I Have Come to Chew Bubblegum and Catch Rats...and I am all out of bubble gum.

I started out posting my rodent stuff on Facebook, but it has quickly turned into probably the most grueling saga about this house, so it gets a blog post.  This thing is probably the #2 or #3 factor contributing to my bald spot.  It makes me feel so dirty, so ashamed, so frustrated.

So, we had seen signs of mice a year ago or so.  Christmas stuff was eaten into upstairs.  We thought we took care of it by putting out some mouse poison traps, after which we stopped seeing the signs.  About a month ago, while the kids were staying at my parents' house and we were coming back at night from a wedding, we opened to door to see a cockamouse sprint across the floor and out of sight.  It was only then that I realized we had signs of rodents that I just wasn't noticing.  Certain food items we hadn't used had nibble holes in it.  The rabbit food bag was gnawed into.  The food Lucy didn't eat at night would be gone by next morning.  The signs were there, we obviously had a rat.

So, my attack started out simple.  I didn't want to mess with snap traps yet, so I went with two glue boards in our cabinets (After the blinders had been removed, I started HEARING them in the cabinets, so I figured a glue board would trap them).  Before you rush to tell me that those things are the most unethical traps around (which I'd agree with), my strategy was to use oil to release the rodent safely away from the house after it got caught.  Anyway, those did NOTHING.  Even after I baited it with dog kibble, something just ate it off without getting caught.  So those got thrown out quickly.  My next idea was to try "Power Kill" Snap traps.  These aren't as hard to set as old fashioned snap traps, but it's the same mechanism.  Bait pedal releases the snap and...there you have it.  Something TRIGGERED one of my snap traps by the rabbit cage, but didn't get caught.  Now, the other thing was, I couldn't leave those traps out, because it was out in the open.  So I only left it out at night, when everyone was upstairs or in their kennel.  So, after THAT resulted in nothing, I invested in a live trap made by Havahart.  Basically, a big cage with two open ends that once something touches the bait pedal, the ends close up and trap the rodent in for me to deal with later.  Setting that out...STILL NOTHING.

At this point, my first big break came when I had to go down in the basement to start preparing for Hurricane Sandy.  Our basement is an unfinished stone cellar.  We use it for storage, and it's where our hot water heater and boiler is.  So needless to say, we don't have a need to go down there often.  Well, I went down to start clearing out an area for putting stuff in...and that's when I saw them.  Rodents scurrying around trying to hide from me.  I was able to discover the entry point (Two spots in our outside basement door where the wood had rotted/been chewed away), so I set a couple different snap traps around the wall by the door and bought a big wad of steel wool to shove in each of the holes.  After just one night, when I went to check the traps, I had already caught TWO.  My pride was beset with disappointment when I looked at the size of the two and realized these two were small potato rats.  The big one we had seen that started this whole thing, it was still out there.  So I disposed of those two and re-set the traps.

Meanwhile, one night I heard more noises in the kitchen, but couldn't locate anything.  Decided on a whim to setup the Havahart live trap by the dog's food bowl and bait it with kibble (Before, I had used peanut butter on saltines).  Sure enough the next morning, I had one.  Alive.  Which them made me realize...I had no clue where to live release a rat.  I mean, I have protective gear to make sure I don't get bit, and I wasn't about to take the rat out of the trap by hand.  But, you can't release it anywhere near your house or they'll come back.  And I didn't want to release near anyone ELSE's house.  Luckily, I found a remote wooded spot 4.5 miles away from me, no houses within about 1/4 mile or so in any direction.  So there you have it, rat released.  Halloween night, we had some possible tomfoolery with someone banging on the side of our house.  While going to check it out, we caught sight of a big one scurrying in the playroom.  When I went to find it, I found a MASSIVE hole chewed in the floor in the corner behind Noah's dressup closet.  CRAP!  This isn't one or two isolated pests in the basement.  Now we're talking more than 4 and in our CHILDREN'S PLAYROOM!

It was at this point, I decided to call in the big guns and get an exterminator to assist.  I also decided to set the live trap in the playroom overnight.  I caught one again...a little one.  DAMN IT!  So we're up to 4 rats, and still not the big one I'm expecting.  So, released that one and picked out a place to call, but didn't get a chance to until Friday.  By then, my basement snap traps caught TWO more, and STILL not the big one I've been on the lookout for.  So we're up to 6 RATS, with more still there.  You can imagine by now, I am just bashing my head into a wall.

So Regional Pest Management came out Monday and walked around with me, pointing out things we should secure/clean up to reduce rodent activity.  He walked around my basement and pointed out about 10 spots I should trap, then told me I could either pay him $450 to set up those traps, or I could do it myself.  Before I could respond, he hinted to me that since I've seemed to set up traps on my own fine, I probably would want to that that option.  So I paid nothing for the free consultation, and got an idea of where to set my traps.  We had a busy schedule Monday night and Tuesday with visiting Shannon's MoH Erin and then scans and treatment on Tuesday.  So today was first time I could check since Monday.  I caught 3 rats and one mouse/baby rat.  So, for you all counting at home, we are up to 9 RATS and either a baby or a mouse.  #%!$%$#@!!!!!!!!!

So, this is where I'm at.  I now have 7 traps in the basement.  Before I go to bed tonight, I will also have traps on my basement steps outside.  I also am putting 2 snap traps under my kitchen sink (Made the dumb mistake last night of leaving a loaf of bread (in the plastic baggie, sealed) out on my counter.  When I came downstairs this morning, the thing was just about gone except for crumbs.  While doing some cleanup, I discovered most of the loaf in pieces under the kitchen sink.)

So, why did I post this?  Hopefully, not for everyone to judge me.  We've had some issues keeping our house clutter free, but it's not like we leave rotting crap all over the place, or leave food out for rats to feast on.

My thought is:

1. In case anyone else goes through this crap, to give them guidance on my trial and error
2. To share the crazy crap going on in my house
3. In case anyone can provide ME tips and tricks that might work.

That's a Load Off My House's Shoulders (Or Roof?)...

Back in 2007 when we bought our house, we literally did it at the beginning of the housing bubble burst.  When we went to apply for our loan, interest rates had begun to shoot up.  I remember because our mortgage broker at the time said "Ok, so we're going to wait until the last possible minute to file our application so we can try to see if the interest rates go down."  Yeah, that didn't happen, so our primary mortgage went in at 6.25% interest.  Due to the ballooned interest rate, and among other things probably, we also got talked into doing an Interest Only loan with a 10 year Adjustable Rate Mortgage.  That means after 10 years, they can change the interest rate to whatever the current rates are.  In our case, I suppose that wouldn't have gotten worse, but something tells me they'd say "You know what, I think we're not going to adjust this rate..."  The biggest issue really, was at year 10, our payments would BALLOON up about 1000-1500 more per month.  Our broker let us know about this up front, but sort've dismissed it by saying "well, you'll refinance within 10 years, it'll be super easy and really simple".

I'd type LOL, except it really doesn't make me laugh.  I tend to cry a bit more.

So in 2009, when our budget was super tight and we were looking at cutting bills, we said "well, what about refinancing and lowering our mortgage?".  Our first call went to Suntrust, who told us at the time that they COULD get us on a Fixed Rate loan, but our payment would go up 50 or so more per month.  Since this was counter productive to our initial goal, we called more brokers.  One group, which shall remain nameless, told us they could get us into a FHA loan, consolidating both our loans into one, and their initial estimate had me saving $150 per month.  Now around this time, we knew our 2010 payments would be rising, due to taxes on our house increasing and the Escrow account we had being short of the taxes.  We told them this up front, they said it'd be fine, no worries.  So we went along, paid a discounted rate for an appraisal on our house (Negotiated because Shannon knew someone who worked there), and proceeded with applying for this loan.  Now, the whole time they are pushing that we HAVE to get this done before 12/31/2009, because in 2010, the rules won't let them pick and choose their friendly appraiser, they'll have to be assigned an impartial one who won't work with them to "fudge the numbers" to fit their loan estimate.  Hmmm, sounds fishy right?  But they had to do this a little after our appraisal came in, and they said "Alright, everything is on track".  It goes downhill from here.  Suddenly, their estimates kept getting higher and higher.  And they wouldn't even call and let me know first.  I'd get a copy of something that had a new number and when I asked the people I was working with, they'd react "Oh, yeah, so it turns out your Escrow account was short, so we needed to raise your amount owed to cover the shortage".  Yeah, that shortage I had mentioned in our very first call, they had no idea about.  Right.  Well this happened a few more times, and each time we threatened to just back off, and each time I talked to the company owner who PROMISED me, "There numbers are it, we have pulled some strings and this is how much you will pay, period."  At this point, we're at an increase of about 80 dollars.  But they are making promises that with a FHA loan, we can streamline refinance in 6 months, no fees, no nothing, just take the lowest interest rate.  So, I play along and we go to closing on 12/30/99.  The title agent shows up with the papers and we didn't even get through the first one.  The monthly payment had gone up.  Again.  And this time, we're talking an increase of $140 per month.  I called UNCLE.  I told the guy I was sorry for wasting his time, but I was not going to close on this mortgage.  The next day, I got a call from the company saying "Okay, HERE'S what happened, but we will work to get the numbers back to what they were before.  Let's go ahead and close today."  This time, I held firm and said "NO, we are done.  I don't feel comfortable with this at all and I'd rather wait until this Escrow shortage, which appears to be the biggest issue in our refinancing, is repaid."  What I got back justified all the decisions I just made...They called me shortsighted and petty.  Yeah.  The people trying to get my business resorted to insults.  They said I was being petty over a few dollars and I was gambling with my future because I wasn't taking their loan.  They played a sad violin about how much they had done for us and how much we were shoving it back in their faces.  And then after I reiterated I was not comfortable with it, said "We will not have a loan for you in the future, work with someone else".  Side bar to this story, my co-worker's brother owns a different mortgage brokerage which him mom also works for.  He asked her to speak with me and after reviewing the paperwork and story, her take: "I won't tell you not to take this loan, because your current one sucks, but they are absolutely not being truthful about this streamline refinance and the things they are promising you and not things I would bank on."

After that whole ordeal, I filed all the emails away and put refinancing in the very back of my mind.  I didn't have the emotional energy to deal with it.  During this whole thing, Shannon had an ectopic pregnancy which had to be removed, so we were both grieving from that, then to have all this happen on top, I just COULD NOT think about going through it all again...

Then in Summer of this year, Suntrust called us and mentioned that we might qualify for a no-appraisal refinance.  I called them back with every bit of doubt in my mind.  I still felt like "there's going to be a catch, what is this big catch."  The very patient and understanding man I worked with explained that our mortgage backer, Freddie Mac, had only within the past month changed their rules so instead of an appraisal, we could use a home value estimate in place of that.  And all our other conditions fit into the window to make this possible.  I asked him how much it would raise our payments to refinance to a Fixed Rate loan.  He sat in silence for a moment and said "Joe, your payments aren't going to increase, because you are paying SO much interest over the rates now, even if you SHORTEN your loan, you might not pay any more per month".  Of course, the paranoia I have caused me to say "No, this guy is forgetting about this or that, this isn't going to come back like this."  Up until the moment we signed the papers today, I was SURE someone was going to halt this and say "WAIT WAIT, we forgot this about their mortgage, they aren't going to pay less, we need to up their payment!"

But, good ending to the story.  We added 5 more years onto our loan, and end up saving close to $250 per month.  That is gravy on top of the underlying thing:  No more ARM, no more Interest Only, no more STRESSING ABOUT A BALLOON PAYMENT COMING IN 5 YEARS!  I almost got down and kissed the ground after we left the office.  So happy to finally have this done.

And bonus, I got this because of *surprise surprise* a President Obama economic stimulus.  Yes, I do drink the kool-aid. :-)  Probably not one of the controversial programs a lot of conservatives would complain about, but I like that I can show how this program clearly helps my family, who are NOT looking for handouts, to continue paying our mortgage and dig ourselves out.

As a Tough Mudder, I pledge that...I overcome ALL Fears

I probably didn't take Tough Mudder preperation as seriously as I should have.  I barely did strength training the last few months.  I ran a lot, but even then, not as much as I should've.  So it should come as no shock that it kicked my ass, it kicked it hard...

But I survived.  I finished.  I conquered.  I am satisfied.  (Well, mostly, but that will be explained shortly).

Our team was me, Bill, and our cousin Andrew.  It was held at Crumland Farms in Frederick.  In hindsight, there are some logistics about that location that probably setup for a bad experience.  Roads leading up to the farm were not very wide and complimentary of large volumes of traffic.  Hearing reports that MANY runners with later wave times were stuck in traffic for HOURS and missed their run.  So, there's some work needed there.  Luckily, our run time was 8:20, second of the event, so we had to get there early anyway.

The event is designed by a former British Special Forces, and is designed to push you to the brink, both physically and mentally.  On the day, I did the following things:

1. Dove into a dumpster of ice water, having to submerge my head to get to the end
2. Lept over mud trenches
3. Crawled through mud pits with barbed wire 8 inches above
4. Scaled TWO roughly ten foot walls
5. Scaled a pile of hay bales two-high
6. Scaled a MOUNTAIN of hay bales five-high!
7. Carried a log about half a mile, lumberjack style
8. Crawled through a trench full of rocks and pits
9. Jumped off a 15 foot high platform into water
10. Tried bounding over two sets of raised logs (Attempted, slipped, chose to keep moving)
11. Crawled through a pit of water, with electric wires dangling from barbed wire 8 inches above
12. Swam through a lake, ducking three floating barrel rows
13. Scaled two roughly twelve foot walls (Skipped, but I helped 4 or 5 people boost to get them over)
14. Grappled and climbed over 5 mud mountain walls
15. Crawled up and down construction drainage tubes (This was a lot harder than it looked and sounded)
16. Climbed monkey bars, fell in shortly after starting, and swam out
17. Made it halfway across a balance beam, swam out after falling off
18. Attempted to scale a quarter-pipe (My legs were shot at this point, skipped)
19. Sprinted through a field of electric wires
20. Oh yeah, and in doing that, we covered nearly 11 miles.

The end results...My calves began cramping on me around mile 7.  This made me have to walk the last 3 or so miles, as well as hindered a bunch of obstacles.  My quads hurt too.  I scraped the everloving crap out of my knees and elbows.  Physically, I was weak and that disappointed me.  BUT, what impressed me was how I met the mental aspects.  Leading up to this, the ice dumpster, the walls, the electric wire crawl, the electric wire sprint, the monkey bars, and the 15 foot jump...all made me hestitate to do this.  But, i did it!  The only thing I was disappointed there was not being able to try the quarter pipe.  It's tough to finish, but I couldn't even try it.  I was also proud that for both electric wire obstacles, I charged through them.  I got hit at least once in the crawl.  In the sprint, I was doing a Braveheart style thing, so my adrenaline kind've numbed me.  But I think I impressed a number of people who were hesitating.

All in all, Tough Mudder challenged me.  I may not have performed physically superior.  But I finished it.  And that's what it's all about.  Tough Mudder is not a race, but a challenge.  That's in the pledge you say at the beginning.  You are out there to complete the course.  And I did!

And then, the parking thing happened...

So, the parking for this was a big field, on several slopes.  As we were heading back to the cars, we saw storm clouds moving in.  I spent about 30 minutes waiting to get out before the skies opened up.  A severe thunderstorm and downpour...And guess what, that big field turned into a big mud bowl....

EVERYONE got stuck.  Even 4WD vehicles!  And Tough Mudder had no solutions, other than encouraging fellow participants to help push cars out.  After sitting in the traffic for about 3 hours of no moving, I gave up and took Noah with me back to the entrance.  We made sure the car could sit there overnight and called Shannon to pick us up.  My cousin also got his car stuck as well.  We're going to try getting it out with a group of people tomorrow and a pickup truck.  Due to the storms, they had to cancel the last few waves of the day, so Tough Mudder is dealing with PLENTY of complaints now.  Hope they can sort it out.

It was fun.  May not do it again, but maybe.  We'll see, but I know that for one day...I. DID. IT!

*UPDATE* - 9am on Sunday, we returned to the site to try getting the cars out.  They ended up cancelling TM on Sunday due to traffic issues, weather issues, parking issues...lots of issues.  No way that area would've been able to park cars today.  Luckily, between myself, my brother Bill, my Dad, my cousin Andrew, and his friend Simon, we figured out the right steps to drive his Challenger, my Sonata, and then my brother's Dodge Ram out of there.  Even the 4WD Ram had some troubles (didn't have All Terrain tires), but we did it.  45 more cars were still stuck there when we left.

Noah's Big Day at The Yard

Man, I'm setting us up for dissapointment next weekend.  Last weekend, Noah got a Daddy day to go see the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.  This weekend, he got another Daddy day to go see the O's game.  At this rate, he's going to expect like, a personal appearance from the Backyardigans next weekend or something...

In any case, I had this day circled on my calendar for the past two months.  I knew Noah really wanted to catch an O's game, and I felt like I really owed him after I got to go for Andy's bachelor party.  So looking around at games, I noticed that today's game vs the Royals was "Kids Run The Bases" day.  Literally, for no cost, no membership, no nothing, any kid 14 and under runs the bases post-game.

Yes.  Yes please.  Yes a MILLION TIMES PLEASE!  I knew that would just make his head explode, so I decided it had to be this game.  But, I did the sneaky thing of not telling him.  That way 1) if he acted up, I could just not do it without a tantrum and 2) if the thing was not setup well, I could just not do it without breaking a promise.  I'm jumping ahead, but the 1st one was blown about 10 minutes into our visit, by a friendly, chatty stadium employee.

In any case, here's how the day went, with things that Noah loved bolded for effect of just how awesome I think the day was for him:

We drove down to catch the Metro down to Baltimore.  We were slated to pickup the Light Rail for the rest of the way to the stadium, but for 3rd time in 3 tries, that train was just super late.  So we walked instead.  Got to the gates and I went to take Noah's picture with the Babe Ruth statue.  Slight problem: I forgot my SD card.  Crap, of course I remembered everything but THE ONE PIECE MY CAMERA NEEDED.  In my luck, the stadium store did hapen to sell 4 GB SD cards, so crisis averted.  Once inside, I bought him a Kid's Program.  While we were figuring out what to do, I noticed outside of Boog's BBQ, sure enough Boog Powell was there, signing autographs.  Noah was heavy before the game on "Can I get another autograph?", and Boog Powell is a pretty notable guy.  So I ask him if he wants one, and of course he does, so voila.  Noah got an autograph and a picture with Boog Powell (which in his head became Paul Boo).  After that, he remembered the Orioles playground we saw last week when walking through Camden Yards, so he went there for some playtime. 

After awhile, we headed back to see if they were doing BP today, which they weren't due to the late game last night.  So we headed to our seats instead.  Along the way, we walked through the statue court which has statues of Jim Palmer, Earl Weaver, Frank Robinson, and as of yesterday, Eddie Murray (Before end of year, they will also unveil Cal Ripken Jr. and Brooks Robinson).  Noah was okay with that, but I got the vibe he didn't care much.  So we sat down and Noah liked our seats.  In as much as it was a seat in a ballpark, and one where he had a "footrest" (Row 1 of Lower Reserve, so just a guard rail in front of us).  At that point, we decided to get food.  He wanted a hamburger, so I got him Gino's.  I decided to get Boog's BBQ, like I usually do.  When we were trying to find a spot to eat, a friendly stadium attendant suggested we head up to the CF perch, which is new this year and I figured it'd be packed, but sure enough there were a few stray seats.  And the view was AWE-SOME.  You could see right down into the bullpens where the starters were warming up.  Same attendant was the one who asked him if he was ready to run the bases.  So, that suprise lasted a bit.  But it helped me to keep him grounded for the whole game.

So, food done, we headed to our seats.  The one thing he didn't like was our seats were in some sun, so his legs kept getting hot.  About two innings in, we got to see Manny Machado smack a home run, and then he got to dance. After that, his tolerance (and mine) was wearing thin, so we decided to take a walk around the stadium.  We went to fan assistance and got him a First Game certificate.  It wasn't really his first, but the usher who said no BP was going that day was friendly and chatted us up and suggested I go get him another one, even if it wasn't really his first game.  So we got that and then we headed back to the playground area.  That was really some sort of kid's central area, because they also had Pitching and T-Ball cages so Noah got to do those.  And then he played on the playground more, of course.  After some time there, we walked back to the seats again to try to finish the game.  We saw Nick Markakis hit a homerun too, so that was pretty neat.  After the top of the 8th inning, Noah was about done with sitting, so we took another walk.  Decided to go ahead and get him a souvenier, and I managed to talk him out of the bat.  He picked a suitable alternative, a big Oriole Bird flag.  We took that and headed towards Gate D for Kids Run The Bases.  While standing around watching the end of the game, a stadium employee took notice of Noah, standing there well behaved and waving his flag, beaming happy.  He walked over and, with my okay, casually slipped him a baseball card.  Ozzie Smith (a little huh? because it's an O's game, but hey, it was pretty neat and Noah LOVES the baseball card now)

We got to see the win and JJ save it, and then I decided to ask where we needed to stand for Kids Run The Bases.  Turns out, you go OUTSIDE the stadium.  And that's when I saw the line...It wrapped from home plate area, down the 3rd base side of the stadium, then across the outfield nearly to Left-Center field.  And that wasn't the end of the line eventually, that's just where we got in line.  But, once they cleared the stadium and set up everything on the field, the line moved rather quick.  They had it setup for maximum efficiency, parents on the left side of the aisle going down, kids on the right.  Kids got onto the diamond at 1B, ran all the way home to where the parents would be waiting, and then all walked out to the 3B side to exit the stadium.  And that kid LOVED running those bases.  Even if about 5 minutes later, he asked me if he ran them.

After that, we waited to catch the Light Rail where Noah got to sit on funny folding seats in the waiting area (yes, that was part that he liked a lot too) .  And then, he got to ride both Light Rail and the Metro home.

So count it...12 things he loved doing today.

Couple side notes:

1. It's worth noting that this is probably the first time in...10-15 years that I've attended a professional sports game (that counted) and the team I was rooting for ended up winning.  I've been to preseason games that the Ravens won, but never a regular season game they've won.  And the last 3-4 O's games I went to, they lost.  So go figure, my losing streak finally ended!

2. Finally got to pickup my tumbler from Andy's Bachelor Party (It was supposed to be the giveaway that night but a vendor issue delayed shipment, so everyone got a coupon to pick one up in July or August instead)

3. I noticed while waiting in line, a service road that went along the stadium.  Up ahead, a Cadillac was sitting there and a guy got out, looked almost like he was a valet.  I saw an older lady get in the passenger seat and it started to drive off.  I made a comment aloud like "I guess they have valet parking here" and wondered if it was a player guest.  Nope, it was Peter Angelos.  And he looks even more villanous in real life.  Kind've sorry I missed seeing him walk to his car.  I can't complain about him for today's experience, everything was really great today.  But that man has just tightened the screws on a baseball team that while frustrating, still holds a very dear candle in my heart.

Ravens Training Camp...at the Stadium

I'm going to preface this by saying...I miss Westminster Training Camp.  It was just a couple blocks from my house, so I could literally walk up whenever I wanted to go, not have to deal with parking, etc.  And get a killer look at my favorite sports team in the world.  I understand why the Ravens chose to move it to their own facility, but I still miss it.

Given that, I took Noah to the public stadium practice yesterday.  We'd tried this in 2010 (Had a flat tire the day before) and 2011 (Shannon had to go to the hospital for a blood clot), so 2012 was the first one we'd been able to do.  This would be our only chance to see the Ravens this year, as I had to choose to skip preseason games due to stuff upcoming in August.  So I was looking to see how good an experience we got.

From Noah's perspective, yesterday was probably like "kid in a candy store with unlimited pocket money" awesome.  We rode the train to get there.  Rode the Metro to get down there, then walked to the Stadium because for the 2nd time in a row, Light Rail was crazy behind.  While walking there, Oriole Park was open so we walked through it.  When we got inside M&T, I beelined for the home bench side (going on a tip from a message board friend who said that side was most likely to get autographs).  We got a group of seats in the 5th row, so I thought we were in good shape to get an autograph.  More on that later.  Anyway, the view of the action was pretty great.  And the Ravens definitley utilized the stadium atmosphere to their benefit.  Jumbotron video montages, loudspeaker announcers, a broadcast team that did various interviews through practice, and the practice itself was 2.5 hours long.

Here's where I'll bitch and moan.  I was really trying to get Noah an autograph of a player.  I said I didn't care which one, I just figured he would explode at the idea of getting any Raven to sign his football.  So at various times during practice, players who had a moment or so off would come over and sign.  A couple guys did so around our section, but by the time you saw the guy coming over, there was a SWARM of people cramming into the section to find any room to get stuff over.  So we never got one that way, and as practice was winding down, I said "I guess I'll just get into the aisle and get as close as I can", figuring that eventually, the people ahead of me would get an autograph and clear out.  After awhile, a stadium official came up and told "the group" that we couldn't stand in the aisle, due to fire marshall rules.  Noah and I moved out.  And then we watched as NOBODY ELSE MOVED A DAMN STEP.  And the guy sat there talking with them for a few minutes, then walked away.  Yeah, great.  Let's give three cheers for people who followed the rules.  So of course, when someone else came over to sign things, we ran over and missed it entirely, due to the people who never moved.  The other thing that screwed us over?  The people at the front were just COLLECTING autographs.  Like, they were trying to get as many Ravens as possible to sign their stuff.  So once someone signed their stuff, they stayed there.  Meaning we never got any closer.

After awhile, I was getting super pissed and just started shouting "4 year old here, wants ANY autograph".  One of the said collectors decided to be decent and handed Noah's football over for me, and back once the autograph was done.  I never even saw the guy who signed it.  So I had to ask who it was.  "Cecil Newton, Cam Newton's brother"

...

Okay, of the 90 people on the Ravens roster, I could probably rattle off about 75 of them.  Cecil Newton was one of the 15 I had no idea was on the roster.  But whatever, I said any autograph and we got one.  After that, I had no desire to wait around any longer so we left.  I know players stayed for a long time signing, and so I bear no ill will to them.

My complaint/suggestion...Ravens, you need to structure the autographs.  At Westminster, you had a specific spot where kids could line up and the players would go right there to sign for them.  Stadium practice should have the same deal.  You don't even need to limit it to kids.  Just have a spot where people can line up after practice, you go in, get an autograph, and then you MOVE THE F%$# ON!  If you want multiple, get back in the damn line.  Yeah, Noah was happy, but imagine how much cooler it would've been if he had SEEN the guy who signed his autograph.

My takeaway for the future...I need to get there earlier, and find ANY front row seat, whatever section/side.  Then just dig in and hold my ground.  The other thing?  I need to remember Noah is only 4.  He's starting to understand this football thing, but again he doesn't really care much about who signs it.  It'd be nice if he saw the guy sign it though.

All in all, it was fun.  But I still miss the close quarters of Westminster and the expanded opportunities to interact with players.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try: Citrus Marinated Grilled Chicken

A little bit late on this recipe, I did it Wednesday night, but had a run that night and just didn't have time until now to throw this up.  With summer upon us, I wanted to find some nice recipes that I can do that have more of a "summer" air to it.  Like, we obviously retire the crockpot stews mostly for summer, so I need something to replace it with.  That line of thinking gave us the previous post's pasta salad, and this recipe, which I found through Food Network's webpage (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/grilled-citrus-marinated-chicken-thighs-recipe/index.html).  This one was a pretty big hit with everyone.  Noah liked it, despite hearing it was chicken with OJ, Lemons, and Limes and saying "eeeeeewwww".  Shannon thought it came out good and juicy, which I agreed with.  The citrus flavor was pretty low on it, which was both good and bad...Bad because it was about 20 minutes of prep work to zest and squeeze the fruits, for really no big payoff, but Good because if it was heavy, it might not be liked by a lot of people.  And usually, our grilled chicken is done with no marinade at all, so it comes off pretty charred and dried out.  I'm not sure if it was the use of Chicken Thighs instead of Chicken Breast, or using an EVOO marinade, or what, but I swear these things came off the grill nice and clean, and were really "smooth" to eat.  Also, since we're cooking for kids, we replaced the Cayenne pepper (which may have been too spicy for me even), with...you guessed it, OLD BAY!
Also, I suppose you could do this one without a gas/charcoal grill if you use a Foreman or likewise type of grill (This is directed at you, Andrew Hamilton).  Not sure of the results, but I think it's worthwhile to try it...

Citrus Marinated Grilled Chicken

1.5 lb of chicken thighs (You can up the amount of chicken if you want more servings, or you can try a different cut of chicken)

1 lemon

1 orange

1 lime

1/4 cup of EV Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Old Bay

Sprigs of Thyme


1. Pour EVOO into a baking dish large enough to hold all the chicken in a single layer

2. Zest and Juice the orange, the lemon, and the lime into the EVOO

3. Add in about 10 sprigs of fresh thyme and a couple blasts of Old Bay

4. Season the chicken on both sides with plenty of salt, pepper, and Old Bay

5. Place the chicken in the baking dish, turning a few times to coat both sides well
6. Let the chicken marinade for 30 minutes to a few hours

7. Pre-heat the grill to medium-high heat
8. Once the grill is good and hot, take each piece of chicken out of the marinade, allow the excess marinade juice to drip off for a bit, then place on the grill

9. Grill for about 15 minutes, turning to evenly cook both sides.



Per each piece of chicken (assuming 6 pieces in 1.5 lb):


182 calories


10.5 g fat

3.7 g carbs

21 g protein


Notes:

• I topped this with more Old Bay. It made it more awesomer.
• Side note, it looks like it's definitley time for a new grill.  Already can't use middle burner due to it rusting and falling down, but when I went to pick something up from under the grill, noticed the drip pan has corroded in several places...as in things dripping off the grill can go right down on top of the gas tank.  So, I think that may be my Father's Day gift this year.  We use that grill for so much nowadays, it's practically a necessity!

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, but I Try: Broccoli and Pepperoni Pasta Salad

The recipe I'm posting tonight, I have to thank two sources for getting me onto this recipe.  The first is Shannon...two weeks ago when coming with me for grocery shopping, she picked up a box of Suddenly Salad Classic by Kraft and said it looked like something she would want to try.  I never look at those things, so I may not have ended up trying this recipe without it.  The other person is my Mom...back in the days when I lived at home with them, she made a pasta salad out of tortellini, broccoli, pepperoni, and dressing.  The broccoli and pepperoni with pasta combination gave me the idea to tweak the pasta salad recipe on the box.

So, without much further ado...A simple, 40 minute recipe you can make without much effort, which is suprisingly low in calories and fat.



Broccoli and Pepperoni Pasta Salad

1 Box of Kraft Suddenly Salad Classic (Will need EV Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil)

23 slices of Wilson Turkey Pepperoni

3 stalks of broccoli

10 cherry tomatoes

0.25 cup of shredded parmesean cheese



1. Start boiling water in two pots
2. While waiting for water to boil, chop up the broccoli, tomatoes, and quarter the pepperoni slices.
3. Steam the broccoli for 10 minutes
4. Boil the pasta for 12 minutes
5. While boiling/steaming, combine 2 tbsp of EV Olive Oil, 3 tbsp of cold water, and the packet of seasoning in a separate bowl, and mix until blended
6. Strain the pasta and then rinse in cold water
7. Combine all ingredients except cheese in large bowl and toss/mix well to make sure all ingredients get coated by the dressing
8. Top with the shredded parmesean and server




Per 2 cup serving:

333 calories
12 g fat
45 g carbs
15 g protein



Notes:

• I topped this with Old Bay.  It made it awesomer.
• The box called for vegetable oil, I used EV OO.  I liked it fine with EVOO.

Old Bay Makes Everything Better (Challenge Accepted)

I've started a couple of challenges with this blog.  There was the Eating Out challenge where I had to find a meal at a random restaurant that could pass for a decent diet meal...that pretty much petered out.  And then there was 30 Days, 30 Dinners...which also petered out.

But this one is going to stick, because it's near and dear to my heart...

I'm from Balmer, hon...I am a child of the Charm City.  Just about everything about Baltimore is near and dear to my heart.  And one thing that is an absolute truth about Marylanders....We cannot get enough Old Bay...

It's practically a requirement that all Marylanders have a can of Old Bay in their house.  And if you are a true Baltimorean, your can of Old Bay is the biggest one in your spice collection.  My love affair with Old Bay dates back to making Oodles N' Noodles at my parents house.  My favorite was shrimp flavored and after it cooked, I'd top it off with a couple good shakes of Old Bay for good measure.  Old Bay is heavily used when it comes to seafood...

But, I love it so much, I like to say "Old Bay makes everything better!"...Do I hear a challenge there?

I'll start collecting a list of everything I try that is awesome with Old Bay.  My theory is that, except for desserts, EVERYTHING is better with some Old Bay on it.  I've been keeping tabs on this for a bit, and here's my current list...

Grilled Chicken
Sausages
Eggs
Steaks
Burgers
Fish
Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Pasta Salad

If you want to dare me to put it on something crazy, go right ahead.  I'm out to prove that Old Bay literally can not make a food taste worse.  And if Old Bay wants to throw in a few free cans for me doing this, I would never in a heartbeat turn them down....

Do I Really Know Best?: Veggie Tales

So, Noah has recently been skipping on his vegetables at dinner and lunch...he basically eats everything else, then claims he's all done or he doesn't like the vegetable I made.  This kid used to be ALL about the fruits and veggies.  He still loves his fruits.  But the veggies have become a pain point.  Some of it, I'll accept.  He doesn't like asparagus, or my grilled squash and mushrooms, or cooking broccoli ANY way other than steaming it.  That's fine.  But lately, even vegetables that HE CLAIMS he will eat...nothing.  Absolutely nothing!  He just plays with it, throws it aside, and claims he's done.

Short of bribing him, which I try never to do as a parent, I am at a loss for this one.  This all came up on...Thursday?...when I made enchiladas and carrots.  He ate the first one I put out and asked for another, along with a chicken quesadilla.  The RIGHT thing to do there was tell him he had to eat the carrots first, but I wasn't thinking.  So I gave him the 2nd enchilada.  He ate most of it, then said "Done!".  Looked at his carrots...basically untouched.  So that touched off a discussion where I told him he HAD to start eating vegetables or we'd have to take some sort of drastic steps.  I asked him why he wouldn't eat the carrots I made: "Because they were raw!".  Yeah, they were steamed carrots.  I asked him what kind he liked: "Carrot Sticks"  Yeah, the raw kind...So, I decided to try the "Pleading Parent" routine.  I told him that it was SUPER important he eats vegetables and next time if he didn't eat them, we'd have to make a vegetable smoothie as his breakfast the next morning.  What's in a vegetable smoothie?  I have no freaking idea.  But it was the only idea in my head at the time...

Friday was a wash out, literally due to the storms, so we had pizza.  Saturday, Shannon had a bridal shower, so it was on me to make the kids dinner.  Noah asked for quesadillas, I said okay, BUT we have to eat vegetables!  What kind would he like?  Green beans.  Then, when shopping, I decided to make myself a salad.  Guess who had to have one too?  I asked him 4 times, "Noah, are you REALLY going to eat this?"  He has done salad before, but...I knew what the answer was really going to be, and that it was going to be different from reality, but I figured "he's making the salad himself...maybe this will work!".  He also threw a fit about getting a Ring Pop as snack...Light bulb, I said he could have the Ring Pop after dinner IF he ate his salad.  And guess what...it didn't work.  Not at all.  He had 3-4 bites of salad after eating his quesadilla, then he was done.  So, Ring Pop got put away.

Sunday morning, he wanted the Ring Pop.  Mommy put the foot down...he didn't eat his salad, he didn't get the Ring Pop.  So that was about 30 minutes on a tantrum....He eventually got the Ring Pop after he did some writing/hand exercises for pre-school.  So, I asked him when we did our weekly grocery shopping if he wanted green beans with dinner still?  Yes, he did.  We went over the whole vegetable smoothie thing again.  So, made dinner, Noah started eating, he ate his fish, he ate his potatoes...then he mashed his green beans.  Claimed he was getting rid of the bad beans.  After doing this with a handful..."Daddy I'm done".  Alright kid, that's it.  VEGETABLE SMOOTHIE!

Oh yeah, except I still don't know how to make one.  Crap, bluff called.

So, here we sit...I vowed to do something.  This kid is going to eat his vegetables.  That's just that, he is going to one way or another.  Among my ideas, replacing all snacks with vegetable options (We usually offer fruit or another low-cal/fat snack anyway, but if he won't do the veggies, maybe just force him to either eat them at snack or at dinner), making dinner a "vegetable first" serving, or back to the vegetable smoothie idea.  Noah actually said he wanted one, so I'm looking for recipes to start seeing if he'll do that.  My biggest concern there, he'll grow accustomed to doing that and will never go back to eating plain old vegetables.  It's a pick your battle thing there...Either he gets the nutrients and takes "the easy way out", or I stick by the traditional way of doing it and he doesn't get his nutrients in.

Do I Really Know Best?  Ugh.  At least the kid loves his fruits....

This call is for a Warrior

Let's be totally upfront and honest about two things:

1. I've sucked at updating this blog lately.  I owe a whole chronicle of Disney World, but I haven't even done it for my own journal, much less this blog!
2. I've not done as awesome with my health stuff this year.  Don't get me wrong, I've maintained my weight loss.  And I'm still running, but nowhere near the pace I wanted, and I haven't lost much this year.

So, on Saturday, I got an opportunity to push my fitness to a new level.  When I'd planned to do Tough Mudder this year, I decided to pass on Warrior Dash, which is a 3.02 mile obstacle course and, while it's the "biggest running series on the planet", is thought of as a much milder version of Tough Mudder.  I didn't pass on it because I didn't want to do it, but I just figured to focus on TM, plus Shannon was out of town that weekend too.  But Bill was doing it and convinced me to sign up anyway, and just get Kelly or my parents to help with the kids.  The Maryland WD is held on a motocross track, so plenty of hills to go through, and it's nestled by a nice wooded area for the trail runs.

I didn't really train for WD.  I got some running done, but lately I've had some persistent runner's knee, so I've had to skip a lot on the runs.  I started taking glucosamine which seems to have helped, but anyway, I just sort've winged it to see how I'd do...

So, for the 4pm run, we had a couple that are friends of Bill and Kelly's join us, with some of their friends too.  We got there a bit late, so we literally were lining up right at the countdown to start.  And with a blast of flames, we were off!....to wait in a big line.  There was a HUGE logjam at the beginning, which lasted for the first 0.5 mile of the course really.  Combination of trail narrowing and really wussy runners avoiding a mud puddle about 100 feet in.  Bill and I of course just blew through it once we saw an opening...I mean, spoiler alert, the end is a huge pool of mud you have to swim across, who really cares about some mud in the beginning?  So once the logjam opened up, we tried to make up some time.  It was very different running a muddy trail, required a lot more stutter stepping.  But I was blasting through...until we got to the knee high puddle...I knew it was coming, so I was prepared, but some jerk in front of me stumbled in it, so he grabbed a tree branch on the side of the trail for balance, and brought it down right into my face.  I didn't feel it much, but it cut up my cheek enough that I had blood on my shirt halfway through the race when I wiped at my cheek.  After about 1 mile, came the first stretch of obstacles...

First up, a series of chest-high walls to climb over intertwined with barbed wire to duck under right after.  And the duck spot was right into a mud pit :-).  That was a bit on my arms, but nothing much.  Shortly after was the huge cargo net.  Crawl up it, over the top, and down the other side.  Had to wait awhile for a few people who had breakdowns at the top, but we got over and trekked to the next one...Giant Cliffhanger, which was a big incline you used a rope to help you scale, then over the top and a ladder on the back.  Short run to the Deadman's Drop, which was a ladder climb up, over the top, and the way down was either a big slide (if you faced outward) or a hang and drop (if you faced the object, which I did).  Then, a big longer run, up the first of many hills.  Around this time, I started getting pretty fatigued.  I guess it was a combination of the heat and doing those obstacles, but I was struggling to make it up the hill.  Got to the "halfway point" water station, chugged a cup and kept on.  After a small downhill, it was army crawl time under the barbed wire field.  Did suprisingly well there compared to others crawling at the time who were going pretty slow.  Gets a little hazy after that, I think it was more hills and trying to run but barely being able to do it, so we walked for a bit.  After more hills and toughing it, we got to the fun obstacle...a huge hill turned into a water slide.  That was fun, but the speed you pick up on it ends up spraying water back into your face, so I had a flood up my nose.  After that, a couple more big hills, where we caught up with Bill's friends Matt and Beth.  After another water station, it was Trench Crawls under tree trunks, then a horizontal cargo net.  That one injured me too, because I had the bright idea to try walking across it and ended up rolling off the rope and falling into it.  That was the suckiest obstacle for me, easily.  After that, it was Teetering Traverse, which was basically a plank walking obstacle, then a shed sized object you had to climb up the side of, over the top of, and then down the other side of.  About 0.5 mile more of running and we got to the warrior fires to jump over, followed by the mud pit to swim through, and finally the finish!  My time was 52:59, which sounds pretty bad for a 5K, but was probably the median time for all runners.

So what was my takeaways:

#1 - That was a HELL of a lot of fun.  I loved the feeling of accomplishing a big challenge and knowing I could do it.  I am ready to do it again next year
#2 - I really need to work on strength training.  Tough Mudder is 12 MILES, not 3.  Plus tougher obstacles.  My quads and arms were sore until today, so I know I'll need better strength to make a go at those obstacles
#3 - I need to get the running back on track.  I was so dissapointed in the amount of walking I had to do.
#4 - Do not take shoes you want to wear ever again.  They literally had a mountain of shoes in the end which people were recycling

It was a ton of fun and I'd reccomend it to anyone.  Even if you feel like you can't do it now...set your goal and make it happen.  Next year, we hope to put a team together, because if you do St. Jude's Warriors and raise $250, you get use of private showers at the event (I had to use the public firehose truck, which really just gets you clean enough to not be dripping mud as you walk around).

Disney World - Part 1 - Why We Went and Upfront Thank Yous

(First in a series of posts about our vacation from April 2012 to WDW)

Disney employees are well trained in ways to connect with their guests and prospective guests.  A frequent question is "What are you celebrating"  Because WDW is a place to celebrate lots of things...Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Engagements, Children...

We got to test their skills though when Shannon told them "I have cancer".  Mostly, there was awkward pauses, apologies, one person congratulated her (he thought she was saying it was her anniversary from being cancer free).  Sadly, that is really the main reason we are here...or the underlying one anyway.  Shannon has cancer, and we don't know what the future holds.  So, this is our chance to create a very magical memory together so that the kids will always remember all of us together here, with nothing dragging us down.

Now, let me steer back to the happy path. Because while that is the underlying reason, it's not really why we're here.  We're here to give our kids an unforgettable experience.  We're here to celebrate life together.  We're here to give us a boost to surge forward in what's going on outside of the nice vacation life.

So, with all that in mind....I have to first thank NUMEROUS family, friends, and others without whom this LITERALLY wouldn't have happened.  Our parents helped us in many ways...financially, strategically (planning), shopping for kids' supplies, watching pets, transporting us to and from the airport.  I cannot thank them enough.  We also had many friends who gave the kids things like Disney clothes, games, toys, and lots of little things to keep them happy on the ride down.  As much as this was us trying to give this memory to the kids, it was also all of you giving us the ability to give this memory to the kids.

Soon, Part 2 will be the journey down and the first few days in detail...

30 Days 30 Dinners - Day 14 and 15

Hitting the halfway mark today.  If I have to make one observation...I'm depressed and ashamed a little of how many "eating out" meals have shown up here.  Many times, it's a necessity of our schedule, and I generally eat well wherever we go, but man, some of these choices just really push the limit of the diet...

Day 14 - Kids fell asleep on the way home from my parents, so it was just the parents for dinner.  By the time we got home and got them all settled, no way we had time to cook anything really.  So, we went for our Belisimo's Sub Shop.  I got chicken cheesesteak, no mayo because I use my Hellman's Light Olive Oil Mayo.

Day 14 - Totals:

Calories: 625
Fat: 23 g
Carbs: 45 g
Protein: 57 g

Day 15 - I had gone to the grocery store and planned to cook, but we had to make a late Target run to get some Disney things.  Given that Noah had been awake at 1am yesterday and still had not passed out, we elected to just eat out.  Went with Bob Evans, which has a great Fit From The Farm menu for dieters...I ordered the Potato Crusted Flounder, but through a mixup ended up getting the Salmon meal instead.  No biggee, that tasted good too.  I also ate half a roll.

Day 15 - Totals:

Calories: 561
Fat: 11 g
Carbs: 70 g
Protein: 55 g

30 Days 30 Dinners - Day 11, 12, and 13

This week was a pretty awful week in terms of meals.  I didn't even get to the grocery store proper until Wednesday night, and the last two nights, the things I ate were more quick ideas than planned meals.  Nonetheless, I continue the challenge...

Day 11 - Knowing I'd have to hit the true grocery store later, I just grabbed stuff to do pork chops or quesadillas...Noah picked quesadillas.  With those, I do a version for everyone else, and a version for me...

1. LaTortilla 100 calorie, 98% Fat Free tortilla
2. 0.3 cup of 2% Mexican Shredded Cheese
3. 1.5 ounces chicken breast
4. 1 serving Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles
5. Light Sour Cream and Salsa to top it off, 2 tbsp and 1.5 tbsp respectively.

Day 11 - Totals:

Calories: 373
Fat: 15 g
Carbs: 30 g
Protein: 37 g

Day 12 - So, I made pork chops, with yellow rice and peas.  This is a dinner I blogged on Day 4.  I planned on eating that...But then both kids took until 9pm for bedtime, the dog needed care and attention until about 9:45, and then I started packing/planning for Disney.  Basically, it was nearly 10:30 before I decided I needed to eat.  Didn't feel like having something to cut up, so I went for the leftovers approach, though I liked the yellow rice so much, I threw that in too...

1. Turkey burger (From Day 10...same toppings and all)
2. 1 cup of Vigo Yellow Rice

Day 12 - Totals:

Calories: 461
Fat: 16 g
Carbs: 51 g
Protein: 32 g

Day 13 - We used to do this most Fridays, but had gotten away from it in the last month or so.  Noah asked for it again tonight, so I made him a pizza.  Ham and Pineapple, which is his favorite and the only one I've made at home really...

1. Boboli pizza shell
2. 1 cup pizza sauce
3. 3 oz ham
4. 0.75 cup of diced pineapple
5. 1 cup of Kraft 2% Italian Three Cheese blend
(This is what I used to make the whole pizza, which is cut up into 8 slices.  We each had two slices for dinner, so that is what the totals are based from)

Day 13 - Totals:

Calories: 420
Fat: 15 g
Carbs: 54 g
Protein: 19 g

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: "The Best Broccoli"

Taking a quick break from 30 Days 30 Dinners (catchup post is coming tonight) to do a recipe for broccoli.  Huh?  It's broccoli, you say...Grill it, steam it, bake it, whatever, it's just broccoli.  My mother can attest...I've never been a huge fan of broccoli.  If you put it in a casserole or something, it's fine, I can kind've "hide" it among the other foods.  But the stems on broccoli really don't light my tongue up, and hey, it's like eating a mini-tree!  But, it's a necessary annoyance and I deal.  But Shannon found this in her pinterest searches a month or so ago and it'd been sitting in the hopper, waiting for a time to try it.

I'm not the only one in my family displaying their cooking skills for the FB and Twitter world to see...My little brother and his fiancee have been trying stuff and showing the results as they cook in their apartment.  They don't have the cooking flexibility I do (Community grill, didn't have a crockpot until recently), but he also has a bit more "gourmet" than I do, since there are no kids there to appeal to with cooking.  So my mom sees us both doing this, and gets an idea....POTLUCK EASTER!  Which is good, since she usually cooks it all, and it's a good way to help her out, but it did kind've put us on the spot.  We drew the "side dish" straw...to lasagna.  Lasagna is practically it's own side dish!  But, Shannon said "why not try the broccoli recipe?"  And so we did....

It's called "The Best Broccoli of your Life", guaranteed to make you lick the broccoli off your plate, even if you don't like broccoli.  From someone who doesn't like broccoli...they are pretty close on that call.  So, here is my own little spin on the original recipe (Found here: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html)...


The Best Broccoli

3 crowns of broccoli, cut off most of the stems (Or about 5 cups broccoli)
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bulb of garlic, each clove peeled and cut into thin slices
0.5 cup of shredded parmesean cheese
salt
pepper
1 lemon (Will need some sort of grater too)

1. Pre-heat oven to 425
2. Cut up broccoli and garlic, then layer out on foil-lined cookie sheet(s)
3. Top with salt, pepper, and EVOO
4. Bake until broccoli is starting to get browned on the tips
5. Zest a lemon (I had to look this up, it means just run the lemon over a grater until the whole peel is down to the white fleshy part) over the broccoli, then squeeze out all the juice over the broccoli
6. Top with the cheese and some more salt and stick back in the oven (with the heat turned off, so just use the residual heat to melt the cheese)
7. Once the cheese is soft and melty, take it out and mix it all together


Per 0.5 cup:

98 calories
7.7 g fat
5 carbs
5 g protein

Notes:

• The fat content on this is a little high, but worth it, in my opinion.

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Day 10

Still never got out to the grocery store proper, BUT I made a quick run this morning and grabbed ground turkey.  So, per Noah's choice, tonight's dinner was turkey burgers.

1. 4 oz of lean ground turkey, topped with Hellman's light olive oil mayo, BBQ sauce, and 2% cheese slice
2. 12 pieces of crinkle cut fries
3. 0.5 cup of green beans

Totals

Calories: 541
Fat: 21 g
Carbs: 65 g
Protein: 33 g

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Day 9

Given the busy weekend, we hadn't had a chance to do grocery shopping...And didn't get the chance today either, due to stuff for work and shopping for Disney after work.  So we ended up having to do food out, got Chinese from a new place in Westminster.  Another good opportunity to show that you CAN eat out somewhere on a diet and find a workable solution...

1. 1.5 cups Shrimp Fried Rice
2. 0.5 cup white rice

Totals

Calories: 485
Fat: 10 g
Carbs: 82 g
Protein: 17 g

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Day 8, Easter

Easter Dinner.  This is going to be a toughy.  Holiday dinners are just going to be bad in general, but I figured with a breakfast that was pretty healthy and skipping lunch, I should be okay....

So...

1. Roughly 6 oz of smoked ham
2. 5 asparagus stalks
3. 0.5 cup of pasta salad
4. 1 deviled egg
5. 0.5 cup yellow corn
6. 2 dinner rolls

Totals

Calories: 856
Fat: 36 g
Carbs: 86 g
Protein: 48 g

So, pretty bad.  But I still made it within my ranges for the day.

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

And here comes my first catchup post.  I didn't stop tracking, I just took a break for a bit.  But here we go.  Less filler of commentary, more facts!

Day 4 - Pork Chops Shake'N'Bake Style (Talladega Nights shoutout), Yellow Rice, Peas

1. 5.3 ounce pork chop (bone-in) w/ 1 serving Shake'N'Bake coating
2. Vigo Yellow Rice, 1 cup prepared (without optional margarine or oil)
3. 0.5 cup green peas

Day 4 - Totals:

Calories: 467
Fat: 9 g
Carbs: 62 g
Protein: 27 g

Day 5 - Seafood Night!  4 oz catfish fillet, with 1/4 cup of my cornmeal breading, shrimp grilled in a little EVOO and butter, Idahoan Baby Red Mashed Potatoes, and Crinkle Cut Carrots

1. 4 oz catfish fillet with 0.25 cup of white cornmeal and 0.06 cup of white flour
2. 10 shrimp with 0.2 tbsp of EVOO and 0.2 tbsp of butter
3. 0.67 cup of Idahoan Baby Red Mashed Potatoes prepared
4. 0.5 cup of crinkle cut carrots

Day 5 - Totals

Calories: 554
Fat: 14 g
Carbs: 53 g
Protein: 46 g

Day 6 - Had a lot going on that night, so we ended up picking up McDonald's for dinner.  I know, monument of healthy eating there...but, you can still eat there on a diet...

1. Grilled Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich
2. 1/2 Medium Fries

Day 6 - Totals:

Calories: 570
Fat: 20 g
Carbs: 66 g
Protein: 33 g

Day 7 - Shannon's birthday was today, my parents took the whole family out to Cracker Barrell.  I had kind've "gameplanned" for dinner out, so my lunch and breakfast were slightly less than usual.

1. 8 oz Haddock fillet, breaded and grilled
2. 0.5 cup green beans
3. 0.5 cup yellow corn
4. 0.5 cup hashbrown casserole

Day 7 - Totals:

Calories: 673
Fat: 9 g
Carbs: 95 g
Protein: 58 g

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Day 3

Ok, a true dinner tonight.  Gave Noah the pick for dinner again, he chose spaghetti.  Nothing too special I do for spaghetti.  Just cook the noodles, heat up some Chunky Garden Style Pasta Sauce from Giant, brown some ground turkey and throw it in the sauce with some extra spices, cook a vegetable, DONE!  For good measure, I made some Nature's Promise Organic European Style Garlic Bread too.

So, dinner was:
1. Spaghetti - I cook half a box, which equates out to about 6 servings, so 0.67 cup of cooked noodles
2. Sauce - 1 jar of Chunky Garden Style Pasta Sauce (with Mushrooms) with 10 ounces of 93% lean ground turkey, makes 8 servings
3. Green Beans
4. European Garlic Bread - Cut the loaf into 1/5s, but I snagged one extra piece, so 1.5 servings

Totals:

Calories: 542
Fat: 13 g
Carbs: 80 g
Protein: 24 g

30 Days, 30 Dinners - Day 2

I get to cheat a bit with this one :-)

Who says breakfast has to be in the morning?  Noah was asking for IHOP for dinner, and I hadn't had any specific meal planned, so I volunteered to make a big breakfast platter for dinner.  Had to run to the store to fill in some things I didn't have, but I had most of it already.  Cooked up some bacon for everyone else (I did snare one piece for me though), a bunch of scrambled eggs for everyone else, Bisquick Heart Healthy pancakes, and Simply Potatoes Diced Potatoes with Onion.  On the side, I made myself my "As Good As The Real Thing Sausage Eggs"...That's 1 egg, 1 serving liquid egg whites, 1 serving egg beaters, with half a serving of Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles thrown in, along with salt, pepper, and Old Bay (let's see how many times I use THAT in the month of April, eh?).

So, my dinner was:
1. My As Good As The Real Thing Sausage Eggs
2. 1 pancake with 0.5 serving of Sugar Free Syrup
3. 1 piece of bacon
4. 1 cup of diced potatoes

The totals...

Calories: 412
Fat: 11 g
Carbs: 49 g
Protein: 30 g

30 Days 30 Dinners - Day 1

So, for my first day of this challenge, I get to explain just what the heck happened today/tonight...

So, we were heading to Delaware today for JP's birthday party.  The drive is pretty long, so I figured that by the time I got home, there wouldn't be much time to cook, much less have the energy to do it.  So, crockpot meal FTW...I like doing crockpot meals, provided I remember to prep them the night before, or do them on a weekend.  The only problem is, I only have about 3-4 that I do well...Beef Stew, Pot Roast, Pulled Pork, and Chili.  My family doesn't eat chili, beef stew and pot roast are more Winter meals, and we just did Pulled Pork last week.  So, after perusing SparkRecipes last night, I chose a new one to try...Broccoli Cheese Chicken.  Without posting the full on recipe, basically you put chicken in the crockpot, and cover in a mixture of condensed broccoli cheese soup, milk, spices, and onion.  So, I prepped it up this morning, topped it with 1/2 cup FF shredded cheddar, turned it on, and we were on our way...

On the way back, I was telling Shannon how I made it, and in stepped curveball #1...Since the mixture is basically soup, Shannon was already not feeling it.  She's not a huge fan of soups.  I argued that we do something similar with my Chicken Stuffing Casserole, but she felt like the stuffing kind've counteracts that.  So, already, we're not feeling it.  When I got home and looked at it, I knew we were likely getting something out for dinner.  Adding the cheese on top was a bad idea, it ended up on the sides and bottom, gummed up.  Also, I forget that things that cook all day in a crockpot tend to thin out a bit.  So what was already basically soup just became even more thinned out.  And when I taste tested, I was hit with curveball #3 (#2 was the look of it)...all the spices I had added and taste tested had basically dissapeared, leaving the mixture real bland.  It had flavor, but just very much like weakened soup.

So, I caved and ordered the family some food from our local sub shop.  But, knowing I had the challenge tonight, I decided to give it a try by myself.  I went ahead and re-salted the mixture, which mostly fixed my spice issue.  I did also throw in some Old Bay...because, let's face it, I am a Baltimore Boy, tried and true, almost everything tastes better with some Old Bay (btw, the original spices featured a good portion of Old Bay as well).  I also turned the heat back on and added some corn starch slurry to try and thicken it.  Didn't do much, but just enough that I was okay with it.  The end result:  Not too bad.  It'll be worth a try again, with a few modifications.  Especially good to server it on top of rice, and throw cheese on it AFTER it cooks!

So, onto the nutritional facts, to prove that I tracked it...Best way to do this is break the dinner down into it's elements

1. Chicken - I used 10 tenders in a 1.5 lb pack.  In my dinner, I had 2.5 tenders, so 6 oz of boneless skinless chicken tenders.
2. "Sauce" - The recipe I used mixed 2 cans of 98% FF Broccoli Cheese Soup, 1.5 cups 1% Milk, onion, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Old Bay.  The reason I listed this seperate from the chicken is because I didn't take 1/4 of the sauce, I took more like 1/8.
3. "Rice" - I used Knorr's Rice Sides, Buffalo Chicken.  I've said before how much I love Knorr's Rice Sides.  It's not really organic or natural, but it tastes awesome.  I wouldn't really reccomend using Buffalo Chicken rice with this recipe, I'd probably stick with a more neutral kind like Vigo Yellow Rice or plain white rice, but I'm the only one who likes Buffalo Chicken rice from this family, so I have to pick my times to use it.  I ate about 3/4 cup of rice.

So, the added up totals:

Calories: 455
Fat: 5 g
Carbs: 45 g
Protein: 57 g

April Blog Challenge: 30 Days, 30 Dinners

Today marks one year of my changes.  One year of watching what I eat and making better decisions.  One year of improving my physique.  One year of living healthier.

I did not meet my goal.  My original goal was to lose 100 pounds in 1 year.  My final tally was a little over 70 pounds lost in 1 year.  Not too shabby, not my goal though.  And though my performance as an athlete has improved, I've had a number of setbacks recently which leaves me feeling like I'm starting to fall behind...

So, I need something to mark one year that I can use as a springboard.  I've done well at blogging my recipes, but often times, I either make something "from the standard pile", which means I've either blogged it before, or it's not interesting enough to document.  And I've falled behind in tracking on SparkPeople.  I still make good choices, but I'm guessing my totals, so there are days I'm sure I go above my totals, and days I go below.

So, for April, I am challenging myself....Every night, I will document what I made/ate for dinner.  For one month, I will be completely open and honest about my choices, my cooking, and my feedback.  A couple caveats/rules:

1. So, first hurdle is that during the month, we'll be in DISNEY!  So, already I have to account that I won't have the exact nutritionals for every meal.  That was bound to come up for nights where we eat out anyway.  I'm going to do my best guesswork
2. I probably won't go in and blog every night.  But, I'll do it at least two times a week and either do a summary post that combines nights, or just back date posts

Anyone intrigued?  Listening?  If you can think of other challenges, bring them at me.  The whole "blog for whatever pops into my head" idea is kind've putting this thing into the recycling bin of the internet and I'd like people to be interested in what I write about, so consider this my polling of the audience to see who's listening!

St. Baldrick's

A few months ago, Shannon had decided she was going to participate in St. Baldrick's.  St. Baldrick's is an organization dedicated to drawing attention to, fighting, researching, and eliminating childhood cancers.  The main way they do this is through their shaving events.  Because an organization with bald in the name OBVIOUSLY is going to have something to do with head shaving!

So over the past few months, Shannon worked to raise money for this cause.  When I did Undy 5k last year, she couldn't really participate, but she still helped to fundraise.  This time around, I had no problem with the head shaving...since losing the weight, I feel like I wouldn't look awkward with that look, and since there's a fairly good chance between the dandruff/seborrheic dermatitis and my curly hair that I'll be going bald by the time I hit middle age, might as well get a sneak peak now to get comfortable.  My biggest concern was that I just had a huge push of asking for money in November.  And with plans to do Undy 5k again, I figured it'd be best to save up my begging for that.  Shannon ended up raising over $700 for St. Baldrick's, not too shabby at all.

So, as a family, we went to the event at Martin's East.  I noticed on the way in, they did offer walk-in registration.  As we walked around, there was just a great sense of camraderie.  All the shavees are up on stage and they applaud everyone that gets up there.  There was a lot of events and activities for non-shavees too.  Silent auctions, Chinese auctions, face painting, hair coloring, hair braiding, carnival games, lottery games, food, beer.  But, watching everyone who went up on stage or signed up to do it, I felt like a chicken for not doing this.  I felt like, to do this, would be a badge of honor.  The child that Shannon did this in honor of, Sam, is a 2 year old fighting neuroblastoma.  BOTH Sam's parents did St. Baldrick's this year.  And Shannon was one of 13 women to sign up for the event (Far many more men sign up to do it).

So, I went back and asked about any open slots around Shannon's time.  And as it turned out, they had a cancellation about 30 minutes after.  So, for a 50 dollar donation, I had my spot.  And I was glad to see that both kids didn't freak out about us being bald, Noah got a HUGE kick out of it, and Darcy loves the feel of our heads.  The only problem I found after going down to the scalp...that dandruff/dermatitis stuff never went away, and so you can see ALL the sores and redness on my skin now.  I'll just have to keep working on it with my old shampoos and stuff.

Anyway, the real point of this post is to encourage anyone reading this to take the plunge and sign up.  It's just hair after all.  It grows back.  And it's such a good feeling, knowing that #1, the money you raise is going to make sure a kid doesn't have to be sitting in a hospital, doing chemotherapy when they should be playing on a playground, playing kickball, learning how to WALK! and #2, by going out and just showing people you are brave enough to go bald, you're raising awareness without even being loud, making signs, or asking for money.  There was no end to the amazing stories I saw there.  One girl walked up shortly before my turn, her sister was one of the storied children that St. Baldrick's helps...She is going to prom in a month, and on the spot, said if she could raise 1000, she'd get shaved right then and there and go to prom bald.  And about 10 minutes later, she had her turn in the barber's chair.  Or Team Scarlet, a team of probably more than 10, who raised over $48,000.  The team captain is the father of one of the children supported by St. Baldrick's  There were some less touching, more funny ones.  Like the Fire Chief and the Police Chief, who usually don't get along too well, getting shaved side by side.  Or a couple of the guys with real long hair doing Locks of Love along with St. Baldrick's, so they got their hair braided before it was chopped.

A picture of the two of us, after the event...

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pan-Fried Catfish (Repost)

I had this blogged about 7 months ago, but I've tweaked the recipe and I've actually had requests from people to post it, so why not?  I do have to give thanks and credit to my father-in-law, a former chef, who helped me figure out what was going wrong in my "technique" and recipe.  For awhile, the "shell" was flaking off during flipping of the fish and I ended up with pan-"half-fried" fish.  Also, my original recipe ended up being too bland.

Pan-Fried Catfish

1 lb catfish fillets
1 cup white cornmeal
0.25 cup white flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1.5 teaspoons Old Bay
0.5 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1.5 teaspoons Garlic Powder
1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
0.5 cup egg whites

1. Mix everything but the catfish and oil in a large bowl.  Toss well to make sure the spices are evenly mixed in the cornmeal and flour.
2. Pour the mixture onto a sheet of wax paper
3. In a bowl, pour the egg whites and add a "splash" of water to it
4. Using paper towels, pat dry the catfish fillets to remove any moisture
5. Run a fillet through the egg whites, drip dry it until the excess liquid mostly runs off, then roll the fillet in the cornmeal and flour mix.  Hand dust the fillet to make sure it gets entirely coated.
6. Repeat Step 5 with each fillet
7. Pour the oil into a large skillet and heat for 5 minutes on medium
8. Place each fillet in the skillet and cook for 5 minutes
9. Flip the fillets and cook on the other side for another 5 minutes
10. Continue flipping and cooking until the fillets are well cooked and starting to brown.  The cornmeal flour mixture should harden into a type of shell
11. When finished cooking, place the fillets in between two paper towels and pat dry the cookef fillets to remove oils

Per 4 oz fillet:

285 calories
15 g fat
15 carbs
23 g protein

Notes:

• The fat content on this is pretty high, but the majority of it comes from the fish oil, which is really good fat.  Worth it, in my opinion.  You could use a lower fat fish, but they're more bland also.  Catfish is by far my favorite.

I'm Not A Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Crockpot Pulled Pork

Been awhile since I posted a recipe.  Been doing rotations of the same old standards for awhile, but I needed a crockpot meal and wanted to try a new one.  Now, we've done crockpot pulled pork before, but that was not on my diet.  In that one, I just put a pork loin in with 1 cup of BBQ sauce and a BUNCH of cola to immerse the pork loin.  Well, that "bunch of cola" obviously won't work on my diet, so I searched SparkRecipes and found a good one nutrition wise and sounded like it'd be straightforward.

The results were pretty good.  It's nothing special, but it does the trick.  And it was good enough that I found myself trying to snack on little pieces after dinner.  So, if you have tricks to make it even more flavorful, go ahead and spin it up.  But this is a nice healthier option for pulled pork.



Crockpot Pulled Pork BBQ


2 pounds pork loin

1 cup ketchup

2.5 tablespoons brown sugar

2.5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1.5 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon horseradish mustard

pepper



1. Mix all ingredients except pork loin in a bowl

2. Place pork loin in the crockpot, then pour mixture over top

3. Cook on low 5-6 hours

4. Shred in the crockpot



Per about 1 cup of pork:

255 calories


4 grams fat


20 carbs


33 grams protein

We Invent Fun, Everyday

There's a lot of things about Baltimore we can look down on, even as Marylanders living within the region.  The crime rate, venereal diseases, the school system, the Orioles.  Baltimore is not a metropolis in the grand scheme, like a Philadelphia, or New York, or Boston, just to name a few eastern seaboard cities.  But, I tend to forget that Downtown Baltimore does offer a good bit of fun things to do.  Especially as a parent looking for family fun.  We've frequented the Aquarium, we've tried Port Discovery...

The Science Center was another place I went often as a child.  My dad bought a membership at some point in our childhood, and we definitley took advantage.  Especially the lock-ins.  We used to do it every year, go to church at St. Mary's Star of the Sea (note, this is the same church my parents were married in), head over to the Science Center, get dinner of Tony's Pizza, go into a couple fun little classes about different science topics (I remember learning about volcanoes), hit up both a Planetarium show and an IMAX film, then spread out our sleeping bags in the Newton exhibits and sleep literally among the exhibits.  I can't remember what we did in the morning after, but it was a lot of fun.  And we did it for a bunch of years.  I also remember seeing Rolling Stones on the IMAX, and that was pretty great.  I'd have to say the last time I remember going there was just before they started the major renovation/expansion, which was finished in 2004.  So it's probably been over 10 years.

So, with two kids of my own now, especially kids under the age of 4, I was a bit unsure of how they would do at the Science Center.  Noah actually remembered seeing a Sid the Science Kid where they went to a science center, so I guessed he knew what he was in for.  Let me tell you, that renovation took that place from great to VERY great.  The layout I remembered before was...1st floor: Science Arcade, Blue Crabs, IMAX...2nd floor: Newton Exhibits, Planetarium, Space...3rd floor: Special Exhibit, Odds and Ends, Kids Room (which was just a regular sized room where they put some kiddie toys I think).

This layout was WAY expanded.  On the "Ground" floor, there was a large dinosaur exhibit where Noah dusted off dinosaur bones and there was a COLOSSAL sculpture of a brachiosaurus being bitten by another dinosaur.  Making our way to the 1st floor, they have all the Newton exhibits, plus some new ones, along with the IMAX.  The 2nd floor had their Special Exhibit, which currently was about Bugs (more on that later), Space and the Planetarium, a "Your Body" exhibit which we only got a few exhibits into.  The 3rd floor was Science Arcade, Blue Crabs, Energy Conserving Car of Tomorrow, and a MAJORLY fleshed out Kid Room.  We probably spent about half our time in this Kids Room alone.  I was glad to see a lot of the exhibits I remembered from before (The Floating Ball!), while a bunch of new good ones were added in (One Noah wanted to do but forgot about later was a "self propelled chair ride" where you pulled yourself up into the air on a seat).  Noah loved pretty much all of it.  We spent 5 hours there, and the only reason we didn't spend more was the ADULTS were getting tired out.

In addition to reviewing this, I took my new attitude into here.  With the Tough Mudder coming up, I've started trying to adopt a new mantra..."What won't kill you can only make you stronger".  I will need this mantra when I come upon a field of LIVE WIRES carrying 10000 volts and have to run through it.  Basically, if I know something isn't going to set me back more than some temporary pain or discomfort, go for it, otherwise you won't know what you're missing.  This mantra got me to try two things I probably would've passed on before...I ate a cricket.  The bug exhibit had a "Bug Food" stand where a chef was literally making up bug recipes, and one of them was "Cajun Crickets", which was crickets cooked with Old Bay.  So I grabbed one, took a quick glance, and popped it in my mouth.  And you know what, if you aren't think about it, it doesn't taste like a bug.  I tasted the old bay more than anything.  The other thing I decided to try was the Bed of Nails.  Noah was admiring this exhibit (where a Science Center employee was running the exhibit) and Shannon asked if he'd be able to do it.  The lady said he probably could, but if he wiggled around a bit, it might not be as good for him, so he decided to pass.  But he volunteered me for it.  I was like "You know what, bring it on!".  So, lucky for me, I was now withing the weight limit (Old weight would've been 10 pounds over).  I laid down, gave Noah the okay to push the button and after a few seconds....I was sleeping on a bed of nails!  The lady gave me a fright by telling Noah "Okay, now we'll push him back down".  She meant the button to retract the nails, but I thought she was trying to tease and saying "Now, go and push on daddy to make sure he feels those nails!".  But you know what, it was fun.  And it felt pretty cool, I could feel the nails, but they just felt like blunt rods on my back.

So all in all, the Science Center was a big hit.  I was even slightly dissapointed that we didn't have more time there to finish exploring, but Shannon and I were pretty close to pooped.  Noah and Darcy both fell asleep on the drive home, and Noah stayed asleep (But he did wake up right at his bedtime to get dinner).  Between the National Aquarium, The Science Center, and Port Discovery (which we rated lowest of the three, but will grant that they have a ton of fun stuff for older kids there), Baltimore is definitley a place a family can go for a FULL weekend of activities.

A Startling Realization about Karma and the Baltimore Orioles/Ravens

As pitchers and catchers report for another great season of fail whale for the Orioles (Why bother having optimism?  We're basically hoping that every team overlooks us and sends their Single-A affiliate to play the game instead), Casey Willet posted a video reminder of how last season ended, with pretty much the only Orioles highlight to mark the season.  We got to play a role in the most epic, fortuitous 30 mins of baseball I've ever seen between two teams.  Boston and Tampa were tied for the Wild Card.  A win by one and loss by the other would seal it.  Any other scenario would mean a play-in game the next day.  Through...7 innings?...Tamps was losing 7-0 to the Yankees, who had already wrapped up their division title with a nice bow, but they weren't giving up.  We had an earlier game and were losing 3-2, but there was a long rain delay, allowing Tampa-NYY game to pass ours.

The stage was set first by an epic comeback by the Rays, as they managed to come all the way back to 7-7, shocking the Red Sox Nation.  But, the Red Sox were still winning against us, and it came down to the bottom of the ninth.  With a man on second, Nolan Reimold slapped a double off the great Papelbon to tie the game.  The next batter, Robert Andino.  And on a 1-1 count, he hit a line drive right to a sliding Carl Crawford...WHO DROPPED IT.  The throw to the plate was too late to get Reimold and just like that, O's win, Red Sox now hoping the Yankees pull it out in extra innings against Tampa.  Within about 5 minutes of that, Evan Longoria hit a solo shot in the bottom of the 12th to give the Rays the win, which ended the Boston baseball season without a playoff trip.  I was awake and watched this comeback and despite how bad the O's was, it felt good to see us play a role.  Aand watching the highlight video, I sort've celebrated...

And then I remembered.  What NFL team does Boston/Massachusetts play host to?  The New England Patriots.

Yes Baltimore, we had our laugh against Boston.  And they promptly returned the favor, about four months later.

We were down 3 points to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game (difference noted...game with playoff implications vs an ACTUAL playoff game.  And the Conference title game no less).  Joe Flacco throws a pass to Lee Evans in the endzone and he doesn't secure the catch, allowing a former practice squad DB to knock it loose.  Two plays later, Billy Cundiff lines up for a pretty easy FG of 32 yards.  And due to whatever circumstances you want to list (Ghost of Myra Kraft, Scoreboard-gate, stupid idiots not taking a timeout), he pushed it about as wide left as you can.  Just like that, when it seemed we could at least make a go of it in OT, the BALTIMORE Ravens lost and the NEW ENGLAND (Read: Boston) Patriots were advancing.

Oh, how I wish I could go back to that night in September and just WILL Carl Crawford into catching the ball.  O's would likely lose in extra innings, Boston would pull off a win, and the fate would be out of Baltimore's hands.  And then, 4 months later, maybe Cundiff just happens to pull off that FG which he makes 1000 times in practice, or Evans manages to make a catch he would have 1000 times in practice.

I know, I know...woulda coulda shoulda.  And now, we have to suffer through 6 months of no football, which will inevitably be an Orioles losing season.  Maybe I'll be wrong, maybe something will finally go right for the Orioles.  But I'm counting on karma to push the Orioles season as wide left as that Cundiff kick, if only that maybe, the Ravens will once again have a nice, dominant season.

My 2012 Fitness List: January Checkin

To Do in 2012 (The Fitness/Wellness Edition)

1. Complete weight loss to 160 pounds - CURRENTLY: 194 pounds.  I'm still stuck in neutral on this one, I've stayed the same for about 2 months now.  I need to recommit to SparkPeople, I haven't gone nuts with my choices, but I stopped tracking every day, and I think the snacking has slowly crept in.


2. Run 325 miles - CURRENTLY: 35 miles.  That would include the 13 miles I've done in February already.  Definitley fell behind on this one in January, but if I can keep up my February start, I'll smash through this one easy.


3. Complete a Tough Mudder - CURRENTLY: Signed up for September 8th!  It's going to happen, for sure.


4. Beat my 2011 Undy 5K time - CURRENTLY: 10:21 pace, 6 seconds better than Undy 5k 2011


5. Begin training for a half-marathon - CURRENTLY: Not even close.

There is no such thing as a 24-hour bug to parents

Man, we had such nice plans laid out for this weekend.  We were going to meet up with Gail Montgomery for lunch and get to pickup the awesome pictures she took of the family a few weeks back.  After that, we were set to drop off the kids with Grandma and Grandpa for a sleepover with their cousins, and I swear, Noah was looking forward to that ALL DAMN WEEK.  Like asking me every single morning.  With our free night, we were going to try to hit up Coho Grill for Restaurant Week, then head home for lots of sleep.  No real plans for Sunday, but again...SLEEP!

Wednesday night, I made Chicken Stuffing Casserole.  Noah started getting kind've mad about it, saying he wanted something else, but we don't do that.  So, then he said his tummy hurt.  We just assumed he was bellyaching, so he ate a couple bites, some green beans, and then went off to bed.  Maybe an hour later, I was upstairs and he came out of his room, again with belly hurting.  And then, the fireworks came.  I won't elaborate on "fireworks", use your own discretion to put together stomach bug and fireworks.  So, that happened, got him to the toilet for about half of it, worked on cleaning up the rest off the rug (Why on earth did I allow him to drink some red Koolaid at dinner?  Idiot!), got him a good drink of water and brushed his teeth, and sent him back to bed, since he said his belly now felt better.  For the next 3.5 hours, he did not sleep.  At.  All.  Came out of his room every 10 mins or so complaining.  A few times, he wretched up a little bit of clear stuff (Assumed it was water).  A couple times, he needed underwear changes (If we labeled the other thing fireworks, we'll call this one bombs).  Finally, I gave him some tylenol to see if that would stop the belly pains, and a little after midnight, he went to bed.

Next morning, he still had bombs, though these cam in the proper facility, and he was still saying his belly felt off, so we called him out of school.  He woke up about as early as you'd expect him to (I end up waking up with Darcy around 5 or 5:30amm so he's up within 10 mins of that), but ended up crashing on the couch around 8am through till about 10:30am.  Always the sign of a sick little man when he crashes in the morning.  Lunch and dinner that night were a bit better, complained less about the belly pains, and finally allowed us to give him some ginger ale (That plan to make him hate soda worked a little TOO well).  So Thursday night, I declared he was doing fine, okay that was the 24 hour bug.

Idiot, you know what's coming next right?

Yup, around 1am, I started the exact same sequence he did.  In the exact same order and time frames.  This happened once before.  He got a stomach bug, was fine the next day while BOTH Shannon and I were curled up in fetal positions in bed struggling not to firework.  So I mustered up some gall and ran him into school (Yeah, parents of kids in daycares are probably about to rip me a new one, but we NEEDED a day of letting him "run free" while I was incapacitated).  Luckily, my side effects were mostly giving way around the time I dropped him off anyway.  Started eating again around lunch, and felt well enough to have a Chicken Cheesesteak for dinner.  Even started to think we'd saved the weekend.

Then, his fireworks started.  Again?  WTF?  After eating, maybe 1/8 a chicken tender and drinking some red Hi-C (Hey idiot, you really deserved that one, a red drink AGAIN!), he just LOST it on the dining room table.  He seemed to be okay after that and went to bed.  Oh yeah, and then Shannon's cycle started too.  So, there went our weekend plans.

And then this morning, he was fine again.  He's still got the bombing problem (still in the correct facility though), but my guess is that will subside in time.  And we made the best of Shannon being down today and not having plans.  I went nuts on the closet in the playroom, finally cleared out all the stuff that used to be in our bedroom and finally turned it into The Playroom Closet (complete with fanfare).  Which allowed me to finally put together one of Noah's Christmas presents, a decorate your own cardboard playhouse.  And immediately, we have plans for tomorrow too, which would be him going nuts on said playhouse.

But to summarize, there is never such a thing as a 24-hour-bug to a parent.  Because inevitably, you catch it, and that just extends the awesomeness.  In our case, this is going on a 36 hour bug.  UGH!