The Fire is Gone

Hey there.  Not that long ago, I had a performance review at work.  Most people look forward to them since they get to see where they stand in their boss' eye.  Many of us got excited last month when after over a year, the paycut that was thrust upon us has been returned to us.  Following the increase, reviews were given out.  I'm pretty sure that no raises will be given since we just got the percentage back from over a year ago.

Anyways, I was fairly pleased with my review.  I seemed to have marked higher than the majority of my peers and performance wise, it was excellent, but the thorn on my saddle has to be the comment that my boss said to me.  He stated that when I first started, I got on things quickly and got them done quickly too, now, "the fire is gone".  Now, I don't see this a knock on my performance, I see this more as a wear and tear type comment.  I understand that when someone starts off a new anything, you're enthusiastic, you're energetic, you want to make a good impression, but after so many years on the job, it's tough to maintain that high level.  No wonder some people refer to working as going through their daily grind.

Now, I'm not saying that it's not possible to keep that level.  There are people out there that simply love what they're doing and can maintain that level throughout their careers.  Just take the great late Steve Irwin.  The man genuinely seemed happy each and every time he was out and about with the wild life of Earth.  The majority of us, however, are not as fortunate to land a gig where that fire burns and stays strong throughout our careers, the way Steve's did.

So what's my problem?  I don't want to be complacent.  I don't want my job to be a daily chore.  I don't want, several years down, to look back and say, damn... I'v been doing the same damn thing for X number of years.  How do I avoid that?  How do I get that fire burning bright again?  I'm happy with my job.  I'm a geek when it comes to numbers and that's all I stare at all day here.  I don't mind, I enjoy it.  Balance sheets, income statements, profit & losses, 10Ks, 10Qs, the occasional conference call, credit conferences...  This is my work life and I'm cool with it.  What I'm not cool with is that this fire is missing...  I need to get this fire burning brighter friends.  Until then, later.

Kim Kardashian's Quick Trim

Hey there.  A few weeks ago, my wife and I renewed our gym membership in an effort to better our health and our bodies.  For being a relatively small guy, I'm pretty out of shape.  My cardio has suffered and my endurance is at gutter levels.  I just haven't had the energy or the stamina to do much of the work that is required of me.  I'm hoping that stepping back into the gym will help out with that.  I already started feeling the affects of after my second week of working out.  I've found that I can breathe a little better.  The deal with my nose is that one nostril is ALWAYS clogged.  No friends, I'm not the boogerman or anything of that sort.  I strongly believe that I must have messed up my nose as a child during our marathon battles of wrestling and rough housing.  I'm about 95% sure that my nose is either broken, or there's scar tissue blocking a nasal passage.  Anyways, I've found that I can breath better during my work outs.  I don't know what to attribute it to but since I recently started working out, I'm going with that as the reason.

My wife has been getting up at 4:30 ish in the morning to get herself to the gym at 5 am.  She's been on a mission to lose the baby weight that is still lingering around.  Even though she has lost some of the weight, she's not where she wants to be and has pitched the idea that she needs Quick Trim.  I, being the ignorant guy that I am, had no idea what it was and she explained to me that it's the weight loss product that Kim Kardashian uses.  I adamantly refused.  I'm not a big fan of weight loss pills, shakes, diets, or anything else that will "burn calories a million times faster" or whatever.  I simply believe that a good diet and some exercise should be more than enough.

Now...  I kinda felt bad that I straight out shot my wife down without really hearing her out so I decided to look into this Quick Trim stuff.  It's typical of many other weight loss piss...  Some positive, some negative, nothing really definite.  I did find out, however, that Kim herself uses this product.  I've heard of celebrities endorsing products but I am not sure if I've seen any that actually use them.  In the end, I decided that I'll get the stuff for her if it'll help motivate her.  When my wife doesn't see results, she tends to lose some focus and doubts her efforts.  I don't want to see my wife give up, especially since she's doing pretty damn good at keeping up her diet and keeping her gym schedule.  Coupled with the fact that we have a young one at home, family life could very easily damper her spirits and if this would provide a lift, why not. 

If any of you guys have any personal experience with this stuff, please feel free to share.  I'd be interested in how it's worked for you.  Until then, later.

Stay Connected with Boost Mobile's SANYO Incognito

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Check out the specs of the phone and it will not disappoint, but Boost Mobile doesn't want you to just check it out, they want one in your hands. If you purchase the SANYO Incognito through this link, they'll ship the phone to you free. There's nothing more that peeves an online shopper more than having to pay outrageous shipping and handling fees. So take a gander and check it out. With nationwide coverage from Boost Mobile, I'm sure that you'll see yourself ordering your SANYO Incognito today. Later!

Valentine's Day

Hey there.  Valentine's Day was this weekend and many of us were off buying our significant other stuff or celebrating in our own special way.  My wife decided to go to the gym that morning and I surprised her with a bouquet of purple roses and heart shaped french toast.  I know, I know...  I try.  lol  Later that day, we went off to see our godson.  We haven't seen him for a few years.  There's some issues between his parents and at the time he's living with his mother up north so it's a rare occurrence when he's in town.  So we spent most of the afternoon at Chuck E Cheese to spend some time with him.  Afterward, we dropped off our kids at my mother in laws and I took my wife out to dinner. 

I've been wanting to take my wife out to someplace fancy, but I fear that she may not like the cuisine.  I just don't see us hanging out having caviar and escargot with some wine.  lol  I just don't see us as that type of couple.  However, I would like to find a place that is considered "fancy" AND meet our culinary needs.  lol  Anyways, so I asked her where she would like to go and without hesitation she says Red Lobster.  Now...  I know that my wife cannot stand seafood so I know for a fact that it's not really a place she wants to go and it's more of a place that I would like to eat at.  I love me some seafood but it just doesn't seem fitting for Valentine's Day.  To appease her, we checked it out.  We walk in and I see a crowd.  Wow....  I ask the woman what the wait time is for two and lets me have it straight.  2 hours to 2 and half hours.  Oh man... Hell with that... we're not going to wait that long.  I guess I was wrong about it not being the spot for Valentine's Day, huh.  lol

So we hopped in the car and we decided to check out the Elephant Bar.  A restaurant that offers "exotic" cuisine.  Stuff from the orient, seafood, steaks, burgers ( I think) among other choices.  We've been to the Elephant Bar a handful of times and I can't quite remember what I've had there.  So I walk in and ask for the wait time for two.  An hour to and hour and 30 mins...  Not bad, I guess.  So I she takes my name and my wife and I decide to walk to the mall and get us some frozen yogurt.  I kid you not, the moment we stepped out, getting ready to return to the restaurant, that pager thingy that they hand out to you started lit up and started buzzing.  Oh crap!  We had to hurry to the restaurant to make sure they didn't give our table away cause we didn't answer the call.  What a way to spend part of your Valentine evening... running through a parking lot getting to the restaurant!

Once we were seated, we ordered our drinks and glanced at the menu.  I'll admit that I can be pretty blah when it comes to ordering food from a place that I'm not that familiar with but recently, I've been a bit bold and tried something new wherever we go.  My wife knew exactly what she wanted while I had to skim through the menu several times to find something that seemed enticing.  I was settled on some chicken something covered in mushroom sauce.  Look good, but never had it, so I decided to try it out.  At the last second, I changed it to a Philly cheese steak sandwich.  lol

After having a few laughs, enjoying our meal, and feeling slightly tipsy, we headed off to pick up our kids and head home.  Not too bad for a day where we told ourselves "no gifts".  =o)  My wife enjoyed her gifts of roses and two white bears sitting on a love seat and I love her gift to me, her 10 reasons why she loves me.  Check it out:

In honor of Valentine's day here are the top ten reasons I love my husband: 

1) His sense of humor-never fails to make me laugh my ass of. Even when I'm mad at him. 

2) His intelligence- it's so sexy. 

3) How he'll ask me to dance even if there's no music, he'll hum a tune.

4) That goofy voice he does when I'm upset or had a rough day all to make me laugh. 

5) How he tells me im beautiful when i wake up in the morning 

6) How he knows just what to say- baby you look tired, go take a nap I'll take care of dinner.

7) How he loves me even when I'm unlovable 

8) The origami flowers he leaves on my desk for me when i come out of a meeting. 

9) "Skittles" 

10) His butt lol 

I'm a VERY lucky girl =) 

I love you too babe.  Later!

Hitting the Gym

Hey there.  I started working out again.  As evidence by my belt, I've put on a few pounds since I've gotten with my wife.  I used to be a stick figure thin 118 lbs and I wasn't too happy about it.  Now, I'm sitting at 178 lbs which isn't so bad, considering that I'm 5'8.  But you know what... like I told my brother yesterday, I noticed my "guns" getting smaller and my gut getting bigger.  lol  I kid you not, friends.  There have been a few times where I'm sitting on the couch or whatever and the button on my pants snaps and flies across the room.  Yeah, you read that right... "a few" as in, more than once.  =o)  Now, I don't mind being bigger.  In fact, I like it.  I don't look sickly and the fact that I struggled to gain weight sucked.  I love all kinds of foods and I've always been one to eat until you're full.  This is mainly why I love buffets.  You need to put a lot of food in me to feel full. 

Well, a few weeks ago, when my wife and I started talking about renewing our gym membership, it got me thinking...  I'm a lot slower than I once was.  A LOT SLOWER.  I realized that my cardio fitness is nowhere near where a young man at 27 years should be.  There are times where I can't walk long distances, stairs suck to climb, and if I push myself a little too hard, I get shortness of breath.  I needed to get my endurance and stamina back.

So last night it happened.  I finally went to the gym on a mission to get fit.  I'm hoping that I won't lose weight, but that I'll be able to increase my physical fitness, focusing on endurance and strength.  I ran for a little over 2 miles yesterday on a "hill setting" on a treadmill and since I haven't done any kind of running since forever, I felt like I was ready to fall over dead.  So much for easing into it, huh.  I like the hill setting since it fluctuates the incline level.  Running at a constant 4 mph may not seem too tough but once you start hitting the inclines, it raises the difficulty.  I made it victorious.  I wasn't carried away in a stretcher and no one called for a wheelchair so I would call that a pretty successful run. 

I then did some butterflies, bench pressed, and curls to work on my arms and chest, but trust me, there wasn't much weight on those.  I was still feeling pretty tired from that run.  Before long, I headed home.  So my question now is what kind of "program" should I set for myself?  30 min cardio followed by 45 of strength training?  15 min cardio, 45 min strength, 15 min cardio?  As of today, I plan on going daily (except Sundays), is that considered too much?  I mean, it's only been one day, but I do want to be able to stick to a schedule to make sure that I build up those key stats. 

So now, I'm feeling a little sore in the legs.  I can't run the way I used to when I was in track and field (back in JR high!!!!) so I'm feeling the pain right now.  I guess as long as I don't topple over, I'll be alright.  Until then, later!