The Date is set!

That's right, I have my date for my first 5K!  April 10th, 2010.  There is a 5K in Beulah, aka where I live!  So let the training begin.  Please anyone out there that runs give me any pointers for training for a 5K.  I have never ran before, what goals should I set for training?  How long should I expect myself to be able to run to complete a 5K?  I hope I don't fizz out on this because as of right now I"m pretty excited!  I have no illusions of finishing anywhere near the top, but I do have hopes of finishing!  Woo!  Dasani!  This couldn't come at a better time too because I stepped on the scale last night, after noticing that my new pants from Christmas were a little tight, and I did not like what I was seeing.  I'm back to 211 pounds.  :(  My goal is 190-195, fingers crossed I can make it and keep it there.  For someone like myself that has NEVER struggled with weight, I now see how much of a fight it can really be.  YOU'RE MY BOY BLUE!

Thursday Movie Magic

Alright, this is going to be a fun one!  This is from a movie that I'm sure everyone has seen, and once everything clicks you'll know the movie and the line.  Until it clicks though, have fun figuring this one out.  (maybe I should have gone easier since no one has still guessed my last one...)

Este queso esta viejo y mohoso, donde esta el banio?

Enjoy!

*Hint, this is a classic movie from the 90's.

Welcome!

I'd like to welcome my newest follower Charity at Charity's Chatter.  I feel like I'm really starting to get out there and get noticed!  Ok, probably not, but it's nice to get over the hump of only having two followers.  If only there was an easier way to make friends...

Biggest Loser and Basketball

So I feel my biggest loser update posts are too long and that no one is reading them so I’m going to really shorten this up.  Red team is crazy and liars and need to go.  Green team hasn’t worked out their emotional issues enough to lose weight and be healthy.  Orange team is super cute and quite, gray seems to be there for the right reasons and are freaking rock stars, White team has a long ways to go as does Brown team.  Pink team needs help, they won’t be there much longer if they keep putting up these small numbers.  Purple is quite and cute, but won’t last if she doesn’t step it up.  That’s all the teams I can think of right now.  Fat people got a scale, saw they lost weight, they clapped, almost everyone was happy.  Last night was too much drama for me, work out, lose weight, and shut up.

Now for biggest loser part 2, Last night was our first league basketball game.  I know I’m in horrible shape and so I knew I didn’t want to play too much or I’d risk hurting the team.  That said I would have liked to have played long enough to break a sweat…  I played about 4 to 6 minutes, all in the first half, grabbed 2 rebounds and scored 2 points.  Positives to take away from the game, I didn’t fall on the floor, I hit the one shot that I took, and I did do enough running last night to feel a little sore.  As for the team, a little talking started, two players got way off their game and then the other team started running away with it.  I noticed that our team is much more ghetto this year than it was last year, mainly due to one player that doesn’t even work for my company that is sponsoring the team…  Oh well.  I was hoping to use this basketball season as a starting off point for me getting shape to run my 5K, but if I can’t get on the floor to run I’ll never make any progress.

Stay Classy Conan

So, I don't know how many of my readers watch the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.  I must admit that I didn't see very many of his shows because of the time that the Tonight Show comes on, but I made it a point to watch his last few episodes.  Friday night, his last Tonight Show, Conan really took the high road and was very respectable on how he handled his good bye.  He admitted that even though things have gotten shaky with NBC lately, he was still very thankful to NBC for all that they have done for him.  He kept making it a point to remind everyone about the horrors happening in Haiti and asking everyone to donate.  I think Tom Hanks was a great choice for a final guest because we can always count on Tom to be classy and funny.  The final send off was given by Will Ferrell singing Free Bird, accompanied by Conan playing the guitar.  Thank you Conan for all the laughs you have brought me throughout the years, and thank you for your classy last show.  Best of luck to you and your now unemployed staff.   We miss you already.

Movie review Monday

I know I'm a day early, but Melissa and I curled up last night and watched a movie on one of our seldom viewed movie channels, that we pay for every month.  We watched, "he's just not that into you".  I'm sure some of you are trying to revoke my man card, but I LOVE movies, chick flicks included.  This movie takes a look at different styles of relationships, single and looking, non-single and looking, long term non-married, and married with issues.  The fun thing about this movie is that it break downs the stereo types of what men say and what women hear.  *Note, this movie had some uncomfortable parts to watch with the other half...   It seems the movie wanted to center around one main character, Ginnifer Goodwin, but with so many sub-plots it had a hard time staying on point.  Ginnifer Goodwin is simply charming and you quickly start to pull for character.  Justin Long plays a know it all bar keep that keeps you entertained.  At times I felt that the side stories were not needed and didn't really mesh with the other stories, sometimes it felt as if they were just trying to add minutes to the movie with the plot of the side stories.  Melissa was dosing in and out and would wake up a little confused by the subplots crossing in and out of the main plot.  Would I recommend this movie to watch?  Yes I would, it was cute, it was fun, and it is a movie that was made for a date night.

Hello, is anyone out there

Hello people of the internet.  Please let me know if you're reading my blog by leaving me a comment?  I'm starting to get the feeling that no one is reading my blog and that I'm the only one enjoying it.  I see people doing "Ask me anything" post so consider this an ask me anything post.  So, ask me anything?  Please?  Like ? marks much?  See that was a question, so you follow suit and ask your own...

Biggest Loser Run Down

Let me apologize for not posting a recap of last weeks Biggest Loser, but we watched it right before hitting the road for Virginia.  I have a horrible memory and don’t really remember what happened last week, nor do I remember who got sent home.  I think it was a mom?  Moving on to this week…  we had a brand new twist added and our first temptation of the season.  The twist is that the made this week “Teacher “ and “Student” week.  One member from each team would be the teacher and the other the student.  The teacher got to work out with Bob and Jillian, but the student couldn’t have any interaction with the trainers all week.  All the training they did had be given to them from the teacher.  Make sense?  Well come weigh in time the student was the only weight that would count.  This ties directly into the temptation because the winner of the temptation got to chose who would be the teacher and who would be the student.  The temptation the easiest one I’ve ever seen, they had to take turns eating M&M’s, or Chocolate candies as they called them on the show.  Each team member had the option to not eat any candies of course and most of the teams took that option.  White team and Pink stayed in the temptation and ate one “Chocolate Candy” each.  Round two starts, pink eats a second chocolate candy and the white team concedes and doesn’t eat their second candy.  After winning the power of choosing the teams they decide they don’t want the power, too late now.  So the teachers are chosen and as expected you have some happy some not so happy, and one really unhappy.  The green team is fighting mad about this and makes it obvious to everyone.  The trainers quickly pick up on this and single out the upset green team member to get to the root of the problem.  Bob sicks Jillian on her to make her crack, which of course she does.  After trying to hide her tears and walking off the show, Bob steps in to smooth everything over and make everyone happy again.  Yay Bob!  Now on to this weeks challenge, let me preface by saying apparently none of these “losers” have ever seen this show before.  The losers  had to take 1000 feet of ribbon and wind it through a play ground getting it as tangled as possible, then they were told that they would draw colors to see which ribbon each team was to untie.  The prize?  Immunity and the right to swap any teacher and student at the weigh in.  Off one person from each team goes to entangle their ribbon.  It’s all fun and games, everyone is yucking it up, wrapping their ribbons around any and everything until they’ve run out of ribbon.  Everyone is still all smiles and Allison has a jar in her hands so everyone is getting ready to pull out a color they think they’re going to unwind when Allison tosses the jar away and says that each team will be untangling their own ribbon.  Now, if you’ve ever seen the show before you should have known this was going to happen.  To top this all off they find out that they have to untangle the ribbon while blind folded, only having the other team mate to guide them.  The White team went a little crazy with their ribbon and made a real hot mess out of everything so we can count them out right away.  The other teams are on a pretty level field, unless they get caught up in the white teams hot mess.   Turns out, the pink team did the worst of everyone as they were never able to untangle the ribbon from their first obstacle.   The winning team was the gray team, barely beating out the red team.  This gave the gray team immunity and the option to switch any teacher and student.  Flash forward to the weight in, gray gets to weigh in first because of immunity and they both do great, losing in the double digits.  They decide that they will swap the teacher and student of the white team because they feel that one of the team members on the white team isn’t putting in the work, which video evidence proves that he hasn’t.  All the teams weight in pretty much drama except for the red team.  The chick on the red team playing the game so hard it’s not even funny.  Since she knew her weight didn’t count for the last two weeks she hasn’t lost any weight.  It pissed the trainers off so bad that a screaming match started.  And again she is documented on video saying that since she doesn’t have to lose any weight she’s not going too.  Lucky for her hubs lost double digits and kept them above the yellow line.  Slacking white team member fell below the yellow line and his mom begged everyone to keep him there and send her home.  Parents are great aren’t they?  Well mom got sent home so it’s time for her son to step it up or else he’s gone next week.  Side note, I feel for read team, they’ve pissed off the trainers and it’s going to be go time.

Welcome Back Kotter

Everyone try and control yourself, but word on the yard is, I’m back!  That’s right, the prodigal blogger has returned from my lengthy road trip to Charlottesville VA.  First, some notes from the road.  Virginia is billed for lovers, and apparently everyone is too busy “loving” to get out and do road work.  I felt like Teddy Roosevelt and the rough riders rolling through there.  It’s also not a place for radio stations.  At one point I hit seek on my radio and the radio dial went almost all the way back around before finding a station.  For about 20 miles I was limited to 3 radio stations to choose from, I felt like a kid with ABC, NBC, and CBS when the president was on.  With no good radio stations to choose from and a sleeping passenger I was left alone with my thoughts, always a scary thing.  My thoughts took me to how I will spend my lottery winnings win I finally win the lottery.  Note:  If you’re trying to lose weight, I don’t suggest a long road trip.  I haven’t eaten this unhealthy since Melissa and I moved in together. 
*Fast food = yuck. 
*Cruise control and a GPS will become your two best friends on a road trip. 
Oh!  What is up with the speed limits in SC, NC, and VA?  65 miles per hour, or mile-n-er for my redneck readers, on the interstates?  I know it doesn’t seem like much, but when you bump back up to 70 after running 65 for 5 hours you start to feel like you’re in NASCAR or something, Woo!  Earnhardt! 
A tip for future travelers:  Stop at the welcome centers as you enter a new state and pick up the hotel coupon books, there are some great deals on rooms in there.  
Fact: the only 5 songs that the radio stations at home play will be the only 5 songs the radio stations in every city in every state will play. 
Fact #2: you look like a fool with your pants on the ground. 
Little known fact:  TJMaxx will not sell you a candle if the glass is broken.  This is a fact that Melissa learned in Greenville SC and almost brought her to tears. 
This is all notes from the road I have at this time, stay tuned for further updates.  I haven’t watched Hero’s  or How I met your Mother yet, but we did watch Biggest Loser last night so I’ll try and bang out an update on that in just a little bit.

oil change tire rotate tuesday

That's right I've spent most of my first day off sitting in auto or tire shops. At the oil change place they always give you the bad news of everything that needs to be done on your car. I really think I need to start building my tool collection so I can start doing this maintanence on my own. It hurts so bad paying someone to do this work for me. I was able to save myself some money by changing melissa's and my own brakes. Oh well I guess I'll just have to keep shelling out the money until I can get me some tools.

Movie quote monday?

Ok here is my first attempt at a movie quote. I don't have a prize to give away but I hope to at least get some guesses or comments. Just take a shot at the movie, if you know who said it then pin a rose on your nose.

"Yes they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell!"

My favorite things

So I might be away from my blog for a little while so please don't all you followers go and leave me!  (All 2 of you.  :( )  I've got to find a way to grow my followers!  Anyway, since I'm going to be away I thought I'd post a few of the things I'm into right now.

1. Family Guy, I can't live without my Griffins!
2. Biggest Loser - one of the few shows Melissa and I agree 100% agree on watching.  And the only show that we HAVE to watch together.
3. Chelsea Lately - love her!  And another show Melissa and I can 100% agree on.  Fun fact, Melissa's dad also watches Chelsea!
4. I'm always game to watch Dumb and Dumber, Shawshank redemption, Joe Dirt, Forrest Gump, Step Brothers, Dew Cox or Talladega Nights.
5. I really enjoy reading, I'm a boring reader though, mainly WWII books, or a biography.  I just started Dan Brown's  "The Lost Symbol" this weekend.  After that who knows what I'll pick up, I got some good ones for Christmas so it might be an Any mini miney moe type deal.
6. I'm a HUGE fan of Charles Schultz and Peanuts. 
7. I'm a fan of Kelley Clarkson and Taylor Swift.  (Seems that they are the only people getting air time right now so they're the only artist I know)
8. I've just gotten into blogging, and no it wasn't just to piss Melissa off.
9. I think I'm the only male that blogs?  Can someone confirm this for me?
10. I <3 lamp, and Mac.

Sweet Epiphany Batman

Due to a trip to Birmingham this weekend I don’t have a movie to give a review on today.  But I think what I do have is just as good.  This weekend we were invited to an Epiphany party.  Epiphany is the celebration of the Wise Men arriving after their long journey at the side of 6 lb 4 oz little baby Jesus.  This party is hosted by a long time family friend of Melissa’s parents.  The Host is 90 years old and has been throwing this party for the last 31 years.  If you’re doing the math in your head that would mean that this party has been hosted by her since before I was born.  The same group of party goers attend this event every year, so that means everyone is at least twice as old as me, except for the hired help who was only 27 years older than me.  Melissa and I were seated at a small table with a cute little couple in their 70’s.  They had some fun stories to tell and made for great conversation, so no complaints there.  The food was wonderful, pork roast, stuffed squash, Manhattan Shrimp sauce over long grain rice, green bean Almondean and fresh homemade bread.  We were worried going in that we would be bored out of our minds since the age difference was so great, but once we sat down to eat it was an enjoyable time.  I now think I want to find me an old person to adopt.  Someone to go over to their house, help out with chores and listen to stories of the “good old days”.  If said old person is wealthy with no remaining family that would be a huge bonus.  ;)  Seriously though, I think as young adults we should be spending more time with our elderly and taking better care of them.  I know for some of them it has be pretty lonely at times.  I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year, but maybe I should put this on my list.  BTW, old people will surprise you, the lady at my table had an iPhone and her 74 year old husband was excited about getting his as soon as his contract ran out.  So “Do  Work” old people!

Try this new fad called jogging or yogging

I have come to realize that I am in very sad shape.  I need to do get up, get out and get something, so I decided that I would start running.  My problem is there is no where fun to go run around here.  I'll probably end up running around the school parking lot in the evenings.  I don't know how well I'm going to do at this "running" thing.  I'd like to have a goal, maybe run a 5k or something, but am I motivated enough to get out there and run and not quit when I get tired?  I used to be in great shape, but I used to run with a purpose, basketball.  I always hated the first two weeks of practice though, hell weeks, because when we pretty much didn't even get to see a basketball.  It was all endurance drills.  Also, I don't have a treadmill, so I'm going to have to be out in the elements jogging, or yogging, not sure if the "J" is silent.  Heck who knows if this will ever even happen.  I've been dreaming since the last season of Biggest Loser ended and the remaining contestants had to run a marathon.  Seeing them finish that race and the looks on their faces made me miss that sense of accomplishment that sports used to give me.  Now that I'm an old fart I don't have those moments anymore.  So what I'm looking for is for any pointers from you runners out there on how I can get started running, maybe some tips for beginners, goals that I should be setting to run a 5k, shoes to wear and so on.  ANY help would be appreciated. 

Wednesday Rub Down

Welcome to the first edition of Wednesday Rub Down, a weekly run down of the events on NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser.  Last night kicked off Season 9 of the Biggest Loser so we were first introduced to our losers.  As seems to be the theme in BL here lately, this season has the biggest and most unhealthiest participants ever.  To keep the show fresh they come up with new curveballs for the contestants, this season had three right out of the  gate, first curveball was that the contestants had to weight in front of all their friends, family and community, second curveball was as soon as they got to the ranch and walked into the gym all the equipment was missing except for Trek bikes on which they had to ride 26.2 miles.  Third curveball, the last two teams to finish the 26.2 miles were sent home.  (We found out after they put the teams back into their limos to go home that they were coming back to the ranch in 30 days to weigh in and the team with the highest percentage of weight loss would get to stay on the ranch.  So in a few weeks we’ll have these teams back.)  Now that all the curveballs are out of the way, it was time for Bob and Jillian to start kicking butt.  At this point NBC queue’s up the puking montage.  Doesn’t everyone love to see people puking back to back to back?  Since this was the first show I don’t know the contestants well enough to start talking about them or calling them by name so we’ll keep this first post a broad overview of the episode.


At the weigh in the team of twins fell below the yellow line and so the other teams had to choose which twin to send home to continue the journey at home.  They voted to send James home.  James has a horrific knee injury that he suffered playing high school football so his brother was worried about how he’d be able to manage at home by himself.  Well turns out he’s done quite alright.  He’s lost 100 pounds in 2 months.  Congrats James on your success, keep up the hard work.

I can't be your Hero baby

Well everyone I was hoping to start a Tuesday post for Monday nights Hero's review, but due to a headache last night I missed Hero's so I can not give a report of what happened.  What I would like to happen is for everyone to comment on the post and give your thoughts and insights into what you saw and what you think is going to happen next!  Hopefully I'll be able to watch it off of the DVR tonight and give a report tomorrow.  I also plan on giving a run down of the Office and maybe some other TV shows that I watch during the week.  Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother, and Chuck.  So stay posted to the same Bat channel, at the same Bat time.

Movie review Monday

Welcome back everyone to Cas’s Crazy Thoughts.  Today we’re going to be reviewing three movies that I partook in over the Holidays.  “Up in the Air”, “The Hangover” and “Julie and Julia” We’ll start the review with “Up in the Air”.

    Up in the Air is a refreshing break from special effects loaded movies.  You’re reintroduced to missing art of witty dialogue.  George Clooney plays a great leading man, but most of my attention was drawn to Anna Kendrick, who I was just introduced to since I haven’t seen any of the Twilight movies.  Her role symbolizes the young fresh face that brings about the evitable life changes.  George is the old timer that has a tried and true method of doing things and is fearful of change.   Let me inform everyone that this is not the movie to go see if you want to leave the theater feeling good, because if nothing else, this movie will leave you “Up in the Air.”

    The Hangover, billed as the funniest movie of all time, was a very enjoyable movie.  The problem that I had with the movie is that if you waited as long as I did to see this movie it has a hard time living up to the hype.  Now don’t misunderstand me, The Hangover is a hilarious movie packed with laughs from beginning to end, but after the buildup I was given I don’t think it’s possible to match the hype.  I wanted to give it a fair review so I thought I’d watch the movie again, plus I wanted to make sure that when I thought I saw Heather Graham’s nipple, I was really seeing Heather Graham’s nipple.  Sorry, that really has nothing to do with this review, but if you haven’t seen this movie, you get to see Heather Graham’s nipple in here.    Now, what was I talking about?  Oh yeah, during my second viewing of the Hangover I started to get the feeling that it was nothing more than “Dude, Where’s my Groom?”, but without all the stoner jokes.  Still a funny movie and I will be watching it again, but it’s no Dumb and Dumber. 

       Julie and Julia was a nice movie that moved along at a nice pace with a well blended past and present transition.  My thirst for history kept me following the Julia side a little bit more than the Julie side.  Amy Adams plays a great lovable leading lady that you really start to cheer for during the movie.  Julie and Julia was exactly what I expected so I was not disappointed.  This is a movie that is perfectly suited for a slow rainy day spent with your special lady friend.

Rebirth of the nerd

So this year I think it’s time for me to get my nerd on, again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been driven to get the latest and greatest tech device, or learn something new in the field. This is going to be the year that I get back into the game. I’m going to freshen up my HTML skills, hone my PERL knowledge base, and finally upgrade to Snow Leopard. If all things go right I might even buy a new iMac, or Macbook by the end of the year. (here’s hoping anyway)

I’d really like to thank LG of iGriza for jump starting me on this. Through Melissa emailing her back and forth it really brought to light how far behind I am on my nerd status. I realized that I never use my Mac Mini anymore. So Mac Mini I apologize for neglecting you, you’ve always been there for me when I needed something Googled, when a PERL script needed to be tested, and when I needed something funny spoken in a computer voice. This year I will make all of that up to you. I’ve freed up your hard drive by buying you a 1 Terabyte friend, today you will be upgraded to Snow Leopard and the new iLife suite. Next I think I’ll move your iTunes library to your external friend so you can shed those few pounds everyone resolves to do this time of year. Then my good friend it will be, “PEANUTBUTTER JELLY TIME! PEANUT BUTTER WITH A BASEBALL BAT!” Maybe we can even get the guitar out and record some riffs with Garage Band. Mac Mini, I love you…