Leaving on a jet plane

Spouse & I are both working today, but once we get home we'll toss the final pieces into our bags and head to Baltimore.  We're staying at a Park/Sleep/Fly hotel near the airport tonight, leaving our car there, and taking the shuttle to the airport in the wee hours of the morning.  Our flight leaves at 5:55am so I imagine we'll leave for the airport around 3:30am.  Ugh!!  The good part is that we'll arrive just before noon so we'll have the rest of the day to enjoy in Puerto Vallarta.

Marvin & Walter will be staying home and our friend PW will be caring for them.  He stays there at night and they sleep in bed with him like they do with us, and he'll keep them on their regular feeding and potty routines. It works out really well.

I am SO READY for this vacation!

Friday

Enjoy your weekend!

Beardy boy

Legends returns

I was excited to get an email from the owners of the Blue Moon where I perform in the Legends show, notifying me that the Legends shows would be starting back up in mid-Feb when the club re-opens from their month-long hiatus.  The schedule is just for Feb & March, since they are planning to re-work and possibly add some routines to the line-up.  

I'll be doing Elton John and Boy George.  

But starting in April I may get a new Legend - who knows.  But when I do know, I'll keep you posted.

Just because

Vacation

I'm excited because 1 week from today we leave for Puerto Vallarta!

Spouse & I went to Puerto Vallarta 3 years ago with our dear friends The Newlyweds.  We actually stayed about 15 minutes south in the village of Mismaloya, in a mountaintop villa in the jungle.  It was great!

This time the 4 of us are staying right in the heart of Puerto Vallarta.  We booked a relatively new condo on vrbo.com that looks fabulous.  It will be great to walk everywhere, and perhaps take a cab if we get tired or when its late at night.  The beach is so lovely and the town is so friendly, I can hardly wait to get back there.

Oh, and the weather this time of year is in the low 80s with no humidity.

This week I'll be picking out the clothes I want to take and getting it packed.  Since I'm not currently wearing anything I'll be taking its easy to fold and pack the clothes ahead of time, and just add our toiletries before we go.

Hard to say goodbye

I am in complete denial that Donald Trump is being inaugurated today.  I will truly miss the Obama family.  

God save our country!

Beardy boy

Special thanks to Fearsome Beard for this beautiful beardy boy!

Crush

Just because

Cash

Friday the 13th

Beardy boy

Acceptance

I saw this on a friend's facebook page and thought it was worth sharing. 

Just because

Wintery weekend

In the wee hours of the morning on Sat it began snowing.  It was very cold (in the teens) and it was very windy.  I got up for work at 7:30 to find several inches of accumulation, the wind howling, and the snow still coming down strong.  I checked my email on my phone to find that my company's offices were closed due to inclement weather.

So I went back to bed.

We got up a while later and I tried to take Marvin & Walter outside for their morning pee and poop.  They don't like wind even when its warm outside, so you can imagine their reaction to the wind, the extreme cold, and the blowing snow.  I was able to get them to pee but then they ran back to the front door.

Spouse & I had planned to undecorate the Christmas tree on Sun (my regular day off) but since we were snowed in with not much to do, we did it on Sat.  We even got the tree taken apart and everything stored back in its place in the garage.  This process always makes me a little melancholy but at least we had the fireplace going to make us cozy and the 'blizzard' blowing outside to give us something beautiful to look at.  The snow finally stopped sometime after dark.

After breakfast on Sun I donned my rarely worn snow boots (which were purchased for $11.95 and resemble Napoleon Dynamite's boots), hat, and gloves and began clearing the snow off the cars and shoveling the walkways.  The snow was light and easy to move, but there was ice underneath it on the street.

Later that night we ventured out to meet Steven & Thad at a local diner for dinner.

The crazy thing is that the forecast is for 70 degrees on Thurs!!!

Back on the wagon

I've written before about the great results I've experienced from following the principles of Fit for Life.  When followed I feel more energetic and I lose weight.  Back in the 90s I lost 40 lbs on it.  This time after following the plan for about 18 months I had lost 35 lbs.

But avoiding eating proteins and carbohydrates in the same meal can get tiresome after a long time.  Eating out is especially hard since most entrees include proteins and carbohydrates, like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and rice, steak and baked potato, burger and french fries, and practically all sandwiches and most pizzas.  

So last spring, after 18 months on the plan, I gradually went back to 'traditional' eating habits.  It was fun to eat what I wanted all summer long without needing to make substitutions.  Then the holidays came and I ate lots of turkey with dressing at Thanksgiving, a myriad of sweets and goodies at Christmas, and drank champagne on New Years Eve.  Again, I enjoyed it all very much, but I knew I couldn't continue doing that.

After 6 or 7 months of eating what I wanted, my clothes reminded I couldn't continue doing that. So on Mon, Jan 2, I climbed back on the wagon and returned to Fit for Life.

Fruit and nothing but fruit until noon.  Any kind of fruit, as much as I want.

Veggies with protein OR veggies with carbs for lunch and for dinner.  But never protein and carbs in the same meal.  And the veggies should outweigh the protein or carbs in every meal.

Minimal processed foods and dairy.  

While this isn't the easiest plan to follow, to me its easier than counting calories, points, or eating 'fake' food from a diet company.  And from experience I know this plan works for me, so I'm back on the wagon.

Beardy boy

Thoughts on the new year

As I peruse a few of my favorite blogs this week I see a recurring theme of people who are against making New Year's resolution.  Instead, they say they like to set goals, write down their aspirations, and track their progress towards these.  Um... isn't that basically the same thing?!?!  A resolution IS a goal or a written aspiration.

I think the issue is with follow through and accountability.  New Year's resolutions have the reputation of being somewhat unrealistic and quickly discarded, while goals and written aspirations sound more reputable. 

Regardless of what you call it, any desire to change a behavior or do something you're not currently doing requires being specific, being accountable, and being able to measure.  I've written about this a number of times. Click here or click on the 'resolutions' tag on the bottom of this post.

Personally I'm a fan of New Year's resolutions (or goals or written aspirations) because they are intentional steps toward betterment.  Losing 20 lbs, learning a foreign language, exercising 3 times a week - whatever - you are telling yourself that you're not satisfied with the status quo, and that you know you have the ability to change.  Its empowering!

But its often not easy.  Quitting smoking, eating healthy, reading 12 books in 12 months, can be painful in the beginning, but as with nearly everything, the more you do it the easier it becomes.

One of my resolutions is to go to the movies at least once per quarter.  Hopefully it will be even more frequent, but I think once per quarter is realistic and attainable.  Sometimes the films available to us don't interest me, and especially in the summer we busy, so I'm setting my goal/resolution at a realistic level, with the knowledge I can exceed if it I want/can.  

The reasons we don't go to the movies very often: 

• a film only interests 1 of us
• Spouse thinks it'll be too crowded and suggests we go later when its not as crowded
• a film we both want to see leaves before we get to see it
• Spouse questions if the movie will be 'worth' spending the money to see
• we think the movie be on HBO in a few months
• we're busy (mostly in the summer)

So for 2017 I am setting my intention to overcome the obstacles above and see at least 1 movie per quarter.  Some of my other resolutions are to increase my business/sales by a specific amount, lose at least 20 lbs, and practice at least 1 random act of kindness each month.

What are your resolutions, goals, or written aspirations?

Just because

New Years Eve

As we've done the last couple years, we went to Dos Locos for New Years Eve.  We love the food there, the owners are always so great to us, and you can order off the regular menu rather than having to buy a 'New Years Eve dinner package'.  

We arrived at 9:30 and stayed until about 12:15.  We had a great time!

Spouse & me

Mike, Joe P, and Steven

Joe P, Steven, Marty, John

Yours truly

 

Dos Locos really decorated for the night!

John

Spouse, Marty, Joe Dos, me

Happy New Year!