Another week

Another week gone by. Yikes.

What have I been up to? Well, I'm writing this on my new iPad. Yes, I have invested in a 64 gig wi-fi iPad. I'd been thinking about getting a Nook, but it didn't make sense to me to spend $260 when for a bit more I could get the iPad that can do so much more. So yes, iPad it is.

I've ordered a hard case for it. I know my life, I need a hard aluminum case to protect it. I look at my work laptop and it's all scratched up from being in my backpack. I don't want that to happen to my new baby. There's another case I'm looking at for when I'm at work going between meetings. That one won't be ready until mid to late July, so I'll wait on ordering that one.

The weight loss with the Bristlecone Biology of Burn is working. I dropped 8.6 pounds the first week, gained back 2 the second, then dropped 6.6 pounds this week. I probably would have dropped more this week, but I had a co-workers wedding reception and dance last night. Between a glass of merlot and some chocolate, I had a bit of a carb hangover this morning.

What's a carb hangover? Well, when you've gone high protein, high fat, very low carb, especially no sugar your body gets into a certain groove and moved towards using body fat to provide glucose for the brain's needs. You add in sugar and alcohol and the body goes back to it's glucose mechanism. Not a good thing. It's as bad as a full on alcohol hangover. And like an alcohol hangover, a bit of sugar helps take the headache away.

Rhubarb. I love rhubarb. One of the vendors at the farmers market yesterday had organic rhubarb for $3 a pound, so I picked up 3 pounds. While I was baking the bacon, sausage and pork chops for the week, I chopped up the rhubarb and set it to simmering down. I added only a half cup of sugar, just enough to take a bit of the tartness out. YUM! I've been eating it straight out of the pan. It would be even better with ice cream or some heavy cream.

Chael is in the shop getting fixed. I wrestled him onto a trailer yesterday and got him up to the shop in Fridley. They took him off the trailer, I handed off the Kuryakan Iso grips and flew the trailer back to the rental place. They were supposed to put the new chain and sprocket, as well as the grips, on him yesterday. I'll pick him up on Tuesday, provided the boy can give me a ride.

Haven't said much about the boy lately. He's been up to his eyeballs in his own stuff trying to get the new Reader pushed out and the patches for the older stuff. He hasn't been able to do my RFC's to get the uninstalls done. That's OK, I knew that would be the case. What's been funny is how the SCCM team lead is dealing with it. There's one guy that's just a slacker - compared to the boy who has closed over 400 tickets, this guy has only closed 100 since last September. This guy now has to pick up the slack for not only the boy but the co-worker who got married, as she's out until July 6 and then may be gone for 60 days cause she's at her 2 years being a contractor.

See how things go. I suspect the SCCM team lead found out how hard the boy's job can be on Friday when they were trying to figure out how to put together an uninstall collection.

No plans for next weekend, being 4th of July. Haven't been invited anywhere, so I may just take a day ride on Chael. I've been itching to go hit some of the county parks and lakes that aren't too far out of the cities. I know I'll need to work during the weekend if I want to take Monday off, so I'll have to go see about getting a new monitor or two. LCD this time, no CRT's for this kid. One thing at a time.

I suppose. Need to go take the rhubarb off the stove, get it in the fridge. Take a few more bites before I put it away ;-).

Luck...

Some days I don't realize how incredibly lucky I am.

Case in point: Chael. I've been hearing some noise from him since sometime last summer. I asked the place where I stored it at to take a look at it over the winter. They didn't, and the noise continued. I called today and told them I would be willing to pay for a mechanic to take him for a test run. Bring him in, they said.

Got over there, the mechanic took him for a run. He comes back after the run... The chain is so loose that it's hitting the engine - that's the noise I've been hearing. The links are so weak after the chain stretched that it's a wonder the chain didn't break and take out the engine.

Now to ride home after hearing that? I called on every angel, arch angel and spirit guide I have favors with to get us home safely, which we did. Chael is getting trailered back up there next Saturday.

We ordered a new chain and sprocket while I was there. It will take at least 5 business days for those to come in, so next Saturday will work out fine. They will also put the new Kuryakyn grips that I ordered. They can't put on the throttle lock due to liability issues. Still, the grips will be nice to get done professionally.

More luck than sense... Not always true, but this time... yes. And I am very grateful for it.

Mid June already?

The older I get, the faster the days go by. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not so much.

The good news is that the BOB (biology of burning) diet is working. I've let go of 8.5 pounds from Monday morning to this morning. This week hasn't been the easiest. I haven't been totally craving sugar, although last night would have been very easy to give in to some chocolate or wine.

It's an addiction to sugar. What I'm finding is to not resist it - what you resist persists. It's moreso acknowledging that my body is expecting sugar, wants its desires fulfilled. I understand that and I consciously chose to not fulfill that short term desire in favor of the longer term goal.

Did cheat twice this week. My body was craving milk on Friday, so I gave in and had a glass of 2% milk with lunch. I also had two chocolate disks that I get from Whole Foods - they didn't taste that great. The milk I wasn't worried about - it has enough protein and fat to balance the carbs, and it kept me from being hungry three hours later.

Now that I know this glucagon thing is working - the longer I go between meals the more glucagon can be produced - I can deal with the hunger pangs. Short term vs long term.

Thinking of short term vs long term.... The question came up from the PM this week as to whether I'm going to stay or not. It's been rolling around in the back of my head, but I really hadn't made a decision until it came out of my mouth. I said yes to staying.

No word on when I'll become an employee. The PM and my boss are still trying to work through a budget and anticipate costs on things they know nothing about. They are trying to do that in the middle of my boss trying to get Windows 7 up and running.

Lots of things will be fast tracked in the next couple months. Looks like I'll be in the middle of it.

May I have another, please?

The old saw goes that God/Universe only gives you what you can handle. Some days I wonder about that.

On top of the shenanigans of last week, I got word Monday that I had another funeral to attend this week. An uncle on my dad's side died Monday morning. The funeral was yesterday.

I haven't had much to do with dad's side of the family. There was one Christmas where the clan was at my parents house and I was pretty much completely ignored by all the cousins. That was the end of my associating with them on a regular basis.

Because of that, they were really surprised when I did show up yesterday. No one was expecting me to be there. Talked to the guy that rents my farmland. His daughter is about to give birth to twins next week - first grandchildren and the first I'd heard of it. The family about dropped their jaws when they saw I was there.

After the funeral I went back to the house to chat with the family. Discovered that one of the people I work with is a sister-in-law to my cousin's wife. That will be an interesting conversation.
We talked about the various memories of those who have gone before now. Stories of helping others move, the various sayings, things like that. All the things that made them unique.

As a side note, I went for a walk with the boy Wednesday to talk about the work situation. I wanted his perspective since he's dealt with the PM, he knows our boss and he knows me. I told him about getting hit not only with the PM, but the lockout, the health stuff and then the funeral. He mentioned something about grief.

Here's the catch - I'm not grieving for this uncle or the aunt that died a month ago. They weren't a daily part of my life. I would grieve more for the loss of the boy were he to do something stupid and lose his life than I will for any of my blood family. My created family I will grieve for when their time comes. They have had more impact on my life, shown me what family could be like, and are people I actually care about.

All that may change as I work through letting go of the weight and changing the hormones. More layers to surface, things to deal with.
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The financial issues will soon be taken care of. The credit union had no problem extending my loan, didn't blink at the request. I've got a call into the association's lawyer to find out how much the payoff to them will be. Then I can get the new windows ordered, pay for the siding, and get them completely out of my hair. Get the other bills paid off and I can breathe a bit easier.

The health issues are already starting to turn. I decided in prelude to starting the BOB diet that I would cut back to three meals a day this week, trying to go at least 5-6 hours between. The idea is to give the glucagon a chance to really burn up the fat.

It's also been a test to see if I can stay away from the sugar and simple carbs to blunt coming off the sugar addiction. So far, so good. Yesterday was a challenge with the off schedule for the funeral. I won't be back on a normal schedule until Monday. That starts the broth fast for two days, then starting the BOB plan.

Now, if there were just enough bandwidth to get the VPN up and running...