The Upside of Being Down

Weight that is.

You may have heard me talking about being on the Slim 4 Life diet on the air, and it’s worked great.  At the beginning of the year (and you can go back and read the blogs) I was tipping the scales at just over 200 pounds. I go in for my final official weigh in today, but on my unofficial scale at home this morning… 168!

The “problem” is none of my clothes fit anymore and my wife has a rule that no one is allowed to buy anything for themselves after Halloween.  So, I’ve been cinching up my baggy pants for quite a while.  Finally, I had enough yesterday.  I went through all my clothes, tried everything on and gave all the clothes that were too big to Goodwill.  That left me with two pair of shorts and the pair of jeans I got for my birthday a few weeks ago.  So, I took my oldest daughter and we went shopping.  I now have enough pants to get me through the week.  That’ll have to do until Christmas. LOL.

Probably should’ve waited until after I gorged myself on turkey tomorrow.  I’ll be wishing I still had my “fat pants”.

Cutting to the Quick

So my father in law just called into the show and dropped the little nugget that my mother in law used to “cut my meat” for me.  This of course led – as it should – to much hassle and grief by the rest of the people on the show.

Let me explain.  I’m perfectly capable of cutting my own meat and have been for most of my life.  There WAS a period of time when I did have my meat cut up for me, though.  About six months before my wife and I got married, I took a job in my wife’s hometown and needed to move there.  As we were getting married in six months and would be moving into our own place, my in-laws offered to let me live with them until the wedding.  My wife was still finishing college on the other side of the state.  I was making about $11K a year, so I agreed to live rent free and save money.

I was doing a night show on the local radio station and my mother-in-law, who is very considerate, used to put together leftovers in Tupperware for my “lunches” at work.  Judy was concerned that there wasn’t a knife available for me in the break room, so she used to cut up the meat for me before she packed it.  She loves me, what can I say?

So to reiterate… I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF CUTTING MY OWN MEAT AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!

‘Tile’ by Fire

About a year and a half ago, I was working with some guys who wanted to start a new company called D-I-Y Construction where they come in and teach you how to do building projects yourself.  They abandoned my project after putting up about four stud walls (with crooked boards) and messing up my mechanical.  Steer clear of these guys if you’re doing a project. They’re bad news.

I left the basement the way it was for a year until the recent plunge in the housing market made me consider getting it finished to add a bit more value to my house. I hired a friend of a friend to hang the drywall and I’ve done the rest.  It’s been quite an experience so far and all the people at Home Depot know me by name.  I’ve done the taping and mudding, texturing and painting, even all the wiring.  This weekend, I tackled tiling.

Tiling is deceptive.  It looks really easy on paper.  Even when you ask the guys at Lowe’s or Home Depot, they make it SOUND easy.  It’s far from easy!  First, you have to center your room.  Trust me, with the crooked-ass walls constructed by the aforementioned contractor, THAT wasn’t easy.  Then I had to layout each individual tile from the center line and make all the cuts and notches.  I found that I rock at straight cuts… and I must have faulty nippers.  Every straight cut to trim the tile went off without a hitch, and every time I tried to use the nippers… I snapped the tile in half.

I finally got everything laid out and ready and spent the day Sunday gluing down the tile.  It was messy and very time consuming, but kinda fun.  My lines aren’t perfect, but it looks pretty good.  I’m waiting the required 2 days and I’ll start grouting tomorrow.

Slowly but surely, I’m becoming quite the handyman!  In fact, if you need help with a project at your house… call a professional.