Trips A-hoy

Well well well....it looks like I'll soon have some more ammunition for that book I'm writting. In the next two months I'm planning on traveling to Miami, London, San Antonio, and Las Vegas. That's right folks, that's a grand total of something like 18,000 air miles. Aaaaallllll riiiight! Now I can hear you people saying, wow that must be sweet. Well it is. Honestly though, the travel can get to be a bit overwhelming, especially when you have to leave your loved ones at home most of the time. Luckily, on two of these trips Jill will be accompanying me. Am I excited, you bet your sweet buns I am. I'll definitely givce an update on how the trips went once I get back. But you can probably expect to see a count down in the next two weeks.

On another note, the bargain is fairly stagnant. I've lost a little bit of wait, but I'm definitely not making the progress I was hoping to make. A minor back injury slowed me down for a little bit, but I'm back in the saddle, and I'm hoping on track as well. Further updates will hopefully have a bit better news. Thanks for the support everyone.

Elevators and drivers tests

Ok, first things first. Why do people insist on charging into the elevator before the people inside have a chance to get out? I'll admit that I'm one of the first people to make a move into the elevator, but I always leave ample space for people exiting the elevator to get by first.

This morning on my ride up to the sixth floor of the B building of Best Buy's corporate campus I was in a fairly good state of mind. I've got a big project to work on, Jill and I had a good night last night (though I DID wake her up this morning while getting ready for work), and I had a piping hot cup of coffee to start me on my way. The door opens and I'm geting ready to step out and someone decides that they can't wait to get into the elevator and pushes past me as I'm trying to exit. I spill some coffee on my hand while attempting to avoid him (did I mention that it was piping hot?!?!?) and choke back an explitive that may have ended my career at Best Buy a little pre-maturely. Seriously people, its called common curteousy!

On a brighter note, I finally passed my Minnesota state drivers knowledge test yesterday afternoon. I say finally because as some of you know, it took two tries. On the first attempt, I ignored Jill's suggestions to quick check out the manual for some last minute updates. Good advice considering it's been ten years since I looked at this stuff, and believe it or not, some things have changed. So after ignoring her good advice, I got 28 out of 40 correct. For those of you keeping score that's 76% correct, which is not good enough to pass the test. However, upon my second attempt I passed with flying colors gaining 100% on my second attempt. So hooray, I have a new license coming so I can no longer be confused for a Michigan resident. Let the good times roll.

Workin' out

I'd like to give an honest update on the "healthier Tim" bargain: Jill and I caved. I can hear you guys in the audience cheering; however, it doesn't mean I have given up on my target weight. And if nothing else, it has remotivated me to work harder because I now have a more recent idea of what my reward will be. And I'll be darned if that isn't some serious motivation!

So much motivation, that I decided to get up early today and ride my new bike around the nature preserve just down the street from our apartment. That's right folks, and early for me means early 5:45 in the AM. I saw the sun rise and everything. It was quite a nice ride actually there are a bunch of different types of scenery and it is a fairly long trail. I'd guess somewhere around two miles (Jill correct me if I'm wrong).

So, I'm still working at it, the scale has stopped laughing at me everytime I enter the bathroom, and I already feel a little bit better. If only these damned work functions with free food would stop getting in the way. Thanks for the support folks, I'll keep you updated.

Making the right move

Sometimes it is nice to have your decisions vindicated. Especially tough ones that cause a certain amount of unrest and upheval in your family's lives. Today I head about some lay-offs at the company I left about 4 months ago. One of my co-workers came up to me and told me that one of the guys from my old office was applying for a position that we have in our department. I was suprised since he has a family with kids in High School. I said as much and he told me he thought it was because he was laid-off. Instantly I was concerned. After all, I spent more than three years with those people and didn't want anything bad to happen to them. The story isn't too nice, but apparently people were asked to step up and diversify teir clent base. After a couple of months, their time was up. Four people didn't make the cut, they were handed a paycheck, told it was their last one and then escorted from the office. Not so nice. The reasons behind each one's dissmisal are probably a little different, but I'd wager that they didn't really see it coming. My heart ges out to them, and I hope they all find work soon. However, it may be for the best in the long run.

In any case, I have Jill to thank. I don't think my job would have been on the line, but it can't be a very comfortable place to work with such things happening. I was conncered about such a thing happening and was told in no uncertain terms that it wouldn't happen. So now that it has, it makes me incredibly grateful to be where I am now. In a wonderful new job with a lot of potential. I loved working with MapInfo, but it was time to move on, and I'm grateful for Jill's forsight and courage to help us move on with our family.

Traveling Timmy

Well my two weeks of home life are at an end and I am once again traveling about this great country of ours. Where am I this time? Chicago. It is interesting to be traveling here for work and not just traveling through it on my way to and from Michigan and Milwaukee. The one thing I've noticed about every city that I go to is that it seems like the people that live there don't know how to get around their own city. Seriously, New York, Boston, Chicago, they're all easier to drive around when you don't get stuck into routines and patterns of everyday life. Think about it; how many times do you take the same way to work just because it is the way you always go. Sure it may have been the best way to get there the first few times, or even years that you went that way. But things change people. And if you don't have your eyes open to that change, you'll soon find yourself stuck in a 45 minute drive that used to take 15 minutes. OK, so that's not the only thing that traveling so much has taught me, but it is kind of a big one for me. Besides if I told you everything I've learned about travel here, what would I have to write in my future bestselling book?

So if you all are wondering about my bargain with the dev...I mean Jill, it's going alright so far. I went for a run yesterday for the first time in a while. It was hard to run for an extended period of time, so I ran for a while and then walked to catch my breath, then ran again. It's a little pathetic, but hey at least I'm trying. I'm still not anywhere close to the promised land, but I have started. And if I stay the course I'll be at the target weight in no time. Thanks for all the support out there. It really does help. OK, well, it's a bit late in the evening for this road warrior. Until next time.

the bargain

Perhaps it was the nice weather, or the terrifying tightening of my pants that made me do it. But I've done it, and now I don't know what the hell I was thinking. For those of you who have not seen me for a while, I'm not the paltry 190 lbs I used to be when I spent most of my days running around a park chasing a frisbee. Unfortunately, I'm now creeping back up to a weight that will challenge my father for heaviest male member of the family. A title I'm not eager to take back on. So my solution: a pack with the devil. Well, not the devil per se, but definitely a temptress: my wife. The pact is that we will not have sex again until I'm back to 185 lbs. I know, what in the hell was I thinking! I know what Jill was thinking, what better motivation? But what the hell was I thinking?

So today I start my tortuous drive to fitness with two salads and a somewhat dry granola bar. And on the menu for tonight? A brief run through the local park, with a side of weight lifting. Delicious! I'll be sure to keep you all informed on the progress. I'm sure it will be staggering. Seriously though, who makes that kind of deal? 35 lbs? Is lipo-suction cheating?

Where oh where...

where oh where could my realtor be? that's the question that I'm asking right now. We had a really great realtor in Michigan, where we didn't buy a house. And now that we really want to buy a house, we can't seem to find oine that we like. We even asked a co-worker who they used and although she loved her, we've been unimpressed so far. Which leads me to wonder what it is about us that makes some realtors unhappy working with us. Is it because we only want to buy a house that we can afford? I mean really, who cares about how much comission you'll make off the deal. Shouldn't your major concern be the client? Could it be our ideal house? 3+ bedrooms, 2-car garage, decent storage space, in a nice neighborhhod. When we look on-line, there seems to be plenty out there that we like, yet when she looks on her resources, they're all too small, or starting to hedge into questionable neighborhoods. So what are we to do? Well, that's the question that Jill and I are working on right now....