Grrouchie Thoughts with Hump Day Photos

First off, some Deadpool

I love the Game of Thrones design above and especially that the chair has guns from various video games like Gears of War.  Deadpool's Video Game comes out on the 25th and I have my copy pre-ordered.  One of the very few games that I have picked up this year and one of the few upon release.  I held off hoping that there would be some sort of special edition with a DP Statue but no luck, whatever.

Now that I'm back off of Vacation it's back to Wedding planning.  We just recently started looking at invitations and have found a couple that we really like.  Going to see if we can order samples in the colors we want and see how we like them up close and in person.

I do believe that she has changed her mind on the Honeymoon and it looks like we will probably be going to Hawaii now.  I expect this to change 3-5 more times before we book the flight and hotel though so this probably won't be the last you hear me talking about her changing her mind on a destination.

The good news is that no matter where we go we will be getting help from her amazing Aunt who is going to help us with hotel and flight to cut our costs down.  

I still haven't shelled out for the Skyrim Legendary Edition like I wanted to, but with Deadpool coming in the mail I can afford to hold out for a while longer.

Whilst at my local Comic Shop the other day I saw a new comic that caught my eye because of the author, Max Brooks.  Because of his amazing book World War Z and how enjoyable he was at the speaking engagement that I attended a few years back (Even though I missed out on getting my book signed) I forgive him for being his fathers kid :)  So, I picked up Issue #1 of The Extinction Parade and really enjoyed it.
It's put out by a small Comic Press called Avatar and while looking at their website I noticed that they had a special edition of the comic (limited to a 1000 print run) with a leather bound cover.  Due to getting a bonus in my PayPal account recently I decided to order the 1st 3 issues this way.  Issue #2 comes out in July and #3 in August.  After I see the quality of the 1st Issue I'll decide then if I'm going to continue to get the whole series this way (I believe it's only an 11 issue run) or if I'll just stick to a particular cover style I like.
You all will be getting pics of Issue #1 when it comes in.  I'm a bit excited.

My computer lately has decided that it likes to just disconnect me from the net randomly and often.  It's a bit annoying but I know she can hold out for a while longer.  I can get her to last until after the wedding and I'll be happy about that.  I'm thinking about talking my parents into the larger Kindle Fire HD for either Birthday or Xmas this year (maybe they'll Apple that shiz and put out a new version every year?) because right now my only wishlist is $$$$ to help pay for the wedding.

Disney Family Pics

These are all of the professional photo's taken at Disney via their Disneyphotopass where they have camera people who will take pics of you and your family at certain landmarks then they scan a card and those pics get uploaded online.

Then, if you want these photo's you have to pay for the privilege.  $14.95 just for a download or you can pay other fees and get printouts mailed to you or a CD with all your images.

I didn't feel that $14.95 was worth it for the 7 whole photo's they took of us (and that includes the duplicates as you can see below, though if you look the duplicates all have a very minor variation like someone's hand moved half an inch or slightly different light shading - whatever) so I decided to just go through my cache and save them to disc instead.

I've still got about a million other pics to post - so this will be considered part two.

Please go check out part one of my photo bomb series of Disney Photos!

I warn you - I've got some half naked ugly fatty pics probably coming up lol!

A grrouchie Disney Vacation

Well, it's about time I throw some pictures up from our Disney Vacation.

There are some others that I don't have access to so I might be making a Part Two post at some point.

Phinneas and Pherb (???) dancing

Hot chick dancing with the peeps above

Damn I'm Sexay

AHHHHHHHHHH

Snagging the Gold Tooth

Pumping Gas

At the Pumps

Lightning McQueen

More Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen (again)

Riding the red-neck Voiced Mater

The Man keeping him down

Sand Boobs

Hey Ladies!

Decisions Decisions

Fathers Day

It's a day late and I'm a dollar short but I want to declare Happy Fathers Day to all of those who happen to be, or are going to become or even just want to be.

There is a lot of pride in this day that I didn't know existed.

The Best of - The Worst of - Times

I just got back from Disney and had an amazing time.
Some things I used to love I fell in love with again and I grew closer with my fiance and child and am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with them.
Not having them in the same room with me this evening is going to be very lonely.

I will throw some pictures up and do a write up at a later date.
However....


Two days ago I checked my Facebook and saw that I lost a friend.
Those who know me know I have talked a lot about Splitter and his writing.
When I first discovered him we used to talk a lot and I felt like I really got to know him.
He fell ill and it ended up being cancer.
Two days ago he lost the battle.
For those who pray please send them towards his wife who has lost her best friend and soul mate.

500th Post - Nothing worthwhile inside

This, right here, marks my 500th post since I started doing this and kept with it.  The number would be a lot bigger if I never bothered to delete everything I had previously written (multiple times) to start anew but it is what it is.

With that I thought I should share another Milestone.

I glanced down at a red light the other day and noticed that my odometer had just passed the 100,000 mile mark.

This will be my last post until I get back from Disneyland.  We take off on Wednesday and will be coming back on Sunday.  I'm hoping to have a lot of pictures and a few good stories to tell.  Maybe even some clean ones.
I'm also hoping that 5 days out of town and eating poorly won't set me back too much.  Even if it does I'll just jump back on the path I have been taking and right my wrongs.

Today at work someone was asking me what I currently weighed and I told them.  One guy mentioned that he was 189 and he's never been as big as me.
I told him that by next April (by my wedding day) that I'd be down to his weight or less.
He told me he'd buy me two cheeseburgers if I got there!
Bet Accepted sir, bet accepted.

Here is a really good article on how Tim Tebow had to renounce Jesus and now Worships Satan.

Today the new patio door for my house got put in.
I need to go shopping and pick up a couple of pairs of shorts now that all of mine are way too big on me.
Losing weight is expensive.

Hope everyone has a great end of week and weekend and I'll catch up with y'all next week sometime!

Pacific Poker turns 11

I remember back in the day when I first started playing poker and how horribly addicted I became to the thrill and challenge of the game.  That feeling was intensified when my local poker room started offering No Limit and I learned the ins and outs of the game at the same time as a bunch of other newbs but just happened to be a bit better than them and kept showing profit so that I could keep playing.

Everything changed when I discovered Online Poker and the ability to play whenever I wanted.

One of the first sites that I signed up for was Pacific Poker.  I got to practice in small online games and then take that information back to the bigger games I was playing at the casino.  Life was great.

I just recently received an email about a new promotion to celebrate Pacific Poker's 11th birthday and it got me waxing nostalgic about the good old days.

Starting June 13th Pacific Poker is throwing a Free-roll party.
For the 1st 10 days they are offering a $1,000 free-roll and on the 11th day they are offering a $3,000 free-roll.

So, what better way to pretend you are at the WSOP than by playing along with the home game on Pacific Poker, and you can do it all for free.  Just click the link above and enter your email address to let them know you want in on this Pacific Poker Party.  Pretty simple.

So, fire up your computer and, more importantly, Pacific Poker and lets party like it's 2002 all over again by dominating some free-rolls for good old fashioned cash!

Weight Loss Saturday

I'm going to do my damnedest to make this my check in day.
Through my weight loss progress so far I got pretty lazy.  When you are as big as I was making little changes and eating less will allow you to lose a good amount of weight and you don't have to worry about tracking calories or points or whatever it is for whatever system you are doing.
That's what I did.  I just adjusted a little here and there and lost weight consistently and didn't worry about it.  Then I got down to about 235 and it all just sort of stopped.
I stayed there for nearly 3 months until I decided that I needed to do something about it.

I'm currently using MyFitnessPal and tracking my daily calories and making a really big effort to go near or stay under my goal every day.  I've changed up what I have been eating and made adjustments after looking at the caloric information of all the foods I was putting in my system and am currently working on getting this new routine down for what I'll be eating.
Greek Yogurt has been the MVP so far as it's loaded with protein and low calories.  I'm throwing in a decent amount of chicken and turkey and all is right with the world.

This past week while my weight loss kicked back into high gear I lost about 5 pounds and before anyone tells me that losing 5 pounds in a week is generally unhealthy I'll point out that it happens once in a while.
Over the course of the year plus that I have been changing the way I eat I have had a few weeks where I have lost 5 pounds and a few weeks where I have gained 5 pounds.  However, they are not the norm as it's usually just a pound or two here and there.
If I come back every Saturday for the next month and tell you I've lost 5 more than you can start to show concern and tell me I'm doing something wrong :)

Either way - I finally broke a plateau that I've been looking forward to for quite a while now and that is getting under 230.

I cannot remember the last time I was under 230 - It had to be back during my college years, my early college years, and we are talking over a decade at this point.

So, here's to getting to that next mark of 220 (which was my initial weight loss goal when I first set out on this journey) which I'm hoping comes around the end of July!

When I first started I was over 300 pounds. I first noticed around March of 2012 and that is when I decided enough was enough.
1 year and 3 months later - over 70 pounds lost and still another 30-50 to go!

grrouchie thoughts with photo fails

At the beginning of June I decided that I was going to be a lot more attentive towards trying to slim down so that I can look fabulous for the wedding and while only a week in I have been successful.  I'll talk a bit more about that tomorrow as I want to get back to progress as a weekly post and the 1st was a Saturday so WTF right?

Poor Edward

The kids dad has actually been showing up and trying to be in his life a little bit more often recently which could be good or bad.  I'm under the impression that he is filling the kids head with some things but I'm not there for any of it so I don't know.  Last night (for the 1st time in several months) he said he wished his dad could live with us so that we could all be a happy family.  We had to explain to him that it won't happen and everyone is happier because of it and also that if his dad lived there we would not all be a happy family - I'd be 100% out of the picture.  I think he understood.
He then went on to say that when his dad lived there he got straight A's and he had a horrible year after his dad left and has to repeat 2nd great.  So, we had to explain that while his grades were better (he never had Straight A's) he just had a bad year and adjusted poorly but he showed a lot of improvement near the end and we are both very proud of him for that.  This is why we have summer tutoring lined up and will be helping him out over the summer as well.
I'm fairly certain his dad is the one that put the whole "straight A's when he was there" thing into his head as a "see, you were better off when I was there" type of thing.
This is going to be the most frustrating part of my whole life and I hope it gets better over time (hope he wakes up before the kid decides he wants nothing to do with someone who is going to be so negative all the time).

Oh please give me the Strenght to deal with this situation :)

One of the "last straws" that caused me to finally decide to leave Pennsylvania permanently was the insane weather in Erie while I lived there.  My last winter had an overnight Ice Storm that put about three quarters of an inch of ice around my car and it took me about 45 minutes to break open the door so that I could get the car running to melt the rest of it.  Yes- Remote Car Starter would have been an amazing thing but I didn't (don't) have one.  While I'm enjoying winter evenings in the 50's and 60's and have friends complaining to me because it's still snowing in March and April I am reminded that I made the right choice because real winters suck.

I don't miss this shit

Disney is just 5 work shifts away at this point.  We are doing our last minute prepping and picking up some things that we need.  We will buy a bunch of stuff to fill the cooler Tuesday evening and then weds morning we'll buy some Ice to pack into it for the 4-however many hours it is going to take to get there.  Our plan is to leave around 8 am and hope that the kid sleeps for most of the ride over.  I've learned over the last year that having a 7 year old sit in the back seat of the car is something that takes a lot of patience to deal with.  They want to be involved in every conversation and hate quiet and boredom.  I'm considering charging up my 3DS, my PSP and my Kindle Fire to give him something to play with over the course of the drive.  Between those there should be something to keep him occupied and quiet most of the time.
On the PSP I can load some movies - and I can do the same with my Kindle Fire.  There should be enough battery life to last until we get there (and then we can start charging everything).
I'm also thinking about bringing a video game system for the downtime in the hotel room - not really for video games but to watch a movie or two.

I bought these new headphones for the car ride!

The last important piece for vacation was taken care of when my fiance got her brother to take care of the dog while we are gone.  His request was we buy him a harness so he can take him to the park as his kid loves to go to the dog park and loves to play with the dog.  So, she is off doing that today while I'm wasting time on the internet, playing video games and reading comic books.

Lets hope he doesn't fun my secret stash of chocolate again!

I'm almost done with Avengers vs X-Men and then I can start on Marvel NOW.  I'll be done before vacation starts.
I've also started playing Skyrim again.  I'll probably never be into video games like I used to be, it's harder for me to find some that I really want to keep playing so I'll stick with games that I can dump hundreds of hours into and still able to find new things to do.  I've only bought 2 new games this year and when I pick up Skyrim Legendary Edition that will be the 3rd.  I used to do that before a month was over lol.

A Writing Idea

So this idea randomly hit me today but in all reality it was just stolen and adapted.

This summer our kid is going to have to continue to do about an hour worth of "home work" per night because of struggles during this past school year.  Just simple stuff like 20 minutes of reading, some basic math and some writing.
By the end of the school year one of his homework assignments was to write 10 sentences about 3 times per week.  He absolutely hated doing it because while he is creative and can tell a story for hours on end making up things, when he is forced to sit down and do that exact same thing for homework his brain goes blank and he comes up with one or two sentences without help and usually boring plain sentences.

So, my thought process on this is that he and I will collaborate to write a story over the course of the summer and hopefully this stimulates his interest and creativity.
He will have to come up with 10 sentences 3-5 times per week.  Three will be the minimum no matter what but if he's having fun with it then I will encourage him to do more or even to come up with more than just ten sentences if he wants.
I will take those sentences and his ideas and construct a story around them.  This will give us about 2 and a half months to churn out a fun story for everyone.  I'll probably try to take an hour or two on my days off to go over what he is writing and piece everything together but I think this is a highly doable idea and I'm hoping that he is interested in it and enjoys it as well.

I guess it could all fall flat quickly as he'll still hate it, but I'm hoping that when I read back to him my version with his sentences included that he wants to continue.

So, above I alluded to the fact that the idea was stolen.
For those of you not into comic books I point you in this direction.

Axe Cop

This blurb is stolen Directly from this LINK - Go to the site and check things out.

"The AXE COP saga began on a Christmas visit to see my family. My Father, a man with very healthy loins, has managed to produce a variety of children, ranging from me, a 29 year old comic book artist, to my 5 year old brother Malachai, a 5 year old boy genius, with four other siblings in between.  During the visit Malchai was running around with his toy fireman axe and he said he was playing "Axe Cop." he asked me to play with him and I asked what my weapon was... so he brought me a toy flute (actually a recorder). I told him I would rather be axe Cop then Flute Cop, and he seemed just fine with being Flute Cop. The story that followed became more and more brilliant, until I couldn't contain myself and I had to draw the whole thing into a one page comic. From there the saga continued, and over the course of my week-long visit we cranked out the first four episodes of AXE COP. I posted the comics to my blog and on Facebook and they got great responses. I decided to give AXE COP a home on the internet here and attempt to continue the saga as often as I have time to draw them, and I can get Malachai to write them.

The writing process is basically just me quizzing Malachai as he develops the saga. I'll just try to pry all the details out of him and write them down until something like a complete little story has been formed.  Everything in AXE COP started in Malachai's head, all I do is sort it out and draw it."

There is more on the page as well including a video of the "writing" process.  Axe Cop has gone on to actually be a comic book publication that continues currently.  I don't own any of them as I just recently discovered this but what I have read just amuses the shit out of me.

So, since I don't have any artistic talent I'm hoping that I can be skillful enough with words to help create a fun story out of our kids sentences, thoughts and ideas.  I'll just be adding in details and pizzazz or whatever.

Moving along nicely again

So my new focus, eating habits and attempts to get to the gym have all started having the positive effect that I was hoping they would.  From a peak of 241 during my "do whatever the hell I want phase" I am now down to 233 which is the lowest I reached before I hit my plateau.  I'm hoping that I'll be down to 230 here pretty soon and then moving on to new and uncharted territory.

I know we are only 4 days into June but thus far I have been tracking everything I eat to make sure that I do not go over my calorie goal (though one day I went over by 35 or so) and I have even gone so far as to plan ahead and see how many calories the things I want to eat would take up to make sure I can fit it into my "budget."

After a week I'm going to give myself a cheat day but the word cheat is being used a bit differently than it is normally associated with diet and exercise.  For me it's just a day where I eat something that I've been craving while at the same time maintaining my calorie count for the day.

What I'm really craving right now is a Bobbie.  For those of you who don't know, a sub shop named Capriotti's makes this sandwich, The Bobbie, which is Thanksgiving dinner on a bun.  Turkey, mayo, stuffing, cranberry, amazingly delicious.  However, deliciousness comes at a price and that price is the number 992.
Nine Hundred Ninety Two calories for the small sub (the small is 9 inches).

On paper I've already worked out my meals on paper so that I can fit this bad boy into my schedule.  It would be a very light eating day other than that but I'm also planning on hitting the gym early in the day so that I can give myself an extra 400-500 calories to play with just in case I get the hankering for anything else.

Today I hit the gym for the 2nd day in a row. Worked the elliptical again and instead of trying to see how quickly I could log my miles I decided that I wanted to up the tension to give myself a better workout.
Every minute I increased the difficulty by 1 until I got to 15.  Then I would decrease it by 1 every 2 minutes and by the time I got down to level 10 again it's time for my 5 minute cool down.

Next time I'm going to start at level 5 and work my way up and try to go down a level ever 3 minutes instead.

Now we'll just have to see how badly it all goes to hell when the Disney trip rolls around next Wednesday heh!

Trying to get back on track

So, with my 2 month stagnation that really was the result of being too strict on myself and then over indulging because that's what us fat people do, I've been trying to get back on track the last couple of weeks.

Where it all went wrong? Easter - more specifically Lent.
For the first time ever I gave up something, snacking specifically.
It was tough - it sucked - I hated it.  However, I lasted.
Then when Lent ended I went on a binge and ate a TON of bad stuff, more than I care to admit.

So, I had cut out too much snacking and made great progress.  Then I started eating it all again and the progress stopped.  I maintained, which I'm proud of, for the past 2 months at around 235 but needed a kick start to getting back to the weight loss.
So, I went on a 2 week period where I ate like crap, just whatever I wanted.  Wanted to get it out of my system.  I gained 6 pounds and topped out at 241.
Then I went back to better eating and dropped the extra 6 within 3-4 days.

I'm now trying to refine my food intake, the old routine grew stale after a year plus - that might have been part of the problem.
I've heard how protein is good for you and helps to curb hunger, how you should eat a good amount of it daily.  So I've added in Greek Yogurt 2 - 3 times per day.  My morning breakfast now consists of a Greek Yogurt and a banana.  I'll have another Yogurt before lunch and sometimes before dinner or as a late night snack.  It definitely appears to be helping curb my appetite and helping me to eat smaller meals and not feel so hungry.

I'm thinking of either cutting out the salads for a while or just cutting back on them, though I have not really decided what I'm doing yet (just in the thinking process).  I'm also attempting to try and track my food better.
When I was doing Weight Watchers I was just mentally tracking everything.  I had so much to lose to start that I didn't need to track, I was just losing weight by making better decisions.  That's not happening any more and I know I need to cut back.
So, I'm currently trying out a calorie tracker to help make better decisions on what I put in my body.
My goal is to track every day this month and see where I end up.

With that in mind I know that tomorrow for dinner my love is making taco's - which means I have to do some calculations on about how many calories the taco's are going to be so that I can plan on how many I'll be eating.  I'll make sure to drink a big fat glass of water about 30 minutes before eating so that I feel full quicker as well.

Grrouchie Thoughts Oh Canada TNA

We've gotten a lot accomplished recently to help prepare for stuff to do over the summer.
We signed up at the YMCA so that we can take the kids swimming and as an added side bonus they do have a lot of exercise classes for adults as well. I'm interested in a few of them so it's all a matter of how I can work it around work.
I believe that I also have access to any of the Y's out here in Vegas and one is closer to my house so that gives me two different ones to look at.

Hotel for Disney is booked - we just have to pick up tickets and my old man told me last night that AAA might have some sort of discount for members so I'm going to go look at that today.

Last night while we were eating dinner/playing video games the kids sperm donor happened to call for a few minutes.  He basically told the kid that he's going away for a while and doesn't know how long he's going to be gone or when he'll be back.
This is going to be a hard one to deal with because this is no news that a 7 year old should ever have to deal with let alone over a 2 minute phone call.  So he goes away with no possible way to contact him which means that the poor child can only talk to his dad if his dad actually decides to call.  Shit no child should ever go through.

Skipping back to my previous thought - Prices on AAA.com and prices on Disney.com are exactly the same for the tickets.  AAA needs to re-think putting those prices under their "Discount" banner me thinks.

It's kind of funny how Disney just sort of snunk up on us since we were so focused on planning and looking into everything for the wedding.  I was like - really? It's only 2 weeks away?  So, the wedding is being pushed to the back burner until after Disney and at that point it will start getting a lot more of my attention and focus.

Today is payday - which means it's time to practice being a magician again.  I get to look at all of my upcoming bills and make my money disappear.  And speaking of disappearing money I have decided to use my Amazon Rewards Credit Card over the course of the year in order to "earn" myself a gift by the end of it.
I've taken to paying for small things on it and some larger things and then paying them off when it hits the account and the rewards dollars are there.  I pay it off before the Interest hits and so it's a win win.  I'm hoping that by the time the year ends I'll have enough (or close) for a PS4 - it's a long shot but whatever.

And on Bank Accounts - if I can find the motivation today I'm going to head out and close my Bank of America account.  It has reached the end of its useful life (some would say years ago).

Back to Disney again - Upon further review the AAA advantage is free parking at Disney - so being Disney and all I'm quite sure that it probably gets expensive to park there.  I'll have to find out where our Hotel is and if we are driving back and forth or being shuttled back and forth or teaching the child valuable lessons like Hitchhiking and showing a little leg.

It's WSOP time which means that everyone's blogs slow down but visitors to Vegas pick up.  It really sucks being poor this year as it's going to make it hard to get out and visit with some of y'all as you are coming into town and playing some cards or whatever.  I'll do my best to meet up with as many as I can even if it's just for a beer or some conversation or whatever.  There will be a little poker because, lets face it, this is the WSOP and these are the best games of the year.  Lets hope the poker god gives me a heater!