Well, right now, I’m sitting down in the kitchen enjoying a margarita. As is typical, today is our weekly drinks and nibbles night; I guess you could say it’s our way of making sure the weekend gets to a good start. Tonight the nibbles of choice are buffalo popcorn shrimp. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m personally looking forward to it.

Earlier today I went ahead and decided to go ahead and shave my goatee off. I grew it right about a year ago, and I figure it’s time for a change. Unfortunately, I upset Misty a little because I hadn’t given her a picture of myself since losing weight while I had the goatee. (She prefers me with it.) Ah, well… I’ll give it a month or two before I regrow it. Hopefully I can show her pics after I’ve done so and lost more weight.

Otherwise, it’s been a fairly uneventful weekend. We went to Willowbrook Mall, where I bought a couple of belts; I had been needing a new belt for a while as my current belt is ratty. From there, we went to Baker St. for drinks and dinner. As usual, the food was good… once they got my order straightened out. It was also fun watching as a massive storm came over the area.

Otherwise, the only thing of note I’ve done this weekend is set up a trivia bot for #mktrivia. It was a little bit of a pain, but thankfully Sinc did me a great favor in converting Crow’s trivia database into a format my bot can use. Now that the bot is operational, I don’t know if the channel regulars have accepted it, but we’ll see how it goes.

In any event, it’s time for dinner. Ah, well… hopefully this will be a quiet week. We’ll see.

I saw this while browsing around LiveJournal. Words cannot describe… you’ll just have to see for yourself.

Well, it’s the end of another weekend. I’d like to say it’s been productive, but that would be something of a lie. :-) On the bright side, I did reach a milestone on Friday. When I weighed myself, I found I had lost four pounds last week, bringing me down to 227 pounds. I wasn’t expecting to be down so much in a week, but I’m certainly not complaining. More to the point, though, I’ve now passed the 30 pound mark. (I started at 258 pounds.) I now have another 30 pounds to go, and I should be at my target weight. I also tried on an old pair of blue jeans that have a 38 inch waist, and they fit comfortably. They’re more stay-at-home jeans (as they are somewhat ratty), but I don’t think I’ll be buying any new jeans until I get to my target weight. Fortunately, I have a pair of 38 inch Dockers that are new, and old but decent looking 38 inch Dockers I can wear for work. Hopefully I’ll be at the 36 inch size within a decent timeframe. :-)

Mom did me a big favor on Friday night, too. I had called her during the day and asked her what she planned to make me and Dad for dinner, and she had no idea. By the time I got home, I figured I would just make myself some cereal. To my surprise, however, Mom had picked up some sushi from the local Kroger’s for me: a California roll, three pieces of salmon, and three pieces of tuna. :-) Needless to say, I was a happy camper. The only problem I had was the fact that I lacked chopsticks… heh. Still, it was actually decent sushi, and I can keep that as an option if I ever lack an idea for something to eat for supper.

Speaking of dinner, yesterday we took Dad to Saltgrass Steakhouse for his Father’s Day dinner. It was actually something of a surprise, as Mom and I had thought he would pick either Outback Steakhouse or Cheesecake Factory for dinner. In retrospect, either of those would have been a better idea. The fried mushrooms weren’t the best we’d ever had, the bread wasn’t as good as the other places, and Dad’s opinion was that the cow that became his steak died of old age. I also should have warned Mom that the chicken fried steak wasn’t the best, but then I don’t generally care for it in general and she does, so my opinion probably wouldn’t have helped. Ah, well… you live and learn. We’re definitely going to be doing something different for Mom’s birthday, though. Jesse would approve of her choice, though: the Melting Pot. We’ll see how that turns out.

As far as this week goes, we’ll see what happens. I’ve got a couple of projects at work that need to be taken care of, and at least one will require me to work after hours. I’m REALLY looking forward to that, let me tell you. :-p For now, though, I’m going to relax a little, and then do my evening exercise. Fun fun…

I generally avoid watching wrestling as a whole these days. However, I can’t avoid it completely as when RAW and PPV events come on, discussion on #mortalkombat turns to it. In those cases, I mostly turn a blind eye, as it were. However, something happened on RAW yesterday that I heard about where, well… I’ll let you see for yourself. Suffice to say Vince got his first taste of a popular internet meme… :-)

Why didn’t anyone tell me about this sooner?

Two weeks ago, over at the official Nine Inch Nails website, a new NIN album called The Slip was announced. Like Ghosts I-IV, the album is available as a digital download in MP3, FLAC, and Apple Lossless format. Unlike Ghosts I-IV, this album is completely free. As Trent Reznor put it in the post announcing The Slip, “thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me”.

I’ve already gone ahead and downloaded the album in Apple Lossless format, and have added it to my iTunes library. I’ll spend some time a bit later listening to it. Still, this is one of the reasons I have a hell of a lot of respect for Trent Reznor. He broke from his own label, and is now giving the fans what they want at price points that are extremely reasonable. Add that to the fact that his music is still as good as ever (in my opinion), and you’ve got me as a continued listener and fan. :-) I just wish I hadn’t found out about two weeks after its release… heh.

If you want to download The Slip for yourself, you can do so from the official website.

I was reading a story over on FARK earlier this evening about school lunches being unhealthy, and how kids would much rather eat burgers and pizza rather than healthy food, and how they’d rather drink soda than water. I just chuckled and shook my head, and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t so different a few months ago.

Typically I would eat burgers and pizza whenever possible. I’d drink soda relatively often. Snacking was extremely common for me. Dessert was almost required. Not only that, the only exercise I would get would be when I carried heavy equipment between locations. It really was no wonder that I ballooned up to 258 pounds.

These days, though? I actively avoid snacking, even when offered. I drink sodas maybe twice during the weekend, and even then it’s Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Other than decaffeinated coffee in the morning, I almost always drink water. My typical lunch is either a salad or a small sandwich from Subway or Quizno’s. My dinners are reasonable. I also exercise regularly.

In fact, the only time I even eat burgers or have dessert now is when I have my once-a-week splurge meal. Even then, I oftentimes do something like have a side salad instead of fries. In fact, the last time I had fast food (other than Subway or Quizno’s) was before I changed my diet and exercise habits. The funny thing is, I don’t feel a desire to have any still.

It’s just funny to me these days. I used to be a big burger/pizza person, but these days I’m more likely to have a salad, a small sandwich, Chinese, or sushi. It’s definitely different for me, but I have to admit, I’m feeling better for it. If what others say is anything to go by, I’m definitely looking better for it. I’m just glad I can’t see myself falling off the wagon now. This isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle change, and I think I’m used to that now. :-)

It’s been a decent weekend. Right now I’m sitting down in the kitchen and enjoying a drink while waiting on dinner. I’m also writing this post using my cell phone, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to go back and correct some typos…

I did weigh myself on Friday morning. I ended up being down two pounds. So, right now, I’m at 231 pounds. I’ve got the rest of the year to go to lose the other 31 pounds and reach my goal. I’ve already noticed the changes in me, as have others. I’m feeling better for it, too. :-)

As mentioned before, the parents and I went to Matsu for dinner on Friday. We’ve since decided that the place is not what we would consider a “have-again”. Don’t get me wrong; the sushi at Matsu was excellent. Unfortunately, it was also rather high-priced. I had a combo of six California roll pieces and seven pieces of sushi for $19. I could get more for that price from somewhere like Tokyo City. I’ll have to keep that in mind for future reference…

Last night was the fun night. :-) Becky and Brian had another of their movie nights. Seeing as sushi is relatively healthy, I decided last night would be my splurge meal and went to Bennigan’s first for supper. Unfortuntely, they had done away with their “three-for” promotion where you could get an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert for $13. I settled for my usual John Bacon’s burger and a brownie bottom pie. After eating at Bennigan’s, I went over to Barnes & Noble and browsed for a bit. From there, when the time came, I went to movie night.

I hadn’t known until I got there what the theme of the night was going to be. Unsurprisingly, the theme was Indiana Jones. Once everyone that was coming arrived, we started watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. After that movie was over, most people left, leaving only me, Becky and Brian, Sean and Jinny, and Paolo. For that reason (and because Brian was suffering from Indiana Jones burnout), we watched Better Off Dead as the second movie. Believe it or not, I had not seen the movie all the way through before then. When the movie was done, we talked to a bit and then all headed home.

As for today, I haven’t done too much except to do some vacuuming. Today will be a busy week at work, so I’m relaxing as much as I can. I’m enjoying a drink, and dinner will be served soon, so I’m happy for now. We’ll just see how the rest of the week treats me.