Justin Timberlake cracks me up

All,

This is the "g" rated version but this had me in tears the first time I ever watched it.  Let me know what you think.  This skit is one of the best ever on SNL or Saturday Night Live.  Enjoy!

Happy Easter! Vegas, Boston, Tampa, baby news and my 1st bike race

It has been awhile since I have really sat down and typed.  I think that may have of been underestimating the work that it takes to get ready for the boy.  I will say that between the both of us working, the dogs, home projects and the like, we have been really busy.

We went to Las Vegas about a month ago for a close friends of ours 30th birthday party.  It was a great time for the both of us.  A much needed break and we just relaxed.  We were there from friday thru sunday.  Taunya bought her much wanted diaper bag and I got a shirt and hat.  Not just any hat, a Kangol.  Fun, Fun, Fun.

The last two weeks I have been traveling for work.  The first week I was in Boston and the last week I was in Tampa.  Boston is a great town and I really like it.  It was around 44 degrees so it was not too bad compared to the 23 degree's it was the last time I was there.  Other than work, one of the cooler things that we did was go to a Boston Bruins hockey game.  It was fun and exciting to actually watch professional hockey.  Something to note on the way back was that I sat next to a woman who had two kids.  One was 15 months old and the other was 4.  It did not bother me at all,

 but I gave her a hand with alot of things. I was helping her so much that people were asking me how old my kids were.  When I replied "I have one on the way, but these are not mine" they seemed amazed that I was not annoyed with all of the noise.  Well the truth is that the kid screaming the entire 4.5 hours of the flight was annoying and almost drove me nuts, they are kids.  They really do not know what is going on and quite honestly the poor woman was doing everything to try to keep them quiet.  She was extremely thankful when we got off the plane, but I felt its was the least I could do.  The funny thing is that we never exchanged names at all.  It was not really necessary I guess.

That same weekend Taunya's parents and came down to visit and give us some help putting up wainscoting in the babies room.  Man, what a task.  I can say that between the nail gun, the mitre saw and tape measure I thought I was going to lose my mind.  Frank and I (my father inlaw) began on Friday afternoon and finished around 9pm on saturday night.  I was so tired the day after I could of slept almost the whole day.  Overall it looks really good but I spent sunday morning and pretty much all day cleaning up

.  

The following monday I took off to Tampa, FL for guess what?  More meetings.  I had some delays in Denver flying United and I ended up getting into Tampa much later than I had planned.  It was really no big deal.  I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel which was nice and had a great view of the city.  After being there for 3 days, I headed back home.  The flight was uneventful which is always good, but it was extremely packed coming from Denver to San Diego.  The plan was full of spring breakers!  My next trip is the second week of April that will put me in San Jose.  Its going to be a long one..ugh.

Everything is coming along fine with the baby these days.  Taunya is getting bigger and sleeping and overall moving around is getting tough for her.  She is still working and will probably work right up until the baby is born.  She is probably going to take off the following 3-4 months after the baby is born and then go back to work.  Working is essential for Taunya as she really enjoys what she does and her co-workers.  There is a woman in our complex that lives about 5 doors down who does daycare.  We have known here since we moved in here and she comes highly recommended from others.  Well we really lucked out because she has an opening for us!  So the plan is that Taunya will stay home long enough for her to have an opening and then we will shift over to using her.  Childcare is expensive let me tell you from some of the research that we have done.  I can understand why some people just choose to continue to stay home.  When you do the math, it can really make sense to stay home.  About 3 weeks ago we had the whole house painted.  I was going to take on the task, but between work and travel and everything it just was too much.  The colors are dark and light with some accent walls around the house.  This is just one more thing to check off of the list.

Finally, I did a bike race about a month ago as well and it was really really fun.  At first I was not really sure how much I was going to like it, but after we got rolling I really enjoyed it.  It was a 26 mile race and I started out in the middle of the pack.  I went by myself and met a neighbor up there.  The race was held on Camp Pendleton which is a Marine base here in town.  The course was somewhat hilly.  I finished the race in 1:21.  This is an average of just over 19 miles per hour.  In racing, this is quick.  Its not really too fast, but I felt I did well.  I could of done much faster had I not been dropped from the main pack.  I was fighting the entire time to catch up at times, but with the wind right in my face I had to do almost double the work.  Bike races are all about strategy.  Its all about staying with the Peloton and then at the last minute breaking away and heading for the finish line.  I was pretty much unaware of this.  

What I decided to do was to just go as hard as I can for the last 10 miles. The first 16 miles were somewhat hilly, but had a staged climb in there as well.  Hills and climbing are my strong point.  I passed a lot of guys going up the hill which was fun.  After climbing the hill there was a fast downhill.  I tucked down and peddled down.  I reached 45.2 mph!  Wooo Hooo!  I then began my attack to the finish passing a lot of people again.  I was happy, but I noticed that I had like 5 guys all drafting behind me!  I pulled a little off to the right in order to have them switch and let them break the wind for awhile.  Well guess what?  None of them would come up and take the lead.  This made me really mad, so I decided I would dig deep and try to drop them.  So I stood up and really started driving.  I dropped them but then I noticed that others caught up.  So if you can picture this, I was riding in the front of the pack with a line of about 5 guys behind me all in line.  I kept looking down to see how close the guys were behind me and could only see one tire.  Some guy yelled.."you have power".  Rather than get happy, I just got more mad.  I again slammed the quads and hammis and tried to drop them.  Again, no luck.  As we came close to the finish line, I began to sprint it out and head toward the finish line.  I crossed and was pretty much really tired and my legs felt like butter.  After the race about 5 random guys came up and said "nice pull".  This is the way that someone who sat in your draft the whole race says thank you.  I did not say thanks but more like "your welcome".  Next time, I won't be so nice.

New site with great video technology

Hey everyone,

I just thought I would pass this video on. The skit is funny but one thing that you should note is the quality of the video. Its better than HD. Pretty funny stuff out of this guy. If you have not seen the movie "Superbad", I would reccomend it. It's hilarious. You can find alot of these videos at http://www.hulu.com/ . More updates about the baby and the last 3 weeks later.

45 days of a new diet...I am sticking to it

Hey everyone,

30 days ago I switched to a somewhat vegitarian diet. I was inspired by an article that I read on plane returning home from a business trip. The article, was in the Wall Street Journal and it was titled "The 247 lb. Vegan*". As I read on, the story was about Tony Gonzalez. Tony plays football in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs. He also played high school football here in San Diego at the same time I did. I guess I felt some connection on that basis, but more of the one on the issue of weight and overall health.  Click on the title of the post and it will take you to the article

If you look at the title of the article, you will see an asterisk.  It is due to the fact that he mixes in some chicken and some fish.  It is essential to make sure that are getting some form of protein.  I have been having things like tofu and some beans to make sure I am getting enough.  I am also mixing in some chicken and fish.  As of today, I have only had red meat 3 times.  Not that I had an urge for it, but I was literally pinned in a corner and had to eat it as the only option.  

Why am I doing this?  For the most part, I am trying to really lean down for the following reasons; 

1. The baby is coming and I want to make sure that I am in good health.  Not that I am not in good health now, but there is always room for improvement when it comes to making food choices.  
2. I wanted to help Taunya out more and start cooking more.  With the baby coming and all,  I wanted to give her one less thing do to.  Plus with me cooking more it forces me to learn how to make more vegetarian choices.
3. Race schedule.  Triathlon season starts this month.  I am curious to see how I will do making the switch.  After 45 days into it, I am slimming down already.  
4. Why not?  I started this thing saying to myself lets be realistic right?  So I began doing it slowly.  When going out to dinner or lunch, I started just ordering the vegetarian option.  For example, at work they ordered food for us due to an all day meeting.  I ordered the veggie sandwich.  When I got it, I thought it was the best thing I had ever had.  I must admit, I was leery about the whole thing but I just went for it.
5. It's a great long term health plan!

Now that you know why, here is how I am doing it.  As I mentioned earlier, I am just merely trying to eat better.  I like to take it meal by meal.  That is how I started and now its become habit. I am eating more fish and last night I went to sushi.  That is okay.  It helps me get my protein and I really like sushi anyway so it works.  I have come the realization that eating vegetables and other non-meat items is not really hard.  What is the really hard part, is trying to find vegetarian options.  This is the HARDEST part.  This forces you to cook more and look for more healthy places to eat over all.  Since I have been doing the veggie thing I have had to learn about more spices and stuff as a way to help increase the tastes of some dishes that I make.  This has been a struggle, but when its all over, I do not feel stuffed or hungry.  Its a weird feeling, but I am addicted to it.  

On another note, I did go thru a period of breaking out.  I have done some research online and this may be a result of my body "cleansing" itself of some of the processed products that may have been in my body.  It has pretty much gone away, but it made me think about what I WAS eating. 

Finally I also cut out soda as well.  I did this kind of at the same time and I have been doing well.  I just either have water or iced tea.  

If you have any questions or comments, please send me an email.  Remember, If I can do it, you can do it.  After all, my father is a butcher.