Andrew T Trembley

...but numbers aren't meaningless. They just don't always mean what everybody assumes they do.

So, since it's the beginning of a new year, the "by the numbers" post:

K got me going to the gym last year before New Year's (end of December 2008).

It took me about a week to reach the point where I wasn't dying after 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. K picked me up a heart rate monitor, and I started using the heart rate programs on the machines. This was good because it warned me when I was pushing myself more than I should.

Just before FurCon 2009, I weighed myself for the first time in ages and came up over 230 pounds (how much over, I don't remember). Just before FurCon 2009, I bought a bunch of new 36" waist jeans because my old 36" jeans were wearing out (because they were too tight). Except for one pair, they were a bit tight.

I worked up to an hour a day on my preferred elliptical machine, and once I adapted to it, moved to a different elliptical machine that's more flexible. I switched to two days a week on stairmill.

In early November, I weighed in at 201 pounds. I cut 5" off the end of my belt. I bought several pairs of 34" waist jeans. They're tight enough to not fall down without a belt, but still not tight.

November and December being the months of eating indiscriminately (and missing workout days because of travel, parties and, surprisingly enough, work), I've bounced back up to the 205-210 range. That said, the fit of my clothes hasn't shifted significantly, so I'm not particularly worried. It's also moving back down again.

I've switched one day a week to an actual treadmill. I hate treadmills, but I'm slowly losing the false motion impression that lingers after I stop. I still ache the day after, but I'm aching a lot less the day of.

I'm not going to be back down to my driver's license weight (190, in 1999) by FC or Galli (as I had hoped), but I'm also not worried about that.

I can touch my toes without unlocking my knees again (and I haven't been able to do that since I was 13 or 14).

I'm able to fit in clothes that I bought more than 5 years ago (and my kilts fit better). I should fit in the suit that I bought in London a decade ago. I might get back down to 32" waist jeans, but I'm not sure I really want to buy a half-dozen pairs of jeans again in 6 months.

All in all, a rather satisfactory place to be.

I cut 5" off the end of my belt. It's one of the styles where the holes go along the whole length, so it was pretty simple and didn't require extra work to punch new holes. Now I don't have to slide the buckle to the right and my cellphone holster way to the left to keep the tail from causing problems.

I tried on 34" waist jeans yesterday. They were snug, but they fit. I'm going to wash some of the 36" waist jeans I've got in hot water to see if they shrink down any to fit better. I would like to fit in 32" waist jeans again.

I tried on some old fitted shirts. They don't fit yet. They're closer, though, than they were.

Kitchen clean enough to work in? Check.

Halibut fillets in olive oil, dill, salt and cracked pepper in vac bags and thawing? Check.

Scallops misoyaki in vac bags and thawing? Check.

Living room clean? Well, not really. All the carpet is the same color again, though, and it's just a matter of cleaning off the table.

Back yard clean? Surprisingly.

Just a bit more to do.

Still making it to the gym regularly. Doing an hour a day on differing elliptical-style machines. May throw a treadmill or stairmill in to the mix one day a week, may not. I kind of hate treadmills.

Down 10 lbs from when I started measuring in January. No, it doesn't really show. There's also a lot narrower day-to-day fluctuations than at the beginning. May have to start working a bit harder to maintain the 3-4 lbs a month that I've been dropping.

In general, I do feel better most of the time.

So, apart from convention travel days and one "I'm late for a meeting day" I've been making it to the gym every weekday since just before New Years.

I'm only doing cardio (but varying machines and patterns) until this all becomes an ingrained habit. Then I'll look at strength training or other options.

The first day I was a total mess, and could barely do 25 minutes on a basic elliptical machine, and my heart rate kicked up to (ridiculous number deleted) very quickly.

I don't bounce back like I used to, but it only took a day or two before my heart rate stopped spiking up to (ridiculous number deleted) at any significant effort, and I was able to start maintaining a lower rate.

About 2 weeks in K had to buy a new heart rate monitor, so I had him pick one up for me too, and that has helped a lot. I was probably overdoing things a bit before that point. I've started using the goal heart rate programs on the machines. I can easily maintain 145-150bpm for 40-60 minutes. I now need to work towards the point where it's more effort to do that.

I've just started working on maintaining a lower heart rate (instead of jumping straight to 145-150) for a significant portion of my workout. I'm currently at 135, and hope to work that down a bit.

It is cleaner than it's been in years. Moving furniture is a good way to make sure things get done.

The kitchen is still pretty clean. That makes 2 rooms.

It is, of course, the time for annoying things to go wrong.

My wardrobe cabinet tipped over the other night. Granted, it was badly unbalanced with everything in it and stacked on it. It's done this a few times before. This time, though, it's wonked up enough that it doesn't want to stand very well anymore, and the drawers are sticking badly. I see a trip to Ikea in our future.

We've got a ground fault interrupter that keeps tripping when it rains. Trips immediately after resetting when it's raining. Resets fine after the rains let up. I'm expecting a leak tripping it.

It does look like one of the drives in the ReadyNAS is failing. It's a soft fail rather than a hard fail, which the system just doesn't deal with gracefully. I've got a support request in with the ReadyNAS team to identify the failing drive, and then I'll send the bad drive back to Hitachi for warranty replacement. At least that's only going to cost a few bucks to ship the drive out to the RMA depot.

Obama? Yay.

Democratic Senate gains? Yay.

Democratic house gains? Yay.

I'm going to send a letter, though, to my representative, my senators and the democratic leadership. Don't squander this chance. Don't make this into the first two years of the Carter administration. Don't make this into the first two years of the Clinton administration. Don't make this into the first two years of the second W administration (he had it his way in 2004-2006, or he should have). Come together. Work on reform. Work with the moderate Republicans; some of them have good ideas and might agree with you on some things. Drive legislation.

Prop 8? Not so yay. There's an estimated 3,000,000 uncounted mail-in and provisional ballots, though. There's still a slim chance that the proposition could be defeated if those ballots skew the right direction.

If you voted "yes" on Prop 8, you voted to end my marriage. I will not forgive that.

If you are crying in your beer about Prop 8's likely passage, and were eligible to vote in California but didn't vote against it, Prop 8's victory is your fault. I will not forgive that.

This just in from Jesus' General:





Yeah, I've got no problem going negative on these people. They're the kind of folks that marriage needs to be defended against. I would love to see a list of major promoters of these initiatives and bills with marriages shorter and more one-sided than the engagements of queer couples who aren't allowed to marry.

So here's how next Saturday (6/14) is shaping up:
08:45: Breakfast, probably OPH (-ish, could be as late as 9:15)
10:00: PenWAG meeting in Saratoga
12:00: (-ish) finish at PenWAG meeting and head to Milpitas
13:00: (or earlier, ideally earlier) get to West Kingdom Arts & Sciences Tourney at Ed Levin Park in Milpitas to join gurdymonkey and gcmadtown81

From then on it's all wing-it.