part-time bloggers

So, I have been thinking that I need to post on here. Yet I've also been thinking that I set it up as something that I shouldn't feel the need to post on all the time.

This isn't good.

I set my blog up this way because I knew that I'm not a full time blogger. I have what you might call blogger ADD. I get it in my head that I want to write about something three times one week, and the next post is two months out. This may not sound like much to you, but this is a serious online condition. You can call me blogging impaired. Even though I read blogs, and look around online quite a bit, I don't know any true bloggers personally. Angela blogs often, and is great, but I already know the stuff going on with her life. Heck, I'm IN it. But somehow even though I don't know these non-blogging-impaired bloggers, I somehow am made to feel inferior. This doesn't have anything to do with their wit, intelligence, or even the size of their...following. Instead it has more to do with the regularity of their posting. News outlets, other bloggers, net geeks and the myriad other internet users defer to these uber-bloggers with thousands of posts and even more followers as if what they write is golden. It's almost as if when people talk about the blogging impaired, that we're somehow looked at as a mishmash of barely literate curmudgeons, soccer mom's and other web troglodyte's who don't really "get" blogging.

Well no more. You know what I say blogmasters? I say that we are bloggers too. And you net geeks: we don't post every day because we don't need to. That's right. We're here for self expression and don't have your bloggods need for constant affirmation. I don't want to hear your condescension. I don't want to read any more of those daily posts at all really. I'm here for me and others like me. Part-time bloggers of the world unite!

So put that in your blog and post it.

Our Baby Shower

Though I DID write this, it is shamelessly stolen from the blog Angela and I have been keeping about her pregnancy and our daughter's soon-to-be birth. If you're interested in that blog go to: http://truerthantrue.blogspot.com

Yesterday we had our Boise baby shower, hosted by Tiffany and Bjorn, and put on by Jen, Kathy and Tiffany all in conjunction. It was AWESOME! To give the out of towners an idea of how the place looked, I'll walk you through the house as if you were coming yourself (this is my first shower...well, my first one with women. George threw a man-shower for me, but that was more like a bachelor party. Anyway, if this is all standard, forgive me):

As you drove up to the place, there were several large signs with balloons that not only told you where to park, but directed you to the house itself (Thanks Janessa and Carstensen clan for helping out!). As folks walked in, there was a little box to write a note to Eleanor for her 2nd birthday. I thought that was a really fun idea, since we will be able to share with our daughter how loved she was before she was even born! Then you walk into TnB's pad, through the living room set up for lots and lots of folks to sit in, into the kitchen... Or should I say, the food lover's paradise! There was so much food, and it was all SO good, that I think I may have to start crashing baby showers. We took a bunch home, and that may just be the best gift we got (at least, that's what my tummy tells me). Speaking of gifts, I won't go into all of them, but we were awed by the fact that our friends are ALL good at gift giving. Not once did we have to fake smile and murmer about taking things back. Give yourselves a hand! Oh, and one last thing about gifts. Thank you to Tricia for finishing the quilts that Angela's Grandma Betty started, but was unable to finish. That we will be able to have a physical token of her love that we can share with Eleanor means more than I can say. That Betty was so sick, and yet would work on this gift regardless of the pain, and that you would then finish that gift for her means a very great deal to both of us, and especially to Angela. Thank you.

This was a co-ed shower, and nearly all of our local friends and relatives were there to make it a very special day. It isn't often that we get to gather together with folks from so many different areas of our lives. When I look back on our wedding, what made it so overwhelmingly meaningful (beyond binding Angela and I together) was the fact that we were surrounded by so much love and well wishing from people from every circle and corner in our world. This shower was very much like that. With the exception of my family (who live too far away, and so threw us another super cool shower of their own! We really lucked out on having great families), we were surrounded by almost everyone who loves us. It was humbling to have this new chapter in our lives be welcomed in with love by our own personal community. I have to admit that I teared up a little when trying to thank everyone for coming and for all their kindness. Thank you Jen. Thank you Kathy. Thank you Tiffany (and Bjorn too). You three not only put on a very successful event, but you've given us an experience that will forever shine with love and fondess in our hearts. What better way to bring a life into this world can there be?

My Exercise / Nutrition Program

So, since January 12th, I've been a part of the Ultimate Body Challenge program at the Academy of World Taekwondo. I began this program because I found myself putting on sympathy weight during Angela's pregnancy and, unlike her, I won't lose most of mine in one big birthing experience. We work out for one hour each morning, six days a week, and have a nutritional component as well.
Three of the workouts each week are Thai-robics (similar to Tae Bo). These are a sweat pouring, high kicking, hard punching aerobic hell. In other words, I love it. The other three days a week, we do a sport fusion class. Each week the sport changes so that we don't get bored. So far we've done Karate, skiing, track, boxing and uh...something I can't remember. These tend to be more muscle building exercises, but they certainly do get a sweat up and have aerobic qualities too.
Finally, we eat five meals per day, and at each meal we eat one palm-sized portion of protein and one palm sized portion of carbohydrates. I've chosen on my own to increase the difficulty by cutting out breads and pasta as Carbs and get mine almost exclusively from vegetables. Oh, and we drink a LOT of water.
As some of you know, if you read my facebook updates, I've been sore, tired and generally beat up since I started. But I have also made progres. This morning we had our mid-term testing, and I did 10 more pushups than a month ago, my flexibility increased from 14.75 to 20, am down 7 lbs of fat, and have lost 3.06% body fat (I'm now at 11%).
I've still got 5 weeks to go, and I'm hoping to lose another 3% and at LEAST want to break into the less than 10% body fat group. My plan at this point is to repeat the 10 week program again before summer and get into the best shape of my life. I'm not quite there yet (when I came back from Oman in 2002 was probably my peak), but I'll keep y'all updated.

Honest to Blog

Duncan/Dave,
I said I'd blog about my soreness for you, and I try to keep my word. So here we go.

WARNING: This comment will involve discussing my butt.

Track and Field week has, thus far, been grueling. The sport fusion class on Tuesday on the surface didn't seem that hard. I mean, how bad can it be to long jump and do a few squats? We've been doing two weeks of leg stuff, and I'd already recovered from Karate hell, so what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that I evidently only started using the muscles of my butt for the first time ever on Tuesday.

By that night I felt like my butt was made of stone (at least, on the inside).

Wednesday's Sparta 300 was actually a great reprieve for me. I loved it. Pushups and front kicks and abs, oh my! But my butt was, for the most part, in blissful rest. Still sore that night, I believed myself to be in recovery mode and on the way to normal walking again. Oh how wrong I was.

Thursday, we did the EXACT SAME WORKOUT AS TUESDAY! On an already sore butt, this was the workout equivalent of water boarding. My rear thought it was going to die after every 2 minute station. Whenever I walked all the rest of that day, the sensation was similar to having crudely chiseled rocks stuffed under the muscles of my butt. It hurt to sit. It hurt to stand. It hurt to walk.

However, though I was in pain I was sure that I would have another two days to break up the gravel in my butt cheeks and recover. But what a shock I got today, when we were directed to do "Jane Fonda Pushup Position Sidekicks." This entails being on hands and one knee and lifting the other knee out to the side, holding it up there, and kicking rapidly with the lower part of the leg. On each side we did this for 30 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then 20 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then 10 seconds, then 10 slow kicks...then ten more slow kicks on their own. That's 100 counts per leg. Or, you can think of it as sticking your finger in a light socket, and having all the pain and voltage just go to your ass.

Anyway, I am actually really enjoying the class, and love being pushed. So although I bitch and moan about it, this has been a great week.

There you go Duncan/Dave. I love the class and my butt wants to assassinate you. :-)

-Me

The new president.

Before Watching the inauguration of Barack Obama today, I found myself pondering expectations. I was wondering if he will live up to the expectations history will have for him. I was wondering how I would feel watching GW leave office. I was wondering whether his speech would meet my own expectation that he inspire a country, while bringing together the often oppositional ideologies of its people. The pure weight of the moment seemed heavy on my shoulders, and I wondered at how any man in Barack Obama's position could bear such an immense and amorphous burden. I was nervous for him, and for us all.

However, after watching the hordes of Americans there at the National Mall, and seeing the exhilarated calm that they wore on their faces I am not nervous any more. As a nation we are in the throes of turbulence on many fronts. From the economy sinking, jobs leaving, allies scowling, air choking, schools stumbling, health failing, and our leadership ignoring... We have been born anew.

Has Barack Obama brought us into a new America? Has he carved out a bright future for my unborn daughter? Have the clouds parted and sun broken through on all of our failing governmental and societal ills? No. At least, not yet. Those things may not happen tomorrow, or even in the next four years, but we are none the less born anew as a nation. A young, vibrant and eloquent African American is now our president, and whether or not we reach the lofty goals set before us, we now have lofty goals. We have not only been given a direction, but have been asked to make it happen through our own hard work, sacrifice and dedication. Those three elements have been the fuel behind overcoming struggles in the past, and they will carry us forward now.

Proud to be an American and full of hope.

-Me

Me...Occasionally.

So, I have had multiple fail attempts at blogging. I'm just not that consistent, and evidently folks like to read up a lot. I also have a baby blog that I don't post NEARLY often enough to. So why start another blog? Well, it occurs to me that I would like to have the chance to occasionally (read: have low expectations people) write down what I'm doing/going through.

On Monday, I started the Ultimate Body Challenge with Academy of World Taekwondo
Now, I have been pretty active for a long time and assumed that this would just take me up a notch in my fitness. I needed to do so because I have been adding sympathy weight from Angela's pregnancy and frankly been uninspired at the gym. However active I might have been, and whether or not I spent 5 days a week lifting weights and doing an hour of elliptical machine, this UBC thing is tough. REALLY tough. Basic training may be more mentally demanding, but physically I don't think I hurt as bad. Not only is it working me out harder, but I'm eating waaaay less, and am not hungry. Eating 5 meals a day is actually awesome, even if I did dread switching to it. I also haven't had bread or pasta in a week, and I won't for another nine. Last but not least is water. I drink about 96 ounces of water a day now, and pee about every five seconds (slight exaggeration there, but only slight).

I'm really enjoying how I feel. I enjoy feeling tight in my stomach, sides and legs. I enjoy (usually afterward) the 6 AM classes. The only thing it might be missing, for me, is a weight lifting portion. My arms aren't all that worked out during these aerobic and sport fusion classes, and I'm missing good 'ol fashioned bicep curls.

Anyway, this is me...occasionally.