Cork 'n' Fork

While I was working from home this morning, my mother called to let me know that she was bringing my grandmother to town to see her eye doctor. Because they would be here around lunch time, I met them for lunch down the street at the Cork 'n' Fork. As usual, the food was quite yummy, although it was a bit cold inside. After lunch, which was a bit earlier than I usually do lunch, I returned home to finish my work day at home.

Amusing Video

I have often wondered if politicians ever get angry when being interviewed for comedy programs such as The Daily Show. Here's a video of New York City Councilman James Oddo , a Republican, being interviewed by Pia Haraldsen for the Norwegian program Rikets Rost. This video certainly answers that question! A short warning, this video contains obscenities

Weight Watchers Week 24

I had a two-pound weight gain this week, which I have to say was expected. With all the eating out I did in the past week, due to being out of town, I did not really follow the Weight Watchers plan at all, only counting points on Monday during the past week. That's alright though, as my weight is still just 201 pounds. I will be able to get it below 200 pounds again in the next week or so.

WFH

Tomorrow is the first day that I will be working from home on a regular basis. I have worked from home before for my current job on occasion, but beginning tomorrow, I will be working from home most every Wednesday. As I may be losing my carpooling companion, this will help make up part of the increase in commuting expenses. I brought enough work home with me that I should be able to keep myself busy the entire day. I have every reason to believe that this should work out well.

One More Day

The services for my grandmother will finally end today. This has been a long week, viewing her body at the funeral home in Hastings, Minnesota, on Wednesday, attending the funeral service in Woodbury, Minnesota, yesterday, and today going to Gladbrook, Iowa, for the burial of her remains. I suppose with friends and family spread out all over, this long, drawn-out process was inevitable. I think this will be the first time I will have seen where my paternal grandfather's grave site.

Anyway, since the services in the Twin Cities were held area with the final services today in Iowa, most of the family decided to travel to Iowa yesterday afternoon. Since we were returning to Iowa, we decided to go back to our house. It was really nice to be back in our own house, sleeping in our own beds. I think Emma slept much better being in her crib.

Visit to the Funeral Home

Yesterday, Mel, Emma, my sister, my mother, and I all drove to the funeral home to see my grandmother before she was cremated. I had never before seen someone at a funeral home prior to cremation, and before we got there, I didn't really know what to expect. Instead of being all made up, lying in a casket, my grandmother's body was lying on a gurney like they would have used to bring her into the funeral home. She was covered with a blanket up to her shoulders, but that was it. We spent about ten or fifteen minutes in the basement of the funeral home where she was before leaving. That will be the last time I see her as she was cremated last night. Her remains will not be at the funeral tomorrow, but someone will be taking them back to Iowa on Saturday for her inurnment.

We spent the remainder of the evening at my aunt and uncle's house in Cottage Grove. My aunt and uncle from the Chicago area as well as their son and daughter-in-law were also there. Everyone enjoyed seeing Emma.

This morning, Mel, Emma, my mother, and I went to the Mall of America to do a little shopping. Apparently most of the clothes we brought with us for Emma, as well as most of the clothes we still have at home, doesn't really fit anymore. So we got some new onesies for Emma. We then met my sister for lunch at Don Pablo's. Later this afternoon, we will probably return to my aunt and uncle's house where my uncle and his son who live in North Carolina should now be since their arrival in Minnesota this morning.

Weight Watchers Week 23

I lost an additional 0.8 pound this week, bringing my total weight loss to 32.4 pounds. I have revised my goal weight several times. At first, I had a goal around 185 pounds, but thinking that was maybe a bit too low for me, I increased my goal to 190 pounds. I set that as my goal because I want to weigh less than 200 pounds, and I figured that 190 pounds is sufficiently lower than 200 pounds so even with slight fluctuations in weight, I will remain in the range of weights that I am happy with.

Now though, I am once again reconsidering my final weight goal. I am afraid that if I do get my weight down to 190 pounds, my new pants with a waist size of 34 inches will be too big and I would have to go down to a size 32 or 33. That in itself is not an issue, but being tall, it is getting more difficult to find pants with the 36-inch inseam that I need. I have found some Dockers in size 34x36, although I had to order them online, and JCPenney does have casual pants in waist sizes of both 32 and 34 that they will hem to any inseam length requested. However, I think that finding jeans in size 32x36 will be extremely difficult, and I think I can probably forget about 33x36. Perhaps I should do some research to see if these sizes are available. I don't necessarily want to set my weight-loss goal based on the availability of clothes, but it is something I need to consider.

Satellite TV

I am beginning to really dislike having satellite TV. Sure, it's great most of the time, and we do get a lot of channels, but I am getting really sick of the disruptions to satellite service caused by inclement weather. We just had a major downpour of rain, during which time, we lost the satellite signal. When the rain calmed significantly, we still had issues with receiving the signal. Perhaps this inconvenience is not too big a price to pay considering that it does cost slightly less than what the cable bill was and we do receive quite a few channels, but when I am trying to watch TV and we are not getting any satellite signal, it is annoying!

Grandma E.

A few weekends ago, Mel, Emma, and I went to see my grandmother in the Twin Cities area. She has been suffering from cancer for the past several months and had stopped treatment. This morning I got the phone call that I had been anticipating for some time. My grandmother had passed away. We had been hoping to return to the care center at which she was staying in a couple weeks to see her again, but that will not happen now. At least she got so see her great-granddaughter Emma again before she passed. My mother had been visiting her this weekend and told me this weekend that Grandma was not doing too well. As I have indicated, I can't say that I was at all surprised, and she is now free from any suffering she had from the cancer, but it is still sad nonetheless.

This is the second grandparent I have lost this year, with my mom's father passing away in March, less than two weeks before Emma was born. My dad's father died when I was in eighth grade, so I have had three only living grandparents for about twenty years now. Now I have just one grandparent left.

I didn't think that I would be too upset when my grandmother, my dad's mother, died, but it has been a little difficult. In the fall of 1997, when I was student teaching in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I lived at my grandmother's condo there. At the time, she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Living with her during that time, I was able to help her out when she needed assistance getting to doctor appointments and with shopping. I had a good time living there. Maybe that is part of the reason this is somewhat difficult.

Perhaps another reason why losing Grandma E. is more difficult than I thought it would be is that I am losing a connection I had with my father who passed away a little over two years ago. Of course having her around wasn't the same as having my father, but it was a connection to him.

Mel, Emma, and I will be heading up to the Twin Cities this week to see Grandma one last time before she is cremated. I am just glad that we were able to see her a couple weeks ago when she was still cognizant of her surroundings and that everyone else in the family was able to make it there to see her.

Dinner and a Movie

After dropping off our daughter with Mel's aunt and uncle in Robins, Mel and I went to see a movie and out to dinner without any children coming along. We finally saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It opened this weekend at the Collins Road Theatres in Marion. Since we never got around to seeing it when it was in its original run in town, this worked, plus we saved some money on the ticket price. After the movie, we went to Biaggi's for dinner. That was the same place we went the first time we went to dinner and a movie without Emma after she was born. I managed to save most of my Weight Watchers POINTS for this evening, so I did pretty well with not eating too much today.

Wrapping Up the Week

This week was fairly busy for me at work. I had plenty of tasks to keep me busy until I went home this afternoon. My manager was in the office this week. He works in our Austin, Texas, office so I do not see him very often. However even though he was in the area this week, I did not see much of him until today. A dozen of my coworkers and I went out to lunch with him today. We went to Mondo's Tomato Pie in Coralville. I tried to pick a meal that would not be too unhealthy since Mel and I are going out for dinner again tomorrow night, without Emma. I think I did a good job by picking the French dip sandwich which came with mashed potatoes. I wonder if I will be able to pick a healthy entree tomorrow night when we go out to dinner.

Weight Watchers Week 22

199.8 pounds!

My weight is finally below 200 pounds! Actually, it did dip slightly below that mark at least twice in the past few weeks, but by Wednesday, my weigh-in day, it was always back up over 200 pounds. This is probably the first time my weight has been this low since my freshman year of college, although I am just guessing about that since I didn't pay much attention to my weight back then.

I lost three pounds since last Wednesday, which means that the Weight Watchers website once again scolded me for losing too much weight. My net weight loss since beginning Weight Watchers in April is now 31.6 pounds.

It's Been a Few Days

It has been a few days since I have blogged. I am slowly getting software reinstalled on our computer. All of the essentials are installed, but I have a few things to finish adding to the computer. I have to say that Windows is running noticeably faster than it had been.

This weekend I saw a couple of movies. First, on Saturday Mel and I rented Fracture, starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. We picked up the movie at Mr. Movies on our way back home from an hour-long walk. It was a very good movie. In the movie, Hopkins's character shoots his wife in the head then waits for the police to arrive, confessing to the shooting. The rest of the movie shows his trial, with Gosling's character as the prosecuting attorney, as the antagonist tries to get off from the attempted murder charges.

Then on Sunday, I got together with some friends to see The Simpsons Movie. This was also a very good movie. Much like an episode of The Simpsons on TV, the movie's plot changed directions several times toward the beginning before settling on a main plot line. There were references to occurrences in the many seasons of The Simpsons that added to the humor.

Prior to going to see The Simpsons Movie on Sunday, Mel, Emma, and I went to the baptism of the baby of one of Mel's former coworkers. After the baptism at the church, we went to a party at the former coworker's boyfriend's parents' house. They live just a few blocks away from us. We had a good time there, although I did eat a bit more than I think I should have. I still think I am on track for losing weight this week though, so I shouldn't worry too much about that. But I guess we'll see about that tomorrow morning.

Computer Issues

For the past several months, our home computer has been extremely slow, so today I decided to backup all out data files onto our external hard drive and reformat the hard drive. I figured that this would take care of any crap on the computer that is bogging down its performance. I did this this morning before taking Emma to her six-month doctor appointment. Besides the appointment and going to Wal-Mart to get her pictures taken, I worked on restoring the computer for much of the day. I had some issues getting the Internet working once again. Apparently, the drivers for the Ethernet controller were not on any of the CDs I had. Fortunately, the DSL modem I have can be connected to the computer via a USB connection. This allowed me to get online where I was able to find the necessary drivers. Now I am reinstalling the software that we actually use. This is taking a bit longer than I predicted it would, although the computer itself is much faster than it had been recently!

Six Months

I can't believe that it was six months ago that Emma was born. She is half a year old today! It doesn't seem like it has been that long. In these six months she has changed so much. She now has some teeth, can roll over completely (requiring that a gate be installed above the stairs in our house to keep her from rolling down them), and she is now eating baby food, not just formula. She is also making all sorts of noises, more than just crying, She has recently begun making growling noises, and of course she also laughs quite a bit.

She looks like she is about ready to sit up on her own, and she may begin crawling soon. She has her six-month doctor appointment tomorrow and in the afternoon we are getting her picture taken. Hopefully she smiles this time. She would not smile for the photographer for her three-month pictures. Anyway, we do have plenty of pictures of her smiling that we took ourselves.

Read for the Record

Today I will be reading The Story of Ferdinand, written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson, to two classes of students at an elementary school in Coralville as part of Jumpstart's Read for the Record which is sponsored in part by the company I work for. This is the second year for read for the Record. Last year, The Little Engine That Could was read to more than 150,000 people. One goal for this year is to break last year's record. The purpose for this event is to raise awareness about disparities in early education, supporting early education, and fundraising for Jumpstart. Tonight, Mel and I will be reading the same book to Emma.

Weight Watchers Week 21

My weight is now up to 202.8 pounds, making for a gain of 1.2 pounds this week. Considering all the eating out I did this weekend while in Minnesota, including two trips to McDonald's, this doesn't really surprise me.

After two weeks of weight gains, I am going to make a couple of changes in how I follow my diet this week. First, I am going to record every little thing I eat for the entire week. This means that I will curtail my snacking on foods that people set out at work, or if I do eat something, I will determine the number of Weight Watchers POINTS it is and record it! Second, I really need to be getting regular exercise. This is an important part of the Weight Watchers program, one which I have been largely ignoring the last few weeks. I will have to start making the time to get some exercise.

Vote for My Photo!

A week or so ago, I posted this photo of a spider that was outside my office. Besides posting the photo in my blog, I submitted it to the Cedar Rapids Gazette for their summer photo contest. I thought it was a good photo, but I was quite surprised this morning to learn, quite by chance, that it won the contest for the week. Of the ten photos that were candidates for voting, my photo received forty-eight percent of the votes cast! Anyway, now the Gazette has the eight winning photos posted and is taking votes for the best of those photos. I would appreciate it if my readers would go to their website and vote for my photo. Thank you in advance.

Sick Girl

I got to stay home from work for most of the day today. Mel noticed this weekend that Emma hasn't been feeling well. It looked like she had come down with a cold, and maybe an ear infection. Since I have a fairly flexible work situation, where I am able to work from home or shift my work hours somewhat, I stayed home with Emma today. The only problem was that I hadn't brought my work computer home since we were going out of town for the weekend. So, Emma and I took a trip to Iowa City to pick up my computer and some work to work on. I didn't get a whole lot done during the day because Emma was quite a bit fussy, especially this afternoon following her doctor appointment. So instead of working much this afternoon, I got my work done this evening after Emma, and Mel, had gone to bed.

It turns out that Emma just has a cold, otherwise she is fine. I should be able to return to the office tomorrow.

Grandma

Before returning home from Minnesota yesterday, Mel, Emma, and I stopped to see Grandma one more time. I wrote in my previous blog posting how Grandma is doing. From what I have been told, she hopes to make it to Christmas this year, but I do not believe that others share her optimism. I was told that she may go downhill pretty quickly once all of her friends and family have stopped by to see her, and I think we were among the finally people who hadn't yet stopped by to visit with her. Hopefully we will be able to make it up to see her again in the coming months, but this may have been the last time we get to see Grandma.

Minnesota

I have been in Minnesota this weekend with Mel and Emma. We left Friday afternoon after Mel and I each got home from work and we arrived at my sister's house in Woodbury around 9:30 Friday night. Emma slept for most of the car ride up here, only really waking up when we stopped at McDonald's in Clear Lake, Iowa, for dinner. Betweeh feeding her the baby food squash we had and her bottle of formula, as well as taking time for us adults to eat, I think we spent about an hour at the McDonald's. That has to be the longest I have spent at any McDonald's.

Yesterday morning we did some shopping at Babies "R" Us. We needed some new car seats for Emma as she is about to outgrow the one she has. We had some coupons for Babies "R" Us, but the closest one to where we live is in the Des Moines area, so we thought we'd stop at the one near my sister's house. Now we just have to figure out how to fit the two car seats into the car for the drive back home.

After shopping, we all headed down to Hastings, Minnesota, to see my grandmother who is in a care center there. She is doing pretty well considering that she is suffering from cancer and has decided to discontinue treatment for it. She is sometimes hard to understand when she is talking because she tends to switch around consonants in words she is pronouncing. She also has a tendency to use the wrong name or to refer to people using the wrong gender or relationship. Nevertheless, we understood most of what she said. We are planning on stopping there on the way back home to see her one more time before returning to Iowa.

Before seeing my grandmother yesterday, we had lunch at Green Mill with my aunt and uncle who live in Cottage Grove. It had been a few months since we had seen them. We had a nice lunch of pizza before heading back to the care center to see my grandmother.

For dinner yesterday, Mel, Emma, my sister, and I went to Saint Paul to meet some of my sister's friends for dinner at Fabulous Fern's. They had really good food there. I would recommend it as a place to go for my coworkers who occasionally come to the Twin Cities for work, but I am not sure I could give them adequate directions on how to find the place.

Voice Overs

A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine brought in the fall catalog for classes offered by the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department. One of the classes was titled "You're On the Air." It is a class about how to get into voice-over work. A few years ago, one of the people with whom I ride on RAGBRAI mentioned to me that she thought I would be good at voice-over work. Since that time, it has been something that I have been interested in, but I just haven't had any idea as to how to get into it. I had mentioned this desire to my coworker some time ago, so when she saw this class, she thought of me. Today I registered for the two-hour class that is being taught early next month. Now I don't want to even start thinking that this will become a new career for me, but if I can get into it, voice-over work could help to supplement my income, and it could be fun.

Weight Watchers Week 20

Well, I gained 0.6 pound this week. This is just the third time in the twenty weeks I have been on Weight Watchers that I gained weight. My downfall seems to be weekends and the inability to get myself back on track after the weekend. However, my weight loss has required me to start buying some new clothes. I had three pairs of jeans with a waist size of 36. Those were getting a big baggy, so on Monday I bought two pairs of jeans with a waist size of 34! I have no idea when I last wore clothes with that small a waist size. It was probably when I was in college, and it was just a few years ago that I was wearing size 40 jeans! So overall, I think I am doing pretty well.

Perhaps this bit of news will help me with the weight loss and then the eventual maintaining of my weight. The Gazette reported earlier this week that T.G.I. Friday's has decided not to put a restaurant by Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids. I enjoy Friday's and had been hoping that they would return to the area, but I guess that will not be.

Staying Home Today

After waking up this morning, I was not feeling very well, so I emailed my manager and some coworkers to let them know I'd be staying home sick today. After dropping Emma off at daycare and stopping by my voting precinct to vote in today's school board election, I returned home to recuperate. It's been over a year since I have stayed home sick from work. The only sick time I have used this year has been for Mel's or Emma's doctor appointments, so it's probably alright that I miss a day of work.

Home Improvement

Today I got around to taking care of a home improvement project that I had been meaning to get to for a while. I stained the deck! I bought all the materials I needed last weekend when I started by cleaning the deck. Since then, everything that had been on the deck has been sitting on the lawn at the bottom of the stairs from the deck. Thankfully, we didn't need to mow the lawn this week, otherwise everything would have been in the way. The lawn does need mowing now however, so tomorrow afternoon, I'll put everything back on the deck so that I can mow. Now I need to find the time to pull the weeds from the large patch of dirt where our bushes used to be, so I can plant some grass seed there. Maybe there will be time some evening this week.

Nerd Test

Reading Side Notes and Detours, I saw that she had taken a test to see what kind of nerd she was. She ended up being a history/literature geek. Taking the test myself, I have affirmed what I have long known. I am a cool nerd king! Of course, the fact that I am watching The Empire Strikes Back while taking this quiz only serves to reinforce the 98 percentile rating I received in the Sci-Fi/Comic category.

New iPods

I've had my black, four gigabyte iPod nano since November 2005. Now, less than two years after joining the millions of iPod users in the world, my iPod is now two generations behind. Apple just released new versions of their iPods. Shown on the right is the new iPod nano. This new model has a slightly larger screen and is a bit wider than the nano I own. The new version can also play videos and has a longer battery life than my iPod does. Apple also released a version of the iPod, called the iPod touch, that resembles the iPhone, having many of its capabilities, although not the phone itself. My iPod nano is still working quite well, but I have to say that if I were in the market for an iPod today, this would be at the top of my list.

Weight Watchers Week 19

Somehow I managed to lose 2.4 pounds since last Wednesday, giving me a total weight loss of 30.4 pounds since beginning Weight Watchers nineteen weeks ago. I was really expecting my weight to be approximately what it was last week. I had started the week counting points really well, but over the three-day weekend, I was not as careful with counting the Weight Watchers points as I could have been. We had Godfather's Pizza on Sunday which made me exceed my weekly points. I did actually look up the points for each slice, using the nutritional information available on their website, but I didn't enter all that I ate into the points tracker on the Weight Watchers website.

With my weight now down to 201 pounds, I am very close to being below 200 pounds, which is a goal that I would really like to reach, and it is definitely in sight now. Last week I indicated that I wanted to get my weight down to 187 pounds. After talking with my wife and a friend of mine this weekend, I may not try to get my weight that low. They both think I'd look way to skinny if I got my weight down that low. I do at least want to get my weight low enough below 200 pounds though so that even if it fluctuates some, I will still weigh under 200 pounds.

Bitter Dregs

With Mel working this weekend, Emma and I have been watching the third season of Star Trek on DVD. Ok, Emma probably couldn't care less about watching Star Trek, but I have been enjoying it. Watching the episode "Plato's Stepchildren" this morning inspired me to look to YouTube for a particular video clip from the episode. Here, I present Mr. Spock singing the song Maiden Wine!

The Spider at Work

Earlier this week, I noticed a fairly good-sized spider sitting in its web in the garden next to the path up to the building I work in. It has been there all week working on its web. I had one of my digital cameras at work this week to take some photos for our internal web site, so I decided I'd take a couple shots of the spider in its web.

After doing a little research, I think the spider is a Argiope trifasciata, also called a banded garden spider. If anyone has any better information about the spider, please let me know.

Gas Prices

I don't often complain about gas prices, but I have been astonished lately about some gas price changes. It seems like every decrease in gas prices by a penny or two will be followed the next day by an increase of greater magnitude. Yesterday I noticed that gas has decreased in price by four cents. Then on my way home today, it had jumped up a whole dime a gallon! I recently read a prediction that gas prices would drop to $2.25 within a few months. I just do not see that happening.

A Practical Use For Mathematics

A team of Cambridge mathematicians has recently used math to show that actress Jessica Alba has "the ultimate sexy strut." Apparently, it's because the ratio between her hips and her waist is close to 0.7, the sexy ratio, as it can now be called. I'm sure many of my readers will be surprised to find that mathematics can have such practical applications.

Weight Watchers Week 18

This morning my weight was down to 203.4 pounds, 1.8 pounds less than last week's weight. This gets me back to the weight I was on Monday, August 6, the day I left for my business trip to Philadelphia. Now the change in my weight from the start is 28 pounds. I have 16.4 pounds to go before I reach my goal of 187 pounds.

Last Week for Shorts

With Labor Day falling on September 3, next Monday, this is the last week for quite some time that I get to wear shorts to work. I'll be sure to take advantage of the shorts-wearing opportunity while it lasts. Starting next Tuesday, it's back to long pants for me, at least until after Memorial Day next spring.

Company Picnic

Mel, Emma, and I went to Mel's company picnic today in Tucker Park in Hiawatha. I enjoyed meeting some of Mel's coworkers. I had heard a lot about some of them. Now I can put a face to each of the names I hear when Mel relates to me about her day at work. We had a good time. The food from Nelson's Meat Market was really good. We also had a visit from the Peppy's Ice Cream truck, courtesy of the company Mel works for. Toward the end of the picnic, we got tote bags that had small gifts in them, a company-logo water bottle and baseball cap. Some of the bags also had an envelope with an additional prize. In our bag was an envelope containing a Visa gift card. That was pretty cool. The only thing about the picnic that wasn't great was that I ate too much, but of course, I have no one to blame for that besides myself.

Green Beans

I tried feeding Emma green beans again last night. She doesn't seem to appreciate them as food. Instead, I think Emma prefers to use the green beans for a facial.

Weight Watchers Week 17

This week I lost 0.6 pound, which is less than I would have liked to have lost. However, since I ate a bit much a couple days in the week, and since I didn't keep good track of my points this week, I am happy with the weight I managed to lose. This brings my weight down to 205.2 pounds, leaving me with an additional 18.2 pounds to lose before I reach my goal of 187 pounds. This will put be 5 pounds under the maximum healthy weight for my height and age.

Dinner at Grandma's

Last night we went to my grandmother's house in Keystone, Iowa, to celebrate her birthday and to have dinner. We also got to see an aunt and uncle, my sister who we hadn't seen since around Mother's Day, and my cousin and his wife who we haven't seen since January.

The first thing we did when we got to Keystone though was to check out the grand opening of the new Keystone Turner Hall. It was a very nice facility with a very big bar and a six-lane bowling alley. This was Emma's first trip to a bar. The new building replaced one which burned down a little over a year ago.

Dinner was good. We had broasted chicken from the Chuck Wagon Restaurant in town. They weren't too busy when we went there to pick up the chicken as everyone in town was at the Turner Hall.

Ann "She-Devil" Coulter

According to reports, John Edwards has apparently referred to Ann Coulter as a "she-devil." I can't say that I disagree with him one bit.

Weight Watchers Week 16

As expected, I gained weight this week. I didn't really follow the Weight Watchers plan while I was in Philadelphia for work last week. I have a real weakness for food that I do not have to pay for. Anyway, I gained 2.4 pounds for the week, making my total weight loss since beginning Weight Watchers 25.6 pounds. This gain isn't too bad, and after all, it is just the second time in the sixteen weeks I have been participating in Weight Watchers that I had a gain for the week.

I should be able to get back on track with weight loss, although I will have a couple of obstacles this week. First of all, I am getting together for dinner with a friend tonight. We're going to Bennigan's, and they do not publish nutritional information on their food. That will make figuring out my points tonight a bit more difficult, although I think I will be able to estimate the points. Then on Saturday, we are going to Keystone, Iowa, to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. We'll be having either broasted or fried chicken. I should be able to determine the points values for that, but I know it will be relatively high.

That's a Lot of Money!

FOX News is reporting that a South Carolina inmate is suing NFL quarterback Michael Vick for $63,000,000,000 billion dollars for stealing his pit bulls, as well as for other infractions. That is an awful lot of money! Later on in the article, it reports that the inmate wants $63 billion dollars backed by gold and silver delivered to the gate of the prison.

Whoever wrote the story apparently does not know the difference between 63,000,000,000 billion and 63 billion. See, the lawsuit says he wants 63,000,000,000 billion dollars, not 63 billion dollars. That means he is actually seeking $63,000,000,000,000,000,000 (sixty-three billion billion dollars or sixty-three quintillion dollars)! I do not know if there are $63 quintillion dollars even in existence. Of course, I bet the inmate has little chance of winning any sort of lawsuit.

Furthermore, the FOX News article, but not the plaintiff's lawsuit, also misuses the dollar sign in their article. The put a dollar sign before the number and the word after the number. They need to pick one or the other, not both. If I say $1 dollar, that's just wrong. I should have written either $1 or 1 dollar. With both the dollar sign and the word dollars, the units being represented are dollars squared, and that makes absolutely no sense at all.

Salmon Pizza

Waiting for my flight from Saint Louis to Cedar Rapids, I decided to try the salmon pizza at Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner. It is really quite good! They put a dill spread on the crust after baking it. Then the entire pizza is covered with smoked salmon. I figured I wouldn't be able to try it back home, so I'd get it here. I would definitely try it again, especially if my company is paying for it.

The Phillies

Tonight I went to my very first Major League Baseball game. In fact, this was the first professional sporting event I have ever been to. As you can see from the umbrellas in the photo to the right, it was raining at Citizens Bank Stadium this evening when we went to see the Philadelphia Phillies play the Florida Marlins. Had the tickets not been purchased last week, I am guessing that we would have decided to pass on going to the ball game. However, our twenty-dollar tickets to the game had already been purchased, so we decided that we might as well go.

We did have some problems getting to the stadium. Despite the fact that the stadium was relatively close to our hotel, we missed the first half of the game because it took a very long time for the cab to pick us up from the hotel! Once we got there, we all got some ballpark food for dinner. Three of the five of us, my manager and the employee of our subcontractor who was here excluded, went to our seats on the pavilion deck where we proceeded to be rained on while eating our food. We eventually decided to stand below the deck watching the game among the crowd who had apparently decided to stand in a dry region of the ballpark rather than becoming soaked from the rain.

It was a lot of fun watching the game. I would really like an opportunity to go to another major league sporting event in the future. Since we are in Philadelphia, and one of the coworkers I was with was originally from the Philly area, we were cheering for the Phillies. Unfortunately they lost to the Marlins tonight. It was then that my manager, who used to live in Florida, told us that he had just decided then to cheer for Florida.

We were able to get a cab ride back to the hotel relatively easily, although I think the driver overcharged us as the cost was about ten dollars more than it cost to get to the stadium. After hearing our destination, he just gave us the price for the ride; he didn't start the meter. At least the cost of the ride can be put on the expense report.

Two Days Down, One and a Half Days to Go

I have finished with my first two days of meetings in Philadelphia. I know have just one day left of meetings with the full committee with which I am meeting. Then Friday morning I have to meet with just a couple members of the group to ensure that we all recorded the same information. After meeting Friday morning, I'll be headed home.

Tonight was the first time I left the hotel since I arrived Monday evening. The group of us from work walked to Ruby Tuesday, the only restaurant within walking distance of the Philadelphia Airport Embassy Suites where we are all staying. It was nice to have a dinner outside the hotel. The hotel restaurant was good last night, but it took a long time to get out food, and the menu is quite limited. After dinner, the four of us stopped at the hotel bar for a couple of drinks. It was nice sitting down with coworkers who I don't see too often since they work in a different office from me for socializing.

Flying

I hate flying! Actually, it's not really the flying itself that I hate, it's the takeoffs and landings that I really dislike. I don't know why, but I get nervous about those parts of the flight. Besides taking off and landing, I really hate the experience of waiting for the flight. Both of the flights I was on today were delayed. My flight from Cedar Rapids to O'Hare was delayed by about half an hour. At that time, I was thankful that I had a layover there of about an hour and a half. Well, it turned out that I really had nothing to worry about as my flight from O'Hare to Philadelphia was delayed by almost two hours! That means that I ended up not arriving at the hotel until about 10:00. I had planned on arriving around 7:30, giving me time for dinner. As it was, I ended up having to grab something at O'Hare to eat on the plane. I suppose what I ended up grabbing, a chicken sandwich and a banana, was healthier than whatever I would have gotten when I got to the hotel, but I was kind of looking forward to ordering room service, which I have never done before. I guess I'll have to do that some other time.

I would much rather hop in the car and drive somewhere. Perhaps I just feel better when I am in control of the vehicle in which I am travelling. Riding on an airplane, I have absolutely no control. Of course, it's not practical to drive everywhere, and I don't dislike flying enough to keep me from doing it when it's the best way to get somewhere. I suppose I better get used to flying more as travel for the project I am working on now at work will necessitate flying. With the project I had been working on, all travel for me was by car. I liked that much more. However, now I'll have a chance to earn some frequent flyer miles on the company dime.

Weight Watchers Week 15

This weekly weight-loss posting is a couple days earlier than my normal schedule. However, I am going to be out of town on a business trip this Wednesday, so I weighed in this morning. I figured that my weight would be down a little, but I wasn't expecting the loss of 1.6 pounds since Wednesday! I can actually feel the difference in my weight this week. Oh, I definitely noticed a difference before, but yesterday for the first time, my size 36 shorts actually felt a bit loose. Hopefully they get me through the summer. Then next summer I can get some new shorts.

We'll see how I do with next week's weigh-in. I am currently sitting at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids awaiting the first of my two flights which will get me to Philadelphia for work. This is the first time I have flown for work, and it will also be the first time I will be in Pennsylvania. I don't think I'll be seeing much of Philadelphia while I am there though. Our meetings will be taking place in the hotel in which we are staying, but a group of four of us from work are planning on going to a baseball game while in Philadelphia to see the Phillies play the Marlins.

Hardee's

When I got home from RAGBRAI last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time skimming through the week's newspapers that had accumulated in the house. Upon reading the paper, I learned that the first Hardee's restaurant that I ever worked at, at 324 Edgewood Road NW in Cedar Rapids, had closed. I first worked at that Hardee's in the summer of 1990. Had my family not moved to Waterloo at the end of the summer, I likely would have kept working there during the school year. Instead, I continued to work there each summer through 1995 as I lived with friends in Cedar Rapids. I had eaten lunch at this Hardee's a few times in the past couple of years since returning to Cedar Rapids, and it never seemed to be too busy. I guess that's why it is no longer open.

The second Hardee's I worked at was the one by Crossroads Mall in Waterloo. I only worked there for about a month in 1991. I started working there toward the end of my senior year of high school. Once I graduated, I moved into a friend's house in Cedar Rapids for the summer, as I indicated above, so that ended my employment at this particular Hardee's location. Several years ago, this Waterloo Hardee's closed. The building was vacant for a while before it became a Chinese buffet. That restaurant closed a few years back. The building has since been torn down.

The third Hardee's restaurant I worked at was located in the Plaza Centre One building in the Pedestrian Mall in downtown Iowa City. I worked there while I was a student at the University of Iowa during the 1991-1992 school year. This location has also closed. I do not have a photo of this location to share.

The last Hardee's location that I worked at was in Maucker Union on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls. I worked there much of the time I was a student at UNI, working there off and on from 1992 through 1997. I also worked there a couple of summers between different teaching jobs after I graduated from UNI. A lot of people really hated working at that Hardee's, and I admit that from time to time, I didn't care for it. In fact, I did quit my job there a time or two, but I kept going back.

Besides carrying the regular Hardee's menu, the UNI Hardee's also had a side restaurant, named the Hardee's Panther Deli, which sold mostly cold sandwiches, as well as a few other things such as soup, chips, and nachos. The deli was a fun place to work, especially in the evenings on weekends. It often wasn't too busy there, so I was able to get some reading done for classes I was taking. On the weekends, the deli had more of a laid back atmosphere. Also, for a while, movies were shown on Friday nights (it may have been Saturday, I don't remember for sure). Depending on where the movie screen was set up, it was sometimes possible to view the movies while working.

The Hardee's location on the UNI campus also closed several years ago, just prior to a remodeling of Maucker Union. I haven't really had a chance to check out Maucker Union since its remodeling as it's usually been closed in the cases that I have been on campus.

Now, with the closing of the Edgewood Road Hardee's, every Hardee's restaurant that I have worked at is now closed. I guess they just couldn't survive without me.

Tax-Free Shoe Shopping

With Iowa's eighth annual tax-free holiday on clothing happening today and tomorrow, Mel and I decided to go out and buy some new shoes. We went to Famous Footwear, where they were having a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. Were it not for the sale, and the fact that we both were really in need of new shoes, the idea of saving the six percent state and local sales taxes would not have been enough to get us to make our purchase. With the sale, we spent $85 on shoes, saving $5.10 in sales taxes.

In the past, I have noticed that clothing stores often have better sales in the weekends following the two tax-free days that occur the first Friday and Saturday of August. Another thing I have notices about the event is that the media often refer to it as a "tax-free weekend." It's not the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, during which the tax is not collected. Rather, it is a Friday and Saturday. Sure, that encompasses part of the weekend, but calling this a tax-free weekend is not really correct. Besides, it's just most clothing items that cost less than $100 that are tax-free, not anything else, except of course those things that are always tax free.

Freaking Out

Around 6:45 this evening, I got a phone call from my mother. She sounded quite upset on the other end of the phone saying that she couldn't get a hold of my sister. At first I didn't understand what she was talking about, but she then informed me about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, over the Mississippi River. My sister works in Saint Paul and lives to the south and east of there, so she shouldn't have been in the area of the bridge collapse, but not being able to get a hold of her made my mother nervous. I tried to reassure my mother that she probably couldn't get through to my sister because the phone lines were probably quite busy up there, nevertheless, I started to become a bit worried myself.

After changing the TV to CNN so we could see what was going on, and watching that for fifteen or twenty minutes, my mother called back to let us know that she had heard from a relative who had head from another relative who had heard from my sister since the bridge collapse, so we knew she was OK. That was quite reassuring, although I still wanted to talk to her for myself.

A little while later, my cell phone rang with the ring tone which I have assigned to my sister, so I knew it was her. As I knew she would be, she was just fine. She had been at home when the bridge collapsed. In fact, she hadn't even known what had happened. Apparently, she was on the phone with a friend when the call was dropped. A moment later she looked at her phone to find that she had three new voice mails. After listening to them, she did call people to let them know she was alright. Fortunately all of her friends and our relatives in the Twin Cities are alright. I do have a coworker who is in the Cities for work this week, but I don't think she'd probably be in that part of the city. I'm sure we'll here from her tomorrow.

Wow!

I was just checking to see how people have stumbled upon my blog recently and I was not surprised to find people searching for RAGBRAI XXXV pictures. What did surprise me was that, as of this time I am writing this entry, my blog comes up first and second on the list on Google when searching for RAGBRAI XXXV pictures or RAGBRAI 2007 photos. A moment ago is was first for RAGBRAI 2007 pictures, but not anymore. So I guess I may be losing my top listing at any moment. What surprised me is that I even beat out the Des Moines Register's website in these two searches.

Weight Watchers Weeks 13 and 14

I did not have a weigh-in last week since I was on RAGBRAI, away from any scales. Since my last weigh-in two weeks ago, I managed to lose 2.4 pounds, bringing my total weight loss since beginning Weight Watchers to 26.4 pounds. Because of this weight loss, I got my 25-pound milestone star! Yippee! Now I just have 5.1 more pounds to lose before my weight is below 200 pounds!

Math Conference

A few weeks ago, I asked my manager at work if I could go to the Midwest regional conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Kansas City, Missouri, this fall. At the time, he did not think I would be able to go, but he would check. The fact that I have not yet gone to a conference for work would be a plus in my favor. Well, I got an email from my manager today authorizing me to go to the NCTM conference in Kansas City. The last time I was an an education conference was the Iowa Association of Middle Level Educators meeting in Des Moines, which I went to when I taught at Highland Junior/Senior High School in Riverside, Iowa. I think this conference will be bigger than that one. Hopefully I am able to attend several interesting sessions when I go in October.

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!