PLANET3RRY

I had been thinking about what it would be like if Planet3rry ran for public office and just what public office it would be. It would definitely have to be more of a “No one else wants to do it” for me to actually take the job (or be elected). And I did have to run against someone, I’d definitely have to take the stance: Vote for BLANK, they’re better. Sure I’d get some sympathy votes, but that’s just the way that I roll.

I was thinking about this because of the massive amount of mudslinging that goes on during the Presidental Election. The two camps of Obama and McCain can’t poop fast enough to arm their arsenal and TV adds. It’s a He said, He Said world and so it makes other candidates such as Barr and Nader seem viable just because their not wasting their resources going overboard trying: Not too tell you how good they are, mind you, but rather how much the other candidate sucks.

And this led me to this blog and the big stinking pile of ammo against me were I to run for public office. I mean, I don’t really censor much of anything around here, when I do publish it. Sure there are things that only My Lovely and Talented Wife knows, but there are plenty of things here that would kill a political career. Although, if you can smoke crack cocaine with hookers and STILL get elected, then I might have chance with some of my antics.

I actually had to write this random post, because it’s getting in the way of me concentrating on more important things right now. So, I need to suck it out of my brain and clear the way for the week’s task at hand.

Another thing that has been going on is my weight. I changed Meds from Lexapro to Fluvoxamine and love it. It has the same anxiety power to it with less of the side effects as well. It’s a twice a day pill, but that’s fine… out of 14 pills to take, I usually only miss 1 per week, but when I do miss it I can tell. Also, as a result of this new meds, I don’t “feel” as fat and My Lovely and Talented Wife says that I don’t look at pudgy and have less Love Handles (although there’s plenty of Love to handle! RAOW!). But what is odd (besides the number 177) is that my weight has remained the same at the upper level of the 170s. In fact, just the other day, I had a patriotic weight of 177.6 and even as high at 178.8. So, I am not losing any weight, but since I feel better, it’s not a problem. Or rather, it’s less of a problem. So I am pretty happy.

The best part of the new meds is that it’s generic, so it’s only $5 as opposed to $20. SCHWINGGG!

I’m also doing some experimenting Mad Scientist drug cocktail as well. I can’t confirm or disconfirm the ingredients, dosages or other statistical methods that I am doing in my research, but I’ll be begging forgiveness on Tuesday and perhaps getting the Green Light for more research.

So, It’s a Monday… and I need to get this week started. Changes in the Theme will happen during the week. DOn’t adjust your television set if the colors and or content go crazy.

without “Rollins”

Oh wait, maybe you can. Had an eye doctors appointment today and he had to dialate my eyes. My eyes only changed slightly over a year, so although I have a “new” prescription, I didn’t need to shell out the bucks for new glasses, I think these are fashionable enough.

Two eyes on a face
Are usually enough
But triops has got
One that looks up
And one that looks around
And one to keep an eye
On the other pair of guys
Triops has three eyes
-They Might Be Giants

Well, I confirmed that Lexapro causes mysterious weight gain in people even though the medication itself is supposed to be weight neutral. Knowing what I know about Statistics… they may have orchestrated it, but without seeing their analysis it’s just a hunch.

Anyway, I found a message board where a bunch of people were complaining about gaining anywhere from 20-40 lbs using this drug. I actually found some quite humorous because they were “told by their doctor” that it wouldn’t cause weight gain. Uh, when it comes to medications, I don’t really trust ANY doctor to know ALL the side effects. Sure we know that a 4 hour erection with  Levitra/Viagra/Cialis is dangerous because it’s shown about every 2 minutes on sports related television stations. I would think that a Pharmaceutical Rep would know more about the specifics of the drug than the doctor. Not bashing doctors, but they should have a working knowledge of the drug, but I don’t expect them to know everything about every drug… there’s a ton out there. And there’s the Intertube for information… anyone heard of The GOOG?

So, I went to the all knowing Intertube to figure out what was up with that. I was pleased to know that this drug did wonders for some people (as it has for me) but they couldn’t stand the weight gain and changed drugs. Yeah… to another depression/anxiety drug that didn’t cause weight gain. *crickets chirping*

so, I know that in my Thermodynamic Diet, the medication is going to work against me. Perhaps I should take up some Crystal Meth for some weight loss. Nah, I’ll go Old Skool with some Speed. Actually, I am going to go a little different and pump up my workout schedule and race schedule. I’m not really going to increase my running (as that would lead to injury) but I am DEFINITELY going to get into marathon training. I DEFINITELY going to do some more multi sport activity. AND, I am DEFINITELY going to go to the Spa more often.

Wah? Go to the Spa? Sure! This past Monday, My Lovely and Talented Wife went to the spa for Date Night. Now, ladies, before you get all ooie-gooie over the fact that I took My Lovely and Talented Wife for a Double Massage… I had help from my Mom. Yeah, I’m not that much of a forward Date Thinker to do that all by myself. Of course, now that “Double Massage” is in my memory banks, it’s a NOUN in my Mab Lib Life. PLus, the fact that I get to be naked (technically covered with a sheet) with THREE other women in the room getting rubbed down by someone other than My Lovely and Talented Wife…  uhhhh…errrr….yeah. Be hard to forget that one.

Where the hell was I? Oh yeah. Weight.

So my Initial Reading on the Weight Scale of DOOOOM was 175.6. My goal should be somewhere around 165-167. Apparently, even working out 5-7 days a week with a 1800 calories diet didn’t help one person (which is freaky) on the med. So I need to make sure that I eat smarter… or rather strategically. I going to to workout more to lose weight, but in the process my body is going to demand more calories which won’t go away as fast because of the meds, which will make me workout even more which will… Dizzy Yet?

First thing I need to do is limit the amount of candy bars I eat. Yeah, that’s a no brainer there. I also need to portion control better than I have been and make better decisions when eating out. I’ll also need to move into Grazer mode rather than Feast and Snack mode.

Hmmm… another 25 would put me in the Clydesdale category for races.

No, this isn’t a reference to the running movie Run, Fat Boy, Run. No, this is reference to yours truly. And technically, I know that I am not “Fat” but according to the National Institute of Health, I am officially overweight. I know this because my Doctor called me and told me.

He also told me that my cholesterol was back up and that I needed to Eat Better and Lose Some Weight.

Yay.

Tomorrow… or actually, probably this morning for my regular readers. I will get my morning sans clothing weight and that will be my baseline for my weight loss. [ed. I did get this and it will be in a subsequent post]

I think Stacie is right in the fact that the meds are a culprit of the weight gain. I do need to research to see how much of the weight gain is a result of the medication or if it is making me hungry and thus I grab that extra Snickers bar and get some extra Fat grams there.

As a scientist (I have a piece of paper that kinda suggest I know something of the sciences), I beleive that all diets can be broken down to one thing: Thermodynamics. Just like everything moving in the natural world (paranormal probably acts differently) can be broken down to Vectors, dieting is nothing more than Thermodynamics. Lost? Let me translate: Count Calories.

Food is nothing more than energy. This energy is represented by calories. Some have high calories some have low calories. Calories are calories… but some material mass in food has different amount of calories. Fat has 9 calories, Protein 4, Carbs 9 calories. So, I need to see how many calories I am taking each day and making sure that 1) I am getting enough for my lifestyle and that 2) I’m not going over board on excessive calories. As much as Hallie would argue, you can’t live on a Vitamin pill and Diet Coke alone.

Now, as an athlete, I do have a little advantage here. On days that I have a rigorous exercise, I can eat a few more calories and I can be less picky from the source of the calories. If I get my metabolism furnance hot enough, I can burn it off, to some extent.

Back in 2003, when The Elder was born, I had gained a few pounds and had my sympathy maternity weight and I was pushing about the same size that I am now around 172-178. For about 6 weeks that fall, I did this crazy diet. I made it all the way to 159 and I felt like crap. I couldn’t run fast, but I was thin… I’ll have to break out my times and see how it did affect me. I think an ideal weight for me is about 163-165… I would still be “Overweight” according to “The Government” but I know that is more of a function of my muscles more than fat.

I think now, I am definitely going to participate in some extra races this spring to help with burning the calories. Plus, I’ll switch to some more Salads because they are Gluten Free and Casein Free if you order them right.

The past two weeks have been up and down for me. I’ve been stressed out for a number of reasons, none of which were any huge things, just lots of medium sized stuff that made things tough.

Taxes - We are still waiting to get our taxes done. Waiting for that K1 from the In-Law Parents. Obviliously an extension has been filed on our behalf, but for someone who likes to have everything done when it’s supposed to be done (read: Rule Boy). It’s very stressful to be at the mercy of someone else to get my stuff done. So, that’s passed.

Financial advisers - My Lovely and Talented Wife’s networking group has a financial planner who we started working with and seeing what could be done. We have family support and it really makes sense to have someone help guide you for the future. It’s even better when they are objective (i.e. not a family member or close friend) because if you don’t agree with the advice, there’s no hard feelings. Life is pretty strange. We have to get all kinds of certificates to prove that we are educated, able to drive a car, fly a plane, perform CPR. However, there is no required education to 1) Be a Parent or 2) Manage your Money. That’s so illogical, I want to throw up. At least with the Financial Advisers, getting the papers together wasn’t all that bad because I was already getting them for the taxes. I think I would enjoy being a financial adviser, because I like the Helping People part… but 1) I’d be so paranoid about giving the wrong advice and 2) I like to dress nice, but I don’t want to wear a suit everyday.

Trading - I’ve tried to update my New Trading blog, but that has been slow. Part of the reason is that I totally got hammered with April options. I basically lost 60% of my portfolio. Yeah, that’s Sixty… the big reason is that I didn’t have a plan for getting out of the trades if they went against me. I was Gunslinging. I should have only lost 12% but I wasn’t trading according to my plan and basically froze. So, I am in rebuilding mode…

Gardening - Gardening is not one of my Aspergian Special Interests, but it’s something that I enjoy. I am in the process of making a small garden in my Side Yard. I’ll get pictures. I did start some starter seeds of Pumpkin, Squash, Zinnias, Sunflowers. I’ve lost almost all of them because I wasn’t ready… So, I rescued what I could and started some new seeds. We’ll see if my thumb is green, I might have to get the green sharpie out.

Running - I had really hoped to have placed at the Ribbon Run. I thought for sure that I would have gotten a low 23 time. But it wasn’t the case. Actually, if you breakdown my Trideltathon time, it’s a 23:27 5k equivalent time. So, after running 3.1 miles the day before, swimming 400 meters, riding 6 miles, THEN I run the pace I wanted to… go figure. The plan now will be an attempt at a 5k PR time at the Run for the Deaf on May 3rd, if I don’t get the 5k time, then I will work towards a 10k PR time at the Expo 10k at the end of May.

Doctors - In the past 10 days, I’ve seen my Brain Doc and my Body Doc. My Body Doc is doing my 6 month cholesterol check up (I’m borderline high in the low 200s) and he made a comment about my weight. Yeah, I know… you’re so skinny… or something to that affect. Well, in November last year I was around 162. I’m now around 175ish. I know I posted a blog in relatively recent past about my weight. I’ll be interested to see what he says about my Cholesterol, but for now, I need to start thinking about managing my weight.

My brain doctor and I agreed that I should increase my anxiety med a little, mainly because with everything that has been going on, plus the summer will be less predictable. It’s my plan that when The Elder gets back to school, I can go back to the lower dose… maybe even sooner.

Charity - I am in the process of creating a new charity. I’ve bought the domain and am working with my Web Genius to get the website up and running. I’ll see with the Financial Advisers about getting it classified as a legit 501(c)3 organization so that you can write off donations as tax deductions. I’ve wanted to create something like this for a while now and now all the pieces fell into place.

Palm - My Palm T|X touchscreen has been going crazy. Out of the few “coverall” insurance add on scams plan that I have purchased. This one might come in handy.

As some of my regular readers know, my biological father had MS which started sometime when he was in his mid-30s. His degeneration last until April 20, 2006 when his heart finally gave out and he won his battle over MS. I had always wanted to run the Quad Cities Marathon because then he could see me run a marathon. He participated in my Guess My Time contest in March of 2006 for my running of the Knoxville Marathon and commented that “Neither him nor his wheelchair could last the 26.2 miles.”

In one of those weird, almost spooky, coincidence… his cemetery is adjacent to Mile 20 of the Quad City Marathon Course. He is buried in a military cemetery on Rock Island Arsenal and the current course crosses Rock Island as you move from Iowa to Illinois on the marathon course.

It’s my intention to run the Quad City Marathon this late September as a memorial to him and so that my family still in the area can cheer me on while I run. Unfortunately, it’s a long ride in a van or an expensive plane ride and so I am trying to raise money via my trading to finance my trip.

IN the mean time, this is MS Awareness week… so I am doing a little bit to bring awareness to MS!

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What will you do to move us closer to a world free of MS?Join the movement during MS Awareness Week, March 10 - 17!

Whether you are already a part of the movement, or looking to get involved for the first time, MS Awareness Week is the time to show your commitment to ending MS. The MS movement is all about expressing what it means to you to end MS, and every person and every action makes a difference.

Throughout the week look for simple actions you can take by clicking through our Web site. Please also contact your chapter to find out what local activities are taking place during MS Awareness Week.

Remember to continue to check the site throughout the week so you can meet just a few of the millions of people who are a part of the MS movement and making a difference every day.

Click on the Image to go to the MS Society Seven Days of Action Website

Welcome Monday. The weekend has come and gone and to some extent, I wonder where it went. Didn’t seem like it was long enough, but I think that was because MLATW was under the weather and so all of our plans were changed. MLATW has the persistent and residual crud that we all had in our household. We’ve been treating it with expectorant and cough suppressant (which seems a little backwards to me, but it does work). Hopefully sometime this week we will be back to normal at least in some regard.

Actually, we start off today with a rescheduled Doctor’s appointment and having to reschedule a financial planning meeting. So, okay, maybe this week won’t be quite normal. At least The Elder will FINALLY have a full week of school.

It also means that I will have a normal week as well (I think). Except for Friday. More on Friday in a moment. This week, I can finally get back into my workout routine. Actually, I can implement my new workout routine to incorporate brick workouts at lunch. I just have to think of what days would be appropriate for what.

Today, I ran 4 miles around a 9:10 pace. This pace is still pretty difficult for me, although I was able to make the 4 miles with only 1 short walk break. Doesn’t surprise me that I had to take the walk break, but I was happy that it wasn’t until past the halfway point in my run. That’s encouraging.

Due to some technical difficulties, Gravity@1053′ will be pushed to a release date sometime this week. Hopefully tomorrow. Since my schedule changed, I didn’t get to record my audio as planned. Then, I forgot my mic today, so I could record today as planned either! I’ll use my mobile recording studio (the car) to get most of the audio tomorrow, then fill in the rest at lunch and post production in the afternoon. Sorry for the delay, but you get what you pay for!

This coming up Friday, we are taking The Younger to get his Luke Skywalker Hand Operation.

Actually it’s not quite as cool as this. He has trigger finger and he will get that “fixed”. Basically if you pretend that you finger is a gun and you make your thumb the “trigger”… The Younger’s thumb doesn’t straighten. So, what they have to do is make 2 incisions on the base of his thumb then take a sharp-pointy thing and run it all inside to disengage the cartilage or whatever is there so that his thumb will function correctly. Hardest is part is to post surgery when the Luke The Younger is supposed to rest, he’s our in-home maniac stunt person. He’s already a hitter of sorts, so once he realizes that his cast is a great weapon for melee combat (damage +2) general walloping, he’s going to be hard to stop.

Editor’s Note: if punny references to natural bodily functions grosses you out, I suggest skipping down to the 3 starred lines, where the regular post will commence.

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“Private!”

“Status Report”

“Yes, sir! Sir, the Operation is going accordingly to plan at this point sir. Reports from the field are coming in as we speak.”

“Damn you, private. I want the reports, not some monologue!”

“Yes, sir! Our first report is from Captain Lung of the 101st Villi Division. His troops manage to break up come of the militant cells that were hiding in the pleural region, sir. He used some some Shock, Awe, Hack and Cough attacks sir to flush out the militants up to Capitan Larynx who then expelled them from the Runner.”

“Excellent, all according to plan”

“Intelligent reports that there are still some in the area, but with supply lines cut, we should be able to take them out”

“Right! What about Major Nasal, Private?”

“Sir, Major Nasal successfully fired two Snot Rockets. Two others were fired but with little success. Major Nasal reports no balant enemies running in caves.”

“Excellent! Private, Get the Rear Admiral on the horn. We have a debriefing on the release of his new submarine this afternoon.”

“Yes, Sir!”

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I did it! I actually RAN today, for the first time in like…18 days! It’s like I gave up Running for Lent or something. Actually, you could, I mean, I could really tell that I it had been a number of days since I ran. We’ll see tomorrow exactly how out of shape I am…

I ran my Market Square Fast 3 mile course, which I am very familiar with… I figured that I should try something new on my first day back. Plus, I can really gage how well I am doing.

At the 1/4 mile mark into the run, I could tell that I was going be slower than normal for this course. It felt like I was exerting myself like a Tempo Run, which isn’t surprising because that’s the pace that I seem to find if I am not monitoring my pace. Mile 1 was 9:10, which is relatively slow to my normal (or in training) pace of 7:50-8:15. what was nice is that during the run, although I wanted to stop a walk at a couple of points, I didn’t. I kept along. Mile 2 was 9:16. So at least I was being consistent.

On the last mile, I was really feeling it on the hills. They seemed to go on forever, but I still made it up. By about this time, I was warmed up all the way and on the last 1/2 mile, I could feel my body ease into a nice rhythm. I think that is why Mile 3 was a 8:52.

Given the fact that the weather is supposed to be CRAP tomorrow, I probably won’t run… which isn’t a bad thing. I need to ease back into the regular grind, plus, I have a different schedule tomorrow anyway. Thursday is a significant milestone in my running, so I will HAVE to run something on that day. Even if it is at 10 O’clock at night.

SO hopefully, I have beaten this cold thing that has been plaguing me FOREVER it seems like. Because of it, I am NOT running the Whitestone 30k on Sunday. It’s a Damn Hilly course and that’s from someone who LOVES hills. I probably will also NOT try to run the Knoxville Marathon relay. Given that what I am running now will really start to show mid-late March, I’m not going to try to run the Relay.

I will however go ahead and volunteer for the marathon. I was already asked to help as a course monitor (FUN!!!), so I will probably do that and still be part of the marathon experience. Plus with the money that I save with not running Whitestone and the Marathon Relay, I might be able to budget in some more 5k races this year. We’ll see. I am not going that far into the future quite yet.

“Private, what’s the status on the Runner?”

“Not Good General. Prognosis is still unclear.”

“Come on Private you can do better than that.”

“General Sir, the Runner has been exposed to some hostile creatures. We engaged the auto-defenses 3 weeks ago. Seems that their armor is stronger than our weapons.”

“My God Private, didn’t you use the Big Guns.”

“Yes sir, we unleash the SUNISDNADLOC in a multiple scatter pattern over a couple of days. That only took out the some of the weaker creatures. Over the weekend we launch two heavy payload CETRYZs. We got rid of most of the infantry, but some of the ranking officers are still there.”

“Private.”

“Yes Sir!”

“I am authorizing a sniper strike on the enemy’s ranking officer. I want tear gas, I want mustard gas, I want this place moving, I want to get flush them out, I want to smoke them out of their caves, I want them OUT of the runner. We have to mobilize the runner as soon as possible. Private, this Operation Looks Like Split Pea Soup. Get Moving!”

“SIR YES SIR!”

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Sounds weird, but I might get to run… today.

I am going to split open my face and scrap out my sinus cavity… there is something up there that won’t go away! Chalk up another “Zero” in the Run Column for today.

My running has been SOOO lean. How lean is it? It’s so lean that you couldn’t even have a piece a bacon for Eggs, Spam, Bacon, and Spam breakfast. It’s that lean. Actually, I know that I ran on the 7th and 8th of this month, but I have not logged the miles into my Buckeye Outdoors account. I just hope that I blogged about it so that I remember what the hell I ran.

This means, in essence, that the Whitestone 30k is now mothballed and for all practical purposes, the Marathon Relay that I wanted to do with some people in my Sunday School Class will be lined out. At least with the Marathon, I can still volunteer… I was asked by name to man one of the last intersections of the course. And when you ask The Planet3rry to volunteer for something… He loves to dismiss the Darkness and Chaos.

What this does mean is that the monies budgeted to these races can go for some more smaller races and thus I can work on some of my speedwork. So, a little detour… granted that I get rid of this residual cold. I should go run so that the cold air forces out all the mucus and dries it up.

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My Lovely and Talented Wife had found a WordPress plugin that let you had a glossary of terms… basically a marketing tool. I just got an email from the Photo Hunter Hostess, TN Chick with her visual plugin glossary. SO maybe I can put that up soon.

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Hats off to my Mom who has been a recent contributor to the Dumpster Diving phenomenon that has been sweeping the MyCokeRewards points land. She already knows that her son is weird and loves him anyway. Coke is starting to roll in some better prizes. I want to see the goods before I pull the trigger on the lower priced items.

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Upcoming Blog Subjects:

Photo Safari Results with (Currently UnNickNamed) Neice

Being a woman

Insurance Companies and the (Currently UnNickNamed) Wonder Drug

On and On to the Break of Dawn Bad  Awful Customer Service

Another Contest in the making

and that’s a wrap… hit it!