Milestone day

Today has become a bit of a milestone day for me, unintentionally. A year ago I weighed in on the Wii Fit and peaked at my highest weight -- 209. I shrugged it off from post-holiday, and a large meal, expecting it to vanish pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it did not. Today, a year later, I weighed in at 188. I have been consistently around 186, which is about right for me (even though the BMI says I should be in the 170s -- seriously?). I am happy to be in the 180s, although I would like to be closer to 185 than 190. We just finished working on John & Jen at Workshop Theatre, and every time I work on a show it takes a toll on me.

Jeni has also been doing amazingly well. She is down close to 50 pounds and still going. I can't express how proud of her I am. She really hit it hard this August and hasn't let up at all. She's now biking, doing yoga, and taking a few other classes. She really is a machine.

We found a good facility near our house and that has made all the difference. I know this never would have happened if I depended on getting on my treadmill at home. I'm not posting this looking for praise or acknowledgement. This is really for me to mark my progress. I'm not rushing the time away, but I'm excited to see what the next year of healthy living brings.

Striking against SOPA

I know there's a way to black out the blog and redirect to the Anti-SOPA and Anti-PIPA sites out there, but I'm guilty of not taking the time to do it. But I am writing this in protest of SOPA and PIPA. These bills that are coming in front of the legislators in Washington are just a bad idea. The vaguely written language of these bills opens the door to a host of problems. It is an example of good intent poorly executed. And there's no room for that in legislation. There are some great resources out there that have much better insight into the potentially harmful impact that SOPA and PIPA will have on the internet and the exchange of information online, including this piece from Google, the Blackout page on Wikipedia, and this piece by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing.

I get such a chuckle thinking about the reaction of narcissistic teens who are going to Wikipedia today and finding out that their online shortcut to research is not available today. Hopefully this will give them some insight into the bigness of the issue, and help them to understand that this affects them and that they can take action too.

In the absence of a blackout on this blog, I offer you instead a black cat...

Please keep speech on the internet free and open. Do it for the cats...


PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Links to look at later

Sometimes you just find links to pages that you want to spend more time on...

http://danmeth.com/post/15296838533/xmascards
http://danmeth.com/tagged/popculturalcharts
http://www.geekosystem.com/category/theres-a-map-for-that/

Disposable Memory Project

I was reading an article on NPR about the Disposable Memory Project, where someone left disposable cameras out for people to take, use, and pass along, with the intent of them being mailed back to him and to see what was captured. Out of the 400 cameras left around, 30 have returned. I'll be spending a few minutes at lunch checking out what photos were taken.

Christmas joy

I know this picture is a little blurry, but aren't we all about this time of year? I still love this picture -- Gracie and Clara Ann feeding treats to Maggie and Josie after a matinee of the Nutcracker with the Columbia City Ballet. It is such a great show, and a Christmas tradition for us for the past four years or so. This was the first time for Clara Ann, but Gracie's third. Clara Ann did pretty good considering she is four and hasn't learned how to whisper real good. The show was a little more interesting for them, I think, because we know two of the dancers, and pointed them out to the girls early on. So throughout the show, it was "Where's Katie? Where's Alexis?"

We got some great pictures of the girls after the show, too, but that's kind of a secret right now...

We had such an amazing weekend last weekend too. We went to the Christmas DREAM magic show at Workshop Theatre (featuring the magic of Brandon Wagster). He is so talented, and a joy to watch perform.

Saturday we went to the lights at the zoo with a group of friends, then everyone came back to the house for dinner. It was such a great group of people to be around, and it was nice to have the house filled with laughter and joy.

Sunday was the Volunteer Holiday Party at Workshop Theatre, and as an added bonus our old friend Melanie was passing through town on her way home from Disney. She stopped and we got to spend about 45 minutes catching up and squeezing on her little baby and meeting her husband and other kids. There's just something about reconnecting with someone you haven't seen in eight years, and picking up like you haven't missed a beat.

All this happiness over the weekend has left me with a bit of a happiness high that has carried through for the week. Gifts are in the mail, almost everything is bought, except for a few little things for Jeni so she has surprises under the tree (which isn't an easy thing to do). Jeni's family should roll in tomorrow (just a little more cleaning to be ready). It's going to be a merry Christmas indeed.

Lost in t-shirt land

Every now and then I get on a website and can't get away. This has happened with the threadless t-shirt website. I have been going through page after page of t-shirts. This isn't your typical snarky t-shirt website. These are smart, well designed shirts. And some are just so cool. I like the Middle Earth There And Back Again shirt, which shows the path of Lord of the Rings as a subway map. Very smart. The Leaping Dolphins badminton club t-shirt is wonderful, using the shuttlecock as the sunset. Then there's the Lazy Bones and Thunder Crabs (although I wish it was football and not rugby). I could link and link and link. They have some great Zombie, Muppets and Doctor Who shirts too. Just search and enjoy.

Oh, I have to add this one too. Love is Love. Wonderful...

And this one too, because Jeni likes giraffes...

Like I said, I could go on and on. Check out this Pacman shirt.

Lotion bottles project

This is what happens when Jeni leaves me alone at the house for a few days.


I find her lotion bottles that are down the that final inch that the pump won't pull out, I take them together, and let gravity consolidate the lotions. Problem is, this is thick lotion, and gravity is working slowly. So I forgot about the lotion bottles taped to the shower (so they don't fall over or turn into cat toys), and Jeni came home to see my contraption. She was very entertained.