Yesterday I got the BRILLIANT idea to go rollerblading for exercise. I hadn’t used my blades in probably two years, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was in those two years the county had not maintained the sidewalks along our road at all. So basically they had gone to crap, which I soon began to realize was not good for me. I had terrible visions of me stumbling, falling face forward and breaking all the teeth in my mouth.

Well the breaking teeth part didn’t happen. Before I knew it, I was coming down a slope and facing silt and sand which had piled up on the sidewalk. I tried to stop in time, but to no avail. I hit it, then I tumbled . . . . almost into oncoming traffic! I now have skinned up shins and messed up palms. Needless to say I will never again rollerblade around here again!

Of course this accident comes right at the time I had just healed up from other injuries that had kept me out of the gym for nearly two weeks. I’m probably out for another two weeks now. I’m one of those people who refuses to go to the gym with open wounds on my hands cause of the dirty germy equipment. I have for awhile considered trying to jog, which now I might have to do with now gym and only having the Wii Fit for exercise. It’s good for some things, not so much for aerobics though (except for the hula hoop, that is a workout actually).

So today was the day, the Wii Fit came out! I was so looking forward to this. I put a 5 dollar down payment on it at Best Buy to reserve it, and they gave me a little flier to explain when and how to pick it up. In big letters on the flier it says “Available May 19th!” That’s today of course. I must admit at first I found this odd, because videogames normally ship on Tuesdays and come out on Wednesdays. But Best Buy did spend money printing all these reserve card flier things so they can’t be wrong right? WRONG! I get there today and am told “Yeah they don’t actually come out till Wednesday. I don’t know when these cards were printed or why the date was wrong, sorry.”

Uhg, it was like having Christmas ruined! Okay not that bad, but I wasn’t happy. I had such a crummy weekend. I was in a bad mood the whole weekend and spent too much time cleaning the house (which seems to have helped my allergies on the up side). Princess not only felt bad, she had explosive diarrhea, which i woke up to all over the floor this morning! So all I really wanted was to play Wii Fit, and I’ve been denied!

On the upside, since finally taking getting into shape and losing weight seriously about 2-3 weeks ago, I’ve been finally seeing results. I saw a number on the scale today I haven’t seen in about 2 years, and I’m hoping tomorrow it will be even lower. I also noticed today my face actually was looking a little thinner than usual. Woohoo! For my cruise next year I intend to finally be in the shape I’ve wanted to for years Now if only my Wii Fit would get here!

So this Friday “Prince Caspian” hits theaters. I had hoped to start reading “The Golden Compass” this weekend, but instead I pulled out “Prince Caspian” to read. I want to remember the story and see how the movie compares to the book. I’m not sure when we’ll actually see it because the BF will be working late Friday and Saturday, and Sunday is the season finale of “Desperate Housewives.” Oy! I guess it gives me a bit more time to finish it, but I’m already 1/3 through the book. I forgot these are essentially kids books and quick reads.

In other news, I’ve become a cooking monster lately. Yes I have in fact been using that GT Xpress I bought. I’ve made cakes, eggs, calzones and even chicken cordon bleu in it! I love it. I’ve also been cooking up a mess of meat lately, as I’ve been trying to limit the carbs I eat. It’s definately helped me lose some weight, and with the Wii Fit coming next week, I expect to be a lean mean sex machine soon I’ve been cooking steaks (which I’ve never done before and have gotten better at) and even ribs! I have however been bad and started cooking cheesecakes, which the BF seems to be eatting more than I do.

It’s that time of year again! Time to get serious about trying to lose some weight and shape up. Of course this is brought on by the fact that we booked out cruise for next January. We are once again going on Royal Caribbean because we had such a good time on the last one. It’s 8 nights on the Independence of the Seas. Before the cruise this year we’ll be doing Universal Studios in Orlando. I’m so excited and I can’t wait, though obviously I have to. This is going to be my first real cruise, even though it’s my 7th (I think). I’ll have no soaps to watch, no pages I feel I have to get updated and God as I my witness I WILL be done with school! I am expecting a carefree vacation damnit!

Back to the topic at hand. Every time I book a cruise I get on the “get fit” kick, which usually I try to kick up in November (the worst time of the year because of holidays). I’ve actually been doing fairly good about food and getting to the gym, but I have to get a bit more serious and stop cheating with what I’m eating. To help I plopped down a down-payment to reserve a Nintendo Wii Fit. It comes out later this month and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It does strength training, yoga and aerobics as well as “balance games.” I know it can’t replace the gym, but it’s been getting good marks. Plus I know first hand that playing “Dance Dance Revolution” for 30 minutes gives you a damn good workout. So I’m expecting this to be as good if not better. I also know Yoga can be but kicking, but it’s not something I would want to do at the gym in front of others

Lately I have been keeping one of the resolutions I made to myself last year. I think it was last year? I know it was a long time ago for sure. The resolution was to make more me time, especially videogame time. I’ve been pretty good about making time at least every other night to blast the baddies or what not . . . and it feels so good. If I actually had more time I would love to get into online gaming stuff, but I’m afraid I’d just get too addicted and get nothing done. That would be bad!

Meanwhile I’ve also kept up my goal to try and eat better and get back to the gym . . . and the past few I finally started feeling it. The sore muscles! Oh well, no pain no gain!

Finally, I recently indulged in my love for the one and only Wonder Woman and bought a few new figures, as well as this new doll from The Tonner Doll Company. I now have too much Wonder Woman memorabilia to fit on my book shelf in the downstairs guest room lol. I am planning to reorganize it, hanging a lot of the figures up on the walls along with some paintings and pictures I have of Wonder Buns as well. Now if only I could find Wonder Woman bed sheets and a comforter for the bed in there the room would be complete

I’ve been starting some pre-spring cleaning to get ready for company. Next week Emily is coming over for a fun night, then in two weeks Shannan and Nica come for a few days. I’m trying to get the house somewhat picked up for their arrival so it doesn’t look too much like a disaster zone. Basically this means finding places to put the little piles of “crap” that have built up here and there over the past year or two. None are mine of course Eventually I will do a major vacuuming and dusting of the house, but not till it gets closer to their arrival.

Since returning from vacation I’ve been watching what I eat and counting my calories. It’s time to get back into shape. Today I also hit the gym. The ship we were on happen to be hosting an Atlantis gay cruise the next week, so the bartenders were telling us all about it, how much fun it is, how they love it. My BF is determined we do one next year. I definitely want to be in shape then for sure! I also just want to be in shape for myself. Every year I say I will get into better shape, I never do. Maybe this will be the year . . . but it’s not a resolution . . . cause those always get broken.

The past two nights out have been very spooky and eerie. We’ve been getting really thick and dense fogs, to the point where you can barely see across the street. Creepy! It always reminds me of that movie “The Fog.” Speaking of that movie, there is a new movie “The Mist” coming out. It’s based on a Steve King short story, but seems very much like “The Fog.” Only instead of rotting zombie pirates there are some kind of vampire bats in the mist.

Alas, the vegetarian experiment has come to an end. Not for the lack of will power or trying, but for the desire not to expand my waistline anymore! When I was a vegetarian it was from when I was around 19-26. Let’s just say I think my body processed carbs a whole lot differently back then! Now that I’m officially old, and am not exercising as much as I should be, well it seems my body just stored all the carbs. My vegetarian diet is and always was carb heavy. After a week and a half, I got on the scale this morning and wasn’t too happy! So it’s back to just trying to eat better and more balanced. Of course I know I need to get back to the gym, that will help a lot. I am hoping to have a lot more free time in the near future to do just that.

I had the first big challenge tonight, eating out! I went into the city of brotherly love (bang bang) and had dinner with a friend who was in town. She moved to Seattle this past summer for a job that goes for 2 years. She’s homesick and is so hoping to return to Philly when the job is over, assuming she can find a job in this area. Selfishly I am hoping she does so I can see her again I miss our dinners out in the city. Sadly most of my friends have left the city and moved elsewhere, so I have no reason to go into the city anymore. Not that that is a bad thing, with the soaring murder rate and the fact that the places I used to enjoy dancing pretty much suck now . . . . thank you hip hop for taking over everything!

Anyway, I got off track. I had my first vegetarianism challenge, eating out! I stayed strong and ordered a grilled cheese, a foo foo fancy one of course. It was good, a burger would have been better. But I stayed strong. Emily has money on me breaking before Thanksgiving. I will prove her wrong!

This has been me this week. I have not yet given into the temptations of the flesh (ie meat), and well I think it’s made me very cranky. That coupled with other normal stresses, well I haven’t been very happy lately I must admit.

If I remain Cranky Pants this coming week, I may just have to quit the vegetarian thing again. I’m hoping the body will eventually adjust though and I can try and keep it going, but we shall see I guess. I’m also going to make a big effort to get back to the gym, which I keep saying I will but never do. I think that will help with stress a lot as well.

In other news, it got way cold this week, but we never did get any of the white stuff. We dodged that bullet for now, but I have a feeling we’ve dodged it too many winters in a row and are in for a doozy this year.

-Dustin

Last night I was bemoaning taking down the Halloween decoration to my online chatroom friends (pretty much my only contact with living people outside of my house anymore, I know, sad), only to find out some of them already have their Christmas trees up! I said I hadn’t taken down Halloween yet, Thanksgiving is not even here yet, and you have Christmas Trees up! Who do they think they are, CVS?

I did take down almost all of Halloween today though. Everything but the creepy ghost in the attic windows (cause I didn’t feel like crawling in there today) and the “Nightmare Before Christmas” village on the mantel. I decided there was no rush putting it away, because clearly it has Christmas in the title and it just means I’m in sink with the 24 hour pharmacies who already have Christmas merchandise out.

In other news, I’m on day 2 of vegetarianism. I am craving the sweet taste of deep fried flesh and the not-really-beef of McDonald’s. I must be strong to show Emily that I can last more than a month.