Back in February of 2009 I decided that I needed to get into shape. I was already turning into a shape that I didn’t want to be… round. I borrowed a friend’s P90X workout program and minus the strict diet portion of the program I decided that I was going to stick to it no matter what. First off, let me tell you that this program is not for that faint of heart or for those who just want a quick and light workout routine. It’s also not for someone who doesn’t want to work out hard, feel the burn and be sore a few days after the workout. If that’s you then don’t even think of starting the P90X program.

Unfortunately, I never made it through the entire 90 days of the program. In fact, I probably made it two months top, before stopping for a long period of time then starting back at day 1 again. I actually did that a couple of times. It was hard because I didn’t have anyone to do it with. Working out with a partner is probably the best way to stay motivated. If one person doesn’t feel like working out that day then it’s the other person’s obligation to kick them in the butt and get ‘em going. When I started Ally and I worked out together, but since we were doing it at home after a while it became very easy to take a night off and relax together. However, eventually, the working out stopped all together. First we stopped working out together (I think Ally didn’t like me pushing her harder than she wanted to go), then Ally stopped (mainly because of having to study for school), then I stopped (because I got lazy and didn’t want to do it anymore). I would like to mention that during the time I was doing the program I did notice that I felt better, I had more energy, and I did start to get into better shape by losing a little weight and putting on some muscle. Every day activities even started getting easier.

Months went by and toward the end of the September it was brought to my attention that I really needed to start working out again. I didn’t think I looked all that bad, but it took a good, long look at myself (figuratively and literally) to see that I had gotten complacent in my every day routine of not doing anything to stay in shape. I realized that I needed a change. I thought if I attempted the P90X routine again the same thing would happen so I needed more incentive to keep working out. Sfter contemplating it for just a little while I went out and joined a gym. I figured that if I was paying to work out and I passed the location 5 days a week on my way to work and home then I wouldn’t have any excuses. Up until just recently it has worked.

For the first two or three weeks I did nothing but run. Some days I would run before and after work 5 miles at a time. I got blisters bigger than my head on my feet but I lost 10 lbs in less than fourteen days! During that third week I realized that I needed to be doing more than just a bunch a cardio. Sure I was losing weight, but I was also losing muscle mass. I picked up the Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises, formulated a work out routine and started to live on lean proteins like albacore tuna, turkey and chicken, steamed veggies, and water.

I went the entire months of October through February working out a minimum of 3-4 days a week and cut out all of the junk food in my life. I stopped drinking soda. I stopped eating popcorn and ice cream (two thing I LOVE). I stopped eating hamburgers and french fries. I also cut out drinking alcohol. I know you may think that having a beer or two every now and again isn’t a big deal but how many times do you buy a six pack and have it completely gone in more than a month? Almost never, right? Usually it’s gone in a few days. Each bottle of beer has unnecessary calories and it has no nutritional value at all. I think maybe I cut back to something like one beer a month, and that was only as a reward while eating a healthy dinner. Liquors are even worse than beer. More calories in a smaller serving. Trust me, if you want to see results, you’ll want to stay away from as much junk food as much as possible.

My diet consisted of a protein shake, two eggs, and a slice plain whole grain toast for breakfast, oatmeal a couple of hours later, followed with a can of albacore tuna mixed with steamed veggies for lunch, a few pieces of baked chicken or turkey about an hour before leaving work, a recovery drink after working out, and baked fish and steamed veggies for dinner. I know it seems like a lot but you don’t eat to fill up. You eat to keep your metabolism up. When you eat small, healthy meals 5-6 times a day your body’s metabolism never stops thus helping you shed the bad fat. I admit that after a couple of weeks of eating completely healthy I’d reward myself with a couple of scoops of ice cream or frozen yogurt or even the very occasional hamburger. Trust me, it’s good to reward yourself every now and again, if you don’t you’ll go crazy. Nothing says you have stop eating what you love, you just have to pay closer attention to what your eating and how much of it you consume. Another thing to do is drink lots and lots of water. Any time you feel hungry between meals throw back a bottle of water. It’ll give you that feeling of being full without compromising your diet. The only downside to all of the water is amount of time you spend peeing. However, it’s worth it.

Before going on, let me point out that I’m not a personal trainer or a nutritionist or a health expert. These are things that I decided to do on my own that happened to work for me. The only reason I’m sharing it is to share what I have learned over the course of the last 6 months.

There was a week in December that I didn’t work out. It was the Holiday season and we were out of town. I did, however, play basketball a few times that week so that made up for any days I missed in the gym. When Ally and I got back home from Kentucky after the New Year I went straight back to working out. Sadly, I haven’t done any working out since March 13 this year, not even a push up. However, I was over a friend’s house last night and did about 6 sets of pull-up variations. It made me want to get back in the gym right away. So, back on February 22 Ally drove to Kentucky to start her preceptorships (it’s basically curriculum required internship) for school. This is an eight week process and we’ve been apart since then. On March 20 we met in Nashville for a weekend. You can read about that here. I took a week off before meeting up with her so I wouldn’t be sore (plus I had a lot going on) and I’ve been so busy trying to get our house in order to sell so I didn’t get back to the gym right away. My diet has also gone down the drain. I’ve been drinking soda and eating donuts and pizza. I think it’s time to get back to my routine. I feel guilty about not working out plus I feel much more tired than normal. It’s not fair to my body or my bank account to just stop going to the gym.

You can see that a year ago I a little “loose in the cage” and after only 3 or 4 months or taking better care of myself I look and feel much better. It’s funny that when you think everything is fixed and okay how easy it is to give up a routine that you had adopted for a few months. That has been the case for me. My goal is to get a certain amount of things crossed off of my to-do list at home then make it a point to back in the gym as soon as I can. I think I owe myself that much.

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…. I’d also like to say that putting in the effort to work out really pays off when at some point you take off your shirt in front of your significant other and under their breath you hear them say, “damn.” Yeah… my wife and I have been together for almost 12 years and that’s the first time I’d ever gotten that kind of reaction from her. It feels good to know that the hard work isn’t going unnoticed or unappreciated. …

Ally and I decided that it had been four weeks without seeing each other face-to-face (Skype chats don’t count) that we’d met up for a weekend. Nashville seemed like the most logical city that was close enough to smack dab in the middle of both of us. It turned out that I had a 5 1/2 hour drive to her 3 hour drive but I was okay with it. I arrived in Nashville first and checked into the hotel a bit early. As I was walking out to the car to get my thing I met Ally in the parking lot walking towards me. It was probably the best timing we’ve ever had when meeting each other.

After getting settled into the hotel room we decided to go downtown to eat lunch and see what was going on. After driving around for what seemed like forever trying to find a parking space we finally gave up and parked in a garage for $10. The meters were priced at $.25 per ten minutes which is highway robbery. There was some kind of event going on downtown but we had no idea what it was or why there were so many people downtown, and neither one of us cared to ask anyone. We grabbed lunch at the original Broadway Brewhouse. It was okay but we decided it would be a much better place if we were there at night with a bunch of friends drinking beer instead of on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. It’s just one of those places that is better enjoyed with a crowd of your closest friends.

After lunch we wanted to go see the Parthenon. Centennial Park was packed! Again, we drove around searching for a parking spot and when we realized we didn’t have enough cash for admittance into the Parthenon we decided we come back later. Then we realized by the time we would have been able to come back it would have already been closed. So we missed out on seeing that. We retreated back to the hotel room after a few hours of moseying around Nashville and just spent time laying in bed together enjoying each others company. That was something that both of us was looking forward to.

That night we went across the street to Caney Fork Fish Camp restaurant for dinner. Ally ordered shrimp and grits, I had a 3 piece fish dinner and we split fried green tomatoes. Even though the place was quite large on the inside the atmosphere was cozy and there was live Bluegrass music. If there’s one thing you don’t know about me, it’s that I absolutely love Bluegrass music, especially when it’s being played right in front of me. There’s something about the sound of a banjo, fiddle and the occasional harmonica that takes me back to my childhood at my Granny’s in a holler of the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Kentucky, that I just can’t get enough of. After dinner we retired back tot he hotel room and enjoyed watching my Kentucky Wildcats stomp a mud-hole in Cornell. We didn’t even watch the last 5 minutes of the game. Instead we decided to focus on each other and enjoying our time together.

We spent the majority of our rainy Sunday at the Opry Mills Mall just walking around. That place is absolutely huge! We walked around it twice and by the time we were finished I think our feet were ready to just fall off. It’s one thing to just walk or jog any distance it’s another to go that kind of distance at a “mall stroll” pace. It’s painful. We picked up a few things. Ally got a new white jacket, which she wore later than night, and we bought some orange peels dipped in dark chocolate. YUM! Ally wanted to buy New Moon but in that entire mall though, there is not one store that sells music or DVD’s. Crazy, I know.

That night after resting our feet for a while we decided to take a shuttle over to the Opryland Hotel and do some more walking. We got over there a little late and almost all of the restaurants had closed but it was still very nice to walk around inside that place. It’s gargantuan and gorgeous to boot. They even had a little water show that we sat and watched. It was no Bellagio fountain but it was still really cool and fun to watch.

Monday was a sad day. It was a day that we had to part ways. She went back to Kentucky and I came back south to Alabama. But first we had lunch at Rotier’s Restaurant. If you’re ever in Nashville I highly recommend eating at this hidden gem. It’s a hole in the wall, and it’s very easy to miss, but boy the food there is good. It’s almost as if you can taste the love that goes into making every dish. If there’s one thing that makes Ally and I both happy it’s good food, and this place it worth it. They have something for everyone there.

All in all, our weekend in Nashville was a hit. I hated to see it come to an end but on the up side it means that we’re only that much closer to moving back home to Kentucky. At the time I’m writing this there is only 17 more days until Ally and I get to see each other again. In the mean time I’m keeping myself busy by finishing the bathroom remodel and packing up boxes at home. I haven’t worked out in two and half weeks and I feel lazy for not going to the gym, but with everything that has to be done it’s hard to make time to do it.

That’s it for now. I’ll try to update when I can, but like I keep saying things have been so crazy busy so sitting down to update the blog hasn’t been high on the priority list. Right now, enjoy the fountain show below. Oh, and yes, we were INDOORS!

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I’ve been receiving inquiries about the house from future Tuskegee Vet students but the only bad news about it is that all of them are asking about leasing the house, not buying it. Still, it’s better than nothing at all. I’d rather sell the house but as I’ve stated before I’ll take what I can get and if leasing the property is all I can get then I’ll do it. The last thing I want to do is be left with a house payment that I’m not even living in and have no plans to even living in it again. This weekend I’ll be installing ceramic tile in the bathroom with the help of some friends and hopefully by Sunday I’ll have a fully functional bathroom again. The last couple of weeks I’ve been washing my hands and brushing my teeth in the kitchen. It’s not bad, just not convenient. Today was the first day of the year that I did yard work. With the weather starting to warm up and the rain that we’ve been getting clovers and other patches of “green” are starting to pop up all over the yard. It’s supposed to rain again soon so I thought I’d get the weed-eater out and take care of some trim work. I was able to get what I wanted done just before running completely out of gas and daylight.

The End of Project SansShave

This last weekend Ally and I met in Nashville for a few days. I had gone 27 days without shaving my beard. Believe it or not I received many compliments on it and I eventually gut used to the itchiness of it but I knew Ally would be my biggest critic. She said that she liked the way it looked on me, but as soon as I kissed her she said the thing had to go. I didn’t shave it completely, I just trimmed it down so it was bearable for her. I haven’t decided if I’m going to let it grow out until I see her again, but I do know that whatever I do or don’t do I’m not going to be taking pictures of the progress. I think the only way I’ll do that again is if I decide to go months without shaving. Who knows maybe I can get some friends in on the action and we have a beard growing contest or something. Also… be on the lookout for my time lapse video of the day to day progression coming soon.

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I had been telling her that we have plenty of time to find a house, but the more I think about it, the less time we have. She’ll be home in 6 weeks and 2 1/2 weeks after that she graduates. We’re talking less than 60 days here people. The last time I spoke with her about it on Saturday I told her that the worst-case-scenario would mean that after her graduation we would stay down here as long as it took to get our current house sold and into a new one in Kentucky. She didn’t react to that very well. Her exact response was “Bullshit, we’ll move into my mom’s house before I stay in Alabama any longer than I have to.” Well, that’s settled. I guess we’ll be moving out of Alabama shortly there after Mother’s Day this year no matter what the circumstances are.

I have yet to find a Realtor to sell the house we’re in now. It’s hard when you live in a town where no one else lives. Not a lot of people know the area, and there aren’t a bunch of incentives for moving there. 4 years ago we had great incentives on moving into our house. We needed a place to live, quickly, it was close to Tuskeegee Vet School and Auburn, and it was affordable. I’m hoping to find a buyer that has similar needs. That will make selling the house much easier. I’m not even looking for a profit on the house. If I can sell it for what I bought it for I’ll be happy. If I can make a little profit to put down on the next house we buy I’ll be even happier. Download the Flier, spread the word and give to anyone you may know looking for a house in Alabama.

The Bathroom “Remodel”

I spent Sunday tearing the floor up in the bathroom. Originally the plan was to just replace the sink and vanity. However, after removing the old sink and placing the new one in it’s spot I learned that the new sink and vanity’s base is smaller than the old one thus revealing an unfinished floor. When the flooring was put down in the bathroom it was put around the sink not underneath of it. It’s not all bad though. I wanted to replace the bathroom floor in the first place. It needed it. I was actually letting my wife win by just replacing the sinks but now I have to put in a new floor. So score one for the husband, right? Well, kinda. She still wins b/c she doesn’t have to help me at all. She’s not here to. I get to do it all myself. That ‘W’ I just got looks more like a ‘TIE’ now, and only weird sports end in ties. So yesterday I spent a few hours pulling all of the old linoleum up and scraping up anything that wouldn’t just pull up with a flat head screw driver. It’s all I had to use. Now the bathroom doesn’t have a sink and three quarters of the floor has been ripped up. I haven’t pulled up the stuff around the toilet yet. I’m not doing that until I’m ready to install the new floor. This week I get to go pick out a new floor. The material and pattern is yet to be decided, but as long as it’s affordable and easy to install I’ll buy it. Emphasis on “easy to install.” By this Sunday I should have a relatively brand new bathroom which hopefully should help me sell the house.

Beard Update

Here’s an update on “Project SansShave.” Man, that’s really not the best name. I thought it would be clever because ’sans’ is Latin for without but it’s really not that clever. Anyway…. Today is the 15th day in row without shaving. The beard is actually starting to get a bit softer around the chin and the cheeks but the hair on the upper lip is still a bit prickly. Also, I’ve started taking my picture with my digital camera instead of the web cam on my MacBook Pro. I don’t know why I didn’t do that to begin with. I think it was b/c with the web cam I could see myself and now I have to just point and shoot with the digital camera. The good thing is I can take as many images as it takes and delete what I don’t use. Plus the photos are much clearer and provides better lighting. Ah, the advantages of digital photography. Also, as I look through the photos in some of them I’m wearing a hat and in others I’m not. If I do something like this again, I have got to make a choice b/c when flipping through them all it’s kind of distracting to see this blue thing on my head flash by. Oh well. You live and you learn right?

Until next time kiddos, tell your friends about me or, even better if you have a friend that needs to hire a graphic designer, tell them about me.

It’s been a little over a week since I last gave an update on “Project SansShave”. For any of you that have no idea what I’m talking about let me recap for you. A couple of weeks ago my wife left home and went to Kentucky to work at some internships for school. She’ll be gone for 8 weeks total and so far it’s only been 10 days. Since she’s not here, and I have no chance of kissing her, I’m not shaving my face. I’m staying groomed but until I see her the facial hair will continue to grow. The longest I think I’ve ever gone before without shaving is probably between 10 and 14 days. This time I’ll not be shaving for at least 4 weeks minimum. In the mean time I’m taking a picture of myself every day and when the project is over I’ll put together a quick little time lapse video. It’s nothing new but I’ve never done it, so it’s new to me. I may even sculpt different styles of beards once I decide to shave it just to see what I look like with each style. Again, nothing new but I’ve never done it. Check out Jon Dyer’s Blog and see what he does every year with his beard. It’s actually quite awesome.

So Ally’s birthday is in a couple of weeks and we’re going to meet in Nashville. It will make dealing with the 4 to 5 weeks after that a little more bearable. I’ll be driving up there with all the fur on my face. That way Ally can decide whether or not she wants to spend a weekend with bearded me or non-bearded me. She likes the way I look with facial hair, she actually prefers it, but she just doesn’t like how it feels when we kiss. Though, since I’ve never gone 4 weeks without shaving before maybe by that time the beard will be soft enough to endure. I was told by two people today that it looked good on me too. It’s funny, but after looking back at the Day 1 Photo I think I was made to have at least a few days growth on my face. I just look weird without it.

On a different note the website is starting to look more and more like a real website huh? I finally added some links to give visitors the option to subscribe to the blog either by email or their favorite RSS feed, I’m starting to get the sidebar in order, and the more posts I make the more content I have and hopefully that will inspire some more traffic. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but unfortunately it’s hard to make time to do it so I work on it when I can.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed by clicking on of the links over on the right…… and tell your friends dammit!

Today was a day of upsets in college basketball. First Notre Dame upsets #13 Georgetown, then #17 Tennessee gives it to #2 Kentucky and finally Oklahoma State takes down the big man on campus, #1 Kansas. In my last post I wrote that if Kentucky played the way they played against South Carolina on Thursday they couldn’t be beat and if they didn’t play well then “Well, we’ll see.” Today, what I hoped wouldn’t happen, happened.

The Vols came into the game out for blood. They hadn’t beaten Kentucky in their last 4 meetings and today they took control from the very beginning. The big three for Kentucky (Patterson, Wall, Cousins) all had decent games but only Wall stepped up when the Cats needed it the most. Down by 19 at one point, Wall almost single-handedly brought Kentucky back even with the Vols with under 5 Minutes left in the game. But unfortunately a couple of missed shots and turnovers later and the Vols had captured their well deserved W.

I’ll break it down real quick to three reasons why Kentucky lost this game. 1) Officiating in the first half was horrendous (on both sides). I grew up around basketball and have played the sport ever since I could walk and I know better than to blame the officials for the outcome of a game but anyone with two eyes could have seen how many calls were missed in the first half. 2) The Cats couldn’t throw a rock into the ocean if they were standing in a boat in the middle of the Atlantic. 35% from the field and only 2 of 22 (9%) from deep. 3) Tennessee just out played Kentucky. Plain and simple, they wanted it more.

Do I think that all of the upsets today will have an impact on the rankings next week? Maybe, but does it really matter? Only to Notre Dame because they may have written their ticket into the big dance, but otherwise no. However, because Kansas lost to an un-ranked team and Kentucky lost to ranked team, logically what should happen is Kentucky should move back into the #1 spot, Kansas should go to #2 and Syracuse and Purdue should switch positions to #3 and 4 respectively.

On the positive Kentucky is 27-2. Most people wouldn’t see that as a positive, but I do. The team is so young they really haven’t known what losing is. Plus, this game was the first game they’ve played from behind for the entire game, had to chase the other team to catch up and actually had a a great chance to pull out the win. Trust me, the first game against South Carolina the Cats didn’t have a chance. If they have a chance of making a run for the Championship this year, maybe this loss was the experience they needed. Every team would love to go undefeated and there’s no such thing as a a good loss or a much needed loss, but there are experiences to learn from and between you and me, this was just such an experience.

This is something I don’t normally do in “print” but I think after last night’s home win against the South Carolina Gamecocks I can’ help but talk about how well the Kentucky Wildcats played. Let me first start off by saying what an incredible effort and performance the Wildcats had as a team last night. This is one of the most hard fought games I’ve seen them play all year. They were firing on all cylinders and only during a few times in the game did Kentucky let it’s foot slightly off the gas pedal.

From the opening tip you could tell that the Kentucky wanted nothing more than to, not hand a loss to, but shove a loss down the Gamecock’s throats. They were out for blood and they got it. After a disappointing performance from Patrick Patterson in their first meeting back in January he opened this game with a three-pointer on a pass from John Wall. A three-pointer that was shot without any hesitation and more confidence than I’ve see from him all year. Believe it or not, that shot along with his defensive rebound on the previous possession set the tone for the rest of the game.

I’m not going to give you a ton of stats and numbers, and tell you that this person did that and that player did this but I am going to give you something else. The last three games Patrick Patterson has been playing the best basketball of his collegiate career. Coach Calipari has asked him to step up and Patterson has gladly obliged. You can see him demand the ball in the post, he’s more active than ever on the boards and getting to loose balls, and he nearly always seems to be in the right place at the right time (especially last night). Patterson finished the game with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, & 2 steals in 33 minutes of play. He hit 2 of 3 from the charity stripe and shot a ridiculous 10 of 12 from the field. That’s a unbelievable 83%! No wonder he’s among the NCAA’s top players in field goal percentage. Despite being shadowed by the likes of the “Fab Freshmen” this year, Patterson is still my favorite player on this team. (Followed by DeAndre Liggins – more why later). Patrick is the glue that holds the Cats together. Sure, John Wall is a tremendous play maker, has the ball 80% of the time and runs the offense, and DeMarcus Cousins is beast inside that no force on college basketball can contain right now, but if you take Patterson out of the mix the Cats are going to have a harder time winning.

If you look back to the beginning of the season when Wall was averaging 17+ points a game and hitting game winning shots and opposing teams hadn’t even started to figure out how to contain Cousins, Patterson was playing well, but he was deferring way too much to his teammates. Yes the Cats were winning, but they weren’t winning their non-conference games the way should have been winning. The majority of those game should have been blow outs and I believe had Patterson been more of a factor in those games they would have been.

I said I wasn’t going to spout stats at you but let’s look at last nights numbers as proof. I’ve included the starters and a key reserve, DeAndre Liggins. He brings more energy with him to the court than any player I’ve seen in years and I absolutely love it. I remember telling my best friend early in the season last year to watch out for Liggins because he would turn into something special. I saw potential in him and I’m so glad he’s proving me right.

John Wall: 12pts /05reb /4asst /0blk /2stl /6to’s
DeMarcus Cousins: 19pts /11reb /2asst /0blk /0stl /1to’s
(Cousins also only had 2 personal fouls!)
Eric Bledsoe: 08pts /02reb /2asst /2blk /0stl /2to’s
Darius Miller: 07pts /08reb /1asst /2blk /0stl /0to’s
Patrick Patterson: 23pts /08reb /0asst /4blk /2stl /0to’s
DeAndre Liggins: 07pts /02reb /1asst /0blk /2stl /0to’s

When the Kentucky Wildcat’s play this kind of balanced game they cannot be beaten. They also shot 50% from the field and 75% from the free throw line. They had 12 assists on 32 made field goals and an amazing 10 turnovers. That’s way under the norm for Kentucky this year. Cousins was right there at his season average and kept out of foul trouble enabling him to play 32 minutes. Wall didn’t have a huge game but for the Cats to win he doesn’t have to. His job is to make plays, whether it’s himself or creating for someone else, when Kentucky needs it the most, and last night he did just that. I’ve already mentioned Patterson’s huge game. Bledsoe took advantage of a sleeping or preoccupied defense at times and Miller had one of the better games I’ve seen from him this year. He made a few key shots, was a beast on the glass and had two MONSTER blocks. Click here for the box score.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s game in Knoxville against the Vols. This will be Kentucky’s last real threat of the regular season. Wayne Chism was injured this week when Tennessee played Florida and I’m not sure if he will be playing or not. Either way Kentucky will have their hands full traveling to a very hostile environment. Even if the crowd isn’t rowdy like I know they will be, the ugly ass bright orange in that arena is enough to distract anyone playing there. If the Wildcats play like they did last night they’ll win by at least 10. If not… well, we’ll see.

Since today will our first day away not much will change. I did get into work a little late today because I was helping Ally pack up the Pathfinder. Other than that, nothing is different and I doubt much will change. My routine will remain the same: Work every day, hit the gym at least 3 days a week after work, come home, feed the dogs, eat dinner, do some around-the-house chores, catch up on whatever TV or basketball games I’ve missed, go to sleep and do it all over the next day. The one large difference in my routine is that I will not be shaving my face until I see Ally again. I thought that it would make for some interesting photos that can accompany a few blog entries then at the end I can do a photo montage of sorts with the photos. Now, I’m not going to just completely let go and get all disgusting… there’s no way I could do that. I’ll continue to shave the hair that grows under my chin and trim up any spots that needs it, but in a few weeks I’ll have a full beard a mustache. It may not be very thick or impressive, but it’ll be there. I just hope that I can stand it. I’ll have to start conditioning my face to get the hair soft I guess. So wish me luck on that and I’ll keep you posted with updated pics etc.

Since we’re selling the house soon there’s still plenty of things that need to be done at home. I just have to make a list and start knocking them out one-by-one. My goal for the time February ends is to have the bathroom completely finished. We’ve already painted the walls, and scrubbed the crap out of the floor already. I need to finish repainting the trim and laying in some caulk to cover up minor paint imperfections. Then I’ll need to pull up the old linoleum floor, lay new stuff down, then install the new sink and vanity we purchased last month. Sounds like a lot, but I’m pretty sure I can get that done in 8 days. If I take it a few baby steps at a time I’ll have it done in no time.

There are other projects that need to be done. I need to touch up the paint in the bedroom, repaint a few walls in the living room and second bedroom, possibly buy a new couch and get the old one hauled away, repaint the picket fence in from of the house, sand and repaint the front door, pressure wash the awnings over the windows, lay down some more mulch in the flower bed, after planting a few flowers (I loathe landscaping by-the-way), and lay down some grass seed. When you lump it all into one sentence like that it sounds like a lot. It kind of is, but the good thing is I already have most of the materials I need, plus Ally is gone so the only distractions I’ll have are college basketball (it is almost March), video games, and my own laziness. Other than that, taking the time to do it and hoping the weather cooperates with me for the outside projects is all that is standing in my way. I may even be lucky enough to get some help on some of the projects. I hope so anyway.

To the last point of Ally being away… if you’ve ever seen the movie “40 Days & 40 Nights” starring Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon back in 2002, I’ll be going through a little bit of the same thing. Probably not as bad because I won’t be around Ally, but it will be longest drought of my adult life. Good thing I have plenty of projects to keep me busy.

Here’s to my first “real” blog post.