The holidays are trying to sabotage me

I took all these pictures this afternoon in our office. And this is really the second round of treats from clients and vendors. I've managed to be very good. I only had some mini Reese's cups. I dropped 2.4 more pounds this week making my grand total 19.8. I missed my next star by .2 lbs. So I figure I'll get it next week.

Toledo's nearly done

This is a picture of the living room, fresh with carpet. We're nearly done. Hurray!!!

Joangratulations

See that dot at the end of the ramp? That's Joan - graduating from Kent State University. She had "I know you're proud Dad" written on her mortar board. Which made everyone tear up because we know that Dad is proud of her.

There were some dramatic moments as one of the undergrads fainted as we went to get her diploma and fainted again once she got it. I told Joan she should've fainted because that girl got the most applause.

Popcorn tins

Thought of Dad today when we saw this display of popcorn gift tins at Office Max. Had the price been right he would've bought at least half the palette. I remember having to push one of his two carts filled with these at Kmart one year.

He didn't really like the popcorn all that much but he used them as gift for Bingo. We would buy TONS of this stuff. And the best part was the cashiers would always look at us strange and make some comment like "I know what you're family's getting for Christmas" or "Wow you really like popcorn." Dad would just smile and nod. He'd never tell them what it was for. I think he really liked them not knowing. We went through the same thing with hot dogs and hot dog buns. Fairly often, we'd buy 20 lbs of hot dogs (always the cheapest) to stock the Bingo concession stand and the clerk would say "Looks like quite a barbecue." Dad would just say "yep" and smile.

But the popcorn tins were always more embarassing because they always took more than one cart. Which is why you never wanted to go shopping with Dad after the holidays to hit all the clearance sales although I suppose that was better than winning a year old tin of popcorn next year at Bingo.

2 more pounds bite the dust

I lost 2. Mariella beat me losing 3.4. So now it's on.

I'm going to DDR until I puke.

Nobody thought this was a bad idea?

I read an article in Brandweek about the worst brand extensions of the year. I'm shocked by what gets the green light.




The most appalling is the Precious Moments line of funeral urns and caskets.

Also making the list was Hooters brand energy drinks. Which led to the brea- uh, I mean best quote in the article:

“Hooters doesn’t stand for energy. It stands for boobs and chicken,” said
Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries brand consultancy, Atlanta.

She's right. I also enjoyed the Bumblebee Prime Filet Chicken Breasts. I wonder if the tagline is "The chicken that tastes like tuna" or "The Chicken of the land."

More press still

I appear in this month's issue of Inside Business.

The photo they used could be my "before" photo when I'm doing Subway spots when I'm skinny.

Dropping pounds like a bad habit.

I hit 15.4 lbs. in total weight loss today. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

I keep annoying the women at the meeting because the leader keeps asking me how it's going and I always tell him that it's going well. And he asks me if I'm feeling hungry and I always tell him "no." And then I tell them that I have so many points. And there's a lot of hissing and murmuring. The groups average is probably somewhere in the mid-20s worth of points a day and I get 39. So I'm rarely hungry and that makes the women jealous.

Also we learned today that we're not the only ones that mildly pig out immediately after the weigh-ins. One lady says she always goes to get a double cheeseburger and fries. We usually hit Chipotle. But we're staying within our points. I've been very pleased with how flexible the program is.

I'm not as much of the man that I once was.

Check out our on-line holiday card from work.

It's awesome.

Very busy lately.

Toledo and stuff happened.

And we elfed ourselves.