Last week I gained weight (though just half a pound) and said that you needed to persevere through these dry spells.   Keep your weight loss routine up and you’ll soon see the numbers begin moving down again, I said.  Sure enough, this week saw two more pounds flee my body.  I’m now down 13 pounds since I started this seven weeks ago.  That’s almost two pounds per week on average.  At this rate, I should be in the 180’s by the time we go to Disney World!

On Saturday, we went to B’s parents’ house for dinner.  This is nice as we get to see them, the boys get to play, I get the day off from cooking dinner.  However, there are problems.  For some reason, my willpower drops when I’m at my in-laws’ house and I tend to eat a lot more than I should.  They also are not on the same diet we are on so I worried that the food they served would be high in points for us.

The latter issue was easily resolved.  They used a frozen, pre-made chicken product that turned out to be surprisingly low in points.  They also didn’t serve us the usual high-point fare of rice or bread.  Instead, I helped out by sautéing some bagged vegetables with dried onion and minced garlic (bottled).

SIDE NOTE: While a “true chef” might recoil in horror at the mention of bagged or frozen produce, dried onion flakes or bottled minced garlic, I find them to be essentials.  I don’t have time to mince my own garlic (and clean up the mess) or keep a stock of onions to chop.  While I do like using some fresh veggies, sometimes a quick frozen bag in the microwave (or in the frying pan) is in order.  It gives me a quick and healthy side dish with little to no cleanup.  Very handy for the healthy parent/cook!

All in all, our dinner was 13 points including a salad, the aforementioned chicken and veggies, strawberries and even a few small cookies as an after-dinner indulgence.  Not bad at all.  It just goes to show that you can eat out while trying to stay healthy.  It just takes a little planning before hand.

While I was sitting on the couch, trying to figure out a topic to write about for Aloha Friday, I heard crying coming from the boys’ room.  We rushed in to see NHL sitting up and asking to go home.  That cry is the sign that he’s been having a bad dream.  We reassured him that it was a nightmare.  I sat by his bed hugging him while he fell back to sleep.

As I sat there, I began thinking about dreams.  I’ve had my share of good and bad dreams.  Back in high school, I had a recurring dream where my eyes were closed.  I could hear people talking in the distance and wanted to join them.  To do that, I needed to open my eyes.  No matter how hard I tried, though, my eyes wouldn’t open.  (I wrote about this before in my My Bullied History series.)

Another dream I’ve had semi-regularly is one in which I discover that I can defy gravity.  I simply decide to move off the ground and suddenly I’m floating.  I can move effortlessly across the landscape at speeds that I couldn’t ever hope to achieve by walking or running.  Floating/flying seems so natural that I begin to wonder why I didn’t realize that I could do this before.  Of course, then I wake up and find myself still bound by the laws of gravity.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever had a recurring bad (or good) dream?

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 McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #76

“Sit Down.” “Clean Up Your Toys.” “Don’t Hit Your Brother/Sister.” “Don’t Put That There!” “How many times do I need to tell you…”

As most parents can attest, parenting can be a repetitive task.  You instruct your children to do something but, when the same situation arises soon afterwards, they don’t remember your instructions.  Instead, you need to repeat yourself.  Over and over again.

Every night for dinner, we go through the same routine.  I serve everyone their food and notice NHL is standing while eating.  He, apparently, hasn’t heard of this remarkable device that’s been invented recently called a chair.  He also doesn’t notice one right next to him.

“Sit down.” I tell him.  So he sits… with his legs pointing to the side.  This means that I can trip over his legs as I walk past and he isn’t facing the table.  The latter means crumbs on the rug.

“Put your feet facing forward,” I say.  So he complies.  Then he picks up a piece of food and eats it right over his lap.  I envision food falling down, missing his plate and the table and hitting his pants, the chair, the rug.

“Eat over the table,” I instruct.  So he does.  Until the next meal when we begin the cycle all over again.

I’ve joked about getting a sign made (and laminated) that I can just hold up.  After all, if I’m going to say the same thing over and over again, I’d like to spare my poor vocal cords.  I’ve even mocked up a sample.

During a Twitter conversation with slpowell, I mentioned this sign idea.  Then, re-reading slpowell’s original tweet that mentioned a “digital voice recorder”, I was struck by inspiration.  Instead of a printed sign (which is bulky and can only say one thing), how about one of those Staples Easy Buttons?  They only cost $5.50 at Staples and I recalled seeing instructions online as to how to hack them.

Of course, those required more work (and purchasing tools such as a Dremel) than I was willing to put into the project.  So I did the next thing that came to mind: Searched the web to see if anyone else was selling these.  Turns out, people are.  Here’s one shop that sells them for under $4.  (Shipping seems to be a flat rate of about $6.50 to me.)

Another intriguing option was this site that sells the buttons with the option of branding them.  As a bonus, this button comes with a strap (which can be used to hang the device in plain sight and yet out of the reach of little hands).  These cost $5 each.

I’m tempted to order a bunch with a “Parent Vocal Saver” logo on them and sell them online.  Would you buy such a device?

Last night, we took the boys to a hockey game.  This wasn’t their first hockey game, but it did contain a lot of firsts and favorite moments.  Of course, the main “first” was that this wasn’t an Albany River Rats game.  The team name changed when the New Jersey Devils returned.  Our team is now the Albany Devils.

This also means we have a new Mascot.  Instead of Rowdy the Rat, we now have the Devil Dawg.  I must admit that I thought this character looked a bit freaky when photos were first released.  Luckily, it looks less scary in person.  The boys headed right to him as B went to buy tickets and then loved spotting him where ever he appeared during the game.

As we watched the players practice, one of the players flipped a puck over the glass.  I didn’t spot it at first, but NHL did.  He and another boy shot off after the puck.  NHL had luck on his side and the puck bounced so that NHL was able to grab it first.  His first hockey puck!

After that came an old favorite of JSL’s: The zamboni.  He loves seeing them go around and smooth out the ice.  I’m convinced that he would drag us to an “ice show” that consisted of nothing but zambonis driving around for 30 minutes.

The hockey game commenced and NHL was into the game, yet distracted.  He had heard that Dora would be at the game and he was determined to see her.  We ended the first period down 0-1 and I figured out where Dora would be.  Off we went.  Of course, the line was outrageously long.  I let the boys wait on line and told them that we might not get to see her.  After all, there are only 20 minutes between periods and the line was huge.  Slowly, the line shortened and we inched closer.  The boys got excited as they caught glimpses of the famous Spanish-speaking explorer.

Finally, we were there.  The boys received a Dora autograph and coloring page.  Then, they got to see Dora.

Well, NHL did.  JSL refused to go near her.  I wasn’t about to let that much waiting time result in no JSL photo with Dora though.  I handed the camera to B, scooped up JSL, and walked up to Dora.

Perfect shot!  The boys were so happy at seeing Dora.  (Skipping to later on, we turned on the TV when we got home and who do you think was on?  DORA!)

Back to the hockey game we went.  This was turning into a real nail-biter.  We went from being down by 1 to being up by 2 to being tied.  The tie game turned into overtime.  The overtime turned into a shootout.  This was a first for both my boys and for me.  I’ve seen hockey games won and lost during regular play and overtime, but have never seen a shootout first hand.

We all cheered as our player rushed the opposing goal and jeered when the opponents rushed ours.  One of the Albany Devils got a goal in and everyone cheered.  The rest of the players (both ours and theirs) were being blocked.  NHL could hardly stay in his seat.  He was so excited.  The last opposing player was up and we were on the edge of our seat.  He approached the goal and… DENIED!  The arena (minus a few opposing team fans who had journeyed to support their team) exploded into cheering.  NHL and JSL were right there with them.

We got back home, stopping to pick up McDonald’s along the way as a special treat, and the boys were still loving their day out.  There was so much that they loved about the night and so much excitement.  They agreed with us that this was something we had to do again.

This week was a first in this 20 pounds in 20 weeks challenge: I gained weight.  Not much, mind you.  Just a half a pound.  It was still a bit disconcerting to see the scale numbers go up.  I didn’t do anything too out of the ordinary last week.  Not giant points splurges to speak of.

Even if this “setback” were larger or if this spans a few weeks without weight loss, the key thing to remember is that you can’t let it get to you.  In my experience, a body undergoing weight loss will often reach a plateau.  At this point, many people will get discouraged.  They will notice that they are depriving themselves and nothing is being reflected on the scale.  It is here that the danger of falling off the wagon lurks.

When you reach a plateau during weight loss, just ignore it.  Your body needs a week (maybe two, maybe three) to readjust before the weight loss begins again.  Keep your weight loss routine up and you’ll soon see the numbers begin moving down again.

I’ve written before about our snow problems.  Chief among them are ice dams.  Basically, due to poor insulation in our upstairs room, heat warms our upper roof and snow on that roof melts.  The dripping water refreezes on the lower roof.  Over time, the ice gets very thick and very heavy.  We tried various methods of removing the ice, but had only limited success.

With the recent warm weather, we noticed two things.  First of all, the ice was melting and thus was separating from the roof.  Secondly, the gutter on one side of our house was bending.  Obviously, the ice was shifting.  Instead of putting its considerable weight on our roof, it was placing the weight on the gutter.  I decided to remove the ice dams before any serious damage was done.

I positioned a ladder and carefully scaled it.  Once at the top, I used a hammer to chip away at the ice.  Small chunks flew from the giant ice block.  (Fast moving, but small chunks of ice really hurt when they hit your face, by the way.)  Then some big chunks fell off.  I descended the ladder to reposition it so I could reach more of the ice.  As I stepped off the ladder, there was a creaking/ripping sound.  Suddenly, the ice came crashing down, bringing our gutters with it.

Here are some photos of the aftermath.  That hunk of ice was *heavy*!

With the ice down, inspiration struck.  Here’s my own little creation.  I call it Ice Henge.  I shall pray to it in the hopes that Spring arrives quickly and gets rid of all of this snow and ice.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Has your house ever been damaged by the winter (or other seasonal) weather?

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 McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #75

For Valentine’s Day, we got the boys some lollipops.  (Of course, by “we”, I mean B.  She’s the one who found and purchased them.)  Of course, these weren’t ordinary lollipops, but heart shaped ones on ring “sticks.”  I took the opportunity to whip out my DSLR and get a few photos.  (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

I love how blue JSL’s eyes are in this shot.  The DSLR picks that up so nicely.

NHL is always looking away from the camera for some reason.  I think the TV might have been on.  Also, he seems to have inherited my hair in at least one respect.  When I need a haircut, my hair refuses to obey any commands of mine and simply does whatever it wants to do.

I love the depth of field in this shot.  That and the wonderful smile hiding behind that lollipop.

It’s times like this that I love that we live in the age of digital photography.  These moments are now captured and stored for years to come.  When our boys are grown, we can go back and relive these moments over and over again.

View Epcot World Tour in a larger map

One of my great pleasures in life (besides my wife and kids) are comic strips.  I’ve been reading comic strips for as long as I can remember.  I used to get the paper as soon as I could, tear it apart until I could find the Funnies and pour over Peanuts, consume Calvin and Hobbes and get freaked out by the Far Side.  As the Internet took off, I sought out my favorite comic strips online.  At first, the pickings were slim but little by little the comics came online.

Then, I noticed something interesting.  Not only were the comics I knew and loved online, but a lot of other comics were online as well.  Comics with no large syndicates backing them were sprouting up left and right.  Some might have spoken to a niche, some might not have fit into your average newspaper and some were just too out there for the comics page.  Not all of them were good, of course, but many of them were.

I began following a lot of comics.  One of the newest ones that I’ve followed is called Noodle Knobs.  It features a mom, dad and a kid nicknamed “Noodle Knobs.”  Here’s the twist: The characters in the comic strip aren’t fictional.  In fact, the family is quite real.  The artist is the father (known on the site as The Daddy).  In addition to comics, NoodleKnobs also features a blog where The Mommy and The Daddy discuss (separately or together) various topics ranging from illness to kids toys to nicknames.

But today’s NoodleKnobs has a special place in my heart.  Why?  Because my boys and I are in it!  Yes, NoodleKnobs put out the call for parents to guest blog about their own NoodleKnobs.  I answered and that guest post runs today, along with a comic that The Daddy drew.  The teaser above is a shot of JSL meant to whet your appetite.  Is it whetted yet?  Then head on over to NoodleKnobs.com to read my guest post and see the full comic!