One of the cooler things about the fantasy hockey league I toy around in is the opportunities to meet people I’d otherwise have no contact with. When business brought me to Calgary the GMs from “Florida” and “Calgary” were providing tips on what to do ahead of time, and Calgary met me for drinks and food one night and a good chat. “Ottawa” has provided me with nutritional supplement advice and assistance as I began my process of getting in shape, advice from the inside of the supplement industry that’s been invaluable. And last night I was able to return the favour a bit by providing a place to stay to “Atlanta” as he and his girlfriend traveled cross-country from Calgary back to the East Coast.
Poor Justin and Emily had been behind the wheel for the better part of the three days by the time they arrived here, and took a few moments to relax. It was off to a local pub where “Nashville” (ha!) and “Los Angeles” were waiting to chat and spend some time, and then the three of us headed down to see the Jays and Yankees game. Justin had noted earlier he’d always wanted to see the Yankees and, by happy coincidence, they were in town.
So this portion is mostly for House, Cliff, and Agnostic who I joined for the opening game this season. It was a game of drunken rowdiness that I’d not seen since the old Exhibition Stadium days. Oddly, last night we found ourselves again in a section of people from one company, all of whom had apparently come in by a bus stacked with cases of booze (so they discussed, anyways), and most of whom were far too inebriated right off the start. It began with general muttering and the rare yelling at Yankee outfielders. One gent wearing a batting helmet bet anyone $100 that Rios would get on base; Rios promptly hit a single, although nobody had taken him up on the bet. The same gentleman then left for a while, returning with 42 batting helmets, one for everyone in his party. While people began sticking odd numbers all over theirs (from legitimate 10 and 17 straight through 69, 420, and 867-5309) the helmet dude disappeared again, returning with two more – one each for two young kids that were not with his party seated in front of me. A great gesture immediately followed by the screaming of Bobby Abreu’s name over and over.. haha.
Oh, and KP.. Giambi struck out four times.
Finally, as the final batter was being eliminated by the Jays a Yankees fan apparently brushed by an usher, roughing her up a bit. The gent in the yellow shirt in the picture, drunk as he was (he’d just finished facing us all and rubbing his boobs and groin making an “oooh oooh” face), took offense and proceeded to start roughing up the Yanks fan. The two slapped at each other a bit while the usher got between them and called security over. Security attempted reasoning with the Yankees fan, while the presumed owner/manager of Team Drunken Helmets angrily ordered his staffer up the ramp. We took this opportunity to get out and I missed the end of the “fight”.
Good times, and again, further evidence that things happen when I go to the Jays game. Odd.

So, as requested, time to post a new update.
Tuesday I was called into a meeting with my Ingram manager and promptly dismissed of my duties in a bit of a whirlwind. It was all very quick and unexpected to most, and has resulted in a couple days spent doing just about nothing but answering phone calls and e-mails from an assortment of former colleagues who seem unaware of why it happened. Suffice it to say that the reason was not to do with performance and more an attempt to make some form of statement, and it came with no warnings or my former Director having gone through any proper channels. Obviously, with that in mind, I don’t want to state too much here as I’m now in discussions related to this with the HR department.
The response has been overwhelming for me, and the only difficult part so far is the knowledge that I don’t get to spend time with the many friends I’d made there. I met a few for lunch yesterday and was told that people didn’t take the news well, and it makes me feel personally good to know I’d made so many good friends in my time there. I’ve had completely incredulous calls from former Directors and Senior Managers and business associates who’ve picked up the news via Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Seeing as today is just my second full day of unemployment it’s probably still a bit crazy, but I’ve wasted no time dusting off the resume and shortlisting all the jobs I’d love to pick up on.
So, that’s my update for now. I’ll keep y’all posted!

Tonight was the first real “get out and play” night for Paul and I at a guitar shop. We have, of course, spent much time in guitar stores but not with the intent to play as much as tonight. The purpose was for Paul to meet up with another gent in hopes of securing a used Fender Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster. My goal for years has been a Telecaster, and my general distaste for Stratocasters has been well known.
Until now.
Cursed Paul has somehow awakened a previously non-present desire for Strats based around two unique offerings in the family. The XII I had already come to terms with liking – a 12-string Strat, what’s not to like for a chord-junkie like me? But with the vast majority of the Telecasters being the sub-par American Deluxe series tonight I found myself grabbing hold of the Highway One series. Awesome. So, I hereby place the following on my wishlist:

Now all I need to do is actually make an effort to afford one. My beloved Washburn MG-34 is proving itself unable to support my shift from 80’s hair metal to melodic Americana-esque classic rock.

So today I have good news, good news, and bad news. All about me. Eventually I’ll find the time to overhaul this site so it can be all about House, KP, Cliff, and whoever else gets posting access. For now, you’re stuck with me.
To begin week six on the 12 week plan I’m down to 178. That puts me eight pounds for the six weeks, 16 since January, and 62 since I was at my highest a few years back. Which brings me to the good news / bad news.
I had highlighted the fact previously that I’d had an incident with a metal chair at Mucho Burrito that resulted in some rather pronounced pain on my right knee cap. It had taken place at the end of week one of this plan, but I was focused enough to work through it and keep on going. I did, however, submit to an x-ray and ultrasound. The x-ray came back clear, and the ultrasound showed fluid in both knees and calcification where the upper tendon joins the knee on the right leg. Not great news, but good for me in knowing that the long-standing patella-femoral syndrome seems to have almost disappeared, meaning my knees may actually have lining again rather than just grinding bone on bone.
That said, the pain remains and I’m now being scheduled for an MRI in about a month. The word is if they find something in the MRI I’m likely to go under the knife to fix it. If they don’t find anything, I’m still likely to go under the knife. So it appears I’m destined for surgery at this point. In the meantime my gym trainers have kindly tweaked the program on short notice to lessen the impact on the knees so I can continue through the second half of the plan. I’ll keep you posted!

I’ve kept it a little quiet that, one month ago tomorrow, I accepted a ‘Transformation Challenge’ with my cousin, Paul. The goal would differ for both of us – I would attempt to remove the last 10 lbs I’ve carried since losing the 60 four years ago, and he would attempt to gain at least that much in muscle mass. Both of us, essentially, aiming to improve our lot in life as far as our body structure for three months.
I started at 186 on June 23rd and took this very seriously. My routine weekly routine in the gym can be found below the dropdown, coupled with very specific eating habits (excluding Cleveland). The results are in today and I’m down to just slightly below 180, with noticeable differences in inches around. In fact, the new belt I bought for my January cruise has lost three notches to the point where I can’t use it now.
Should be a fun journey for the next two months as I try to get below 175, somewhere I’ve not been since May of 1997. One thing’s for sure – after over four years at 185 from 240+ I know I won’t go back to where I was. We’ll see where the rest of 2008 carries me.

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