Mid week update

It is a week of changes. The princess started first grade on Monday and is loving it. She really likes her new teacher and has several friends from last year in her new class. We had soccer Monday, but got rained out today. The weather has been hit and miss this week. Still, I show 1.5" of rain in the gauge so far this week. So, I've turned the sprinkler system off, yet again. No complaints about that one.
Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday so the wife and mother-in-law took her out to dinner while I watched all the kids. Which proved not too difficult. The tornado loves the boys, though I don't think either he or they really appreciate how much of a size difference there is between them. Fortunately, the boy it tough, so he came through OK.
Workouts are going well. I'm not seeing any kind of loss yet, but I can definitely tell the workouts are more effective that what I was doing before.
Early on Friday morning, I fly to Atlanta to meet a number of friends I've made online over the last few years. We're coming from all over the country to attend DragonCon. I've never been to it before (actually hadn't even heard of it until last year). I expect to have a very full weekend. I'm taking the old laptop to the hotel, so, if I'm not completely worn out each day, I'll trying to get somethings posted while I'm there.

Crunch!

had a small fender bender in a parking lot. the sun was behind a pickup and i couldn't see it. Not to much damage to the truck. Car took the worst of it. Yuck!

Workouts to the next level

The family have been members of the local YMCA since the beginning of last year. We actually have a city wide membership and have been to the Y in Alvin several times as they have a nicer and newer pool than Pearland.
But, Pearland is undergoing a $2 million dollar renovation and the first phase was completed about a month ago with all new machines for the fitness center. The Y has put in the Fitlinxx system and all the bikes, treadmills, ellipticals and weight machines are networked together.
Tonight, I got my account activated and went through the orientation. I've been using the new machines since they came in, but could use the tracking tools until completing the orientation. There was a big line to get in since the Y already has a lot of members.
Since I need to lose a good 45-50 lbs. or so, I put weight loss as my goal for now. The instructors set me up a routine to work through and oriented me on each of the machines. The machines track weight, reps, sets, and provide feedback to help me do the exercise correctly. Overall, it's a pretty impressive system and I can already tell the routine they set up for me is more effective than the somewhat random routine that I had been pursuing.
Lately, I've managed to quit the ascent that I've been on since finishing the weight loss challenge at work. Now, I need to turn it around and get moving back down again.

Another day at the beach

Well, we survived another week with Momma in Chicago on business. My parents came in to visit for the weekend and we made a return trip to Stewart Beach in Galveston. This time, we came prepared for the big slide. The princess made her first run on the slide back when she was around two, so it was time for the tornado to continue the tradition.
The weather was about perfect. The water was a good temperature and the sky was mostly overcast. There was a lot of sea weed on the beach from Tropical Storm Erin coming ashore, but we still found a good patch of sand for a new sand castle. After a couple of hours, we got cleaned up, had lunch and then drove home. The tornado fell asleep on the way, and pretty much everyone else went down for a nap once we got home. Not a bad way to spend the weekend.

103!!!!

hot hot hot

Summer has arrived in Texas

2007 08 12 003, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Well, after one of the wetest and coolest July's on record, Summer has come full force now in August. This past week, highs have been in the upper 90's and rain has been scarce. Today, I observed 101°F. Even going to the pool today was difficult as it was just too hot and way too bright outside.
As for this past week, it's been a busy one. The kids have had swim lessons at the Y. The princess swims well enough on her own in her class, and the Tornado is being difficult for Momma in his class. We've all be going as a family and I've been taking the opportunity to workout. Both the wife and I continue to struggle with weight, but we've been making some progress. The truth is we just eat out too damn much.
Today, as the picture shows, is a repeat of an annual tradition. My father-in-law and sister-in-law share their birthday and it has been tradition to go to Pancho's for dinner. The food is certainly not great, nor is the restaurant, but the birthday people get to pick where to go.
Both the in-laws donned the traditional sombrero and were sung to by the family and staff. The nice thing about the place is that is is already noisy and has a large back room, so having eight grand kids running around is not a big deal. You can check the FLICKR feed for some other pics of the evening.

A Day at the Beach

2007 08 05 015, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yes, yes - i know I still need to do a proper write up about the rest of our vacation trip to San Antonio. It will come some time.

For now, here's a bit from our trip today down to Galveston. We hadn't been to the beach since before my son was born. So, today was his first time and we all had a ball. For a nice weather Sunday, it was perfect. I got a good parking spot and the beach wasn't crowded. The water was good and, as you would expect from Stewart Beach, everything was nice and clean. Getting him to leave was the toughest part.