July 2004 Archives

Went to the Rocherty Picnic today. The Rocherty Picnic is a small community picnic that has been held the last Saturday of July by a local church for over 100 years. My grandparents(Smith) met there when they were teens over 70 years ago. I remember going there as a kid with my parents & grandparents, eating a hamburger, buying penny candy and playing in the grass with other kids while the Washington Band played. It was a fun evening, filled with music and fun.

Not much has changed in the last 30 years I have been going, they still serve the same food, and they still have penny candy for sale, and the Washington Band still plays. Tonight as my son Caleb bought a styrofoam plane at the penny candy stand, I remembered buying a balsa wood plane there 30 years prior. I assembled and flew that plane all night, Caleb did the same. Funny how life is cyclical. I hope I leave my children with fond memories of their childhood like I have of mine, and I hope the Rocherty Picnic is one of them.

3.6m 53m -100.3t

I was looking at the stats for my website today and saw that in July I have had just under 3,000 visits to my website. That's about 100 a day, not bad for a white boy. I continued to look at other stats and saw that i had visitors from 31 different countries in July. The thing that amused me the most was that the country that visits my website 2nd to the US is the Netherlands. So if you are logging in from another country, who are you? Identify yourself. I am curious as to who you are. Just drop a note and say, Hi! Not like I a gonna try to visit you or anything. Just curious.

Amusingly enough, my first ever report that I did in school was in fifth grade, All LEAP students had to pick a country to teach the rest of the class about. I chose the Netherlands. There is just something about windmills.

I bought my first Drexel sweatshirt in 1987 when I attended college there. I liked the sweatshirt so much that I bought another and even though neither fit me for years I kept both of them. In January, after loosing 90lbs. I found one of them and tried it on. It fit me for the first time in a decade. I was so proud to fit snuggly back into my Sweatshirt I took some pictures and wore the sweatshirt all day. (click for my original post) I even went shopping in Walmart in it. I admit now it must have been a pretty funny site. That shirt fit me like a glove, but at least it covered my belly and I felt like a new man after loosing my first bit of weight.

Today my son found my sweatshirt in the back of our truck and brought it to me to hang up. I hadn't seen it for months, so I had to try it on. I was amused at all the extra room I had in the shirt. It was a nice pick-me-up to my day, so i thought I would take a picture and compare it to my January pic. The results are below.

I know you will find this hard to believe but there are days/weeks I feel just as fat and heavy as I did last year when I weighed more. It is hard to step back sometimes and see what has happened. The changes in the mirror happen so slow that to me it almost doesn't seem like change at all. So even though I have changed I can still look at what fat and flab remains and see myself as overweight. I do wonder when I will overcome this. Perhaps never. But as far as today goes, trying on that sweatshirt was a great reminder of how far I have come.

This afternoon the kids came in and asked to play with the garden hose. The answer is always yes unless we are going away. They love to play in the water. Last week we had the opportunity to go swimming at a friends house for a few hours, that was great. We used to have a small pool - 15 foot round x 3 foot deep we used it for two summers before it came to pass. I liked the pool and have thought about getting another one but I never really felt like the easy-set type of pool we had was really safe. ( I guess that stems from the first time I set up the pool it collapsed and the few thousand gallons of water went everywhere.)

So today I regret not buying and setting up a new pool cause my kids would really love it. I just can not reconcile myself to buying another easy-set pool. It would be nice to have a pool again. Need to give this some more thought.

So every year my Mom and my Sister and several others ask me for a Christmas list from everyone in my family. My wife handles the lists for everyone else in our family and manages to get a list to everyone that asks in plenty of time. However it usually takes me at least until a week or so before Christmas before I ever get a list compiled. By that time all my over zealous family members have already bought whatever present I am getting. So this year would have been like all the rest except that I found a really cool website that has all sorts of geeky cool things I desire. So I set up an account and made a wish list(only took me three months). Here is my official list of things I think I need and can not possibly live without(now that I know they exist). Yes most are affordable, but just in case there is a billionaire reading my blog and they want to surprise me I have included a few high end things. I mean it is called a wish list right? And for my loyal readers please feel free to add your own comments. Perhaps you will even make your own list.

Here are my Wish list Items from ThinkGeek.com

Now that I got started I think I am gonna make a wish list page for my family to add to my blog so all my family members can download a list and get my kids clothing sizes whenever they wish.

For Christmas in July only comes once a year.

Tonight I am pigging. It has been two weeks since I left my low carb ways and tomorrow I am going to return to low carb heaven. So tonight is my last supper of Carbs. So what am I having? I bought myself a Cinnamon Bun, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (Chunky Monkey), Oreo Cookies and Peanut butter. Ugh. So many bad things that taste good.

I do not plan on cheating again until my birthday party. That night I plan on having a big slice of Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing. My favorite. Tonight after eating all these carbs I feel like a pig.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

I very rarely remember my dreams. But I woke up this morning and remembered a weird dream. So here we go. Chris Strayer and Karen Sprengel were getting married at Disney World and everyone from the Creative Ministries office and Creation Festival was there. Penny Taylor had decided to throw them each a bachelor/bachelorette party. As part of their party she had an amusing game she wanted played. She had all these bags and suitcases in a huge pile one for Chris and one for Karen. Each of the suitcases was labeled on the outside with labels like, 'Problems I have with work' and 'The way I was raised by my parents'. So Penny wanted them to open their suitcases and share the contents with each other. At this point I was very interested in what was gonna happen next. As Karen opened up her first suitcase, I woke up. I tired to go back to sleep so I could continue my dream, But no dice.

Amusing dream, never had a dream about any of those people before. Never in my wildest dreams would I hook up Chris and Karen or go to Walt Disney World for their wedding. Interesting.

Yesterday Apple announced a new line of iPods with new improvements. Nothing incredible like video on demand. But longer battery life, making playlists on the fly and controlling playback speed is kinda cool. Anyway this announcement has led me to fancyful/wishful thinking. You know my bPod has been gone for over two weeks and the replacement order is on hold at Apple. What if they sent me a new and improved iPod instead of my old one? Well to say the least, I would not be angry. And don't worry I will let you know if I 'get lucky'.

Well two days before my op. My wife went out to mow our lawn and discovered that the belt on our mower deck had broke. I called Keller Bros. and they said they had a belt so Shelly went to pick it up, but upon further inspection they didn't have the belt we needed. So it had to be ordered. The belt came in last week and due to my sluggish recovery we were only able to get it on Saturday.

Our neighbor and Shelly's Dad volunteered to put it on. But as of today it still was not installed. As you can imagine the grass continues to grow and Shelly was bumming about it today. So after work i decided I was going to tackle the job myself. Keep in mind I am not supposed to lift more than 20lbs for the next two months. Well, so much for that. I hobbled across the lawn (cause my gout still hurts) laid under the mower and disconnected the deck. Drug the mower deck out from under the mower, ripped off the old belt, connected the new belt, drug the mower deck back under the tractor, lifted it into place and put the bolts back in. Filled the tank with gas. Done.

Should have never done it and risked hurting my hernia repair, but there was no other choice.

This morning I woke up to good deal of pain in my right foot. My diagnosis is Gout. I am surprised at this cause I have only had gout in my left foot previous to this. But it feels like the gout and looks like the gout. So I will treat it as such.

More Bad news, I ran out of my meds I take to help with my gout and my pharmacy is not open on Sundays. So I guess I will try to treat it with ibuprofen and tylenol for now. Gout stinks!

I had to name my iPod, cause it is a loyal friend, even better than a pet. So I named her bPod. The last week of June bPod started acting stupid, she wouldn't respond to my touch. I assumed that the hold switch was getting stuck in the hold position. I tried everything I could and even called Apple but bPod remained lifeless. So I laid her to rest in a box and sent her to Apple.

I have been checking the repair status on the web daily awaiting her return. But alas, as of last week, an Apple tech looked at her and found her to be un-repairable and ordered me a replacement. But no replacement has come What could be taking so long?

Since going to the hospital I have gained ten pounds. Not very happy about that. Think it is mostly water weight and perhaps is also due to the swelling and puffiness in my belly. But nonetheless I am not happy. I also officially left my low carb diet on Sunday. Not sure where I am going from here but I need a break. I am not happy about my 10 pounds, but I am sure I will figure out how to get rid of it.

Besides, leaving 'low carb' allows me to eat some cake for Miriam's Birthday :)

Today is Miriam's Birthday. She is 6 today. Miriam is daughter number two and was named after my Grandma(miriam) Smith. She also shares her middle name, Susan with Shelly and Shelly's Mom. As a baby we called her our 'Happy Baby' cause she always smiled. Miriam is also our fair child. She is very concerned with equality and that everyone is treated in the same fair manner as everyone else. This causes me to make sure that cake is sliced in equal portions and that everyone gets a 30 minute turn at the computer.

Miriam will always hold a special place in my heart, when Miriam was 3 weeks old, Shelly had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder. The Surgery didn't go well and Shelly ended up at Hershey Med Center for a week. During that week Baby Miriam became my buddy. I kept her with me and drove her back and forth to Shelly at the hospital everyday. At night I was afraid to put her in the crib fearing that I might not hear her cries so she slept in bed with me all week.

Miriam is full of energy, except for mornings when she has to get dressed for school. She is our one child who will spontaneously give hugs and kisses. She is the one who tries to crawl in bed with us in the middle of the night. She likes Chocolate cake with Peanut butter frosting(like her dad). She loves crafts, She loves Barbies, She loves going to Grandma's house. And she still smiles like she did when she was a baby, but now it is joined by a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Happy Birthday Miriam.

Thought about amusing you with stories of my horrible gas pain that I had today and the number of times I have gone to the bathroom. But let's forget about that, cause i know I would rather.

Today I watched the pilot for a new TV series on the USA network called The 4400. I am hooked. To quote the website:

From Executive Producer Francis Ford Coppola's production company, American Zoetrope, comes a haunting new limited series: THE 4400. Over the last century, thousands of people have gone missing. Suddenly and inexplicably, 4400 missing people are returned all at once, as they were on the day they vanished. Unclear what this world altering-event means, the government investigates the 4400 to piece together where they've been and why they've been returned. It quickly becomes apparent that their presence will change the human race in ways no one could have ever foreseen.

Well the two hour show flew past and at the end I found myself craving more. The 4400 smacks of another one of my favorite shows Smallville. But I do not want to discuss the whole thing right now. I am just alerting you to the existence of this new show cause they are showing it a few times during the upcoming week. So if you have the summer blahs, The 4400 could be the cure.

Now back to the bathroom.

Before entering the hospital on Friday morning I weighed myself. I was pleased cause I was the lightest I have been in years. Since I was going to the hospital to have something removed I figured I could only get lighter. A gallbladder probably only weighs a few ounces but it was leaving me, so weight loss only seemed natural. For the rest of Friday, Saturday & Sunday I have eaten very little. Just liquids and soft food. Today I stepped on the scale and to my amusement I have gained 10 pounds. I wasn't very surprised. I figured my body is retaining water. The loose skin around my stomach and operating area looks full and swollen. Here is hoping it leaves soon.

On the bright side I talked with my doctor about my stomach which still looks flabby and fatty to me. She said most of what is in there is excess skin and that I really do not have that much fat hiding underneath the surface. Forgive my translation cause I was a bit medicated when this conversation took place. She said there are other layers of stuff under the skin that aren't fat but are kind of attached to the skin layer and pretty much the loose hanging flab on my stomach is comprised of that stuff and not fat.

So if I had a tummy tuck and got some of my flabby skin removed I probably would be done with my weight loss. She said she didn't consider me overweight. This actually was good news, but doesn't comfort me when I step out of the shower and look in the mirror.

I woke up yesterday at 4:45am and we got to the hospital by 6:00. Got into my gown and sat around for an hour and waited for the nurse. Shelly fed Ruth and we talked about life until my nurse showed. Once the nurse showed she was down to business putting in my IV, asking me hundreds of medical history background questions and shaving my stomach. The most amusing part of the prep was the x they put on my stomach with a black sharpie. This was to make sure they operated on the right person in the right place. Pity the poor person who was the mistake that caused this safety precaution.

After the prep i was taken to the operating area. They parked me outside OR#4 to wait. There I was greeted by half a dozen different people, a few nurses, the anesthesiologist, the assistant anesthesiologist. Each of these people greeted me asking me for my name and date of birth. After being assured of who i was they wheeled me into the OR and moved me to the operating table. Strapped my arms and legs down, waited for the Dr. to say good morning to me and then they gave me a shot, covered my mouth with a mask and I was out.

I woke up sometime later in the recovery area. Wow, it has been a long time since I have had some good strong pain. I rated it a 7-8, I am sure there is worse pain but i needed something to take the edge off. I struggled my best to wake up and appear alert so they would take me back to my room to see Shelly & Ruth. Well my efforts paid off shortly and I was on my way. It occurred to me as I was being wheeled through the main hall of the hospital how silly some of the current privacy laws are. They tell me they are protecting my privacy but they wheel me down the main corridor of the hospital past the main lobby and address me by my name and date of birth at every stop. Doesn't seem very private. I have no beef against the Hospital, just the silly law they have to obey even if unpractical.

Finally arrived back at my room where I got to see my wonderful wife and baby. I instantly felt better and more at ease. Spent the next few hours recovering until I got the OK to go home. YEAH!

My doctor stopped in for a chat before we left. She informed me that my operation went well. That actually the repair to my hernia was worse of a job than having my gall bladder out. Apparently my hernia had been around for awhile and had scarred itself into place and due to the fact that she removed my gallbladder at the same time she could not use mesh to repair the muscle. So she could only use stitches. Due to that I need to be even more careful for a longer period of time.

So she gave me my orders. Liquid diet and soft foods over the next 2 days. Then watch my diet (no fatty foods, perhaps i will talk about this later) Lots of rest for the next 5-7 days, no car for the next week. So no lifting anything greater than 20lbs for 2 months and then nothing heavier than 40lbs. till Christmas. Hopefully this will give me enough time to heal.

Got wheeled out to the curb of the hospital in a wheelchair and hopped into the suburban for a painful ride home. Every bump in the road made my condition worse till I had tears in my eyes. Finally we arrived and i slowly made my way inside to my recliner.

My mom who had been watching my three eldest children dropped by. What a blessing she was to us. She watched the kids overnight and all day, brought supper with her for Shelly and a few groceries including Peanut Butter Paradise Low Carb Ice Cream for me.(thanks mom!)

Even though I am in pain it was good to know my ordeal was over and my whole family was under one roof again. ok, now you have been informed and it is time for me to rest.

I know I am still alive cause it has been a long time since I have felt pain of this magnitude. Bring on the meds.

Tomorrow is the day. Hope it goes well. And if it doesn't? So be it!

3.6m 43m -96.7t

Well I had my Dr. appointment today and my surgery is scheduled for Friday morning. I must say that the Dr. seemed very professional and nice. She spent a bunch of time talking with me about the procedure and my background. I feel very comfortable with her. Hopefully I will be pleased when it is all over.

Tonight was the first night back to youth group since we had Ruth. It is hard to believe Ruth is three months old and it has also been that long since we ran club. Tonight I started the Book of John, we will be working through John chapter by chapter for the next 21 weeks. It felt good to teach again and hopefully I did an okay job.

We played an eating game, I had some aging Kim Chee that Ji gave me at the shore last month. So we divided the kids into 3 groups of a dozen. And each group sent a person up to the front to compete. The first person to down their piece of Kim Chee won a point for their team. There was a bunch of hooting and hollaring and it seemed everyone was amused. A handful of kids fought over the leftover Kim Chee. I have to buy some fresh so they can taste it in its prime.

So if you remember on friday morning, pray for me. I am sure I will try to report as soon as i can.

I put up some new weight loss pics today. It has been 2 months since my last round so it was time. So what do you think? Let me know.

http://onetongorilla.com/wlpix/

That is the answer to the question, Name two things I want most in my life but can not get enough of? Today it was harder to get out of bed than yesterday. I am looking forward to my Dr. appointment tomorrow, perhaps she will have some answers as to why I am tired. Perhaps my body is waging war against my Gall bladder and high Bilirubin count, perhaps something else is wrong. Well enough about that.

My other concern today is low carb Moose Tracks Ice Cream. I need some. I had it while I was on vacation but I can not seem to find it anywhere around my home. Call me crazy, but I had a dream about it last night. So If you get to the grocery store and you are in the freezer section take a quick peek for Moose tracks(Low Carb) if you find it give me a call.

I woke up today feeling exhausted. This is the fourth or fifth day in a row, I sleep for 8-9 hours and want to go back to bed. I spent the whole day wishing I could take a nap. So I did what any american would do in this situation I drank some soda. No use, I am still tired.

It makes me wonder what is wrong with me? Is it my low carb lifestyle? Is it my gall bladder? or something else?

Being that it is the 4th of July I grilled some burgers today. Usually I only buy my burgers/meat at Costco. I prefer their ground beef, not very fatty and they pre-package there burgers into 8-oz. patties and that makes a great burger. Meat, grrr. yum.

Anyway, today I found myself with a pack of frozen pre-packaged/boxed super market burgers. I had never grilled a boxed burger in my life. I guess being raised on a farm we always had burgers from the butcher and when i got married I had the same until we started going to Costco.

So i threw the patties on the grill, turned down the flame, closed the top and took a chill for a few. When I came back to the grill, the grill was smoking. I opened the lid and it was a four alarm fire. Those boxed burgers were dripping grease faster than i sweat doing aerobics. Flames shot 2-3 feet in the air burning the hair off the back of my hands.

Well i turned off the gas, moved the burgers around and scraped the grill. I caught the burgers in time, they were fine and everyone else was in the house. So it was my little secret(until now).

I don't plan on grilling any more boxed burgers again in my life.

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Shelly's cousin Eric and his wife Deb and their son's Jacoby and Carlton picnicked with us. There son Carlton is only a few days younger than Ruth. It was a nice night, we took some pictures of Ruth & Carlton together, then kids played in the back yard, we set off some illegal fire works and then we sat on the deck and watched public(and some private) firework displays on the horizon in about 7 locations. By the time they were over I took the kids up to bed and they were asleep before we were done saying prayers.

carlton & ruth, second cousins

3.6m 43m -93.1t

I bought a pack of Black Athletic Socks(ankle high) a week ago to wear with some new shoes I got. Last night I pulled them out of my sock basket and decided to wear them with my grey new balance sneakers(w/black accents). I thought they looked okay. After supper we went over to my mother's house to hang out with a bunch of our family. Being at my mom's house I took my sneakers off and walked around in my (black)socks.

After a bit my sister walks up to me and says in front of everyone else that she is dying to take off my socks and throw them away. That black socks look awful with shorts and that I should be wearing white socks. Well just about everyone in the room agreed with her. This was news to me. I liked my black socks.

So here is your chance to sound off. Below is my picture I look of my black socks with my sneakers and with my new shoes. Let me know what you think. Also for your viewing enjoyment is a picture of ruth watching me take pictures of my black socks(she likes to stand now).

3.6m 43m -89.5t

It has been 10 days since I last ran. I had hit a real slump mentally and emotionally over the past week and a half not to mention physically I have not been feeling 100%. So this morning I crawled out of bed and forced myself to run. It was the best decision I made. I forgot how encouraged and good i feel after I run. I don't really enjoy running, but i believe it is beneficial. It helps me lose weight, gives my heart exercise and it is amazing how encouraged I feel when I am done.

3.6m 48m -85.9t