i’ve got some additional pages in mind and hopefully will be able to get those created soon. until then, enjoy what i’ve got up there now – at least all three of my main pages have some sort of content and not just a filler video or flickr feed

Insanity Update: i’m not sure when i’ll be able to get back into insanity – i’m out of town next week too. i’ll get er dun when i can and i’ll let you know. send me a kick in the shorts and get me motivated again, i’d sure appreciate it.

the holiday break for me was nice and relaxing. i went up to the cabin to get some fishing in – pretty low key weekend. j and the wife stayed back and so did cocoa. i got a bunch of fishing in (caught a lot of largemouth bass and small pikes, but not the crappies and walleyes we were looking for). and even slept in a couple days

it’s good to be back though; i missed being away from the family – even though it was just a couple days.

inspirational quote of the day:
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
– Henry David Thoreau

with that being said, i will not be able to get the insanity workouts in – i will be plenty active, so i’m fine with that portion of the agenda. the big question is: “what do i do when i come back?” where do i start back up with the insanity workouts? i’ll be back Tuesday night, so Wednesday AM, do i go back and re-suck at the last Wednesday workout? i think that’s what i’ll do. like i told Julie a couple days back, i don’t know what Shaun T would suggest, but this is what i’m doing. i’ll be gone various 3-4 day stints in June, so i’m not sure how this will affect my insanity workouts other than that it will. gotta stay flexible like a Romanian gymnast.

so until then, enjoy the beautiful weather (if you’re in the midwest), get outside, wet a line and most importantly, thank a serviceman/woman for giving us a reason to celebrate this weekend!

since i don’t have the Insanity workout to write about today, i figured i’d write about something different – Hardly Worth the Effort. discussing the last 10% of a project (which we’ve been working on for the last few months at work with a project). the oft-mentioned project management cliche 90% of the development time is spent on the last 10% of the project holds true to our OMR project at PF/QF.

this blog post by Seth Godin really hits home with a bunch of things going on with me. i’m digging Seth’s short and quick, deep thought provoking posts – a good morning read.

inspirational thought of the day:
“The journey is the reward.”
- Chinese Proverb

keep your eyes on the goal, but don’t forget to enjoy the journey!

From the company that brought you P90x, Beachbody, I will try the Insanity workouts. This morning i kicked it off with the fit test, and well, the one thing i can say is improvement should be fairly easy

My Results:

Switch Kicks: 50×2: 100
Power Jacks: 42
Power Knees: 69
Power Jumps: 18
Globe Jumps: 6 1/2
Suicide Jumps (burpees): 11
Push-Up Jacks: 23
Low Plank Oblique: 18×2: 36

i’ve mentioned before, that i can’t workout in my own living room… and that still holds true, so i’ve decided to utilize the fitness center for my Insanity workouts. the plan is to get up early and ‘Dig Deep’ – head over to the fitness center and get the workout in. I took the measurements and photos this morning (i’ll spare you with those details at this point).  the nutritional changes will be tough to follow, but we’ll do our best. and we’ll track progress as we move forward. Fit test again in two weeks…

Insanity – day 1: complete!

in the spirit of the new year, i believe that it is customary to rant about how last year sucked and the new year is going to be 100x better. well, last year wasn’t the greatest, but i really can’t complain. looking back at posts from the last year (and realizing the many things i didn’t post about), it was a fun time with Joseph. we were able to take some family trips to various ‘kid friendly’ places – the Como Zoo, Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater, the Children’s Museum (twice)… and still so many other things we weren’t able to do – something to look forward to in 2010.

I wouldn’t be able to do these family trips without the other member of my family, my wife. she is an amazing person who continues to impress me with her work ethic and drive to better this family. she works two jobs, is going to grad school, keeps the house in near immaculate condition and still finds time to pamper both Joseph and me on a regular basis (more Joseph, but i get mine too

And so here we are in 2010

time, being the perpetual bitch she is, has forced us into the new year – and this only 365 days since the last new year which, at this point, seems so long ago. i don’t think i’ve ever really made a new years resolutions – the term is pretty lame anyway. and i know i haven’t posted about goals and/or plans for the upcoming year, so here’s my first attempt at putting something down in print on the web – which might actually compel me to make some life changing, er, changes. in no particular order:

1. there’s no use in denying it anymore, i’ve gained unnecessary weight. i currently weigh 243lbs. by far the most i’ve ever weighed in my life. in the upcoming year, i plan on losing at least 30lbs. and how will this be accomplished?
   • i will increase my workouts in intensity and in occurrence –  i started the 100 push up challenge again this year (day four, holla!) and i will be working out in the mornings at the HS – doing workouts from CrossFit and/or CrossFit Football and the BFS strength program.
   • i will modify my diet – this i still haven’t figured out yet. i know my dietary habits are horrible, what can i say, i like to eat. i will be obtaining a diet modification plan from a friend and will try that out (provided it’s not a ‘buy our stuff and you’ll get ripped’ kind of scheme). i will decrease the percentage of meat i eat in a meal as i do eat a lot of meat products and sometimes, just meat. i also need to boost the metabolism by decreasing the amount i eat in a sitting but eating more often.
2. i plan on spending more time on my website
   • i’ve already begun a new design (v4.0) of TDotCom, which i think is overdue
   • i would like to post at least weekly
   • i’m actually going to complete the rest of the site (about, football, projects) instead of just filler or ‘coming soon’ text
3. i will be more fiscally responsible. funds are tight – as they are across most of the US – and doesn’t sound like things are going to get better anytime soon. we’d like to get started on the savings for building our house on the land we purchased earlier this year and so some things are going to have to change
   • i’ve been pretty good with not eating out for lunches as of late, restricting my outings to once or twice a week, but we can do better – once every two weeks max – will be the new modification
   • if i can find a part-time job in the evenings that’s not a total waste of time, i will take on that additional task – anyone got anything for me?
   • i need to keep better tabs on our finances – i’ve left much to chance and placed the burden of managing everything on the shoulders of the wife. i plan on putting some time into keeping quicken up to date
4. be a better daddy and husband – pretty self explanatory, really. Joseph is a blast and his toys are getting more and more fun, so that won’t be too hard of a goal. but i do need to show my appreciation to Katie, for all of her hard work. she is an amazing woman and i am very lucky and blessed to be her man.

there are some fairly lofty goals in this list – some that i don’t have all the details on how to accomplish them – or even fully thought them out – but they’re out there in the blogosphere, on the internets and while they’re not going to be read by many, i’m hoping that by posting this i’ll be able to accomplish these goals.

After the petting zoo, Katie and i went to Interstate State Park by ourselves (Joseph went back with Grandma and Grandpa Mertz, so she and i could get some adult time). We walked a bunch of the trails – Katie took some really nice photos along the walk… check em out:

Joseph had a great time at the Como Zoo!

We started out in the conservatory – and maybe we spent a little too much time there (no animals, outside of some koy in the water) – but Joseph was diggin just spending time with mommy and daddy outside of the house (for a change). We then walked around the rest of the zoo – the big cats were sleeping when we got there, so that kind of sucked, but Joseph loved the Sea Lions swimming (photos of which we do have, but they’re on the other camera and i haven’t uploaded those yet). We saw Sparky (the VI^th and the first female sparky the Como Zoo has ever had). I thought saving the monkey place for last was going to be a good idea, but by the time we did get there Joseph was getting somewhat cranky (missed his afternoon nap). I think he liked the monkeys, even though he pointed out the lights and ventilation ducts (repeatedly) when we got into the monkey building. at least they were playing around. They had a butterfly tent thing setup as well, which we checked out. He enjoyed that bit for a little while (we got some pretty cool photos of the butterflies), but the excitement soon faded. Before we left, we got on the carousel – which i’m not sure he really was too excited about – he liked it at first, but i’m not sure about the extended circling. of course, he might’ve just been a little too focused on the drums and cymbals in the middle

At the end of the day, he fell asleep before we even left the parking lot. check out the photos below… i think he had a lot of fun – Joseph’s first trip to the zoo!

BTW, you gotta check out the video proof that he is my son (that’d be the video of him eating his cake)!

there are a couple decent photos in there!