the car whenever we stopped, Emma fell asleep. She pretty much stayed asleep during our entire shopping trip, only waking up after I put the groceries away, and after I folded the laundry and put it away as well. We had a good time then playing with some of her toys. I am taking the entire week off from work, so we'll have more time for fun as the week continues.

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

I had the opportunity to watch the classic 1984 movie, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo this evening on TV One. I have often made reference to this movie but had never seen it before, and I still can not say that I have seen all of Breakin' 2 because after just seventy minutes of viewing the film, I had had enough and turned the TV to Court TV to watch Body of Evidence: From the Case Files of Dayle Hinman. I am guessing that Body of Evidence will be more entertaining than Breakin' 2. I do admit though, that some of the break dancing sequences were pretty good, especially the break dancing "fight" which takes place in the first half hour or so of the movie.

No More Thickburgers

I don't think Paris Hilton will be eating any Hardee's or Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burgers in jail.

Pirates and the Birds (Reprise)

Mel and I have begun watching a reality show, Pirate Master on CBS. Except for the first few weeks of American Idol, I have resisted watching so-called reality shows. It hasn't been too hard to resist these programs as I have had absolutely no desire to watch them. Mel hasn't watched any of these shows either, however Mel really likes pirates, and I have to admit that I was a bit intrigued about the program, so last week we watched the first episode of Pirate Master. I have found the show pretty interesting, and the end, where one of the pirates is cut loose, has been full of suspense. In the past two episodes, I was wrong in my prediction about what would happen. It looks like we'll continue watching Pirate Master this summer.

On Wednesday, I wrote about being attacked by a red-winged blackbird. Apparently I am not the only one who this has happened to. Mel told me that she was attacked by the same type of bird earlier this week while walking around Cedar Lake with Emma. The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier today had an article about red-winged blackbirds attacking people. I didn't see the bird at work today though. Maybe yesterday's storm scared it off.

New DVDs!

This afternoon I added two sets of DVDs to my Amazon.com wish list. The first is the first season of "CHiPS". I loved this show growing up and I also watched it quite regularly when it was rerun on TNT several years ago, setting my VCR to record it while I was in class in college.

The second set of DVDs that I added to my Amazon.com wish list is the first season of David E. Kelly's Picket Fences. It's about time that this was released on DVD. I am not sure what took so long. This one isn't out until June 19, but I'll probably wait a bit to get it. I still have to get seasons two through five of Babylon 5 to complete that series.

The Birds

As I returned to the building from my car this afternoon at work, I found myself under attack from a red-winged blackbird as shown here. Fortunately the bird did not attack me with any type of projectile, but rather he dove towards me as I walked up the sidewalk to the door. The bird startled me, but fortunately he missed!

Photo courtesy of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Weight Watchers Week 6

Despite eating dinner out three times this past week, I still managed to lose 3.2 pounds since last Wednesday, making my total weight loss since beginning Weight Watchers 18.4 pounds. Once again, since I lost more than three pounds for the week, I got scolded by the Weight Watchers website. I figure that it is fine though, after all I only lost 0.6 pounds last week. When I lose another three pounds, I will then be at my lowest weight in at least the past five years, and most likely in the past ten years!

Visit to Grandma

Yesterday, we all travelled to Waterloo so Emma could visit Grandma E. While we were there, we left Emma at Grandma's house so Mel and I could go bicycling on the trail system in Cedar Falls. Whenever I am in Waterloo or Cedar Falls I somewhat wish that we still lived there. The trail system is far superior to what we have in Cedar Rapids. Also, there are a lot of local restaurants there that we both really like. Typing this blog posting, I am pretty sure I have blogged about this before. Anyway, if Mel could get a good-paying job in the Cedar Valley and if I could work from home all the time, I would be all for moving back up there. However, I don't think either of those conditions is very likely to happen any time soon.

While we were there, we stopped at University Book and Supply where we picked up a couple of Cedar Falls RAGBRAI T-shirts. Cedar Falls is one of the overnight towns on RAGBRAI this year. I don't usually buy one of the local town's RAGBRAI shirts, but this one looked really nice, so we picked up a pair. After our ten-mile bike ride, we went back to my mother's house, and the four of us went to Beck's for dinner. I hadn't been there in quite some time, and it was as good as I remembered it.

Dinner and a Movie

Emma got her first babysitter this afternoon. We dropped her off at Mel's aunt's house early this afternoon so we could go to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. This was the first time we left Emma in the care of someone other than ourselves. We enjoyed the movie, with the exception of the girl sitting halfway down the aisle to the left of Mel. She talked almost nonstop during the movie. Much of her interruptions were questions to her boyfriend asking what happened or what someone said. I thought the movie was really good, although I think the prior two Pirates of the Caribbean movies were better. Mel had heard that there was something after the credits, so we stayed until the very end of the movie. We were the only ones to wait to leave, and I am glad we did. I don't want to give away the ending, but if you have yet to see the movie, wait through the credits.

After the movie, Mel and I went to Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano for dinner. Our dinner was quite good. It was nice to be able to go out to eat at a restaurant and not worry about whether Emma would need to be fed or if she'd be fussy. I didn't worry much about my Weight Watchers points at dinner this evening, but I think I'll still be fine for the week. I estimate that I still have a few of my weekly points allowance remaining.

Picking up Emma, we found out that she did quite well being away from us. She slept a little and she even finished an eight-ounce bottle of formula. Since she didn't sleep much during the day today, hopefully she'll sleep through the night tonight. The past couple nights, she's been waking up around 3:00 to be fed again. I hope she gets back to sleeping though the night soon.

A New Link

I have added a new entry to the Blogs I Read to the right side of my blog. It's Rambling Nelle. She's been reading and commenting on my blog for a while now and has recently begun blogging herself. So let's see what she has to say.

Signs

What is with people in this town? Do they not believe the street signs on the side of the road? For the past few days, the intersection at the west end of the street I live on has been torn up for construction, so at the east end of the street is a "Road Closed Ahead" sign. While I was outside for just five minutes this evening watering the hostas I transplanted this weekend, I saw three cars head west on my street, only to turn around in my or someone else's driveway. If my street were longer than one block, I could see that some people would think they could get where they wanted to go, but alas the street is a mere one block in length. So, if the road is closed ahead, and you want to turn onto the intersecting street, it is very unlikely that you will make it to your destination. Hopefully the construction will be done soon as it is a lot easier to get onto the major street nearby by using the street at the west end of my street, since it has a stoplight and the street at the east end does not.

Weight Watchers Week 5

I lost six tenths of a pound this week. Earlier in the week, I was wondering if I would lose any weight. I weighed myself on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and found that my weight each day was the same as it had been on Wednesday. Then when I weighed myself on Sunday and Monday, I was a pound heavier than the Wednesday before. Needless to say, the Weight Watchers website didn't say I lost too much weight this week. In my first five weeks of Weight Watchers, I have managed to lost 15.2 pounds.

This evening, since my functional manager at work was in the Iowa City office, visiting from Austin, Texas, several of us from work went to Old Chicago for dinner. I opted for one of the healthier entrees, even substituting vegetables for the french fries that I could have had. I did sample a few of the appetizers that were being passed around, but even with that, I don't think I did too badly with my points today. Mel and I will be going out to eat this weekend after we see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, so I don't want to blow all my weekly allowance points this early in the week.

Summer!

Now that Memorial Day is over, summer has unofficially begun, and that means that I get to wear shorts to work! Not many people were taking advantage of our dress code which allows shorts between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but there were a few people.

Speaking of Memorial Day, we had a nice day yesterday. We went for a bike ride and a walk. We also went to the high school graduation party of the kid across the street from us. That gave us a chance to talk to some of our neighbors who we don't really talk to all that often, although we do wave and smile as they drive past. I really hope we can better get to know our neighbors.

Yesterday I also cleaned out the gutters of the house. I had tried to use a product called the Gutter Buster that we bought at Menards. However, that device was a piece of crap, breaking the first time I tried to use it. So, I used the ladder we bought at Menards to climb onto the roof where I was able to unclog the downspouts in the front of the house. The back gutter was fine, but both ends of the front gutter were blocked. As I have a bit of a phobia of heights, I was a bit nervous being on top of the roof, two stories above the concrete driveway below, but it wasn't that bad. Now I'll be a bit more confident about going up there again when I need to.

Sunday Wrap-up

Yesterday I went over to Creativity Cave's apartment for the evening. This was the first time I had been away from Emma since she was born, except of course for going to work. Besides CC and myself, CC's son and Jason were there. Homercles stopped in for a bit as well. We played a little poker, although not for money and snacked on the food that CC made as well as that which the others of us brought. CC had recently acquired an entire season of Beavis and Butthead on DVD, so we watched that as well. It had been a while since I had seen Beavis and Butthead and watching it last was fun.

Today Mel and I finally made it out on our bike rides. We went down to Cedar Lake and while Mel rode the bike around the lake, I walked Emma the mile and a half distance around the lake as well. We then traded places.

Late this afternoon, we all went to Menard's to get some flowers and other gardening supplies. We have been wanting to get some flowers planted but have just been so busy. The holiday weekend gave us the perfect opportunity to get this done. We also got a new bracket for our flagpole. When we moved into this house two years ago, there was a flagpole bracket on the outside of the house, but our flagpole did not fit into it. I figured that Memorial Day weekend was a fitting time to spend the two dollars it cost for a different bracket. Now we'll be able to put our flag up for the holiday.

Damn Rain

Mel and I were going to go out for a bike ride today, but it looks like the weather will be keeping us from getting any riding in. Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow. We really need to go out on the bikes before RAGBRAI.

Wrapping Up the Week

I haven't blogged for a few days, so I'll just wrap up the remainder of my week in one posting.

Two Months Old
On Sunday, Emma was two months old, and on Thursday, she had her two-month appointment at the pediatrician's office. Emma has gained quite a bit of week since her two-week appointment. She now weighs eleven pounds, fourteen ounces. This puts her at the seventieth percentile for weight, up from the tenth percentile at her two-week check-up. She's also taller, measuring a whole two feet tall now. This places her at the ninetieth percentile for height. I have a feeling she's going to be one tall kid.

When we showed up at the pediatrician's office, we were expecting for Emma to receive some vaccinations. However it turned out that she has an ear infection. Because of this, she gets a two-week reprieve from her shots to give time for the antibiotic to do its work.

Happy Thirtieth Anniversary
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars. Star Wars is the very first movie that I can remember going to in the theater. I may have seen other movies in the theater before Star Wars, but I do not have any recollection of them. I suppose the fact that I was only four or five years old when I saw it in the theater could have something to do with not remembering any earlier movie experiences.

I specifically remember entering the theater late. By the time my mom, my friend Trenton, and I were walking down the aisle of the theater, the stormtroopers were already blasting their way into the rebel ship. That means we missed the text crawl at the very beginning, although I maybe couldn't have read it fast enough at that age. Star Wars played a very big role in my life throughout my childhood, and it still does to this day.

Changes at Work
Ok, this probably isn't all that interesting to anyone, but almost everyone at work got some new equipment this week--computer locks! Since many of us at work have to travel on occasion, we all have laptop computers that snap into a docking station while we are in the office. In order to prevent theft of computers from the docking stations while we are away from our desks, we now have to lock our computers to our docking stations. We already locked them up, or took them home, at night to prevent theft, but now our laptop computers are secure when we go to lunch or a meeting. I don't think this has really been a problem in the office. I guess we are just being proactive in preventing possible computer theft.

The Weekend!
Memorial Day weekend is finally here! Mel and I won't be doing too much this weekend. I had originally thought about going to the graduation party of one of my students at Waterloo West High School tonight, decided that I just wouldn't be able to make it. Gas prices are one of the reasons why I decided not to go. Also, it would have been pretty late by the time we got there since it would take an hour to get there once I got home from work. Then another hour to get home and it would have been really late.

Anyway, Mel and I plan on going cycling tomorrow to begin to train for RAGBRAI. Mel got some cycling gloves tonight. We'll take turns watching Emma while the other one of us rides the trails in town.

I also plan on going to Creativity Cave's apartment tomorrow night for a get-together of some of our friends. That should be fun since I haven't been there in a while.

Weight Watchers Week 4

This week I lost an additional 2.8 pounds, making my total weight loss since starting Weight Watchers four weeks ago 14.6 pounds. The Weight Watchers web site did scold be this morning when I entered my weight. Apparently I am losing weight too quickly. Over the past three weeks, I have lost an average of about 2.7 pounds per week. This is more than the 1 to 2 pounds per week that they recommend. I did not try to lose more than 2 pounds this past week, and I did follow the plan for the most part. I guess I'll just have to take their suggestion of eating a little more.

A Helpful Smile in Every Aisle

Since we were out of town all weekend, we didn't have a chance to do our grocery shopping on Sunday as we usually do. So tonight, while Mel was bathing Emma, I went out to do the grocery shopping. Usually we go to Wal-Mart because the low prices, but today I went to the Hy-Vee down the street instead driving about one mile in all instead of around sixteen miles. Not only did this save some gas and wear on the car, but it also saved around twenty minutes of my time. The one down side of doing my grocery shopping at Hy-Vee is that it costs more than shopping at Wal-Mart. However, I get a better feeling from shopping at Hy-Vee. Not only is Hy-Vee based in Iowa, but the atmosphere is much more pleasant. I also think it has a better selection than Wal-Mart.

Trip to Minnesota

This weekend Emma took her first trip out of Iowa to visit relatives in Minnesota. We left Friday morning, stopping in Waterloo to pick up some furniture from my mom's house to deliver to my sister. We also met up with my mom with whom we travelled to Minnesota, although she took her own car since the truck was packed full, and she planned on staying a little longer than we were. On our way, we stopped for lunch in Spring Valley, Minnesota. While we were in Spring Valley, we noticed a garage sale that had some baby clothes, so we stopped and bought a few outfits as well as some toys for Emma.

Since we would have arrived at my sister's house before she got home from work, we stopped at my grandmother's apartment in Hastings. When we arrived there, my aunt and two uncles were there visiting her. We spent a couple hours visiting with them all before going to my sister's house.

We spent most of Saturday at my aunt and uncle's house in Cottage Grove. Three of my cousins, one of their husbands, and five of their collective six children were there as well. With the exception of one of my cousins and her husband, I hadn't seen any of them in quite some time. It was good to see everyone. That evening Emma went to her first concert as we went to the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra concert, in which my sister performs, at Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University. Emma managed to sleep through most of the concert, although she was wide awake during the first piece, Chamber Symphony Number 5 for 10 Winds, Op. 75, by Darius Milhaud. I was afraid that she would start crying during that piece since it was not too pleasant sounding. She did get frightened during the first piece after the intermission, Robert Schumann's Konzerstrück for Four Horns and Orchestra in F Major, Op. 86. With the four horns and drums, it was quite loud. Mel managed to calm her down and she fell asleep before the piece was over.

Finally, yesterday we took Emma on her first trip to the Mall of America following a visit to Ikea. While Mel and I enjoyed chili dogs from Nathan's Famous, Emma had a bottle of Similac. Our return trip was a bit painful when we filled the truck with nearly eighty dollars worth of gas when we were halfway home. But other than that, the drive home was not too bad. We did have to wake Emma up in Clear Lake to eat. We did not want to end up with a screaming, hungry baby in the middle of nowhere. With gas prices as they are, it may be a while until we take another long trip, but this one was fun.

Weight Watchers Week 3

I only ended up losing eight tenths of a pound this past week. That's actually not too bad considering I exceeded my weekly points allowance on Sunday when we had people over for lunch for Emma's baptism. This week might be pretty tough as well as we are heading up to the Twin Cities to visit my sister and other relatives this weekend. That means we'll probably be eating out some.

Power Outage

As I was returning home from work yesterday, I discovered that the electricity was out in my neighborhood. I was amazed at how out of control the streets were. I always assumed that when traffic lights were not functioning, and I mean completely off, not flashing red or yellow, that they should be treated as an all-way stop. Apparently I am the only one who believes that. People just kept driving through the lights, some of them without even slowing down! I am amazed that I did not witness any collisions!

Once I got home, it was pretty warm with temperatures in the eighties outside. The air conditioner had been running prior to the power outage. Fortunately, within two hours of my returning home, the power came on. We had dinner a bit late last night because of the interrupted electrical service, but we did get to have hot food.

Choppin' Onions

While we were doing our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart this morning, we decided to buy a kitchen gadget that we have seen advertised on TV, the onion chopper. We are having some family and friends over tomorrow for lunch after Emma's baptism. I'll be grilling burgers and Mel thought we should chop up some onions for people to put on their burgers. I guess some people like that kind of thing. The onion chopper made cutting the onions up into small pieces very easy! In face, I kind of wish I had purchased this item earlier. I will definitely be using it for all my onion-chopping needs!

Friday!

Friday is finally here, and it's about time! This week has just dragged on so slowly. Perhaps it's because I have been pretty busy at work most of the week. A lot of that time was filled with training sessions which have taken time away from the other work I need to get done.

Speaking of Fridays. It looks like Cedar Rapids will be getting a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant on the Westdale Mall property. Not that I'll be eating there all the time, but I do like their food. When I was living in Rosenberg, Texas, T.G.I. Friday's was one of the two restaurants I went to for dinner on Friday nights. The other restaurant being Chili's. Those were the restaurants off the first two exits on my drive into Sugar Land, Texas, from Rosenberg. Right now, the only time I get a chance to eat at T.G.I. Friday's is when I am in the Twin Cities for work.

EARLY Morning

It looks like Emma's streak of six days of not waking up until 4:00 or later has ended. She was a little hungry about an hour ago, but she fell back to sleep fairly quickly after getting a little formula inside her. Now I just need to get back to sleep. I have a bit of a cold or allergies or something, and that is making it a little more difficult for be to return to my slumber. I don't want to awaken Mel from my coughing in the bedroom, so I came down to the computer to check my email and such. Well, I think my coughing has finally subsided for now, so it's back to bed for me.

Concert Tickets

It looks like Mel and I will be going to a concert next month. Earlier this evening I won a pair of tickets to see "Weird Al" Yankovic when his Straight Outta Lynwood tour comes to the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids on July 1.

On my way home from work Monday, I heard Karol Kelly on KZIA announce that she was giving away tickets to Weird Al's concert. I hadn't even realized that he was coming to Cedar Rapids. Yesterday I tried to win some tickets, and I ended up being caller four when dialing in, but she was giving the tickets to the ninth caller. So I tried again today, and I won! I had planned on buying tickets when they go on sale this coming Saturday, but now I won't have to.

I have seen Weird Al in concert at the Paramount Theater over ten years ago during his Bad Hair Day tour. That performance was awesome and I'm sure this one will be awesome as well! I can hardly wait until July 1 for the concert.

Weight Watchers Week 2

So far, so good. This week I lost another 3.8 pounds, making my total weight loss 11 pounds since signing up for Weight Watchers online two weeks ago. This week was particularly difficult since I went to a wedding reception and a breakfast the following morning. I also ate out three times during the week. I am expecting my weight loss for next week to be slightly less than it was for this week. After another week, I should not be losing much more than 2 pounds each week.

Crying!

We've been having a lot of luck with Emma sleeping well and not being very fussy most of the time. She didn't wake us up at all last night until just after 5:00 this morning, and the previous few nights, she hasn't been waking up until around 4:00. I kind of like when I get to feed her at 4:00 in the morning. It gives Emma and me some quality time together watching classic Star Trek episodes on TV Land. This evening however, Emma has been crying quite a bit. Mel is feeding her again. Hopefully that helps her to settle down. I really hope she sleeps tonight like she has been since I could really use the sleep.

Olive Garden and a Wedding

The past couple of days has been a bit of a challenge for following Weight Watchers. On Friday, Mel and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. That actually did not make following my diet too difficult as I chose one of the healthier entrees and I took part of it home for lunch on Saturday. Last night however, made the diet a bit of a challenge. We went to the wedding of one of Mel's cousins. I tried to watch what I was eating at the reception, and while I could have done better -- eating just one piece of cake and skipping one of the entrees would have been good -- I could have done a lot worse, and I still haven't violated the diet for the week. That even includes going to Mel's aunt and uncle's house for breakfast this morning.

New Technology

Just a few days after ordering it from TigerDirect.com, our new Linksys wireless router has arrived! For quite some time now, the router we had hadn't been giving us consistent service, then last week, it finally just went kaput. Not only did the wireless not work, but I had to bypass it altogether to get a signal to the desktop computer. Well, the new one came yesterday and it is working great! Hopefully it will give me a faster and more consistent connection when I work from home.

Weight Watchers Week 1

In my first week using Weight Watchers's online program, I managed to lose 7.2 pounds. While a weight loss of that amount would not be healthy if achieved each week, I guess it is not uncommon to lose quite a bit of weight during the first week or two on a new diet. I'll probably drop down to losing just a pound or two each week pretty soon. I have to say that with their new program, the Weight Watchers diet is a lot easier to follow than it was when I tried it before, although I did not attend meetings or go online. I just used my wife's books.

My first goal is to get my weight below 200 pounds for the first time in quite a while. I got pretty close to that in 2004 when I began watching what I was eating using a dieting program at eDiets.com. I had started the summer of 2004 weighing 243 pounds, and through exercise and watching what I ate, I managed to get my weight down to 210 pounds by October. I managed to keep most of it off for quite a while, with my weight staying between 210 and 220 pounds until the beginning of June 2005. I think the stress I was under that June really hurt my focus on what I was eating and the exercise I was getting. By the end of 2005, my weight was back up to the upper 220s or lower 230s. So, of the 33 pounds I managed to lose, I gained about 20 pounds back. I think this diet I am on now will help me to learn healthier eating habits, so that should help me in the long run.

All Through the Night

I have returned from my brief hiatus from blogging. I've had a hard time finding the time to blog recently.

Emma actually slept through most of the night last night! We put her to bed between 9:00 and 9:30 last night and she didn't start making noises indicating that she was hungry until around 4:00 this morning! So, aside from the fact that I was a bit nervous to not be hearing from her at her usual time of between midnight and 2:00, I got a fairly good night's sleep.

Speaking of Emma, Mel took her to the pediatrician yesterday. A few weeks ago we noticed a red bump on her head. We didn't think much about at first, but is has been getting bigger over time. It's still not too big, but we thought that maybe having the doctor check it out would be a good idea. It turns out that it is hemangioma, which is a "a congenital benign skin lesion consisting of dense, usually elevated masses of dilated blood vessels." The doctor said that it should get bigger until Emma is about one year of age, then it should begin to disappear. By the time she's five years old, it should be completely gone.

Now on to me! After not being careful about what I've been eating, I signed up for the web version of WeightWatchers yesterday. It turns out that they have recently changed their program and I get significantly more points worth of food to eat each day. It's no wonder that I've always felt hungry while using WeightWatchers in the past. And now that I am paying for WeightWatchers, at least once my one-week free trial is over, I'll be more likely to actually follow the program. There's nothing I hate more than wasting money! Of course, that doesn't always stop me from wasting money, I'm just upset with myself when I do.

Weekend Update

Mel and I had a good weekend. On Saturday, we met up with CC for lunch at Perkins. This was the first time we had gone out to eat with Emma, and things went pretty well. It helped that she slept through the whole experience. We are planning on going out to eat this coming Friday for dinner. Hopefully she does as well then as she did Saturday.

On Sunday we finally had the baby shower that had been postponed from early March due to the bad weather that shut down much of the state. We managed to stuff over twenty people into our living room. The shower was pretty fun. We played one game in which we had to identify different flavors of baby food. Most people only smelled the baby food or sampled an extremely small amount of it. I decided to take a big scoop of each of the foods. I figured it would be easier to identify the flavors if I was tasting a large amount of the foods. Some of the people in attendance thought that was disgusting, but I didn't understand that feeling. Babies eat the stuff all the time, so it must be edible and nutritious. I have to say that it really wasn't that bad, although the fruits were better tasting than the vegetables.

Mel and I also rented a couple of movies this weekend, and I don't think we could have possibly rented two movies that were as different from each other as the ones we got. The first movie we watched was The Illusionist. That was an excellent movie. I have to say that the end of the movie was a bit of a surprise to me. The other movie we rented was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. That movie was not nearly as good as The Illusionist, in fact, it was pretty stupid. Now I have seen worse movies that Talladega Nights, for example Dude, Where's My Car? But I have also seen better movies that some people who I will not name here, believe are very dumb. The movie I am thinking of is another movie that stars Will Ferrell, Zoolander. Despite thinking that this Will Ferrell movie was very dumb, I would still like to see Blades of Glory. But I will not see that until it comes out on video.

Enough Already

I am sure I am not the only person in eastern Iowa tired about hearing and seeing stories about last year's tornadoes in Iowa City. Yes, it did a lot of damage and a lot of people's lives were affected, but enough already. Now I was quite safe being some thirty miles or so north of Iowa City, being in Cedar Rapids, so I guess I don't know what it was like to be there. However, I imagine the people who lived through the tornadoes do not need the media to remind them about what happened. I am sure many of them would just like to get on with their lives. Hopefully there is no second anniversary reminder of the tornadoes next April 13!

Early to Rise

I have been up since around 3:15 this morning. Fortunately I went to bed shortly after 9:00 last night, so I had a solid six hours of sleep. I woke up around 3:15 to feed Emma. After putting her back to bed around 4:00, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to check my e-mail. Unfortunately the Internet connection was down. So, instead of trying to get back to sleep, I called Qwest to determine what the problem was with our Internet service. By the time I was done working with the technician, it was a little after 5:00. Since I usually get up at 5:30 to get ready for work, there was little point in me going back to bed. Now, about twenty minutes before I leave for work, the Internet connection is finally back up. I guess that's not too bad. I was told it could be up to forty-eight hours until it would be back online. Of course, the technician said it would likely not take that long.

Late Night

For the past several nights, I've been getting a bit more sleep than I did initially when Emma came home from the hospital. She's been waking up pretty regularly around midnight or 1:00 A.M. So I get up then, feed her, changer her diaper, and put her back to bed. She's usually asleep within an hour of waking up. Well, last night was a bit different. I'm not sure what her problem was, but she just did not want to go back to sleep. After being up for almost two hours with her, Mel got up to sit up with her for a while. I am so looking forward to the stage where she sleeps through the night!

I have learned some things by being at least partially awake in the middle of the night:

1. KWWL apparently reruns The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 2:00 A.M.
2. South Park is still as blasphemous as ever. This I learned while watching a rerun of their Easter episode at midnight a few nights ago.
3. One of the Disney Channels we get shows cartoons from the '80s late at night. I saw an episode of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon two weekends ago.
4. For some reason, FX shows a block of Married with Children starting at 12:15 A.M. What an odd time to start a program!

Happy Easter!

Emma Gets More Visitors

I'd say that we had some visitors today, but I know that the only reason that my mother and sister came was to visit Emma, not Mel or myself. Anyway, it was nice to see them. My sister brought a gift for Emma from Martha, a friend of ours who lives in the Twin Cities. Mom and my sister arrived around 11:30 this morning and were here until close to 5:00. Since they were here during lunchtime, we picked up food from the Cork and Fork for lunch. I really love that place, but until the past few weeks, I hadn't eaten there all that much.

While they were here, the topic of conversation turned to YouTube for some reason. While discussing YouTube, my sister mentioned a video clip from Saturday Night Live that she had seen there which was hilarious! So a few minutes ago, I thought I'd look for it. I must agree that it is quite funny, so I am including it here. This video contains words that were not in the television broadcast and is not appropriate for young children. So, I wouldn't play it if there are kids nearby.

My Humps

A few weeks ago, I posted a remade version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's video Baby Got Back. Today I am going to post a video by Alanis Morissette performing that ever so socially relevant song by the Black Eyed Peas, My Humps. In case you want to compare Morisette's parody to the Black Eyed Peas' original video, I am including that as well.

To the Doctor

Today was Emma's first trip to the pediatrician. She went for her two-week check-up. We had to wait a while in the waiting room before being able to see the doctor, but it was worth it. The doctor is very nice and very thorough, giving us plenty of opportunities to ask questions. We learned how Emma is developing. At two weeks, she is at the seventy-third percentile for height, the tenth percentile for weight, and the fiftieth percentile for head circumference. While I know these numbers will likely change, it looks like Emma may grow up to be fairly tall and lanky. Emma didn't get any vaccinations on this trip to the doctor, but she'll get some next time!

Now for another topic from my day today. This afternoon, I succumbed to peer pressure. Several people in the neighborhood had mowed their lawns today, so I decided that I had better do so as well. I am glad that I did, as the lawn will probably be very damp tomorrow considering the severe thunderstorm that is taking place as I write this.

Finally, tonight Mel ordered herself an iPod, and now I am a bit jealous! When I bought my iPod about a year and a half ago, I decided to go with the 4 GB iPod nano. While I have enjoyed it, I have found myself wishing that I had bought a full-sized iPod with video capability. Well, that's what Mel got. She didn't get the largest one available, but is still getting a 30 GB iPod. We ordered it tonight using the discount that I get through my job. I still get by with my nano, but if I ever find myself needing to replace it, I will definitely get an iPod with greater capacity!