Day 57 - August 22nd

Who are you calling a big slacker, narrow-pants?

So it's like this:

It was Jen's birthday (when last you and I spoke) and that involved a lot of food...like this...



..and especially this...



But, at 3pm that Sunday, we got a call from home that someone had done this...



...and this...



...and suddenly our beautiful tomato crop was going to fit into a small basket.

Apparently some kid who had been getting a driving lesson came down the hill behind our house, jumped off the side of the road, hit two cars in the driveway behind us, careened through a couple of trees and crashed through our two vegetable beds, finally coming to a rest along our back hedge, fifty feet from where it first violated the vegetables. Total effing downer.

So the rest of Sunday and a couple of days after we spent time picking what fruit we could, and ripped up the plants.

"But Dunc, that doesn't explain the other ten days you've been AWOL, so what's up, fat butt?"

Oh, that's ust great, beanpole, I don't see you making comments lately? Did I get fatter, is that why you don't want to leave any comments?

Actually, I've been struggling to push below 225, but yesterday, after mowing for two hours in the baking-hot sun I got down to 223. Yes, I went back up to 227 when I drank...like...five gallons of water. Work and home has been hectic, and so other exercise has been mnu-hum-na-hum-da-dum...or whatever. Shut up.

Anyway, it's Jen's mother's birthday tomorrow, and we had an early celebration on Wednesday, when Jen's aunt, uncle and cousin came into town from Rhode Island. I made barbecue ribs. They were delicious, thanks. Sorry you didn't get an invite but apparently you aren't cool enough, so work on that, won't you?

So now, here I sit, late Saturday afternoon, watching "In Plain Sight" on the DVR, thinking about what we might have for dinner tonight, and how I'm going to drop that 7lbs in the two weeks before my Labor Day target. When I began this adventure..what is it, eight weeks ago...I knew it would be tough and that there would be times the weight came off slower than others, but I never really thought about the correlation between losing weight and how frequently I update this here blog. Seems that writing about it keeps me motivated to do something about it, and while I'm not writing I lose weight slower, and it takes more effort. Maybe, probably, I need to get back to doing this a few times a week, because I know that it works better for me when I do.

Your job is to read, and keep me honest and writing. Could you do that for me, slim?

Good.

Day 43 - August 8th

So here's the thing, a little math for you:

Q. L+APO(G+GA)= ?
What is the answer when:

L = Laptop
APO = Accident Prone Owner
G = Gravity
GA = Guitar Amplifier

If you guessed something along the lines of "buggered up laptop" then for the last few days you would have been 100% dead on balls accurate.

Since my warranty expired a month and a week ago, and the help desk people are based in darkest Outsourcistan, I think it's unlikely that they will heed my call for help under the expired warranty. And so, last night, armed with a couple of screw drivers, a spare hard drive, and a cast-iron will to "make this effing thing work", I settled down to make it effing work.

As you can probably tell, I am claiming victory over technology by the application of brute force and adult language.

Yes, victory. I may have just had to install Windows to the spare, significantly smaller, hard drive so I can check the status of the damaged hard drive. And now, it turns out that the laptop, leaping lemming-like from my grasp and clattering against my little amp, causing the hard drive to explode out of the machine, has physically damaged the drive to the point where it won't work ever again. Poop. Well, I guess I have the first item on my 2009 Christmas List.

The what? Oh, the diet! That old thing. Yeah, well, the thing about that is: shut the hell up.

I'm at the lake this weekend to celebrate Jen turning thirty-hmmph, and that means that I will likely put on about twenty pounds because I know what the menu is, and the menu is good.

I will update again once we return home, in the meantime, there may be pictures of the delicious foods, and (who knows) maybe the recipes themselves.