It Starting to look like Full House

 

Yesterday, I picked the “kids” from the airport. WWE and her must-not-give-his-name boyfriend arrived in the morning and my baby daughter arrived in the evening.

The airport is about an hour drive from home so I spend a great deal of time on the road.

Last week was all about cleaning the cave and hunting for something to stuff all those new mouth. It is an expensive undertaking, please feel free to send me any scrap of food you might want to get rid of... there is no end to what those guess eat in a single serving.

They didn't spend too much time visiting the house, they just went underneath the tree to see if anything was there with there name on.

They should have been disappointed as, except for myself, no one has been good this year. But somewhere it is written that parent has to love their kids... unconditionally... so there is things with their name under the tree. To keep secrecy, I'll refrain to say anything else about the “things”.

They are going to be in Florida for 7 days, so if I survived you will only hear from me after they are gone.

Meanwhile, have a great Christmas!

 

Bad News Weekend

This weekend I had some bad news. So today it will be only about that.

One of my best friend, this summer, had blood in his urine. He got that checked out and they found out he had a tumor in his bladder.

Like me, he has a home in Florida. He delayed his departure for after his surgery.

At the end of October he got the tumor removed. The tumor was send to be analyze to see if it was cancerous or not.

The result was catastrophic, he has a very aggressive cancer. He was send to get biopsy. More bad news, they found out that he has affected nodes. Furthermore, the cancer has metastases (travel). He is a stage 4.

Saturday I skyped with him. He has started Chemo treatments. The doctors told him that his chance of survival are really slim and that if he respond well to the treatments, they will remove completely his bladder.

It's really heart braking to learn that he has put his home for sale in Florida, update his will and arrange his funeral.

He faces his challenges with his head high. I think that if there is one person that can beat this, that's him. He is relatively young (65) in great shape (he could beat the crap of me at pickleball).

He is the kind of person that if he is out walking and see someone working he would go back and get his tools to help out. From now on, he might be needing helps but he is a really proud person and it is difficult for him to accept a helping hand.

Health is not always about a number on a scale, sometime health is living within our capacity!

New and Inprove Breakfast

In February when I started my run for health, I was about 50 pounds fattier.

My breakfast was always a cup of each: Yogourt, fruits and cereal (cherrios not the sugar lace one but the one that has that delicious carton taste). It was keeping me satisfied all morning.

I found it is just not enough anymore, I feel like I run out of energy just too quickly. So for a while now I have modified my breakfast of champs and removed the cereal and instead eat a toast with PB. This seems to satisfied my demanding body.

It is strange to me being lighter I should need less food not more to do the same tasks. Maybe the answer is that I have more muscles and they required a lot more energy!

Now it's time for me to praise Anonymous (WWE) again as her prize for guessing right my question about my new ninja friend. “Bravo WWE!”

Report card for Dec 11th

Bread – 1 Slice + 1 hamburger buns

Water – 1 + bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – Maple sirup

Fried – Half of a small size

Unhealthy Snacks – Crakers and Cheeze

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Final Score: C

The Martian

I will not give any spoilers, you can read on.

Yesterday I went to the theater to see “The Martian”. It has been out for months and should be out in DVD pretty soon (maybe it's already even out now). The theater feature movies that are not recent but at four bucks, you can't go wrong.

The Martian was great, I read the book and love it and I was expecting the movie to be so so. But I was wrong, it is a movie that when it will be on Netflix, I would surely enjoy watching again.

This is not a science fiction movie with aliens, I would rather categorized it has a very possible fiction. The technology is real.

Now it's time for me to praise Anonymous again as her prize for guessing right my question about my new ninja friend. 

"Kuddos to WWE!"

Yesterday in praising her, I missed very important facts...

Anonymous was not a male but a female and what is even worse; I missed she was my very own daughter WWE. But it's all her fault... for one thing, she didn't signed her comment and she stealthy came to my post without leaving a print in my tool to see from where came the visit (Live traffic feed display on the right side).

Report card for Dec 10th

Bread – 1 Slice

Water – 1 + bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 11 K Steps

Final Score: A

Answer

Yesterday I thought I was so cleaver. I didn't expect to have to give out my prize but the first and only guess was right!

The answer for yesterday's question is: Raphael. He is one mean Ninja that I adopted. So far he has been so useful:

He crushed ice and made delicious smoothies;

He made ice cream from frozen fruits (just healthy stuff);

And making dough for a chicken pie was as easy as feeding Raphael all the ingredients and pushing his dough's button;

From personal experience, beware of his blades when washing them, it is “cutting” technology!

So Anonymous found the answer, I can't tell much about him so I'll do my best to guess but it might (will) be mostly from my imagination.

I think he is a male. He doesn't waste time with a lot of words but when he talks he has the true on his side. He is like me an introvert. He owned a food processor, this is why he guessed it right away. Thanks Anonymous to have play :-)

To all the others (2 persons) reading my blog nah nah nah LOL 

 

 

There is only one true Ninja in this picture

Report card for Dec 9th

Bread – 2 Slices and 1 biscuit

Water – 1 + bottle

Wine – 2 glasses

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – Almond (just ate too many... next time DO NOT keep the jar open beside me!)

Walk – over 11 K Steps and 2 hours of Pickle ball

Final Score: B

Question

 

If no one guess, I'll give the answer tomorrow. If you guess right, I'll write your name and praise you in my posts for a whole week. ONLY the first one to guess right will be feature in my posts.

Guess who:

- If I touch him correctly, has a pulse

- He is not too social but he can blend in once in a while

- People say that he is not a 50 watts but I thinks he is a lot more than that

- He is very skill with blades

- He is sensible but he can crush even the hardest one without a second thought

Any guess?

 

Report card for Dec 8th

Bread – 2 Slices and 2 biscuits

Water – 1 + bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – Popcorn

Walk – over 12 K Steps

Final Score: B -

A Little Game

This is a game for Ivy but every one can play. How many difference can you spot between both shots?

 

Report card for Dec 7th

Bread – 1 Slice

Water – 1 bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Final Score: A

Life is a Beach

To start with I like to apologize to the ones living in the North. From what I saw in the news, you folks had snow and it's cold. I would not trade places with you but I would love to get a little snow once in a while. LOL

Yesterday was a glorious day, sunny, warm and a nice breeze to cool off a little. So I went to the beaches at Tarpon spring.

First beach was at Fred Howard park. This is a really nice park and the beach is locate in a peninsula. The main purpose to go there was to walk from the park to the peninsula. This is about 2.5 miles back and forth where most of the walk is on the causeway. It can't be beaten as far as perfect walking path.

From Google

After this exercise. Some cool down was necessary. I went to Sunset beach (about 10 minutes drive). It's a free beach, could be one of the best kept secret in this area. It was too hot (again I apologize) to sit in the sun so I found a spot in the shade of a palm tree and read for several hours. Life can be so tough sometimes... but this was not one of those time! :-) 

From Google

Report card for Dec 6th

Bread – 2 Servings

Water – less than a bottle

Wine – 3 Glasses

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Final Score: C

Downsizing

September 20^th my weigh had hit rock bottom in this century and my scale was showing 162.2 lbs. This was a BMI of 25.4, a normal BMI is 24.9 or less so I was on my way to get there.

At the beginning of this week my weigh was at 175.2 lbs, in less than 10 weeks I did so poorly than I gained 13 lbs. This is a lesson to me to keep stepping up on the scale, it is MY best tool to stay focus and on target.

So my goal right now is to downsize my pants from a size 32 to size 30. This should happen when I hit 160 lbs.

Every Sunday I'll put on my report card my current weight and how much I lost or win. If it's a lost of . 5 pounds or more, I'll automatically going to give myself a A +, if I gain more than .1 pound (glup) I'll give myself a E. In between I'll just going to take into account my report's items.

Report card for Dec 5th

Bread – None

Water – 1 bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Weight - 170 lbs (lost of 2.2 lbs)

Final Score: A +

A Quick One

 

Just about my report card today, have a great Saturday :-)

Report card for Dec 4th

Bread – None

Water – 2 + bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None

Fried – None

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Final Score: A +

Health Trail

I pledged several times that I want to get back to the health trail. Each time, I did... for a day or two.

Why is it so hard when in the spring it was so easy? I think that's because I was so successful my brain got the message: “it's easy Richard, anytime you want to, you can drop a few pounds.”

So I took a wrong turn, I started to eat shit like there was no tomorrow. Sugar, fried food, wine and all kind of unhealthy snacks, just bring it on, I kept getting it down into my system without regard for my health. If I stay on this trail, I might just go ahead and book an appointment with my doctor and get back pills for blood pressure and cholesterol.

Now it's December and the holiday are just around the corner bringing more food and drink orgy. I kept telling myself: “I'll wait after so that I can enjoy myself fully during that time” But I know this is just a way to excuse myself before putting my health priority number 24.

One thing that is very wrong with my previous paragraph: “so that I can enjoy myself ” I don't need drinks and food to enjoy myself! As a matter of fact, putting weight on and harming my health make me depress. So why do it to enjoy myself is beyond me, it's that inner language that radicalize so easily poor decision. I have to remind myself that good long term health is a lot more enjoyable than the short “joy” that bring poor choices. I am responsible for my health.

I have been back on the health trail for the past 3 days. Ah ah already down in the path, no one knew. I didn't want to post about it because I didn't want to put pressure on myself.

This time around I'll do one more thing, I'll do like what Natalie used to do, I'll do a daily report card where I'll display for the whole wide world viewing elements that I considered a problem for me to stay healthy.

Report card for Dec 3rd

Bread – 1 Tortilla

Water – 1 bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – None (isn't it sweet?)

Fried – half of a small size

Unhealthy Snacks – None

Walk – over 10 K

Final Score: A -

 

Fire in the Hole

 

Last week I went to Trader Joe's and bought a taco seasoning. At home, I always buy Old El Paso and I take the mild one. At TJ, I couldn't see if it was spicy or not so I took a chance.

Last night was taco night... I brown 1 lb of ground beef, and as directed on the package, poor half of the seasoning mix on the meat. Until then it was a routine exercise. But I found that it was smellier than what I was use to.

Just to be on the safe side, I test the meat, less than a half tea spoon! My tongue went numb, my nose started running, me eyes itch, I couldn't feel my lips. I don't eat spicy and that concoction was so hot.

Now the harm was done so I continue with the planned meal. I didn't take as much meat as I would have usually took but even with less meat I was burning up.

I put sour cream, a lot of sour cream on my taco in the hope to fight off my fire but nothing seems to help.

Once the meal was over, I drank some milk and that help a lot, however, I burped and the fire came back up from the hole!

Black Frid-off

Last weekend was thanksgiving weekend in the states. The festivities started on the last Thursday of November (the actual holiday). But what I think is the main hip about t.g. is black Friday. This is when the stores in the spirit of giving (ya right) just drop prices on their goods.

So after stuffing yourselves with turkeys and watching hours of football, people exercise by going shopping.

Black Friday really started at 06:00 PM on Thursday. I seen on TV, lineup waiting for store to open for their sale. In the back of my mind, I always thought that it was just a show, the people in those lineup were actors.

So Thursday at 6 PM, I shut off Netflix for a few hours and went shopping.

First stop... Kohl! When I got to the parking lot at 5:50 PM, there was a lineup going around the building. I couldn't see the end of those actors. It looked like when I was still in the military and did parade. But it was not in ranks of 3, it was in ranks of 5, and no one was moving, the doors were lock and everyone was standing still.

At 6 the door opened and people just kept walking in the store. I was still sitting in my car expecting at any moment someone to shout “CUT” and then the actors to just walk off... didn't happen. Maybe the back door was open and people just kept getting in by the front door, go out by the backdoor and come around the building in a loop.

After 5 minutes of this parade, suddenly, the end of the line was reach. Knowing what I want to buy and at the price it was going for, I got out of my car and walk into the store's abyss.

First thing I noticed, no one were smiling, if stress could be touch, I would have been touch a lot!

I picked up a crockpot and a griddle plate. Got to the lineup for the cash register. When I got to the register... grrrr the sale was all about mail in rebate. I didn't care much for that so I didn't take the items, I left the store and didn't looked back.

Next stopped was Walmart. I'm never disappointed with Wally! Now my list of things to buy had a crockpot, a griddle plate and a printer. Easy enough, right? NOT! None of those items on sale were available to the first Wally and stocks were all over the stores, so you had to really search for your items. The store was packed of people going like me around and around praying that the next aisle would be the right one. I kid you not, there was people so stressed that they were yelling at other customers. Several times I saw people on the phone talking to other patron in the store asking where they were.

I came back home with my list of things to buy intact.

Saturday morning, very early, I went to another Wally. I found the griddle. I drove further to one more Wally, no luck there. Drove to one more Wally (yes it will be the fourth in less than 18 hours) and it hit me, I was spending more in gas to buy something cheap than what I would have save.

Next year, I'll stay home with all-I-can-watch on Netflix.

ConNetflixting

One week ago life, as I knew it, change forever! In a moment of weakness or boredom, I subscribed to Netflix.

Since then all things I took for granted became obsolete. I am in a perpetual connetflixting...

Should I brushes my teeth?

Is it time to go to bed?

Can I have sex?

Do I need to go to the toilet? Eat? Shaved? Shower? Changed clothing? Walk?

To all those questions, I have one and only one answer... I'm just watching ONE more show, ONE more movie and I'll get to it.

But there is ALWAYS something else that I HAVE to watch. I hate to admitted it but the only control I have is the remote one! Is there a Netflix anonymous group around? I don't know, I am watching a show and have NO time to find out.

                                                                 My point of view!

Painmore in Hudson

The last time I played pickelball was back home in Canada at the beginning of September. Those were games that were not too challenging as all the good players were not available and I was playing inside the club house where the roof is too low to do a lot of play.

Monday, I went to play in New Port Ritchey. It's a gym and there was 3 courts setup but because there was not that many people, we used only two.

I got there around 08:30 and didn't get off the court for over 2 and a half hours. The competitions were heartless, in no time sweat was pouring out of my two-months-let-down body. I think I did pretty good considering.

When I got back home, I could feel all my muscle giving me signal that they didn't appreciate as much “playing” as I did.

But it's a good pain, I knew with time it will be OK. I met a couple on the court and they were telling me that they have an outside court in their community and would I be interest to go play with them.

I was so trill, I made friends, not always easy with my personality hahaha

We exchange numbers and set up our first game for the following day at 16:00.

I forgot that I'm a Northern person and that heat is not something I specially appreciate. At 4 PM, it was 30 C. (86 F.) to me it's the perfect weather to stay inside in a cool air conditioning environment.

But against my better judgment and with still pain from the previous day games, I decided to go.

We stopped playing when the sun set and we couldn't see the ball anymore.

I'm still in pain but I'm happy. The kid in me doesn't mind a little pain to go out and play!

The Enemy Within

Since Friday night, I have been thinking about Paris and terrorists.

What I wanted to write was: “132 innocents died in the hands of spineless evils! We should nuke them and their camels out of this world.”

But I'm a pacifist, I served in the army not to fight but to keep peace. Responding violence with violence has never been a solution in my point of view.

I don't even understand what is everyone beef about this conflict... is it my God is stronger than your God? Is it let's cleaned off the infidel from the face of this earth? Could it be you disrespect my beloved camel! What ever...

Sometime I think the answer is like what we do with kids that doesn't behave... we send them each in their own corner. But that would mean that if you are from the middle East, you stay there. If you wear a crossed, you would live in the Occident.

That would works if everyone had the same values.

However, more and more terrorist acts are done from persons that are neighbors and has the same passport. They are rejects from our society and can't define themselves has an average Jo.

I don't believe they are lure by the appeal of becoming famous and getting 72 virgins in heaven if they died as a “martyr”.

Right now we have a name to the terrorists: ISIS but I don't think that without help from within they could terrorized anyone as much.

Waging war to them it's like going to the beach with a shovel and destroying all the sand castle... it's a futile exercise that would never work as there will be more kids coming with more buckets to built more castle.

I think the only thing that can make a difference is to affirm our values... no compromise! Our heritage is Christianity. I don't mean everyone should get on their knees and pray but we should not allows anyone to come to our country and shut us off...

We really need people like John Lennon to sing: “Let give peace a chance.”

I wish I knew what to really do. We have this known enemy, but what really trouble me too is the one that are within: all those kids that went into rampage at their school, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, the brothers at the marathon of Boston, the street gang, the criminal motorcycle clubs...

But for now, Georgia is not on my mind anymore, Paris is!

Cold Front

This morning, I walked 2.5 miles, slowly increasing the distance. I could push further but why go nuts, it's warm, the birds are singing and I just relax the whole time.

I kid you not, in the news, they kept talking about the cold front that is about to hit us this weekend. I didn't bring my winter sandals, I just don't know what to do... please if you could find a space in your thought to send me some warm wishes, I would appreciate them during this “cold” days.

This is from the weather networks in Fahrenheit and Celsius (I know miserable, right?):

 

Six Weeks Break

My dear friends,

I'm writing to you to acknowledge publicly that in the past 6 weeks, I have indulge in delicious food which were not always from the healthy lifestyle road and I have “forgot” to exercise regularly.

Most of the time, my lovely fitbit is sitting on the table waiting for me to take it for a walk, which I ignored.

The result is that my scale is showing an increase of 7 pounds. This is horrible! I worked hard to go down and now I'm just climbing up numbers instead of climbing stairs or a mountain.

But changes are in the work... Today, I will be putting my vivofit to its rightful place around my wrist and walk 2 miles. I know it's far from what I was doing previously but I want to re-start slowly.

There will also be salad tossing my way. Who knows maybe even a couple serving of fruit!

What about you, have you been good lately or just went off off a wagon for a while?

Sincerely,

Richard

Back to blog business

There has been a lot happening since my last post...

I went to my daughter birthday in Halifax. In doing so, I lied to all of the two or three readers of my blog and let you assumed I was going South to Florida.

After spending a week in Halifax it was time to get back North but the weather was so nice it didn't felt like North.

Last Saturday, at 02:10 AM, I started the real journey to Florida (this time it's the whole true and nothing but). The first day, I drove about 16 hours.

On Sunday I parked the car in my driveway in Hudson Florida.

The house was in great shape (as it was left). I had to turned on the air unit as it was hot... so hot!

Monday I wanted to drained my hot water heater tank. There is a valve at the bottom of the unit just for that, but I broke it :(. I was not planning of doing plumbing job but had no choice, to empty the tank, I have to cut off water to the whole house... and water is the kind of necessity to do without! After 2 trips to the hardware store, I fixed the problem and at night, I could take a nice warm shower with running water, ouf!

Tuesday I got a new router for the Internet, the last one didn't want to go wifi, so no Internet is worse than no water right?

Today it's going to be a relaxation day, I really need that, my brain can't focus on anything that required 5 seconds of concentration... I'm even surprise that I could write this post!

My hardship right now is to decide between going to the beach or going to the pool... life can be so tough sometime!

Heading South

If you live in North America, have you look at the highway lately? The snowbird migration has started!

I hear the call... “Richard get out of the North now while you can, leave the snow banks to others... go NOW, don't look back.”

I have been getting things in order to get out of here. The house is full of goods that will be coming with me. I don't know where in the car it would all fit, will see!

This move down South is starting today. First leg is to get to my daughter home in Gatineau and get more stuff... hopefully it's less than the size of a glove compartment. I'll sleep there and tomorrow very very early, the journey begin.

Usually when I drive down to Florida, I get up around 4 AM and have breakfast on the road. The first night, I stop in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania). The second day should end in North Carolina and then, at last, Florida.

I can't wait to be back in shorts, tshirt and sandals.