Thanksgiving

Some pictures from Thanksgiving:

Not dead

I know I've received a couple worried voice mails.


I'm not dead. Just busy. =)


Nothing to post either, unless you're interested in the regressed housing prices for the greater Tacoma area, the 20+ page report on it, and a slew of other things that would cure insomnia.

Take a couple minutes out of your day

...and read and look at the current pictures out of the Congo.


http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/congos_crisis_worsens.html

A Congolese child carries two boxes of high nutrition cookies inside the courtyard of the Mercy Corps clinic where the UNICEF and the IMC (International Medical Corps) distributed the cookies, mostly to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) living in a camp in Kibati about 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) north of the provincial capital of Goma, on November 4, 2008. (WALTER ASTRADA/AFP/Getty Images)

Just try to take those cookies away.

Just in case:

Just in case you were not 100% sure Ken Block is having too much fun with his Subaru; I am here to show you the new way I'd like to be skiing this year...

For those other veterans (a bit late)

I love my car...

Now, to just have enough money to do this for a day. Turn up your sound:

Ken Block - Co-Founder of DC shoes, and now pretty much full time rally / subaru driver.... shows off his skills:


Again, turn up your speakers. I call shotgun

President Obama:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/the_next_president_of_the_united_states.html

Busy

Sorry about the lack of updates, both here and on Twitter.

I'm alive. Finally had a chance -- well I just put off homework because I couldn't wait any longer -- to go through some of my photos from the past month (including the Museum of Flight).

I think I have at least one that I should get blown up.

This one, at full resolution, is pretty darn nice:

From 2008-10-29

Okay, so it wasn't about my pictures at all. If it wasn't for Jeremiah and Amy wanting a little help getting a Christmas card together, my pictures would still be on there. But Sam, their son, gave me a great reason to pull them off.

From 2008-09-01

From 2008-09-01

Sunday Update (10/5)

This maybe a bit crass, but Steven Colbert explains the financial mess nearly perfectly:



Not much this week. Spain's WRC Rally going, Singapore F1 night event went off very nicely (and very very pretty).

Still plugging away at school, its going to be a tough couple first months as I re-train my brain to be in school mode. Anyone that wants to be bored to death is welcome to call and have me explain economic principals to them.

At least one of the books this quarter is remotely interesting. "Why popcorn costs so much at the movies". I'd always assumed they are just greedy bastards; but there's some other logic to it supposedly. I haven't made it to the popcorn chapter yet. ;-)

*THE* TV Episode Guide

Okay, here's how I use the following guide. Normally I just make this for myself, but I figured I'd share. In another window, I open up my Gmail account, and bounce over to the "reader". I then go down each show, right click the "RSS" link (copy it), and paste it into the reader under "add subscriptions"

When the reader lets me know there is a new show to watch (and I have time), I usually watch it through the Streaming player (Fox / Hulu). Otherwise, I grab The Pirate Bay link (about 24 hours after the show airs) - using uTorrent (if you forget the process, check one of my past posts). I try to do this as infrequently as possible as I really do want to support the streaming media idea so that other networks (CBS, ABC, NBC) get on board in a much more useful way.

So, the ones without a "Hulu or Fox" link require a download and waiting. I will continue to update this list and re-post it from time to time. If there is a show you absolutely love, and you think I'll love...let me know.

In order of how much I enjoy them:

The Daily Show --- HULU --- HULU RSS

The Colbert Report --- HULU --- HULU RSS

Top Gear --- TPB Season 12 --- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder

Boston Legal --- TPB Season 5 --- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder (plenty of 'online' support for this show, but no good way to stream it. The ABC Player is way too annoying)

House --- Fox On Demand --- Fox RSS --- TPB Season 5 (There is an 8 day "lag" on streamed Episodes, hence TBP Link for a Fox Show)

How I Met Your Mother --- TPB Season 4--- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder (plenty of 'online' support for this show, but no good way to stream it)

Grey's Anatomy --- TPB Season 5 --- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder (plenty of 'online' support for this show, but no good way to stream it. The ABC Player is way too annoying)

30 Rock --- HULU --- HULU RSS

Chuck --- HULU --- HULU RSS --- TPB Season 2

Lipstick Jungle --- HULU --- HULU RSS

Fringe --- Fox On Demand --- Fox RSS

Family Guy --- Fox on Demand --- Fox RSS

Heroes --- HULU --- HULU RSS --- TPB Season 3

Dancing with the Stars --- TPB Season 7 --- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder

Celebrity Apprentice --- HULU --- HULU RSS

The Office --- HULU --- HULU RSS

The Amazing Race --- TPB Season 13 --- MyTVRSS Episode Reminder

Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles --- Fox On Demand --- Fox RSS

Cops --- Fox On Demand --- Fox RSS

Sunday - September 21st

First one of my attempts at a "weekly" Sunday post. We'll see how long I can keep this up. Thank you for everyone that filled out both communication profiles for me. Its made me realize when they said the MBA program is a collaborative effort with not only your classmates, but your family and friends - they were not just talking about married people, and their kids. I'm sure this will not be the last time I call for your collective input. Thank you in advance.

Some of you might have noticed a little "Twitter" thing off to the right side of the blog. Its my attempt to make sure if you don't hear from my for 6 days, you know I'm not dead. I can update that part of the website from my iPhone (with Twitterific), including pictures and google map links to location. Each update takes easily less than 30 seconds, which is something I hope to be able to continue through my MBA process.

6 days from now, I have a 35 minute presentation on Web 2.0 and business communication. Luckily its with 4 other people, so its not nearly as daunting as it sounds. For me, I've always thought I had a pretty good understanding of Web 2.0, but trying to explain it to someone that doesn't, and in a way that seems meaningful has proven to be a bit of a challenge.

Then I came upon a video from a professor from the Kansas State University. Leave it to a cultural anthropologist to really bring you into the difference and the RESPONSIBILITY of web 2.0. This is one of the better videos I've seen on youtube, ever.



I know I promised the 'full TV' episode list for this week, but so many shows are not in full swing yet, it is hard to make the link complete enough and/or useful enough to warrant posting it yet. There will be one.

A couple random pictures from the week that made me smile:

I need your help

Okay, so I need *your* help in writing a paper. Please, if you have a couple minutes to waste, answer either one of the links below. If you have a couple MORE minutes to waste, do both.

*******IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION******:

Answer as if you were ME. So, when its say, I find it hard to imitate the behavior of other people, it means "Bryce finds it hard to imitate the behavior of other people".

Please be brutally honest. All I need is the scores at the end; so I'll never know exactly what you said. :-)

This one is a PDF File: Communication Profile #1 (I need the XX / XX / XX score)

This is a website, and faster: Communication Profile #2 (I need just the final number at the end).

Thank you. And remember, answer all questions as if it was asking it about me. If you want, you can take it a second time for yourself and I'll be glad to tell you what it means about you.

Hah, I'm already putting off homework.....

So, I killed my cable - but I love some of the prime time dramas. I'm going to post how I keep them all straight, but first I thought it would be interesting to go through the options. Also, I figured this background will be necessary before I just throw my whole "list" up here that I use.

ABC Player: No way to tell if the episode is available in HD, unless you go to the "HD Showcase". If you select "full screen", the episode looks like CRAP. The first commercial breaks required a "click to continue". Absolutely unacceptable. I'm not even going to spend the time to link you to them as an option.

Sadly, if you the HD, the commercials still require you to click to continue and though if you want to watch in "full screen" (you know, because its a nice beautiful HD Picture) - it just maximizes the window and you still the start bar on the bottom and the window bar on around the picture. Yeah, thanks for the help ABC. You suck. Full screen should be FULL SCREEN.

ABC's Grade: D+

NBC - I had to install the "Windows Media Center Plug-in for Firefox" in an attempt to use their new DirectNBC service, which supposedly lets you download episodes. After it completely failed to work, I tried it in Internet Explorer as well; but just got so frustrated with the whole process I gave up.

The normal NBC player isn't horrible. The commercials advance on their own, and full screen goes full screen. Sadly if you want HD, you can't stream it - you have to go through that bullshit process above. They at least stream "normal" broadcast quality, which is nice enough for me.

NBC's Grade: C

CBS - Worthless. HD picture the movement was blurry, and the frames were jumpy - not to mention I couldn't find a single full episode on their site. All "clips" and such.

CBS's Grade: F-

Hulu - The saving grace to the legal online streaming. RSS (so you can setup a single place to check for new episodes), good full screen, lots of shows, easy to jump around between times - if you make an account, it'll keep track if you close your browser where you left off.. its nearly perfect. (HD is still limited to a "gallary" and not linked into the shows; though most allow you to up to 480p - which looks pretty darn good).

Hulu's Grade: B+

Fox - Okay, I wrote about Hulu before hitting Fox (I almost forgot!). Wow, Fox is brillant too. They let you bounce between HD / non HD seamlessly, RSS your shows, watch them easily, etc. Nearly perfect. I even signed up (which was absolutely easy). Kudos to Fox for not making me go through a bank level signup process. I will actually RSS my Fox shows here over Hulu.

Fox's Grade: B+

The Pirate Bay - Illegal, and the best. I'd gladly download all my shows from the broadcaster WITH commercials intact. Why they haven't figured out an easy way to do this, I dunno. Obviously the biggest problem here (besides being illegal) is that you don't get to watch your show immediately. Trade off is super high quality, and no commercials.


TPB Grade: B- (yeah, just B-. It can be a pain waiting. RSS sucks / doesn't work, and there isn't any "quality control".) This is why I use Fox / Hulu over it.

Require software:

ABC, FOX, Discovery, CW - Require "Move Network" player

uTorrent if you want to download any Pirate Bay Shows. VLC Media Player to watch them (you should be using this player over all other ones anyways).


***MOST IMPORTANT PART*** -- RSS -- Not a chance I can keep track of which shows are on when, and new episodes, and which ones I've seen. So, if you have a google account (yes, there are plenty of other RSS options, this is the easiest for most), you have a great RSS Reader.

Go to Gmail, click "Reader" at the top. (or go to www.google.com/reader and login)

Now, when you're at Fox or Hulu, just click the icon that looks like:



Then right click the RSS Icon, and click "Copy Shortcut" (in IE), or "Copy Link Location" in Firefox:



Finally, go back to reader, and click add subscription and paste in the link. Bingo.

Now whenever there is a new episode, you'll get notified of it in reader. Its a bit of work for one show, but once you have all your shows there - its golden.

Anyways next week I will put up a full list of all the shows I'm watching (or trying to watch), and the all the options to watch w/o cable TV.

********

Rant: So what would be the "A+" setup from a network? Well, they are getting there; its just a sum of the parts:

1) Offer all the shows in standard / HD (streaming)

2) There are no need for "clips" to be part of the download site when you have a player that lets people make their own custom (like Fox / Hulu). This is important to keep the site "clean". Let me know when they originally aired, and when you put them on the site. This should be an easy process. I don't want to feel like I'm playing freak'n Stratego with your clips.

3) Allow episodes to be downloaded in HD, in multiple formats (including ones that play on portable devices). Afraid I'll just skip the commercials? Yeah, I will. Make me watch a movie trailer before I get the download link, then let me download it without commercials.

Want another idea? How about linked to my login is "Fox Points". I get points by watching interactive 30 second commercials (yeah, I have to click on something so you know I'm there or better yet, so you know how a 28 year old male responds to said commercial). Hell, if you're good this might actually be fun. I then get to use those points to download OR watch episodes without commercials. Want to get really edgy? Make a Fox Point iPhone application (and soon to be Android App). While I'm taking a crap, I can watch commercials on my cell phone to get my points for when I get home. I'd do it. So would a million other people.

4) RSS / Subscription service. I don't want to guess if I have seen it or not.

5) Post them as early as possible. Part of the awesomeness of The Pirate bay is I can start the download of Heroes before I go to work at 7am, even when its still 13 hours away from technically "airing"... because you already aired it in Japan, and some great Asian dude posted it for me. If I come home for lunch, I get to watch it 8 hours before any of my friends. Remember those Fox Points? Yeah, guess how many the average user would blow to be able to watch their favorite show a bit early. You get people to actually WATCH and INTERACT with more commercials than ever.

Final Part: The most irritating thing to me is that all these ideas are VERY doable. There isn't anything in there that would make this problematic for any of the studios. Hearing them complain about Tivo and about piracy when all the normal consumer wants is for them to show a little innovation. And don't even get me started on the recording industry.

Blog when I have time? Neh.

So, I've realized if I wait to throw a blog up until I have time, there won't ever be a new blog. Therefore I'm going to try something as my schedule gets busier and busier: Sunday morning blog post. One post per week, on Sunday. Hopefully pretty long, usually on a slew of subject. For now, a slew of topics to "catch me up"

For those that don't know why I'm so busy (besides the obvious that I'm in a job that works very closely with the large financial firms that seem to be going tits up faster than rationally acceptable), I'm starting my MBA tomorrow (Tuesday, 16th). Oh joy.

Resolution Challenge (through August) - The battle gets closer:
Me: 23 Points (I lost a point for being overweight in August)
James: 23 points
Doug: 22 points
Kristy: 22 points

Wedding Photos - To add to the business, I also just finished shooting a wedding (and delivering the pictures). Went pretty well:

Pretty Pictures

WRC - New Zealand: By far the rally that is on the TOP of my list to see. English speaking country, BEAUTIFUL landscape, and historically a very close race (this one didn't disapoint).

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3


New Week Main Topic:

What (to watch, in my opinion), and also Where and How to download it if you missed it (or don't have Cable).

Double Standards:

A couple great clips from the double standard that generate from the republican party:

Was that my weekend?

Dark Knight, IMAX in Seattle
Crash Friday at 2am in Tacoma
Lunch with Nanhee in Olympia
Dinner with Parents in Olympia
Crash Saturday in Olympia
Baptism for Jack in Longview
Breakfast & Golf with Scott and Steve in Longview
Dinner in Longview
Crash Sunday in Olympia
Breakfast with Parents in Olympia
Lunch with Nanhee in Tacoma
Dinner with Alex, Scott #2, & Nanhee in Olympia
Tropical Thunder in Olympia

..

And somewhere in there I was attempting to learn my new 50mm lens so I can be a proficient photographer on Saturday for the wedding I'm shoot. I completely destroyed that 3 day weekend.

Sadly, for my resolution challenge the blogging and bar hopping always come easy - but for the first time this year, I'm going to lose a point. As of the end of the month, I was *way* over (165, to the goal of "under" 162.5). So.... there goes my lead.

Hopefully some of my hard work in pictures will makeup for the low blograte the last week:

Behind my house - just a short bike ride:



First couple shots with the new lens, its a fixed zoom, so the only way to get more or less in the frame is to ... move forward or back. The upside is the immense control of the depth of field (very low depth in this picture)



Again, more playing - I'm very happy with it.



As mentioned above, spent some time in Longview with Jack (and his tag-alongs). ;-)



Jack, "Psst Dad, even I know no sleeping in Church"



I don't think they are happy about being Grandparents. What do you think?



Jack, with a great-grandparent:



Sup.





I sure hope that camera tastes as good as my fingers.



And after many missed shots, finally.... a smile:




Cook meat - Men will come:



Even the little ones.

NRB, WRC, HD

I'll work back to front on that title.

I was surfing along today and ran across a HD link to what it is like to stand on the 10m platform in the Water Cube in Beijing. I get nervous just looking at the picture, let alone thinking what it must be like to have thousands of people screaming for you. Click the link, click "full screen", tell it to stop rotating (its annoying) and just take it in (click and hold to "look around". Absolutely stunning:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/20080821_10M_DIVING.html


Made slightly more impressive if you were watching last night as the 15 year old Chinese Chen Ruolin, down 7 points the round before, on her last dive and behind the leader (from Canada) that just nailed her dive -- then watching Chen Ruolin bend physics and skip the whole "entering the water" part. Was brilliant.

****

WRC - Quick & Dirty. It was the Rally of Germany last weekend, and for the previous 6 years it has been in the WRC, Loeb has won it 6 times. Its a tarmac rally, which usually aren't my favorite, but it entertaining to watch none the less.




Spoiler, this year isn't any different, but its still absolutely amazing to watch him drive these roads.





Day 1
Day 2
Day 3



***

Lastly - NRB = Nerve Root Block. Going to be an interesting weekend. This Saturday morning I'm off to attempt yet another step in the saga that has been my recovery of the drunk'n dominions delivery driver decimation. I've tried not thinking or reading too much about step as it involves shooting something (probably out of a sizable needle) into my back.

Oyi.

iPhone is brilliant

(Please do not call my old cell - it is work only now. If you do not have my new phone number, let me know... its my number I've had since I was 12).

For a very long time I have said Apple hardware is overpriced and overhyped. I'll give Steven Jobs his due, he's been really good at the hype machine. I, stand here today though, completely corrected. When the iPhone first came out, I was very much in the camp of "overpriced and overhyped".

Its still overhyped, but now at $199, I can't really say its overpriced. For the last year I have been using a VX6700 through Verizon, and anyone that has talked to me knows that I absolutely HATE that phone. Its looks like an bloated oreo, and very often than I care to admit to, it runs like you'd expect a Windows machine to run. Half the time when someone calls that phone, the ringer breaks up as the phone it so overloaded with crap that it doesn't have the processor power left to RING.

Okay, enough about how much I hate my old phone - its my old phone because I bought an iPhone (3g, 8gb). You've seen the commercials, and I had just about every high hope you could imagine. I expected pretty much everything to be flawless and intuitive.

Conclusion: I have never been so impressed with a single piece of technology in my life. It is half the thickness of my soggy oreo, yet somehow manages to do everything you ask of it. I keep thinking of new things I would like it to do, and it just does it. I've been consistently shocked the last week+.

So what have I asked my little "phone" to do?

• Manage all my email account with greater easy than I can do on my computer.
• Pull up a youtube video that my parents were going on about
• Record the horsepower, 0-60, and 1/4 mile times in my car
• Keep me entertained with reflex games, and old school labyrinth marble games
• Have a battery life that goes longer than expected (I'm on a 3rd day of usage)
• Access and play all my downloaded videos through TVersity

I could go on (and I will as I work and play through more applications for the phone), but its simply not a phone. For the first time I really feel like I have a full out mobile computer in my hand that doesn't really sacrifice what its supposed to be there for (phone).

If you have an iPhone - and have some favorite applications, leave a comment. I'm going to be doing some more detailed "why its awesome, why its not" application reviews for the iPhone (as I know a couple of my readers do have one, and a couple that are thinking about getting one).

180+ Floors

What does a 180+ floor Skyscraper look like? Go see Burj Dubai in Dubai

Rally Finland

They don't normally get long breaks in Rally - as the last one (just over a month) is considered their "Summer Break". It was long enough for me - that's for sure.

If you haven't been following the rally championship this year (and want to), now is the time to pick it back up. The Finland rally is one of the fastest ones of the season, and they do a nice recap of the season a the start of the coverage.

Oh, I don't make this stuff up about Rally being popular. I swear:



Rally Finland

Finland Torrents:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3


And just a note from China that I thought was interesting:

*Huge* picture update

Normally I would post a couple of the better ones, with a quick story, but from Saturday - Tuesday is been a non-stop photo-fest. Just click the picture below and advance through the photos as the Picasa Album has a running commentary of the pictures:

To Colin - From Travis

Touching

Very touching photo journal - the server is having issue this morning, hopefully it'll be fixed by the time you're reading this:

http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/#/0

(click at the bottom of the picture to move to the next picture)

I'm sure we'll be just fine..

psssshhhh Hello, this is your pilot speaking. I do understand that if you look out your window right now it would seem as if we are heading straight towards the ground. Don't be alarmed, this is just a part of our new normal landing sequence.

Oyi, the end of the month

So the cruise ruined me, on a couple different levels. Last night I was having a nice dinner out in Seattle, and the waiter didn't put the napkin in my lap and/or stand a couple feet from the table all night. Not only did the cruise have wonderful food, you got so used to the level of service that nice(r) restaurants around the area seem to pail a bit.

Also, I haven't been able to lose the "cruise weight". Oh, its painful. I have less than 24hr to remove 1 more pound, or I'm out a point for this month. This morning I was in at 163.2..but as you can tell from the previous paragraph, last night was filled with a couple beers at Chopstix (getting in my bar requirement) and followed up by dinner out. I had made the mistake of trying to cut into my weight that morning, so by the time I was tempted with beer and good food, I was way to hungry for my willpower to keep trucking.

Anyways as of lunch today I'm still sipping the morning coffee, and hopeful I can walk / run / bike off some water weight tonight. Yes Mom, I know this isn't the healthiest of options; I don't plan on doing it again.

For those that missed it - Top Gear has blown through their 6 episodes for season 11 back to back (I believe they go on a break now). Very funny and beautiful episodes. If you're a torrent fan, they can be found here, though, as always, the legality of getting a BBC show not offered in the USA is slightly gray, at best.

Only a little over a month until I start my MBA work at the University of Washington; I'm not sure if I'm excited or anxious - or both.

Lastly, for those that made it out for the birthday bash before the cruise - thank you. Was really a great time. Also, if anyone is heading to Apex Karting in Olympia, let me know. I'm trying to work on my lap times (I knew I shouldn't have ever started Karting).

I'm already down 1.3 seconds from my first run around the track with Angie in late June. My scores can be found here. Only 107 thousands until I'm into 29 second lap times. Who hoo.

***

EDIT: Well I overshot my goal, and after a breakfast and a lunch consisting of a soy latte; and a dinner out with Alex & Jenny @ TGI Fridays where I managed to eat just 1/2 a plate of pasta, my July weight was 160.8 - a nice chunk below my 162.5 that I needed. I should skip breakfast and lunch more often (kidding, Mom).

Bye Doug & Avery

Was a great two weeks having Doug and Avery up, but alas, all good things seem to have to come to and end. We managed to get some touristy items in before the end of the trip:

Pikes Place (yes, I need to crop this vertical (5x7) to get rid of the woman eating her hand.


St. Helens:


Water Fountain @ Seattle Center:


Space Needle:


As Doug would say, "Man that camera takes some great pictures." To which, after eating his lasagna, "Man, my oven makes some good food."

If only....

Great Steven Clips

Steven interviews the Sierra Club; I jumped it to the self depreciating part.




For the first time in 33 years on US TV... Rush -- And they come to the Steven Colbert show. That's pretty cool in my opinion.



Rush - behind the scenes at Steven's show -- trying to play their song on Rock Band.

Alaskan Cruise

I wish I had a bit more time to add some explanations to the pictures, but they'll just have to suffice mainly on their own. Besides combining into HDR, these are completely unedited (and crooked / uncropped / etc). Figured I should at least put them up.

Leaving Seattle





First night at sea:



Heading up the Trace Arm














Pure gluttony. I have never managed to pack so much food into my stomach in 7 days in my life. Nothing like a 24hr a day, gourmet, all you can eat stuff-o-thon. Once we figured out we could fit 8 dessert plates at our 4 person table, that was pretty much the end of only eating 1 dessert at dinner.



See, I'm not kidding. That's actually 9 desserts, as an extra one came and was dumped onto the plate next to the heart shaped dessert.

This is of course after eating 4 plates of King Crab, and an appetizer.



Without issue, we ate it all... Avery didn't have enough sugar yet, so she ordered hot chocolate.

And most nights there were at least two corks on the table

Birthday Celebrations - Join Us!

For the 2nd year Alex and I are doing a multi-day, multi-event birthday party. What can we say, we like to milk it. If you would like to join us anytime through the weekend, feel free (PLEASE DO). Shoot me an email / voicemail so I can plan food accordingly.

Friday:

Early Morning (~9am) - Golf @ Allenmore Public Golf Course (just me so far)
All afternoon / evening @ My House (~4pm until very late):
- Texas Hold'em Tourny
- Rock Band
- Dragonforce Showdown (its awesome if you have no idea)
- Obligatory Drinking

Saturday
- Apex Kart Racing - Meet up at Noon - Race when we have critical mass of racers. We'll do at least 1 race, maybe more depending how people are feeling

- After races - Pizza's / Etc at Alex's place until about 5:30pm - where a portion of us head up to Seattle for an Eddie Izzard Show @ 8pm

- After party @ my house ~11pm - Late Late.

Sunday
7 Day Alaskan Cruise. You're welcome to join.

Resolution 2008 - June Update

Okay, so I'm either busy or lazy this month - because I'm well behind on doing the update for everyone in the challenge. Sorry guys - I had actually completely forgot until Doug asked how long until we got an update. Hah. So. Here we go:

Me: I am in maintain mode these days - needing to keep it under 162.5 for the rest of the year. Pushing my limits, I came in at 162.2.... And I have a cruise in July (not to mention a birthday weekend). Might get a bit ugly. The show at Studio 7 (for the rest of my challenge), was a little underwhelming. The location is pretty... bare bones, and it was too hot (no AC) to be really enjoyable. I'd rather see these bands at Fuel.

3 out of 3 points

Kristy: Her business is rock'n (setting patient # records) do to a lot in part to execution of her marketing plan. I'm really happy to see her doing so well. With the weather turning nice, she's moved her workouts outside to long walks and such. I can't blame her.

3 out of 3 points

Doug: Despite some major changes in his life, he's managed to really stick things out (both on the kitchen improvements), and weighing in this month 4 pounds below where he needed to @ 231. For July - Just get to 230. He's on the cruise too, so .. haha, good luck to yah bro.

3 out of 3 points

Tow: James thought it would be neat to copy me, and came in just 4 tenths below his maintenance weight. So the pressure is on for him as well this month - though he isn't joining us on the cruise; so things should be a bit easier. We're still waiting on some pictures from his rafting trip; but since they were taking on a disposable camera, I'll give him credit for it, despite not being posted online just yet. =P

3 out of 3 points


Points:
Bryce 18
James 17
Kristy 16
Doug 16

Kreb vs. Calvin

Bonus points for the first to comment on where I am going with that title (those I have personally told are exempt from playing - sorry).

So, weekend before last, I started the wicked project of taking back my yard. For too long I had mowed the grass (infrequently) and ignored the ever growing, ever expand "extra" green that was around all my grass. True, the lot next to me (community area) hadn't been developed yet, so it was mainly weeds as well - though that is not a valid excuse.

Round one was simple enough, the little area near my front porch. Forrest was on hand to see the battle start



I even had 3+ foot "ninja" (hiding) dandelions. I was impressed, but I was not to be bested:



Haha! Round 1 - to ME!



Unfortunately, Round 2, nature kicked back with with persistent vengeance.



It even attempted to take my dog captive!



BUT NO.. I win again.. Silly plants.



..

..
Of course I'm convinced that the hot weather this last weekend was payback - to which I had no recourse but sweat in agony. Round 3... Nature. =(