Following on the hells of my view of why we’re better off letting the Vikings leave instead of spending money we don’t have to build a new stadium, I thought it a fitting time to chime in on why the city of Cottage Grove [more-so the residents] don’t need a Wal-Mart.

There are many reasons why I feel this is a poor idea.

1) You can travel 10 minutes North to Woodbury, South to Hastings or West to Inver Grove Heights. All of those locations are less than 10 miles away, and you have a 4th option, a far 12 miles away in St. Paul.  Why do we need to saturate our community with more unsightly white ugly buildings and beat up station wagons?

2) The land proposed to build it on will do many things:

• Kill off Cottage View Drive-In, one of the few remaining Drive In theaters in the state.  Granted, the owner wants to sell, but someone else can buy the theater.  Heck, if I had the backing, I would.  Maybe I should ask the state and city to help me, and be just like the Vikings.  The site of the drive-in will essentially be a dirt pit used to fill in and level off the proposed build site.
• The proposed building location is very near residential areas that now have a back yard with trees and nature.  They would soon have ugly white lights, ugly building and semi-traffic continually.  Even with the proposed tree-line that would be planted, it would take years for them to mature and block the ungodly ugly building and lights
• Light pollution. Having lived about 500′ from a similar building, there is no amount of landscaping and trees that will drown out the yellow tint of the lights as they tower above the trees in the parking lot.

I’m sure there are more negative effects, but those are most prevalent in my mind.

3) Location: Now, recall, that the Home Depot closed a few years back, and that space has been vacant since.  While I have seen a sign for LA Fitness coming to 1/2 of that building in 2012, I have yet to see any activity or motion around the building.  Wal-Mart would have had a perfect opportunity (or possibly the LA Fitness deal fell thru and Wal-Mart can now purchase the building) – Recall the other 4 Wal-Mart’s within a few miles.  Home Depot has the same thing.. Woodbury, East. St. Paul, plus you have Lowes nearby as well.

You don’t need to build new when slightly used will do.  You already have the building, the space, the parking and the annoying lights residents have been accustomed to for years, why make more.

Instead of companies coming in, wanting to build huge ugly structures to schlep their cheap goods, why not fill up the empty spaces we have right now.  I can think of nearly a dozen buildings that sit empty in our small little town.

• Rodeo Night Club – Has been empty for 4 years now I think.  What once was a great country bar had turned into a home for rejects who didn’t fit the dress codes of clubs in Mpls/St. Paul.  As a result, it turned into a dive and closed.
• Strip mall behind DQ on 80th.  over 1/2 of those store fronts sit empty.  The leasing sign touts over 60k cars past it daily.  While I see this number as quite high, and the location isn’t the best, there is plenty of opportunity for business here.
• Rainbow Foods strip. – The bingo hall closed near the time of the smoking ban, and short of the space housing Halloween City or whatever last fall, it has been an empty hole.
• Home Depot – Closed for 4 years or so, due to corporate call to close stores across US.  Great location and space, perfect for any big box/chain store use.
• Hollywood Video / GameStop – More great real-estate that is just being wasted with excellent visibility.
• Blockbuster Video – This space is now open since they closed this Spring.
• KFC – Cloased last fall.  It would be a great place for a Chipotle to move in to. (HINT HINT)
• Further down 80′th, you have the front where Bonnie Blink Subs tried to make it and failed, mainly because their subs weren’t that good.

In short, you have many vacant spaces to fill up that could provide jobs, and help the local economy.  With a Wal-Mart a stones throw away in almost any direction, we do not need another one.  We need to be sensible about growth, but also need to be mindful that too much growth can hurt.  One look up Highway 61 in Newport will show you this after the construction of the new Hwy 61 corridor.  Many businesses closed their doors, as easy access to them was removed with the new roadways.

Do we need another one, or don’t we?  We have a Target, 2 grocery stores, 4 liquor stores 7 pizza places, not to mention 2 subways within 1.5 miles of each other.  I’d love to hear your opinion on this, so please chime in.

Instead of going on about tractors or convertibles, I thought I’d offer up a topic a little more heated and of interest to more people.  That is the notion that the Vikes get a new stadium.

To me, this is a completely stupid, asinine, and moronic consideration.  Why do they need a new stadium?  It’s certainly not because they’ve been an outstanding team and need more space to seat all of the fans that currently cannot fit in the Dome.  It’s not because they are being evicted from their current stadium.  They had the opportunity to buy the Dome for a buck if I recall. It’s not because their stadium has been destroyed.  Mind you, the Dome has a brand new roof on it!

They want a new stadium because.. well.. Of all the reasons given, I can’t think of a valid one.

Now, They may have their reasons, and in some cases I would not argue them, however, in this situation I have a big problem with it.

1) They want state and taxpayer funding. – Why?  Based on this notion, why can’t I ask the government and taxpayers to give me money to build a new house, or buy that Ford F350?  Am I a stellar citizen, do I help ratings on TV, due I generate enough revenue to justify it.  HECK NO I DON’T.

If the Vikes want a new stadium, they need to pony up the cash, not expect essentially a stadium bailout.  I could possibly understand the City wanting to pitch in to help improve surrounding aesthetics and services above and beyond, but not covering the cost of running the services to the facility.  Again, do I ask the city to pay for my sewer and power to be paid for when I build a new home?  NO.  That’s out of my pocket.

2) They aren’t a stellar team!  I could see an easier time if the team was consistently getting to bowls, championships and has a standing track record of wins.. Take the Packers or Pats for example.  They have a consistent record of playing well, have a strong fan-base even when they aren’t a top team etc.  Why pay millions of dollars for a lack-luster team to have a new stadium, when their existing one is just fine.  I had this same issue with the Twins field, and have yet to set foot in the stadium for any reason.

3) State funding.  Plain and simple.  The State has far more pressing things to spend money on that are NOT a stadium..  They can’t balance the budget as is, and yet offer up millions for a stadium.  No. Fix the budget, fix the roads, fix taxes, fix your dang salary, fix education, fix any number of things that require money before it’s wasted on a needless stadium

4) Taxpayer funding.You can be damn sure, that if my tax dollars were going to fund the stadium, I would be extremely upset.  I want my tax dollars to go towards useful and wise choices, not wasted on a pointless stadium for a crappy team.

(A side note, I’m all for a reformed tax filing, where you allocate what percentage of your taxes go to what interest.  My guess it, you’ll have a majority of the population siding with infrastructure, education, and less on military funding, supporting other countries and stupid crap like new sports stadiums)

5) It’s said a new stadium will bring new business if built somewhere other than the current Dome location.  That’s all fine and dandy, but what happens to the existing establishments close to the Dome that depend on patrons stopping in, such as Huberts.  What about the added bus and light-rail fees generated on game day, local parking facilities.  Not to mention the massive amount of workers at the Dome that would more than likely be out of work due to being unable to commute to Shoreview, Arden Hills, or wherever else they consider putting it.  Someone said something about each reaction has an equal and opposite something something..

All in all, the approach is just flat out wrong.  If the Vikes want a stadium, pony up and pay out of pocket and don’t rely on a bailout.

What are your thoughts on this horrid plan?  Do you want to see your tax and state dollars go to a waste instead of investing in improving one a dozen or do you think it’s a good idea.

Whatever your opinion, I’d love to hear it.

Once that is complete, I’ll be able to get back on the road with the Spit this spring and run around town with it.

I got the fuel pump replaced this week, and right off the bat, I could tell this will be a significant improvement. There appears to be far more pumping power behind it, and I now do not need to crank the car over for 5 seconds to get it to fire. It popped right off. I’m hoping that will translate into a little better performance.

I shall get the brake seals and gasket replaced soon enough, and I also want to do something with the carb. It’s the original single SU with the manual choke. I’ve contemplated putting the twin on, getting some aftermarket unit etc. For now, I think I’m simply going to rebuild this carb and see how that goes, and make it last until I rebuild the engine when it gets the new frame.

Hopefully, I can get these things done at the beginning of May, and be able to spend some time running around town with the top down.

If anyone has any suggestions on carbs, or tips on rebuilding the single SU, I’d love to hear them.

I understand that if you are in an emergency, you’re entitled to call anyone you think will pick up a phone, but on a weeknight, when people have to be up for work early the next day, I think anytime after about 10pm is too late to be texting.  Personally, I have my phone next to the bed for the alarm clock M-Th, and leave it in my office on the weekends, as I don’t need an alarm..  Even with rules I have for silent times at night, the screen still lights up, and it’s as bright as a headlight shining in your window, but 4″ from your face.

I don’t so much care on weekends, but for the weekdays, what is your opinion on late night texting, or first thing in the morning for that matter.  Being an earlier riser than most of my friends, I have to think twice about a tweet or replying to a text from the previous night when I roll out of bed at 6am.

Whatever your thoughts on it, let me know!

To start off 2012 was pretty good.  We rang in the new year with some good friends from Rollag.  I also bought into a a cash pool for a weight loss competition with some co-workers to see who could lose the most weight from Jan 1 to Feb 28.  So far I’ve managed to lose just over 7 pounds this month.  I started back on the P90X routine 3 nights a week or so, but will try and get out and run if the weather is nice.  Between really trying to limit my portions, working out and cutting out the Captains during the week have been big helps.  I have a goal of losing some weight, and making some quick cash in the process, so it’s a pretty good motivator.

I got fed up with my office being primer white, so we picked out some nice rich colors to update the walls with.  With a little re-arranging the the office looks pretty good, and is quite a bit darker with the new paint.  This has spurred me to instal can lights, so that will be next on the ‘to-do’ list.  In time, I’ll be expanding the can lights to the rest of the house, as they look modern and I think would really improve the lighting in the house as we go thru and update colors.

As for editing and freelance work, I’ve got a big gig coming up in February that is a repeat customer, as well as some other recurring work.  I picked up a few new tools for better overall filming.  I’m also taking some added education to help give my freelance/photo work a little more of a jumpstart.  I’m trying to build up that business to bring in added recurring income for fun money or a rainy day.  Overall, I’m trying to stay busy!

While it may sound like I’m overly busy as always, things have settled down, and I’ve gotten back into a schedule which works pretty well.  I’ve even been able to take a sunday morning stroll thru Menards, Target and Cub to get groceries, and little tid bits of whatever..  Oddly, it’s a bit soothing to wander thru Cub in the morning.

Overall, if the rest of 2012 goes as January, then it will be a great year!

Short Term Goals:

• Lose 20 pounds.  I started at the 1st of th year, and have am striving for a date of Memorial day to have lost my 20 pounds.  I’ve lost 7lbs as of 1/27, so, I may be able to surpass that goal, possibly hitting 30 pounds, even if that goal falls into the summer months.  I’d like to be healthier, slimmer, and look better overall
• Obtain my conceal and carry permit.  While I have no direct need for this, or plans to carry a firearm on my person, I want to go thru the proper training, and have the permit, just because I can do this as a US Citizen.  While I’ve been able to correctly operate a firearm for the last 25 years of my life, it has been limited to a rifle.  I want to  hone in my aim a bit, and get more familiar with a handgun, just because.

Long Term Goals:

• Self-employment by age 40.  I have plenty of time to make this happen
• Read the ‘Good Book’.  While I’m not a huge fan of organized religion, I feel it’s an important book to read, and while I have my own beliefs and values, I feel it may help me to understand others, and have a more well rounded perspective on things.

I’m quite certain items will be added to this list, however, these have been in my mind for quite some time, and if they’ve stuck around that long, they should make it on an ‘official’ list.

Here’s a recap from 2011 for anyone that gives a rats hind end..

January – February: It was pretty dang cold, so we didn’t do all that much.  I worked out, edited some videos and worked on some websites..

March: We headed up north for a weekend for a Rollag work weekend.  The 75 Case was getting fitted with a new boiler, and our new bucket truck was getting finished up as well.  Good friends, good times and we managed to make it into Moorhead shortly before 94 was closed due to bad weather.  If seemed to follow us up, but we didn’t really see it!

April: This brought the MSEA steam up at Larson Welding, and the maiden run of the 75 Case.  Once again we were chased up to Fargo by bad weather, but it didn’t affect our fun.

May: May brought a the start of steam season and was kicked off my my, Eileen, our buddy Tyson and the dogs loading up in a pickup and heading to Pawnee, Oklahoma for the OST/GEA show.  We caravanned down with the boys from the Nelson Bus Barn, our neighbors at Rollag. We had the opportunity to meet an engineer at Rollag last year who was to run the Baker Engine that was restored at Larson.  The engine was originally from the OK show and was going to return there for the 2011 show.  We got ourselves a plan and made a road trip down for 5 days of new adventures.  It was a great experience that I’ll not soon forget, and was one of those rare opportunities when everything fell into place.  Being from Minnesota and having a good amount of training towards my MN steam license, but not actually having it yet, it was great to be able to get down and operate an engine on my own.  It was truly a great weekend of traveling, meeting new people and seeing new places.  On our way back, we passed nearby Joplin, MO, shortly before it was decimated by a tornado. At the end of may, I got engaged, up at Rollag with our friends around over Memorial weekend.  That was an exciting weekend, and am exited for that next chapter of life.  No date has been set yet, but all things in good time.

June: The start of the month brought the MS150 bike tour once again, Marking my 15th year on the tour, give or take a year.  I had spent a good deal of time in the spring training, between riding, running and weight training.  Overall, it was a pretty good ride., and I’m looking forward to it already in 2012.  Also, Rollag held the Steam School, of which I took part in.  I’ve been learning the ropes for the past few seasons, but it was really nice to learn some of the details and logic behind you do what you do, and why things work the way they do.

July: Of course, July starts with the 4th weekend, as well as my birthday.  We took a trip to Rollag for a weekend, and some work on the camper.  We also ran down to the Hastings Little Log House with the Nelson clan and Tyson.. He made the trip down from up north since the show was featuring his two favorite things.  Chevy and green tractors.   We had some bad heat and humidity, along with some nasty storms on Saturday night that pretty much decimated most of the flea market.  At least it took care of the humidity.

August: Of course August means Rollag and the Avery feature.  10 days of vacation from work (ok, so I still worked some) lots of great friends, and a ton of camera gear for production of the 2011 Rollag DVD.  This carried over into September, but always ends too quickly.  The weather was pretty good, the people were even better, and you can be assured I’ll be there until every year until they stick me in the ground.  Also, knocking one item off my bucket list was running a 5k.  I completed the run in a shorter time than I had planned, which was pretty awesome for me, and then we departed immediately for Rollag!

September: A short two weeks after Rollag, we head off to the Albany show, which is where most of the Rollag people go to relax after our show.  Many of the same people, some different ones.  Again, a great long weekend.  The weather was a bit chilly, but the cheese curds were a good fix for that.  Later in the month, we headed up to Askov for a little family show by some relatives.  Again, it was a whole bunch of Rollag people pitching in, and really laid back. Also, the end of the month brought the close of a new house and moving.  Add all this activity on top of editing the Rollag DVD, and I’m one busy little beaver!

October: Brought house projects, editing and the Rollag annual meeting.  I once again ran for the Board, but was knocked out at the last round of voting.  I’m starting to feel like I should be on Survivor.  Upside, Eileen got on, as well as some of our friends.  It will be a good to have a large change of thought, and see what new ideas can be brought forward while still carrying on the existing plans.

November: Editing, Editing, Thanksgiving and Editing.  We had a few folks down for turkey, and also our 3rd annual Black Friday party.  It was a pretty good time, again, nothing beats spending time with friends and family.  Especially when you have great friends and family!

December: This was an interesting month.  Of course you have the Holidays, however in order to get there, I had to wade thru my employer getting purchased, and having the purchaser also be purchased.  Also, I took a trip out to California for some business travel, met up with some friends out there, saw the Golden Gate bridge, had drinks in a museum and had a sleepover at SFO.

Overall, not too bad of a year.  I guess I still have to complain about a house that hasn’t sold, and have completely blacklisted USBank for a reputable financial institution due to some unethical practices they used earlier in the year, and other details I prefer not to discuss.  I will advise you, to find a smaller, local bank where they know your name and aren’t a bunch of crooks.  I have no regrets, and suggest you do the same.

For 2012, I have a few goals and plans.  We have some work to do in the house; move a wall, add a bathroom, bar and some cabinets.  No real plan on when those will get done, but sometime soon.  I do need to get back in the fitness routine.  I’ve started up the P90X routine again, and joined a content with co-workers where the winner stands to win some real cash for losing the most weight.  Once I get back on a track, and knock out the holiday foods, I should be good.

I’ve got another big video project starting up in February, MS150, and show season.  A big goal for this year, is to find a Ranger, and upgrade the Cushman at Rollag.  Batteries are awesome for power, quiet and such, however, with the schedule I run up there, they are dead by Saturday, as they like more than 6 hours a night to charge.  Somewhere in there we also have the Spitfire to start restoring, along with a handful of other garage projects.

One big goal I have set for myself is to get back on the track to becoming self-employed by the time I hit 40.  I have some time, but need a few things in place in preparation for that.  Starting with one of the most basic things, I’ve consolidated my freelance sites into one site:  http://timdachtera.com.

I can’t say I have many true resolutions, but goals that I want to attain over a longer term vs. most resolutions that are forgotten a few weeks into the year.

Here’s to a great 2012 for everyone.  May you reach your goals, keep your compass pointed straight ahead, not forget the past, but don’t let it hold you back from making your future.

I’ve been saying since they came out, that I didn’t need one, I had the desktop, laptop, and DROID to use, plus a handful of WinX laptops laying around.  On the flip side, I’ve recently been trying to ‘simplify’ my daily life.  I don’t have too much free time at night after supper, working on client projects etc, and continuing to sit in my home workspace vs. being social doesn’t seem wise.  On the other hand, sitting on the couch with my laptop (which also gets mighty warm on the lap) – It is a 5 year old laptop afterall.

My thought for the iPad was, something I can quickly pick up and put down, check news, gossip on FB and track some stuff at home like my foods and exercises (as mentioned to me by a co-worker) – Something I mainly track on my DROID now, which is a bit cumbersome.  I could also use it a bit with some of my video work for odd tasks such as timers and audio recording, something I currently have to lug my laptop along for.  Turns out I can keep tabs on my TV stuff at home, and watch shows via the iPad, (which might be nice sometimes, as I don’t have a TV in my workspace, or also to look up new meals in the kitchen (don’t forget the screen cover)

I could see a valid use for it at the office, using it in meetings etc to take notes.  I rarely if ever undock my laptop to take it to meetings.  Primarily because it’s always connected and doing some sort of task where I cannot drop the net connection (and WiFi isn’t an option for what I’m doing) Also, I can keep an eye on some of my tasks that I monitor during the day as well.

One big positive that a co-worker mentioned to me, was use it to review photos when you’re out shooting.  The little LCD on the back of the camera doesn’t due justice, and the last time I went shooting, again, lugging that 5yr old laptop was a pain, especially since the battery was not lasting long.  – For a weekend camping with a backpack only, light=good.

I’m sure I can find many more uses, but I’m trying to moreso justfiy the cost of it than the actual ‘having’ of it.  I’ve got a stash of spare parts I can offload on Craigslist to subsidize a portion of the cost, so I guess if I can come up with 1/2 the cost of one via selling stuff, that should be doable.

Any of you with iPads have any other great ideas of why I should have one (BESIDES Angry Birds)? – Or, do you have a reason NOT to get one..

Spark Show - Photo by Tim Dachtera

So, the last few weeks have been pretty fun, and the next few weeks are shaping up to be pretty fun as well. Here’s a little recap of what’s been, and what will be!

Running: Well, I’ve given up on the whole trying to run/ride after work at night.  There are just too many things to do.  So, I’ve opted to get my ass out of bed at 5:30am instead, and trade off between jogging and riding.  So far it’s been working, especially if I can drag myself out of bed at 5:30 on a Monday morning.  The scale did manage to tip in the favorable direction last week, so I’m quite happy about that.

Shows: A bunch of us ventured down to Pawnee, OK for the show down there last week, and it was certainly a good experience.  It was fun to travel 700 miles across the country, and still be in the company of new people who know the people you know from back home.  We were 6 Minnesotan’s that came down to run a steam engine, who talked funny according to the OK residents.  I sure had a good time running the Baker engine.  Here’s a few photos from Facebook, and video clips on YouTube.

We’ll be headed up to Rollag for Memorial weekend coming up here soon, which should be an exciting weekend for a handful of reasons.  With some new upgrades to Cushman 2.0 (we might be on v2.3 by now) for the camera boom, the new set of batteries and more camera toys to play with, this years DVD for Rollag should be pretty good. Being it our 5 year anniversary of doing the DVD’s for Rollag, we’ll be putting in some fun clips of behind the scenes and how we get the shots we get.  Also, in June, I’ll be attending Steam School, in prep to get my MN boilers paperwork, so I can run an engine if the opportunity is presented.

MS-150: The 2011 MS-150 is quickly approaching.  While I do have some funds raised, I need to get a handful more to reach my goal.  If you’d like to support me, please click this link to do so!  I’m looking forward to getting back together with a bunch of the team I used to ride with, so pending weather, it should be a good weekend!  Feel free to visit us at Grand Casino, or celebrate our return at Century College.

Stupid House: Still have the house on the market, and it just needs to go away.  It’s a wonderful house if you have no kids, or 1-2 kids that can sleep alone since the master suite is upstairs.  Huge back yard and 2.5 car garage with lots of space.  Recent paint in most of the rooms and refinished hardwood.  We just need more garage space actually, and a mortgage with no past attached to it.

Freelance: I’ve been keeping busy working on my TractionCMS platform for some of my clients that are still 100% home rolled, and also been working with a number of other clients to create new, or update old sites to some present web trends for better usability, e-commerce and improved SEO functionality.  If you know anyone who is looking for a website, please send them my way.

That’s pretty much it in my world for the moment!

It started with a local group I’ve been providing video services to requesting me to come back for a third year starting Fall, 2011 again.  I of course said yes, because it’s a great group, I’m learning while working, and I don’t mind a little extra money in the bank.

I finally resolved the issue with my recently acquired GoPro camera.  After working with their support and determining the focus was faulty, I shipped the old one back, and they promptly sent me a new one.. actually NEXT DAY.  I’m quite satisfied with the level of support I received during this interaction, and I will certainly continue raving about how awesome this little camera is.  While I haven’t had a chance to really test it, aside from a quick bike ride, and messing around the house, I’m really looking forward to using it this weekend, which brings me to the next topic.

MSEA Steam Up is this weekend at Larson Welding in Fargo, ND.  I’ll be headed up there to visit Rollag friends, and also take some photos and video for the upcoming Avery/New-Way Feature this year at the Rollag show.  I came up with a mag-mount for the GoPro, so, hopefully, I can attach it on the Prony Brake, or a steamer, basically stick it somewhere I don’t really feel face putting myself, or my FX1.

Thursday, I had the opportunity to take some photos of our staff at Jobs2Web for an upcoming redesign of our own career site.  That was a good time, and had a chance to interact with some of my co-workers beyond a “Hey, scrape this for me” conversation.  I’ll be doing some video work for them later this spring, as well as returning as the photo guy for the 2011 Collaborate event.

Recently, I flipped my listing agent for the house, and so far, we’ve had 4 requests to show the house in the next week, so lets hope that this trend continues, and the place sells quickly now that we’re entering the prime real-estate season.  I’ll be spending next weekend getting the back yard in top shape, and also refinishing the decks, so everything looks nice and pretty.

As for the fitness topic – I got out 3 evenings this week, Thursday was just a bust with rain and overall crappy weather, and other stuff to address at home before taking off.  – I hopped on the scale this week, and saw no change.. Which, I’m OK with.  I’m not going up, so that’s a positive thing.  Just means I need to keep working on the running and riding to start on that downhill slide to a slimmer mid-section.

Have a good weekend!

I decided to step on the good old Wii-Fit on Friday, and just see where I was at.. (since I run, bike, lift weights) and do more than just diet, I don’t really count the scale as a credible source for tracking my loss, unless you really look at BMI vs. weight.

Wii Fit yelled at me, almost forgot my name and said I hadn’t been by to visit in 85 days or so, but I hopped on the board and went ahead.  Despite my running, biking, weights etc, I wasn’t really expecting anything shocking, because I still see my pudge in the morning, and isn’t going anywhere quickly.

I did however, kind of smile when I saw only a 1.1lb increase in that 85 days.  The change in BMI was less than .1%, so that’s nothing notable.  To me, anyways, that means I’m putting on more muscle, and not just getting fatter.  I was reaffirmed of that this weekend when I finally pulled out the shorts.  My ankles aren’t so wimpy anymore either.. Not fat, but muscle..  I won’t complain too much about that.

I will say that I think spending the last few weeks really trying to clamp down on my weekday meals, and trying to cut most, if not all beer or rum during the week is proving to be helping, and if I can continue that, I expect I’ll see the scale start tipping in the loss direction very shortly.  Also, I recalculated may calorie/food intake, and the numbers I had been using ended up being a few hundred calories high, which probably accounts for some of my non-loss this winter.  I’m especially happy now that I can get out on the bike a few days a week as well!

For those of you who are keeping track of calories, what have you found to be a good calculator for your intake?  Did you find your magic number in a book, magazine, website, SmartPhone app?

Most of the snow is about done and over with at least in my neck of the woods, and the weather is getting nicer.  For me, that means finally being able to get in some good workouts in the great outdoors.  Having spent a majority of the winter trying to jog outside a few days a week, I’m much happier not having to dodge snowbanks and slush.

On Exercise:

Over the weekend, I pulled out the old GT road bike, and got it all tuned up for the upcoming season with a little help from my buddy Mike, who has all the right tools.  After new tires, handlebar wrap and a spindle, along with a full cleaning and overall once-over, the bike is good to go for the season.  I’m hoping to get in 3 days of riding a week, depending on weather, in which case I’ll do weights.  I bet it will turn into 2 days of riding, 1 day of weights and one day of us and the two wiener kids going for a walk, which is great too.

On Tracking:

With the recent finding of MyFitnessPal on my DROID, I think I’ve finally found a great app to manage and track both my workouts and eating.  In the past, I had been using CardioTrainer to track my workouts, which worked pretty well, but didn’t really have a way to track what I was eating, so I was using MyCalorieCounter I think, which was pretty decent, but again, hard to track both together.

With MyFitnessPal, I can now track my workouts and my food in one spot.  I am still using MapMyRun, MapMyRide and Cardio Trainer to handle my fitness activities, but I can very easily plug it into MyFitnessPal and it accounts for the workouts and adjusts calories accordingly.

While I doubt I’ll be sharing my daily meals, because after all, I doubt anyone wants to see that I eat oatmeal for breakfast and have 12 bottles of water in a day, I will still post my biking, and probably runs, just since I am training with a few others for the upcoming bike tour.

Started over with my Wii Fit person, with a new year, new goals and such, so hopefully from here is all downhill (for weight that is) – The new Wii Fit setup did tell me I was 31, which is less and I am.. Last year when I started it, it told me I was 34 I think, so I guess that’s a step in the right direction.

I’ve got a new starting weight (which was not all that much more from Labor day) so new slate for 2011, I’ll  be pretty good at sticking to the plan, but I know I’ll have a few nights here and there where I just don’t care..

So, that’s it for me, not much new, other than a fresh start to 2011, and a freezer full of chicken breasts..  I will say, I’m friggin’ tired of salads, so as evil as they are, it’s time to switch to green beans for awhile

So sure, after touting my anal retentive attitude to sticking to a plan, the train derailed. Oh well.  Now that the first week of 2011 is about over with, I have a fridge stocked with the good foods again.  I’ve got myself signed up for the 30 in 30 from the MapMyFitness family of sites.  Finally being able to MapMyRun on my DROID, I’m excited to see how it compares to my CardioTrainer I’ve been using.  The goal is to run 30 miles in 30 days.  I figure if I stick on my 4 day a week workout plan, I’ll be able to hit that goal.

Going forward into 2011, what are your plans for attaining your fitness goals?  Did you become one of the lemmings that invades Lifetime or SNAP, only to sluff off after a few weeks, or do you plan to get a schedule going that you can actually stick to, and make a permanent change.

Whatever your plan is, I’d like to hear it.  However, if your plan is to sit on your ass with no motivation to better yourself, I might have a smart ass retort for you!

We have 24 hours in a day, and personally, I like to get about 7-8 hours of sleep each night, at least during the work week. That leaves us roughly 16 or 17 hours in our days. What do we do with those hours? Everyone seems to say they never have enough time in the day to accomplish what they want, me included.

I’ve actually taken to making a schedule and keeping it at my desk at home, and the fridge so I know where all my time is going, and it goes a little something like this.

0600 – Get up, shower and prep for work
0645 – Leave for work
0730 – Arrive at work granted no commuting issues
1600 – Leave work and head home
1700 – Arrive at home and workout, and chill for a few minutes if before 1700
1800 – Suppertime
1900 – Work on freelance work
2000 – Tinker on whatever I want, usually ends up being freelance and client work
2130 – Attempt to shower about now
2200 – Crawl into bed and do it all over again the next day.

So, it seems in my day, I have about 3 hours a night to work on whatever it may be.. Freelance, projects, housework. Now, I realize many people have different schedules, less free time due to carting kids around to sports, second jobs etc.

Where does that ‘free’ time in our schedule go? I know some of mine goes to wasting time just staring at the monitor, facebook and general distractions, but when I get down to it, I’ve got maybe an hour or a little better of solid time to devote to something. Granted, I try and get some time in to relax and watch some TV during the week, and not be totally consumed by work, but sometimes it seems as I never get anything done with the time I have at night.

I’d like to know where does your time go? Do you find that you never have enough time to accomplish what you want? How do you manage your time? – Whatever it may be, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

I’ve had this post sitting in queue for quite some time, October actually, and really haven’t had the time, need, or desire to finish, but I may as well, and get it over with.

I visited the newly opened Bonnie Blink Subs while running errands on lunch, hoping to find some unique sandwich that was not your run of the mill sub. Seeing this was the first day or two they had been open, I’m going to cut them a little slack, and even with the experience I’m about to describe, feel I owe them a second chance.

I walked in shortly before noon expecting some rush, and disorganization, but was a little shocked at the level of chaos I found. Staff was scrambling to deal with the load, no apparent uniforms had been devised, and I was slightly turned off by one of the staff’s bloody skull and bones T-shirt advertising a local radio station. Not really what I want to see as I’m preparing to eat.

Despite the chaos which I’m sure will heal with time and organization (they were frantically calling in additional staff), the sandwich didn’t seem all that appealing to me either when all was said and done. Upon first glance, the bread looked to be much like that from the Freaky Fast sub shop, and the meat portions and prep could have been copied right from Jarod’s paycheck. The taste was just about as exciting as the presentation, Nothing special. I’m not really even going to comment past that.

I know there are a few of them around, but not the quantity of the big chains, and I had hoped for more. While I don’t think they are a bad place, I didn’t notice anything to make them stand out above the rest. They do have some soups and other non-sandwich items, but I really don’t care for soup, and didn’t bother to try.

I believe I should give them a second try, since they’ve had a few months to get organized and hopefully have done something to make them stand out a little more from the rest of the sandwich shop herd in the area.

]]> http://www.w00dz.com/blink-bonnie-subs/feed/ 2 http://www.w00dz.com/week-in-review/ http://www.w00dz.com/week-in-review/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:55:56 +0000 Tim http://www.w00dz.com/?p=675 Twas the night before Christmas, and all thru the week,
my attempt at the diet was meager and meek.

The projects were mounting all day and all night,
so the bottles of rum, were starting to feel light.

Parties and food were very abundant,
and complaining about workouts have become quite redundant.

Personally, I get up on Friday, wake up, start my morning routine, use the same clothes etc and try and shoot for the same time each week as well, and try to keep as many variables constant as I can. Today, that just wasn’t possible, so I’ll wait until next week.

What do you do if you miss a weigh in? Wait until later in the day, next day?

Being the weekend, I also did jack squat for working out, but today is Monday, the fridge is full of good food again and I’m back on the workouts for the week.. – I do need some freedom on the weekends ya know.. On the positive side, there wasn’t a beer in the house, so I didn’t add that into the mix.

So that’s kind of my routine, and while it may not be the best, or work for everyone, it’s something I can do, and still show a loss on my weigh in on Friday. – Now, I don’t eat this way on all weekends, I just really had no ambition to cook anything in the freezer, and needed a weekend of not doing much of anything requiring thought.

I tend to eat or drink whatever is around, just because it’s around, and it’s tempting. – Work is no problem, as I don’t have extra food laying around, and I’m too focused on my morning routine to deviate and do anything besides what I’ve programmed myself to do.. – Shower, make eggs and toast and exit the house..

What do you do for ‘cheat’ days, or days you don’t stick to your plan? – What do you do after?