I'm a Loser

That's right. I admit it. I'm a loser. You all may not know it, but I began Weight Watchers last Sunday. So far It's been pretty easy. The hardest part has been trying to eat enough food. For those of you not familiar with the Weight Watchers program, every food is given a point value based on it's calories, fat and fiber content. For example, 1 cup of 1% milk has a value of 2 points. Each person is allowed to consume a certain number of points based on their weight, age, sex. I am allowed a total of 44 pts. per day. Believe it or not, that's actually a lot of food. I eat a decent breakfast, a moderate lunch and even a small snack and at dinner time I still find myself needing anywhere from 17 to 22 pts. For those of you wondering, it is important to eat all of your points for the day.

I chose to use Weight Watchers on-line instead of attending meetings. It's easier to consistently log points on the computer than it is to carry around a food journal and write everything in. With my schedule it's also easier not to have to commit to attending a meeting once a week.

Now to the good part. One week down and I've lost 9 lbs. I'm almost a third of the way to my starting weight loss goal of thirty pounds. Yeah me!

Counting Sheep has Never Been so Good

On Saturday we had a new bed delivered. We upgraded from a queen to a king and got a good number of the bells and whistles with it. I have to say the I have slept better the last three nights than I have for the last three years. What a difference a good mattress makes.

The only project I took on was installing a new car seat in my car. Anybody who says they are easy to install can bite me. It took me an hour to get the damn thing put in properly. Lucky for me I get to put one in my wife's car tomorrow. Yeah?

Last night we went out for chinese food with the in-laws. We went to a fairly new restaurant near their house and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. For those of you who haven't heard, it's somewhat difficult to find good quality ethnic food in the Phoenix area. Except, that is, for mexican. The sweat and sour chicken was very good and the hot and sour soup was some of the best I've ever had. All in all, I give the meal an A-.

Right now I'm preparing to settle in for the evening and then enjoy my day off tomorrow. That's all for now.

I'm Baaaaack.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. A full two months. Honestly, being new to blogging I didn't feel I had much worth sharing and when I did finally have something I got busy and didn't have a chance to write.

So, without further ado, here is my attempt to catch up.

April 16-20: My buddies from California came out to play some golf and go to the NASCAR race. We played golf and did a lot of drinking. I mean a lot of drinking. We had a great time and I'm looking forward to them coming out again for next April's race.

May 10: My wife's first Mother's Day. I wanted to do something special for her first Mother's Day, so I invited her parents and my grandparents over for brunch. I made baked blueberry french toast; a fritatta with bacon, onion, mushroom and cheese; citrus salad with orange, grapefruit and mint dressed with Cointreau, champagne and honey; and a homemade pineapple upside down cake. The food was great, if I do say so myself. It was also great to have most of the family together to celebrate.

Memorial Day weekend: The three of us drove to Anaheim and spent the weekend with my parents and my wife's brother and his family. On Saturday we had lunch with Eric, Kari and the kids and on Saturday evening we had dinner and a nice visit with our friends Michelle and Eddie. Sunday morning C went to tea with her friend Melanie and Kari. That afternoon I went over to a friend's house to watch the Angel game. Sunday evening my grandma came over to the house and my mom made her mock lasagna and salad and we all had a nice dinner together to celebrate all the May birthdays. My grandma's was the 7th, my dad's was the 21st and C's was on the 25th. That Monday we drove home and my dad hitched a ride with us.

May 29: My dad and I went to the Diamondbacks game. Our seats were on the second level out even with the left field foul pole. C and I chose those seats because we'd be taking the baby to the games with us and she didn't want to have to worry about foul balls coming our way. Not a bad decision, really. Well guess what? That night I got my first regular season foul ball. Yes I'm 37 years old, but I was still excited. It was especially cool because I was there with my dad. The first thing out of his mouth was "Andy's first foul ball!" My response was "Hell with that! My first foul ball!"

May 31: My dad finished packing up my grandparents for their move to Baltimore. He drove with them and they arrived on June 3. We are disappointed to see them go, but we are very happy that they got to spend some time with Andy. We know they really enjoy him.

I think that about does it. You're all caught up and I promise it won't be nearly as long between posts.

Poor Me

The first official game of the 2009 MLB season is tomorrow. Most teams, however, start play on Monday. The Diamondbacks play at 12:40, right in the middle of the work day and the Angels play in Anaheim that night. Due to poor planning on my part and some circumstances beyond my control this will be the first time in many, many years that I won't be attending an opening day game. I have to say that I'm more than a little disappointed. Oh well, I guess I'll have to settle for watching the Angels game on TV. Go Halos!

The Bacon Explosion!

A few weeks ago a buddy of mine found a recipe on the internet for something called the "Bacon Explosion." Being lovers of all things bacon we decided that we would make one for fantasy baseball draft day. That day was yesterday.

The "Bacon Explosion" has only four ingredients: 2 lbs of bacon, 2 lbs of italian sausage, bbq seasoning and bbq sauce. You cook the first pound of bacon and crumble it. You make a nice tight lattice weave with the second pound of uncooked bacon. Sprinkle seasoning on the weave. Spread all the sausage over the weave. Spread the cooked bacon over the sausage. Sprinkle more seasoning and drizzle on some sauce. Roll the sausage tightly to the end of the weave and seal the seam and sides. Then roll the sausage up in the weave. Sprinkle liberally with seasoning. Finally, smoke the loaf for about 2.5 hours. Slather in sauce and serve.

Let me tell you, that monster was better than advertised. With four fat guys in the house it didn't stand a chance. I chose to serve it with tater tots, but we would have been happy just with the meat. It was AWESOME!

When my wife found out what I was making she said she wanted all of the guys to leave their signed medical waivers and emergency contact numbers at the door. She also suggested serving a side of Lipitor with it.

A few friends of mine are coming out for the NASCAR race in a couple of weeks and the Explosion will definitely be on the menu.

Behold: the final product!

Too Much Crap!

Today gave the term "shitty day" new meaning. And I mean that in the most literal sense.

While my wife was out running errands today I was left in charge of the dog and the baby. The first thing I did was get in the shower and clean up. When I was finished I picked the baby up out of the swing and the overwhelming odor of fresh baby pooh hit me like a brick. I took him down stairs, opened up the diaper and found a fresh and rather large "Cleveland steamer" in his diaper. It stunk, but hey what are you gonna do? I cleaned him up, changed his diaper and we went about our business. A little later I was sitting on the couch playing a video game, the dog next to me. Suddenly she wretches and a small amount of puke landed on my freshly washed leg and on the couch. Then, without warning, the most vile and disgusting smell filled the room. Apparently the dog attempted to clean up after herself this afternoon and it didn't agree with her. That's right folks. I had regurgitated dog poop on my leg. I work in the medical field and have smelled smells that most of you can't imagine. This was the worst ever. I almost puked myself. I was literally nauseated for an hour afterward. To add insult to injury, I had to take another shower too.

Let's face it. I've had enough crap for one day.

Legends in Concert

In December I found out that two rock legends would be performing together in Phoenix this month. Knowing my wife is a huge fan, I bought a pair of tickets for us to see Elton John and Billy Joel "Face 2 Face."

A good friend of ours agreed to watch the baby so we could go and enjoy ourselves. Thanks Stacy! We had a nice Italian dinner and then headed downtown for the concert.

For those of you not familiar with the tour the premise is that both men perform together and then they each do their own set before finishing the night on stage together again. There are two pianos at the front of the stage facing each other and two full bands.

The show started with Elton and Billy coming out with both bands and playing a few songs. Billy and his band then left and Elton played with his band for about an hour. Then Elton exited and Billy came back with his band. They also played about an hour. Finally Elton and his band joined them back on stage for a few more songs. The show ended with Elton and Billy doing the last two songs unaccompanied. They closed with "Candle in the Wind" and "Piano Man."

What a fantastic show! I must say that I enjoyed Billy's set more than Elton's. Elton just sat at the piano and played and had very little audience interaction. Billy was high energy and had a lot of interaction with the audience. His piano rotated in a circle, he got up and ran around, he pick up a guitar and played and he even threw the mic stand around the stage. Don't get me wrong; Elton is a great artist, but he does his own thing and if you don't like it, well, he's doing it anyway. Billy, however is a great entertainer and it was clear that his goal was to keep the audience on it's feet.

The highlight of the show, however, was when both men performed together. Their styles complement each other very well and they played off of each other beautifully. They played songs from both of their repertoires and they took turns singing on every song.

This show is a must see for any music lover. These men are truly rock legends.

Spring has sprung and baseball is in the air!

The wife has been bugging me for a while to blog about my favorite part of Spring, baseball. Living in Arizona is like living in baseball heaven. We have Major League Baseball, Arizona Fall League, Rookie League, Instructional League and, of course, spring training. When all is said and done there is professional baseball in the valley for ten months out of the year.

On Feb. 25 I took Andy to his first baseball game. We went to see the Indians play the Giants in the first game ever at Goodyear Ballpark which is the new spring training home of the Indians. Conveniently enough the ballpark is also about a mile and a half from our house. Not being a big Indians fan, but still trying to be supportive, I wore my t-shirt from the Bob Feller Museum. For those of you unfamiliar with Bob, he is a former Indians pitcher and is currently the oldest living hall of famer at 90 years old. I knew he was going to throw out the first pitch and that there was a chance he'd be signing autographs. Sign he did. Being a fan I got in line and waited my turn. When I got up to him he looked up at me and a big smile came over his face. He was very surprised and very pleased to see someone wearing a shirt from his museum. He even insisted the baby and I have our picture taken with him. He even insisted the baby sit on the table in front of him. As you will be able to see in the picture, he took matters into his own hands when the baby wouldn't look up at the camera. When Bob was done with us I was even asked to do interviews for a local newspaper and Yahoo sports.

Baseball is back and life is good!

Me and Andy with Bob Feller