Carpe Cerevisi

Death of a Blog

2006-09-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

This blog is hereby pronounced dead, or at least dormant. Between dealing with the children, my class schedule, starting an internship, trying to squeeze out spare moments with Amy, executing wedding plans,purchasing a house, trying to get my house ready to sell, and various other tasks, I find that I do not have the mental bandwidth to properly keep up a blog. To keep properly informed about the misadventures of the Scott household, please check out Amy's blog, linked below. She is much better about keeping her blog up-to-date.

Amy's Blog

In Praise of Cheap Beer

2006-08-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

At a cookout last week, I encountered a beer that I have seen on the store shelves but had never tried before. As I popped the cap off of a bottle of Southpaw Light, I did not have expectations other than it being cold and wet. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised. Even though it is a light beer, it had a rich full body and a pleasant taste. Here comes the best part... As I was walking down the beer aisle at the grocery store I saw that it was positioned next to the Milwaukee's Best and priced at just under $7 for a 12 pack of bottles. Unfortunately beer was not on my shopping list today, but I can safely say that my fridge will become accustomed to Southpaw Light.

Differences

2006-07-02T22:03:00.000-04:00

For a while now, I have been hearing about people who are different, and how we are supposed to interact with them. I am not talking about race, gender, or sexual orientation so much as people who have made different lifestyle choices. People who don't look or speak like good Reformed Presbyterians. For some reason, I feel like I should document a couple of my encounters with just such people. In both cases I am writing about, the people group in question are Punks. Not annoying little sisters, or people who get on your nerves, but the people with colorful hair styled in an unusual manner. People who look a little bit like this.

The first such occasion happened in the summer of 1995. Suzanne had surprised me with tickets to see my favorite band play at Chastain Park in Atlanta. Neither of us knew where it was, and this was before the advent of such services as Mapquest. I figured that since it was at Chastain Park, it must be close to Chastain Road. (I was a little dense in those days.) I stopped at a business on Chastain Road and asked directions, thinking I must be close by. A guy in a business suit gave me directions, but it turned out that his directions were wrong, and not by a little bit. We ended up in a part of Atlanta that we were unfamiliar with, and all of the people in the area looked a little scary. They had green and pink hair, with 5 inch spikes, they were wearing chains and leather. Getting a little desperate since it was close to the start time for the concert, I pulled into a record store, thinking that surely someone there could tell me where to go. Being a fat guy with normal hair and clothes, I stuck out bigtime in this store. I walked up to the clerk at the store and asked for directions. The store was crowded, and this guy appeared to be the only one on duty. He walked out from behind the counter, stepped out into the parking lot leaving the store unmanned, and began telling me how to get to where I needed to go. He walked me out to the road, pointing out landmarks that I would see along the way. He was very polite and cordial, and was totally understanding and empathetic to my situation. Several of the denizens of the neighborhood waved and called out as were were standing there talking, they seemed to be a friendly bunch. Thanks to the record store guy, we made it to the concert right on time and saw a really good show.

The second such occasion happened on my honeymoon with Suzanne. We were jonesing for some pizza but in November, the city of Daytona Beach closes down at sunset. It was about 10:00PM, and we were beginning to despair of finding an open pizza place. We gave up and decided to head over to the Steak and Shake close to the interstate. Along the way, we saw a sign. Pizza!!! It was a small trailer, with concrete benches and tables outside. Sitting on the tables and benches were a group of Punks, and they were a little scary looking. Deciding that at that moment we valued pizza more than safety, we pulled in and walked up the the window, placing our order. As we were walking back to the car, one of the Punks called out. "Oh, no" was my thought. As I turned to face the young Punk, he exclaims "Hey, you guys were just married? That is so cool!" The rest of the group wandered up and started asking about how we liked the town, apologizing for the unseasonably cool weather, and asking us questions about our lives. They turned out to be one of the nicest groups of kids I have ever encountered. And the pizza was awesome. These encounters just go to show that we can't judge someone based solely on their appearance and apparent lifestyle differences. People are people, whether they be green haired record store clerks, long haired tattooed bikers, or mullet headed good ole boys driving pony cars. It is something that I forget from time to time, and these memories serve to remind me, to convict me. Thank you for journeying with me down memory lane.

Worst $150 Ever.......

2006-06-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

This week Reagan had the privilege of participating in an Art Camp hosted on the grounds of her elementary school, taught by the school art teacher. I should have known it was a bad omen when we could not get to the right location on the campus because the door from the elementary school to the building housing the art room was locked. A quick trip back to the office led us to believe that the camp would be taking place in the high school art room, so off we went. We found the high school art room locked, with no one in sight. As we were exiting the high school building, we ran into another parent who thought that the camp was in the middle school, so we checked it out. It turned out that the camp was in the first place we tried to get to, it was just that the door to that particular entrance was locked. Go figure, a camp for elementary school kids locks the entrance from the elementary school. Oh well, at least we got there. As I picked Reagan up that afternoon, I began to wonder if this was going to be a good learning experience for her. The project she had done that day was very substandard as compared to the artwork she does on her own at home. I dropped her off the next morning hoping it would get better, knowing that I wouldn't see her again until Thursday afternoon as I have classes on Tuesday's and Wednesday's and she would be staying with her Nana and Papa. When I picked her up Thursday afternoon, I noticed that the quality of the work had not improved at all. I asked Reagan about a painting of a horse. I asked her if her teacher had given instruction into drawing and painting techniques or if she had simply told her to go paint a horse. Reagan indicated that the latter was true. Further conversation revealed that the children were allowed to watch movies as they worked. Not "The Life and Times of Pablo Picasso" type stuff, or documentaries on the French Impressionists, but Disney movies. Reagan is the type of kid who absolutely cannot concentrate on something if a TV is on. She will watch TV if it is available. That explains why her artwork was of poorer quality that what she does on her own. Today, the kids watched another movie, had a pinata party, and a separate birthday party for one of the campers. Very nice, but I thought this was supposed to be an art camp. I am very disappointed. I paid for Reagan to participate in art camp, what she recieved was unneeded and unwanted babysitting services with art supplies thrown in to pacify the kids, along with movies and pinatas. Worst $150 ever. Reagan had a good entertaining time, but I feel totally ripped off. I paid for her to have a good educational time.

My analysis of Job

2006-06-07T10:50:00.000-04:00

I just finished the book of Job in my complete read-through of the Bible. It is a very interesting book for a number of reasons. So here is my analysis: Satan was ahead on points when God knocked him out.

Cleaning my house... or... Happy Birthday Logan!!!

2006-05-29T02:40:00.000-04:00

Five years ago today at 8:32AM Logan was born into the world. She was a joy then, and is even more so now. In honor of this momentous occasion, I somehow decided that it would be a good idea to throw her a little party here at the house, to invite the extended family and some folks over for a cookout and swim. Then the reality set in. The reality is that although we do ok, housekeeping is not our forte. My house generally looks like you might expect a house to look like that houses a single man and two kids. What to do? Well, it was Amy to the rescue. Today she helped me with the shopping for the party supplies and tonight she has been a major help in the cleaning. Not only did she just roll up her sleeves and go to work. She is a good supervisor too, LOL. While I was doing some deep cleaning in the kitchen, she was working in the living room, cleaning corners, dusting picture frames and door frames, and rearranged the furniture to give my living room a more spacious feel. The girls were very excited about tonight too. Since all of this is going on this weekend, Amy is staying over to not only clean, but help with the cooking and party setup as well. (Ok, get your mind out of the gutter folks, she is sleeping in Reagan's room while Reagan bunks in with Logan.) This whole weekend of shopping for Logan, preparing things for her birthday, and spending extra time with Amy is a real blessing. God is good, and He is faithful.

Blogging

2006-05-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

The other day, Amy mentioned to me "you really need to update your blog." The realization struck me that I pretty much suck at this blog thing, she is much better at it. Nevertheless, I think I will keep plunking away at it, confident that the drought of new postings will be offset by the occasional flurry of them. In retrospect, life has been full of it's usual ups and downs since my last post, with lots of blogworthy (thanks for that term, Scott) events that I just can't recall the details of right now. So what's new in the ol'e Scott household and world? Well, Reagan has her 3rd piano recital tonight. She is really getting pretty good, the only problem is that if she doesn't particularly care for the song in the lesson book that is assigned, it takes forever for her to learn it. Conversely, if she likes the song, she can learn it handily in one practice session, regardless in both cases of the actual difficulty level of the music. Piano players out there, is this normal? In other events, classes I will take this summer and fall will preclude me from attending choir practice on Wednesday evenings. Guess I don't get to be in the choir regularly again til the end of the year. Oh, one more thing... Quaker Oatmeal-to-Go squares are addictive.

Statistics Recap...

2006-05-02T08:44:00.000-04:00

Some may recall that I have posted a time or two about the statistics class I have been forced to take this semester. Final grades are now out, and I actually made an A in that class! If you only knew my history with math and statistics classes in the past, you would know what an amazing thing that is. I barely escaped undergrad by repeatedly taking College Algebra and Finite Mathmatics until I finally scraped by. When I started grad school, I knew that making high grades was important, but figured that if I just barely got by in that one class I would make up for it in all the rest. But here it is not dragging down my GPA a bit, I love it! I can only attribute my success in this class to God's grace, he is the one who allowed my mind to comprehend the concepts that have eluded me in the past.

In other news I also made an A in my DSM course. It was one that I had been looking forward to since that book is so important in the counseling field. I was really disappointed by the level of instruction in that course. Lectures were frequently far off topic and there was a general lack of order. Sure I was awarded the required credit, but I generally want more from a class than just checking it off of my list of required courses, I actually want to learn something. Luckily the manual is pretty self-explanatory and the bungled instruction will not have an impact on my overall competence. Sure, it was an A, but I did not get my money's worth for this course.

This summer will bring up courses in Professional Ethics and Counseling Children and Adolescents. The Ethics course is just another requirement to tick off, but the the counseling class should be fun and informative.

Prayer Request

2006-04-19T10:22:00.000-04:00

Amy's grandmother, Essie Bascle, is having surgery to repair a broken hip this afternoon. On Monday afternoon she fell in her apartment at an assisted living facility. Mrs. Bascle is 97 years old. Please pray that she has the strength to endure the surgery and subsequent rehabilitation, and that the surgeons and therapists have the knowledge, skill and wisdom to treat her effectively. Please pray for Amy and her family as well that they will have peace throughout this ordeal and that God will somehow use this situation to bring them even closer to himself.

Amy's Blog post about this event

Update: Mrs. Bascle made it through the surgery just fine and may even be well enough to discharge to her own home rather than to a rehab facility. Thank you all for your prayers and concern.

Medication

2006-04-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, I am on a quest to lose weight, and sometimes I write about it here. I have not posted much about it lately. Sadly, that is because there has been nothing worth reporting. Ever since crossing the 100 lb mark, I have been sruggling. I have lost the same six pounds at least twice, and I have just really felt as if I was losing my edge. Well, I have decided to try a new strategy. I visited a doctor's office that specializes in helping people lose weight with medication. I am now taking 30 mg of phentermine twice daily. This is a temporary fix to get me back on track. I know the medication is not going to lose the weight for me, it is just a tool to help me regain the discipline that I exhibited while losing the first 100 lbs. Everything I have read says that this stuff begins to lose its effectiveness after 12 weeks. That is fine, I should be hitting on all cylinders by then and hopefully be another 40-50 lbs lighter. I mean really, I have to look good in a tux by December!

American Idol review...

2006-04-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

Posted for your consideration, my thoughts on tonight's episode of American Idol:

Bucky – Fat Bottomed Girls… sucks... Flat on the chorus.

Ace – We Will Rock You… Not bad… One of his better performances.

Kelly – Bohemian Rhapsody… She doesn’t suck… didn’t like her messing with such a classic… alright, but not my favorite.

Chris -- Innuendo… Interesting…Not bad, but Chris sounds the same on every song. I guess there is something to be said for consistency.

Katherine-- Who Wants to Live Forever?… She is alright… heard just as good at karaoke bars.

Elliott - Somebody to Love… It was ok… I wasn’t really paying attention, so it must not have been all that memorable.

Taylor – Crazy Little Thing Called Love… I really like Taylor… not sure his voice is suited for Queen though… pretty good job of souling the song up, I like it.

Paris – The Show Must Go On… Paris is awesome… good job on the song, this competition should come down to her and Taylor.

I am still pissed that Mandisa got booted last week, but on to this week… Based on tonight’s performances, I would have to say that Bucky, Ace, and Katherine should be in the bottom three, but I have given up trying to figure out how these things will turn out.

December 30, 2006

2006-04-11T20:46:00.000-04:00

Amy and I have set a date. A quick chat Sunday evening with Dan to make sure he would be free that day confirmed that we will be wed on Saturday, December 30, 2006. The girls are excited to be helping plan a wedding, and family members are saying "ha ha ha, told you so" in relation to getting married sooner than June 2007. But, to borrow a phrase from the mid 90's, it's all good.

Beloved One By the Water

2006-04-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

Amy now has a blog, it is called "Beloved One By the Water." This is the meaning of her first and middle names, Amy Brooke. She plans to post about stuff she has going on, our engagement, future plans, and life in general. Check it out sometime.

Dumbfounded...

2006-04-05T23:47:00.000-04:00

How in the world did Mandisa get booted off of American Idol? That's bovine feces.

These things are hard to come by...

2006-04-05T21:39:00.000-04:00

Reagan recently lost a toy... well, not exactly lost. We know it is inside an easy chair at my parent's house. The problem is that there is no way to get to it without messing up the chair. What a conundrum. It just so happens that Reagan did very well with her piano practice last week, and I like to reward her when she works exceptionally hard. I told her I would buy her another toy to replace the one inside the chair. The toy is called a Tamagotchi. Saturday afternoon we went to the Walmart in Tiftonia, and they were sold out. The clerk in the toy department told us another shipment would be there in three days. So today we went back after I picked her up from school. No luck... subsequent trips to Walmart and K-mart in Fort Oglethorpe confirmed that this is a very popular toy. I will find one sometime, I am on a mission...........

Short Hair

2006-04-01T22:01:00.000-05:00

The girls got haircuts on Friday, now their hair is much shorter. Both Reagan and Logan had decided to grow their hair out long enough to donate to Locks of Love, and the time finally had arrived. Dana at Graphics Hair Design in Fort Oglethorpe did a great job with the haircuts. This is Reagan's second donation, the girls are planning to grow it out again so that they can donate again next year.

Word is spreading...

2006-03-29T00:18:00.000-05:00

As of now pretty much everyone has been notified of the impending nuptuals. Amy and I have been talking about various dates, and we are even considering the possibility of December of this year as opposed to waiting til June. It may in fact be doable, although it would create a few extra headaches in some respects. We just need to decide if the benefits outweigh the pains in the rear that will certainly develop if we go with the early date. Amy and I covet your prayers as we make decisions and plans as we move forward. Please also pray for the girls. They are doing extremely well with the changes that are coming, they love Amy and have taken to her very well. Change inevitably produces stress though, and stress can effect kids in the most unusual of ways.

It's Official

2006-03-26T20:33:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I have been dating Amy for several months now, and during that time she and I have grown very close. Yesterday evening, I asked her to marry me, and she accepted my proposal. Amy is the answer to many many prayers, and it is plain that God has brought us together. We plan to wed in June 2007, as there is much that must be accomplished between now and the time we are married. Lots of folks seem to think we won't actually wait until that time, LOL. I will likely graduate from my master's program in December, and Amy from her's the following May. Also during that time Amy must sell her house and figure out the best way to move here from her home near Atlanta, so that seems to be the best time frame. Of course God has been known to set men's plans aside in favor of his own, so if he has something different in store for us we are definitely up for it. That's all for now, I am sure that more detail will come out as we go. Thank you all for your love and support, it really does mean a lot.

By Request...

2006-02-22T20:58:00.000-05:00

July 2005 followed by January 2006: Still a work in progress.

Statistics Test Number Two...

2006-02-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

Veni, vidi, vici!

Unexpected Good News...

2006-02-18T11:40:00.000-05:00

Faithful readers, please accept my apologies for not updating in a while. Isn't that one of the cardinal sins of the blogosphere? Now, on to the post...

I have always viewed graduation from my master's program as one of those tenuous things that is "out there" somewhere. After other recent events and developing situations in my life, I started doing a little thinking (always a dangerous thing) and decided that graduating in April of 2007 was a doable thing. As a matter of fact I was a little overwhelmed that the end was that close, after all that is just one more school year. Last week, the class schedules for the Summer and Fall terms became available, and I was able to look at what classes would be available and what I would need to do in order to graduate in April 2007. After looking things over, it became apparent to me that it was actually possible to make some real progress during the summer and the possibility of a December 2006 graduation began to present itself. I tried not to become too excited or overwhelmed, so I waited to discuss things with my academic advisor. A quick email led to a phone conference, and my advisor confirmed that a plan to graduate in December is not only possible, but realistic. It looks like the rest of this year is going to be busy. I will do a 100 hour practicum in May and early June, take 2 classes in July, and in the fall I will take one actual classroom class and complete a 600 hour internship. A phone call to one of my contacts from my former life as a social worker has landed me a tentative work site for my practicum and internship, with hopefully a job offer to follow. Strap in folks, this year is going to be a fast ride.

Cat Fishing

2006-02-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

This weekend we became the proud owners of a 14 week old Calico cat. The girls named her Ginger, so if we ever get another I suppose it will be a Fred or a Mary Ann or something. We adopted her from the nice people manning a booth at PetSmart from the group C.A.T.S. or Cats Are Totally Special. When we got Ginger home, she was a little overwhelmed and decided that she wanted to hide in a small space. She went behind the couch for a while, then went behind the TV cabinet. She came out for a little while, then went behind the TV cabinet again. After a while, we began to wonder if she had fallen asleep back there. I went to check, and she was not there. I saw that there was a central heat and air vent back there with no cover, and I immediately feared that the cat went in there. A quick feel down the vent confirmed my suspicions. Ginger was as happy as could be just beyond the bend into the ductwork of the house. I could pet her on the head, but could not get a grip on her to bring her back out. The girls tried to lure her out with a toy on a string, but the cat was not enticed. Amy asked if we had any tuna in the house. We didn't, but a quick trip to Bi-Lo remedied that. I dipped the toy on a string into the tuna juice and lowered it into the vent. I could feel Ginger bat the toy, and then move toward it. I pulled it out a little at a time with the cat following close behind. Soon she followed the toy out completely. I stuffed the vent with a shoebox to keep her out. A trip to Lowe's is in order now to buy a register cover. I didn't want the cat to feel like I had teased her, so I gave her a teaspoon of the tuna. Too much would hurt her tummy though.

In other news, Amy met my parents and didn't run screaming! Who says miracles don't happen anymore?

Mozilla Firefox

2006-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

I downloaded Mozilla Firefox last night after reading Scott and Matt's comments about it. It is ok, there are some things I like about it, and some things that I liked better on IE6. One thing I like better about IE6 is the scroll feature. Even though I selected the smooth scrolling setting on Firefox, it is still jerky and hard to control by comparison. I will continue messing with it for a while before I decide which browser to use most often.

I crossed the 100 pound mark!

2006-02-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday's official weigh in at the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center, I have now lost 102.8 lbs. I am stoked! I need to think of a killer reward for myself. Any suggestions?

I am an idiot...

2006-01-29T23:45:00.000-05:00

I am taking an online course called Tests and Measurement. It is basically a statistics course. My first exam is Jan 30, and it will be up from 12:00 midnight to 11:59 PM. I have been studying and getting psyched to knock this thing out at midnight. I just realized that these times are based on Central time. I don't see me staying up that late to take a statistics test, so I guess I will be doing it in the morning. If I can't figure out when the test starts, how does that bode for my prospects on this exam?

I was tagged

2006-01-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

Scott tagged me, so I guess I am it. It is my turn to fill out the following list of fours.............

Four Jobs I Have Had:

Fry Cook
Car Salesman
Quality Control Guy
Social Worker

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over Again:

Top Gun
The Shawshank Redemption
Starship Troopers
Tommy Boy

Four Books I Could Read Over and Over:

The Bible
The Silmarillion
Ender's Game
The Stand

Four Places I Have Lived:

Flintstone, GA
Jacksonville, AL
Rossville, GA
No Mas

Four TV Shows I Watch:

Stargate SG-1
Battlestar Galactica
My Name is Earl
American Idol

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:

Destin, FL
Pigeon Forge, TN
Daytona Beach, FL
Navarre Beach, FL

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

www.stingtalk.com
www.liquiddietdiscussion.com
www.carm.org
www.drudgereport.com

Four Favorite Foods:

Mom's fried chicken
Pizza (Mellow Mushroom)
Cheeseburgers (Cheeburger Cheeburger)
Steak

Four Places I’d Like To Be Now:

Sitting in my clean house.
Sitting in my office looking up at my shiny new Master's degree.
On a tropical beach.
Staring at my winning Powerball ticket.

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:

I don't tag. ;-)

New Lifestyle

2006-01-25T12:34:00.000-05:00

My New Lifestyle products arrived yesterday, and now I am happily fasting again. Being back on the liquid diet is actually a relief of sorts, now I don't have to worry about what to fix for dinner, and I only have to shop for the kids. Plus, there is a kind of freedom in knowing that I am getting exactly the nutrition that I need and that I will lose weight by just following the plan. I have maintained my previous loss, even lost a bit more during my hiatus from liquid dieting after completing the Optifast plan, but I expect to start losing substantial ammounts again soon. One positive thing about my current diet plan is that it allows for a meal consisting of a lean meat and green veggies if I choose to go that route. I am going with the full fast plan, but having the other option available means that I won't have to turn down dinner invitations like I did while on the Optifast. I still won't be going out as much as I normally would, but I have that option if the need arises and I won't have to feel guilty since it won't violate the plan. Of course the occasional beer will violate the plan, but not enough to worry about. Besides, who can feel guilty about beer?

My Mega-weekend...

2006-01-23T08:44:00.000-05:00

This was a weekend of firsts. My first trip to Ikea and my first visit to a mega-church. All I can say about Ikea is that I will be back... and I will be driving a truck. Sunday morning I visited Amy's church, North Point Community Church in Alpharetta. Since it was my first time at a church that size I was not sure what to expect. We all know about megachurches who got so huge by preaching the gospel of self-improvement or social justice. The place is huge. Amy and I parked about a quarter of a mile away and walking in a slow drizzling rain to the building. The main auditorium was full, so we went into a secondary auditorium which was just as huge. This auditorium had a live band playing and they were very good. Amy told me that the worship leader was once a member of the group Kansas. My only complaint was that they played just two songs. After the music, they played videos of mission trips, as this was their missions kickoff weekend. There were two baptisms and before each a video of the person's testimony was played, it was very powerful. They were dunked, of course. The sermon was delivered via video screen from the main auditorium by Andy Stanley, son of Charles Stanley. The sermon was an explanation of missions, and an exhortation to support them. All in all it was very biblical and well done. It would be very easy to get lost in the crowd in such a large environment, Amy tells me that you have to be plugged into a small group to really connect with people there. All in all, it was different. I was excited to see God working in a powerful way in that area, but I was glad to be back at CVPC Sunday evening.

"Look Daddy, No Hands"

2006-01-19T15:47:00.000-05:00

For Christmas this year, my parents bought both of the girls a Big Wheel. Now that we have had a couple of warm sunny days, the girls have had the chance to try them out. Reagan is almost too big to ride hers as her legs are too long to pedal well, but she has fun coasting down my parent's driveway on it. The big surprise is Logan. She is riding that thing like a professional. My Dad showed her how to take the back of the seat off and stand in the seat pushing off with her foot instead of pedaling. She had absolutely no problem with that and steers it anywhere she wants to go, even sticking one leg straight back and standing on one foot. Next she will be letting go of the handlebars altogether while she rides standing in the seat. Where in the world did she get coordination like that? Certainly not from me. She has a birthday coming up in May, looks like I will be buying her a skateboard. She can handle it.

Need help with html

2006-01-17T18:05:00.000-05:00

Can anyone tell me how to put links into my text? My online cheat sheet doesn't seem to work for this site. Scott... Matt... Bueller? Please help!!!

My First Diet Related Post

2006-01-17T17:36:00.000-05:00

I weighed in today at the Y and I am down another pound, woo hoo! That makes my total 98.6. I plan to start another round of liquid dieting on Feb. 1st and at that point I expect the more rapid weight loss to start again. This round will last 8 weeks. My plan is to transition to real food for the month of April and then do another 8 week round starting May 1st, and that should put me pretty close to my goal. My first round of liquid dieting was on a program called Optifast that is offered through Erlanger at the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center. My future rounds will be with a product that I found online called New Lifestyle. It is much less expensive than the Optifast, but you don't get the weekly meetings with the behaviorist and nutritionist. There is online support available, plus I have lifetime access to the classes at Optifast now if I feel the need to go through the classes again. I can't wait to get started with round two!

Which Narnia Character Are You?

2006-01-15T20:21:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Scott for pointing to this quiz in his blog. Not sure how I feel about my character being a chick, hahaha.

A Good Start

2006-01-14T21:50:00.000-05:00

The day went well. The girls met Amy and got along with her really well. Of course we didn't give the girls any indication that we are dating, that can wait. We had the outing in Kennesaw because Amy lives in Cumming, close to Dawsonville, and Kennesaw is a nice middle ground with lots to do. A funny thing happened. As we were leaving Chuck E. Cheese's who did we happen to see? Albert and Karen pulled up beside us honking and waving. At choir practice Wednesday night some members said they were going to show up, I guess I should believe them next time, LOL. We then went to Town Center Mall and took the girls to the Build-A-Bear Workshop. A fun time was had by all, the girls were in kid heaven all day. So all in all, it was a good start.

The Ballad of Steven and Amy

2006-01-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

Well, after ages of wondering if it was even possible, I met a girl. Amy and I have been seeing each other going on a couple of months now. I really like this girl, and she seems to be just as into me. We met on match.com, internet dating really works. At first we traded some emails and then switched to IM. We then graduated to phone and made plans to meet in person. On our first face to face date we had dinner at Bugaboo Creek and then went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was opening night. The movie was excellent, but to be honest I was only halfway paying attention to it as I was distracted by my attraction to Amy. Driving home that night I knew she was special. Since then we have seen each other several times. Tomorrow the children will meet her. We will get together at Chuck E. Cheese's. I told the kids last week we could go there on Saturday, and yesterday I mentioned the fact that a friend would be having lunch with us that day. I figure that way the girls will automatically be in a happy mood and they will focus on the event rather than the person. I will not tell them anything about us dating until after they have met her two or three times. If everyone that reads this will say a prayer it will be very much appreciated.

Power Failure

2006-01-13T18:19:00.000-05:00

Just had to deal with a power failure. Luckily my house is relatively clean and I was able to find the flashlight, oil lamp, and aim&flame with no problem. It was a little cold cooking out on the grill, but it did give me an opportunity to fire up the side burner.

Inaugural post...

2006-01-13T11:24:00.000-05:00

I tried a blog once before, but it fizzled. This time I may actually keep up with it as there is lots of new stuff going on with me and I can always express an opinion about some new event in the world. This is going to be fun.................