road to repairs

In my attempts to get a handful to things done today, I was only able to accomplish two. One, go to home depot and get a bunch of shit including a new light timer for the walkway lights, which seem to have a mind of their own in terms of when they decide to turn on or not. Everyday its different, on at 2pm, on at 6pm, on at 5am...jeez. I thought it was just a short, but I hope that getting a new timer will solve it.

Secondly, as stated in a prior post, I needed to get my brakes done. I ended up going to Brakes Plus since it was right across the street from Home Depot, and its the place that Chris had recommended the day before. I do have to give them some credit, they have good customer service and skill, and at a price that I had anticipated in paying, if not a little bit cheaper.

The only downside to the place is that you really need to grab a snickers bar, cuz its gonna be a while. I rolled in there about 12:30 and got out at 4. Granted it was pretty busy for them, and I did manage to find shit to do...read a newspaper(the entire newspaper), play poker on my phone-which I got up to and then lost $800,000. They make take a bit to do some work, but in the longrun it is worth it and I'll go ahead and recommend them to anyone if they don't already have a better place in mind. I suppose it really wasn't that bad, $300 for new brakes and adjustments-including parts, labor, seals, adjustments, fluids...yadda yadda yadda.

I got home just in time to eat 2 plain hamburger patties and relax for 20 minutes before having to go to work on what is rumored around our bar to be THE busiest night of the year. We shall see if it is true or not seeing we've been a ghosttown for a week now. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong because I don't know if my body is fully ready for it. I'm starting to get a small cold and my current diet of little to no carbs is draining me. I'll need to go pop a Vitamin B shot, some echinachia and slam a cup of coffee.

In case I don't hear from any of you soon, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving peeps!

poopy calculations

Alright, I'm convinced that pedometers are so better than the chunks of poop you see here. For shits (no pun intended) and giggles, I decided to take my pedometer on a walk with me to get an accurate account of distance and calories burned on my walk.
I estimated the walk at about 2 miles beforehand, and thought that it would be in that general vicinity, plus or minus a 1/4 mile. Well, I took my walk, and when I got home, I checked the freggin thing, and it said I had only gone .95 miles. I was confused and immediately called bullshit on the fucker.
There was only one way to solve this. Drive the same route. So I did, and the accurate reading was that of 2 1/4 miles! Score for me! I underestimated myself a bit, showed up my piece of crap pedometer and felt more confident in going out walking around.
So for all of you guys, save your damn money, don't by one of those stupid things...I'm just glad mine was a gift so I have no problem tossing the bastard out!

Exploring AZ

*Marc & Chris, forest rd 143, w Roosevelt lake beyond*
click to enlarge...

Tuesdays lately are my only day off from work in like the current month, so, after talking with Chris last night, we decided to go out and romp around in the wilderness today. We needed to start scouting for sites and prepping ourselves for our upcoming Javelina hunt in Feb, so this was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
We got drawn for unit 22, containing most of the area north of Phoenix and Scottsdale up to Payson along highway 87.
So, after working last night and taking a 4 hour nap, I lurched awake at 730 am, packed up some essential gear, picked up Chris and headed for the hills. We covered over 150 miles of highways, roads, forest service roads and off road trails in the span of half a day. We did find some promising areas to set up camps, as well as did a fair amount of hard cross country hiking off the beaten path tracking game trails and water sources. We got our good workouts today, one from hiking, and second from being bopped around the cab of the car and having our bodies compensate for it as we rumbled along 25 mile long off road trails.
Speaking off off roading, my truck gave me signs that it was time to get new brakes at least today as we were out. Fast descents, hard driving and road dust was causing havoc on my brakes, which I know now are due for replacement.
A good day for me too health wise, easing off on useless carbs, a few scrambled eggs and a slice of turkey meat for breakfast, eating on some protein laden jerky for snacking, and a salad with a few spoonfuls of tuna after getting back. I did splurge a little though, quaffing a can of miller lite out in the sticks today as I enjoyed half a cigar. I think I deserved that after a long week of watching my shit.

Exercising pays

Funny what you may find when you go do something outside. I'm out walking Jenny today on a two mile stroll and turns out it was my day to be paid to be exercising. For both Jenny and I. On my little jaunt, I found 2 cents, a tennis ball (for Jenny) and oh...a dirtbike.
Yup, you heard me right, a dirtbike.
It's seen some wear and tear, but it still looks solid. It was stashed in some bushes on the side of the road near my house. So I did what I think a good honorable person would do. I took the thing home, contacted the police department notifying them of the property as well as it's national registration number slapped on the bottom. So I figure, I hopefully earned some good karma. It's probably the property of some punk street kid all hopped up on dope (or at least that's the stereotype), but if it brightens his day by having me recover his property, then I guess that makes me feel better. If not, and the police don't want to claim it, well then I guess I have a new bike. Yeah, that'll be real good to see, a big old 245 lb thug rollin down the road on a tiny bike. I'm getting flashbacks of the clowns at the circus riding the mini-bikes. Maybe its long due karma from having all my bikes jacked from me when I was a kid.
Anyways, I'm off to go eat my freggin can of tuna for lunch.

Captain Fatass part deux

Operation Lactic Recovery:
I knew it, the first few minutes after I got back in from yesterday's walk/jog, that I would be a little sore today. I was, just as predicted. At least I know that my legs did get a workout. Thankfully enough, the is no joint pain, just minor muscle aches in my quads. They will get used to it in time.
besides, I did enough walking back and forth behind the bar tonight at work to equal a good workout. Per example, with a pedometer on my hip at my old job in Tempe a few months back, I would easily walk almost 3 miles behind the bar, all in short trips back and forth. Now consider that bar was shorter than my current one, less busy and I dart around more (usually avoiding other "husky" bartenders for obstacles)...I think that I may have easily walked 3 1/2 miles.
Today was a relatively healthy day eating wise...a small bowl of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, a tuna sandwich for lunch and a grilled chicken and lettuce tortilla wrap for dinner was sufficient for me. Toss in water all day, 40 ounces of green tea (which, as I found out, if you drink it all in one sitting, not only will you pee a lot, but also find yourself slightly overhydrated and feeling a bit strange-almost high) and half a cup of diet pop for the drive home at 330 am.
I still found myself hungry after each meal just because my stomach is used to eating more food than that in a meal. In time it will shrink down and hopefully the hunger will subside. Once again by not eating greasy foods all day, I didn't necessarily have more energy, but I just didn't feel like I was bogged down.The good news is that if I keep this pace up, I may be able to lose a little more than the goal of 5 lbs by my Christmas party. Captain Fatass be slimmin!

Marc is off the market.

So I've been chatting with someone special for a bit now, and today at work I had no less than 4 people ask me if I had a girlfriend again. Well by golly I had to say yes.
So it's official once again, that I am off the market.
Her name is Nicolle. She truly is an amazing woman, enough so that writing the qualities she has here on the site wouldn't give her justice. I think I have to give some credit to my cousin Tina for this one, for Nicolle is her best friend. We've known of eachother since high school, but never crossed paths like we are now. I was paired up with her in my cousin's wedding-you little sneak, I think Tina is just toying with the idea that she may someday get Nicolle as a family member...and recently we both got out of crappy relationships, so we have plenty of knowledge of what "not to do".
The only downside to her and I seeing eachother? Well, she lives 740 miles away, back home in the bay area. Quite a big gap to fill. But we are giving it a shot and are hopeful things will work out just peachy. Until other big news pops up, the rest is all personal!

Operation Green Purge

Hopefully today will be the first day of the demise of Captain Fatass.
Today was a good day, until I may feel it tomorrow.
I was good today, had a salad for lunch, and a salad for dinner with some grilled shrimp and a healthy handful of veggies with the salad. Nothing but water to drink today too.
One thing I need to be careful of with salads is that after I eat one, I'm hungry again in like an hour. So yea, Operation Green Purge. Load up on the greens and veggies to start purging my system and get my energy up. I do have to admit, I have no objections to salads. There are those times when a salad just isn't feeling to be the right mood I'm in, but I need to fight past that. I did notice today that I wasn't lugged down with the usual grease and fat laden burgers or sandwiches. I didn't necessarily have extra energy around, but I just didn't feel bogged down.
Here's where Captain Fatass was reminded why he's Captain Fatass though...
After dinner, I went and took Jenny on a fast walk/jog. Yup, you heard me right...I said jog.
Total distance, about 1 1/4 miles around the neighborhood. Ran for 1/2 mile and speed walked the rest. Things felt cool. Nothin slipped out, no popping, no pain, no shortness of breath.
Until, I got home...and that's when Captain Fatass' body reminded him that there were certain areas of his body that were "out of order" for the past year. I'm pretty sure that I may be a little bit sore from using muscles that I haven't really used in a while.
Comes with the territory I guess. A little soreness goes away with a little working it again.
Poor Jenny though...she didn't know what the fuck to think. Here she is all excited to take a walk and sniff stuff, and the whole time she is the one speeding up to keep pace. She was probably all bewildered at the sight of me running! "What the hell are you doing fatman! You aint supposed to move like that!"
It came to a head when I bet she wished she hadn't drank all that water before we left. A block from home, she lost her bladder control from being working so hard that she dropped a water bomb the entire way while crossing a street. Poor thing! I guess you will need to stop by a grassy greenbelt the next time we go out like that.

Captain Fatass

I'm just about being struck in the head (or the gut!) with a realization tonight. Of course it comes after I have a huge meal for dinner at work( which in the world of restaurant food, our grub should come with a defibrilator on the side). That realization is that I really need to drop some weight. Add to the fact that when I get home tonight, I check out a website that has a BMI calculator (body mass indicator)-I enter in my info, 6ft, 250 lbs. It tells me that my BMI is 33.9, and am classified as obese. Granted, it doesn't take into consideration my frame and build, but regardless of that, I know I am overweight.
So what do I need to do? Drop some. I want to, in the next year, drop 30-40 lbs. Seems easy enough right? If its anything like quitting smoking, I have a loooong road ahead of my fat ass.
So, set my goals first-
1) Drop a total of 30-40 lbs in a year.
2) Drop 5 of those lbs in 3 weeks. (Before my Christmas party...so I can go ahead and put the 5 lbs back on during the party itself)
3) Rebuild my cardio and respiratory stamina. I need to, especially since now I have allergies or something really effecting my breathing.
4) Do all this to accomplish feeling better, having more energy and having a better and confident self image.
Second-how to achieve these goals.
1) Change my diet dammit! I'm constantly surrounded and bombarded by greasy nasty fast foods and unnecessary food stuffs. Especially at work. I need to stock up heavy on the veggies and fruits. Especially the greens for fiber and iron, to get my energy up and the innards flowing smoother. I can splurge a little from time to time, but I need to center on veggies and lean meats more and not empty carbs and grains.
The drinking needs to change a little too. Ease off on the beer(which never was my favorite anyways), and stick with hard booze. Thankfully I've already fallen in love with vodka & soda waters with lemon and limes. No cals in the soda,and vodka is a hangover minimalist.
2)The frequency and patterns of my meals. I need to start eating 3-4 small meals a day instead of 2 big heavy ones. Here's what is gonna kill me too...is getting at home at 4 in the morning from working hard all night and wanting to eat a meal before bedtime. Its hard, I'm hungry when I get home.
3) Start to exercise slowly. It's been a while since my last regimen. Long brisk walks with Jenny. Light jogs around the area. Short bike rides around town.
4)Try to incorporate outdoor activities while the weather is good, and try to find a friend to do things with too. It's a lot funner that way and it feels like playing instead of working.
5) Get working gear. I need a new bike, one that is fitted right to my frame and height. I think I've outgrown my old mountain bike.
New shoes, comfy ones that won't give me blisters and that aren't too tight.
A new Ipod would be good too. It would be pretty hard to lug around my portable CD player. That's a luxury I don't need right now though.
6) Once all this stuff is established and I've dropped the 5 lbs, Join a gym again.
Join a gym, and stick to it! No sense in paying money to sit on my ass. Use the equipment well, circuit train and load up on the cardio machines.
I think that's a pretty solid enough plan to get my fat ass started. Once I get all that stuff up and running, I can get into more serious regimens. Wish me luck guys, hopefully I can give you less of me around to love!