Um, Nevermind.

So the no carb thing...a horrible idea. Miserable, high fat, cranky me, AND I didn't lose any weight. However, it was enough suffering to make me more willing to be patient. I have started modifying and adding to my weight routine, and I'm also about to shake up my cardio. Hopefully this will get the ball rolling again.

A New Plan

Photos from Halloween, while inspiring compared to old pics, were the motivation I needed to kick start the next phase of my weight loss plan. I became instantly impatient to lose the next 20 pounds (I suspect I need to lose 30). How to do it? his caused me to think of something Chris had said a while back, about when he went on a fiercely low-carb diet for 3 weeks and lost 20 pounds. And I got to thinking, "20 pounds! I could make it 3 weeks, a month." So it officially began yesterday, although I was pretty good on Monday, and today I am officially miserable. I have foregone donuts on two occasions, and basically avoided anything like bread, crackers, potatoes, most fruits and vegetables...it's rough to be me. Chris says this will pass after the first week, and I figure that if it works it will definitely be worth it, so I have to stick it out for at least a week to see if it is working. But I really, really, REALLY want some carbs!

Back on the Wagon

I finally joined a gym to help get me on the descent again and it appears to be working. The gym is outrageously expensive but they provide "free" consultations to create weight lifting routines and test your cardio fitness to determine your personal target heart rate. I lost around 2 pounds last week, 4 if you count the morning after my alcohol induced dehydrated stupor, but now that I am rehydrated, I'll go with 2. This has left me quite motivated to work extra hard this week and not overeat. Wish me luck!

Please Donate!

Several of my good friends are fighting for the right to be able to do what you and I have always been allowed to do - formally commit to the people we love. However, there are many that want to permanently take that right away by changing the California Constitution, a step that cannot realistically be undone, even if society comes to view it as a mistake down the road. Those in favor of Prop 8, which would formally define marriage as between a man and a woman in the California Constitution, have raised $ 15 million dollars to fill the airwaves and TV stations with hate propaganda in the remaining weeks before the election. The No on 8 campaign needs our help! Please click the link on the left side of this page (under the favorite charities heading)and donate what you can, even $5. Every bit helps. It's time we treated everyone equally!

Milestones

Well, there is only one day left of the Bar Exam and then I will enter lawyer purgatory until late November when our scores come out. I will be neither a lawyer nor a law student until then, but the hard part will be done.

In other exciting news, I have ridden over 200 miles on my bike this month!!! I am actually more excited about this than the end of law school. My legs are looking more toned even though I haven't really lost any more weight. But I am at a lovely 154 which still feels monumental to me, so I will take it for what it is.

Saturday it's off to Canada for a few days and then, on the 11th I start working. Ahhhhhh!

It's Official

I am not meant to be a runner. Despite the fact that it is a great way to burn calories fast and the ideal way to do intervals, I must give up jogging. Yesterday I had a major blow-out on the treadmill, shooting pain in my butt-cheek and much limping. Now I have sciatic pain and couldn't hardly sleep last night. I have taken Advil, iced it, stretched, icy-hot patched it, and more and I still feel pretty sore. Not to mention that I still suck at running and don't appear to be getting fitter or faster in this discipline. Cycling makes my arms, neck, and back sore, but it's nothing like running, and I even seem to be getting better at cycling, making it worth the pain and suffering. Maybe if they come up with the Tour de France for runners to motivate me I'll try again, but for now, I am done with jogging. It sucks and I hate it!

Also official is that I am freaking out about the written portion of the Bar. I am a rockstar when it comes to the multiple choice section, but the written parts are going to kill me. I just completely blanked on a Con law answer, which has motivated me to re-check whether it is likely to be on the exam. I really need Torts and Con Law to be left off. God, are you listening? No torts or Con Law, OK?

800 Calorie Burrito

Mmmm, Burrito. I just ate Le Burrito in honor of the Garmin-Chipotle team. It was 800 calories without guacamole so I probably won't do this too many times, but I did just ride 25 miles!!! That's the furthest I've ever ridden and I did 22 miles on Monday, so I am feeling pretty awesome. My heartrate calculator said I burned 1054 calories. My average speed was 13.4 mph. I am wasted, but all my stress is gone. Now we're watching Le Tour before I go to bed to prepare mentally for my 6 hour practice test tomorrow. Yuck. I hope I do well.

Panic!

The Bar panic has hit. Stephanie and I went to the beach house for the fourth. We stayed three days and did absolutely no work, which was great except when we got back people were taking about how they only did 12 practice essays over the break. Seriously?! Twelve essays?! Holy crap, are we behind. We continue to work less hard than everyone else, and now that we have 3 hours of Le Tour to watch every day, this is apt to stay true. I definitely do not feel ready for the essays or the performance tests, but I can tell I am getting more familiar with the law and better and writing he answers. I also can't help but feel that we are studying smarter than a lot of people. Yesterday, none of the "too busy t do anything fun" people even showed up to the mock exam. It was six hours of hell, particularly when the AC went off for two hours and the room was sweltering, but I thought, "This could happen on game-day, and I won't be able to leave, so I better keep working." I felt like a total freakin' moron by the end and was confident I would fail. To recover, Stephanie and I watched 6 hours of TV. If it hadn't been 108 degrees outside, I would have gone for a long bike ride. I felt awful!

Today I went over the answers and discovered that I did worse than I thought in some areas, and better than I thought in others I could see what I need to work on, where I wasted my time during the performance test, and why I had so much time left over after the essays. I am starting to narrow in on where I go wrong so I can fix it. In addition, that's three more essays I have done, and one more PT test. Perhaps most importantly, fear is very motivating, so I have reason to persevere.

As for my weight loss and fitness goals, I made some progress before the fourth and got myself down below 155, but the Fourth brought me back and now I am hovering around 155. I think I may be retaining water because I have been scarfing down salty, dried seaweed as comfort food so I don't eat something more damaging. Tomorrow I hope to go for a two hour ride again, but they cause me to eat everything in sight the next day, so I am going to have to work on my recovery strategies. I have also realized that my progress is bound to be slower because my back limits the intensity I can exercise at, and also means I have to increase intensity in slower increments. Intervals are fabulous, but they wreak havoc on my back and then I can't do much for a while. The bike is becoming much more comfortable, and I can tell I am getting fitter. Now that I can ride for a longer time without everything hurting for a week, I can start upping my sped and become a respectable rider. Its getting to be pretty fun and the trail is so pretty that I look forward to going out.

I have a job lined up in August...I think. I haven't heard back from anyone, but I had the job when I left 2 weeks ago. I will be working with the American Electronics Association as a lobbyist. It's not in the education field, but they were willing to take me on with no lobbying experience, everyone at the office is great, the salary is fair given my experience in the field, plus I get to work minutes from home. I tend to think I am going to find a way to make this job work with my education goals, but even if that doesn't happen, once I learn how to lobby, understand how the legislature works, and build a reputation, I can do anything I want. Hurray!

Day 6

Yesterday I did my third set of intervals on the treadmill, and while they are wreaking havoc on my back, they appear to be the magic promised. When I started I weighed in at 155.5ish, and yesterday I weighed in at 153. Ummm, is that possible? And consider that the longest I have spent on the treadmill with a warm-up and cool-down has been 30 minutes. The treadmill says the most I have burned it 290 calories, and I don't do other exercise accept for walking the dog because the intervals work their magic during the rest period in between workouts. It's crazy cool. Yes, I have been better about eating as well, but most of this has to be the intervals. So even though my sciatica is not happy and my stomach is angry from all the Advil, even though I used a whole pack of icy-hot patches, a bunch of horse aspercream, ice packs and my heating pad, plus stretches, all just to get back to good enough to run again, it is TOTALLY worth it!

FM

I have been reading about interval training because Covert Bailey once wrote about how great they were but didn't explain them well enough for me to do them. They sound magical, really. There are programs with slogans like, "when losing 2 pounds a week is not enough." Seriously, that's pretty Hollywood. So I am going to see if I can put these tips to work and kick some weight loss butt over the nest few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Things I have learned in bar review class today:

BARF KID (general intent/malice crimes)

Battery
Arson
Rape
False Imprisonment

Kidnapping
Involuntary manslaughter
Depraved heart murder

BARKRAM (a not so memorable pneumonic for inherently dangerous felonies)

Burglary
Arson
Rape
Kidnapping
Robbery
Attempt
Mayhem

Commitment

Committed to being very strict with my eating until the Bar because I am tired of being stuck around 158. I have so many bad days that I can't afford to have all the rest just be OK. I am only eating when I am hungry, damn it, at least after 4:00, which is when all hell usually breaks loose. So far, so good. I just keep reminding myself that I can either look how I want or eat whatever I want when I want, and then the choice appears easier. The pay off is that yesterday, because I had been careful all day, when Stephanie and I splurged for delicious beer battered onion rings at a Rubicon, I only ended up at around 1700 calories for the day. Not bad, I say.

We have also started cultivating a taste for red wine because it is supposed to be very good for your heart and make you live longer. I'm not sure I am one of those longevity junkies, but I'd rather live well until I drop dead one day, and perhaps this will help. Plus, since we were drinking a glass of wine a few nights a week anyway (read tipsy Tuesday, wine Wednesday, and Thirsty Thursday), I thought I might as well cut down the sugar content. I love fruity dessert wines! Already the tannins have set to work on my taste buds, because last night we tried a merlot and it wasn't horrible. Weird.

Today, I went for a 21 mile bike ride, my furthest to date. I have also ordered a book by Lance Armstrong with a 7 week training program for beginner riders. I have been very inspired lately because I read We Might As Well Win, by Johan Bruneel, Lance's team director and friend. It was soooooo good! So today I completely ignored my speed and just worked on keeping my cadence high (too bad my computer doesn't measure that) and made sure I didn't let my heart rate get too high or my legs too tired. I stayed down on the hoods most of the ride and worked hard to give my poor shoulder a break. I lean on my arms way too much with my new bike, but apparently only one of them, because the other one is never in any pain at all. I'm a freak, clearly. I felt good and didn't bonk, which was very cool. Normally the last fourth of my rides are no fun at all. I think it helped that I went out around 10:00am, and it was so pretty and blue, the temp was nice, and there were tons of cyclists to inspire me. Who knows. However, when I went to jump out of the car when I got home, my quads sort of buckled, and they have done it several more times. Apparently, they are tired. So I am off to take a nap and then I have some serious outlining to do!

Exercise for the month so far:
Cycling - 3 hours, just under 40 miles
Elliptical - 2 hours 40 minutes
Walking - 13 miles
Jogging - 2.5 miles

May Successes

May was a pretty good month for me, all things considered.

Workout Total:
Walking - 35.5 miles
Elliptical - 200 minutes
Jogging - 7 miles
Cycling - 580 minutes

Despite eating everything I could get my hands on while in Las Vegas and the following week during the BBQ and Mother's Day food fest, I am back down to 157ish. Stephanie and I are continuing to eat very well, and I am diversifying by adding peanut butter to my diet. I think PB on a graham cracker is about the best damn thing in the world. You could get me to turn over American secrets to the Russians if you offered me one of those. And its a good fat that fills you up, so I don't even feel bad.

We have been studying for the Bar for nearly three weeks. We are pretty dang busy. We had all these ambitions for the days we didn't have class, and I wanted to go home all the time to see my parents. I had planned to bring my horse out, finally. I am not sure what we were thinking, because i am behind and seriously unsure when I am going to find the time to actually memorize the black letter law I am supposed to be able to spit out on the exam. The multiple choice are coming along OK, but they're just a small part of the exam, and by OK I mean I only miss 5 or 6 out of every 18 questions. It's sad, but that's actually a respectable score. I think June is going to be about lowering the bar. The best part is that we are actually not homicidal or super stressed, although we have our moments. Nearly everyone else sounds pitiful every time we talk to them, but Stephanie and I like to think we are achieving a good balance between studying hard and staying sane. We may revise this assessment when we get the Bar results back in November.

I have now ridden my new bike 3 times on the river trail and it and I are getting along better. I was even able to drike while riding yesterday (although I panicked when some people were coming in the other direction and I wasn't sure I'd be able to steer away from them and not die). Several of my fingers went numb yesterday, and a few of my toes, but I am making progress in the bodily suffering department. Stephanie and I have also started watching videos of Lance's seven Tour de France victories to warm us up for Le Tour next month. I have no idea how we are going to find time to do everything. We may have to give up sleeping.

I am also going to try getting into red wine because yet another report has come out about how good it is for you. If you know of any that don't taste like ass, please let me know.

New Bike!

Over Memorial Day weekend I got my first road bike. I nearly killed myself within 5 minutes because it is so much more sensitive than my hybrid, but I am pretty excited.

Graduation

In case you didn't know, WE GRADUATED! Bar prep course started almost immediately, however, so the celebration was short lived.

Sorry it's so long but...

The All-White Elephant in the Room

By FRANK RICH

BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.

What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.

Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.

Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements. Mr. Hagee, it’s true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”

Mr. Hagee didn’t make that claim in obscure circumstances, either. He broadcast it on one of America’s most widely heard radio programs, “Fresh Air” on NPR, back in September 2006. He reaffirmed it in a radio interview less than two weeks ago. Only after a reporter asked Mr. McCain about this Katrina homily on April 24 did the candidate brand it as “nonsense” and the preacher retract it.

Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church.

That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive “holy war” with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton. Mr. McCain instead told George Stephanopoulos two Sundays ago that while he condemns any “anti-anything” remarks by Mr. Hagee, he is still “glad to have his endorsement.”

I wonder if Mr. McCain would have given the same answer had Mr. Stephanopoulos confronted him with the graphic video of the pastor in full “Great Whore” glory. But Mr. McCain didn’t have to fear so rude a transgression. Mr. Hagee’s videos have never had the same circulation on television as Mr. Wright’s. A sonorous white preacher spouting venom just doesn’t have the telegenic zing of a theatrical black man.

Perhaps that’s why virtually no one has rebroadcast the highly relevant prototype for Mr. Wright’s fiery claim that 9/11 was America’s chickens “coming home to roost.” That would be the Sept. 13, 2001, televised exchange between Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who blamed the attacks on America’s abortionists, feminists, gays and A.C.L.U. lawyers. (Mr. Wright blamed the attacks on America’s foreign policy.) Had that video re-emerged in the frenzied cable-news rotation, Mr. McCain might have been asked to explain why he no longer calls these preachers “agents of intolerance” and chose to cozy up to Mr. Falwell by speaking at his Liberty University in 2006.

None of this is to say that two wacky white preachers make a Wright right. It is entirely fair for any voter to weigh Mr. Obama’s long relationship with his pastor in assessing his fitness for office. It is also fair to weigh Mr. Obama’s judgment in handling this personal and political crisis as it has repeatedly boiled over. But whatever that verdict, it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn’t a double standard operating here. If we’re to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates — and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them — we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick.

When Rudy Giuliani, still a viable candidate, successfully courted Pat Robertson for an endorsement last year, few replayed Mr. Robertson’s greatest past insanities. Among them is his best-selling 1991 tome, “The New World Order,” which peddled some of the same old dark conspiracy theories about “European bankers” (who just happened to be named Warburg, Schiff and Rothschild) that Mr. Farrakhan has trafficked in. Nor was Mr. Giuliani ever seriously pressed to explain why his cronies on the payroll at Giuliani Partners included a priest barred from the ministry by his Long Island diocese in 2002 following allegations of sexual abuse. Much as Mr. Wright officiated at the Obamas’ wedding, so this priest officiated at (one of) Mr. Giuliani’s. Did you even hear about it?

There is not just a double standard for black and white politicians at play in too much of the news media and political establishment, but there is also a glaring double standard for our political parties. The Clintons and Mr. Obama are always held accountable for their racial stands, as they should be, but the elephant in the room of our politics is rarely acknowledged: In the 21st century, the so-called party of Lincoln does not have a single African-American among its collective 247 senators and representatives in Washington. Yes, there are appointees like Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice, but, as we learned during the Mark Foley scandal, even gay men may hold more G.O.P. positions of power than blacks.

A near half-century after the civil rights acts of the 1960s, this is quite an achievement. Yet the holier-than-thou politicians and pundits on the right passing shrill moral judgment over every Democratic racial skirmish are almost never asked to confront or even acknowledge the racial dysfunction in their own house. In our mainstream political culture, this de facto apartheid is simply accepted as an intractable given, unworthy of notice, and just too embarrassing to mention aloud in polite Beltway company. Those who dare are instantly accused of “political correctness” or “reverse racism.”

An all-white Congressional delegation doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the legacy of race cards that have been dealt since the birth of the Southern strategy in the Nixon era. No one knows this better than Mr. McCain, whose own adopted daughter of color was the subject of a vicious smear in his party’s South Carolina primary of 2000.

This year Mr. McCain has called for a respectful (i.e., non-race-baiting) campaign and has gone so far as to criticize (ineffectually) North Carolina’s Republican Party for running a Wright-demonizing ad in that state’s current primary. Mr. McCain has been posing (awkwardly) with black people in his tour of “forgotten” America. Speaking of Katrina in New Orleans, he promised that “never again” would a federal recovery effort be botched on so grand a scale.

This is all surely sincere, and a big improvement over Mitt Romney’s dreams of his father marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Up to a point. Here, too, there’s a double standard. Mr. McCain is graded on a curve because the G.O.P. bar is set so low. But at a time when the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll shows that President Bush is an even greater drag on his popularity than Mr. Wright is on Mr. Obama’s, Mr. McCain’s New Orleans visit is more about the self-interested politics of distancing himself from Mr. Bush than the recalibration of policy.

Mr. McCain took his party’s stingier line on Katrina aid and twice opposed an independent commission to investigate the failed government response. Asked on his tour what should happen to the Ninth Ward now, he called for “a conversation” about whether anyone should “rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is.” Whatever, whenever, never mind.

For all this primary season’s obsession with the single (and declining) demographic of white working-class men in Rust Belt states, America is changing rapidly across all racial, generational and ethnic lines. The Census Bureau announced last week that half the country’s population growth since 2000 is due to Hispanics, another group understandably alienated from the G.O.P.

Anyone who does the math knows that America is on track to become a white-minority nation in three to four decades. Yet if there’s any coherent message to be gleaned from the hypocrisy whipped up by Hurricane Jeremiah, it’s that this nation’s perennially promised candid conversation on race has yet to begin.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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What the....?

I went to do a search on google, and you know how they always have pics around the name on special occasions? Well, it must be one today because there is a picture, but I don't know what the hell it's supposed to be of. Perhaps you can enlighten me.



Are they metallic tulips? Rainbow colored garden spades? Moraccas?

Coundown

3 days until my last final is due!

4 days until Las Vegas!

11 days until graduation!

P.S. I am procrastinating so I don't have to study legislation, which is boring. I am trying to care, but it's hard.

Weekly Totals

As I type this I have a bit of a headache, presumably because I have caused some neck muscle to kink up. My low back can hardly believe it belongs to me, but I am persevering, and I dare say, it's working out OK. Hurray!

7 Day -Total
elliptical - 3.4 hours
jogging - 6 miles
walking - 8 miles
cycling - 10 miles

I think I may have lost a pound or two, but mostly I seem to be changing shape and building muscle. I'll take it. I am also eating a fair amount due to the stress of finals. Plus, I am heading to Las Vegas on Saturday, and I will not be eating well there, so I have to burn, baby, burn! I updated my workout mix today and made some very inspiring additions. Chris Brown's Forever and Rhianna's Don't Stop the Music are great for jogging!

Tomorrow I have my first final, and I am definitely less prepared than I have ever been. This semester has not really been about school for me, but the things I have been focusing on are going well, so I can't complain. WIsh me luck, cuz I am actually going to need it!

Exercisathon Week 1

Totals for week one of the exercisathon:

elliptical - 3 hours 30 minutes
miles jogged at epically slow pace - 3
miles walked - 8

Official Announcement

Do-do-do-doooooo! Announcing my new blog theme! Since I am only 3 weeks away from graduating, and 3.5 months into my personal makeover that I've told you nearly nothing about, I thought I would change the angle on my blog and journal to you instead of myself about my progress. I am a little neurotic and ADD about my makeover, so bear with me.

On January 6th I started my diet makeover, which continues on to this day. My roomie and I are both eating healthy, we make flax muffins, vegetable soup, and steel cut oats every week. We eat oranges and strawberries and salads chock full of vegetable so we won't get scurvy or other vitamin deficiencies. And I have basically eaten 1500 calories a day or less everyday (with a few exceptions).

Then in mid February I added in exercise, and lo and behold, my back is adapting! it makes me extremely happy. First it was just the elliptical trainer 3-4 times a week, then I started taking weekly bike rides at the river, and this week I started jogging. I bought beautiful running shoes that I LOVE, and took them for a spin today as I did my first bout of wind sprints to improve my fitness.

So far I have lost 20 pounds and two sizes. I have been in a bit of a slump over the past few weeks from the stress of school projects coming due, working two internships, but I've thrown the running in, and switched from counting Weight Watcher's points to counting calories. I just have to make it a few more weeks and them my Get Fit and Get Smart summer starts, when roomie and I will work out and study for the Bar all day every day. It's gonna be great.

My goal - 20 more pounds by the end of summer. Then re-assess. Kate is my role-model. I want to have a body just like hers...only mine.

Yes. Pretty moot, I'd say.

"Since we granted review the case has become moot. Truitt resigned his teaching position, relinquished his teaching credential pursuant to a criminal plea bargain, and subsequently died."

My Year of Personal Transformation

I didn't want to put anything officially down in writing until I passed some significant benchmark, but that happened today, so I might as well tell you all about my personal year of transformation I began starting this January 6th. It's been in the works for several months as I geared up and made time for what had to be done, but this January I started Weight Watcher's although I don't actually attend any meetings, began meditating everyday, and also began doing a few of my physical therapy exercises twice a day to get my back in shape. My goal is to weigh 125 by my birthday in August, be calm and strong for the Bar Exam this July, and be as happy with the outer me as I am with the inner me for the rest of my life. It was time to take control.

As of this morning I have dropped 16.2 pounds and officially weigh less than I did the other time I was successful at Weight Watchers. And unlike that time, it hasn't been a struggle, I feel good about continuing, and have a plan for getting where I want to be and maintaining it that is very doable. Also, Stephanie decided to do the point watching thing with me, and so we modified our diets and I am eating healthier than ever before, which feels great and makes it easier to be good. I weighed in this morning at 161.8 and have lost 3 1/4 inches in the past 3 weeks.

A few weeks ago I decided I was going to try and take up the elliptical trainer again, since getting to 125 through diet alone was going to be a huge struggle. Since I have been walking nearly every day ever since I got Titan last year, and since I had already lost some weight, my body decided it could handle this, which is wonderful since I love the elliptical machine and it's helping me be pro-active about getting the weight down more quickly. This week I also rode my bike to Chipotle with Stephanie to get her free burrito. It was my first bike outing in well over 15 years. I am planning to do it regularly and hope to get a road bike (inspired by our awesome Tour of CA experience) and become a cyclist, at least on the weekends. Additionally, I plan to learn how to roller blade with the dogs this summer to give me an alternative exercise and to make it easier to tire Titan out quickly once I start working. Finally, I am planning to move Amadeus here, finally, this May after I graduate. I have even figured out how to do all of this while working next year, assuming, of course, that I find a job.

So, from here on out I will keep you informed on my progress as a way to stay honest and motivated. I'd say wish me luck, but I know this is all about dedication, persistence, and hard work.

This week:
Elliptical trainer 4 times for a total of 135 minutes
Cycling 1 time for 50 minutes
Dog walking 5 times for a total of 165 minutes
Total: 350 minutes or 5 hours, 50 minutes

Vivre Le Tour!

Stephanie and I just got back from chasing the Amgen Tour of California. We only missed one of the 8 stages, and had awesome, amazing, unbelievable experiences everyday. The tour started with a short individual time trial in Palo Alto. We were pulled to keep padestrians out of the team car area so they wouldn't be flattened, and as our reward, we were both given ride-alongs on motorcycles behind riders on the course. I rode behind Bobby Julich on CSC, and Stephanie rode behind someone we don't know, but she did get to see Jens Voight at the light asking the driver how to get to the start. Hurray! People pay serious money for this type of opportunity, but we got it just because we are awesome, at least I assume that's why.

Stage 2 started in Sausalito and ended in Santa Rosa where we were course marshalls. I was a super-star volunteer sign-in person in the morning, and then we guarded a cross-walk. As our reward we got to see George Hincappie slowly pedaling within 5 feet of us (unfortunately after a fall). We screamed enthusiastically, but he was too tired to propose to Stephanie just then. We also bought awesome polar fleece jackets because we were freezing to death. I also bought my second Levi Leipheimer shirt, much to the amusement of the woman running the booth.

Stage 3 started in Santa Rosa and ended in Sacramento, where Stephanie was on the medical team and got to escort a rider from his team area to the anti-doping van after the race. I ditched my job because they moved me so far away, and instead made friends near the finish line with several lovely folks, one of whom was kind enough to hold my umbrella for me so my camera wouldn't get wet. I kept everyone updated with the play-by-play available via my iphone. It was damp, but worth it when Tom Boonen sprinted to the stage win. So cute! That night we went to Chipotle, the sponsor of team Slipstream, where we got the autographs of Tyler Ferrar (the then yellow jersey holder) and his teammate, David Miller, who is adorable and British. Courtney won a jersey in the raffle, and Stephanie won a Felt Cruiser and free burritos for a year. She still isn't sure which prize is better. All in all, it was an awesome day.

We missed stage 3, which took the riders from Modesto to San Jose over Mt. Hamilton. It was a brutal day, and many riders abandoned due to exhaustion and the flu, which was racing through the peloton. Tyler Ferrar, the leader, was among its victims and we had to say good bye. Levi came in second after following Robert Gesink over the mountains and graciously allowing him to claim the stage win. I heart Levi!

Stage 4 signaled the start of our mini-road trip. With the car cleaned (just in case a cyclist needed a ride somewhere) and our windows covered with writing to build comradary along the way, we left at dawn to make it to San Luis Obispo in time to work the finish. We made it despite the car's sketchy directions telling us to cut through someone's yard and down a cliff, through an Indian reservation, and on a road so windy Stephanie got sick while driving it. For the riders, it was much worse. It was the most horrible day of the race, and according to Levi, the worst day he's ever spent on a bike. It rained ALL day, and as they headed down the coast on Highway 1, they faced 40 mph headwinds. We lost several more riders, one from hypothermia, but our favorites made it. Dominic Rollin, a Canadian, broke away and pounded his way to the finish, which was very emotional for him given the difficulties of the day. We know it was emotional for him because we were literally INCHES away from him in our security posts. Georgie brushed up against us as he passed, and Levi was also there in all his short, bald, adorable glory. (I heart Levi!) We also discovered the adorableness of Scott Nydam from BMC. So, so cool!!!!!!!!

We stayed the night in Buellton (pronounced like mule), the home of Split Pea Andersons and not much else. We watched the end of the day's stage on TV and then passed out so we would be rested for the next stage in Solvang. Solvang is only minutes from Buellton and is the most adoreable little Danish town in the heart of beautiful horse and wine country. We got our assignments, which turned out to be in the perfect picture taking location, and set up camp. Fabian Cancellara, Georgie, and Levi all passed us while warming up but I was too slow to snap most of their pictures. However, I did manage to get them on their actual runs on this 15-mile individual time trial. Levi needed to do well to keep his lead, but up against Cancellara and David Miller, it seemed unlikely he would prevail. HOWEVER, he came in the fastest, 20+ seconds ahead of Miller and 40+ seconds ahead of Cancellara to retain the yellow jersey. We stalked him in the green-tent area we learned about while working San Luis Obispo, and I snapped a few nice pictures before heading on to Santa Barbara. Oh, and I bought my third Levi/Astana t-shirt. I heart Levi!

Santa Barbara was the start of Stage 5 and Stephanie was signed up to be a course marshall. While signing in, Brent, our security buddy, spotted us and told us we should request to be security in the remaining stages and tell people we were requested. Really?! So we filled our positions for the start and then decided to see if we could make it Santa Clarita for the finish, since they are much cooler. We ran into a team High Road bus that honked at us when the driver saw our High Road flag. We then found a Rock Racing Caddie which I aggressively followed to Santa Clarita, since we had no idea where to go, even though Stephanie bought every map the gas station had to offer. When we found Brent, he told us we could work and then gave us awesome spots where all the riders pass and then hang out before being called to the podium. He even fibbed a bit to the other volunteers as to why we "needed" to be back there. Levi sat there signing millions of things for the VIP people and finally acknowledged the screaming people behind me by showing them his photo face. I don't think he really enjoys the celebrity part of being a winner, but he's so damn adorable. Riders came in and out and I discovered who Levi's swanee is (I have no idea how to spell it, but it's like his slave in French). I want her job. She toats his crap around and gets him where he needs to go on time, and even lays out his belongings in his suitcase so he doesn't have to fuss around in the tent. Oh, to be a fly in that tent! At the end, John, another security guy, grabbed water bottles of two of the riders and gave them to us, and Brent told us to be sure and work for him the next day. Hurray!

Before leaving town we went to the "Rock the Bike" party to get the autographs of High Road riders, including Georgie. We got there super early and refused to leave the spot to rest, and were rewarded when one of the Giant reps gave us chairs and actually argued with another rep to make sure we got to go first even if store reps came to cut in line. It was a good thing too because it started to rain and we had a long way to go. We stared at all the riders when they arrived, watched them eat burritos (Mmmm. Burritos!), and then got their autographs and split, so that we could spend the night in our ghetto motel in Pasadena. Cheap is not a good thing in Pasadena. Our room had nasties in the bathroom, wall paper torn from the wall, a hole in another wall, and was generally not pleasant to stay in. It was totally the type of place where people get murdered in the movies, where meth addicts go to party, and where people check in at 4:00 am. Ick!

We survived just fine but got the heck out of there as soon as we could so we could spend hours at the Rose Bowl waiting for Brent to show up and give us work to do. We killed time, chatted with vedors, who now recognized us, and were even greeted with some recognition by Bob Rolls, a cycling telecastor who is some what of a celebrity in his own right. Eventually we decided to go hand out near the podium, helped ourselves behind the rail and proceeded to shew others out like we owned the place. What snobs we are. It wasn't long before Elliot, another of our official tour employee friends, let this guy on crutches in to sit with us, and he became out new friend for the day. SInce he was cute and nice to us, we helped him find a good spot, and Stephanie even got him an Astana feed bag and water bottle from the green-room tent after the race.

May I just say that working in the back of the stage at the final stage of the Tour (which involved displacing 9 other legitimate security volunteers) was AWESOME! There was madness, riders everywhere, their families, their swanees, their bikes, their managers, absolutely everyone was wedged into this tiny space and we were sooo close. Plus, right at the finish they sent us to the fence where we watched Georgie win the stage with no one in our way, completely ignorant of the rain. So, so great. Stephanie and I switched back and forth a few times because my spot was a little better, and at the end, we both got the giant fabric stickers they put on the winner's jerseys for our favorites teams, water bottles, fruit cups, etc.

Before we knew it, the space cleared out and people began to take things apart. We hopped in our car and made it home in a mere 5 1/2 hours including two fairly lengthy stops. Go us! Now all I have to do it figure out how to get the paint of my car windows and how we are going to make it without cycling until July.

P.S. I heart Levi!!!

Fascism in America?

Here's an interesting statute in the Education Code of Washington state.

Disqualification for failure to emphasize patriotism — Penalty.

(1) No person, whose certificate or permit authorizing him or her to teach in the common schools of this state has been revoked due to his or her failure to endeavor to impress on the minds of his or her pupils the principles of patriotism, or to train them up to the true comprehension of the rights, duty and dignity of American citizenship, shall be permitted to teach in any common school in this state.

(2) Any person teaching in any school in violation of this section, and any school director knowingly permitting any person to teach in any school in violation of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Oops.

In trying to extend the record time so we wouldn't miss the end of the Superbowl, I managed to shorten the time so that we missed the last two minutes of the Superbowl, the part where the Giants made history. Oops.

Obama-So-and-So!!!

If Edwards mentions little Sally who died from cancer one more time I will scream. Whoever writes his speeches needs to get a smack-down. There is only so much time you can dedicate to an anecdote before we start to wonder if you know there are well over 300 million other Americans out there. Edwards crossed the line several states ago.

I am more in love with Barack Obama as our next president than ever, and South Carolina has convinced me a win is still very much a possibility. I am on the look-out for a new running mate.

Come-back of the week:

"We are up against conventional thinking that says your ability to lead as president comes from longevity in Washington or proximity to the White House. But we know that real leadership is about candor, and judgment, and the ability to rally Americans from all walks of life around a common purpose — a higher purpose."

Obama-Edwards 2008!!!

I am SOoooooooo excited that Obama just won the Iowa primary!!!!!! New Hampshire is next Tuesday, so everyone pay attention and cross your fingers, but only if you want what I want...Thanks.