Hubby-Lou-Who

Poor Hubby.

It started as a tooth ache.  By Saturday afternoon, the swelling started, and it turned into an emergency visit to the dentist for antibiotics, pain killers, and a root canal scheduled for Monday morning.

With his face all swollen like that, around the nose, cheekbones, and upper lip, I kept thinking he looked like someone.  I couldn't think of who though.  I kept looking at him and looking at him and looking at him.

Finally it came to me.

Lou Lou Who!

Will They EVER Be Finished?

Back in April,  when I was home sick from work one day, I spied something out the window.  

They were replacing gas lines.

Eventually they moved on to the sewers.  They got rid of the one across the street.  Then started "improving" ours.

Then they never finished the sewer and started on the road.

Then they decided to put in a sidewalk.

And here it is, almost 5 months later, and this is what the front of the house looks like:

Only not as nice and neat because these pictures are from about a week or so ago.  They have cut back more of the grass and dug the street level down deeper.  And cars have been driving on it.  And kids have been messing.  And it has rained several times and made a miniature lake at the bottom of our driveway.

At least they got rid of the 8 ft dirt hill that was there for a while.

When did I turn into a curmudgeon?

I pulled up to the stop sign on the corner by my house and there were all these kids milling around by the end of the driveway.  And in the yard!  And one of them had a puppy not on a leash and was letting it walk around in my grass.  He DID NOT have anything with him to clean up any puppy poop either.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from yelling at them to get off my grass.  And from shaking my fist at them.

Hubby is rubbing off on me.

Hubby Update

I forgot to mention:

8 lbs in one week!

Of course he won't continue to lose at that rate, but what a great jump start!

I've Got A New Toy

I believe I have mentioned how much I like STUFF.

I had been going back and forth about this for a while.  Talked to Hubby about it, because it isn't cheap.  Did a lot of online research.

I finally decided this weekend that yes, yes I really want one.

I've got a bodybugg!  They wear them on the show The Biggest Loser.  It is a "personal calorie management system".   You wear the armband part on your tricep, like so (pls excuse the unmade bed in the background) (and notice my fancy fingers on the camera, I got my first french manicure yesterday):

It electronically reads "things" - I don't remember exactly and I would have to go get the book or look it up; if you want to know that badly Google it - and determines you caloric burn.  It also counts your steps and times your activities.  Then you hook it up to the computer and it downloads all the info to their site.  On the site you track your goals, what you eat, and some other info.  It calculates the number of calories you burn, calories you eat, and gives you the difference, a calorie deficit.  You set a goal, it figures out what calorie deficit you need to meet on a daily basis to reach your goal.

The second box is the optional display.  It "talks" to the armband and displays were you are at, so you can monitor during the day if you need to ramp up your activity to meet your targets for the day.

I wore both this morning while jogging.  

I looked at it before I started, and then purposefully did not look at it again until I had jogged 1 mile.  I knew it would be lower than I liked.  I knew I would go "is that ALL".  And I was right, I did.  But I just kept jogging and told myself that I would just not look at it again until I was done.  And that I would walk some more later this afternoon to increase my burn.

But then I got curious as to how much it changes with more intensity.  I don't jog fast, as I believe I have said before.  So I looked at it, and then went quite a bit faster for a while, looked down and, yes, it increased at a faster rate than just the jogging.  I slowed back down, and thought oh, well.  I'll work up to that level eventually, and just kept jogging.

I had just started my 8th lap - that's 2 miles ladies and gentlemen - when I hear beep, beep, beep, beep.  I look down at my display and it says "MSG!!".  So I press a button and this scrolls across the screen:  "Activity target for the day has been met".  I flipped back to the calories burned and it was much higher now.  I had forgotten.  It "talks" to the armband, but not instantaneously, there is a lag.  And it had caught up.

How cool is that!!

Anything else I do today is BONUS and will offset yesterday, because I didn't do anything.

I think I am going to like my bodybugg.

The Incredible Shrinking Hubby

I added a new weight tracker for Hubby.  He is doing so good!  His starting weight was taken  on June 15th.  That is not his highest weight though.  He was up there with me, where I started at.  But we didn't really start tracking good until this June.

His current pictures, wearing a size smaller pants because his other ones were falling off.

He has always told me how he has walked right past me and not recognized me.  

And I always scoffed.  

But last weekend at Ikea, I looked right past him.  Twice.

The New Deadline

Well we have a date now for the next test.

Wednesday, December 9.

Well Heck

He didn't make it.

They did the run first because that is what most people fail on. They
do it outside on the grounds. So there was some up hill and some down
hill.

His time was 16:27.

The run was in a group, so he did have the other guys to try and keep
up with, and it did help.

Since he didn't pass that part, he doesn't get to try any of the other
tests. But he is sitting in the parking lot watching and timing some
of the guys to see what they are averaging.

Next test: mid December.

He'll be ready to kick it's ass.

Even though he'll probably be the oldest one there. Again.

It's TOMORROW

Wednesday is THE day. Say your prayers, cross your fingers, cross
your toes, put on your lucky underwear, pat your Buddha's belly, rub
your lucky rabbits foot, perform your animal sacrifice...or whatever
it is you believe in, or do for good luck. Hubby goes for the
physical agility test to get into the fall class at the Fire Academy.

The test consists of the following:
1. Putting on a blacked out face mask and feeling your way out of somewhere.
2. Lift a ladder from it's rack, run 90 feet, and return the ladder to
it original place.
3. Hoist a bundle of rolled hose, about 44 lbs, hand over hand, up to
a 4th story window in 1 minute 30 seconds.
4. put on an air pack, lift a hose bundle, run up 4 flights of stairs,
put down the hose, pick up another bundle, and run down 4 flights of
stairs, in 1 minute and 15 seconds.
5. run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes.

Can Hubby do all this? Well, 1 & 2 are no problem. 3 should be ok,
he is really strong. 4 he did a practice run with a 27 lb back pack
on and did it in 54 seconds, so we think even with the addition of the
hose bundle, he should be ok with that one too.

Now, number 5 though. That's going to be the tricky one. We did a
timed test on Monday and he came in at 17:17. At the 14 minute mark
he was almost at 1 1/4 mile, one lap short. BUT, I think it will
depend on how they administer the test. If it is just him running
alone...maybe not. If they put him running with a bunch of other
guys...maybe. That would give him someone to pace off of, and to
"chase".

It is going to be close.

If he doesn't make it, it's ok though. This will at least have given
him a chance to see how they do the test and to see how the equipment
feels. And then he will have another 4 months to get ready to take
the test again for the spring class.

Either way, I am VERY proud of him.