Well..

Holy smokes it's been a while since I posted.  What's new...
Well, I changed teams and got a promotion at work.  Pretty cool stuff.  Now I'm doing SharePoint.  It's a new technology for me, but it's a huge opportunity.  I'm not sure quite which direction I want to take with it yet (as there are 6 or 7 different areas you could go into).  I'm leaning toward more of a SharePoint architect focus, but the company I work for is really going to need a jack-of-all-SharePoint.  So it's going to be fast and furious to get lots of knowledge so I can start making an impact right away.
Outside of work... we got a new dog.  She's a rescue and very sweet.  Her name is Lucy Jo and we're thinking she's a Beagle/Dachshund mix.  She's definitely more Beagle, but she has a long body and looks to have Dachshund eyes and snout. We've had some minor chewing incidents, but she's doing very well.  Her and the 'mouth of the south' Cricket are getting along very well and have started running around, wrestling, and playing with each other.  She does very well on car rides, which is good since my parents are about 6 hours away.  I'm very excited to see what happens when we get her out in the woods next to Bailey.

Catching up...

So some great news... finally sold my house in PA!  It was a long trip, but finally got it sold on Thursday.  I ended up staying with a friend for the weekend and caught up with a few more friends for my last trip to SE PA for a while.

It was great to catch up, but I think it was even better this time around to get rid of the last lingering piece of my bad history... and to get rid of that second mortgage.

Sick

So I'm sick.  The first time in about two years.  I loaded up on the OJ last night and got a decent night's sleep, so hopefully it will be out of my system soon.

Cool Voting Website

I found this the other week and thought it was pretty cool.  Helps you learn more about the candidates and how they relate to your values.

http://www.votesmart.org/

Back and on a break...

So I'm back in the blogging biz.  My old site decided to take a crap so I've given up on it.  I migrated some of my relevant posts over to here, but will be mainly starting from scratch.

Even though I'm back, I'm on a break... from P90X.  Last week after one of my workouts, I started with some back pain right on my shoulder blade.  Eventually it made it's way 'through' me and started making my chest hurt like a mofo.  It spread around to my ribs and that was about it.  I looked it up and with the combination of back and chest pain and the way it hurt when I moved or leaned a certain way, it seemed to be some rib issues.  Things have been getting better, but I'm still sore if I twist a certain way or lay on my side wrong.  I think I'm going to give P90X a break right now.  I've learned quite a bit and I think I'm going to start fresh in a couple of weeks... right from day one.

10.07.2010 - P90X Day 31

Well, I didn't get to Plyometrics last night like I wanted.  Ended up doing quite a bit around the house, cleaning up, laundry, etc.  This morning though... Back and Biceps, holy crap that was hard.  My arms felt like rubber after and I had a hard time even washing my hair.  I'm feeling better now, and not really sore.  Must be the chocolate milk wonderdrink that I have after every workout.

Need to get my chicken cooked up tonight and can't wait for my filet on Friday.  Had one last night and... delicious!  Now that I can have rice and some carbs, I think chicken and rice will be a big staple for the next couple of weeks.  I was surprised at how much a cup of rice really is.  Throw some chicken and broccoli in there and it's a great meal.

10.05.2010 - P90X Day 29

Well, I can tell that I didn't do a thing during my recovery week other than eat OK.  Started month two with Chest, Shoulders and Triceps.  Holy crap.  I got to the point where I couldn't do the last two sets of pushups.  My triceps hurt something fierce right now, but I know it's going to be worth it in the end.

Still sitting at about 12-13 pounds of weight loss and some noticeable changes in my body shape and look.  This month is going to be good and I'm hoping month three will be kick-ass.  Since I haven't done the Ab Ripper as part of my routine, I think I'm going to do that once I finish day 90.  Do three months off with Ab Ripper three or four times a week... see how I feel and maybe start another round to get ready for summer 2011.

So that's about it right now.  Still pretty shocked at myself that I have stuck with this for a month.  At this point, I've come this far, seen pretty good results, so I can't stop now, right?

10.06.2010 - P90X Day 30

Well, holy crap did yesterday whoop my ass.  I woke up this morning and my back was screaming.  So I decided to head into work a little early and do my workout tonight.

We'll see how it goes.  Plyometrics is hard to begin with, let alone with a sore back.

10.04.2010 - P90X Month Two

So month two starts for P90X tomorrow.  I did absolutely nothing over my 'recovery' week.  My back was pretty beat up and every morning I woke up with serious stiffness.  I figured I wouldn't risk hurting it more since it was only the recovery week and hit hard starting month two.

Just need to get my nutrition plan figured out for this week, do some grocery shopping, and get ready to bring it for another 8 weeks.

09.24.2010 - P90X Day 18

So Day 18... Yoga day.  Man that shit is tough.  I got out of bed a little late, so I only ended up putting in about 35 minutes worth.  Still, Yoga had me sweating.  Ended up weighing myself again and was down to 212.  I've been weighing myself the same time every morning to stay consistent.  So the tally is up to 13 pounds down in a little under 3 weeks.  I'm sure that will slow down here soon, because that's a lot to drop in such a short amount of time.  I did have quite a bit of excess to deal with, so it's good to see the weight go.  I'm also able to do more reps, which means I'm getting more fit as well.  It's all coming together pretty much as planned, which is good.

09.15.2010 - P90X Day Eight

So it's day eight of my P90X routine.  It's a repeat of week one, so it was nice to know just about all of the moves.  It made it a little smoother.  The diet is making mornings rough though.  No carbs is kicking my ass.  I'm a huge carb guy (give me potatoes and bread and I have a meal)... so the shift is very difficult.

I'm not really seeing any results yet, and I wasn't sure if I should expect to see any right now.  I started doing a little reading on some P90X forums and saw that a lot of people noticed some results in the measuring tape, but not with weight.  I'm more concerned about the measuring tape over the scale, so I need to do that tonight.  I've already improved on a lot of the push-up and weight exercises since last week... which makes me feel like something is going on.

My weight goal is to be under 200, but if I'm looking in better shape and the measurements show it, then I'm not as concerned about the final weight.

So I'll keep on bringin' it and we'll see what happens.

09.21.2010 - P90X Day 15

The start of week three.  It's just weeks one and two repeated, so now I really have the routines down and can focus more on my form and quality.  Next week is a recovery week, which will be nice.

So I hopped on the scale after working out (which I'm not sure is good or bad) and I was down to 214.  From my high of 225, I'm down 11 pounds since I started.  I think this has a lot more to do with the diet than anything else.  I was surprised that I was down, especially after this past weekend.  I bombed my diet pretty good.  The next couple of weekends should be easier as I'll be around and not travelling.
So that's about it for now.  I'll try to update again this week, but no promises!

09.09.2010 - P90X Day Three

Well, a lot has been going on since my last post in April.  Bought a house in VA, had a pretty good summer, and just started P90X.

So I wrapped up day three this morning.  Day one was Chest and Back, day two was Plyometrics (jump training, and freakin hard), and this morning was the Shoulders and Arms.  I should have had two days of Ab Ripper X in, but being my first week, I wanted to get the other routines rolling.  Next week I'll be adding Ab Ripper in.  Getting up at 6am has been quite a change, but this morning I was feeling pretty good.

The nutrition piece has been pretty good so far as well.  I don't think I'm getting quite enough calories that I should be, though.  I need to sit down and scope out my calories and see how good I've been doing.  I've been eating much better, but possibly not enough.  I broke it down with their formula and I should be pulling in around 3150 calories a day.

So there you have it.  I'll be posting my progress as I go along.  Hopefully this gets me back into shape, because my current shape (round) isn't working out that well.

04.26.2010 - Time to get back at it...

I'm not talking about blogging, even though it's been a few months.  I'm talking about home ownership.  So I still have the house in PA, but now that I'm officially a VA resident, we ended up buying a house down here.  It was a foreclosure, so we knew it was going to need some work.  It has some major needs, like new HVAC, a new back door, exterior painting, etc.  Some of the small stuff like taking down wallpaper, painting, replacing fixtures is already under way.  Between our blogs, I'm sure there will be lots of before and after pictures... but I'll try to get some up on here with my take on things.

12.15.2009 - So it's been a while...

So my last post was in September... quite a long time.  A bit has changed since then.  I had a great birthday weekend in Pittsburgh for the Steelers/Chargers game.  It was me, my parents, and my girl.  Downtown was under construction so we didn't get a chance to check out Primanti's, but we're planning on going back out again so we'll have to make sure to hit it then.

Since it was a Sunday night game, we came back on Monday.  Then on Tuesday when I went into work, I found out they eliminated my job along with 74 others.  So that was a pretty crappy thing to come back to after my long birthday weekend.  I did get a decent severance package, so I took some time off.

So then I decide I should start looking for a new place to work.  I came up with a resume, posted it to monster.com and sent off a few applications.  I wasn't looking too hard, since I had a resume seminar coming up so I could really shine my resume and then hit the applications fast and furious.  Before I had my seminar, a place called me up and offered an interview.  It was down in Richmond.  They asked if a phone interview was OK, but since I had the time, I headed on down for that and to spend some time with my girl.
Everything goes well with the interview and then I get a call a few days later with a job offer.  I about fell over.  One interview and an offer within four days... pretty crazy in this job market, especially in the Richmond area.

Well, that's pretty much where I am now.  Moved to Richmond and working in downtown.  It's a smaller company, but the cubicle life is very "Office Space" and will take a little getting used to.  Any time I have to talk with someone, I tend to get up and walk just so I can stretch out a little.

Time to get to work... I'll update some more later.

09.10.2009 - Catching up on NYC...

As promised, a recap and some pictures from NYC. (just a placeholder for now)

Starting Fresh

Well, I think my other blog is about done.  Somehow I can't edit my settings, posts, etc anymore and I just don't feel like bothering with it.  So I'm going to catch up with my valuable posts from there and re-post them here.