Ramblings on a cold Saturday morning

It's been pretty cold lately so going to work has been a whole barrel full of monkeys kind of fun.  For some reason, the third of my house where my bedroom is is much colder than the rest of the house.  It is the farthest from the furnace, but I think something more than just proximity is going on.  My house is definitely drafty so I need to get an energy audit next spring to identify the culprit and get it fixed.  I had a tankless water heater installed to save a bit on energy, but I think the gas used to heat water is dwarfed by that used to heat my mostly empty house.  I'm not a fan of carpet, but it does help keep the floor reasonably warm.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting my tankless since the water is always hot for the shower or any other thing I want to do.  It does take a bit to heat up at the faucets, but I'll fix that problem in one bathroom with an Ariston 4g POU electric heater.  I ordered one earlier this week and it fits under the sink.  It should because I measured everything out, but you never know.  Hopefully my plumber can get back to me on a quote for the fat guy toilet so I can get both of those taken care of.  The toilet in my main bathroom sucks so I'm going to replace it with a water conserving Toto bad boy.  I think he can get a pretty good discount, but we'll see.  I poked around online and the prices aren't too bad anyhow.  I've definitely budgeted enough money so there'll be some leftover to use for Xmas presents.  Some people really like this time of the year with all the decorations and caroling and whatnot.  I'm kind of luke-warm on it.  It's a good chance to see family and to get some stuff, but I can get stuff anytime I want thanks to my job, my credit card and the internet.  I find the excessive consumerism pretty depressing though I'm as guilty of it as the average American.  One of my biggest fears is that I'll turn into an average American who's 50lbs overweight with diabetes and a huge pile of consumer debt.  Heh.  I'm already halfway there.  I just need to eat some more crap and spend a bit more money.  All this tax bill talk is starting to piss me off though.  We should be more concerned for the future since our current economic strategy is broken.  The future is going to be crippling since we'll owe trillions and trillions of dollars to foreign governments.  Why?  So we can buy too much crap.  Stuff rarely makes you happy and the acquiring of stuff is even more empty.  Only people can make us truly happy and we can hang out with them for free.  I'm ok with having a much higher tax rate on the richest Americans because I think a good fraction of them trampled on the rest of us to get to where they are now.  Not all of them, but certainly some.  It's a zero-sum game and the true cost of our actions is not always monetary.  The Republicans seem hell-bent on enriching as many of their donors as possible while the Democrats seem hell-bent on handing out whatever they can.  Both are trying to buy goodwill, but from different people.  Obama has become next to useless with his endless and unnecessary compromising.  I'm finding him to be nearly on the side of dishonesty.  He's pretty much done, but it's possible he could win in 2012 if the Republicans run a dumbass like Palin against him.  I know a fair amount of people would vote for her, but I'm sure even more would vote against her.  Better the devil you know eh?  It would be nice if more parties could be involved in government.  They could help dilute the influence of the two major parties and could better represent the middle of America.  Maybe I'll start a new political party.  I think I'll call it the Rational Party because I want to restore reasoning and rationality to governing.  Truth #1: you can't cut taxes without increasing the incoming money some other way (invading a rich country and robbin' their asses) or by cutting services.  Politicians are always going on about how they're going to cut taxes and then cut some spending.  But what?  I'll vote for the first person who actually details what current spending their going to cut.  The big problem is the US spends a buttload of money on the military, Social Security and Medicare.  The military seems untouchable for some strange reason and the other two would be tough to go after as well.  Hmmm...there are some crows in my front yard cleaning themselves up in my pond.  Anyhow, we've got to approach the situation logically or we'll further bankrupt future generations.  How long can America be on top with its current policies?  We waste billions of dollars protecting people in Iraq and Afghanistan nearly against their wishes.  Why?  Are we any more secure now?  Iraq never had WMD because Clinton blew that mess up with some surgical strikes.  Solid intelligence and surgical strikes are all we really need.  We don't need ground troops to secure anything because we just want to reduce others' ability to wage war on us.  It's a lot trickier in Afghanistan because we're trying to find specific people, but I still think we've failed miserably there.  I don't feel any safer and now I've got the choice of getting cancer or getting groped when I fly.  Flying used to be a cool experience because you could go crazy distances in just a short time.  Now it's a pain in the butt and a lot of the novelty has worn off.  I much prefer driving, but my family is too far away for me to drive back for a visit.  Bum deal.  Flying is always too much like riding the bus.  You're squashed in with the unwashed masses.  I flew first class a couple of times last year and it was nearly tolerable, but it's expensive.  Last year, first class tickets were cheap because the airlines were trying to attract customers.  Now it seems like every flight is full.  Demand has picked back up, but the airlines aren't adding new flights.  I don't blame them because they can't afford to fly people around the country at a loss, but it does complicate the situation for me.  I guess Americans got greedy and came to expect being able to fly anywhere they wanted for peanuts.  I actually wouldn't mind if flying became more expensive to help filter some of the white trash out.  Long term readers of my blog know white trash is my nemesis.  They are the antithesis of everything for which I stand.  I'm not sure how this country would function without them, but I wouldn't mind finding out.  I'm sure we could find teenagers and old people to man the shifts at fast food restaurants.

Blogger's editor kind of sucks

I'm too lazy to switch to a new host, but there has to be a more efficient way to create blog entries.  Sure you can drag pictures around, but it doesn't always float them the way I'd like.  Oh well.  This blog is mainly a place for me to capture my thoughts though I haven't done much rambling lately.  Perhaps I need to change that.

Fitness update

Well, the chunkening continues. I kept up with my morning exercises and I seem to be getting stronger, but I think I'm just building muscle under fat as the numbers don't look good this week. I ate decently, but I could've eaten better.

I've been making protein shakes for dessert using whey protein isolate. It doesn't taste too bad and I mix up about 50g of protein with a glass of almond milk. My colleague at work says I need to watch for uric acid buildup because too much protein can be hard on the kidneys. Hmmm... I also read that too much protein can leech calcium from my bones. Hmmm... Neither sounds good, but I eat a fair amount of cheese and yogurt so I think I'm ok. It's definitely something to keep an eye on.

The exercises from my Lauren book are definitely working because I feel stronger, as I mentioned above. I'm still thinking I might give P90X a shot with the beginning of the new year since I already bought it. Maybe it's what I need to jumpstart my fitness since I seem to be regressing significantly. I'm going to believe the numbers because I don't think my scale would get the trends wrong. I'm definitely more out of shape now than I have been in a while though people keep telling me I look like I'm in shape. Most of those people are family and they rarely give you the bitter truth. Gah.

The struggle continues.

Chicken salad

I can't remember where I found this recipe, but it's definitely not my creation [maybe it's from this Food Source recipe].  I made it for lunch today and it's pretty effin' tasty and seems healthful.  I used grilled chicken and left out the pecans and celery.

Here's the recipe:
Curried Cranberry Chicken Salad

1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
4 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
2 chopped apples
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped scallions

Directions
1. Combine yogurt, lime juice and curry powder in large mixing bowl.
2. Stir in remaining ingredients.


It counts as my 81st new recipe towards my challenge.

Thousand Island dressing

My friend makes her own Thousand Island dressing and forwarded me the Epicurious recipe. I gave it a shot tonight and here's the result:

It smells like it should, but I haven't tried it yet. I didn't have any parsley, but I don't think that's a critical ingredient.

I've now finished 80 recipes towards my challenge. Just 20 more.

Fitness update

Well, well, well.  I kept up with my morning exercises and I feel stronger.  I also thought I was eating pretty well, but the numbers seem to indicate otherwise because I'm chunking out.  If I don't eat properly, I'll just build muscle under the fat which is what seems to be happening.  Weak sauce.

Of course, I've been sick for more than a week, but I don't want to use that situation as an excuse.  I need to buckle down, eat right and get active.

As promised by my poll, this entry brings back the shirtless photos of me to track if my exercising and diet is working properly.  As you can see from the picture, there is a significant amount of chunk around the middle, but that chunk will be the last to go.  When my navel circumference gets down around 32-33 inches, I'll know I'm in shape.

My shoulders have pretty good definition and I think my neck is getting thicker.  Most of the chunk is concentrated between my armpits and waist.  You can see the hint of some definition in my upper abs, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking.

For those who are worried, I'm not body dysmorphic and I have a good sense of humor.  I see getting in shape as a life long challenge.

El bandito and fun with facial hair

We were having a beard competition at work, but only as an intermediate step towards a handlebar/fu manchu contest.  One of our colleagues has had a handlebar/fun manchu for something like forty years and we thought we'd see if we could match him.

Here I am with the beard.  Notice the white hairs:

It doesn't look too bad though I definitely need to clean my bathroom mirror.

After some nifty work with my clippers and shaver...blao!

I don't think it looks too bad though it seems a little asymmetrical because the hair near the edges of my mouth is really blond.

Anyhow, I think I'll keep this look for the foreseeable future.