My Sisters Weather

So, my sister, that would be Christy, moved to New Jersey a few months ago. Not too far from NYC!  So I like to keep tabs on the weather up there.  Mostly, to torture myself. Still 95 degrees here, a lovely 72 there. As if being so close to NYC isn't enough, she also gets actual changing seasons. Turning of leaves, snow...how lovely that must be.  Not here. We get HOT & HUMID with a few days of arctic air passing through quickly in the dead of Winter.  Here in the South we just hope that Christmas Day will be, at the least, cold enough to wear the new sweater we got from Santa!  The poor kids don't know any better.  The teeny bopper still rock there new Ugg boots and turtle neck sweater even though it's nearly 80 degrees.  Sad, Sad, Sad.

But not this year for Christy! Yay!! I need you to zip over to Lake Placid pretty soon to see the leaves changing.  Can't wait for you to see the Macy's Day Parade and Rockafeller Center with the tree!  Sigh. Just take LOTS of pitcures for me!

And this is how I keep tabs on the weather.  Each morning while I watch the Today ShowI look around the plaza to see what everyone is wearing.  I noticed jackets on Wednesday and raincoats on Friday!!  Not even thinking about sweaters down south yet. But I'm glad the Today show keeps me posted. Enjoy your weekend!

Gerard Butler...I concede.

Christy, you didn't really have to try to strong arm me into saying that Gerard Butler was hot. 

 

The EYES....deep sigh....

Eyes? What eyes? Oh...

To be or not to be........Amish

This weekend we went to Lancaster, PA. It's Amish country. I don't know if I've mentioned this but the sky here is more vibrant, the air is crisper, the clouds seem closer. I don't know if it's atmospheric or my perception, but things just seem sharper here. It's hard to describe. So...the Amish. It was sunday, so not much was open. We were able to see a few horse drawn carts but most of the shops were closed. We are planning another trip. We did happen upon a quilt shop. They had some beautiful quilts upwards of $600 (cheapest one I saw) on up to $2000. You couldn't take pictures of any of them, because they were original designs, and they had white gloves for you to put on at the front door so you don't get things dirty.....totally out of my comfort zone. Sherry, you would've loved it. They also had these little boxes, hand made by a lil old amish lady (according to store owner) that we picked up. John loved them.

Pennsylvania is gorgeous. Mostly the people in New Jersey live in PA and commute. Homes/Taxes are cheaper over there, and it's beautiful from what I've seen.

The cow migration of 2012.....'...that's right Ray, no normal cow could migrate that way......'

golf course in Easton, PA. It was very pretty.

Oktoberfest is going on over here. I'm hoping to head into the city to experience all things German in the next couple of weeks. Sausages, lederhosen, polka, and steins of beer, can't go wrong there. I told John I'd pay him a couple of hundred dollars to see him in lederhosen during the festivities.....

  It's getting colder here now, they say in a couple of weeks we will have to put away the shorts and short sleeved clothes for about 4-5 months.....WHAAAT?!?!?....I'm in need of winter clothing I think. Apparently, winter lasts a long time in these parts. What kind of shoes am I supposed to be wearing around here. I'm woefully unprepared I think....thoughts?

Derailed by Les Miserables

WOW! I just got super excited about seeing Les Miserables.  I was trying to research Photoshop Illustrator. Cuz that REALLY looks like something I would like to play with. And I found a company today that will print an original design on however many yards of fabric you want. WHAT?!? I could design my own fabric. Kenny what do you know about illustrator? And do you have it? :)  

BUT THEN the commercial I had to sit through before my Illustrator video would start was this lovely featurette of Les Miserables.  Dude, I'm super excited now.  Too much so, probably. But musicals make me happy.  Yeah, I admit it. I love a good musical. That chipper little red headed orphan is freakin great! I do love Annie! "Dumb dog why are you following me? "  And Carol Burnett was never better. "We Love you Ms. Hannigan!"  I get sucked in. I can't help it.  

So this is the video on the making of Les Miserables. Amazing.  Brilliant. I'm stoked to see it!  Yeah, I said stoked. I'm bringing stoked back. Christy, I am, once again, seething with jealousy that you are so close to Broadway. I"m planning my next visit and I will have a LONG to do list!

And even if you don't LOVE a musical, there's Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe to gaze upon. That could chew up a couple of hours of my time any day.  Can't wait for December!  Kenny for you there is Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried.  See, there's something for everyone...

Ya know, Jerry...

This has been stuck in my head all day.  For no reason at all.  Remember what it's from? See after the video for a hint...although I highly doubt you'll need it...

Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sun god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women
screaming and throwing little pickles at you?

Why am I the only one that has that dream?

Weepies in Houston 2011

These are a couple of the shots I got when Erin and I saw The Weepies in Houston.  Very mellow but still one of my favorite concert experiences.

I got to meet Steve Tannen and he was one of the nicest musicians I have met.  Generally loves what he does and appreciates you for listening.  I was only one of 3 people waiting for them to come out. 

They should be more popular.

This their stage setup.  I thought it fit the music perfectly.

 This is my attempt at getting the iPhone to not suck at dark photography.

The different pieces of their set had a Tron like glow to them.  It was nice

Super nice guy =)

Music Friday

Lately I've been on an alternative music kick. The Weepies are at the forefront of that movement in my house. This song Gotta Have You and Painting by Chagal are two of my faves.

I'm totally bummed we aren't near Houston anymore. I had an entire Summer/Fall lineup of concerts to attend this year. Oh well, I'm sure being near NYC or this general area will eventually produce a decent concert venue I can attend.

And because I love me some MUSE....here's two of their songs. cuz one's not enough, and three is too many.....Madness

and Time is running out
.

Enjoy the weekend people for Monday cometh too soon.......!!!!

RESULTS... Finalement!!

I am the proud new owner of the above pair of jeans in a SIZE SMALLER than I usually buy. WAAAAAAAHOOOOOOO! I was getting seriously discouraged. So I am going to continue soldiering on....

I tried to walk the dogs this last week. It was a disaster. I had two screaming idiots on the end of the leashes that were so uncontrollable that I had to pick Cooper up to make him shut the hell up. Then Lola decided she didn't care for that so much, so every step I took she jumped up at him. It was great. I am certain we were a spectacle. Other people walk their dogs with no trouble. mine act like hoodlums. So, I have contacted the local Pet Smart and Frick and Frack will start doggie training as soon as I sign the turds up. I have to get these guys listening before Thanksgiving. We are going to John friends house in Ohio and we have to bring them with, obviously. They have lotsa dogs. So these two need to acclimate and socialize BEFORE we get there. Say a prayer for me it's going to be hard work. (crying)

Pizza Night = Diet Killer

OK, Well for the 14th time I didn't properly prepare for my new healthy lifestyle.  I really should have prepare a meal that could have kept me from eating the Papa Johns pepperoni, mushroom, and olive hand tossed pizza.  I may be getting tired of having to post about my failures. Oh, yeah. I'm also losing the diet coke battle. I think there really is crack in there.  It's my default drink. I order with absolutely no thought whatsoever.  I was halfway through a 20 oz before I realized I had quit drinking them the day before.  I'm pretty sure that's not my fault though.  It's the holes in my brain that caused my short term memory loss which, hello, is a side effect of drinking diet coke. How will this vicious cycle ever end?!? 

So in an attempt to be less pathetic sounding on my next post, I'm going to do what I never do. Which is plan my meals ahead of time and prep the ingredients so I won't fall off the wagon.  So I have actually done that before, but the new twist will be that I'm gonna do it MORE THAN ONCE!!  No more diet killers for me this week!!

Nerd Porn

As I have been sick and sitting at my computer a lot lately I have stumbled upon a website called Codeacademy.com.  This website teaches you the ins and outs of various type of programming languages and what-not.

Don't know if you guys would be interested.  Probably not.  But just as I am not in to the "weight loss blog" you may not be into the "good lord our brother is a nerd blog".

Either way, enjoy, I have been learning Java and it's interesting.  I am told that by the end of the course (which is free btw) I will be able to, and required to in order to continue the course, program a whole blackjack game in Java.  This is not something I would normally do, but I assume the skills to do it would be useful at some point.

I always thought learning basic HTML was useless for me, but it allows me to change the picture sizes in this website just using the HTML code editor.

Geek FTW!

Over and out.

P.S.  FTW = For The Win

It ain't easy bein cheesy...

Sorry weird brother. I doubt you're really into the whole weight loss blog, but it's what in my head! That being said, today was the first day in my "weigh down".  I had a good day and stayed on track. And it should be noted that I did NOT eat the brownie!! And even more notable, I didn't even DWELL on it!  That's big.  Like Everest big.  Maybe I should try to make that one of my goals.  I'm going to make it my mission not to dwell on all things I can't eat.  Geez, I'm thinking back and I totally sabotage myself with fantasies of queso and brownies.  Visions of sugar plums and such.  DON'T DO IT!!  So it's not easy. But it's worth it....




And because you gotta have a goal. and possibly some surgery.  I'm gonna go do some donkey kicks right now...

Hey Baby Goat...

That's not yours. It's not yours...I could give a rip about this phone, but this commercial makes me giggle everytime! 

Hey baby goat!

x

Drowning.

Xylobands and Coldplay...

So Coldplay has been giving out these wristbands at their concerts called Xylobands.  Real quick, I'm not sure if one of you told me this already but I am going to post it anyway, but I digress.  Anyway.  Xylobands are radio controlled LED bracelets that they can trigger during their shows...

I will now let the video explain why I think this is fantastic...

Over and out.

This is why my "Weigh Down" starts monday.

And it starts Monday cuz Friday is a terrible day to start a new eating plan.  

I'm gonna try not to gain 5 pounds between now and Monday.  So let's follow the progression. This is where we started. I don't know exactly how old we are here, but a health weight I would say! So I guess we can't blame it on our genes.

Blue Birds Rocked!

Moving on. Here we are heading out to the Mardi Gras Ball. Let's try  to ignore the fact that the make-up is too light for the tanned skin. Why does this not show up in a mirror?!?  Still a nice healthy weight.  Why am I holding that bag in front of me like that? It must be new.  Let's keep going.

Brick oven pizza in NYC baby!

No doubt, this is not the best angle.  And again, ignore the fact that we both need to tone down the shine.  Look at my cheeks and chins? This is my half smile, because if i do my full on smile, my eyes disappear.  Ugh. I'm just sighing in relief that you can't see anything below the neck. LOL.  So this is the start. If I post it in a blog, surely there's no going back.  The big plan is for me to diet down until I look like this...

And I need to look like this in THAT dress!  I'm not sure where I'll be going in that dress, but I'll find somewhere.  So when I lose at least 50 lbs., we'll take the NEXT, much more flattering picture!!  

Please don't kill me freaky Jason!

I chuckle just looking at this picture...

Nothing to Lose with Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins. I'm gonna track this down and watch it this weekend!

A little bit of things to come...

Well this is the "rough draft" of what I hope to do.  I can't stand to do anymore because photoshop is making my eyes bulge and I am either getting sick or getting over sickness.

The Title Banner is not final I can change anything with ease.  I threw the blurry pic of Lake Chuck up there because i took the pic and I liked it.  Again, can be changed.  Colors.  Borders...whatever your heart desires I can try and figure out.  Just ask.  =)

Leave all opinions, changes, comments, thoughts and whatever else you must say in the comments below please and thank you.\

Also...after this post I will be making us officially public.  I will also stop it from counting our visits so we can see if anyone, other than ourselves obviously, is reading it. 

Over and out.

This is the lighthouse at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook Beach. We went over there last night for dinner at Bahrs Seafood Restaurant. They didn't knock it out of the park last night with dinner, but the jaunt around the island made up for the lack of great food. It was pretty interesting.  I'll be doing research on this Fort, I was enthralled by all of the old buildings and huge homes. I need to know what they were used for. I'll keep you posted. We walked along the beach at dusk and the view from the beach is Manhattan. The pictures don't do it justice.

We were one day too late to see the two blue lights that go up in remembrance of 9/11. 

This week has been a no-go for the "life changing" diet and exercise saga. The past week or so has been particularly stressful in many ways, and the only cure for that is a pub tour. We've found a great pub in Edison, NJ. The Shannon Rose. On Tuesday nights, they have Irish Tuesday. All Irish fair is discounted and they have an irish musician that livens up the joint. They have a great shepards pie, which the hubby says is almost as good as our mom's (which is his favorite) and they make a decent black & tan. What's not to love?

So I'm back to eating correctly. I'm feeling a bit paunchy from all of the beer/food.  I'm focusing on protein and veggies. Fit and Trim here I come.......

No results...Son of a..?!@?

I will go ahead and go on record saying that I am the epitome of impatient. This working out, eating right, "life changing" and waiting months for results is robbing me of every ounce of patience I have. Which is, 0.5 oz total. But, I soldier on. This is the "lets see how long it takes her" blog....instead of the "chart her results" blog. I actually like eating healthy,  because secretly I prefer vegetables to meat any day of the week. I don't miss fast food AT ALL. We totally quit going to those places when we moved here (2 months and counting). This is a huge accomplishment for me, whose philosophy is  fastest is bestest....don't judge the grammar, it rhymed.

I woke up to 49 degree weather this morning.(What?!? I nEEd some socks) It's starting to feel like Fall up here. I even saw one lone tree dropping it's leaves day before yesterday. I was excited. Boot weather here I come. So I started trolling the healthy sites for new recipes, I found this on another blog ( she has great recipes/ideas) ...pumpkin pie oatmeal (vegan friendly) http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/ 

(I am not vegan, but I do LOVE ME SOME PUMPKIN, be it in bread/pie/cookie form, doesn't matter. So for the fall weather just around the corner.....Here's a pumpkin substitute. Enjoy!!

For Fall....My favorite movie for the Halloween/Fall time is:

 Hocus Pocus

Have a great Tuesday!!

Addicted to Diet Coke

I am completely addicted to diet coke.  There I've said it.  I've quit drinking it on more than one occasion!! And the last time I had a SEVERE headache and complete and utter fatigue for FIVE DAYS! FIVE DAYS! That's ridiculous.  Five days of withdrawals! That is real life addicted.  So from now on...



And it's not going to be like today when I quit drinking Diet Coke and was halfway through a 20 oz, when I remembered I was supposed to quitting. Dang it!! Ya know why I didn't remember?? Because aspartame apparently causes tiny holes in your brain and makes you forget things. Ugh!  I blame every extra pound I'm carrying on diet coke.  It actually MAKES you hungry. AAAhhhhh!!  I am determined to REMEMBER that I QUIT DRINKING DIET COKE TODAY!!  Right after I finish this last one sitting next to me....

Noobie Noobness

Well this is my first post. As you can see, I am neither sister consequently, ergo, accordingly, other such words denoting a meaning similar to therefore, I am the weird brother. 

I do not have much to say on this particular post.  I will be working on the overall look of the blog.  Don't have any solid ideas as of yet, but soon. 

I will, however, leave a video that shows why I am the weird brother in this particular scenario.  I love all geeky type things.  Board games, video games, running games, walking games.  I am a fan of many a different topic and subject.  I have no doubt that will reflect in my posts. 

For my inaugural post I shall post a video of quadrotors.  They are essentially, at their core, four rotor helicopters.  These are designed to work in tandem with each other.  I'll let the video explain...it's a short one.

SCIENCE!!!

Another weekend is here!

The weekend is here again. I will start out by saying it's been 2 weeks since the hubby-trainer and I started back to the gym. I took my measurements on 8/30/12 and wanted results by 9/7/12. I don't have any results. I'm still the same weight/inches not lost. It's shocking, I know. After 2 weeks of hard work, I really did expect to see something. If you are on the journey as well, you know what I mean. Patience is a virtue I don't seem to possess. And when I weighed on the scale, the hubby-trainer saw that I was about to burst into tears and banned me from the scale for at least a month. Apparently, it doesn't come off in two weeks. Who knew?

In an effort to remain accountable for my actions I am posting this for all  to see, much to my dismay. (accountability is also a virtue I don't posses)

 here's the stats: 

HEIGHT: 5'3"
WEIGHT: 165
BELLY: what the what" (OMG)
HIPS: ditto" (ditto)

here's the goal:

HEIGHT: 5'6"    ;-))
WEIGHT: 130
BELLY: hell of a lot smaller
HIPS: ditto

I realize only some of this is actually achievable, but a girl can wish (and use lifts)..If others can use a fake ass in underwear and chicken cutlets, I can use lifts. Just saying.


 And last weekend, we went to Hinckley, NY to stay at a cabin for a birthday gettaway. Here are a couple of pics from the weekend.

Here is a chipmunk eating birdseed at the outdoor bathtub/shower (he's little bottom left hand corner)

And here is a foot print we noticed on our early morning walk

 undoubtedly, a BIG bear.

Have a great weekend!!

Camera 101

I bet you thought this post was going to be about all the stuff I taught myself about my new camera! No. It isn't. So far I've only done the point and shoot "Auto" photo! But here are few anyway...

I love that you can see the light around the clouds!

I used the macro setting to take a close up of the grass. Yes I love this picture of the grass!

The BIRDS!

The Family watching the sunset at the civic center!