Just in case it doesn’t come back to life fully, I’ve wiped it clean so I can feel good about selling it on Ebay.  It really is rather shocking that people are buying water damaged Iphones on Ebay for upwards of $200.  I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to sell this no matter what and I managed to reserve a new one for next Thursday.  If this does come back to life completely, I’ll be honest about it getting exposed to water but I think the final auction price will be higher for a fully working phone.

Anyway, things aren’t quite as bad as they were.

A side effect of dropping weight is that we spend a ton less on food.  I don’t eat out because the restaurant foods are so packed with fat and calories that it’s impossible to have any self control.  That has reduced our overall food expenses significantly.

I’m also starting to reap the benefits of a smaller waistline when it comes to my clothes.  I’ve been sitting at my maximum weight and have pretty much worn out my “fat clothes”.  That was one of the reasons I finally decided it was time to get back on the wagon.  I’ve got a closet full of clothes that are a couple sizes too small.  I’m just starting to get back in to some of them so I don’t have to spend money to buy more “fat clothes”.  Besides the fact that I didn’t want to spend the money, I also didn’t want to buy big clothes again because I knew that would make me comfortable and I’d be a lot less inclined to drop weight and, in fact, would probably put on more.

I’ve found the best incentive for me to lose weight is to keep my wallet shut and force myself to be uncomfortable in clothes that I’m growing out of.  Of course it can’t look too ridiculous (in other words I don’t let myself wear pants that look painted on) but I do definitely feel the discomfort around my waistline when I’m reaching my peak weight.

What am I doing to drop the weight?

We’ll see how things go over the next couple months.  I’m looking forward to getting back in to all of my old clothes.  Most of them are in “new” condition because I grew out of them so fast.  The fact that I already own all these clothes just makes it a sweeter victory when I hit my target weight.

Needless to say, I’m feeling good about the rate that I locked in.  The appraiser was supposed to come check out our house on Monday but she canceled due to the weather.  It has snowed over a foot at our house so it’s made driving a lot more interesting around here.  I love this weather and have been driving all over the place.  We finished our Christmas shopping and I even drove over to my mother’s house (about 15 miles away) to shovel her driveway.  She had been cooped up in her house for a few days and wasn’t able to get her car out.  My daughter and I also took her shopping and had lunch too.  Good times.  That’s just a short update from my part of the world.  We are gearing up to host Christmas eve at our house tomorrow night and then will be off to visit family around the area on Christmas day.  My wife’s parents are in England visiting our relatives there.  My wife has family in London, York, Felixstowe and Ipswich and I believe they are visiting all of them while they are there, although most of the time will be spent with my wife’s grandparents in Felixstowe.  (The joke there when someone asks where Felixstowe is, is to say “It’s on the end of Felix’s foot.  Heh.)

Let me also take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas!

I’ll confess that Thanksgiving isn’t my favorite holiday. I love the idea of Thanksgiving and have many, many things to be thankful for each Thanksgiving so that part of the day is great. Where it all goes south for me is the food. Since I was a baby I’ve had severe allergies to many, many things.

Here’s a partial list of the big stuff:

• Turkey
• Chicken
• Salmon
• Soy
• Walnuts
• Peanuts
• Dairy (Milk, cheese etc)
• Wheat (so basically all flour and most grains)
• Barley
• Trees
• Weeds
• Grass
• Dust
• Dogs
• Cats (basically most animals)

That’s a partial list. I was never tested for allergies for the first 32 years of my life so most of my life consisted of avoiding things that I knew consistently made me sick or caused reactions. I’m sure most of my friends and family secretly wondered whether I was just nuts. To be honest, I questioned that myself more than a few times over the years.

A few years ago I finally decided to go to the allergy doctor because I was having some new problems with eczema and was having trouble swallowing. When they did the first round of allergy testing on me the doctor stood there looking down at me as if I was an alien. His first comment, when he saw the results were, “You are a very interesting case. This is very A-typical”. They had done three rows of drops of various substances on each of my arms. They put one drop of the substance on your skin and then prick the skin under each drop to see if your body reacts. If there is a reaction they rate how big the welt is. When they were done pricking, it looked as if I’d stuck my arms in a beehive.

That’s probably too much detail but the reason I’m telling you this is because I won’t be eating most of the traditional Thanksgiving food today (which is why it isn’t my favorite holiday). There will be no turkey, stuffing, gravy or pie, unfortunately. There will be some ham, potatoes etc at my mom’s today which I’m hoping to have a bit of. A week ago I had to have my esophagus stretched out (for the fourth time). I have a disease that’s connected to my allergies that causes my body to attack food in my esophagus which scars over time making it very restricted (to the point that I can’t even swallow saliva). So, I’m still dealing with the soreness and pain from that procedure and most of my diet consists of mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and other soft foods right now. So, I know I’ll be eating the mashed potatoes today, at least. Maybe I’ll have some nice blended ham to go with the potatoes.

All that being said, I am very thankful for many things today. At the top of the list are my wife and daughter. They are the most wonderful, kind, happy people I’ve ever been around and I appreciate them so much. I’m also thankful for being employed, having a roof over my head, having food to eat (mostly of the soft variety these days), and having so many friends and family. I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that today.

Anyway, what a long drawn out way to get to, “Happy Thanksgiving!!!!”

It was amazing how easy it was to install the Virtual PC software.  While I’m probably considered a more advanced PC user than the average Joe (It’s what I do for a living), I think pretty much anyone with a basic understanding of computers could also install this.

So, now I have a second "virtual" PC that I can use to try out new software.  I may even install another virtual machine that runs Linux.  I’m curious how the latest iteration of Linux is working these days.  The best part about all of this is that it didn’t cost me anything.  I love free software!  It’s nice to have a hobby that allows me to play without costing a ton of money!

I’m disappointed to tell you that I had to pay my brother in law $10 last week.  It’s a long story but is filled with many mouth stuffing incidents.  You see, they had a party out at the lake.  I drank too much and ate too much after being good all week.  That was all it took to pop my weight back up prior to the weigh in.  During the party I actually found myself thinking, "This is so much fun, it’s worth the $10".  Talk about terrible.

Besides that one "slip up", I’m actually doing well.  We are keeping a spreadsheet with the weekly weigh in numbers and I have charted those out so that we can follow our progress along a trend line (goal vs actual).  I was above the line once (when I had to pay my brother in law) but I’m now tracking on the line and should be able to keep myself below it from here on out.

Psychologically it was quite painful to pay the $10 to my brother in law.  It wasn’t because of the money, but was more because I had gone in to this with the goal of not paying him anything.  I underestimated how strong the temptation to eat and drink would be.  I suppose it’s a good lesson for me and I’m hoping to use that week as a reminder of why I need to keep on track.  I’m still much happier to pay my brother in law for slipping up than to pay a weight loss company every week.

I had been contemplating joining Weight Watchers because I figured that would motivate me to lose the weight.  Weighing in every week in front of people I don’t really know would probably be a pretty decent motivator.  The cheapskate in me just can’t bring myself to spend the money.  Basically I’d be giving away money because I lack the discipline to drop the weight on my own.  My relatives have been doing the Weight Watchers thing for years and have been pretty successful with it.  I’ve learned a lot from them and am able to calculate the point values for various foods which made it even tougher for me to justify paying just to weigh in once a week.

Just when I was about to join, I got another idea.  My brother in law is also trying to drop a little weight and is actually on the Weight Watchers program.  I called him up and asked him if he was interested in having a little competition.  The plan was to weigh in once a week at his house (he only lives a couple blocks away) and track our progress.  I built a spreadsheet and we enter the weight in weekly.  We also agreed that the target would be to drop one pound a week for 17 weeks.  If either of us weighs more than we did the previous week, we have to pay the other person $10.  At the end of 17 weeks we each have to pay the other $10 for every pound that we miss our goal.  So, I need to weigh 190 at the end and if I weigh 195, I have to pay my brother in law $50.

So far this competition has been working great.  We intentionally set the weigh in date for Monday so that we would have to eat better on the weekend (which is when we both have the toughest time eating well).  It’s been two weeks and I’m down almost 5 pounds.  My brother in law is too.  It’s funny how a little bit of money at stake can alter my behavior so much.  If I was intelligent, I’d look at all the other benefits for losing weight, such as living longer, being healthier, being more comfortable and having higher self esteem.  Instead all it takes is a measly $10 risk every week to keep me on track.  Pathetic but it’s working!!

As the light turned green I started to anticipate being able to go forward.  I hadn’t moved an inch when I felt a "slam"!  At first I thought maybe my foot had slipped off the clutch and I’d stalled the truck.  As soon as I thought that, I realized that the impact was too hard for that.  I checked in my rear view mirror and there was the lady and her two kids.  Looking at me with that look of, "Oooops".

We both pulled off the road.  I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I got out but was happy to see that there was no damage to the truck.  Driving a 4wd Toyota Tacoma does have it’s advantages.  In this case it was that her new Camry sits lower than the back bumper of my truck.  In fact it was a perfect marriage of my trailer hitch and her front bumper.  Poor thing.  That brand new Camry has a nice scratch, smudge and dent on it’s front bumper now.

Apparently what had happened is that she was stopped behind me and had turned around inside her car to help her child with a fresh large red drink that she had just purchased for him.  When she did this, her foot slipped off the clutch and that forced her in to the back of my truck.  Not only was her bumper messed up a bit but there was red fruit drink all over inside her new tan interior.  I’m not sure what she was more upset about.

Anyway, it shocked the heck out of me when it happened but all turned out well.  Yet another great reason to drive an older truck.  Although there was no damage, even if there had been a small scratch or dent, I might have been more likely to have not worried about it.

Well, it’s finally fixed and now I can add pictures and other content.  I think I’ve written 6 posts already today.  I’ll spill them out over the next few days.  I wouldn’t wait on the edge of your seat or anything but I think the posts are decent.  I wanted to thank everyone in my blogroll for sticking with me and not removing their link back to me.  Some of you may not have noticed, but I’m sure some of you did.  Either way, thanks for linking to ELYM.

If you can take a second to vote for them, I, and they would really appreciate it!!!

Vote for “The Stannard Family”!!!!!!  from Kent, Washington

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For all you bloggers out there, if you would consider putting a short post up to tell your readers to vote for my friends, I know that I would be eternally thankful to you!!!!