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Glenn, i was hoping to go from 192 to 185 in 31 days. on August 1st i was 192. On August 10th i was 189. Not bad, 3 pounds in 10 days. On August 20th, i was 187. So i had 10 days left, and 2 more pounds to go. I havent been as zealous in my diet, but i’ve still been eating light lunches, not gorging myself at dinner, and eating lighter snacks in the evening. i should come close…one week left.
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i was thinking about making next month a running month. lose 7 pounds in august, run thrice a week in september. sounds like a good idea. the finger is in decent enough shape to run now, so i’ll think about it
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speaking of the digit, the wound is healing well. its closed and scabbed over now. i’m starting to bend my finger just a little. i go back next friday (the day before the outer banks trip). hopefully i will get clearance for swimming. golfing will be a tough call. if i’m going to go and suck (more than normal) then it might not be worth it. but with my luck, a mangled finger might improve my game.
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might be making a purchase this week of some books for my outer banks trip. i was thinking of getting these two books: Positively Fifth Street, which is supposedly the best book about poker ever written (storywise, not strategywise) and Common Grounds, which looks interesting not because the author has commented on my blog, but because this seems like it centers on the stuff i have been thinking a lot about lately. Maybe if i throw in the new Copeland EP,In Motion, i can get free shipping too.
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The Storm Runner at HersheyPark is the best ride I have ever been on in my life. 0-72 MPH in 2 seconds thanks to a hydraulic takeoff like nothing i’ve ever seen before. and if that launch isn’t enough, you’re hurled right into a 180 foot, 90 degree drop. incredible ride. truly worth the price of admission.
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Big Brother 6 thoughts: james is definitely crafty, and as long as he keeps flying under the radar and winning vetos, he’s safe. Maggie is the only person really gunning for him because she’s the only one who’s kept things from getting personal for the most part. Look at the rest of Maggie’s team, they all have personal vendettas. April wants Howie gone, Ivette hates Rachel, and Beau hates Janelle. kudos to Beau for nominating Howie and Rachel though. was he trying to back door Janelle, break up Howie and Rachel, or just trying to prove that he’s going strategy over personal?…i think Howie might be headed home this week, they’ve got to sense that Rachel wants out and will equate that to her being weaker. Plus they migth want to repay Howie for his Hurricane antics…if Howie goes, i think James becomes a major target for Maggie and April, while Ivette and Beau would focus on Janelle. If Rachel/Howie or Janelle win HoH next, i think they should ignore April and focus on outing Maggie or breaking up Ivette/Beau…For James, i think if Howie stays he should not win HoH yet. If Howie is gone he should try to win it. If he does then he will need to finally declare a side. If he put up one from each side, he would piss off both and they might come to their senses about getting rid of him. As long as Ivette/Beau are in the house, he’s smart to stay on their good side. So his best bet would be to put up Rachel and Janelle with April as his replacement in case of Veto…If James can play his cards right, i wonder if he can rise above April on Ivette’s pecking order. There are some things brewing between those two that will probably erupt soon. If Maggie can keep that from happening, then she has done a great job of keeping her tribe together…what about the other safes, when are they getting opened? any more secrets left, Julie Chen?

ok, here’s the reader’s digest version of my last week.
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friday night i try to stretch a double into a triple and slide so hard into the 3B’s knee that my left index finger dislocates and shoots through my finger. emergency room folks are certain it’s broken, only to find out its just dislocated with a minor bone chip. 3 numbing injections, a pull, a “pop”, and 5 stitches later, I’m on my way home.
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sat, sun, mon, tue, wed, thu – pain, vicodin, tired, frustrated (repeat infinitely)
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today- the orthopedist was great. he took the stitches out (which killed), and told me no more ointment. time for the wound to dry, scab, and heal. sounds like a few more weeks of the splint. next week we’e going to try to move the finger. eventually i’ll be going to therapy to try and get full range of motion and strength back. still taking 2 antibiotics to ward off infection. still swollen and sore, but getting the stitches out helped alleviate the pain more than you’d think. i should be ready for softball next year. golfing in the outer banks next month? not so sure. though my buddy dave correctly asserts that i shouldnt have to use that finger to swing the club anyway. guitar? who knows. i am going to mention it to Dr. Shilling next week. A man’s gotta be able to make barre chords, right?
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this whole thing slightly derails my august weight-off. i havent been able to get around as limberly. running is out of the question. but at the 33% mark (on AUG 10) i was 189. that’s 3 pounds, so that’s good. if i can maintain the 180s by next saturday, i think i’ll be able to hit 185 by September. we’ll see.
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typing with two hands…don’t take it for granted.

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2 things I’m really enjoying from ESPN these days:
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CHEAP SEATS without RON PARKER
…If you don’t know what it is, it’s what you get when you stick MST3K, Sports, and 2 funny brothers in a blender. It runs on ESPN Classic every night, where they mock, insult, and poke fun at classic sporting events like “The World’s Strongest Man”, “Super Jocks, Super Dogs”, “The Putt-Putt Championships” and even “The 1997 Spelling Bee”. Erica and I have the show on a Season Pass on TiVo and we usually watch a couple episodes per week. You’ll occasionally get a dud, but for the most part it’s high comedy. The more you watch, the more you start to enjoy their humor. I highly recommend it.

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THE MORNING QUICKIE
I’ve been a huge fan of Dan Shanoff’s “Daily Quickie” on ESPN.com for a few years now. It’s a great way to get the headlines of the day with a little bit of insight and wit thrown in. Over the past week or two i’ve also been participating in the Morning Quickie Chat from 9am to 10am EST. There’s always great insight from educated sports fans, and Shanoff keeps the chat moving at a good clip. Because I’m at work, i can’t sit there and participate the entire time, but I’ll pop in here and there and add a comment or two if i have one. The cool thing is, Dan will post some of my comments during the chat, which i was surprised by at first. I think i may even be considered one of the “regulars” now, so that’s cool. here’s a few archived transcripts you can look at to read my heady insight. you might need an Insider subscription for this, but you should really have one anyway…
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August 4th (5 of my comments)
target=”_blank”August 2nd (3 comments)
August 1st (8 comments…including a ‘biggest farce ever perpetrated…”)
July 25 (4 comments)
July 20 (4 comments)
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my calendar is saying it’s August, but my waistline has me convinced it’s more like mid-February. It’s still light out at 9pm, and i’m checking in at my winter weight. something’s not right.
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i’ve been eating like a pig lately, an absolute pig. what i want, when i want, it doesnt matter. Egg Mcmuffin in the morning? sure. Cheesesteak and fries for lunch 3 days a week? no problem. Eating until I’m beyond full at dinner? why not. Half a box of Cheezits at 10:30pm? You bet. That about sums up my eating habits for the past, oh, 6 months or so. Couple that with not working out at all and voila, 192 pounds.
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my weight fluctates normally between 183-188 pounds. in the past 5 years i’ve gone as low as 178 and as high as 198. Right now i stand at 192, which is about what i expect at the end of winter, not in the middle of summer. So on monday morning i began my august “weight off”. 31 days, a few rules, and the goal of losing 7 pounds. to get down to 185. i should be able to do it.
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there’s no 10 commandments to follow, but here’s a few guidelines i’ll be living by:
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1. 1 or 2 glasses of soda or iced tea per week. coffee as needed. everything else water. the more water the better. i do this most of the time anyway, but i will be careful about those empty calories.
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2. always eat breakfast, never at McDonalds. gotta keep the metabolism moving. Light Yogurt will be the meal of choice.
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3. Salads for lunch. i need those veggies. i also need to avoid the fried foods. weekends i can stray, but its gotta be healthy and medium portions.
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4. Moderation at dinner. However much i would normally eat, I’ll cut that down by about 25%.
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5. Healthy snacking. this is the kicker. i eat lotsof salty, cheesy carbs very late at night. it’s literally my fourth meal. it will be hard to give up, but a must if i want to be successful.
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6. Increased activity. i’d like to run 2 or 3 times a week, though i dont know if it will happen. maybe play tennis a little. softball ends this week, so i’ll need to do something.
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7. take my vitamins. gotta stay consistent with this multivitamin i just picked up. might not help alot, but won’t hurt.
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i guess that’s most everything. i will keep you updated on my progress. who knows, maybe i can keep this going beyond august. but for the time being, i’ll stick to 31 days.

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ok thoughts from this past week of BB6.
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I think it was smart for Maggie to put up Kaysar and James because she wants one of them gone. This is how she assures herself of that. Along that vein, i think the notion of her putting up one of their partners if they win veto is a big bluff and should be called by either guy should they win veto. If Kaysar wins the veto, I’m sure he will be informed that Janelle will go on the block should he use it. They will make it seem like it would be a cowardly thing to do to take yourself off and essentially put your partner up. But if that happens, and it is Janelle vs. James, who do you think they are voting off? As smart as Janelle might be, James is clearly less trusted and perceived as a bigger player. THere’s no way Maggie is going to go into next week with James and Kaysar still playing, that was the whole point of her nominations. Likewise for James, if he wins, he should take himself off. So she might put up Sarah…who do you think they’ll vote off? There’s a revenge factor with Kaysar, and Maggie has to know that she can control Sarah at this point. So in the end, if either guy wins the veto, he needs to take himself off and ensure that his team stays in tact.
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If the veto is not used, it will be interesting. I think James will go home for 3 reasons: 1) he is seen as the bigger liar, 2) he is still eligible for the million, and 3) his exit would leave a very scared (and convincable) Sarah in the house. April, Maggie, and Jennifer could spend all week cozying up to her so that when James goes, it will be the first place she runs to.
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PB&J pass is a good idea. Won’t add alot to the game, but will definitely be a neat twist
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I cant believe that Howie and Rachel took that “deal” from Maggie in the HoH room. Only because it wasnt a deal at all! At the end of the convo she said “OK, well if your keys are in the box, then we have a deal.” HELLOOO!! The whole point of making the deal is to be assured that your keys won’t be in the box. That would be the equivalent of me making a deal with my boss that if i don’t get let go in the next round of layoffs, I will give him an A+ recommendation, and then him saying, “ok, well if you’re not laid off after tomorrow, we have a deal.” No, the whole point of the deal is that i want safety assured to me now. Minor detail, maybe. But the fact that Howie and Rachel didnt even question that, tells me that they might not be cunning enough to make it to the end in the game. Or maybe they just realized that they were safe anyway, so why not play dumb.
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Ivette is quickly becoming the most annoying BB player ever to me. I can’t stand the way she talks about Cappy as if she would give her life for him. She knew the guy for a couple weeks under the pretenses of a reality game show. I’m not questioning their friendship, whcih i’m sure is strong, but my goodness. It’s as if the angel Gabriel was just voted out of the house or something.
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Howie has a serious hormone issue. Funny how Michael was tagged as a sexual predator, but Howie’s behavior is seen as “cute”. i bet he goes too far at some point and it causes a stir.
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I always love when BB sequesters each house guest and offers them money for a week of PB&J for the group. I hope they do that again this year.
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if James goes this week, the two main targets on each side will be Kaysar and Janelle on the ‘good guys’ and Maggie and Ivette on the ‘bad guys’. It will be interesting to see if some of the wishy-washy players like Rachel, Howie, or Sarah win. I do think that Howie will continue to throw every competition as long as he can to keep flying under the radar. Its a good strategy he’s got going too. It will be fun to see him flip the switch and get nasty when his time comes, because i definitely think he has it in him.
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veto partner pikcs. my prediction: Maggie chooses Ivette, James chooses Howie, Kaysar chooses Janelle.