My daughter is going to be a king

She's going to be a king. The lion king to be precise. She's doing drama camp this week, and she's in a batch of kids with the oldest kids going into 6th grade. We've been working for a few days to keep her from getting her hopes up on the role she gets cast with, but she came home with the lead role of Simba. We did a read through of the script this evening, and I expect this is going to be a pretty good performance. The best part- I get Friday off this week, and that's the day of her show.

Fitness update

I mostly did OK on the no fried food kick until Father's day hit. We went out for Indian food, and I had some veggie fritters and galub jamun. Yummy, but fried. There was cake after dinner too, which wasn't strictly verboten, but did have a lot of calories.
Exercise has gone well. Stef's trying to reclaim her bike, so I've been jogging more. I put in two miles this morning (OK, I walked some of it), and managed to get up early every day last week to put in some kind of exercise. I'm going to make Saturday and Thursday weight lifting days, and the rest are cardio.

Bad family news

My mother in law just got admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The doctor called to iron out exactly what her DNR meant.

Friday dinners

Had a great dinner tonight at Roy's with Stef and Zoe. The kiddo had some ribs she was OK with, and enjoyed my trout and Stef's salmon. Desert was a molten chocolate affair with raspberry sauce and ice cream. The service was outstanding. Stef made reservations on line which solicited Zoe's name. The hostesses greeted her at the door by name and her desert plate even had her "Aloha Zoe" written on it in chocolate sauce.
I think I may have cheated a little on my diet since I had one of Stef's pot stickers, which may have been fried. It wasn't fried like an onion ring, but, it was probably cooked in oil, which was kind of the idea to avoid.

Goals on target

I've managed to wake up early and exercise since I set my goal. I've cut out fried food. I even got down to 194lbs Wednesday morning. It was brief, mostly due to dehydration from practice the night before. Mowing the lawn counts as exercise, right? It's not a riding mower, and I'm breaking a serious sweat so I'm going to count it. I've also done crunches, fought a lot, took a bike ride, and done push ups. I've felt more focused and energetic at work, which has been great. Over all work is going pretty well. It seems like a lot of stuff gets in the way of doing a bigger work out- like anything can distract me from it if I let it. I scanned some pictures one morning for my buddy Scot. I had to get gas for the mower. Oh, there's email to catch up on... The down side of getting outdoors- a fire ant bit me. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to those bastards now. It's like I have two calf muscles on my left leg. It aches and itches so badly it woke me up twice last night.

Health goals

I have eaten way too much fried food lately. I'm doing OK weight wise, it's just not a healthy choice, and I have to write something down, like here, to change my habits. It's like prayer or something. Anyway, no fried food for two weeks! I mean it! Even tortilla chips count.
I want to get up earlier and exercise regularly too. So up by 8 and exercise every week day! This sleeping in stuff is no good for me.

Buddha

Heard a neat quote Saturday: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Things I'd wished I'd learned about myself earlier

I'm sensitive to sugar. My mom's doctor thinks she has diabetes and my body reacts like I have similar issues. All the blood sugar tests I've had came back normal, but a candy bar or a slab of white bread can put me to sleep. That's not normal.

I'm a little compulsive. I have a hard time leaving work before 6:15, even when there are great reasons to head home, and no obvious reason to stay at work. I imagine my employers don't mind so much, but it's kind of strange to not have as much control over that as I'd like.

I really need 8 hours of regular sleep. 8.5 is better, and 9 is better still.

Exercise is great for my stress level. Weight lifting is OK, but cardio is what my body responds to best. I like biking.

A lot of my reactions to situations are automatic- conflict, questions, stress, etc. I don't think I'm unusual in this respect at all, but it's kind of annoying to have this pre-programmed set of routines that you just do, even when they don't make sense. For this to be a recent revelation I guess I haven't been as self aware as I'd like to believe. My mother-in-law and her decline with Alzheimer's showed me how predictable people can be, and I'm guilty of it too. I'd like to override the negative or unproductive reactions I have.

If I write stuff down it happens. A written checklist of goals has a lot of power for me.

I learn and absorb information far faster in written form than aural, so even scribbling notes in a meeting helps me to retain info.

Abstract art and music without melody

If art doesn't get me thinking, or move me I don't have much use for it. I can get something out of Klimt, I like Bosch, but Pollack? Why would anyone pay to own that? I can see why people might like Monet, though his work is pretty bland to me. This stuff is technically a bit of a challenge, but it just does nothing for me. It feels like a movement based on the bluff that you have to be very sophisticated to really appreciate art, and if you don't get something so avant guard you must be culturally base. A lot of modern jazz seems to be based on the same bluff, and it bugs me. I respect the heck out of Wynton Marsalis for what he can do with a trumpet- but when he's free to just play whatever jazz he chooses? Some of that is just random notes. His "Crescent City Christmas Card" album is difficult to tolerate even as background noise. If you can't whistle it or dance to it, you really should consider if you're making music or just masturbating in public.

Spurlock and Lee

I like "My Name is Earl" but Morgan Spurlock and Jason Lee seem to occupy the same space in my brain. It's kind of distracting.

Theft and itching

My wife's wallet got stolen yesterday. It sounds like it was taken right out of her purse while she was looking for games to rent at Hollywood video. So they probably have surveillance tapes of the crime, and of the guys who stole it trying to use it at an ATM and a gas station. It seems like it should be pretty easy to prosecute if you can find the guy. She canceled all the cards pretty fast so she didn't really loose anything but some cash and the time it takes to get a new driver's license. It sucks though.

My shoulders are all itchy from sun burn. I don't really know how it happened since I've been religiously slathering myself with sun block every time I go out in the sun. It's like one of my shirts doesn't block UV rays.

Just finished Emergency by Neil Strauss. It reminded me a lot of my buddy Collin, and not just because he gave me a copy of another one of Strauss' works. It's not a bad read over all.