Oh  what a night.  Okay so that's a song about a good night - mine was the other kind.  Somewhere along the line after supper I developed a sore stomach. As the night went on I got hotter and hotter.  Finally I went outside just to cool down - I felt like I was roasting.  So when it was time for bed I took a t3 just because I felt bad.  It was kind of numbing and I was able to get to sleep. 

About two hours later - 1:30am - I was up with the worst stomach ache that I have had since my surgery.  It was like my insides were a rag being rung out and twisted.  Finally after a few sips of ginger ale, a lot of moving around, cleaning up the tables and counters and a couple of advil I was able to go back to sleep.  It took about two hours for the feelings to pass and I don't want that to happen again.

So bleary eyed I got up at 6am and got ready for work.  I focused through most of the day on working so I kind of ignored food.  There is not much that I would want to eat so I did eventually convince myself to have some decent protein.

Then after supper tonight I was again so tired I just crashed out for a couple of hours.  I am napping more.

It has been a very busy week.  First with the Graduation and later with my visits to the hospital and the 24 hour blood pressure tests.  All day Thursday and Friday I got to carry around this pack that was about the size of an old Sony Walkman.  Every thirty minutes a powerful grip would grab my arm and squeeze it tightly.  But when all was said and done it all went okay.  the only challenge is that my readings were all disgustingly normal.  None of the high pressures that I was getting four and five weeks ago.

so we will see what the dr has to say.  On the other side of the scale, I signed up for another UVic course.  this time it is a 300 level writing course looking at narrative and archtypes in film.  So that will take care of my Wednesdays next fall.  It was nice to spend some quality time with Marla this weekend.  That was until we went shopping.

Precious and I had a great walk on Saturday morning and then after I got home Precious, Marla and I went out for a car ride.  first stop was the bank and then we took the opportunity to go shopping at the Bay.  We actually had a great time and then I realized I wanted some stuff in the truck - so there I was in a rush - got my stuff and shut the door to come back inside.  then I looked through the windows and saw the keys to the truck sitting on the car seat. 

So that meant getting precious out of the truck, no reason she should miss out on another walk, and hiking it the 2 kms to home and another 2 back.  This is so much easier to do now that I am thinner.  But with so much walking today I was kinda pooped.  But we had to have dinner first with Leslie.  We had a really nice supper with Leslie, Linda and the dogs.  Then we came home and called it a night.

Sunday was filled with home stuff, we got a lot of stuff down.  I am down another pound to 107.5 kilo.  So that puts me at 236.5 pounds.  Only seven pounds away from my 100 pound weight loss since my surgery.

Graduation

Well today is the 8 month Surgiversary of my RNY Surgery way back in October 19, 2011.  My how things have changed.  What's different?  Well I am down 103 pounds from my heaviest weight off 339 and down 62 pounds since my surgery.  I am smaller - down to a size 36 pants from a size 48.  I can wear a L shirt instead of an XXXL.  My face is smaller and my ego is large.

Today is also graduation day for the College.  I spend yesterday setting things up at the Royal and getting ready for today.  Next year we need to do just a one day move in.  So today is the actual even.  Grads are rather inspiring.  In a couple of years I look forward to my UVic grad in a couple of years.  Maybe even next year (2013).

It may be dull but it was a wonderful weekend

The stall has been broken. Okay so I only lost one pound in a week but it is still one pound down. I am not sure what I am going to do when the scale goes the other direction. It will be a sad time for me when I gain rather than lose.

I think it has been a combination of lots of exercise and lots of work this week that help. I did two photo shoots, one an artistic and commercial shot of an award and the other was a graduation awards breakfast.

At the end of the week I did a photo shoot at the Olympic View Golf Course. It was at 9am so I was up and out to the course really early. Only problem was that I forgot a piece of equipment and had to drive from Costco all the way back to the College and then out to the course again. It was a pretty fast set up and the photo shoot went very well.

That night I had a call to work on the out for Bryan Adams. It was really different because I wasn't doing the whole show I just did it for the work and picked a spot on the loader crew. It was quite cool because four of us ended up together - we had Brandon, Warren, Cam and me. It was like the A team of the most experienced guys on the crew. It was a pretty good night of moving, hauling and shifting stuff about. I would do it again.

It was also nice because it gave Marla and me the weekend together. Our saturday was a nice normal day. Chris and I did the Saturday morning walk with Precious (our last for three weeks) and then Marla and I spend Saturday afternoon doing good stuff about the house. We took Precious out to the vet but instead of Neil we got a fill in for him. she was more nervous about getting a shot than precious. We went to the farmer's market out at the Saanich Fair Grounds - boy it was cold. so we came home and had a nice night. We watched Sherlock Holmes 2.

sunday was a repeat of Saturday with a little sleeping in, Brunch at John's Place. and a couple really bad movies - Puss In Boots and Safe House.

I hate stalls -

I hate stalls! Week four of staying the same - I am down 101 pounds from my heaviest - 61 since my surgery seven months ago. I would like to play the muscle card because I have increased my weight lifting exercises three-fold. I regularly lift 15 and 20 pound single weights instead of the five pounders that I started with. And I can easily bench press 100 pounds. Best of all I have gone from XXXL sweaters to L. But I measure myself against the weekly scale. Phooey.

Some days off are better than others.

It has actually been happening a while, but like the technique of turning up the car radio so I don't hear the ping in the engine, I hoped if I ignored it - it would go away.  Hopefully when the bank account looks a little better we could remedy the problem then.  So with chagrin I acknowledged the leak coming from the fridge.

The immediate solution used to be to call the repairman.  Or repair woman for that matter.  But this time I went straight to the computer and looked up what was going on.  Yes, others had had the same problem with their Maytag refrigerator.  Turns out that if the temperature is too cold; which it was.  And if it is leaking from the ice maker; which it did.  That all could be solved by unplugging the electricity and letting everything inside defrost.  Ta da!

So the fridge was melting away and I took this opportunity to clean up behind the refrigerator and get everything okie-dokey.  All was good until about six hours in and then pop- fizz- bang- and slush.  A jet of water poured out from behind the ice box as the hose which lead to the ice maker.  As the water gushed out Marla and I took turns filling up the 18 Ltr. water bottle until we could figure something out.  My inspiration was to run the water into a garden hose and send it all out into the back yard.  That being done, Marla held a firm grip on the join until I could call the plumber from Mr. Rooter (we have a service contract with them).

It was a two hour wait until the plumber would come so I set out to clean up the access to the waterlines for him.  Now you may ask "why didn't you just shut off the water?"  For some silly reason there was no shut off valve for the waterline to the fridge.  So why not shut off the water to the house so that Marla was not left 'holding the hose'.    Well in our 1950's house, there have been a few additions over the years.  One of those additions ended up encasing the water's lead line to the house over a meter and a half under the house in the crawl space, behind a wooden wall.  there was no way for me to reach it.

Our plumber guy was very good.  Fast friendly and was really good at telling us what we needed and what we didn't need.  He gave me good news that he could take care of us even in the evening.  But he also gave me bad news that the pipes in our kitchen's cold water were made of galvanized steel.  That means they have been building up junk like hardening of the arteries.

So once the plumber came we set out to accomplish at least two things.  First was to relocated the shut off valve where a human could reach it.  Second was to put in a for real shut off valve for the ice maker.  Along the was we decided to install a regulator in the waterline to protect the plumbing pipes and repair the sink's taps.  The latter was on one my household to do lists but I couldn't do it without shutting the water off.  So that is another thing off my list.

All total my day off ended costing us $750.  But a lot of really good things were done.  Oh, one thing remaining - the ice maker works but the thing still leaks.  So now we need to call a service man - or service person.

Back to work

I am attempting a new resolution.  Once a week I want to take public transit or walk to or from work.  It is about a 45 minute bus ride or a two hour walk.  I haven't tried the walk yet but I think at 6km without running it the walk should be okay in a couple of hours.  I will pick a nice day and walk home sometime.  Maybe I should arrange with Marla to pick me up.  Or bus part way and walk the rest.  That would be more do-able.

My stomach is rather upset lately.  So I stayed home on tuesday and wednesday to deal with the achy tummy.  It sucks to be stuck inside when it is so nice out.

I can't tell if it is just because I want a new fridge or that we are caught up in our bills but the silly old fridge is leaking again.  That sucks.

My blood pressures are still all over the place, another little annoyance.  But little annoyances are better than big bad things.

Not much inspiring to write on, but sometimes that is a good thing.

returning to a normal Saturday

Well things are back to normal.  Chris and I had our normal Saturday walk along the Dallas Road waterfront.  I enjoy these times when Christopher, Precious and I can walk, chat about our week, and basically have some exercise.  After our session I had about an hour to kill so I took a walk through the James Bay Public Market.        It is pretty artsy craftsy but I couldn't see myself spending much money there.  Except the fresh fruits and veggies looked pretty good.

I then went to the June WLS Meeting.  It was a small but very good meeting.  In some ways I like the smaller groups better than the big ones.

Marla and I spent the afternoon being domestic.  We went under the house to check the laundry vent and I discovered that one of the heating vents has come uncoupled.  I think next weekend I will attempt to go under there again and fix it.  I actually think I can fit there now.

In the evening we got wrapped up in the wildly confusing Hatfield & McCoys mini series with Kevin Costner.  B film at best.  A very complex movie with way too many characters who look alike.  Sort of an American story in the epic Russian style.

Sunday was a nice day.  We slept in, had a nice breakfast at home, and then we drove out to Sooke to a friend's open house.  It was a very nice day.  Pretty easy and calm, just what I need before a busy week.

Friday fun day

I started my day off getting to work really early. I was in by 7:30am so I could get logged into the Roughrider's ticket office and get our tickets for the game in September. We got seats 13 rows up on the west side of Mosaic off the 35 yard line. I also booked our flights back - I really dislike areoplan airmiles. The times are terrible.

After work we went to the Noodle House for pork something, it was good, but it also caused me to dump. I couldn't stay away after eating it. there was some kind of plum chili sauce on it that just caused me to go into nap mode.

Before we came home we stopped at Walmart to pick up a correction of the anniversary photo and while we were there we found some blue jeans on sale for me. I am down to size 36 - Yay!

Fore - five - six

Thursday was our annual golf tournament for the ITS division. It was nice to come out from my office and go walking about the Prospect Lake Golf Course chasing after a little white ball. My team consisted of Wade from computing, Marion Randel from Conti, and Steve from another computing company. It was a really nice time. the weather was wonderful for golfing, not to hot, not to cold, no wind. We started late as the last ones on the course but that was okay. It was a bit icky being the last ones into the club house. I felt like the last one coming to the party.

There were lots of gifts and swag. We won for being the most average team. So we got apple gift cards for being in the middle. Then I won a new shirt - just what I need another black golf shirt. However, this one is a large and it will be a little big.

Eating was good, I had about a quarter of a hamburger patty and called it at day. But it was sure late by the time I got home. I missed our exercise group for thursday which was a bit of a bummer. So I got home about 9:15 after getting lost coming home on burnside road. Lots of twists and turns in the dark.

Marla did really good, she drove Christopher home after exercise class.

Just another week - except for one very special day

It has been a pretty ordinary week. I was really really stiff from working all Sunday night but feeling pretty good. The highlight of this week is that Monday is our 35th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated by going out for dinner at the Harbour House Restaurant. Here is my review from Tripadvisor -
We were celebrating our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and so we chose to go to one of our favourite dress-up places in Victoria – the Harbour House. The restaurant is located near downtown Victoria with views of a park and the inner harbour: Harbour House is situated in an old home which adds to its character. It has been there for thirty years and it is almost a throw-back to those days of the ‘70’s when steak houses were all the rage.
When we got in the usually lightly occupied restaurant was filled with a bunch of older people having a wonderful time. They were a tour group having a night out. We had 7:30pm reservations and by 8:30 rolled around things quieted down a bit. By then we had our appetizers and a glass of wine. I found it nice that the waiter, who was their junior waiter (he had only worked there for 25 years), recommended the less expensive wine over the featured selections. And he was right.
You could tell that the tour group cut into his usual still because he acted kind of rushed until we said we were not in a hurry and he could take his time with us. I don’t eat very much so our meal was basically an escargot appetizer with garlic butter and whole wheat buns. The main course was steak and lobster split between my wife and me. All tasted very good and was well prepared. Steak and lobster is definitely a special of the house. They have had a sign outside promoting the dinner for years. When we first came it was $14.99 and now 30 years later it is $29.99. It is pretty good bang for your dollar when you consider that also includes potatoes and three vegetables.
By now things have become quite subdued and less noisy. The waiter had some time to chat with us and we felt a calm in the room. We had an evening coffee and while we were sitting we had a chance to talk to the people across from us. They were from Australia and visiting Canada on a month long vacation. So we gave them some travel tips for Victoria and had a great chat. Soon after they left their table, the owner of the restaurant dropped by our table with a small bottle of champagne to help us celebrate our anniversary. It was a gift from the Australians. The owner talked about the history of the place with us and how he enjoys having a restaurant in Victoria. It is quite an achievement for a restaurant to stay open that long here. They are open 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
We will definitely go back again and I would recommend it for anyone wanting a romantic night out, just avoid the tour groups. The evening of wine, appetizer, Steak and Lobster dinner split, and an Irish Coffee came to just over $100 including the tip. All in all a pretty good night.

Marla and I decided not to give each other Anniversary presents - but I couldn't resist one. I packaged up Marla's wedding dress from the ratty old cardboard box it was in and put it in a neat plastic container with tissue paper to protect it. Then I created a picture of Marla and me and framed it in the box. It was a pretty good time.

Show time at the Arena

So wednesday came around it was time to go back to the arena for the move in of the David Foster Foundation concert. It was a long day. We were in at 8am and didn't get out until six pm. There were only three trucks but there sure was a lot of gear.

Thursday and Friday I was back at work. My next call was into the arena at 5pm for a 6pm show. I was on followspot with Ron, Nicki, and Dave. We have done a lot of shows together over the years. It started off with dinner for the $1000 a plate crowd and after they were properly lubricated with champagne the auction began.

There was some really cool items. There was a trip for two to the Indianapolis 500 for the weekend which featured a ride around the track with Mario Andretti. There were also some wine weekends in Napa Valley. A trip to LA to join David Foster as he gets his star on the walk of fame. A weekend for 10 on a private island in the Caribbean. And finally an autographed grand piano. The wanted $1,000,000 for the piano but that came with an original David Foster song. In the end it went for $400,000. Most of the other items went for 40 to 60k.
It was a pretty good show. I ended up being on David Foster most of the night with a couple of scenes where I opened up to hit Mohammad Ali. The show itself was okay. It was very middle of the road. After an intro by David Foster, Kenny G played a set of a few songs. Then the Canadian Tenors did their thing, followed by Rubin Studdard and Sinbad. Then Sarah McLaughlan brought it all home at the end. In the meantime there were lots of celebrity introductions, jibes and jollies. It was a star studded none offensive pop hit show. Okay but glad they were paying me to be there and I didn't pay to see it.

The show wrapped up at 12:15am and it took us until 5:30AM to load up the trucks and get out of there. I came home with the daylight and went to bed until 10am. It felt pretty good.

Marla and I had a really good Sunday. We didn't do a lot but kept busy.