My LITTLE brother is 21!

Amazing... Mike's 21 and I feel old. Here's some photos from this morning.

Mike blowing out candles as my mom and his girlfriend Olga look on.


Mike and Olga. Cute.


Me and Mike.


The family!

So sore!

Spring has come and once again I am sore! After months of hibernation inside my comfy home I have resurfaced to the outside world as pale, out of shape and overweight!

Generally every year around this time I try to hit the gym looking for some miracle exercise routine that will blast away the fat and give me those six pack abs I so dearly want. Of course, three weeks later I've usually given up and am back on the couch eating Ben and Jerry's at 2 a.m.

Another pastime I partake in when spring hits is outdoor sports with my friends. Today was no different... Zach, one of my close friends turned 24 today (happy birthday BTW) and we all headed out to Windy Hill to play some golf, hit balls in the batting cage and do whatever else we guys like to do at sport parks. While I loved hanging out, and crushing baseball in the cage after taking four years off *Dominated the 85 mph machine! :-) * I'm paying for it now as I am as sore as I can be!

Every muscle aches! My shoulders, pecs, triceps, biceps...etc. etc.

I'm walking wounded and there's no cure.

Then again, it wouldn't be spring if I wasn't sore and loving the outdoors.

Spring has come... where's my ice bath?

What I'm listening to...

Lately I've been heavy into exploring music, some from my favorite bands like 3 Doors Down, The Frames, Chevelle, etc. and some from new bands I've never heard of like Flobots and Rilo Kiley (actually saw them in concert opening for Colday now that I really think about it).

Since Wednesday is my really slow day at work, I've been surfing Youtube for music videos and I've come up with a few videos I think everyone should check out. Each song is from a different band, one is from 3 Doors Down (love!), one is from Flobots (cool, but are they a one hit wonder?), Death Cab for Cutie (always heard of them, this is the first song I've ever HEARD from them..) and the final one is from Panic at the Disco (still need to pick up the second album).

So check it out, this is what I'm listening to...


Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart"



Flobots - "No Handlebars" - I think they have a shot at being huge!



3 Doors Down - "It's Not My Time" - This group is my favorite band of all time, I cannot wait for their new album to drop later this month!



Panic at the Disco - "Nine in the Afternoon" - Love the song, question the video... seems like I'm doing that with all of their songs...

Thoughts for the week

Monday has come and gone, and with it, a new week has once again begun.

Had dinner with the parents and family friend Mr. Slagle. Had two pieces of cake... And got some financial advice... All in all it was a pretty good night.

As for what's on tap for rest of the week? A variety of things actually...

Gotta go to the bank sometime this week to drop off the check so I can pay student loans (joy!)

Need to call the SAT people to get them to 'unarchive' my SAT scores from just 5 years ago and pay them 20 bucks to ship the scores all of a few hundred miles.

Put some gas in the Civic... Gas man, that'll be $50 bucks on my tab please!

Somehow make time to go back to ACAC. Supposedly I have this crazy notion that if I start exercising it might actually do me some good. I'll investigate that claim further a bit later this week.

Read some pages out of a few books... I've got so many sitting around my room, I'd love to start knocking out some of the pages.

Respond to work email!!! I had 54 emails waiting for me when I signed in from the Times Dispatch building this morning. Mainly this is my fault as I've pretty much ignored email for the last couple of weeks... but come on people, 54! Do you really need to reach me that badly?!?

Take a breath, and be thankful for all God has given me... I know this should always be first on the list, but I thought I'd mention it anyways. God has been so good to me throughout my entire life; from protecting me through accident(s) to showing me kindness and love unlike any other, God has blessed me and I cannot thank him enough!

So that's my week, what are your plans for the week?

Cutting the fat

I love food.

My body on the other hand doesn't seem to agree with me.

Checking the scales the other day, I weighed in at 215 pounds. The most I've been since late August of last year.

Not a good sign.

To make matters worse, the 215 pounds is 16 pounds over what I weighed just four short months ago on January 1, 2008.

Obviously something has changed in these past four months... but what?

Two things.... Diet and Exercise.

Or more specifically, total loss of any dietary boundaries... and a dramatic decline in anything even remotely resembling physical activity.

Sue me, I got lazy.

Of course I can drop these 15 pounds in no time flat, but I'm worried what happens when I hit 200, do I yo-yo right back up to 215 or do I actually have the will power to win the battle of the bulge?

My end goal is one day to be able to take my shirt off at the beach and show off my great beach body... I'm a long way away from that goal right now, so I've decided a better short term goal would be to concentrate on my diet and exercise habits and look to make vast positive improvements in both areas.

Starting with my diet, I found a website this morning called FitDay. The site, which has a free online service helps you track the foods you eat as well as a variety of other little goals such as weight loss, calorie intake, calories burned... etc. etc. It's a free program so it's pretty basic, but for what I'm trying to accomplish, fancy isn't necessary... just need something to track my results.

The second thing I did was to involve a friend in the accountability of my weight loss. She doesn't have to keep on me about losing weight; I just simply decided I'm going to send her a chart each week that tracks my weight, waist line measurement, and my BMI. Once again, something small and simple, but something I think will provide big results. If I keep sending it, it'll be motivation to continue to post results, and to get in better overall health.

Unfortunately the fat I already DO have is in the worst possible place for a guy. The abdomen. While your looks suffer from the fat around the belly, what's actually worse is what we can't see when we look in the mirror. Excess belly fat is known to be a huge factor in increasing your odds for a litany of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, arteries blockages and premature death.

That doesn't sound too cool.

So I need to drop those pounds. For my looks, for my health, and for the future.

After all, the last thing America needs right now is another pale, out of shape, (clinically) obese guy blogging away behind a computer screen, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.

Highlight of the week?

Goochland can be a boring place.

Shocker right?

Anyways.... Maybe that's why I'm not surprised to have my boss come in from a mid-morning mail run proclaiming that the highlight of his week is "running to the post office and checking our mail box".

Of course I'm sure he was being just a slight bit sarcastic, but it got me thinking... what is MY highlight of the week?

Do I have a set highlight each week, or is it a constantly changing event that makes me smile just a bit more than everything else that happened those seven days?

After some close self introspection, a mere 20 seconds of thinking, and one extremely satisfying turkey sausage biscuit, I've come to the conclusion that my highlight of the week is an ever changing thing. And I'm totally cool with that.

Take the wonderfully delicious turkey sausage biscuit I just had. So far, that meal was the highlight of my week.

That sounds pretty pathetic right?

Nope, not to me.

That little biscuit just provided me with more happiness than any other event I've experienced this week... and you know what? I think that's completely normal.

If the small things in life can't also sometimes be the very best moment of your day; then what's really the point?

Sure, the big moments in your life (wedding, first child, retirement) can all be the highlight of your week, but I think its just as important to recognize that some of the best moments in our lives are those small, deeply personal moments that we’ll never forget.

I think if we all just took a little time to enjoy the mundane, the everyday routine… we’d all find little joys that are big pick-me-ups during the stressful work week. And really, who wouldn’t want that?

So take time to cherish the small joys in life, they just might be the highlight of your week.

Awesome

Just filled up the Civic today... not only did I get the pleasure of watching my car waste vast amounts of my hard earned paycheck as it refueled, I also got this pretty picture out of the whole ordeal.

Awesome.