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.