The Joy of Cooking, Everything France and Quick Fights

In just under two months (59 days to be exact), Cara and I will be headed off to Europe for our Honeymoon which also involves a celebration of three years of marriage. We call it our Honeymoon because the trip we took to Nashville after our wedding is categorized as  Minimoon and this August is THE BIG TRIP. Off to London first with three days to explore the royals, double decker buses and why there are so many jokes about English food.

After that is the real fun; a short train ride to Paris where we will spend five entire days loving everything we see, eat, touch and are around. In preparation for this, we lined up a list of movies with a Paris, France theme to watch leading up to our trip. And on this lazy Sunday we are watching Julia/Julie, a lovely movie that intertwines a series of wonderful cooking dishes with some very interesting locations.

And now all I can think about is making some wonderful dish, drinking coffee from a french coffee press and enjoying the nice weather we are having.

My marital half is scrolling through her iPhone and becoming increasingly frustrated that the Netflix DVD is sometimes skipping out on the audio. All of which can lead to one of those fights a couple can have when they have been together for the better part of a decade. You know the one, where in 30 seconds you go through a rainbow of emotions:

- What are you doing?!?!
- I said to fix it this way!!!!
- I tried it that way AND IT DIDN'T WORK. So I'm trying it this way.

And then you both sit there, feeling angry, then bitter, then letting the love fill your heart again and realizing how utterly small an argument about audio/visual concerns is in your life. Such is what I consider to be the tying theme to our blog name as this truly is part of the cuts and scrapes of newlywed love and life.

Through this all we make breakfast from a kitchen pantry that is in desperate need of a grocery store trip. We were able to piece together a makeshift breakfast sandwich with eggs, flour tortillas, salsa verde, shredded cheese and hot sauce (that last part was just on mine - Cara can't stand the heat).

Watching a movie where people are cooking and eating Julia Child recipes, reacting with such joy, will really make you hungry regardless of any recent makeshift egg concoction. For now we keep our roles the same: both wanting such delicious food right now, Cara face down in her iPhone, Sadie asleep next to me on the coach and myself sitting here, face down in the computer. All of this is wonderful, quick fights included, because they remind and refresh me on what really matters.

I still want food.

30 by 30

Ever since the thrill of losing 30ish pounds before our wedding and the following 15ish I gained back, I have been trying to find ways to motivate myself to committing throughout such a great goal again. Examples are as follows:

• Trimming down for my high school reunion 
• Running 5K's to keep the pounds coming off
• Coming home and making a nice vodka drink after work sometimes (most times)

Funny enough, none of those kept me committed to losing the weight I want to lose. I'm mostly disappointed the vodka idea didn't work. The real problem with anything I have tried since the wedding was needing something big to keep me tied into the goal. I'd have a really good week and then just let the immoral majority inside my head take over and before I knew it I was slinging back hot wings, playing video games instead of running and making excuses instead of effort.

Now, in this the year the Mayan's predict "something's gotta give," I have something to really push for: I am marking 30 years on this bouncy ball we call home. And it is for this joyous occasion I declare the Tri-Wizard Tournament has begun!

Wait, sorry, I got carried away. This isn't Hogwarts and we all don't live in a present-day England where no one seems to carry a cell phone and everyone wears bathrobes.

Three points for Hufflepuff.

No, I am declaring that I will lose 30 pounds by my 30th birthday. Trademarks pending include "ThirtyBY30," "30x30," and the ever popular "las gotas gordinflonas 30 libras." This declaration is brought to you by the letter J for jelly rolls and in part by viewers like you.

I have been circling around this 30x30 thing for a few months now and even did something BIG to help push me to it. I signed up to run the Indy Mini 2012, a half-marathon throughout the splendid wonders of Indianapolis this coming May.

So, as of tomorrow (Monday, February 20th 2012), I have the following time left until my 30th Birthday:

  233  Days   -- or --   33  Weeks and  2  Days

You could put that at roughly 1 pound per week and with that thinking this is "very doable" as my lovely wife just said when I woke her up to tell her about this post.

I will do this the same as I did for the wedding blog and post reports throughout the week (at least once) and record my weight online every Monday morning.

The first official weigh-in will be in just about 8 hours or so. That means I have just a few hours to stuff as much chocolate and carbs in my face as I can before this thing starts!

Actually I won't be doing that. Instead I am going to watch TWISTER (such a classic) on Netflix instant and slip off to a slumber land filled with candy cane kisses and puppy dog dreams (editors note: WTF?).

ALSO, Cara and I are really going to try and keep this blog updated. We had such fantastic hopes for a newlywed blog but never really made the time. If this blog were a gerbil we would have killed it. Good thing we don't have kids yet if we can't even manage an online blog.

Tomorrow should be an especially fun day since we are purchasing our first bed as a couple! I hope to have a full post on that experience (disclaimer: we already picked it out and I am just going in to purchase it whilst Cara is at work tomorrow since I have the day off).

To those of you who will keep tabs on me through this slim shady of a journey I embark, I thank you and will gladly accept unmarked bottles of booze as tokens of appreciation. To those of you who see this post and say "meh," well that's just fine too. I most likely "meh" you as well.

In Dave Grohl's name we pray, amen.

KJ

I blame classical music

I was having such a good week recently. I had been running and eating healthier and I was on target for yet another stellar drop in pounds for my weekly weigh-in. And then came last night.

Last night Cara and I attended the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Opening Gala. A truly wonderful event meant to debut the upcoming season as well as the new music director, Krzysztof Urbanski. I'm sure I'll have a post later on regarding my thoughts of an orchestra having a music director who only works there a few weeks during the year and isn't music directing it up at just the ISO. But I digress.

After the concert (which had a truly wonderful second half) we went to meet up with some of the ISO staff and the ISO group Forte at Morton's Steakhouse. Everyone was lounging in the bar and we were set to enjoy some drinks and light eating.

I had three old fashioned's and a manhattan. I think they they all combined for a shot's worth of bourbon. It had to be the most blatant happening of watering down drinks since the kool-aid incident of Johnny Staton's birthday in 1986.

Cara was hungry and I was not (a classic mistake of mine). We ordered chicken tenders and crab cake BLTs. The chicken tenders came out about 20 minutes after ordering and they were pretty good. However, an hour later we still did not have our crab cake BLTs despite the constant promising of the wait staff that they were "on their way out." We ended up deciding to leave and finish our dining elsewhere so I went up to the bar and asked for our check, minus the crab cake BLTs. The server again said they would be coming out soon and that it was hard because there were so many ISO people there. Still, it had been an hour, I reminded her, and we paid our bill and left (including one of the worst tips I've ever given).

So we went to Scotty's Brewhouse and ordered loaded waffle fries and chicken nachos around 10:30PM last night. And at 6:15AM I woke up today and took my weekly stand. I already knew it was going to be not so great after such a night but to hit 250 again, damn.

I think I need Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory to put me on a strict schedule of food consumption and bathroom activities.

But in the end I blame classical music.

Run Fatboy Run Part II: Even Runnier

In December of 2009 I proclaimed a goal leading up to our wedding. I was disappointed that I weighed 270 pounds and said that I would lose 20 pounds before the wedding. Well I ended up losing 31 pounds in the 8 months leading up to the wedding and it felt so amazing.

Now, just over a year later since we got married I am at 248. That mean's I've gained 9 pounds since then. I know that's not a huge amount, but for a guy who just dropped 31 and saw what more he could do it really feels like my body has been on spring break for a year.

So I start the sequel to the hit movie that was my weight-loss and running success. The goal I have is to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. When Santa drops his beer belly down our chimney I want to have less jiggle to my wiggle, as it were.

Let the games begin.

Vacation Crawl 2011

What do you think is in the spittoon? If you guessed nothing give yourself a pat on the back.


Delicious Southern Pecan Pie at Hank's Seafood in Charleston, South Carolina


Cara and I like to take trips to different places. Far away places, weekend getaways, weekly drives to the grocery store. Ok, that last one isn't really a top three pick on types of trips we like to take.

This year we planned a few adventures and the bulk of them just so happen to be during the last 1/3 of the year or so. It essentially makes the year look chubby around the butt and I wouldn't tell the year that if I were you. The year doesn't take that kind of comment well at all.

Our year's jiggly butt events are:

• July: Chicago (long weekend trip), Cara in Oregon, KJ work trip in Chicago
  
• August: Tennessee and South Carolina (1 Year Wedding Anniversary)
• September: Nashville (long weekend trip)
• October: U of I Homecoming
• November: Florida (my sister's wedding)

Next up is our Nashville trip and we are bouncing with excitement (editors note: bouncing can hurt if not done right). Last year when we stayed in Nashville during our minimoon we did so at The Hutton Hotel. It is such an amazing place and has the best rainfall shower.

I also purchased tickets for us to attend a Vanderbilt football game while we are there. We both love football and are looking forward to seeing how they do such things down there.

So rainfall showers, college football and, of course, great food. These are the main things we are looking forward to doing. It should be a good time and a fun reminder of what things could have been (flashback to September 2010 when I was offered a job in Nashville).

For now we prepare for next adventure on our quest to give this year a fat ass and come December maybe a good old-fashioned wedgie.

Oh hey there!

October. That is the last post we did on this blog. I must first apologize because you, our loyal reader and avid stalker, must have been left wanting. So much has happened since October of this past year. Let's do a quick recap:

• Cara interviewed, was offered and accepted the post of headmistress at hogwart's school of witchcraft and wizardry.
  
• KJ quit his job at DeVry to achieve his dream of following the band Wilson Phillips around on tour.
  
• Cara and KJ moved to a strange land where most things were backwards and smaller. Their adjustment has been coming along steadily.
  
• KJ interviewed, was offered and accepted the designation of Bill Paxton's assistant in a direct-to-video sequel to the 90's hit movie "Twister," titled : Twister: Even More Cows

In all actually, we said SO LONG to our mustached and sports-drenched chicago peeps and moved to the very new and interesting land of the hoosiers.

Cara now works at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as their Marketing Manager. It's a great place and such an amazing opportunity for her to grow.

I, on the other hand, being the dedicated husband I am, quit my job at DeVry so we could come to Indy. But let's be honest, I can't take all the credit for doing such a thing for my wife, I have to thank the management I worked with at DeVry for squandering hopes and dreams of those who work for them.

So, as of November 2010 we were in Indy. Let's fast forward a few months because I didn't have a job most of the winter and I don't have much to write about that.

February 2011: A dream came true and that is no joke. I started my new career with John Wiley and Sons Publishing, one of the leading publishers and in existence for over 200 years.

You could call me a sales person because I do sell stuff, but I feel that term cheapens what I really do. I work with corporations in an effort to help them assess their development needs and align the best program for them. It's quite amazing and this is a great thing to be learning right now.

Truth be told, I'm actually writing this blog from 41,000 feet in the air and currently over Georgia on my way to Orlando for an expo with my company.

Cheers.

My Window Has Bricks

In a cube I spend my day

Spreadsheets, data and florescent display

A childhood of growing and imagining far

Now I sit in rush hour traffic, trapped in my car

Dreams we once had feel now out of reach

And the lessons we learned from those who teach

It all started to go with our 9 to 5 pace

Once I slept till noon, now 5AM hits my face

Breakfast alone before the sun's rise

Slowly the light creeps upon young but aging eyes

Every day the same, the device of a drone

I live this as a worker, a routine of my own

We need to change and break from this mold

To avoid a life half-wasted, just doing as told

A life in a cube making moderate pay

Is not the life I want now or any day

The trill is with me knowing I'll change

To follow a passion that I only can arrange

I call on you all to follow your dreams

Avoid a life of doing only the means

Love what you do , enjoy your life through

Change what you see by changing your view

..................

That is just a little diddy I did at work today while sitting in my cube. I've been doing the same thing almost daily for just under three years.

I'm planning to attend graduate school to obtain the needed education to finally start doing what makes me happy. Using my ability to observe and communicate to help others in any way I can.

It's going to be great.