Boo It's Halloween - Scary Huh

Yesterday was a nice day. I want to be a weatherman in my next life. I don't know where you can be so consistently wrong and still stayed employed. This weekend for example, it was supposed to rain and be windy. There was a pressure system coming through that would just make it rotten. So what happened? The sun came out; the clouds moved away and it was a great couple of days. On Saturday night I worked on a Salmon Kings game. It was a good but boring game. the Kings won 4-1 and the people are great. But my job was more or less restricted to popping up on a live band. Food on the other hand was really good.

Sunday morning was pretty relaxed. After a nice hot tub Marla and I went out to Costco to get some stuff for her and then to Jasmine's for breakfast. We came home and decorated the house for Halloween. We had about 35 kids drop by for halloween and it would have been a nice night for them to go door to door begging.

I like this time of year, the big down part of this weekend was watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders loose for the fourth week in a row. This sucks, or at least to say their playing sucks.

What a week

Well I started out this week on a major bummer. It turns out that the tiny opportunity, the little possibility of having my surgery, disappeared and it is back to the long wait for my WLS surgery. If anything I am practicing patience as a virtue. Somewhere and sometime I know this thing is going to happen it is just going to take longer. So as a result of me not being all that happy I have let my diet slip. Not too much, just the occasional treat or two. the bad part is that often when I treat myself it is usually something bad for me. And my body tells me about it. ick.

Tuesday I got to see Boots. He is a good doc and says that I am doing okay. Dispite my Ha1C has crept up to 7.5 That sucks a bit, but otherwise it is okay. Wednesday though was the best time this week because the Salmon Kings are back playing at home again. It was good to be on the Follow Spot again. I was back in my first spot and it was good for shooting across the ice. I feel a bit guilty because I picked out a friend a little too often but she was in the perfect spot for me to home on her and her hubby.


Thursday was a fun day. I got to shoot a video of a comedy show that will end up being a nice project. My chest is still very sore. I think it is something about muscle tenderness at my breast bone. T3 helps a lot with managing what is going on but it still hurts when I can't breath. Marla and I went in to get her leg shots today. They really hurt her and so I thought it was best if she and I stayed home and rested instead of exercising. I feel so crappy when I move around a lot I appreciated the break. Marla was game to go to the gym but she is pretty game to do anything with me as long as we hang out together. I like that.

Here is my best Blake story in a while:

This all started when I forgot to eat this morning. I was in a major rush today and for the last while just haven't been hungry. After a busy day at work I had to take my wife in for her shots. Every three or four months Marla has to get 16 to 20 needles in her legs. To help with the needles, we rub emla cream on them about half an hour before her session. The cream numbs the nerves and skin on her legs and makes getting all the needles a little easier. Well I was late so we quickly rubbed down her legs and took off to the doctor. When we got to the doctor's office, the receptionist had put out a pail of those dreaded chocolates for Halloween. Well my hungry gave in and I decided to have one.

The problem was that when we raced out of the house I forgot to wash my hands. So as soon as I unwrapped the bar some of the cream went onto it. I noticed it tasted not like I remembered chocolate. I haven't had any in ages. But then within a few minutes my mouth felt wierd. In fact it felt like I was at the dentist and he had froze half my face. I was so embarassed because my lips, cheeks, and tongue were numb. My wife, however, thought it was a total hoot.

So my lesson was stay away from the chocolate…. and wash my hands.

catching up

Okay so a little catching up here, yesterday Friday, Oct 22, Marla and I went to see the Nylons play with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. We had a lot of trouble finding a parking spot but finally we ended up by Island Blue art supplies. This was cool because we could try Vietnamese Food at Saigon Nights on Fort Street. We shared some spring rolls and some rice vermicelli and pork. It was pretty good, very filling and not all that expensive especially because we share.

okay, so we already ate one of the spring rolls.

Really good pork and noodles.


The Nylons was a good show but it was like watching Beatlemania. With only one of the original Nylons, they guys I knew back in the 80's, it was like watching an incredible simulation. Something I like about standing ovations is you get a chance to stand up and stretch your legs.


On Saturday Morning Chris and went for our usual walk except we seem to be doing it faster. I swear if I want to cut my time below 45 min then I have to start running.

Precious really enjoys the romp, even though we didn't see many other dogs or walkers.

Marla and I then went out to have breakfast at Kitty's Hideaway. I had a corned beef on rye that nearly burnt my mouth off and a bowel of beef soup. Marla had French Toast and it was all pretty good.

After watching the Roughriders lose to Edmonton, Calvert is going to give me grief for that, Marla went to sing with the choir at the Salvation Army 150th Band anniversary. It was a good little concert. It was a pretty good day. That's Marla waaaay on the right.

Big, sweaty and smelly

What a workout tonight. Megan was stepping things up yet again. I feel so sore. Well a good sore. I feel very round when I do exercises. I think I am my own exercise ball. Today was a good day at work. It was meetings most of the day. Then a visit to the dentist. Lo-anne does a really good job on my teeth.

Back at work

Well after a rather restless night I went back to work today. It was an awesomely beautiful morning so rather than going to hit the email and process all the work I grabbed a camera and went out to shoot some photos for a couple of hours. Steve gave me the first aid phone and I filled in doing First Aid for the day. I totally lost my first patient of the day. After I found him things went well. The rest of the day went pretty well.
Chris and I did the golf course walk, he rushed us around the course in under 50 minutes. After I picked Marla up from singing and we came home. it was a pretty good day.

One more step closer

Today I went to see Dr. Mcdonald at the VGH. He is the internist who looks after and pre-screens all of Dr. Amson's patients. He also was on hand when I had my gallbladder out and stopped breathing. So I had all my information prepped and went into see him. He was a nice enough fellow and ran me through the proceedure. He was pretty thorough doing an exam, ekg, chest x-ray and took a whole bunch of blood. He did a test that even the lab tech's hadn't heard of. something called a d-cat number test.

By the time I got home the day was shot so I stayed home with Marla and hung out for the afternoon. It was a very nice afternoon.

Dealing with changes

My appointment with dr. a was pretty much as I expected... well not quite. First of all the wait wasn't as long as I planned. I got in within a hour and 15 minutes. Then I expected that I would need all my toys, computer, psp, cell phone to entertain myself and instead I ended up chatting with a couple of guys in the office. One guy was pleased because he lost 20 pounds in a couple of months of using the lapband. The other dropper 200 pounds in the last two years with his RNY. If I dropped 200 pounds I would be 108 and I think that would be a bit much.
The visit was interesting because dr. A was his usual self about not saying much. He tried to talk about loosing weight with exercise alone. That is not quite working for me. then he went on to talk about moving forward with the operation. there maybe an outside could be possible but don't get your hopes up about getting a cancellation spot in December. I don't think it is possible because I only know of one ever cancellation. But it is nice to dream.
I told his MOA that I am available on very short notice. She smiled and said she knew. then a few minutes later I got a call from her saying that I should be going to see an anesthesiologist so I can have my surgery. so she was going to call to organize an appointment for me with him before mid november.
Today I got a call from the urgent surgical office at the VHG to come in on monday and meet the doctor's gas passer. I met him once before but at that time I was unconscious and had stopped breathing. The fact that I stopped breathing while I had my gall bladder surgery kind of freaked marla. I hope this doctor doesn't hold this bit of information against me.

Marla and I went out to the Japanese Village today for lunch. I was very hungry and ate far too much. It wasn't bad food for me, except for the rice. It was just the volume was too much. I like the Japanese Village. It has many fond memories for me and Marla.

Just a nice day

So this was my first real vacation day of my Thanksgiving Vacation. I started off by going down to the Pearkes Arena and squaring away My Large Friends for next year. We are going to expand the sessions to 10 weeks and that should help the promotions too. Also a name change is in order since My Large Friends doesn't really describe what the group does so now it will be My Large Friends Fitness. I dropped a birthday card off for a friend and got a real nice reception in her office.

Marla and I went down for lunch at J&J Wonton, it is one of our favourite places and now they know us a regulars. We don't even have to tell them what we want, they just smile and say "the usual". Our usual is TanTan and Sesame Chicken. Its treat food.

Chris and I walked the Cedar Hill Golf Course in the dark - 50min - and then it was off to get Marla from singing. All in all a pretty good day.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Normally this would have been one of those days on the annual "Gee I am glad that mom didn't come on this trip trip". But instead we stayed home and had a Canadian Thanksgiving. It was the typical holiday where we watched a couple of football games, mowed the lawn and had a wonderful Thanksgiving supper with friends. Dick and Leslie are really nice people and Linda is a good friend. It was nice to be together. It is also nice just to hang out with Marla and as usual I was happy to go home.

It was a good food day. Especially not going nuts at the supper. I limited myself to one serving of all that was there and it was quite enjoyable.

A long day and a long walk

I was up this morning at 5:30am to get ready to go down to the Goodlife Marathon 8K. I got down at about 6:30 which was enough time to stretch, check my stuff, and get ready for the 7:15am start. I even dressed well for the race - a long sleeve t-shirt, my racing shirt, shorts, and a pair of sweatpants. I was comfortable through the entire race. I was glad I didn't wear my raincoat. So I was already to start and I turned about to find Silken Lauman the Olympic rower standing beside me. then I saw from folks from Camosun. Finally I turned on my ipod and the playlist I made just for the race. It was 90 minutes long, my goal for race today.

The race started out good enough, I ran the first couple hundred of meters and then got into my walking pace. My ankles ankles and feet were very sore. Marla was right; I should have got the new shoes. After about two kms my feet got to feeling fine and all was good. It was a little cold between 4 and 5 km because the wind came up from the ocean. It was interesting to see all the WLS'ers on the race course. Good on 'em all.

I finished the race in under 88 minutes. faster than I had estimated. It was a very good walk, sometimes I even broke into a lumber. I can't image what it would be like to do this 150 pounds lighter. I would sure like to try it though.

The rest of the day was sleepy and sore. I came home, had a hot tub, and Marla and I went out for brunch. Then when we came home I had planned to mow the lawn but frankly I was so sleepy I had a nap for two hours. I don't usually nap or sleep during the day but this was a day of getting up far too early and doing much more exercise than I am used to. I am really glad that I practiced my walks by doing the 5k walks that we do two or three times per week.

Strange day for eating, Marla and I were in Walmart and looked at the Halloween treats. Strangly enough, I didn't want any. We bought a bag of Tootsie roll minis and I only tried a few of those, in the old days I would have eaten the whole bag. this is a good sign.

a wet lazy day

I went out this morning and jumped into the hot tub. Summer is still trying to hang on at least it did until the clouds came in and the rain started to fall. It was a full day of rain but it was kind of nice since Marla and I just stayed home and watched the Roughriders lose to Toronto. I am not sure why they lost, aside from two interceptions.

For some reason I have no appetite at all. I tried to have a salad for supper but that didn't work at all. Tomorrow is the GoodLife Marathon and I am doing the road race. I might be a little nervous because the race is longer than I am used to and it is going to pee down rain. As long as the wind stays down everything should be fine. My big problem is that I feel all fitnessy but I am sure I look like a balloon with legs.


So the clothes are all put out. Dry clothes are in the plastic bag. Music is on the walkman, and I am ready to get up in the early am. Here I go.

TGIF -flexday

Today was a flex day - I didn't have to work - but I did have to go to school. It was another class for the TTW program. I enjoy the class and it is quite interesting. After the class Marla and I went out for lunch at the Macaroni Grill. It was the usual but it was actually a little hard to eat. It gave me a bit of a stomach ache.
Then we went and updated the insurance on the car, the problem was that we already had insured the truck, but we thought it was the car that needed insurance until we gave the paperwork for the truck to the agent. We totally confused ourselves.

After that we went down to pick up my runner's package for the Goodlife Victoria Marathon. I am doing the 8k. So we went down to the get the runners package but at 4:30 there was a line up about half a block long to get into the place. We came home relaxed and went back at 7pm and just walked right in. Back home to watch Burn Notice and a nice night at home.

The Aboriginal Pit Cook

On Friday I photographed an Aboriginal Camus Pit Cook at the College. It was very interesting and rather tasty too. the process is basically heat up rocks in a fire pit, then line the pit with leaves and branches. Add root veggies and the camus bulbs then cover and add water. It cooks in the steam for hours and hours and then served. It was a little mushy but really good.

Saturday Morning Christopher and I had a good but early walk. Then I went for a small group meeting. Marla and I watched the Riders beat Toronto then we went into the backyard and cut branches and trees and basically cleaned up the yard.

My food was pretty good today with lots of exercise.