Shutting Down For Awhile

I'm shutting down the blog for awhile. I haven't had much desire to post lately. I'll keep it up here for anyone that might want to see my gastric bypass experiences.

Everything's good, by the way. I'm stuck at 245 (I've still lost a ton of inches while staying the same weight, though), and I'm jogging, working my way up to 5K using the C25K program. Once I get to being able to run 5K, which should take another month or so, I plan on that being my baseline fitness level for the rest of my life, no matter what weight I am. I'm trying to stay off the scale except for once a week. I think I look good.

I'll start posting again whenever I think there's something worthwhile going on.

What a difference a year makes!

Remember when I said I wanted to be thin by the time I was 40? I'm not quite there yet, but I can be pleased with the progress so far.

Old me:


New me:

Award-winning Pictures

Not really much need for words here. This was our Canada vacation:

We're Hooooooome!

Whew. Got back at midnight last night - sans luggage. I went to work today and it felt like a whirlwind. A grocery trip, a quick visit to my mom and dad, and here I am - in front of the computer with a million things to write, but no energy.

The trip went great and I'll write all about it tomorrow. Bear with me - I'm tired.

Heading Up North, Eh?

Tomorrow morning, we're on a plane for Calgary. 8 days of lovely vacation...ahhhhh...

We've got no concrete plans, but we do want to take a hike on Banff, see a glacier, go to Drumheller and see the dinosaurs, experience Calgary's Chinatown, and above all, relax.

This may be the first vacation we've taken where taking pictures is a primary goal. It's supposed to be beautiful up there, and Bernie just finished a photography course.

I can't wait.

Addendum: New York trip

I ate constantly for 3 days and lost 3 pounds. That's what walking does for you.

Now at 248. If I lose another 4 pounds, I'll start up the graph again.

***Reminder - inaccurate scales have caused me to stop tracking my weight loss on the chart to the right. I've replaced the scale and will start tracking again once I lose the 10 lbs that made up the difference between the previous scale and reality.

Trip Report: New York

Well, we just flew back from NYC, and boy are my arms tired .

At least our feet are tired - well, everyone's except mine. The Montrail hiking shoes that Bernie got me for my birthday last year are really comfortable, and I was the only one out of the family that didn't have any soreness from all the walking we did.

We flew in early Friday morning and dropped off the bags at the Westin at Times Square. Then we walked to Radio City Music Hall and did their tour, which was much more interesting that I expected. I had no idea that their stage was really three platforms which rise and descend on hydraulic lifts that were built in 1932. Apparently, the system is the engineering wonder of the world. Very cool.

After that, we had lunch at a place that Bernie found on some NY native internet forums, a French place called Le Bonne Soupe. Mom and Dad had a prix fixe meal consisting of onion soup, a salad, and creme caramel for dessert. Bernie had a crepe with ham, egg and cheese, and I spotted something intriguing on the menu - a sort of lasagna dish made with a crepe rather than noodles, with bechamel and bolonaise inside and mozzarella baked on top. That was just terrific. The crepe made it a much lighter dish than a real lasagna.

We went back to the hotel and napped to make up for having to get up at 4 am for our flight, and later on we had dinner at a place that got rave reviews as a Chinese bakery, Fay Da. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a big disappointment as a bakery, but it did have cheap eats - a five-choice for $5 cafeteria (Bernie and I split one). It wasn't great, but for five bucks, it was okay.

All in all, this was about 5 miles of walking on Friday.

On Saturday, we got up and had breakfast at a little bakery right next door to the hotel, Europa Bakery. Basic eggs and waffles, french toast, etc. I had a breakfast panini (well, okay, half of one was all I could manage, but it was really good).

We decided to learn the subway that day, so we rode around, went to Chinatown (big disappointment - take it off your to-do list. Very few Chinese businesses left, and the ones that are are just selling junk and are quite nasty attitudes.) We found out later that only the losers stayed in old Chinatown, and the rest moved to Flushing.

Lunch on Saturday was the famous Katz' Deli, where we all had corned beef or pastrami sandwiches (Bernie and I sharing again). This place lived up to it's long-enduring reputation very nicely, as I have never had pastrami that good ever before and don't expect to ever again. Yum.

After a little shopping and more subway sightseeing, we had to go to the fancy party that was the reason for the trip. This was a retirement/45 anniversary party for a business associate of my father's. The couple happens to be Chinese, and they learned about Bernie from my father, and they wanted to meet us, so we got invited to the party as well. We dressed up nice and took the 7 train to Flushing to a restaurant named Mulan. This is where we discovered the Chinese community in New York. Much much nicer and cleaner than old Chinatown. We lucked out and just missed the crowd attending Paul McCartney at Shea Stadium (the previous subway stop) both coming and going.

The party was great, but no one told me that it was a 12-course dinner until after the third course! I doubt anyone reading this would want a recitation of everything that was said or served, but the meal included roast pork, shrimp, chicken, lobster, Peking duck, shark fin soup, abalone, noodles, pineapple fried rice, steak, steamed sea bass, noodles, fruit, and flan with caramel for dessert. I think I managed to at least taste everything. It was a good thing the courses were spread out over two and a half hours or I couldn't have even done that. I think Bernie really enjoyed it most of all, since she hasn't seen this kind of food since our wedding reception, four years ago.

After riding the subway back to the hotel, we slept and got up on Sunday to hike the streets again. We had seen cruise ships and military ships docking from the hotel room window all weekend, and we decided to walk to the river and see them up close. Of course, it was a lot farther away than it looked from the 28th floor. We made it, however, and we got to see the USS Intrepid, two NCL ships, and three destroyer ships - two Australian and one American. We got to watch the docking of the American ship, assisted by two tugboats. Then we hiked back to the hotel in time to pack and catch our taxi for the airport.

I'm hoping Bernie will post her pics, because we took a lot of them.

Oh, I forgot to mention my accident. You know how hotels have suddenly decided it's cool to put a towel rack in the shower so your towels stay damp all the time? Well, in our hotel, the side of the shower opposite the rack was blocked by the sink and vanity, so you had to enter the shower on the end with the rack, which was exactly at eye level. So Saturday morning, when I'm sleepy and not all that attentive, I get in the shower and BONK! Right on the bridge of my nose. One small cut, but a nice little purple bruise to show for the incident. I look like I got into an MMA event.

Going to New York

Today's my last day at work this week, because we're going to NYC in the morning (EARLY - 6am flight).

On the agenda:

Katz' Deli
Rockefeller Center
Radio City Music Hall
Chinatown
Central Park
Fancy Party at Mulan in Flushing

Is it bad that I'm more interested in NYC food than I am in sightseeing?

This is our mini-vacation before we go to Calgary in early August.