Out of commission

So, p90x will have to be put on the back burner for a little while. I had a mishap during basketball. Because of that, I'm now sporting some shiny new crutches. After I got home from urgent care I looked through the p90x manual to see if there were any crutch assisted exercises, but alas, there weren't. Even though it's been almost 7 years since another basketball related injury relegated me to crutches for 6 weeks, 7 years was not long enough. I hate crutches! I think for this go around, I'll rent a rascal scooter instead

The thing is....

ok, so the weirdest thing happened... I put in the plyometrics dvd, and was once again warming up.  and in the middle of the warm up, Tony says "oh by the way, you don't want to do plyometrics within at least an hour of eating".... well, I just happened to have had dinner about 30 minutes prior to putting in the dvd.  And who am I to tell Tony he's wrong?? So, I had no choice but to  delay my plyometrics session until another day.... maybe tomorrow.
Plus, Anchorman was on, and I love that show.  What? did you think this was going to be all about progress and shedding unwanted pounds while at the same time developing a rock hard self esteem, and coming to realize that who I am is acceptable and I shouldn't worry about what society thinks? If so, you really don't know me that well.  For those that do know me, they expect to see a few of these types of posts along the way.  plus, where's the humor in reading a blog about how awesome I am at everything I do, and P90x is no exception?  exactly.

Day 1: shoulders and back...and throw up

You know you're in trouble when you get winded during the warm up to the actual exercise... But that's precisely what happened on day one. After I took a 30 second break prior to beginning any of the actual work, I was ready to roll. Tony kept saying to set goals for each set. All of the people on the video were doing sets of 25 or 30. I set goals a little further down the scale. Mine were goals like: 5 or 8 or "just do as many as u can without dying". I made it all the way thru the first round of exercises and half way thru the second when suddenly, all the water that I had consumed during the workout seemed to immediately want to exit my body thru my mouth... After the water exited as planned, I decided that was enough for day one... I texted Dave Walker to ask how many times I should expect to puke after a p90x workout. He said something to the affect of "for you, 5 or 6". So at least I have a measuring stick to go by. Tonight is plyometrics... I hear it's "intense". Why am I surprised? Well, here we go.

New thing called P90x

So, I don't know if you've heard gang, but there's this new exercise program out called P90x. What's that? It's been out for quite some time now?? Everyone's heard of it? Oh.... Well I guess I'll skip the back story then. If, for some reason, you are unfamiliar, you can look it up on Wikipedia. Anyway, so I've recently decided to give it a try. And I thought, 'hey, why not blog about my P90x journey?'. So that's just what I'm going to do. I got my hands on the DVDs a couple days ago. I was told it would be helpful to get a pull up bar, so I picked up one of those tonight. This was the original plan: come home, put together the pull up bar, watch the intro video and then do the first exercise. This is how it played out: came home, listened to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack while i watched Conan with subtitles. Then I put together the pull up bar while I watched some Roadhouse. After completion of the pull up bar, I went to "test it". Quick side note: senior year of high school and the summer after graduation, I was in the best shape of my life and still could only do 7 or 8 pull ups....I don't know what it is but I'm horrible at them. I think its due to one of two reasons. Either my arms are just too long or I'm just incredibly weak...neither is outside the realm of possibility. Anyway, I just wanted to get that story out there before I continue with the events of the evening. So I proceed to the door jam and mount the bar. I grip the bar and start to slowly apply all my weight. I hear a slight creak in the door molding, which doesn't lift my spirits in the slightest. Once I'm assured I'm not going to break the doorway or the bar, I start to pound out 5 or 6 pull ups...just for a warm up I tell myself... The only problem is, I'm struggling just to get one. I did eventually get my chin above the bar, but it seemed to take all my remaining energy just to get that one. So I dropped down and returned to the couch to look over the instruction guide that came with the bar. There are diagrams and written steps, but no "trouble shooting guide for fat guys". That must be in the online catalog...oh well, that was enough for one evening and I haven't even started the actual P90x. This could end up being P205x. Before retiring to my room I did do 2 sets of curls with the 15lb dumbells I bought along with the bar- thinking that would make me feel a little better about myself, but alas...it didn't work. My spirits are dampened but not broken...tomorrow is another day and when, as the saying goes, 'the real work begins'....

Where was I?....

Occasionally, when I have to drop Blake off in the West Valley, we'll stay out on that side of town the night before to avoid traffic. We will stay in the Residence Inn, or the Springhill Suites out by the football stadium (at which time, Blake will mention that he wants me to play a game in that stadium... ah, son, that ship has sailed :).

He loves staying in hotels. He always refers to those two properties as "his hotel". He also likes it when I take him to my work or "daddy's hotel". He loves showing off in front of my co-workers. The other day he asked for me to take him to "my hotel" and I obliged. On my desk, there is a cup with several fake mustaches (upon typing this last sentence, it sounds very strange out of context...). Blake immediately grabbed one and put it up to his face. He then ran into the office where the phone operators are, and modeled his new mustache for them. We walked up toward the pool to get a smoothie (Yes, I sometimes bribe my son to behave with refreshing ice cool treats, so sue me). We stopped by the waterfall for a photo op.

On the walk back from the pool to the lobby, we would stop intermittently so I could give him a drink of the smoothie. He was busy telling me a story about the water features that run through the gardens behind the lobby when I tried to offer him another sip.

"Daddy, lets not drink right now, I'm telling you a story".

Not many things will keep my son from taking full advantage of consuming a nice treat, so this was a little shocking to me, but he was determined to let me know what was going on in his mind with these streams running down the hill.

I have to hand it to him though. He definitely inherited the gift of gab.

I'm in the mood for Asian, but...

There are times in this life where tough choices have to be made. I had one such occasion tonight: What to make for dinner? You know those times when you stair blankly into the fridge, and survey the options. Some eggs, some noodles you made last week, some hot dogs, and some deli meat. nothing inspiring so far. Let's check the freezer. some unidentifiable frozen delights, some shredded hashbrowns, some skinless chicken breasts, and ice cream.... hmmm, nothing really jumping out at me. Then I get an idea. What if I made hashbrowns and eggs, but with an Asian twist? Could be good... Could also be very bad, but what's life if you don't take some chances, right?

So I grab the hashbrowns and chicken from the freezer, and the eggs from the fridge. Now in terms of full disclosure, when I said I had an idea, it really was an idea in its most basic form. In other words... I was winging it. I heat some olive oil in the Wok and throw in two chicken breasts. added some garlic salt, pepper, vinegar, and soy sauce, and let the chicken simmer. added some sriracha hot sauce for a little kick. Once the chicken was done I set it aside on a cutting board to rest and let the juices settle into the meat. I threw the hashbrowns into the wok and let them start working with the marinade from the chicken. Once the hashbrowns were cooked I put them on a plate. I added a little more vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha to the wok and brought it to a simmer. I added some rosemary leaves and ginger. After slicing up the chicken I returned it to the wok. Then I threw in an egg to boil. I removed the chicken and the cooked egg, and placed it on top of the hashbrowns.

I'm not going to lie, it seems really weird, but it was super good.

Kid Gives Speech After Learning To Ride A Bike

This is Awesome!! he sounds like Data from "Goonies"... so so awesome!