The Weight

I know that I just posted a blog entry last week, but I've come up with a compelling reason to do so even if it breaks my comfortable routine of waiting longer and longer between updates. No, it has nothing to do with North Yarmouth Fun Day, which went off pretty well yesterday. We had beautiful weather in the morning and it never really started raining hard until we had everything put away. The drizzle forced us to shut down the bounce house much earlier than we wanted, and the rest of the game area somewhat early, but I think that we still did ok. We seem to have blown through the prizes much quicker than last year, so that's all I'm going by. The numbers haven't been tallied yet.

Coach Soule (of the Class B state champion Greely Rangers, which also happens to be the team with the best website in Maine: http://www.greelybaseball.com) and his radar gun was a big hit. Almost TOO big, because we really underestimated how well kids would be able to guess their speeds when we were coming up with the rules and payouts. Some of the kids were walking away with big wads of Fun Day Dollars. We'll put him in a more prominent spot next year, and we'll also try to come up with some other athletic games. We really need to draw the attention of the older kids away from the somewhat-fragile arcade games that are targeted towards the single-digit demographic.

My second Fun Day was definitely easier and less stressful than the first. We had more committee members, but it didn't feel like we had as many volunteers as we should have. MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO VOLUNTEERED - we could not do it without you. I've already got a LOT of ideas about the next one.

Today was supposed to be another "fun day", with a post-Fun Day canoe/kayak regatta on the Royal River. Unfortunately, my father's canoe was damaged beyond quick repair, so we planned to go just as spectators and enjoy some cider and donuts. Recently, the girls told me that they've got Angela and I figured out and that we never follow through on our threats to punish them. Well, we made it to the regatta finish line just fine, but big sister was feeling a little defiant (maybe being the cover girl for The Notes this week had gone to her head...) and refusing to listen to us when we told her to get out of the way of the boaters as they were coming in to shore. Angela picked her up to pull her back and then all hell broke loose and she threw a fit. Her second public screaming episode in two days - the other being when we were standing outside the fire barn before the bean supper the night before. This time, there was no hesitation - I grabbed her and put her into the car seat and we were out of there with no donuts and no cider. After much lecturing in the car about acting her age (with little sister occasionally dashing some salt in her wounds), she cooled off.  

I decided to run a bunch of errands in the afternoon, and feeling guilty about leaving the kids with Angela, offered to take them with me. The little one had helped me set up Fun Day for FOUR hours on Friday and was an ANGEL almost the whole time. She was also pretty much fit-free on Saturday (as far as I know, but I was busy) so I had no qualms about bringing her. Naturally, that bit me in the butt when she had a screaming fit of her own in Hannaford because we didn't get a "car cart". Luckily, I was still in the produce section and had only bagged up 4 apples. I stuck the bagged up apples in the corner of the shelf, threw her under my arm and headed out to the car. I dropped her off at home and headed back with just the older one. My apples were still there. By the time we got home, the little one was bouncing all over the house and exuberantly cleaning the table when asked. Lessons learned? I doubt it.

Fun Day and unfun day aside, the real reason for the blog entry is that 30-and-over basketball started tonight and... I weighed myself for the first time in a long time. My suspicions were confirmed, and I'm GROSSLY out of shape - quite possibly at my all time heaviest. So, I have decided to weigh in each Sunday before basketball and publicly post my weight. If this doesn't motivate me, nothing will. The thing that worries me a little is that I think I'm actually eating pretty well, overall. It's just been a complete lack of exercise this summer (I think). I'm not planning on making any radical dietary changes, so we'll see if just adding some semi-regular exercise can make a big enough difference.

Week 1: 213 lbs

Comments

[Carissa]

You are brave, man! I definitely think exercise has much more to do with weight control than diet. Good luck!