Slimdude

That’s what I’m drinking right now as I Blog, and it is my current favorite diet soda. I know not everyone is a fan of diet soda, but I am. I drank diet soda the first two times I lost weight and I have had it consistently as I lose weight this time.

I know that I said I would stay off the scale until Sunday but I have to reveal that I’ve been peeking… the highest weight was “150″ and the lowest was “147″ so far this week. So even with no exercise, my diet has been good enough to where I have met that little goal of three pounds this week.

In a way, I knew I would because my weight is really around “150″ and it was just high on Sunday morning because I binged so badly Saturday night.

But it’s already Wednesday and I have not binged or cheated on my diet, even though it’s very hard right now because our house is full of brownies and candies.

My lower back is still kind of sore. But now more in a way after you get in a good workout. Like a constant ache rather than spasms. I worked last night and I didn’t carry anything heavier than our lap-tops. But these are like industrial weight military lap-tops. I also had to climb in and out of the cockpit to do avionics checks and that was relatively hard also.

Also my shoulders and neck have been really bad … a lot of pins and needles and sparking action… not sure if it’s related to the back thing or not. But when I looked it up online there are so many types of arthritis and so many drugs they can try and use.  I am going to seek out a chiropractor also… I don’t want this thing to get worse but I think a Chiro might be able to help.

In addition, Med called and said they want to do a CT scan after “re-evaluating” my last X-ray. I took that X-Ray a week ago at least. It kind of scares me they want to “re-evaluate” ??? Something about “abnormal cartilege.”

I am also supposed to see a Rheumatologist before the end of the year.

I would like to find out what is the cause of all this. All these aches and pains. And have it be NON-fatal and TREATABLE.

Nevertheless, I managed to fix both planes I was on last night and when I woke up today at 3:30pm I Gazelled 4 miles. My back didn’t spasm so I was okay.

Tonight I am supposed to go to the gym and I think I will try the elliptical first and if that is too harsh I will try the recumbent bike.

Oh and should I recap The Biggest Loser? I guess I will keep watching it after all. I can’t believe they kept Neil AND let him use that weight-loss.

Oh well.

—Matt

Well, I wrote this really long post earlier but now it’s gone. Don’t know how that happened. My back was so bad last night I used my “Day Off” from working weekend duty. It’s still pretty bad. I want to exercise so badly but I’m telling myself to take the week off.

Still… last night my wife told me, not in a mean way… but she said she has to start thinking of me as handicapped. And I was like “Well… this lower back problem is not the same thing as my other stuff…” but she had to do all the Boy stuff yesterday while I layed on the couch.

But I could not stand to hear that she thought of me as crippled in any way so today I was putting dishes away and I helped her with the grocery shopping and everything else.

I tried to stay up all night last night and watch TV and eat my normal meals and it worked out very well. Tatiana is right you have to be careful when you are just bored watching TV on the couch, you want to snack mindlessly. Believe me, the chips and dip and tiny candies from the weekend party were calling my name. But I resisted and just drank diet soda in between snacks and meals. I think I ate about 1300 calories.

Then this morning I could not fall asleep because I kept falling asleep on the couch last night. So I helped my wife take The Boy to school and then we ran errands that included grocery shopping. Her lower back is also hurting her in a minor way lately so I have been giving her lower back massages.

Okay this part is kind of private and all but it’s funny so I’m going to share. After our afternoon errands we took a bath together and then we were going to get “romatic” but both our backs were hurting and then it was too funny because we could not find any good position that did not hurt one or both of us, so we ended up laughing so much it just became “cuddle time” because the mood just changed so much.

Ahhh, it’s good to be married to someone that you can laugh like that with.

Anyway.

Tonight is the Biggest Loser. I am so used to exercising during the whole program it will be hard to just sit on the couch. I really hate this.

I tried some Capasizn or whatever it is called with the pepper in the balm… and it is horrible! It doesn’t work at all. It just makes your skin burn. And not in a soothing way like IcyHot or BenGay. It just BURNS so in addition to your muscle pain your skin is burning as well. And it’s hard to wash off so everything you touch also burns.

This weekend my wife’s Dad’s side is coming. We like her Dad and his wife. And we like her sister, who is just back from Iraq. But some of the people coming are very judgemental and very materialistic. My wife is anxious because our “new” home is a Manufactured Home. It’s not like we live in a run-down trailer, it’s a nice house. But my wife is so worried because it’s not all hardwood floors and fireplaces and plasma screen TVs.

We put our time and resources into each other, our family, our son, and my wife’s education and my Air Force career. Her family does not have kids or anything like what we have. Our values are completely different. We would spend our weekends volunteering or out at the park with our son.

They would spend it shopping for brand new clothes and  cars and stuff.

But she is worried. I love her so much. I hope she’ll be okay this weekend.

—Matt

Good morning, BSers. Two posts ago I blogged about how frustrated I was with my Chronic Pain issues and how so many of my dreams might be slipping away. But as I read my own post, I became sort of inspired.

I am now determined that, no matter what, I will push through these issues and get things done. I will live my life bravely and positively and I have even decided that I will be able to come off my “waivers” and be able to run and jog and do push-ups and sit-ups. I am going to work at it.

 For instance, even though this morning I feel about as mobile as the Tin Man on the Wizard of Oz, I am going to clean up the kitchen and then I am going to have myself a little “less-than-macho” dance party with Leslie Sansone.

I have to work today. I hope I am off tomorrow. Tonight is our Halloween Party and you should see all the treats my wife has made. Our kitchen literally looks like a bakery. There are cookies and muffins and brownies and cupcakes and all kinds of stuff laid out everywhere. It is going to be hard but I think I can resist.

One musical artist I really like is Bjork. She’s an aquired taste, if you’re not too familiar with her music. Probably her most “commercially accessable” album is “Post” or perhaps “Homogenic” but lately they’ve been really bizarre. I didn’t even buy “Volta” which came out earlier this year and had the Timbaland collaboration “Space Intruders” on it.

But she has this song from way back called “One Day” where the lyrics are kind of cryptic but basically… that’s how I’m feeling right now and I’ll explain.

I’m fairly tired after coming off a week of working Graveyard shift. My left shoulder and chest area are extremely sore and so is my left foot. I did not get home and get to bed until almost 10:30am today and I had intended to wake up at 1:30pm in order to go to my son’s class Halloween party. But then I woke up almost immediately at 11am with this urge to binge and … for a second I had a conscious thought of trying to fight it… but then I gave in and had some pizza, two bowls of cereal, 6 cookies, a few bowls of pudding mixed with sweet potato filling (which was delicious, by the way) some ice cream sandwiches, a lean pocket and probably more stuff I cannot even recall.

All this was while watching “Work Out!” with that hot lesbian trainer on Bravo! talk about your irony there. “Stuff your face while watching hot people get in shape! Woo-hooo!”

But then I was so full I was actually kind of ill… but then I made a decision NOT to feel bad or guilty, and “get back on track” right away. I think some people would think that this ruins everything and they’d wait until Monday but I never do that.

I have struggled with this binge thing for a while now so I know

#1. It’s not the end of the world.

#2. Just start over right away with your next breath, your next meal, your next exercise session.

So since it was about noonish, and I am so so so freaking full, I decided I probably just won’t eat again until breakfast Saturday morning. No big deal. I have “weekend duty” so I’ll be on dayshift tomorrow and Sunday.

The Halloween party is tomorrow night and we are making lots of junk food but I think for me personally I probably just won’t eat any. We’ll see… I’m not sweating it.

Also when I stepped on the scale it still says “150″ and this is with all that food and everything still “in there” so that is really good. I’m in a good mood and I’m not going to Gazelle or anything this evening I am just fatigued and sore I’m just taking it easy. My wife and son are up and making treats for tomorrow evening’s party and our friend is over with her daughter so it’s just going to be a relaxing evening with the family until I fall asleep.

In other news… I made the decision to tell my bosses at work about my Medical Problems and they are trying to be understanding but at the same time it IS the military so I think it is ruffling a few feathers that I am unable to do the more physical aspects of my job… and last night one of my co-workers actually said to me “So I hear you’re making up new forms of arthritis now…” and I was really upset and pissed off at that for a while. Because it means that everybody in my shop probably knows now and secondly there must be at least a few who think I am full of crap.

It is very frustrating to wake up every day in some degree of pain. I am not on any serious painkillers at all. Every freaking movement I make is pain to some degree. If I have to pick something off the floor, get in and out of my car, the simplest movements cause me pain somewhere on my body every moment of my life.

I did not ask for this but I choose to be positive and smile and tell people I am just fine. I continue to try and work out as best I can on any given day. I continue to hobble my ass all over work fixing these planes as best I can without complaining.

How do they think it makes me feel on my really bad days when I can’t pick up my son. Sometimes my wife will do things like pick him up and twirl him around and I can’t do that stuff anymore. Taking out a bag of trash is a major chore. It’s not that I am too weak to do these things, it is that it causes me a lot of pain.

And somebody has the nerve to say something like that to me. I was very very angry for a while but fortunately last night I had a job where I was assigned to update some software on the jet so I got to sit in this CLASSIFIED room for a while by myself while working on the computer and just sit there and stew, which honestly helped.

They are trying to assign me jobs where the most physical thing I have to do is carry around the heavy-ass laptops we have and maybe climb up and down the ladder to the cockpit.

Sometimes I think “Geez, this is so sad… I can’t even climb up and down a ladder without pain.” And it’s true but I don’t think they understand that. I REFUSE to go in there and complain about everything so I think they truly do not understand the extent to which I am in pain all the time.

 And by the way, I really appreciate you listening. I don’t like to burden the people in my “real life” with these types of “woe is me” complaining, but I feel like my journal on BS gives me a place to share how I really feel.

I really feel like I am making the best of this situation as I can. I don’t know what is wrong with me, or what I have or anything. I can’t help it this but I am doing exactly what the Air Force taught me : adapt and overcome.

Good news : I got my first achievement medal.

—Matt

Okay here is the thing : It is said that to have a Samurai / Bushido mindset you are supposed to live each day like it is your last. Right?

Okay then. I keep reading where sometimes people who suffer from extreme arthritis or pain conditions (whatever it is I have…) have to “pace themselves”. And that is true. On these days when I Gazelle, like… 10 miles and then I’m mowing the lawn outside and everything… well by the time it’s bedtime believe me I am in a lot of pain.

So maybe the next day I’m completely hurting from the start, right?

So they say on your “good days” to pace yourself so you won’t have a bad day the next day. But me, I get to feeling like “Oh I can tolerate the pain pretty well today.” and I end up doing all kinds of stuff I maybe shouldn’t. This week, Sunday was good but then Monday night I popped my chest. These past few days I’ve been in a lot more pain and discomfort but we have been having a lot of rain so I think that may aggravate it.

Well okay I’m on a profile now and I might get discharged from the military for all these medical problems and I hate that. It takes so much away from my pride and masculinity that basically all I can do is Gazelle. I haven’t even been able to do the Leslie Sansone DVDs. I can sort of lift my son, he’s about 30 pounds but that is my thresh-hold these days.

I suppose — from what I’ve read on the Net and Wiki, a lot of pain conditions will be bad for a week and then go into remission. So I keep reminding myself that Sunday I felt really really good into Monday and that will return.

Maybe I should be more “Tao” about things. Instead of wanting to Gazelle a Marathon, perhaps I should use that time and energy to do something less physical that would mean something to the world. Like maybe spend the 8 hours writing letters to children or something. Or something like that.

Because Gazelle-ing 8 hours is going to kill me for the rest of that weekend.

I need to get away from the mindset that these physical accomplishments define me.

I guess… before when I was so athletic and slim physicality was so important to me… being slim still is and I am getting there slowly but surely. But I just can’t do too much physically anymore.

As sad as it sound, sometimes GAzelle-ing briskly for an hour or two is very very difficult.

I need to find some new focuses besides working out, physical stuff… I need to redefine who I am—

Perhaps I will make a rule to limit myself to 90 minutes of formal exercise at the most each day. And I should maybe focus more on my family, spirituality, and humanitarian things.

Any suggestions as to hobbies or good charities or good projects would be mucho appreciated.

—Matt

WARNING : If you taped or TiVO-ed it for later, do NOT read this post because it will spoil it for you.

 That being said… thank you all for reading my below post and leaving supportive comments. It is mucho mucho appreciated!

Now I am feeling better mentally. Maybe not physically. But mentally I’m in a better place. I think seeing my wife and son all evening helped. My son was in a great mood for his bath time. My son barely says anything but he knows so many words because he’ll point to just about anything you can name and he’s started counting on his fingers.

But the boy just won’t talk. He just goes “uhn” and points to what he wants.

Oh well.

This afternoon before I had Blogged I had already done five miles on The Gazelle and then this evening I did TEN miles while watching TV. Now, listen up ya’ll! I know some of you think gliding along for ten miles is no big deal, and perhaps that is true for some folks. But for me it is a huge accomplishment because my stupid body is utterly failing me, it snaps and pops and groans and aches. I’m trying to increase my distances on the Gazelle because on Nov 2nd I’m gonna try and do 13.5 miles in a row and then on Nov 9th I’m going to try and complete a “marathon” on the Gazelle.

Anyway.

The Biggest Loser was absolutely insane tonight. The product endorsement of the evening was a little bit better. Rememeber a few weeks ago Bob plugged the 100-calorie snack packs? That was weird, because it’s still 100 calories of junk food. But I guess portion-controlled junk food is better than nothing. It’s a start. And we buy them, too.

Then last week Jillian whipped out that sugarless gum.

But the Weight Control oatmeal Bob had tonight is great. In fact, it’s what I had for breakfast today, mixed with some Lite N Fit yogurt and frozen fruit. They have three flavors and all of them are great and is very very fillinf because of the fiber and added whey protein, plus no added sugar. They flavor it with sucralose. Definitely consider picking some up. Mix one packet with some water and microwave for a minute and it is a great breakfast, or part of breakfast if you want to eat other things with it. I just wish they wouldn’t call it “Weight Control”. That seems so clinical and boring.

Okay well of course it made for great TV, but seriously… has Neil completely lost his mind? The entire blue team must be C R A Z Y because this show is supposed to be about getting healthy and losing weight, not nefarious plots and backstabbing!! Poor Jez even tried to divide up the teams fairly and what was his reward for his integrity? Being voted off! have they all lost their minds?

If I wanted this crap, I could watch “Survivor”!! But I don’t.

I would never ever ever sabotage somebody else’s chances to live a better life, and i really thought that aspect came first and all the competition would be healthy and friendly. It would be like if I was on a weight-loss team and I went to other teams’ blogs or forums and messed with them or left negative comments. I would never do that, even if I was competing against you, because the BIG PICTURE is you want everyone to succeed in their goals, and that goal for us BSers is WEIGHT LOSS and WEIGHT MAINTENANCE and GETTING FIT and HEALTHY.

Ridiculous and I was really really pissed off that Neil did not get his fat ass kicked off. Maybe that sounds harsh, but it is the way I felt.

I hope I am wrong and next week I find something to redeem Neil. But I’m not holding my breath.

—Matt

I am really sorry that this post is probably going to be a “downer” fellow BSers. I try so hard to be positive but I have just had a bad day, period.

I was feeling so great about everything, including weight loss… depending on when I weigh myself it’s around 146-150 and that is lower weight than I have had in over a year at least. It’s not quite to my goal, but hey… down from 172 in Jan ‘06 and down from 163 since I joined BuddySlim so I’m NOT knocking that.

Anyway, it’s become pretty obvious that I will never get to my goal weight and maintain it no matter how healthy I eat and how active I am if I can’t break the “binge” habit… or snack habit or however you want to put it. Plus, even if I could lose weight and binge like that… there are other factors besides weight loss… it is not good from a health and psychological standpoint to sit there and eat 1000s of calories in one massive go.

 So I was on sort of a good streak starting Saturday… well… yesterday (monday night) work was just insane. I work on Jets for the USAF and my job is to fix the computer systems on them. This requires a lot of physical work anyway. It’s a lot of walking around and carrying laptop computer and climbing up and down  the ladder over and over to work in the cockpit and hooking up massive power lines and hoses to the plane… anyway the point is, when I say I work on the computers and electronics… don’t think I am sitting on my butt all night. Sometimes I do if we don’t have any work.

But that is rare. Complicated jet fighters break a lot. And it’s my job to fix them. We only have about 8 people on MidShift. Dayshift has about 30 and SwingShift has 20. Nevertheless, we had a TON of jobs last night. Keep in mind that the Air Force almost always works in pairs in flightline maintenance. It’s part of our wingman concept and it’s just the way things are done. Two people work a job. And many jobs actually need two people (such as component replacement) because you need the hands and the help. But lately we’ve been working one to a job.

So first of all right there I’m doing this one job solo which means I am doing all that physical stuff myself. And as the night wears on, I could really start feeling my body giving out. Then I tried to push on a piece of equipment and something in the upper rib bone structure of my chest kind of popped. It doesn’t hurt too much but I can’t really put any weight on it.

I really think there is something wrong with me that I am falling apart like this. I feel like Mr. Glass in that movie “Unbreakable”… the Samuel L Jackson character.

On top of that, the computer system on the jet I was working was kicking my ass. I have been doing this for about two and a half years now and I was trying everything I could think of and I could NOT bring the Avionics “on-line” which means the jet could not fly. I worked on this for 8 hours straight and I barely even took a lunch break. Just enough to wolf down my salmon and veggies but they were good.

So here I am, sore body—popped chest— bad jet — and then after I came home and went to bed at about 8:30am… well at 9:30am I woke up with this weird massive frenzied urge to binge and I totally caved in. I ate about 1200 calories I estimate, which actually is a lot less than I can eat. When there is peanut butter in the house or ice cream I tend to eat those right out of the carton and I could easily rack up 5000-6000 calories in about ten minutes. Sounds bad but it’s true.

Anyway, here I am stuffing my face and I had just sat down with a Lean Pocket when I saw my wife pull up in the car outside and I was embarrassed about being up and eating so I was rushing to “hide” my hotpocket and I went into the bathroom in our master bedroom and I knew she would not come in there at all because she would think I was sleeping and my wife is so good about not waking me up during the day… she is such a sweetie… (okay that’s a positive thing right there!)…

sorry about this post being long, BSers… but bear with me!!!

And I dropped the plate and it broke. So here I am thinking “This is so ridiculous, a grown ass man hiding his worst habit and now I have to clean up this plate and I should have just drank some water or diet cola and gone back to bed!”

I really have to stop this.

Well I did fall back to sleep at about 10am, and when I got up at 3pm I decided not to beat myself up about it and just try to mitigate any damage. So I’m just gonna lower my calories a little to about 1200 today but still eat normally, about three hours apart.

And I will try and do the Gazelle for about 12 miles. So I’m essentially trying to burn off the binge from earlier in an easy , non-guilty way. One thing I have never done is throw up. I don’t know that I could do it but I could see how people get themselves into that situation.

Anyway my wife came home while I was Gazelle-ing and we talked and it was SO SO SO hard to admit to her but I told her about the incident with the plate this morning. She could always read this Blog she knows about it but I don’t think she ever does. So I told her and she was like “Oh, honey you know I never judge you for that…” and it’s true. She knows I struggle with my eating… she knows it bugs me that I gained all that weight and lost my abs. But she has never ever made me feel badly for it.

I think I am at least a little bit eating disordered because it does bug me so much that I used to be slim and have abs and everything and now I don’t and in the quest to get that back I seem to have developed this whole binge at night thing. But really I have tried everything and every little trick I have read and people have suggested and I admit it…

I am at the point to where suggestions from others bug me. I appreciate they are only trying to help but really what I need to do is break the habit and on nights when I really want to eat I should eat my celery or pickles and maybe a few sugar-free things. I have proven to myself over and over again that if I can get through that first urge, it goes away and even when I wake up for the day I’m usually not hungry.

I have a theory as to why this happens. I think that about an hour after I fall asleep, my body realizes it will have to dip into fat stores and it releases chemicals that say “NO NO NO! Keep your fat! Wake up and binge!” and that’s why I wake up with a feeding frenzy mindset. But once I ignore it… give myself some water to feel full or maybe some diet soda to satisfy the sweet tooth my body does start to metabolize fat and that causes the hunger to stop.

So : stressful work day plus a binge plus I had to call Medical a million times to leave a message so they will call me back with my lab results. And I bet you anything they don’t ever call me back. I am going to have to go over there I bet.

Okay as if that was not enough, my baby python died. I found him in his cage biting himself. I wrote that he finally ate the other day after a month. Well, I think it was too little too late and he was starving and could not metabolize the mouse fast enough. That is the only thing I can think of since, like I said… the position I found him in he was trying to eat himself it looked like.

And I know to some of you it probably sounds ridiculous but I really really liked the snake and I am very saddened that he died. I want another one but it doesn’t take away the sadness about him dying.

Oh well. At least I still have my wife, my son, television, The Gazelle.

Oh and hey The Biggest Loser comes on tonight and I love that show!

The rest of this week will be better.

I know it was a long post, and I know it was mostly a downer but thanks for reading BSers.

—Matt

I had a very great weekend. I re-started that “Night-time Eating” thread and so far I’ve had two days of No Bingeing in a row, even though right now that means that when I wake up during the day I have to go back to bed because “night-time” right now is the middle of the day because I am on MidShift… AKA Graveyard Shift AKA Third Shift.

I have been keeping up with all the walking and Gazelle-ing but I really need to work on push-ups and sit-ups.

With just two days of eating right and exercise and not binge eating, my weight went back down to about 147. So I’m not sure what to use as my “official weight”. I guess we’ll just say I’m “right around” 150 pounds. Which is fine.

In Other News… we bought a car. A 2004 Kia Optima that is pretty cool. I’m happy with the purchase and I think we got a good deal.

My friend’s birthday was Sunday night and we went to Golden Corrall which I love. I had a small salad with fat free catalina dressing, then some steamed broccoli and roasted chicken from which I took the skin off.

Later when we went back to their place to celebrate I did not have even one piece of cheesecake or birthday cake I just drank coffee with sugar free cocoa powder and sugar free caramel syrup. Yes, I felt pretty virtuous but it was funny…

Everyone else has pretty much gorged at G.C., eating lots of rolls and macaroni and cheese and stuffing and yams and they just kept going back again and again and then they went back and complained about how “stuffed” they were and how they needed to “work off the calories” and everyone was talking like this and THEN they still went and almost forced themselves to eat the cheesecake and cake. So I just sat there and drank my coffee and I felt perfectly happy passing up the cheesecake.

I knew beforehand that it would be there and I told myself if I really wanted some, I would have some. But then when it was time to eat dessert, I just wanted the coffee and the chocolate caramel flavor satisfied my sweet tooth just fine, with only about 30 calories.

We are hosting a Halloween Party this weekend.

And my Sister In law is finally back from 6 months in Iraq. I cannot wait to see her.

—Matt

So today I did end up Gazelle-ing about miles in all. I ate much less calories than I normally do (about 1000) but I just could not bear the thought of all my hard work this week being for nothing at the very end.

 So now all I have to do is start my “No Binge” streak tonight and I’ll be okay. For me to be “On-Track” as far as my desired plans, I need to weigh-in at 148 in the morning. I was below that about halfway through the week… about 147… but then I kept snacking and then of course last night’s complete binge.

 Today we went car shopping in the afternoon for a second car and I was surprised how many places were not even open but we bought a 2004 Kia Optima for about 2000 less than it’s supposed book value. I like it. It is white and it has power everything plus lots of stupid extras that I loved like new tires and a new battery and lots of cup holders and a kick-ass Air Conditioning and even a CD player. It’ll make a fantastic second car I think. It has about 60,000 miles on it.

I was watching this show on VH1 today called “Smartest Model” and there is one guy who is normal-looking… like not fat or anything but because he is a model, his “belly” is holding him back and I completely sympathized because that is exactly the boat I am in…

 I’m sure some people notice my “Goal Weight” of 140 and think that is awefully low for a dude. But if you have not read any of my previous entries, let me explain… that weight is the weight at which I have a very flat stomach and abs and everything. It is the difference between “normal okay dude weight” and “slimdude” weight.

Right now I am around 150 pounds and that is fine. I was 172 in 2006 and I started out on this site at 163. So 150 is great. But I don’t have abs and I do just look… let’s say… “fluffy”. How about that?

So that dude on the show is working to drop about 10-15 pounds and I am doing the same thing. It’s completely vanity weight. But it doesn’t mean it bothers me any less to look at pictures where I had abs and I was more “in-shape” than I am now. I want to get back there and I still believe I can.

—Matt

Wow. I really think all this rain and humidity has affected my arthritis in a serious way. My whole body is just crackling and popping and painful. I am considering taking a second dose of Celebrex just to sleep comfortably tonight.

 Celebrex is the only drug that has any noticeable effect on my pain at all. I’m sure if I was on one of the “blue bottled” type drugs, they would work, too… those Lortabs and Percosets and whatnot… but I have avoided those. I am not using anything addictive. I have to deal with this pain for my life so it’s not a good idea to play around with addictive pain killers.

 The only downside is that Celebrex, like other drugs of it’s type such as ibuprofin… can cause stomach bleeding and ulcers when used over and over.

 You all know I am a huge movie and TV nut : well my new favorite Reality Show is “Last One Standing”. I watched half of the new episode last night and I plan on catching the rest of it on a re-run sometime soon. It airs on DISC Channel.

 Also today I saw the very last part of one of the movie’s from Grindhouse. You remember the Quentin Tarantino / Roberto Rodriguez double feature movie that came out this summer? Well, someone bought the DVD and had it at work and it was hilarious, the part that I saw with the chick with a gun on her leg shooting Zombies. I have gotta see that whole movie.

In other news : the house is great and my wife has been over-the-moon decorating it and making it look nice. She’s like every show HGTV airs all rolled into one. She’ll ask me “Don’t these decorative plates look nice hanging here?” Now I appreciate her efforts, but come on… I am a dude! I have trouble mustering enthusiasm for plates on the wall.

My python finally ate, I have to feed him live mice… that did the trick. The poor mouse but… oh well it was like watching the Nature Channel. MMM yummy.

This weekend my Mother In Law is going to watch The Boy while we go car shopping (for a minivan, I think). I would also like to see Elisabeth. Yeah I know I said I’m a dude and it does seem like a chick flick but I loved the first one ten years ago I bet this one is awesome, too.

I’d also like to see The Kingdom and Michael Clayton. Anyone see any good movies, doesn’t matter in the theater or on DVD, new or old, PLEASE let me know in the comments I am a movie and TV nut.

—Matt