Let’s go… Slaho!

CHAPTER 67

BAD GENIE

Josh stared at the lamp before him. Could this really be what he thought it was? Is this the type that a genie would come out of? That would be so neat, he thought. Well, here goes nothing, he figured and rubbed.

POOF!

Yeah what do you want?

Are you a genie?

Yeah, yeah get on with it.

So, I get three wishes right?

That seems to be consensus, so yeah, three’s good.

Great! I thought about it before I rubbed so I’m sooo ready.

I’m here to give wishes. I’m not your bartender, so just wish away dude.

Right, right. I wish for a car…

POOF.

A Yugo shows up before Josh.

What is this?

It’s a car. I see that but you didn’t let me finish. You got me midsentence.

Yeah, sorry. A.D.D. and all. What’s your next wish?

OK but here me out first OK? I wish for a girl…

POOF

A four year old with pig tails appears before Josh and immediately starts bawling for her mother.

What is this?

You wished for a girl, and you got one.

Dude, I wasn’t finished. You gotta let me finish my sentences. I wish you’d stop doing that!

Easy enough. POOF… And the genie and his lamp were gone.

So where do you live kid? I’ll give you a ride home in my Yugo… if you fit.

THE END

I’m sure some of you were thinking, “Wency’s slacking. I bet that he’s going to go another four months before his next entry. He probably gave up on the P90X cuz we’ve seen nothing for four days.
Wrong on all accounts! I have not been around a working computer for a few days so I haven’t posted. Mine hasn’t been useful since Friday night. But I got my hands on one today so that I could update.
Update #1. I’ve finished 9 weeks now!!! 63 days down, 27 to go. I have only 4 more weeks! I’m really excited.
Update #2. I keep getting comments on my entries. That excites me! Then I realize that they come from one of those programs which just send generic messages to millions of sites. That soooo ticks me off. I would tell these people to stop, but they of course would never see this message would they.
Update #3. OK so I forgot what the third update was. I was interrupted by someone next to me.

I may not be able to post again for a few days so don’t be surprised if you see nothing for a few days. That just means I’ll have more to write next time I post.

C U soon.

I sat down with Dania today to watch a movie that she had rented (Annie Hall… Dania’s been renting Oscar winning movies lately through Blockbuster Online… Out of Africa, Terms of Endearment, etc.).  About an hour in she went to sleep, but I wasn’t about to stop watching a movie with a half hour left.  It was the first Woody Allen movie I’d ever seen.  Really not me.  But by the end of the movie I was very cozy in my sofa.  It took me almost an hour just to get up and another 15 minutes to remind me how ridiculous it would be to miss a day unnecessarily when I’m over 8 weeks in.  Actually, I’ve completed 58 days now.  Only 32 to go.  On Friday I will be 2/3 done.  WOW, can you believe it?  Lately friends have been asking me what I’ve been doing for exercise.  When I tell them P90X, they all want to know more about it.  I think I’ve convinced a couple of guys to get started when I’m done.  Maybe I could do a second round with them.  Maybe?  We’ll see.

The important thing is that I didn’t quit!  Well, I wasn’t going to quit, but I definitely didn’t set myself back a day!

Next test… see how I do my workouts when I’m in Sarasota.  That will be soon enough.  I’ll cross that bridge when I find it.

You know people can be really touchy. They don’t like it when people poke fun at them, they don’t like it when someone notices a flaw, and they definitely don’t like to be corrected. I don’t particularly like the second one when it’s ill intentioned, but the other two don’t bother me too much. Which leads me to my observation. For over two and a half years I have had this little category of mine that I call Life Occurrences. The problem is that I had it as Life Occurances. Occurances, for those not paying attention, is not a word, or better said, it’s a misspelled version of Occurrences.

Two and a half years. TWO AND A HALF YEARS! Nobody told me it was misspelled! Now, I have a few clues as to why. One is that as a writer I may have chosen to write it that way and my readers just figured it was a “creative” thing on my part. Another possibility, and probably closer to the truth, is probably related to the aforementioned fact. People are touchy. Therefore everybody assumed that I too am touchy. Thanks for the sentiment. Truth is that I’m one of those people who would have greatly appreciated being told so that I wouldn’t appear like some illiterate buffoon.

When I first started blogging I wasn’t using spell check, maybe because I was a four time spelling bee champ in my school and didn’t need it. Or MAYBE because I never bothered to find out that I could spell check my blogs. DUH!! Now I figured out how to use it and realized my serious oversight. I CAN’T SPELL MY OWN TITLES AND CATEGORIES. Well, thank God for spell check.
(more…)

No pics yet. Oh I took them, but my wife wants to edit out some pictures from our camera before loading our camera spics into the computer. She took tons of pics at her workshop, but far more than what she wants to put in the computer. I promise that as soon as I get them in I will go ahead and post them here. Deal?

And by the way… only 33 days to go!!!!!

I am PSYCHED!!!

More to come tomorrow.

OK so I didn’t post for a few days. Forgive me. My wife got back two days ago and we’ve been hanging out together. One week away was a lot so we’ve made the most of the last two days, especially with the kids (the younger ones were completely out of sorts)

Tonight I will be taking pictures for my 8 week update. I hope they come out OK. The first set was embarrassing and the second were better, but I hop e that these are a little more flattering (JUST a little).

I do have new motivation for getting absolutely ripped. Yesterday we went to my brother’s house because my aunt from San Antonio was here visiting. Dania was busy telling everybody about her week long workshop… EVERYTHING about it. What she learned, who she met, what she ate, and even where she shopped. This last piece of information led her to telling everyone that she bought me a t-shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch. At this news, my sister in law scoffed. She said I was too old to be wearing Abercrombie. I needed a body that was totally ripped and I definitely was not that. Dania defended me saying that she thought I looked good in the tee she bought me, but my sister in law pressed on. I got a little support then from my goddaughter who threw in that I looked younger than my brother (her dad) who is actually almost 2 years my junior. That didn’t go over too well with my brother (though it’s true :-)). But I had to give props to my girl for looking after me. Go Gaby! In the end I was left with one desire, namely finish getting totally ripped so that I can show off my six pack to my sister in law. TOO OLD! Pshaw! You’re only as old as you feel. I think that as long as you act responsibly and don’t embarrass yourself, one can act as young as he likes. Does anybody need to know that I’m closing in on 40? NO. And wearing an A&F shirt certainly won’t fool anybody, but if the shirt fits… WEAR IT. Right?

Now, I love my sister-in-law and I’m sure she was either trying to be helpful or funny. My point here is that I’ve now found motivation to reach my goal. Doubters beware. I do not take negativity lightly. And I will make sure to prove others wrong… as long as in the end it will result in me being a better person also.

So be ready for the pics tonight, and then get ready for some visible abs in 5 weeks!!

If I wake as the sun comes out
If my boys start to scream and shout
If my daughter decides to pout
I will praise the Lord

If gas goes up another 10 cents
If my brother calls to make amends
If today I make two new friends
I will praise the Lord

If my mother calls that dad is ill
If I choose to exercise my free will
If the entire world for a second stood still
I will praise the Lord

I will praise the Lord no matter what
He should be praised, there’s no if or but
Whether life is glorious or I’m in a rut
I will praise the Lord

And when my spirit leaves this place
I pray I’d followed my Savior’s ways
So that I can see Him face to face
As I praise my Lord

After three weeks of push up after pull up after push up after pull up, and then sit ups and ab work galore, it’s nice to have a break of sorts. Even though I sweat as much during this week (if not more) than in the previous three weeks, it’s more exhilarating, and my muscles get to rest a bit from lifting and pulling as they recover (hence the “recovery week”) for the ensuing weeks. I liked my first recovery week, but I’m enjoying this one more. I’m sure that after the next 4 week period where I go through all the exercises I did in the first three week session and the second three week session, I am absolutely going to LOVE recovery week. And I have been promised that I will be in the best shape in my life. Let’s see if that’s true. If the results so far are indicative though, there is no reason to doubt their claim. YAY ME!

Today I read more than 100 pages of the Dave Barry book I’m reading. It is very good. One of those books that is hard to put down. I only put it down in order to play a little Wii with my son who was practically begging me to do so (not that I was complaining about HAVING to play the Wii OR play with my son). Priorities, priorities…

I must say that I am really missing my wife, and not because she left me alone with four kids for a week. They have actually been pretty easy. It’s just tough to finish a day knowing that I haven’t been able to see her for a whole day, day after day after day. I don’t know how people who travel as part of their profession do it, much less their spouses who are left at home. It must be a lonely life regardless of however many people come in and out their doors. YOUR companion is not there, and that’s HUGE. So here’s to two more days. Saturday, God willing we shall be together again.

Good thing too because I need her to take my eight week pictures on Monday!!

And so I go…

It took me almost two months but I finally took the time to figure out how to edit my photos so that I can post them here.
That means that now I can post my before P90X photos, as well as my 4 week update photos. I’m not sure I really want to post them anymore, but I had said I would and I am a man of my word. So here we go…

Here are my before photos. They were taken 51 days ago…

Yes I was sucking in my gut for that last pose and you can’t even tell… pathetic…
And yes I had a semi wedgy in the back photos… get over it!!!

Well, here are my after 4 weeks photos… these were taken 23 days ago…

If it doesn’t seem like too much of a difference, I am going to put before and after 4 week pics side by side so you could see the progress. These two seem to me like they’re the most telling…

You must admit that there’s progress. And I dare say that the pics that I’ll be taking next Monday are even more telling. Those will definitely be up on Monday. No delay this time. So far I’ve lost between 20 and 25 pounds, so I’m really excited. Let’s see how far I can go with this!!!

It’s a shame that pictures can’t capture spiritual makeovers. I think more people would be inclined to change that aspect of their lives if they could just see two photos… before and after… of what there SPIRIT looks like. That’d be neat wouldn’t it… but that would also mean we wouldn’t have to make an effort to reach out to others to turn to the Lord. Oh well. It was an idea, right?

BTW, some may notice that when you put the cursor over the picture it says “4 month…”. That was me rushing cause I was so excited that I figured out how to add the photos. It should obviously read “4 week…”. DUH, di DUH!
More to come…

The title of this poem is really long
Maybe I should take it and make it a song
I’d have to find it a rhythm and rhyme
And then I could hum it all of the time
Eventually someone will hear me humming out loud
And ask for the title, which will make me so proud
So I’ll tell them the title that you’ve all read above
It’ll be the longest title they’d ever heard of
Sure it’ll be too long for them to ever repeat
But if they ever do it’ll be a marvelous feat
I’ll want to record it but it’s hard to believe
That the entire title will fit on the CD sleeve
Scrap the song idea. A new idea’s in my head
I’ll add a few words to the title and make it a novel instead