C'mon Weekend!!
2006-02-14, 3:51 p.m.

Day 541 C�mon weekend!!

Geeze � only Tuesday and I�m already looking forward to the weekend. Guess there isn�t much to look forward to this week. There�s a rumor floating around that Zach & Jill will be stopping in this weekend � while Cindy is off in Florida. That is the only thing keeping me from being a 100% bachelor this weekend. Well, as close to 100% as a married guy with kids can get.

I�ll have to talk to Z and find out when he�s planning on being here, maybe I�ll do up a nice dinner for them. Jambalaya, maybe a gumbo, maybe just some smoked brats, bbq beans Dinosaur style and a tater salad�. Could go with roasted taters, or again, something Dinosaur style. Hmmmm. Might be time to email the boy and see if he�s solidified his plans.

Been keeping to my schedule at the gym. Making nice progress on accumulating mileage on the ellipticals. Had a wee bit of a slip in the weight losing category, only shedding a quarter pound last week. I totally blame the celebration luncheon we had at work last Thursday. The sandwiches were too good. We actually had a choice of breads, not just the weak old soft rolls. So I had two sammies. The cookies were the real problem though. Oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and those macadamia nut/white chocolate beasties. Limited myself to two of each. Paid the price too. Now it�s time to climb back on the wagon and resume the 1 lb per week loss rate.

Not much else to add. Kicked some serious booty at bowling last Thursday. Position round. We were in second place, so we got to bowl the 1st place team. Took 6 of 8 points. Now were still in second, but now only 2 points back. Not sure how the third & fourth teams made out. Much further back than them and there�s a gap starting to form in the standings. If we can hang in there another 5 weeks, we�ll be duking it out for first come the last week of the season. Not a lot of prize money in this league. Last year we finished 6th and netted about $130 per man. It might go up about $5 a man as ones team�s position improves. Maybe. Best part of last weeks bowling? I was the teams high bowler for the night. Only the second time that�s happened all season. Considering I�m averaging 193, John was at 204 and Dave was 224 (and he�s not the highest in the league either!!) we witnessed a minor miracle last week. Sad part was I still didn�t even hit Dave�s average for the night. He just had a really off night and I was throwing pretty well.

Trying to gain support for a new project at work. We have a circuit board set that�s been hanging in there for 4 years without a major overhaul. The main board is actually a 10 year old design. There�s up to 4 circuit boards involved, which we may be able to combine into a single board at a cost savings of several hundred dollars. We�d be looking forward some with this new design, trying to anticipate future needs in our field. Good part? There seems to be support in upper management to do this. Bad part? I might get left holding the bag for the re-design. Scary. Never done a micro-controller before, much less a 32 bit processor. Could be real fun. If we do a combine, I�d like to see the board divvied up some for the design tasks. We�ll see. It comes down to how many man hours management is willing to pay for the job. We�re kind of project-less at the moment, so we have man hours to spare, just need to find a way to justify the costs. That�s what I�m off to do now � build a business case. More fun is hard to get. (I kid)

Trying to find out what the better half wants to do for dinner tonight. Being Valentines day and all, this could be a touchy subject. Last year, I went and left flowers and a card on Cindy�s desk at work. Nice flowers too � a living arrangement that she could keep on her desk for a little year round decoration. Know what she got me? Nuthin. So if she has no desire to go out for dinner tonight (Applebees, of a few local mid-range type places), so be it. She hasn�t exactly spent the last couple of years trying to be someone I�d want to extend myself for on Valentines day, so I�m thinking my efforts will reflect hers. Passive-aggressive, yes, but perhaps it will spark future debate, i.e. a raging argument where she tries to justify her behavior based on everything I�ve done wrong in the past 25 years.

Now you see why I�m itching for the weekend to get here? I take her to the airport 3:30 � 4:00 Saturday and I�m a free man for the next 4 days. Apart from a little dinner and quality time with Z & J. Cindy gets to fret about her dad, how to best sell his house and get him moved back up north. If she needs me, I�ll be at the gym.

Update � maybe no gym tonight. Dinner suggestions were met with a positive response. Well, ok, not exactly a negative response. Think I�ll skip aerobics tonight (in the interests of dinner and matrimonial bliss) and instead do some sort of modified workout tomorrow. Maybe a quick 5K run (25 minutes?) and 2 sets on the weight equipment (another 25 minutes). That ought to net 500 fit points or so, more than compensating for tonight�s little soiree. Now I just need to see what Cindy really has in mind.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 202.5 on 2/11/06 (Misbehaved at a corporate luncheon apparently)
Target: 180 by 7/1/06
Next weigh in: 2/11/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 2/9/06: 121.51
Miles with cooldown: 133.92
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

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