As you may have guessed from the badge to the right, I’m headed to the Disney Social Media Moms convention in a month. We’re going to go a bit early to have some pre-convention Disney World fun and to go on rides that JSL is too little for but that NHL can ride. One of these is Star Tours.

I had been meaning to introduce NHL to Star Wars for some time. I’ve already introduced him to Batman (via the Batman: The Brave and The Bold TV show), Spiderman (via The Spectacular Spiderman TV series) and other super heroes via the Super Hero Squad video game. He also knows how to use computers and the Internet and is a whiz at figuring out how things work. (For example, how to record on the DVR even when Mommy and Daddy don’t want him recording a dozen new shows!!!) So it seemed only natural to expand his horizons to include Wookies, lightsabers and droids. (Oh my!)

This past weekend, while JSL napped, NHL and I sat down to view a rented copy of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. He’s already had some Star Wars exposure from a game on his LeapFrog Didj so he knows some of the characters. He even chose an R2-D2 figure for a recent prize. Side note: Color me jealous. His R2-D2 makes sounds when you push its button. I’m tempted to get one for my office to go next to my talking C-3PO.

Anyway, we sat down to some protests. He didn’t want to watch Star Wars! He wanted to play Wii! After telling him that R2-D2 was in this movie, he got more interested. Still, the movie quickly bored him. It turns out he doesn’t like things like dialogue and character development. Still, his interest got piqued during the land and space battles. Any time the heroes were in danger or were fighting, he was interested. Any other time, he quickly lost interest in the entire movie.

Overall, I think that he mostly enjoyed it and I still look forward to introducing him (and JSL when he gets old enough) to other Geeky interests.

Weight: 201 lbs (down 6 lbs)

Average Hours of Sleep: 7.14 hours

Total Workout Time: 0 minutes

This first week of Project New Me has brought about many upheavals. First of all, simply needing to track my points again was something to get used to. I couldn’t just toss a ton of snacks in my lunch bag and eat as many of them as I felt I needed during the day. I had to think more about what was going in my mouth. This is a good thing. When you mindlessly shove food into your mouth, you forget about the calories you’re ingesting and you are more likely to gain weight. Read more of this article »

Last week, I was walking to my car when I spotted some money on the ground. It was only a quarter, a dime and a penny so I figured I’d pass it up. Yet, I found myself strangely compelled to pick up the money. For some odd reason, it brought to mind my childhood.

My sister and I would constantly pick up whatever money we found lying around. Usually, this would be a penny here and a dime there. Occasionally, we’d luck out and spot a dollar bill. One time we spotted a twenty. I thought that a guy standing near it had dropped it so I decided to wait to see if he’d pick it up. My sister didn’t wait and grabbed the twenty.

My father would constantly tell us that it was a waste of time picking up that money, but we insisted that all those pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters added up. We disagreed, of course. In some respects, I’ve proven him wrong thanks to my recent 12 pound coin deposit.

As I got older, however, I passed money on the ground more and more. I found it just wasn’t worth my while to walk across a room just to pick up a nickle. For some reason, however, I felt an urge to pick up this 36 cents.

After picking it up, I began to think. I still wouldn’t pick up a lone penny on the sidewalk, but would definitely go out of my way if I spotted a twenty on the ground. I wondered what was the threshold a given amount of “ground money” had to reach before it turned into a worthwhile amount for an adult to pick up.

So my Aloha Friday question to you is: What is the smallest amount of money that you would pick up off the ground?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #21

Ok, maybe I didn’t have a ton of coins, but the amount of coins I had is nothing to sneeze at either. A few years back, I noticed that I’d have pocket change lying around after every transaction. I’d stick it back in my pocket, but those two dimes, a nickel and a penny don’t help much if your next cash payment is $12.79. Plus, who wants to stand in line figuring out where each and every coin is needed to complete the transaction?

Cashier: “Your total is $3.65.”

Me: “Ok, here’s three singles. And let’s see. [digs in pocket] A quarter. A penny. Another penny. A dime. A nickel. Another dime. Another nickel. Another quarter. Oh wait, that’s too much. Let me take back those pennies, one dime and one nickle.” [Glances back to see people in line behind me giving me the evil eye.]

Much better to simply pay in dollar bills and save the change for later, I figured. Perhaps I could even buy something nice with the saved up money.

Since I didn’t want it stashed in a thousand spots around the house, I took an empty spice container (one of the big ones you can get from BJs) and started plunking my change in there at the end of the day. Over the years, the container filled more and more.

Last year, the coin jar got to be too heavy so I figured it was time to roll the coins up. So began a project with NHL. He enjoyed helping me count the coins and roll them up. I stuck the rolled up coins in another empty container and made a mental note to deposit the money. Somewhere along the way, though, my mental note came loose and sliped under the mental refrigerator.

Recently, I decided to finally deposit the money. First, I rolled up the new coins that I had collected.

After counting it all, I stuffed the rolled coins back into the container.

Of course, lifting it was a challenge. It weighed 12 pounds. (Yes, I weighed it. I’m that much of a nerd!) Have you ever tried to life 12 pounds of coins? It was HEAVY! I toyed with keeping it around for weightlifting but figured a set of dumbbells would cost a lot less than the amount of money in that container.

So how much money is 12 pounds of coins? Well, in my case it totaled $144.50! Not bad for a few years of tossing coins into a jar!

Today, I weighed in for the first time for Project New Me.  I not only weighed in, however, but decided to track a few different factors.  One thing I’ve noticed is that a poor nights’ sleep results in more snacking.  It’s almost as if my body is low on energy from a lack of sleep and is trying to get more energy by ingesting more calories.  So losing weight is going to likely mean no more staying up until 1am when I need to wake up at 6:30 the next morning.  I also decided to track how much time I’ve worked out.  After all, the equation for weight loss (or gain) is: Calories In – Calories Burned = Weight Change.  I can drop the calories taken in, but increasing calories burned (through exercise) can result in greater weight loss.  Exercise might also help improve my final set of numbers: the measurements of my waist, arms and thighs.  (This last one will be taken on the first weigh-in of each month since it likely won’t change much week to week.)

So what are the numbers to start?

Weight: 207 lbs

Sleep & Workout Time: N/A (since this will reflect the previous week’s averages)

Waist: 39.25 inches

Arms: 14.5 inches

Thighs: 25.5 inches

Where is this headed? What are my targets?  My only real target is my weight.  I want to get back down below 190.  Since I’m at 207 right now, I figure that I’ll shoot for 187.  This means a 20 pound weight loss target.  Since I’m going for 20 pounds, I’ll make the target time 20 weeks.  This will allow for a gradual weight loss of 1 pound per week.  (Realistically, I’ll likely lose more than that in the first few weeks, but might also plateau.)

So that’s where I am and where I hope I’m headed.  Wish me luck.  If you are participating in Project New Me as well (or are just on your own weight loss routine), I wish you luck as well.

It’s a new year and a new decade. During the last decade, one of my proudest moments (besides marrying my wonderful AngelForever or having my two fantastic kids) was losing weight. I went from 255 pounds to 175 pounds (80 pounds lost) in about 2 years’ time. I was actually called skinny by people. The first time I’ve been called that in my entire life! Since then, my weight has gone up and down quite a few times. Recently, I’ve slacked off again and my weight crept back on. Not the full amount, mind you, but enough to push me above 200 pounds again.

I was planning on recommitting to dropping those excess pounds and chronicalling my efforts on my blog. Then BuckDaddy posted about his Project New Me. I decided to join in. I plan to weigh myself every Sunday morning and post about it Monday morning. I’ll include how much weight I’ve lost (or gained), how events from the previous week contributed to my weight change and any plans for the upcoming week. Look for my first NewMe post tomorrow.

Feel free to join BuckDaddy and I in making a New You in the New Year. Simply use the #NewMe hashtag when you tweet. I wish you luck with all of your plans in 2010, whether they be for weight loss or something else.

With 2009 ending and 2010 arriving, I decided to take a look back at how my life changed during the decade. Now, I want to hear from you. My Aloha Friday questions are: How has your life changed during the previous decade? What are you looking forward to in the coming decade?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #20