Pics of the (other) Day

Here's the couple pics the mom&daughter sent me from the game I went to at Lambeau:

It's possible that I may have had better weekends in my life, but I don't remember them.

It started with deer hunting (or “Bambi Killing” to you PETA wanna-be hippies) on Friday. I blew out of the Cities right after work and was up at my dad's place in Two Harbors by noon. Shot the breeze, got ready, and was in the stand by about 1 pm. Being that I usually sleep from about 10 am until 3 pm, staying awake wasn't easy. Luckily the lack of a door/safety rope in the stand, combined with the rather sketchy spot I had to place the gun gave me plenty of incentive not to doze off. Shortly after 4- VENISON. Nuthin' huge, but 6-points o' tasty eatin'. Between me, my dad and his wife the whole shebang is dressed, cleaned and butchered by noon Saturday. Right now I'm marinatin' me some ribs...

Anyhow, Saturday morning at 7 am someone's calling me from Wisconsin. Wtf? It turns out that it's a guest I'd had at the Shed. She tells me it's the start of Wisconsin's deer hunting season and I should go to the game since there'll be a lot more availabe tickets. I'd already been luckless trying to get my Sunday shift covered in case I hadn't bagged a dear early, so I thought I was "s.o.l". Luckily, the other bartender said he could call in to his other job when he found out I was going to be able to go to the game. 10:30 Saturday night and I'm on the road to Lambeau!!!

I get to Green Bay a little before 3 am and grab a few hours of sleep in my car . I arrive early and apply my “warpaint,” which was far from optimal. Normally I use costume make-up, but since I didn't have green and gold/yellow on hand, and everywhere was closed, I substituted a Crayola kid's paint set (“washes easily from skin!”). Um, it sucked. The yellow barely showed up, and while the green was a wonderfully dark color, it dried and cracked and did the same to my skin.

I end up having to get a ticket from a scalper ($200!!! But hey, that's what I'd actually expected, so meh), cruise the tailgate scene, and head in. Pick up my cheese head, enter into the pre-game raffle, and hang out in the Atrium. At the raffle, there's a few hundred people but they only gave out (if memory serves) about 4 prizes. They preface the last one by saying that “they hope whoever wins this one has a big vehicle.” Um, I won. I have a small car. It's a huge ass commemorative mirror. More on this later.

The game itself is amazing. We whooped the Panthers 31-17, Favre had a good game (great for a mortal QB), and everyone there was into it. I even had people take their pictures with me, and I'm hoping they e-mail them to me so I can post 'em. My voice is almost gone by the half, but it was a simply gorgeous day for football- I couldn't have picked a better day for a first trip to Lambeau. Y'know that list everyone has of things they want to do in life? Watching Favre play (win) at Lambeau was in the top 5. Check.

After the game I wait until things clear out so I can drive right up to pick-up my mirror (it's light but awkward, so I didn't want to risk carrying it solo for the ¼-1/2 mile back to the car). I finally get it into my car, but only after I've taken it out of the box AND the plastic wrap. It's also sticking 6” past the head of my seat, so I spend the entire 5+ hour trip driving like a bad contortionist. I keep thinking about the joke the goes “Q. What's the last thing to go through a fly's mind when is hits a windshield? A. It's a##.” Only for me, it'd be a giant commemorative mirror. As seen below- the ebay listing I got this off was selling it for $319 :D

I'm on TV!

As if my ego needed any more inflating, here are some links to me being interviewed about the new smoking ban.
Here's the link to the story:

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=266331

And here's the link to the video showing my sexy self on tv:
http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=54716&bw=

Of all the things I've lost...

...the last 10lbs has been the best. That's right, two weeks in the gym and I've managed to get rid of 5lbs a week. This puts me a full 1/4 of the way to my "goal," which is giving me great hopes of exceeding it. Of course, this week's been a bit lax on the diet I've been trying to keep. I've been drinking more than usual, and while my eating out has been sushi and almost-all-veggies stir-fry, I need to watch it. While I don't actually expect to be able to lose 5lbs a week for 16 weeks (losing 90lbs would be a bit extreme), that's no reason to NOT try for it.

I've been a lot better at going to the gym than I expected. I took Monday off as a rest day, and Tuesday I missed because I did just about everything BUT rest on Monday and needed to get sleep somewhere. Because I wanted to at least keep up with my schedule I went twice on Wednesday, and between the two sessions burned nearly 2000 calories between some light weights and almost 2 1/2 hours on the elliptical machine. My calorie goal has been steadily climbing, but at this rate I'll burn a steady 5000+ calories a week. Now I just need to make sure that I'm not sitting around on my ass.

I've been playing some more disc golf lately as well. It started out pretty well, with my putting really seeming to have improved. Of course, that was short lived, and my last few rounds have been downright miserable. It doesn't help that I can go to the gym for an hour and half and be fine, but playing disc golf for an hour makes my knee hurt like hell. But on the upside, my drives have been improving.

Oh well, gonna be a busy one today, and I'm looking forward to watching the Twins rock the ChiSux. After all, it's been a while since I've put on my warpaint...

It has begun!

Well, today is the end of week 1 of my diet. Yep, that's right, I- defender of whole milk and champion of the calorie, am on a diet.

It's not that I've necessarily been all that more unsatisfied with my body than before. I'm about 40lbs overweight (possibly more, but that'll get rid of the belly), but it hasn't really impeded my life. However, when I found out that some of my coworkers at the Machine Shed were doing a "Biggest Loser," it was the excuse I needed to start getting rid of it. We all paid in $50, and four months from now whoever lost the most weight wins the pot (a few hundred bucks).

The crap's been cut from my diet, and one of the biggest shocks has been getting used to drinking my coffee black. I've been eating better, though I still need to get some variety in there (a whole lotta grapenuts in skim milk, bananas, and bagels). The biggest change, however, has been getting a gym membership. Because of the holiday weekend, I couldn't get one until Wednesday. I've been good about it so far though, and have noticed two things; 1.) My endurance is better than I'd expected, and 2.) I should've done a few push-ups.

My goal is to lose 40lbs (10lb/month), which even if I don't win will still leave me satisfied. After that weight is off, and the competition over, it'll be time to get some strength back. My membership is 18 months, so that a whole year after the competition. If I can keep my ass motivated, I could put on some good muscle. I'll never look like a Spartan warrior, but I'll be damned close to carousing viking!

Beer, Buffalo Wings, and a Total Lunar Eclipse...

... or at least that was how my night was supposed to go. When I got back from work last night, I went almost immediately to bed (about 11:30 pm). After dozing slightly for about an hour, my cats wake me up as they start beating the hell out of each other- with my hand in between them. Long story short, I'm not gonna be getting back to sleep. I start some half-assed cleaning, and decide that I'll head to work early, grab a beer, make some buffalo chicken breasts with my left-overs, and watch the lunar eclipse.

As soon as I walk out the door it starts to rain. I've NEVER had it work so perfectly. Anyhow, I go back inside and watch a bit of a TPT show on the European perception of America, and when the finish with Poland I decide that I'll head out anyway. I grab the hot sauce and blue cheese (the beer was already in the fridge), and head to work. I don't know where I put my bottle opener, so I had to open the bottle on the handicap parking sign. Nonetheless, drinking beer from a jagged mouthed bottle of beer and catching the ass end of a great lightning show is STILL one of the best starts to the work day I've ever had...

And now for the chicken.

Re-Con

GenCon has come and gone, and I'm back. It was a freakin' awesome trip, and it's time to give a recap. Here's a day-by-day:

Wednesday: Bug outta work, pick up Matt and Mikey, and head out. My trunk is broken right now, so it doesn't latch and leads to some slow residential driving and consternation. At highway speeds the wind keeps it down and semi-latched but it's something we deal with the whole trip. Mi amiga Tasha is on her way back from Charlotte at the same time on the same route, so after some minor backtracking and miscommunication, we meet up past Madison and say "hi." Matchik takes the wheel for a bit(I had less than an hour of sleep, so a 9 hour drive was NOT gonna happen), and we get into Indy without incident. Once in Indy we meet up with John and Brian, check out the hotel and eat at the Ram- sooooo good.

Thursday: Get up late >:(, and get into the Frost Giant. It's whole lotta make-up and braiding , with a ton of help from Matt. It turns out o.k, though, and we hit the 'Con. I get some pretty good response to my costume, and hit the vendor floor. I pick up a bunch of minis, get hit on (well, okay, mostly just hit) by the Conan girls and interviewed by Maxim.com (I still need to find the interview).

Shortly thereafter, while Matt and I are checking out the art gallery, I get stopped by security and they tell me that my axe looks "too realistic." Now, I understand they need to do their job, but the part that bugs me is that NO ONE else on security other than this guy was concerned, and even he said that within 20' he could tell it wasn't real. So basically, if he'd had the day off I would have had no problems.

We run TrueDungeon just before 5, and it's a good time despite half the party (3 of the 4 melee characters) being turned to stone halfway through the adventure. I go back and try to scour the paint off myself. We head across the street to Claddagh, an Irish pub, and we grub it up. On the way back to the room, John, Brian and I get in the elevator with five other people. No one is talking, and I've had too much to drink to stand there silently for four floors. So I start singing a parody of the Ooompa Loompa song. But here's the thing...

I wasn't really paying attention to the short chubby chick with the orangish hair. As soon as she gets off Brian and John burst out laughing, thinking I was a total asshole (which I was, just not intentionally or maliciously). Even worse, the laughter combined with some greasy bangers and mash put Brian in the can giving the toilet the good old "Irish hello."

Friday: Hit a lecture with Brian and Mikey about using created languages in writing (and to a much lesser extent gaming), buy more stuff, get accosted by hippie artists "trying to create a society that doesn't suck," and attend a game session with Matt and Mikey that gets cancelled. We paint some minis, then I meet John and Brian for some tasty sushi at Mikado. We go back to the room and play "Kill the Hippies." Late night run to Steak n' Shake, which I find out is basically the ugly bastard child of a McDonald's and a Perkins.

Saturday: The big day- costume contest! I get Matt to braid my hair again, but do the paint myself (a huge pain in the ass, but I manage). I spend most of the morning watching anime and trying not to sweat. I register for the contest (well aware I stand no chance of winning, but wanting to do it anyway), do the parade and the contest. I see some really great costumes, and end up in line between two black-robed Raistlins. Sit through the contest (which wasn't too bad), the "entertainment" by some dude named "Luke Ski" or some such who truly blew nuts, and realize that unless you've done a really competitive level costume that it's just a huge time sink to enter the contest. Head back to scrub off.

We eat at the Ram again, and I nearly kill myself (beer, calamari, a 1lb burger, and a towering piece of mud pie). I am truly in pain from eating so much, and when we get back Brian decides he's gonna skip the Midnight Zombie Show. Matt and I go anyway, because why the hell not? The MZS goes something like this- 80 people at eight tables, with one guy monitoring the action. Everyone grabs a character in the theme (this year was zombies attack Toon Town), and when the zombies attack your table tries to survive. I ended up being Speed Buggy, and Matt was Snively Whiplash (he did a damned good job too). It was too convoluted to recap, but at the end the person the moderator liked the most (i.e was the most entertaining) wins a copy of the game "Zombies!!!" And the winner is.... ME!!! Yay!

Sunday: My big thing Sunday was that I wanted to watch to movie "The Great Yokai War," which was a story involving monsters from Japanese folklore. It gets cancelled, which peeves me greatly, but we watch "12 Kingdoms" instead, a fuedal-era Japan type anime where nearly all the heroine does is bawl uncontrollably. We hang out a little more, I watch some dudes play a game of minis while Matt finished a mini, we play a game of werewolf, and hit the road.

We'd parked in the garage near our hotel, since it said "lost tickets $18" and we figure we'll just say we lost our tickets and get 5 days of parking for $18 bucks. Long story short, we get busted but the dude says in broken english that he understands and doesn't care. We get his name, and when we go back next year we are TOTALLY bringing him a souvenir.

The drive back begins, and after a couple hours the rain begins and takes us back to the cities. This time I don't need a nap, and we get back shortly after 1 am. All in all, a freakin' awesome trip.