6 Weeks to Go!!!

Last year, at about this time, my dad was preparing to tie the knot. I was in the middle of a weight loss campaign in an effort to not look like a total blimp in any of the photos. I shed a few pounds and ended up needing to have about 3-4 inches taken out of my suit coat.

Around February of this year, encouraged by the good results, I did the half climb at the Hustle Up the Hancock. That picture is me at the top of the climb. I have no idea who the guy behind me is, but he must like the view because he's smiling. BTW, special thanks to Photogenic for letting me use the photo ;) The climb was tough, but it was a good time. I didn't do as well as I had wanted, but committed to shed a few more pounds and do the full climb at the Sears Tower.

I was down about 40 pounds between October and April, and the success went to my head. I thought I could turn it off and on as needed. I found out that turning it off was easy, but turning it on was not. I gained about 20 of those pounds back.

Here I sit, 6 weeks before the thing, ready to make one last push to lighten my load for the next climb. I did quite a bit of cardio at the gym today and even got back on the stair climber. I've been eating lean meats (after we finished the Cubs cookie) and more veggies. I think I may try to stay away from the Arches for awhile, too. The sale on McMuffins is over, anyway. Six weeks of this, and I should be in good shape....well, at least better than today.

Keeping Up With the Chinese

In an effort to stem the recent Chinese dominance in just about everything, Naperville Central High School has really stepped it up. A few months ago, I saw this nugget. Today, I give you this:

Dr. Maggie Knowitall

At school on Thursday, Maggie had the opportunity to experience something I hope I never have to. How do I say this politely? Maggie was in the restroom with a classmate who was receiving the first of many visitors.

She went home and told her mom all about it. Evidently, Maggie was so excited by the experience that she was rocking from side to side while recounting the day's events. She didn't say anything to me about it, but her mom told me what had happened so I would know where any questions might be coming from. I told her I was cool with the training bra and leg shaving, but if I'm around for the next developmental milestone, she's going straight home for some mommy/daughter time. Is that wrong? Maggie's got lots of questions, and they've already carved out some time tomorrow to hash all this out.

Last night at dinner, and I don't recall how the conversation started, Grace said something about starting out in Momma's tummy as a baby. Dr. Knowitall immediately informed her that she started out as an egg. Grace was quite perplexed and didn't remember anything about hatching from an egg. I tried to get Maggie to knock it off but was having no luck. However, Maggie didn't know much more than she started out as an egg. After tomorrow, there's no telling what kind of knowledge she'll have. Did I mention she has an A+ in science? This stuff is right up her alley. ....and that's where we are on that.

In other news, Maggie has some math homework where she's solving some equations for a missing variable. I'm so excited because algebra wasn't my thing in school. Sometime after that, it clicked and became fairly simple. It's fun walking her through this stuff and keeping both sides of the equation equal and working down to the missing number. Last week, she was doing those commutative and transitive property stuff. I even busted out a Mr. Thomas "Commutative, t-t, t-t." on her. I heard someone on TV rattling off the "Out, out brief candle" lines from Macbeth. I think we were all surprised when I joined in with the people on TV. I thought about hitting them with some Thanatopsis, but didn't think they were ready for it. When we were memorizing that stuff, I had no idea how long it would stick with me. I'm not sure I'm any better for it, but I guess so.

Finally, the Cubs clinched a spot in the playoffs last night. The girls were long asleep when it happened, but we celebrated today with a cookie from Jewel. That's it at the top of the post.

Go Cubs, Go! Go Cubs, Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today.

Checkout one of the cheesiest team songs ever. Be sure you stick around for the guy at the end of the clip. Stay classy, Chicago!!!

TRASH-X

In addition to the little trash can in my bathroom, I've got a modest 53 quart trash receptacle in my kitchen. When it gets full, I take the bag out of the can and place it into one of the 33 gallon bags from the box I have standing by. It makes no sense to throw out the partially filled larger bag, so I keep it around until it gets full. Sometimes I let it get more nearly full than others....usually because I'm running too late to take it out with me in the morning.

Have you seen those episodes of Oprah or Maury Povich where the person literally traps himself inside his house because of all the food he's eaten? They eventually have to cut a hole in the side of his house to extricate him. Sometime mys trash bags get like that.

CN has a program called Intermodal Excellence, or IMX for short. What it seeks to do is smooth out the demand of our intermodal services so the train sizes can be balanced. That way we're running full trains every day of the week instead of half-empty trains Sunday through Tuesday and leaving freight behind Wednesday through Saturday. I've decided to do the same thing with my trash.

Rather than wait a while to fill up a large bag, I've decided that I can fill up a standard Wal Mart bag every day. In the morning, it's no problem to pick it up and toss it in the dumpster as I drive by. From now on, I'll be going through the self checkout and double-bagging everything to ensure I've got the bags required to execute my plan.

I just thought I'd share.

Bears Down....

My blogger login still works, so I decided I'd post again. Last night, JP came up, and we went to the Bears game. He got up here in the early afternoon, and we ate some chicken wings and one of those giant chocolate chip cookies with icing on it.....you know, so we wouldn't get hungry and have to pay ballpark prices.....or something like that. Jarrod did not have any Bears wear, and his Cubs t-shirt looked more like Cowboys wear, so I loaned him one of my shirts. He looked resplendent in this little item I obtained on ebay. We got in the car and drove to Forest Park to catch the El to Soldier Field. After getting off the train at the Roosevelt Road stop, we joined several other fans and made the final trek to the stadium. The people behind us were quite surprised several times along the way. We were frisked by security and given US Cellular car flags on our way in the gates. We had to test out the facilities, and they passed. After a quick look around, it was time for some stadium fare. We each had a polish sausage. Jarrod was a good boy and had Diet Coke while I had regular Coke. Before that night, I'd never seen anyone eat a polish with kraut, mustard, and ketchup, but hey, whatever. We found our seats and settled in for the opening festivities. Gloria Estefan sang the anthem, complete with onfield pyrotechnics and fighter jet flyover. Our seats were in the end zone, about 20 rows from the top. It was dark, so we couldn't see the planes coming. There was a quick flash over our heads followed by the loud roar of the engines. That was by far the coolest part of the night, as it went downhill from there. The Bears looked good in the beginning, and the crowd was into it, but they just couldn't score. Rex didn't help. Final score: Cowboys 112, Bears -3. Byron offered a little bright spot when he called after Archuleta's INT to check on us. He was home doing laundry and watching the game, so we didn't feel so bad for being at the game. Thanks for the encouragement, -B.

We left the game, got back on the train, went home to watch the recording of the UK-Arkansas game. We warmed up some bean dip and had a little post-game nourishment. I have no idea what time JP turned in, but I was asleep by 1 AM.

I got up at 8 and caught up on my TV watching while Jarrod pretended to do some Caterpillar-type work. He needed to use my computer to "send an email". I don't know if he did or not, but I had all the UK football sites in my history when he was done, so I'm not sure what went on.

We parted ways after breakfast at Grandma Sally's. He was headed to Morton, and I was headed to the couch. I watched TV until, literally, 4:30, went to the gym, and here I sit. Tonight is the premiere of DWTS and the Bachelor, and I'm excited about the new seasons.

I love going into Chicago, and the Bears games are always a good time. It was nice to have Jarrod around, and he even paid for breakfast. If he ever decides to leave Cat, he's got a future in the aerial application of herbicides and pesticides for agricultural purposes.

Random Educational Post

We had a little oops at Geismar, LA, today. The internal liner on this tank car ruptured, and the hydrochloric acid it contained ate through the bottom of the car. Usually when this happens, the crew is not exposed to the leak. They can see the cloud around the car long before they get close to it.

I thought someone with really bad sinus issues sneezed under the car. Actually, it's the reaction that happened between the HCL and the limestone ballast, CACO3. I've included a link because I'm a geek like that.

The authorities came out and stopped the leak with a magnetic patch so the remainder of the contents can be off-loaded.

There Is A God.

He is good, and Shane is not Him. I just saw a McDonald's commercial. Sausage-Egg McMuffins are 2 for $3 again. This is good news for a couple of reasons. Recently, any biscuit has been 2/$3. That's all fair and good, but the biscuits crumble too much and make a mess in your vehicle. Also, there's a 30-cent charge for the cheese on the biscuits, and the eggs are more of a scrambled variety. The Sausage-Egg McMuffin comes with cheese, is made with a fried type egg, and the doesn't crumble so much as the biscuit. It's a win-win-win situation. As info, this is the tenth post overall, and the second one involving McDonald's.

Weekend Wrapup

I've been advised against posting on the weekends. Evidently it's bad blogging etiquette because you're supposed to be doing this during the week while you're being paid to do something else. That being said, here are some shameless pics of my kids woven into the text of a post that's supposed to be about my weekend. I am pretending that people care about my weekend.

Grace had her first sleepover last weekend. While she was at Alexis' house, the other 2 and I ran errands. While I was waiting in line at the post office, Maggie took some pics of Nora. She calls them Diva. It was cute, but made me a little queasy at the same time. We went and played at the park and saw a guy with a snazzy haircut.

Sunday came and went. On Monday, the girls participated in the Labor Day Parade. Gracy is about the happiest kid I know. America's Favorite Mom was the big surprise of the parade. She was there hawking some kind of water she endorses.

That's it. Pretty boring, huh?