furiousBlog

As you know we placed an offer on a house that was contingent on the sale of our house. That contingency was only for 30 days, which ran out this weekend. We asked to extend the contingency by another 30 days, but the sellers wanted to change it. Basically, what they want is to keep our offer, but be allowed to list their property without mentioning it. They think that the fact that there is already a contingent offer on their house is keeping other prospective buyers away. We're going to go back to them and tell them, no, it has to stay the way it is. I imagine that they'll reject that offer and we'll be back at square one. That's ok, because it nothing really matters until we get an offer on our house. At that point, we'll be able to actually make a real offer on a house. Hopefully, the house we really like will still be on the market, but if not, oh well; there's lots more. Also, being back to square one means that if we do get an offer, we'll be able to negotiate from a much stronger position.

Here's a photo of my new office:

My company moved to a new building this weekend. Our old offices were pretty run-down, so it's a good thing that we moved. Also, I finally have my own office again. This one even has a window and I was able to buy an actual standing desk instead of the MacGuyver system of shelves and wood planks that I had been using. It's quite a change from the cave that has been serving as my office. If I remember tomorrow, I'll take and post a picture of the new digs.

In celebration of the move, and as a proper send-off to the old office, one of the subsidiary companies held an office pentathalon. When I was first told about it, it was made clear that this was an excuse to do a little damage (anyone moving in would probably be knocking down the walls anyway), but that apparently got around to the wrong people who put the kibosh on that. So, the pentathalon became more of just a series of silly games. But, one of the original games managed to stay on the list: the office chair race, which turned into the office movers crate and dolly race.

The race was run by a pair of teammates: one in the crate on the dolly, and one to push. For my team, I was the one in the crate. We decided that to win, we'd need to maintain full speed through the finish line. The problem was that the finish line was only about 4 feet from a wall. So, the plan was to just spin me a little so that I could throw my shoulder into the wall and stop. The results were better than expected:

I basically went through the outside drywall, knocked a stud (lightweight metal one, not a 2x4) off it's base, and broke the interior drywall and ended up halfway into the office beyond. It was awesome. Our time came in at 13.2 seconds, putting us well in the lead. Sadly, the team after us, the last team, learned from our technique and came in at 12.8 seconds, beating us by a mere four tenths of a second. That team's crate rider was almost entirely in the office.

Man, that was fun.

The office controller wasn't too happy about the whole thing, but the event was sanctioned by the company's CEO (I'm not exactly sure what his position is, but he's #2 in the company), so we were in the clear. The next day, an email went out making sure that everyone knew we weren't actually allowed to put holes in the walls, which was really too bad. I've been wanting to tear down this one cubicle wall that's somehow become a little wobbly.

Due to the craziness of getting ready for the move, we didn't have too much time to commit many more acts of hijinks. I had wanted to label random funny things so that the movers would move them into some unsuspecting employee's office, but the only thing I got around to labeling was a small box of maxi-pads that I'm hoping made it to my boss's office. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Gary and I also had a little fun with a roll of old-school fax paper. Gary held the roll at one corner of the office (near KCI customer service, for those of you who work/have worked with me) and I ran holding it above my head all the way to the opposite corner of the building (NIBM). Here's a picture of the last bit of the run:

Here's a video from start to finish that I took with my phone: Click for video (It's a weird format, so I don't know what to tell you if it doesn't work for you. It worked for me, so I'm assuming it should work for most people.)

So, good riddance old building!

I've been walking at work for several weeks now, so it feels like it's time for an update.

At first, I was planning to just start walking while keeping everything else the same (diet, other exercise, etc.), but once I started with the walking and started getting healthier, my plans changed. I've now edged dangerously close to being a health nut. I will probably never become a true health nut, due to the fact that I just despise vegetables and most healthy food, but I have found ways to eat better and with fewer calories.

Probably the biggest change is that I now drink very little soda. In fact, I drink mostly water, which is a massive change for me. I don't really like water, but I've forced myself to drink it and have actually grown to tolerate it. I started counting my calories a while ago and a friend pointed out that if I just started drinking water when I was thirsty instead of soda or juice, I could cut close to a thousand calories out of my diet in one fell swoop. So, I did it. I still drink a Sprite Zero or two a day and an occasional 'real' soda, but water now makes up the majority of my liquid intake. Today, I even started adding lemon to the water. Apparently, lemon is a natural wonder-food; it aids in digestion helping your body to absorb more nutrients, does great things for the liver, cleans out your system, relieves headaches, and more. It's not particularly wonderful to drink, but I figure that if I force myself to drink it, I'll get used to it and eventually crave it when I drink non-lemonated water. Limes also do good stuff, so maybe I'll start squeezing some lime in my water, too.

In addition to the water, I've started trying to eat more high-protein foods and replacing fast-acting carbs with slow-acting carbs. So, here's a typical day of eating for me (up to the end of the workday):

• Breakfast, part 1 (around 7:30): 4 eggs worth of EggBeaters (high protein, low calorie, low cholesterol)
• Breakfast, part 2 (between 10:30 and 11): A couple packets of lower sugar or weight control instant oatmeal (slow-acting carbs, whole grain), usually with a handful of raisins. Now, raisins aren't particularly good for you since they have a lot of sugar, but it's natural sugar, and I only eat about a quarter to a half cup a day, and they're great in oatmeal, so I allow it.
• Lunch (as late as I can stand it, which is usually between 1:30 and 2): A chicken breast or a tuna sandwich (very little light-mayo) and some fruit or something.
• Afternoon snack: I get really hungry near quitting time, so I usually have a little snack around 4:00 or so. I used to always get a candy bar and a soda, but have mainly replaced these with something a little healthier. Usually this is a granola bar (again with the whole grains), but yesterday I had some peanuts.

By splitting breakfast up into two parts and eating lunch later, I find that I'm rarely hungry during the day, so I don't have too many urges to snack. The protein and slow-acting carbs help with that, too. By the time I go home, I've only consumed around 1100-1200 calories, so I'm able to have a good dinner and still not break 2500 calories (which is what I've read is the magic intake level to lose weight for someone my height). I don't typically remember to keep track of my dinner calories, though.

Back to walking: As expected, I've found that it has become easier the longer I do it. So, I find that now I have no problem walking the entire day. Also, I've upped the speed that I walk. At first, I was hovering around 1.5 miles per hour, but now my normal all-day speed is just over 2 MPH. Additionally, I'll bump that speed up for a half hour or so here and there to get my heartrate up a little. In the beginning, I had thought that 7 or 8 miles a day would be the max I would do, but yesterday I did 11 or 12 (I'm not exactly sure, because I forgot to jot the odometer readings throughout the day but this is my, pretty conservative, estimate based on time spent walking and speeds walked). At that rate, I burn a majority of the calories that I eat during the day.

In addition to walking, yesterday I started an exercise routine that I do before I leave for work in the morning. My plan is to workout on the Total Gym (resistance training) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and to swim Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays. I'm only two days in, so I'll let you know how well I keep to this routine.

So far, I've lost about 15 pounds and dropped a couple percent in body fat. I feel pretty good, too, other than my feet are sore a lot. Apparently, lemons can help with that, too, though.

I discovered some apple photos I took back in February 2004. These were shot with my previous camera, a Fuji S602z pro. I remember not liking any of them at the time I shot them, but now I quite like these two. I posted the first one to 18percent, but the slightly-off rotation of the plate in the second one kept me from posting it there, too.