Ideal weight range is 146 - 160.6 lbs. (66.4 - 73 kg.).
You are overweight by 19.4 lbs. (9 kg.).
Why do you need to know this? I'll tell you why and don't act all surprised. You knew I was going to say that!
At the hight my flabbery I hit 195 lbs. For my height and body frame that is thirty five pounds over weight. That makes me technical obesity! that freaked me out!
I know everyone has that story "Yeah, I was 155 and all muscle" but I really was. I spent 99% of my time outdoors doing stuff. Then I started working in the corporate world, got my ex wife pregnant, had a kid, got divorced, did the rediscovering life thing, met my wife, got her pregnant, got married, did the kid thing all over again......*poof* land whale.
So I decided to do something about it and it happens to align when my son was getting frustrated with karate. I decide to start doing Krav Maga to help him with his motivation and to help me with my growing back side.
Almost four months later I went from 195 lbs. to 180 lbs.! I lost fifteen freaking pounds! I have twenty more to go and I haven't really set a date. I just might stick to five pounds a month since it seems like a steady number to me. Still, this is exciting for me. The first time in almost a decided that I have started to lose weight. No....I didn't lose anything. I WON weight!
I am winning my weight goal, I am winning my muscle tone goal, I won my endurance goal, and I am just happy all around.
So that is the reason for the ideal body weight thing at the top of this post.
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Friday, May 30, 2008
Status on the A/C
I think I told you but in case I didn't I'll force you to read the boring story.
Last year we bought El Rancho de Braco on April 13th....Friday the 13th. I pushed for the date so don't think it fell on our closing date by chance. Yes, I do have a dark streak of humor. For the first month the A/C worked great.
May of last year was also very rainy and thus very cool. It wasn't until June rolled around that it got hot. That is when we found out our A/C stopped working. We tried for a month, in vain, to get the A/C to cool the house. Then by chance I happened to be leaning against the house after doing some laborious task and felt cool air flowing from under the house. So I hopped into the crawl space and started looking around. I discovered that a thirteen inch piece of my duct work was missing. well not really since I looked on the ground and found it in pieces. I also noticed claw marks and bit marks. Dogs have been known to find some cool dark place to give birth to their puppies. And there are a lot of dogs in my area.
K, so now you know the history. Fast forward a year and it is starting to get hot again. Real hot. Already hitting one hundred degree's and it May hot. Like oh sh!t this is going to be a crappy summer kind of hot. So I decided to do something about it.
I searched high and low for duct material. Home Depot and Lowes did not have what I need. Wifey called ever A/C place in town, out of town, above town, below town, and some random people just for fun. Nothing!
So I get frustrated and decide its time to make my own. I got two 30" X 26" pieces of sheet metal, A/C caulk, twelve carriage bolts. I also called my buddy Brandon over who happens to be a military aircraft mechanic. i.e. knows a thing or two about fabricating parts from metal.
A bend here, a cut there, some caulk there and presto! I have a replacement part for my A/C duct system. Then another hour or so as we cover ourselves in fiberglass but its done and for the first time in a year the A/C gets cranked on! Its a little weak and not as cold as I would like but a day or so later the A/C guy comes out. He gave a thumbs up on my repairs, added three pounds of $180 freon to my system and left. It cools a little better but it is going to be a hot summer. I think we still need some window units to help cool the house.
Either that or I need to build a roof with an attic, re insulate the walls with good insulation, and get better siding for the house.
Last year we bought El Rancho de Braco on April 13th....Friday the 13th. I pushed for the date so don't think it fell on our closing date by chance. Yes, I do have a dark streak of humor. For the first month the A/C worked great.
May of last year was also very rainy and thus very cool. It wasn't until June rolled around that it got hot. That is when we found out our A/C stopped working. We tried for a month, in vain, to get the A/C to cool the house. Then by chance I happened to be leaning against the house after doing some laborious task and felt cool air flowing from under the house. So I hopped into the crawl space and started looking around. I discovered that a thirteen inch piece of my duct work was missing. well not really since I looked on the ground and found it in pieces. I also noticed claw marks and bit marks. Dogs have been known to find some cool dark place to give birth to their puppies. And there are a lot of dogs in my area.
K, so now you know the history. Fast forward a year and it is starting to get hot again. Real hot. Already hitting one hundred degree's and it May hot. Like oh sh!t this is going to be a crappy summer kind of hot. So I decided to do something about it.
I searched high and low for duct material. Home Depot and Lowes did not have what I need. Wifey called ever A/C place in town, out of town, above town, below town, and some random people just for fun. Nothing!
So I get frustrated and decide its time to make my own. I got two 30" X 26" pieces of sheet metal, A/C caulk, twelve carriage bolts. I also called my buddy Brandon over who happens to be a military aircraft mechanic. i.e. knows a thing or two about fabricating parts from metal.
A bend here, a cut there, some caulk there and presto! I have a replacement part for my A/C duct system. Then another hour or so as we cover ourselves in fiberglass but its done and for the first time in a year the A/C gets cranked on! Its a little weak and not as cold as I would like but a day or so later the A/C guy comes out. He gave a thumbs up on my repairs, added three pounds of $180 freon to my system and left. It cools a little better but it is going to be a hot summer. I think we still need some window units to help cool the house.
Either that or I need to build a roof with an attic, re insulate the walls with good insulation, and get better siding for the house.
Birthday
So it happened.....I'm a year older. Twenty nine now and just one year away from thirty. My one gray hair turned to nineteen over night. My back is sore, my stomach is sore, my arms are sore ...... oh wait I know why. *ahem*
Uh...yeah so. Yup......................*sigh*
Been searching Craigslist for an hour looking for a walker. Might was well be prepared.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Dining Room Floor Project - DONE
Well here it is folks! Say goodbye to nasty ugly carpet and say hello to the new dining room floor! It's tons easier to clean too! From dust to big chunks of food that escapes our little human wood
chipper. Easy-peasy-crunchueasy! Just scoot it all into one corner with the swiffer and then into the dust pan.
Plus the dining room feel comfy now. Before it was a room of over powering white. Now it has richer tones that kind of wrap the room around you. Rather than make you feel like a stranger in a sanitarium. Even the wifey has picked up her laptop and works from there most of the time now.
chipper. Easy-peasy-crunchueasy! Just scoot it all into one corner with the swiffer and then into the dust pan.Plus the dining room feel comfy now. Before it was a room of over powering white. Now it has richer tones that kind of wrap the room around you. Rather than make you feel like a stranger in a sanitarium. Even the wifey has picked up her laptop and works from there most of the time now.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Dining Room Floor Project Part Two
I admit that this month has been a little dry on the postings. Deal with it man! Its summer and that is when I go out and play in the sun. Disc golf, climbing, camping, caving, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking......yup. All stuff I do during the summer.....six years ago.
Now I lay down new dining room floor for fun. The work slowed down as I realized that I had not sanded the floor before we laid down some of the faux hardwood planks. Lucky for me I happen to have a belt sander and after an hour or so we had a sanded floor. Gripping isn't it!
We had about six box fans all aimed at the window. Still....all that sanding dust managed to get in the air, settle on everything, and give everyone in the house a major case of congestion. Our Cute Little Girl [The CLG] is mighty pissed off in this picture. Not only is she having to wait on the side lines but she is tired of all this work. There she is [picture on the right] whining it up to mommy.
I got you another money shot here. This time without the CLG and all the other stuff. Kind of gives you an idea of what the floor will look like. If you can, Imagen an off white carpet with nasty black stains in it. You know the kind they put in cheap apartments. That is what this room used to look like.
Anywho, it looks like we are almost done here so I'll let you look at the pictures and you can bask in the glory that is our work. :P
Now I lay down new dining room floor for fun. The work slowed down as I realized that I had not sanded the floor before we laid down some of the faux hardwood planks. Lucky for me I happen to have a belt sander and after an hour or so we had a sanded floor. Gripping isn't it!We had about six box fans all aimed at the window. Still....all that sanding dust managed to get in the air, settle on everything, and give everyone in the house a major case of congestion. Our Cute Little Girl [The CLG] is mighty pissed off in this picture. Not only is she having to wait on the side lines but she is tired of all this work. There she is [picture on the right] whining it up to mommy.
I got you another money shot here. This time without the CLG and all the other stuff. Kind of gives you an idea of what the floor will look like. If you can, Imagen an off white carpet with nasty black stains in it. You know the kind they put in cheap apartments. That is what this room used to look like.Anywho, it looks like we are almost done here so I'll let you look at the pictures and you can bask in the glory that is our work. :P
Monday, May 19, 2008
New dining room floor
The family had some of our stolen money (Tax Return) given back to us. So we invested in some mutual bonds. Kidding.....no we actually diversified our stock portfolio. KIDDING! No for real we paid off some of our standing debt.! *giggle*
Seriously, we decided to re-do our dining room floor. My daughter still has trouble shoveling food into her mouth. Its either ALL going in her mouth at once or ALL going on the floor at once. Carpet + Food = Funky moldy spot.
Enough, say we, for we shall march forth from this humble abode and seek new flooring *sound trumpets*!
At first I wanted hardwood floors. I love hard wood floor. I like the sound when you walk on it, I like the look of it, I like telling people that I have hard wood floors. But I don't like the price...no....don't like the price at all. Even engineered hardwood floors is like $3.90 a square foot. Dining room: 1,200 sqft * $3.90 = $468. I'm not going to slap down $500 for a new dining room floor.
Then there is laminate at $1.98 * 1,20 sqft = $237.60. It's a better price but you know what happens to your Wal-Mart coffee table? Over time the finish wears out and you have those white spots that poke through! Its that compresses paper/wood stuff and it just looks funky. So I really don't want my floor doing that either.
Then I found these Vinyl "wood" planks that are self-adhesive at .97 a sqft. So 120 sqft * .97 = $116.40. Wow! These things are going to last forever (the planks, not sure about the adhesive), cheap, and they look like real wood.
I loaded up the cart with seven boxes of the stuff and mowed down some old granny on my way to the check out line. Sorry Mrs. Henderson! I promise to cut your yard all summer.
So the wifey and I pulled up the funky carpet. Removed the carpet tack strips and spent several hours popping out nails and staples from when some lazy contractor/previous owner had stapled down some linoleum that apparently runs through out the house. This linoleum lurks under our current flooring as we find out later.
And then we begin!
Seriously, we decided to re-do our dining room floor. My daughter still has trouble shoveling food into her mouth. Its either ALL going in her mouth at once or ALL going on the floor at once. Carpet + Food = Funky moldy spot.
Enough, say we, for we shall march forth from this humble abode and seek new flooring *sound trumpets*!
At first I wanted hardwood floors. I love hard wood floor. I like the sound when you walk on it, I like the look of it, I like telling people that I have hard wood floors. But I don't like the price...no....don't like the price at all. Even engineered hardwood floors is like $3.90 a square foot. Dining room: 1,200 sqft * $3.90 = $468. I'm not going to slap down $500 for a new dining room floor.
Then there is laminate at $1.98 * 1,20 sqft = $237.60. It's a better price but you know what happens to your Wal-Mart coffee table? Over time the finish wears out and you have those white spots that poke through! Its that compresses paper/wood stuff and it just looks funky. So I really don't want my floor doing that either.
Then I found these Vinyl "wood" planks that are self-adhesive at .97 a sqft. So 120 sqft * .97 = $116.40. Wow! These things are going to last forever (the planks, not sure about the adhesive), cheap, and they look like real wood.
I loaded up the cart with seven boxes of the stuff and mowed down some old granny on my way to the check out line. Sorry Mrs. Henderson! I promise to cut your yard all summer.
So the wifey and I pulled up the funky carpet. Removed the carpet tack strips and spent several hours popping out nails and staples from when some lazy contractor/previous owner had stapled down some linoleum that apparently runs through out the house. This linoleum lurks under our current flooring as we find out later.And then we begin!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope
Meet my new telescope....when it arrives that is.....a full two weeks before the "ex" would have
Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope
Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope
Cancelled the StarBlast 6
I called up www.telescope.com and let them know to cancel my order!
Look, it said free shipping. There was not special writing, no asterisks by "free shipping", no special markings. Trust me I am pretty anal when it comes to looking for little "gotcha's" but this was condition free. That is the who reason why I placed the order with www.telescope.com! let's face it. When you are talking to someone like me I expect you to live up to your word or to established expectations. In this case it was both as they SAID free shipping and did not clearly or unclearly indicate a special condition. In fact it was totally absent in this case.
After the series of events on Monday, the apathetic attitude of Jon the customer [no]service representative and this constant feeling that I was really pissed at being lied too I just had to cancel the order. There was no way I could enjoy the product with that type of taint on the experience.
Oh man I am still reeling from the BS attitude I got....yeah, it really does make me up set. The SoB chastised me for not looking through 19 pages of literature to find one little sentence. Up your dude! If you want to do business you need to be clear and upfront on how you are going to conduct yourself.
So I swung over to www.telescopeS.com. That is Telescope with an S at the end, yes that makes it plural. I did a quick buying wizard and found a telescope that is just slightly less powerful than the StarBlast BUT has a tripod AND is $100 less!
I loaded that into my shopping cart and not only is in stock (something that www.telescope.com can't say) but shipping REALLY is free with this company. So the scope is on order and should get out to El Rancho de Braco by the 13th, www.telescope.com was going to ship on the 19th.
Competitive shopping for the win!!!
Monday, May 5, 2008
StarBlast 6 Astro Telescope
Done! I placed the order just now...
I got a few of you smacking me upside the head and telling me to buy the StarBlast. "You want to down grade over a tri-pod" one person wrote. A few other well placed comments also motivated me move on the StarBlast.
So I placed the order for the telescope, a 2x Barlow lens, and a moon filter which makes my order will over $250. Now the company I ordered from is Telescope.com, which for this week being national astronomy week, has free shipping. Free shipping....cool huh! Shipping is free for all order over $250, which is my order!
So I plow through the order process, enter in the promo code for free shipping and *click*....my order is placed. So there I am, all sweaty for spending so much money all on one place when I noticed that the shipping is $50.
WTF! Free shipping for astronomy week sure is not suppose to look like $50 on a invoice. So I work my fingers on the telephone and pull up Jon for customer service. He proceeds to tell me that he can take off some of the shipping but since it is an over sized item that I will get charge $35 or something.
Again, WTF! www.telescope.com has it clear on their website that shipping is free. There is no crazy little cross, or asterisks, or marks of any kind that says there is a special condition. Reviewing that statement Jon agreed but stuck to his guns that he could only rebate the shipping and not the heavy. He then went on to tell me that if I noticed a tiny little icon somewhere on the page where the telescope was (not the order page but the specs for the telescope) I would have noticed an "oversized" decal. Then had I known to visit the customer [dis]satisfaction page I would have been informed that special shipping waivers doing apply to oversized packages.
Well.....if I had known that maybe I might have done with telescopeS.com which is a totally different company and maybe they can man up to their promotions. So far my experince with telescope.com (without the s) is crappy. Its not so much the money, which telling the truth I would rather have $50 then not have it, but its being deceived like that. Lets see how the telescope fairs out....
Yours truly and a little grumpy, HCB
Which one?
Well my annual celebration of my birth is coming quickly....too quickly. Hitting one year before death (death being 30) I am harboring mixed feelings. On one hand, as I mentioned, I am about to die. I can't say that I am particularly pleased with the idea of my life ending as I know it. I mean 30.....that's when you switch from Ac/DC to a disturbing collection of Michael Bolton and Enya. House socks, those water fall things you buy a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, SHOPPING at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and those awful multi-colored globe things on the Roman column you put in your "victory" garden........its all life after death [30].
What makes this just all worse is I have to spend the last year of my life preparing for the after life. Do you know the amount of research it takes to understand the subtle positions of yoga? The correct berry combinations of yogurt? Finding a good colon doctor?!?! I mean there is not a freaking book that says "30 and your dead, here is the how to guide"! So my last year ......
The one good news is that with the IRS refund we got this year I am going to buy a telescope for my wife to give to me for my birthday. No, not the Stimulus check. We have to save that one to offset the devaluation of the US dollar due to a massive spending to pay for the stimulus plan without an increase to government income [taxes].
Yeah, sorry, the dilemma for me here is which telescope do I get. Oh, did I ever mention I like looking at stars? K, just did. So which one do I get.
Keep in mind that each is going to require a moon lens, a 2x Barlow (magnification eye piece), and ideally a sun filter lens.
The Star blast has an impressive 300x useful magnification! I can see comet sneeze with that. However it is $100 + more and has a [what I call] a lame base. I am not a big fan of the Dobsonian type base. I prefer a tri-pod in lieu of the base. It would/will be different when I have the house built and a second story deck to plant this monster down on.
The Observer has a 140x useful magnification but comes with a tri-pod, is 100$ cheaper, comes with a bunch of accessories.
Right now I am kind of leaning to the StarBlaster. It will scale to my future needs and knowing my buying habits I will not buy another scope for a long time. However the Observer is perfect for what I am looking for....a scope to share with my son. I have a hard time seeing us trying to lug the monster StarBlaster around the front property. The Observer however is something we can plop down and start gazing.
*sigh*
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