Day 2 of VS Live in SF

Ok.. I have been officially informed.. I have to refer to San Francisco as SF and not SFO! I won't make that mistake again. I was officially told that SFO is just the airport and that only! So much for listening to my Sister the travel agent who refers to San Francisco as SFO!

Last night was relatively quiet. The meal was at a sub shop and a atkins bar for desert. Definitely a budget meal. I must say it was good though Joey and I went off to crate and barrel and I bought one of those fancy pastry brushes that won't degrade in the dishwasher.. Woo hoo!
From there we went to the Marriot hotel across the street from ours to check out the gym. I may use it this afternoon while one of the sessions is on I am not keenly interested in.

I did hear from my good friend David.. He was in Switzerland of all places and got back last night. He has turned into such a globe trotter!

Day 1-VSLive

Well, today was day 1 and it all started off with a summarily from the marketing manager from Microsoft. I have seen him before at this conference and his style wasn't new to come. They have a few new additions to their products to make developers more efficient in their work. I am at times quite interested in the information and 10 minutes later I could just fall asleep!

I have been toying with working on a best cost feed formulation software on this new software but it intimidates me on how to start such a project. What I worry about is not working on it enough to make it fly.

Yesterday Joey and I did the Alcatraz tour and saw the former prison. It was a lot more informative this time around than when I was there last. We were at fisherman's wharf also for a couple of hours and had some sea food which was excellent. From there we took the cable card back over the hill south down to Market street. On the way we stopped at the cable car museum which was so interesting. The thing that impressed me is City council at one time in the 50's was going to get rid of the rail car system because of costs associated with maintaining it. A lady who's name escapes me now felt that the car system in San Francisco was part of what made the city unique. She felt it was the signature of San Francisco and wanted to have the cars preserved. She was successful at having the cable car system on the municipal ballot during the next city wide election. The city at that time and still does, feel it is worthy of keeping the cable cars working. They system has all been updated over the years and I believe it will likely be here for years to come.

Joey and I went for dinner last night at a restaurant on Market Street called 2223. The unique thing about the restaurant is the street number is just the name of the restaurant. We have actually been to this restaurant last year and returned. The menu changes every day so the experience isn't the same every time we have gone. I really really like the food here and the presentation is excellent. I find the restaurant a bit noisy but the quality of the food and the service is well worth it.

We also went to the Imax flick called Roving Mars. It is an hour long and the film was well done. I didn't realize that there were two rovers sent to Mars in such quick succession. If a person is in SFO and wants to go to see a film at Imax I would recommend this flick there.

We also are veterans on riding the muni in SFO. The system sure runs cars often. Even on Sundays. I would not own a car If I lived here I am sure.

I called one of my old friends David Lindley and have not heard from him at all yet. I fired off an email to him and called 3 times. I guess it is his turn to call back now if he is in town. I suspect he is out of town and not home. It would be good to see him and I think Joey would like him as well.

San Francisco-VSLive

Well yesterday was on a plane all day. Atleast we had spock(tablet PC) to watch a movie on the way. Joey had bought the SeaQuest DSV disks and we watched three episodes on the plane on the way to SFO from DFW. It sure helped pass the time.

I was so hungry when we got here. We went out to get a bite to eat and then a movie. I of course ate too much popcorn and blew my size reducing diet all to hell. I am all plugged yet so hopefully the coffee from this morning will help recitify that situation!!!

I think since today we are not in conference today( VS Live) we might go see the Avenue of the Trees.

Hectic Day Coming

Well I have alot to get done today if I am going to be satisfied with things.
1. Go to Post Office and mail parcels.
2. Re-stain the vanity in the bathroom I sanded down and stained once yesterday
3. Mud the sheet rock in the bathroom because the wall paper took some of the sheet rock paper off. Damn people who built this house didn't prime the walls first. Bastards!
4. Once Stain is dry apply polyurethane coat to wood .
6. Get the wash done
7. Go to Lowes for dust masks.
8. Go to lunch.
9. Go to the gym tonight
10. Pack our bags to head off to SFO at 8 am tommorrow morning.

If I have time I will take pictures of the bathroom in progress.

Work, Work Work ya know! Gotta Go!

Wall Paper!

Well yesterday afternoon and today until 12:30 I was poking away at the wall paper in the bathroom downstairs. It is the ugliest paisley wall paper I have ever set my sorry eyes on. The problem with it was three fold.

1. It was starting to peal away from the walls where the moisture from the shower and needed to be removed.

2. It was not hung on a primed wall so the stuff really stuck to the sheet rock and tore off the paper in places off of the sheet rock. Now I have to float the wall in places to make it pretty again! Grrrrrrrrr..

3. It is the ugliest stuff I can imagine. The decorator had thier head up thier ass when they put that paper down!

We also called a company to come take a look at placing a new vanity top in the bathroom here. I think it will be some shade of Granite so I hope it will look nice. We have samples to look at to see what would go there.. I think Joey will pick a lighter color than I would but you never know.

UnderWorld Evolution was good!

Well since we bought the first Underworld DVD and watched it, it was only natural we go see the new one which was Underworld Evolution. It followed on from the first movie and was excellent. John, Joey and Myself went on Saturday night.

I also go my feet selling some stuff on ebay. Sold a Universal gym that wasn't being used in the bedroom. It seems I can motivate myself to work out at the gym but not at home so the machine was sold. Got 75 bucks for it so I think it was a good deal for a machine such as that even if the new ones are well over 200 dollars. Also Joey had some Bose Satellite speaker brackets that go on the wall I think sold too cheap but they went. The used ones I listed last night and I will see how they sell.

Next week we go to San Francisco to a conference for a week. I will have more information to post when we are there. I hope to see a few old friends there and just take it easy. We are going to a programmers conference there called VS Live.

Movie Day!

Got up this morning and went to the gym by 8:30. It was my first true day at a step class for cardio. I am bored with the treadmill and the elliptical trainer. The class got my heart rate up so I think it did the trick.

After that headed off to Costco for new heads for my tooth brush. As always I go there and leave with more than what I intended to leave with.

The movie Joey bought at Costco was Underworld which is a Sci Fi. The new sequel to that movie is in theatres now. We wanted to go see the new one which is in theatres now and called Underworld Evolution. It should be good as I liked the other one before it. Saw the trailers and if there isn't guns and bombs going off, I can't seem to drag Joey with me! I wonder why he went to see Brokeback Mountain( Only because I pushed, pulled and dragged him! ha ha ha).

Was thinking about the time we were in Hawaii again. God I had a good time there this winter. I wish I could have spent more time on the beach and snorkling.

Cardio at the Gym

This morning I decided to do one of those step classes at the gym. I got there on time to start the class and I got to the gym room and I only saw women. I asked if men could do this class and one of the ladies said yes. I got my step and risers for the class and found a spot. The instructor said you sure you want to be in this class to me as it is an advanced class. I said yes thinking that it can't be all that hard! Well I was sadly mistaken. It wasn't as easy as it looked. I then stuck it out for 15 min of the hour long class and packed it in. I then went into the gym and worked out on my own. I know there is a begginners class on Saturday mornings so I might try that and see how it goes as it is sure alot easier to to cardio than on one of the machines this way. I guess the best thing is I have dropped 5 lbs in the last week. I have been logging my diet and increasing my exercise. Hell if those people on TV can be the biggest looser, why can't I? My goal by April is 195 lbs which would be a good weight for me. At that point I should be about 9-1% body fat at the most which is very good as I have not been that low since I was a kid!

Somethings are just Important to me!

Why is it that we get so attached to our pets. They seem to just take hold of our feelings and provide us with such power and emotion. He is the greatest companion too. Don't tell Joey I said that! Ha ha.. I told Joey, " Rocky comes with the package, take it or leave it!"

I was reading someone else's blog just now and he was telling everyone about a little shit ass dog. Hell, get a real dog boys! Joey calls my dog neurotic but Rocky is just a border collie who knows what he wants. Incidently, he was at my Parents house when these pictures were taken. He is not allowed in two places in their house: 1) Living room and look where he is and she is standing right there. Ha ha ha. If mom only knew!!!! 2) On the beds and look where he is again! I guess he knows what is more comfortable. Got ya again Mom!

His dinner consists of Dry dog food and a slice of beef liver every day. I don't even think he tastes the liver as it just "slides" down according to my father!

Today I am going with a friend to Memphis. He had eye cancer a couple of years ago and is now in remission. I offered to go along as Memphis which is about a 3 hr drive from here. They put drops in his eyes to dialate them and I don't think he should be driving on the way home after that. I offered yesterday on his birthday and he called last night to see if I wanted to go with him. I am happy to do it. He always drives us to the Airport when we are off jetsetting somewhere so it is only fair I reckon.

Ok.. Do I really want to

Ok.. do I really want to do this over a perfectly good canyon!?? 

See, I am a Farmer!

 

Me in Hawaii..

 

Turning a new leaf.

Well it is about time I guess, I decided to drop the last bit of weight I hve wanted to for about 4 years now. I was originally about 265 lbs on a 5'11" frame which was too much. I think at one time I might of been heavier, maybe about 5 lbs.
I had a good friend of mine from New Jersey tell me about Atkins. I followed the program and dropped my weight to about 240 which was good in my books. I was growing out of a 38" waist wrangler jean into a 40. In my defense, I was doing an MBA and working full time. I would get upin the morning, go to work and be back home by 5 pm if I could. I got no exercise during the week and on the week end I would just play catchup on home work. Plus while studying, I would graze the refrigerator constantly. No wonder I ballooned to that weight. I should try and find some pics from those days.

This last December Joey and I went to Hawaii with some good friends, and I gained wieght like crazy. My 36" jeans were getting too tight to wear. To think last spring I was wearing his 34" levis and loving it! So I started back at the gym and took the Boot Camp sessions. I did the boot camp from the beginning of November to just this past week and didn't loose any weight. I got stronger but the weight stayed. Therefore, I decided that is enough. I am now back at the gym doing atleast 30 min of cardio every day of the week except on week ends. Also I bought a program to monitor my food intake and exercise. It really keeps me honest and it seems to be working. I have decided that I can stick to a strict diet of about 1500 calories a day and do exercise for 2.5 months. Hell if those fatty's on TV can loose all that weight in that same time period, why can't I???

This past week end Joey and I went to Nashville to see BrokeBack Mountain. You know the cowboy dick flick that won all the Golden Globe awards. It sure made me think about my life and I thoughouly enjoyed the show and what it made me feel. Joey on the other hand said " I think they both got what they deserved". I suppose not everyone in this world was as driven as he was to find a partner(Of which I am that lucky person). I think the story line was just as true for most people now days as it was back then.. None the less, I want to buy a copy of that movie when it comes out. I have a notification on Amazon to ship one to me as soon as it comes out.

Those are my random thoughts for my first blog entry.