How Time Flies . . .

Wow, I just got done posting to the exercise section of my blog. I just posted the results of today's workout. Yes I went to the gym. I realized the last time I posted to the Exercise portion of my blog was way back in September. 6 months. Now I've done a couple of workouts since that posting, but none of them in the Gym. Amazing. I honestly didn't think it had been that long since I had been in the gym. YIKES. I had a great workout today. You can see the whole workout here: Workout Results for 3/31/06. I signed up for the Men's Health Personal Trainer service a few days ago. One of the problems I have with the gym is I get bored doing the same thing day after day. So the MHPT service creates workout plans and eating plans for you to follow. My hope is that this keeps the workouts varied enough to keep my interest. I've set it up to create workouts for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I missed Wednesday this week and the MHPT has a "postpone workout" button that you can re-schedule a workout. So I did the workout today that I was supposed to do on Wednesday. Today's got pushed off to Monday, etc. I'm combining Strength Training with Cardio this time too. So my workouts will be longer, which is fine. In the past I've only done cardio trying to focus strictly on weight-loss. I've decided to not be a slave to the scale and simply want to feel better about my body. So in some of the texts I've read lately, they suggest strength training in combination with cardio with the theory being the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn day to day just maintaining your body. Sounds like good advice, so I thought I'd give it a try. I knew when I saw the workout the MHPT had designed for me that I'd be reducing the weights. Even when I was lifting a fair amount 15 years ago, I wasn't doing the weights it had set for me. For example, it wanted me to do 3 sets of 8 reps @ 180 lbs for the bench press. Well, that wasn't happening and I didn't even attempt it. So I lowered it to 115 lbs to start. The first set was very easy. The second and third were only slightly challenging. So I'll probably up the weight by 10 lbs or so the next time it pops up in my workout routine. I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but that's a good thing. Overall I enjoyed the workout and it did keep me entertained. My only issue (you knew there'd be one didn't you?) is that I have chronic shoulder pain in my right shoulder. It's an old swimming injury. I have "swimmers shoulder" in my right shoulder. Basically this is where the tendon that connects your collar bone to your upper arm bone "snaps" across the joint. It's mildly - quite painful when the joint gets inflamed. It started acting up a couple of weeks ago when I painted the ceiling in the kitchen and today I just gritted through the pain on a couple of exercises. Unfortunately there's nothing much they can do for it and I'm simply hoping that by strengthening the muscles around the joint, it will work itself out.

I think Teri and I are going to head out this weekend and see if we can't find a bedroom set we find acceptable. We want a King size bed for our new place. We're also fountain shopping. We want a cool rock fountain for the front yard. We found one, but it's pretty pricey. So we're going to try to find something similar at a lower price. We'll see. I think we'll also try to finish loading the POD and have it taken away as well. It'll be nice to have the driveway back. As for the house, we had a bit of a flood the other day. See, once they get all the plumbing in, they pressurize the pipes and fill them with water. Then before they get too far on the house, they can tell if there are any leaks. There were. :-) It happens all the time, so it's no big deal. Unfortunately they didn't do this BEFORE the sheetrock went up so they had to replace a section of sheetrock in the family room. Better now than after we move in! So sheetrock is again delayed. Hopefully they'll be able to finish it up next week and get the inside painted. Hopefully. We also talked to Teri's step-dad, Fred. He's a dirt guy and has a dump truck. The builder is going to allow us to have some top soil delivered before he gets to framing the other houses around us. That will save us a LOT of wheelbarrowing dirt from the driveway to the back yard. We'll have 60 yards (that's 6 dump trucks full) delivered sometime next week. Then we can get started on the back yard right after moving in. I also priced sod and at $.30/square foot, our back lawn will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500.00. So between soil and sod, we'll have about $1,300.00 into the back yard. WAY better than the $5,000+ the landscapers would have charged us to install it. Sure it'll be lots of labor, but how satisfying will it be? Awesome.

Anyway, have a good weekend.

Peace.

J

Didn't Make It . . .

So I didn't make it to the gym this morning. I had a late night last night. Marcus and I met at the Ram on South Hill for dinner. We had also invited our lender Shawn Portmann to dinner. He generally doesn't show up and last night was no exception. So just before Marcus and I were getting ready to leave I sent Shawn a text message that said "One of these days I'll get to buy you a drink". So he called right after that and asked if we were still there. We were. So he and his girlfriend Emily came up and joined us. Well we had a couple of drinks and Shawn and Emily had some food and by the time we got out of there it was after 10:30. I got home after 11 and by the time I crawled into bed it was well after midnight. I woke up today not feeling 100% and exhausted. I guess my alcohol processing machine needs a tune-up. Boyz weekend? :-) So I didn't make it to the Y today.

I did however make it to Weir's appliances to pay for our appliance upgrades and I got a check to the builder for the remainder of our upgrades he's putting into the home. SO . . . finally all the upgrades are paid for! It's a good feeling to have that all done. I stopped by the house today (go figure) and talked to the builder for a bit. All of our interior doors, the millwork, the interior paint and the lighting have all been stocked in the garage. So as soon as the house is textured and painted inside, they can start cruising on all that stuff. The drywall crew was there today getting it all swept out and ready for texture tomorrow. I doubt the painters will come out on Friday and get started, but they might . . who knows? So starting next week, it'll really start looking like a home inside. I'm psyched to start to see all the different things Teri and I picked going in. I was REALLY tempted to open the lighting boxes yesterday and check out the art glass pendant lights we ordered for over the breakfast bar. But I resisted. I can wait until they put them in . . . I guess . . . :-) The builder's wife called today to talk to us about the tile backsplash in the kitchen. She needed some clarification on how we wanted the tiles. I'm stoked, I drew it up on Illustrator and it'll look pretty sweet I think. Stay tuned for pictures.

I need to find me some more spandex compression shorts . . . I only have a couple of good pairs and I need them for working out. I'm going to research them on the web today. If anyone knows where to find them, hit me up with a comment.

When I got home last night, Teri had certainly been busy. There were about 10 boxes packed and ready to load into the POD. So tonight we'll throw those out there and some of our furniture. I think by this weekend, we'll be ready for them to come back out and pick up the POD. It should make moving day a lot easier since nearly 1/3 of our stuff will be out of the house. We'll just have to take some of the bigger items like the Entertainment center, and other furniture. Should be able to do it in one fell swoop with a 26' truck from U-Haul or the like. We'll probably leave a bit of furniture in the house for the open house I'll be having in May. Then we can either sell it or move it to the new house.

Anyway, enough rambling for today . . .check in tomorrow to see if John actually makes it to the Y . . .

Run in . . .

So I had a run in with a personal trainer last week. If you remember, I had posted an ad on CraigsList for a personal trainer. I forgot to mention in my ad that yes, I was willing to pay for a personal trainer and didn't expect them to give their time freely to me. So one pointed that little fact out, so I changed the ad. Well almost immediately, I received an e-mail from another trainer. We e-mailed back and forth a couple times and he sent me pictures of his current clients, before and after. I have to say I was quite impressed with the results. This guy was offering to give me a complete plan, diet, exercise, the whole schmear. When I checked out his website, I saw that his rates were $80.00/hour. I asked him if he thought I could see any results if we met 1 or 2 times a month. He said it wasn't likely. I kind of figured that would be the answer. He wanted a once per week session with me. Which would be awesome if I could afford it. But @ $320.00/month, I would have to seriously scrimp and save to make that kind of commitment. His e-mails were a little over the top for me and he was really pouring on the sales pitch. To be honest, I'm not sure what it was REALLY about him that turned me off. He did suggest on more than one occasion that I could sell a number of items I had to pay for the personal training. He had taken the liberty of exploring my website and saw pictures of my motorcycle, my DVD collection, etc. and started saying that if having a trainer were REALLY important to me, I'd make the sacrifice and sell those items to pay for it. Well, to be honest he's probably right. But in my mind, I'm not looking for a drill sergeant. I'm looking for more of a workout companion that has some serious knowledge about exercise physiology, nutrition, etc. and can help me push myself. So that ended poorly.

Today I signed up for the Men's Health personal trainer on-line. OK, I'm not delusional, I know this isn't going to be the same thing. BUT it does offer customized workouts and diet plans based on your lifestyle. Then as you complete certain workouts and plug in your numbers and what you eat, it adjusts accordingly. Supposedly. I'm hoping this will be enough of a variety to keep me coming back for more. I'm going to head to the gym tomorrow morning and give it a shot. I've got my first workout routine in hand. 3 sets of Barbell Bench Press (although I already know the weight is way too high), 2 Sets of Pec Deck Flys, 3 Sets of One Arm Dumbell Bent-Over Rows, 2 sets of wide grip front pulldowns, and one set of Machine lower back extensions. Most of the rest of the weights should be doable for me, but I'll probably adjust them a bit when I'm at the gym. Also it wants me to do 45 mintues of cardio on the stair climber. So cool, I've got my workout ready. About 1.5 hours of strength training and cardio. Jumpin' in with both feet.

Steve has been using a body fat scale at home to measure his progress on lean body mass and body fat percentage. I did some research today on the BF scales and from what I could determine, they are not all that accurate. So I'll stick with my 400lb capacity shipping scale for now. :-) I would like to get my BF tested by calipers at the Y sometime soon so I know where I'm at. I'd also like to get measured. This will all give me a good baseline to compare myself against.

The boyz have set up our next hike. We're going to do Twin Falls on the 9th of April. I'm stoked. #1 it's good to hang out with those guys and chat a bit. #2, I miss hiking on a regular basis. When I was training for Rainier (4 years ago!) it was cool to have a weekly or bi-weekly hike to do. I need to get back into that habit. If my business suffers a bit because I'm not working as many Sunday's, that's OK. I need to focus on me and the business will take care of itself. No point in having business if you're dead of a heart attack at 35 right?

I spoke to my mom today. First time we've had a normal conversation since Christmas. You may remember my blog post about my coaching call talking about talking to my mom. So that was a good start. I'm excited to see them in May. They're coming up to help us move and to get my old home ready to put on the market. They really are swell parents when you get down to it. I hope they bring their golf clubs up and we can get a round or two in while they're here. They've been practicing a fair amount (It's easy to practice when it's in the 70's every day and you get FREE golf!) and it'll be cool to see how much they've improved since we played last summer. My mom almost got a hole in 1 a few weeks back and they've both been hitting a fair number of Par 3 and Par 4's ... so I have my work cut out for me when we play next. I need to go to the driving range!

Wish me luck on my workout tomorrow. I'll check back in and let you know how it went. :-)

PODS and Paint . . .

So yesterday we had our PODS delivered. This is the coolest thing since sliced bread I'm pretty sure. The truck pulls up and there is this framework around the POD that they affectionately call "Pod-zilla". It has four legs with wheels on the bottom and it basically drops the wheels to the ground and lifts the POD up and then they drive podzilla to where ever you want the POD. Then Podzilla lifts up and over the POD and goes back to the truck. Pretty slick. It's definitely one of those "Why didn't I think about that!" ideas. So we started loading it yesterday and I got part of the garage back. We'll continue to pack over the next week or so and load the POD, then we'll have them back to pick it up and store it for us until the new house is ready.

Speaking of the new house! I was talking to the builder yesterday and he said he thinks our home is scheduled to be complete on April 27th! That's a full month before it was scheduled to be done. And they aren't cutting corners either. They noticed a bow in the wall after the sheetrock was up and they tore the sheetrock back down and fixed the wall. Other builders would have just said "Oh well, it's what happens when you build homes". So needless to say, I'm pretty happy with our builder. So far they've gotten every single one of our upgrades complete. Today they put in the frosted glass window in the master bath. That was the one thing I thought they had just forgotten about, but they picked it up and got it done. Today also, they started painting the house. They got the two main body colors sprayed on and it looks like all they have to do is do some touch up and the trim work. They also graded the front yard too. So after a few days of nothing being done, there has been a flurry of activity in the house this week. The builder seems to think it'll be painted inside this week too. BUT based on how slow the sheet rock guys are going, it'll likely be next week. I don't think the cabinets will be here before the 1st of April, so it'll probably sit for a few days waiting for the cabinets. Or they'll have the millwork guys get started on that. Who knows all I know is we gotta start busting ass on the current home to get it in shape for selling it.



Sunday was a good day, my buddy Dave came over to help me with some work I wanted to get done in the attic. He also happens to be the father of my god daughter Jordyn and he brought her and her sister Nyrie over too. So it was cool to hang out with the three of them. After Dave and I were done playing in the attic we all headed out for some yummy Mexican food.

Saturday I was out in Yelm and what a busy day we had that day! It was one of those "Don't sit down days"! I loved it. I'm convinced I sold 4 homes that day. Although all four couples had other agents and I didn't get to write a single contract, I think I was pretty instrumental in the ones that have been or will be written this week. Part of the territory. Makes me realize how much I want to build my business beyond the point of needing to sit new construction. Or maybe pick up my own builder so I can REALLY see the net benefit of having a site.

Still not drinking soda, but the drive thru has been creeping back into my daily habit. REALLY need to quash that. And the gym hasn't been happening either. Re-focus time . . . re-focus time . . . Goose Frabba . . . .Goose Frabba . . .

Have a great week everyone!

What is it with foam?

So lately I've been noticing a lot of "foaming" cleansers. Hand soap in public restrooms now dispense foam. The new bottle of Dawn we got for the kitchen dispenses foam. And the hand cleaner we have out in Yelm dispenses foam. Is this the next amazing and great invention in America? Foaming cleansers? Was the goo not good enough? Now we've got to turn it into foam? Actually running water and rubbing your hands together to make lather was too much for people? Is this how lazy we've gotten as a society? That now we need pump action foam? We need to save a step when we're washing our hands or our dishes? I don't get it. But then I don't get spinners on rims either . . . so maybe I'm just out of tune with the real world.

Yesterday Teri and I went to Seattle to pick out the granite slabs for our kitchen countertops. The bonus was we got to stop by Elite Floorcoverings in Auburn and see again everything we picked. So it was nice to be able to re-affirm that yes, that was indeed what we picked and we still like it 8 weeks later. The downside was they wanted a check. Ugggh. So I wrote them one . . . it's been an expensive week. First the IRS, now Elite. Next week won't be any better, Weirs Appliances, Tacoma Lighting, and the builder. But then I'll be done writing checks . . . until after we move in anyway. Anyway, we went up to this place in Seattle called Pental . . . WOW! This place is amazing. They have nothing but granite slabs in all different colors. There were some REALLY amazing looking granites there. I never knew there was so much variation in a rock. Unfortuantely most everything there cost more than the color we had chosen, so we stuck with it. We still like it, but wow . . . there were some seriously cool other colors there.

Afterwards we stopped at a garden supply store that looked to have some cool pots and things . . . oh it did . . . and boy were they expensive. Most everything there were antiques of some sort or another. So we took a quick look around and headed back south. I dropped Teri off at my office and did a little more work. Then I headed out to check out the progress on the house. Nothing again yesterday. I'm hoping the drywall guys come out again this weekend to tape, etc. But it'll probably be next week now before they get to it. I did notice an area that they had forgotten to cut out for an outlet and cable connection. So I put a hole in the wall in each location and wrote in chalk on the wall, to remind them to cut them out. :-) I'm so helpful.

Marcus, Teri and I headed out later that evening for some dinner at Famous Dave's. I like their ribs, but I gotta get out of the habit of ordering the full slab. The 1/2 slab should be plenty of food . . . We had some good dinner conversation and finally called it a night.

I'm sure you're on pins and needles . . .

Wondering how my coaching call went this morning, so I'll tell you. It went MUCH better than it did two weeks ago. We started out and I asked her where she came from. Well I wanted to know exactly who was coaching me and what her background was. After that, we dove into the e-mail I sent her and covered many of my points there. I think we got everything out of the way and I truly believe our relationship is the better for it. The main focus of the conversation today was my apparent lack of self-motivation. So we decided to start concentrating on little victories instead of taking the big picture as one whole chunk. (I know you all must be thinking I'm some sort of flake or something) So for example, on my weight loss, we're going to work on my losing 5 pounds by April 16th rather than my goal of losing 45 pounds by the end of the year. 5 sounds totally doable. We also discussed my going to the gym. I still think I need to go 3 - 5 days a week to start, but she wants me to start with one. I just think I'm going to enjoy the other 6 so much that the one will become a pain and I won't have the incentive to make it any more. But I guess whether I'm doing 3, 5 or 1 days a week, it starts with 1 . . . so I'll get up and go soon, maybe even tomorrow. (Hey, stop holding your breath!)

We also talked about my "feeling lucky" about my business and how I'm not feeling so lucky anymore. Well the past three years have been a wild ride in Real Estate. So many people have gotten into the business because everyone thinks it's easy money. Well it's far from easy as most people learn, but there has been a tremendous amount of business out there and many people have done a lot of business just being in Real Estate. I don't want to be one of those people. It scares me. So I've really got to start working my systems and being proactive about the activities I do every day.

Today I'm in a much more chipper mood than I was yesterday. I got out of bed at 6:30, took a shower, and was on the road by 7:15. We didn't have any milk, so I did go to JITB for breakfast this morning. I'll pick up some milk on the way home tonight. I was in the office by 7:30 and got a lot of work done by my 8:30 coaching call. I got my monthly newsletter printed out and ready to go. I'm REALLY excited to see how people react to the new format. So that will definitely motivate me to call some clients over the next couple weeks or so. So if you're on my mailing list, look for a whole new format coming to a mailbox near you soon!

I've been thinking of blogging or podcasting as a marketing tool. I know people from all over actually find my blog . . . not REALLY sure how, but they do . . . so I was thinking of creating a Washington Real Estate blog and/or Podcast. I'd have to be pretty dilligent about keeping it up to date though and I'm not sure I have the time or the content for it yet. It'll have to be something I plan out before I roll it out.

Stopped by the house today on the way out to Yelm. They put our gas stubs in for the stove and BBQ, so that's cool. I think the only thing they haven't done so far then is the frosted glass window in the master bath. Still waiting for that to come in I'm sure. Still no taping or texturing on the walls yet. There was a worker bee out there making sure no nails or screws were sticking up through the floor today and another building the stairs from our Garage into the house. They put the builder lock on yesterday, so now I won't be able to go out there after hours. Bummer.

Anyway, have a great day!

Just plain in a funk . . .

I think I've been in a funk since my last coaching call. And I'm dreading tomorrows coaching call as well. I dunno what my problem is. I'm still not drinking soda, I'm eating breakfast at home most of the time, but for some reason I find it hard to even roll out of bed in the morning. I find I'm not leaving the house until almost 9AM . . and usually that's only on the days my assistant is supposed to be in the office. I want to set a good example for her. But when I'm at the office, I'm not productive. I have lots of business in escrow, but most of it will close in the next month or so and besides a couple of 1/2 transactions and a couple other transactions that won't close until June/July, I don't have much going on. My assistant is bored out of her mind. I've been having her go through the InDesign classroom in a book so that when we DO have another listing, she'll be able to handle doing the flyers, postcards, etc. for it. I'm just stopped right now. I hate blaming everything on my coacahing call from two weeks ago, it's a cop out. So I just need to figure out whatever it is that's going to get me motivated to start doing the things I need to do.

I did start packing my office today at home. My office also happens to contain the closet that holds all of my clothes. The closet in the bedroom is too small for both Teri and I's clothes, so I moved all my clothes into the office closet. So yesterday all the boxes from onlinemovingboxes.com arrived. This morning I put together a wardrobe box and took all the clothes out of my closet that I'm not likely to need over the next 2 months (roughly 1/2 of my closet) and packed them into the wardrobe box. Then I assembled a normal box and started packing up some of the books from my office. I have a S***load of books! I have a full bookcase in my office, a full bookcase in the living room and the two "towers" next to our bed are full of books. I started weeding out some of the books I'm getting rid of. Old tech books that I'm not likely to need anytime soon. ColdFusion, Solaris, CCNA, MCSE, Windows NT Server 4 and IIS Server 4 books. These are all old technologies and part of my previous tech life. I'll take some of them into half price books, others will be recycled and yet others will be thrown away. My goal is to have most of my office at home packed up by the end of the weekend. I think I'll have the PODS delivered next week sometime and we can start loading it up with the boxes we have packed and the furniture that doesn't fit into the current house. That should get most of my garage back so I can continue some of my projects around the house.

I've been kicking around the gym in my head again lately. I need to make this my next habit. I've done well so far with the soda and the drive-thru in the morning that I'm ready for the next habit. I need to go 5 days a week. My goal for the phatboyz contest is to establish a workout routine at least 3 days a week by 3/31/06. Well I know that unless I do it every day, I'll enjoy the days off so much they will again become my habit. So I guess I put up with the pain of going to the "Y" in Puyallup for a couple of months until I move. Then I'll either have a home gym, OR I'll be much closer to the "Y" that it won't seem as much of a hassle to go in the morning. Besides, my parents will be up here in a couple of months and I REALLY don't want them kicking my butt on the golf course either. :-)

I stopped out at the house today . . . no progress in the last couple of days, which oddly is satisfying to me. Knowing it just pushes the closing date a little further back. :-) They'll still be taping and texturing the drywall this week. The electrician was out installing an outlet so the guys have something to plug their gear into while they're working. So it won't be long now. The builder did notice a bulge in one of the walls too, so he had them tear the sheetrock off the wall and get it straight before putting the sheetrock back on. I'm really impressed with our builder. He really has an eye for detail. I really am excited to move into the new house despite my worrying. I think I just have so much on my plate right now that I'm having trouble focusing on what's really important. There's just a couple of upgrades that we requested that should have been in by now that I'm a touch worried about. We requested a frosted glass window in the master bath that still hasn't arrived. Now that the siding is on, it'll be a big pain to replace that window. And we also ordered gas stubs in the kitchen for the stove, and one on the back patio for the BBQ. Those aren't in yet either. Now that it's sheetrocked, those too are going to be a pain. But everything else is getting done as requested. Still waiting to hear from the lighting lady on an issue too. But these are all normal things, so I'm not too worried . . . yet. :-)

Anyway, hope you're all having a good day . . . thanks for reading! Stop by soon. I'll be in a better mood, I promise.

Home Progress Update . . .

So people have been asking me about current pictures of the house and how it's coming along. Well here's a brief update and a couple of photos. The house is at drywall stage. On Saturday and Sunday they installed all the drywall. Yesterday they put the front door and the garage door in. The front door for the second time . . .

Sidenote: The model home was broken into a couple weeks ago and the thieves stole all the appliances and the front door of the model home. So they took our front door and put it on the model to keep it secure and ordered a new door for our home. While the thieves were taking the appliances out of the model, the simply drug them across the hardwood floors, so when I was out there yesterday they were tearing up these beautiful hardwoods and throwing them in the dumpster. Sad really. Now that more people are moving into the neighborhood, this shouldn't happen any more.

So this week they should have the house taped and textured. For those of you not familiar with new construction, they tape the seams of the drywall where two pieces meet or a piece meets a wall or a corner. Then they apply 3 coats of drywall mud to the taped joints and feather it out so the wall is virtually smooth. They sand it and then they can texture the wall. Texture are the little bumps you'll see on the walls of most modern homes. The most common is "Orange Peel" that is it is supposed to resemble the surface of an orange and it's what they'll be applying to the walls in our new home.

Once the walls are taped and textured, the painters will come in and paint the walls. Then the millwork guys will come in and do all the basboard trim, wrap the windows, install the railing on the stairs, etc. etc. Then the painters will come in again and paint all the millwork. I'd guess this will all be mostly complete by the end of the month. This all takes a fair amount of time. I think our cabinets are scheduled to be in around the 1st of April or so. Lights and finish electrical usually happen around that time as well. Then all the floor coverings with the carpet going in last. During the floor coverings, the finish plumbing and the countertops will go in as well.

Teri and I will probably have to go pick out our granite slab sometime in the next couple of weeks. That will be pretty cool. I'll also have to start paying off all the upgrades I've added to the home . . .so lots of checks to write . . . one for appliances, one for lights, one to the builder for the upgrades he's doing and finally one to the floor covering folks for all the countertops, etc. Then I can build it all into my loan in May and get all that money back at closing to be able to do the yard, sprinkler system, air conditioning, blinds, etc. LOTS to think about when you build a house! Lots of costs on top of what you actually pay for the home itself.

Anyway . . . here are a couple recent pictures for you to enjoy!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race . . .

So yesterday we went hiking. This was the first quarterly phatboyz event. You may remember in an earlier blog, I mentioned the "contest" that my buddies and I have for the year to get into shape, lose weight, etc. So we're going to do at least one event each quarter to further those goals. So yesterday we went to Rattlesnake Ledge for a short hike. It's amazing what 4 years and 70 pounds can do to your body. 4 years ago when I was training to climb Mount Rainier, I could almost jog up this trail. Yesterday it was all I could do to make it to the top. You see I have this weird thing with my quadriceps. They cramp unmercifully when they get worked to exhaustion. It happened a lot while I was training for Rainier. I think really what needs to happen is that I need to build endurance in my quads. But anyway . . . so Rattlesnake ledge is 2.0 miles with about 1,160 feet in elevation gain. Not a challenging hike what so ever. Or so I thought. I met Steve at his house at 9 and he, his son Derek and I headed up to the trailhead to meet Erick, his wife Melinda and their daughter Brianna. We headed on up the trail around 10AM. I was definitely in the worst shape of all of them. I quickly fell behind, which was fine because as long as I couldn't see them, I didn't try to keep up with them. Erick, Steve and Derek would wait for me occasionally (thanks guys!) and I would assure them that yes, I was OK. So we were about 2/3 of the way up and Erick makes the comment "I think we're about 1/2 way" . . . I was like "NO WAY! C'mon, we've got to be more than a mile in" but based on the timing I decided that he was probably right. Well right after that, my quads started to cramp. Erick, Steve and Derek were a bit ahead of me and I said to Erick "Hey, my quads are starting to cramp, so I don't know if I'll make it all the way. I'll just keep going until my legs lock up and wait for you guys on the way back down" and they headed off. Well around a couple more bends, the trees started to thin out and I knew I was almost there. So as my quads started to cramp, I'd slow down and massage them and actually talk to them. "You're doing fine Mr. Quadricep, this is no big deal, we got this b***h beat!" The ground became a bit icy and snowy at this point, but I just kept it slow and steady and didn't slip. (Note: I did have my instep crampons in my pack just in case. [yep, I'm a geek]) A few more steps and the milage sign posted 0.1 miles to go! As I approached the top I saw Erick and Steve and I let out a loud "YEAH BOYYYYYYYY!!!" They all congratulated me on my effort. We hung out on top for about 30 minutes taking photos, munching on some snacks and hydrating. It took me 1 hour and 12 minutes to reach the top. I probably used to do it in 45 - 55 minutes, so I've got some work to do. Then the descent back down began and if I thought my quads were sore on the way up, they were really barking on the way down. After the hike, we went to the North Bend Bar & Grill for some awesome Jambalaya. I dropped Steve and Derek off at home and headed home myself. Teri was re-packing boxes in the garage so I snuck a quick hot bath to relax my legs. Then we headed out to the house to see if the sheetrock was hung yet, it was, and back home for some yummy pork roast! We had Marcus over for dinner and had some good conversation and even better food!







Last week I painted the ceiling in the kitchen and was finally able to check that off the list of things to do before I put the house up for sale later this summer. Now that we have the storage unit cleaned out and Teri has been re-organizing all her stuff, I'm going to start packing the house. I'm going to pack up most of my office, some of the living room, and various parts of closets, etc. We're going to have a PODS delivered sometime in the next week or two. We'll load that up and they can store it at their warehouse until we move. Then they can drop it off again on moving day. I think it's going to make moving day much easier.

John Effects The World Economy

So I heard a report on the Bob River's show this morning. It seems as though soda sales in the US have fallen by 0.7%. Now see I stopped drinking soda in late January. Coincidence? I think not. Bow down Coca-Cola and Pepsi . . . I will crush you!

Woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. Yep, snow. We had about 1/4" on the ground at the house, and I snapped a couple of photos of the new home in the snow too. Looks like the final framing inspection has been put off until today. There were a few minor issues that came up yesterday that they were working on fixing to get the final. Nothing major, just a couple of straps here and there. The siders were out this morning too. They removed the siding below the den window so the mason can install the rock there. Looks like they'll finally be done with the cedar shake siding today. So assuming we can get a few nice days here in the next couple of weeks, maybe the painter can come out and get the thing painted! That would be pretty cool. I think the mason can install in the rain too. I saw him doing our next door neighbors under cover of a tarp a couple months ago. So that shouldn't slow anything down. It's coming along quite nicely.



My coach Anne called me this morning. She asked if I had been blogging. I replied "Yes". She said "Cool, I'm going to check it out!" I said "You should, you're mentioned." I don't think she was quite as excited then.

I posted on CraigsList yesterday for a personal trainer. I don't know if I'll get anything, but we'll see. Here's the post: http://seattle.craigslist.org/act/140244291.html. It'll only be live for 7 days, so look quickly!

I don't have much to say today, but wanted to comment on the snow and the World Economy. I think it's a funny coincidence. I know I drank a LOT of Coke, but damn, didn't think it was that much.

Have a good day! Hasta La Vista!

Hello? Is this thing On?

So I've been a bit lax on blogging lately, I'll try and pick it back up again over the next couple of weeks. I'm kind of bummed about my weight loss plan. Well, I don't know if plan is really the right word. I've just tried to make some slight modifications to my overall diet. Like cutting out soda and drinking more water. Eliminating most trips through the drive-thru, especially in the morning. I thought for SURE these two things would help me along the way to losing some good weight. WRONG! So yesterday when I was putting on my pants (sorry if that's TMI) my belt cinched up another notch. I thought, well that HAS to be a good sign and was mildly encouraged. As well as Teri telling me lately that I look like I've been losing weight. So I decided to hit the scale. Well so much for the encouragement. Technically the scale said I'd gained 1/2 of a pound. F***ing scale! OK, I was fully clothed, so maybe that's 2 pounds or something, but still. It certainly has NOT been the dramatic change I was expecting. Especially for giving up two of my favorite "food" items, Coke and JITB breakfast. So yesterday and today I had JITB for breakfast. No coke, but JITB. I'll not go the rest of the week, but I guess I was rebelling a bit. Why is it so f***ing easy to put ON the weight, but such a God D***ed ritual to take it off????? When I was 19 . . . yes that long ago, I stopped drinking soda for a week and lost 12 pounds. No kidding. I've basically been off the soda for nearly 6 weeks now and drinking between 1 and 3 liters of water a day and I GAIN weight? This is why I hate the scale. When I was doing Weight Watchers, I obsessed over the scale and weighed myself every single day. It was almost an unhealthy obsession with the numbers. While I was pretty successful with WW (or ChubClub as Jerry nicknamed it) I did lose 51 pounds over 8 months, the constant figuring of points and the eventual plateau I hit killed that. Now I've gained back 70+ pounds. F***!!!! This is so frustrating. I want the magic pill. I want the metabolism of a cheetah. I wanna kick the S*** outta every single one of the Men's Health cover models. (Yes, even Jason Statham although he'd kill me).

A few months ago, I signed up for this 12 week program at the good ol' YMCA. The thing that I thought was cool about this program is that you had a "login" to the machines. Then you would get "fitness points" to keep track of how much you were working out. But the REAL reason I signed up was that you got a "Coach" to help you along the way. What I told my "coach" is that what I really needed was accountability. If he didn't see me working out consistently, I wanted to hear from him. I figured the accountability coaching in my business was working out really well, so maybe this could work out too. Well, turns out there was no accountability at all. I missed a week with the flu and never heard from my coach. I actually e-mailed him to say why I wasn't there and he responded with basically "I was wondering where you were". Well after missing that week, I made it in once the following week and haven't been back since. Haven't heard from my "coach" at all. I'd love to have a personal trainer, but I've no clue what they cost and I'm sure after my huge tax bill this year, I can't afford one.

I guess I'm just frustrated and depressed about my aparent inability to sel-motivate myself to REALLY eat right and exercisce. Maybe that's why I'm feeling so lethargic lately. I've been sleeping really well the last couple of nights and getting between 7 and 8 hours sleep each night, but I just wake up groggy. I'm not sure what's going on. I think for my May appt. with my doctor, I'll see if I can't have a full physical. But of course with HMO's you're lucky to get 15 minutes with your doctor now days. So I'll have to see if I can't figure that out too. I'm also going to request to be tested for sleep apnea and HOPEFULLY get a referral to an alergist. I seem to itch all the f-ing time, and have for as long as I can remember. I'm probably going to find out I'm allergic to most of the foods I love. So I suppose that'll be a double edged sword I'll get to fall on as well. I'm full of joy and happiness today aren't I?

They should have the final framing inspection on our new home today. Tomorrow they'll likely start insulating and Friday they'll stock the home with sheetrock. So by next week I won't likely be able to look through the walls anymore. AND they'll put a builder key on the home, so I won't be able to go over there and walk through it any time I want. That will suck. I asked Greg, the site agent, if he would be kind enough to put a key box on for me. I told him I'd even give him a key box to use if he didn't have one. That way at least you limit it to Realtors that can go through the home. Oh well.

I'm still pissed at my coach too. She still hasn't responded to the e-mail I sent her, and I'm considering (for the first time ever) blowing off our coaching call next week. I dunno if that'll send a message or not, but it'll make me feel better for a second anyway. OK, I'll quit wasting your time with some unproductive blogging.

Anyway, I hope you're having a good week.

Miscellaneous

So I'll start by talking about my coaching call on Thursday. It sucked. I pay a fair amount of money each month to be coached and I want my coaching calls to be uplifting and energizing and this call was anything BUT that. It just seemed as though we covered the exact same stuff we covered in our previous call. To me it felt like my coach either A) wasn't paying attention last time, or B) has not yet taken a REAL interest in coaching me. Either way, it wasn't good. In fact it was so NOT good that I e-mailed my coach to tell her how disappointed I was and that if we cannot get past some of these issues, either it's time for me to discontinue coaching, or find another coach. I hope she realized how serious I was. She e-mailed a quick reply with a thank you for the honesty and promised to write a more lengthy reply later when she had time OR even squeeze in another coaching call if she had time. I'm getting the idea that maybe her plate is a little full. So we'll see if I get the expanded note.

I had another coke yesterday. That's two for the month of March. This one was in a can and tasted much better than the JITB coke. But I'm back on the water wagon as of late yesterday. I stopped at Safeway today and picked up 4 cases of water to stock Pennington and home, so I'm not looking for something to drink. I can just pick up a bottle. I am concerned why the ingredients of the Safeway Refreshe brand of water include sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride though. Shouldn't it just be plain ol' purified water? More research to come on this.

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JITB, Coke, Electricians and Taxes . . .

JITB and Coke

So I'll just get this out of the way . . . I went to JITB for breakfast this morning and I had a coke. So my initial goal was to drink fewer than 5 cokes per month with the first month being entirely coke free. So I made February entirely coke free and now that it's March, I had a coke with my breakfast this morning. And to be honest, it wasn't nearly as satisfying as I had thought it would be. So they say 21 days to make a habit right? So for 28 days I drank water instead of Coke, I'm hoping that's now the habit and the Coke was just an indulgence. As for breakfast, I paid for it. The damn breakfast sandwich leaked grease all over my shirt, so I had to go home and change. I had a lot to do this morning, so JITB seemed more convenient. I needed to run some cable out to the electricians wiring my house, then I had to be in Lakewood to get the furnace and dishwasher serviced on one of my client's homes and finally I had to be BACK out in Puyallup to make sure my electricians and siders had some good lunch today. I stopped by Papa John's and had a few pizzas delivered to them. They're doing a GREAT job.

Electricians
So yesterday the electricians started wiring our new home. I met one of the owners of the company, Dave and we walked through the home and he asked me a ton of questions. I'm totally stoked that he did because now I have 100% confidence that everything that I asked for in my upgrades addendum will be done. We walked the whole house and went through everything. It's gonna be so cool! While we were talking about the Surround wiring in the Family room, I just asked if I brought my own cable, would he run that instead of what they normally run? He was totally OK with it, so I went to Magnolia Audio/Video and got 100 feet of good speaker cable. For the whole house audio wiring, it's not really a big deal, but if I ever do end up using the wiring they install for the surround sound, I wanted to make sure it was some quality cable. I honestly doubt I can hear the difference between different grades of cable, but just in case I can . . . I may see if I can con the electricians into adding a couple extra outlets in the garage too . . . :-) They never put enough outlets in the garage.
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