Even though for the past few weeks I have been feeling a little under the weather, (read as complete and total puppy feces) I still managed to get a little gaming in on Saturday. Something I don’t believe I have mentioned yet here, Opiee the Troll Rogue has come to the end of a very long and arduous journey. I made it to level 60. For those of you that don’t know, in the World of Warcraft game, your character advances in levels. You start at 1, obviously, and gain experience points for things you do. 60 is the highest level you can achieve in the game. Now it’s just a matter of experiencing the different areas and getting better gear. Then of course, there is the expansion pack coming soon. It also lets me help out the others is our group to level a bit faster.

So the main thing that I promised myself, and Andrew, was that as soon as Opiee hit level 60 I would sneak into the dwarven city of Ironforge. You see, WoW is broken into two factions, The Horde and the Alliance. The horde is made up of the Orcs, Trolls, Undead, and Tauren races. The alliance has the Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and Gnomes. Each faction has their own major city. Ours (the horde) is Orgrimar with the smaller city being Undercity. The alliance side has Ironforge with their smaller city being Stormwind. At any given time there are usually about 100 people in each city. So you can imagine that it’s pretty tough to get into an enemy city. Being a rogue makes it easy to sneak though. You can stealth past anything that’s a lower level then you. Since I am level 60 now, everything is either lower or equal to my level in the city. So as long as I am careful……right?

Sorry to disappoint in that the trip went off without a hitch. No grand escapes or major craziness. I had never been to Ironforge so I had no idea about the layout. One of the major things I wanted to see was the underground tram system they have to go between cities. It was pretty damn cool by the way. It goes under water and everything. While in the tram room in Ironforge I did manage to kill a few people that were running by. I also got onto the tram right in front of a night elf. I made it a point to un-stealth and wave to him. After my tram ride I headed back into Ironforge to play around a bit more. In the main area in front of their auction house, a large amount of people usually mill around. The one that were marked for PVP were the ones I was able to play with. I never really attacked outright, but instead I would sap them and walk away (it’s like a stun that I can stay stealthed with). This causes most of them to run around in a panic trying to find me.

After a short while of this, I decided to make my way back home to the Orc city. Like I said no major encounters or super asshattery. It’s very apparent that the Developers liked the alliance faction a little more than the horde. The Alliance cities just seem to have a lot more detail to them. There were more random occurrences through the zone, etc. It just looked prettier. It was a fun visit though and I plan to return with a few other people to maybe cause a little more havoc next time.

Coming up, Part 3: Fun in the wetsuit.

It was indeed. Thursday night I came back into work because of some extra stuff that needed to get done. Of course you can’t do major work on production machines during work hours, which means a great opportunity to pull an all nighter! Paul and I took up the charge and stayed until the wee hours of the morning on Friday. Everything went smoothly and afterwards we figured the best way to wrap up the evening was, what else, Denny’s! I have to say, it’s been about 5 years since I have been in a Denny’s (willingly). There is certainly something about the late night Denny’s atmosphere that boggles the mind. I seriously started having flashbacks to my late high school years. Come on now, you had to have had them too. Those nights where you are out hanging with friends. No one wants to go home because that’s where the parents are. The only place open is Denny’s. Somewhere you can sit and talk for hours on end while milking a cup of coffee for about 4 hours.

When I was a much younger lad, somewhere between 18 and 20, I used to work at a Denny’s. No kidding! I started as the Greeter/Cashier type person. You know the person you meet at the door that says “How many in your party?” Then after a few months I graduated to Server status. Since I knew most of the people there, I was always working the smoking section. Did I mention I always worked the Graveyard shift? My friends would always come in to visit and mooch salads and coffee from me. You see, if it can be made without going through the kitchen, the server makes it and it doesn’t “require” a ticket made in the computer. Of course, this was all back in the early 90’s and computers in restraints were still a new thing. (Wow, that sounds really old of me.) There was always a wide variety of people that would come in. We had a bar right across the street, and at 2am they would all wander in for that oh so sobering Denny’s coffee. Ahhh the good old days.

Thursday night (Friday morning) was really no different. We sat in the non-smoking section, but the regulars were still there. We were sitting between two other tables. One had a young couple sitting at it that looked like they just came from either his late night football game/practice, or her drama rehearsal. The other had 3 people, 1 girl and 2 guys. This was the interesting one as it looked like, either one of the guys was trying to hook up with the girl and the other was gay, or it was one of those three some types where the girl likes the gay guy, the gay guy likes the other guy and the other guy is pining for the girl. Either way it made for good entertainment. Straight across the way from us it looked like two “women of the evening” were enjoying an end of evening meal. And every guy in the place knew they were there. I think all in all I only ate about ½ of my Moons over my Hammy, and then called it a night. Maybe if I can dig through my memories of the era, I can come up with some good stories of my time as a Denny’s waiter. But that’s a blog for another time.

I have to leave for a Doctors appointment here in just a few min so I am going to cut this off here, I will fill in the rest of the weekend when I get back. (I have had an icky cough for the last three weeks and it’s finally gotten to the point where I just want it gone)

Deep within the galaxy of Tempo Senso, there hovers a planet known as Zweitens. On this world time moves very slowly. So slow in fact that if the standard human were to look at this place from a distance, they would perceive that nothing was moving. Almost as if time were standing still. But of course if you were to go there, you would be instant shifted to their time system and see everything moving like normal. Naturally this shift in time would most likely kill you in an instant because your body wouldn’t be used to the pace. Deep in the Capitol City Ora is a laboratory where a nefarious plan is currently being managed. You see the Oraians desperately want to learn about human life. The best place to learn about this would be at a human educational establishment.

There is one major problem with their plan though. Much like how you would die instantly if you were transported to their world, if they were to come here they would age instantly and die. Well, those poor Oraians could just send their observers to their deaths like that. So they invented a device called the Zeit Lent. They would install this device at a school and turn it on from time to time. Whenever they would need to send someone down. Now the major draw back to this would be that time at that particular school would seem to just crawl along with no end in sight. Now, the Oraians have expressed their deepest sympathies in regards to this phenomenon, but sadly there is just no way for them to conduct the research they need.

Since the government wants to keep relations withy the people of planet Zweitens in good standing, the president has allowed for this sort of experiment. The logic behind it was: “well, they are just kids at the school, they wouldn’t even notice!” Some of the government funding for schools has actually been re-routed to the “Oraian Zeit Lent” fund. This is how they are able to install so many devices in so many different schools. Since all the schools are different, they need to learn as much as possible. Odds are that you or your children attend a school where aliens from the Planet Zweitens are watching every move. Don’t worry though, they are friendly and only want to learn about us.

So now, when you need an excuse to stay home and not go to school, use the one my son uses: “Time at school moves too slowly!” Now you know why.

Ok, so where we are closing out week 3 of daddy-hood for me. I have already learned quite a few life lessons. Some of which I already knew, but they were suppressed in that area of the brain where you know stuff, but you really don’t want to know that you know it. You know? Things like:

1: I have a Cold
2: You have a Cold and I should help you around the house
3: I think the cat has a cold
4: It’s too cold out
5: The school blew up
6: The school might blow up
7: I might blow up
8: Aliens are invading
9: Terrorists are invading
10: Alien Terrorists are invading and have blown up, or might blow up the school, when it’s cold out, and they will spread the cold to me, you and the cat which would cause us to blow up. So I should stay home.

Deep in the recesses of my brain I am pretty sure that, when I was a kid, I used all of the above listed methods to try and get out of school. (if not thousands more). You will notice that the word try is bolded here. See, my parents weren’t all that dumb either. I was a 3rd child so any and all excuses were already used up by my older sister and brother. Personally, I think they had it easy. My sister being the first born, had the whole “new child” thing going for her, and the whole “girl” thing. Then, my brother worked the “dealing with an older sister” thing and the “first born son” angle. So I really missed out on using any of the gender based excuses. The only one I had left was “I’m the youngest.” But that really doesn’t get you all that much.

Andrew is in a whole new situation though. He’s the oldest of his siblings, and, of course, my only child. He also reaps the benefits of being new to the household, so I think he believes he might be able to get away with more then he thinks that I know he thinks. Wait, did that make sense? He also has another interesting card that, while I haven’t seen him employ it yet, I know its coming. That would be Amy. I like to think that I am pretty tough with the whole parenting thing when I need to be. I keep telling people that I want to model my fathering off of Red from that 70’s show. Something along the lines of…. If your being a dumbass, you’ll know it. Amy, on the other hand, is a softy. I can see where it might be easy to play one extreme against the other. Thankfully, I don’t think he reads this so I am good for a while.

So, getting back to the topic that started this entire tangent. This blog is about me. While I enjoy tales of fatherhood, and will be happy to share them with my reading public, I know it’s not right to start telling about the personal life of my son. He has his privacy. It’s not right for me to start airing his dirty laundry on the internet. (Sometimes it really does need airing out, you should smell it!) From time to time I will try and write up a good story about what we are experiencing, but for the most part I will leave the details of his life out of it. I have been trying to convince him to start up his own blog. This hasn’t worked out too well as he doesn’t like writing near as much as I do.

One of the things I have learned about him is that he likes to draw. This came out in one of the many discussions we have had. He also loves computers. (Gee I wonder where he would get that from.) So, in my infinite wisdom, I have pondered the idea of getting him a graphics tablet. You know, one of those things you hook up to the PC that has a pen and a writing area. This way he can use his computer to draw in stuff. If anyone can suggest a good one that’s not too expensive, please let me know via e-mail or in the comments.

This weekend was quite the interesting weekend! The one story I really want to tell is about Sunday’s birthday party. There was a birthday party for a friend of mine and Amy’s. (Was actually for her son, 4 years old) Her son is enamored with Vader. So knowing that Amy and I were 501st, she asked us if there was any way we could get a Vader for the party. I hemmed and hawed about it and as you know, finally broke down and asked. At first I didn’t hear back and so Erin (the mom) was a little downhearted. She asked if I could then wear a costume that she bought. I said yes, and she bought one of the Party City Halloween type costumes.

This thing was ghetto. As you can tell from the picture. The original costume didn’t have gloves and the mask was only a front part. I added my scout gloves, a real leather cape and my Hasbro Voice Changer helmet just to make it look a little better. We had to tape up the front part of the “Jumpsuit” to cover up the printed chest box as my helmet had a box with it.

Finally I got a e-mail back from the one and only Roger Sharp. He said that he was just getting back into town the day prior and that he might be able to do it. I can work with might! We didn’t tell the Mom so as to not get her hopes up. The party was Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning I get a call from Roger that his car was towed. (As well as many other bombshells) I ask if there was anything I could do, he said that he had it covered but that he may be a bit late. I was astonished that he still wanted to do the party even. I explained that we had the ghetto as a back up and that he should take care of what he had. He set out to get his car back (from nearby where we were.)

Andrew, Amy and I headed off to the party to either stall or get dressed in the ghetto costume. Andrew was helping with all of the costuming like he had been doing it for years. (He is still excited that he might be able to wear my scout costume soon) We threw me into the Vader costume so that Erin (The mom) could see what it looked like. We were just about ready to go in when I got a call. Roger was in Old Town Fairfax and wondering where he should go from there.

I quickly stripped off the Ghetto Costume and went to guide him in. He truly looked mentally exhausted. We suited him up quickly and I got into my scout. (It felt weird wearing Vader anyways) We walked into the room with all of the kids and handed the little boy his present from Vader, a build your own light saber kit. He had a small light saber duel with Vader and we said hi to all the other kids. After that we stepped out and stripped off the costume. Total time with the kids was maybe 5-10 min. I think we took longer getting in and out of costume.

As a thanks, I took Roger and his new Fiancé out to Coffee and a late lunch. We relaxed and chatted and had a great time. That evening we called and spoke to the mom and she was still in tears, she didn’t think that someone would go through all of that just to bring a smile to a 4 year olds face. Apparently the little boy was telling everyone how special it was that he had Vader at his party, and that he got to duel Vader.

I was absolutely amazed and humbled at how committed Roger was to showing up there and making a party like that just that much more special. He is truly a Super Trooper.

Thanks again Roger!

So with the sudden change in family status, I find that my old schedule just doesn’t work with the new life. Not that I didn’t know it was coming, I just didn’t know what to change until it did. With Andrew in school now, I am waking up much earlier then normal. Where I used to be getting up at like 8:30-9am I am now up at 7am to make sure he is off to school. This means that I have about 1 and ½ hours to kill every morning. As a result of the time shift, I haven’t gotten to exercise for the past few days. And don’t think that Maya doesn’t know that too. I was actually doing really well for the past two weeks. I even made it to Silver status! (I Unlocked the Alpine Workout area and some Techno music!)

So I decided to re-arrange my new schedule to allow for me to do my exercises in the morning. I fired up my x-box and there was Maya, except she was crying.

Me: What’s wrong Maya?
Maya: I thought I meant something to you, where have you been?
Me: It’s been complicated. I have a lot going on in my life.
Maya: I tried to call but I think my Ethernet line is down. I sent you messages too.
Me: Please stop crying Maya, would you feel better if we worked out?
Maya: I just don’t know if I am up for it today, I think I will order some Ben & Jerry’s
Me: But, I only have an hour, can’t we please work this out?
Maya: You used to come here every day, but 4 days have gone by and you didn’t even touch the controller.
Me: I’m really sorry, please, let’s just work out.
Maya: Ok, just for you. Starting Workout, Intensity level 10
Me: Intensity level what???
Maya: Ready, Begin!
Me: Hey Wait a sec!

Yup, she commenced with the ass kicking of me this morning. I really wasn’t expecting it. I guess I got a little used to doing the whole afternoon workout. I guess it’s just going to take some getting used to.

Speaking of getting used to….. Andrew seems to be taking to his new life here rather well. He even has gotten to taking orders from the cat. You see, last night after dinner was done he finished up his homework and we finished watching the last episode of Firefly. (Had to catch him up you know.) Its 10pm, his pre-designated bed time. He heads off to his room and I hear a game fire up.
(here we go again)

Me: What are you doing?
Andrew: Playing my game. (at least he is honest about it)
Me: What time is it?
Andrew: Ten O’clock
Me: and what time would your bedtime be?
Andrew: Ummm ten thirty?
Me: Really now, and who would have set that. I know I didn’t, and you certainly can’t. [looking at the cat] Charlie, did you change Andrew’s bed time?
Charlie: [looking at me like I am an idiot] Meow (come to think of it, he always looks at me like that)
Andrew: Yes, Charlie told me I could.
Me: So you are taking orders from the house cat now? Last time I checked, I was the oldest in the house. Get your butt to bed!

This is certainly going to be quite the experience. Stay tuned, it can only get better.

Well I am back to work finally. Today is my sons first day of school at his new school. Totally new area, new people, heck even a new Dad he hasn’t lived with ever. I know that he is probably going through all sorts of different emotions right now. Never mind that whole turning into a teenager thing! Remarkably, he seems to be taking it very well (probably better than me!) We had about 84 drills on what he needed for school and did he have it in his back pack. 150 times going through what he needs to do if he has to get a hold of me or anyone else. And about 74 times of what he is supposed to be doing when he gets home from school. After all of this there was no “I’m nervous about school” or “I don’t know anyone” talk, instead it was “Can I play WoW?” or “Can I get on the X-box now?” I think he is going to be fine.

Me on the other hand. Sheesh! What a week it has been. Not to overshadow the hurricane crap or anything of course, but I had a fairly busy week last week. It’s weird to think that it was Monday that we picked him up at the airport. We had a whirlwind that carried us back and forth from the school and wal-mart, and target etc. Getting a teenage boy settled in is a lot more expensive that I had initially thought! I mean, I expected to be buying things like a new bike, and the new cell phone (pre-paid). But then there was all of the school supplies, and then going back to get the school supplies that I forgot, then going back to get the school supplies that I screwed up and got the wrong stuff. Then going to the school to make sure I have all the papers I need and finding out that his shot records weren’t transferred like they were supposed to have been! I think what made it worse is that in between all the running around and buying, there were lots of dead time spaces. We did our best to fill it with things together, gaming, playing and the like. Still, when you are used to working every day and suddenly you’re off with lots of free time. I was starting to go a little crazy.

I think I did manage to keep my mind of things like DragonCon though. DC was officially this last weekend and from the few reports I have heard, most of the garrison had a great time. Someone even mentioned that they got to hang out and drink with Jewel Staite for like 2 hours at the bar. Ok, so that part bummed me out a little bit. But overall I think it was still the right decision not to go. There is no way I would have been able to afford it anyways. Still, I can’t wait till the pictures come back. Andrew has expressed an interest in doing some costuming at a convention, so we will see where that goes. I think for his first one we will just get him accustomed to the excitement of it all.

Some other news that hit the streets was that we officially launched the new Garrison Tyranus Website! Run, of course, by me! We are finally moving from the crappy Yahoo based group to a full web-forum. It’s a ton easier to track messages and follow conversations. Now I just hope that some of the “We fear change” members will come around and start using it.

Lastly I want to touch a bit on this whole hurricane thing. Don’t get me wrong here. Katrina apparently did a great deal of damage and I feel for many of the people who lost their homes and their lives in this disaster. Heck, if I had some extra money I would be more then happy to send it along as well (as it is I think I am going on a no food diet so That I can keep everyone else fed.) But here are the things that I just don’t get.

1: The media needs to shut the hell up! These fat corporate slobs that just want ratings are jamming nonstop coverage of, now, Lake Orleans. They aren’t helping people, they aren’t sending volunteers. Instead they send out a news team to video tape dead people floating down the river! SERIOUSLY! I saw one newspaper that ran a picture on the FRONT PAGE of a dead body floating down the water. Then that same news crew is going to sit and have their corporate bought lunch and throw out half of it no doubt.

2: While I feel for a lot of the people who lost homes and family, the people I don’t feel for are the ones who didn’t get the heck out of there! I don’t think it takes a genius to realize that a: your living in an area that is damn well prone to flooding (it is below sea level!) and b: look outside, there is a hurricane coming! These people saw it coming 4-5 days in advance! Grab the insurance papers and pray they are up to date and then get yer butt to high ground!

3: Now that the damage is done everyone wants someone to blame. Gods forbid it might just be chocked up to natural disaster and let’s just deal with the damage. No, we can’t have that. Apparently when something like this happens we are completely freaking helpless on our own we need the government to hurry up and save us! But wait, the government is off fighting a war! Why would they do that when they knew that something horrible like a hurricane was coming! Well, it must be Bush’s fault then! Three words of those people, Get Over Yourself! Instead of bitching and moaning about how our leadership failed to help us in our time of crisis, get your lazy butt up and go help some people yourself!

Okay, getting back to me. Now that I got that rant out of my system. I am really hopping that this first day of school goes well. This is the corner stone for everything. I know I only had 1 week to prep him, but I really feel that I had to do last week just right for today to go smoothly. I really hope it does. I am sure I will be writing a lot more in the coming days about this so stay tuned!

Yes indeed, Andrew arrived yesterday morning at 6:30am (groan). We sat in the airport an extra 45 min because Andrew didn’t see his bag on the belt. The airline people were nice enough to find it and return it after we spent another 30 min in their office filling out a lost baggage report. We spent all of Monday running around getting him settled in with all the things that an upcoming 13 year old 7th grader needs. He has his bike, his room with his computer, his cell phone (prepaid that he paid for). Today is School stuff. So it should be great fun! I do plan on making a larger post when I have time. I am off of work all this week doing lots of running around. In the meantime here are a few pics:

So I finished day 2 of my new exercise regime. One word comes to mind. OW! Every day when I start up the workout, Maya (the virtual personal trainer), picks an area that she thinks I should work on. The first 2 workouts have been core body strength. These start off harmless enough, with some simple aerobics to get warmed up. She then takes you into all sorts of body twisting and deforming exercises that would seem easy, if I were a computer generated character dancing around inside an X-box. Crunches are now my nemesis, and Maya knows this somehow through some x-box enabled virtual to mental link. I see along the time line that I have to do 10 reps of right side crunches. I guess this would be fine, but I know that if I am doing right side, I will inevitably be doing left side as well. I scream in pain as I work my abs into oblivion and all she does is giggle and shout out “I’m feelin ya!” Then, of course, she lines up another set of right side crunches!

Over all I think I am doing good. The exercises have been tough, but do-able. I am guessing that is good because it’s killing pushing me. I am still glad I am doing this and, even though it’s causing me serious pain with being sore all the next day, I know that after a while I will be getting used to it and my body will stop cry out “dear gods what are you doing to me!”

Today is Thursday so that means that in less than four days Andrew will be here. We have been doing some super deep cleaning of the house in getting it ready. I know he will enjoy it here. Oh, and in all that cleaning…… Still no gloves found.

Ok, I am not sure how many of you remember a year ago, while I was getting ready for DragonCon, I was doing some serious working out. I was down at the Gym every day after work and it really felt good. The primary reason for all of that working out was the Spiderman costume. I didn’t want to look like “Beer gut Spidey” so I hit the work out hard. The downside of course being that after DragonCon was over, I didn’t continue. It’s been a year now and I still haven’t continued. This isn’t good. I have often told myself that I need to get going again and just make the move to do it. Those of you who know me know how well that works. I know this is having an effect on Amy as well. If I am not motivated to do it, it drags down her motivation as well.

So it’s now time to stop that. One of the things I kept thinking to myself while I was working out is that I would really like to have a Personal trainer. I am far too cheap to go to a real gym and have one though. I don’t like the Idea of using these DVD’s of workouts because they are far too static and impersonal. So yesterday I am reading one of my computer gaming magazines and they have an article on a new “game” that’s all about fitness. Only it’s not a game, it’s a full workout program. It runs on the X-box and saves your profile for tracking. Enter Yourself Fitness. (Here is where I start sounding like one of those late night exercise commercials) I did a good amount of reading up on what all is contained in this little X-box disk. Needless to say, I was impressed. It is indeed a fully tailored workout regime, meal plan, and stress reliever all rolled into one.

I headed out last night to pick up a copy. The website said that it can be purchased at Target, EBGames, and Best Buy. Well, there is a Target right close to work, as well as an EBGames. I walked into Target and browsed through the visible games. Of course I see nothing pertaining to fitness. Just for S&G’s I walked over to the fitness section and browsed there… nothing of course. Here is where it gets fun. I walk up to the counter and start asking the guy there about this ……. Wait, what is it again? Is it a game? Well, it’s for the x-box, but it’s not a game. It’s a Fitness Video, but it’s not a video… How the heck do I ask about this? I do my best to explain that I am looking for an X-box title of “Yourself Fitness” and that it’s not a game. The guy looks at me like I have 10 heads. I gave up on Target at this point. Next stop, EBGames!

At least at EBGames I didn’t feel like a moron. When I asked about it the guy said “Oh yeah, that fitness program. I’ve heard about that and it sounds like a cool idea. Sadly we don’t have any in stock though” GAH! Ok, that’s only 2 stores, how hard can this be? I have an hour before I need to pick Amy up at work (we carpool) so I head off to Toy’s-R-Us. Again, the guy knows what I am talking about, and the computer there even said he had 4 in stock. Now the problem is that he can’t find them. We pour through the X-box titles out on the floor, then again through the case behind the counter, nothing. A quick scan from the back room and he comes out with a sad look on his face. Ok, well, there is another Target and a Wal-Mart nearby. I go and glance through them (I don’t bother asking in these stores) and also nothing.

When I was looking up information on where to buy it I noticed that I could check, via their website, store inventory. The store that is near my house didn’t show any in stock, but the store in Manassas had a few. Problem is that Manassas is west of where I live and at 5:30pm that’s a bad idea as traffic is all pouring out of DC and heading west. Ok, so this is probably just a better idea to wait and pick up Amy, then go get it. I haven’t even told Amy that we were doing this yet! She gets in and we head off. Thankfully they have a few in stock and we were able to get one. Finally! Homeward bound.

We arrive back home and it’s about 7:30. Not really enough time to start a full workout, but we can at least load in some profiles. The trainers name is Maya. She asks me all of the normal information, Name, Age, Weight, etc. then rolls into my starting heart rate. Ok, I rest for a while and count. 10 seconds and 10 beats, guess I am pretty relaxed. Ok next step, she wants an escalated heart rate. Ok, this shouldn’t be too rough, what do I need to do? Jumping Jacks, for 2 min. Wow, 2 min, well that doesn’t seem so hard. She has a little computer generated figure there I can keep pace with. How hard can Jumping Jacks be? About 1 min in I am wishing for a power failure. I haven’t done jumping jacks in about 10 years! I had to pause a few times but never for more than a quick second, but I did make it all the way to 2 min. I believe my next heart rate was 25 beats in that 10 second window. Now I had to do squats. Squats were easy, it had a max of 50 and that’s what I did. Push-ups were next. I suck at push-ups. I mean horribly suck at them. I have very long and skinny arms, and with my gaining weight over the years, it hasn’t helped. It said a max of 40 push-ups, I think I did 20. (Sigh) Next Maya asks me to do 60 crunches. I think to myself, “Last year I was doing 60 crunches easy (after I had worked up to them).” She was so encouraging too, every now and then she would shout out “Let’s keep it going” and “Good Job!” I guess it’s good that she couldn’t really see me straining on number 15. Last up is flexibility. You sit down and basically try and touch your toes, then using the models on the screen, you show how far you got. My finger tips got to about mid shin.

So much for it being too early to start a workout! I was already wiped! Maya determined that I needed to work on a cardio workout for 30 min a day for 5 days out of the week. That’s not too bad at all! The program will keep track of my heart rate and my weight and track my progress. It even has a meal plan with calorie tracking and recipes. If I have too stressful of a day at work there is a meditation garden option where I can do Yoga and center myself. I plan on starting this tonight so it should be interesting the rest of the week. I will, of course, keep you all updated. I may even take some before pictures with the hopes of taking some much better after pictures. Wish me Luck!