Well, some of you know I've been trying to lose weight for awhile.  Back in 2003-ish (I think, I could be off by a year) I hit my personal high of around 235 lbs.  You never really feel how heavy you get until you see a picture.  Eric and I were on the paddle boat at the Lake over the 4th.  A picture was taken showing this.  My side of the paddle boat was, ummm, a little low.  So with Anne's help I started exercising more and eating better (South Beach that time).  I did pretty good.  Got down to a little under 190.  For maybe a month. 

Then classes and work picked up, we were in the process of adoption, all kinds of distractions.  By this last July (is there a pattern here?) I was back up to around 213 lbs.  Not as bad as last time, but I didn't want to go there again.  So, more exercise and attention to diet. 

This time I took the engineer approach.  I started recording my daily calories and my weight.  The first week I didn't alter my diet, just recorded how much I was actually eating (actually, I modified it a bit, couldn't help it.  Did I really need that extra piece of candy?).  Then Anne found a good calculator for weight loss.  I used this as a guide to try and lose two pounds a week.  But I didn't sweat it too much if I missed one day.  This allowed me to continue eating out for lunch twice a week.   But those exceptions HAD to be exceptions.  Eating badly for a week had an immediate effect.

Anne and I weighed in once a week on Saturday night (I was trying to lose, she was trying to gain).  So, steady, persistent work and I'm close to my goal.  I wanted to get down to about 180 lbs, and maybe even a size 34 pair of jeans. Not quite there yet, but here is my progress so far:  I'm at 185 lbs, and a loose size 36.  Lowest weight since high school.  Of course with a Christmas trip up to Mom and Dad's looming, I probably won't maintain that.

Here is my weight loss chart.  Not too bad.  About 30 lbs since July.  About 1.5 lbs per week, overall.

OK.  I thought I was fed up with religion in the presidential race before.  Now I'm officially disgusted.  Who do you think better represents Christianity, Huckabee or Romney? 

In an upcoming interview with the NY Times Magazine, Huckabee is asked to comment on Romney's religion.  He says something along the lines of "I don't know that much about it".  Nice political answer.  Even if as a former Baptist preacher with a Biblical Studies degree he should have come across quite a few references to the LDS.  He may even have preached on it.

Then, without missing a beat, he asks the reporter an "innocent" question related to a detail about LDS theology that may be designed to make Romney look like a nut. 

Now, I've known a few Mormons.  Nicest people you will ever meet.  They would give you the shirt of their back and be sorry it was the wrong size.  However, they may not be Christian as I think of it.  But the way Huckabee acts, I'm not sure he is either.  By their fruits you shall know them, right?  That would probably make Mormons just as much Christian as Lutherans.  I'll let God determine whether their or our mistakes in doctrine prevent us from entering Heaven.

In any case.  The more I see of Huckabee, the more he leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Which I might excuse if he actually had a sensible, thought-out position on anything.  But he strikes me as a pro-life Bill Clinton. 

Man.  Again.  Let's have discourse on qualifications, not who believes what about Jesus.

Don't know if the "Islamic Like Me" links are working.  So.  If you are interested, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com and search for "islamic like me".  You should bring up the articles.

 Right here.

A joke floating around Britain right now (recall the Teddy Bear/Sudan stupidity):

I bought a Teddy Bear for £10, named it Muhammad, and sold it for £20 on EBAY.  Did I make a prophet?

The kind of joke I hope we can tell for a long time to come in the U.S.  I have my doubts about anywhere else.  I hear a Jesus joke, I usually can laugh.  A Muslim hears a Muhammad joke, or even sees a teacher allow her class to name a bear after themselves, and they reach for a sword.  Sigh. 

A slight aside, you can find a lady blogging about wearing the full Saudi Burka stuff for a week here, here, and here.  The fourth installment comes Monday.

BTW, How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?  What?!  Lutherans change?

Here's another:

"This pastor was talking to a group of kids and, to illustrate a point, he asked, 'Does anybody know what's small, furry, has a bushy tail, and runs up trees looking for nuts?' All the kids were silent but, finally, one little boy said, 'Well, I know the answer is Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!'"

While I'm on the topic of religion, is anyone else getting sick of all the religion talk going on?  We've got a pro-life Slick Willy (Huckabee) saying God wants him to be President.  We've got a Mormon having to give a speech about his beliefs if he wants to be the Republican nominee for Pres.   We've got questions about God and Jesus in debates. 

ARRRRRRGGG!

What does all this have to do with government?  Do I want my President to be Christian?  Yeah, probably.  A moderate Muslim?  Yeah that's fine too.  But I would rather have a competent, moral atheist in the office than a well-meaning incompetent (Jimmy Carter comes to mind, Bush too, for that matter).  I just wish the press would concentrate on the qualifications of people running instead of their religious habits.  Sigh.

Repainting part of the house.  Man this stinks.  I'm tired.

Errr.  The bucket game.  Eric and Lisa invited me up for the game (thanks guys!).  Anne was awesome in taking care of the kids so I could go (Thanks Anne!!!!!!!).  Great biscuits and gravy for breakfast, good food at the tailgate.  Eric and Lisa's friends were very good to a Boiler fan.  A credit to IU's fan base.

The game was mostly frustrating for a Boiler fan, but the last quarter was at least entertaining.  For those who follow Purdue football, you probably agree with me...we need a new offensive line. They're a bunch of kittens.  Sigh.  I won't describe the game, other than one team knew what they wanted, and another one woke up too late.  Congrats Hoosiers.  Play 13.

Check out the pics from the day...

Hey, just posted some new pics from a visit to a local park.  Kids had a blast.  Keith of course managed to find some forgotten toy cars on a picnic table.  That was fun getting him away from them.  Sefia was cute, as usual.

BTW, check out the new link to Mom and Dad's cabin.  Under new management!  Now its cheaper to rent a great secluded cabin!

Please pray for the Guatemalan election coming up.  Our political divisions pale in comparison to the violence that can occur there.

http://tinyurl.com/388zf2

Well, the Kentucky Horse Park had a free family day today.  So we braved the ninety degree heat (kinda cool, actually) to go see some ponies.  The kids loved it.  We have a few pictures in the album to the right.  After seeing a few horses, we decided to preempt any whining and go to the playground.  They also liked that.  All in all, a great day.

I liked this quote from Jonah Goldberg (I think):

Liberals used to be the ones who argued that sending U.S. troops abroad was a small price to pay to stop genocide; now they argue that genocide is a small price to pay to bring U.S. troops home.

Discuss.

Well, we're back from the lake.  We had a wonderful time with the folks.  The kids were mildly spoiled.  Vast amounts of cookie dough (both cooked and uncooked) were consumed.  As well as copious cups of homemade vanilla ice cream.  Made with Honduran (?) vanilla.  Tasted like Pina Colada's (and getting caught in the rain). 

The kids had a good time in the water.  Two events in particular keep sticking in my head.

We were in the pontoon boat, anchored in 10-15ft of water, trying to get the kids to enjoy swimming.  It wasn't hard since this was towards the end of the week and they were getting more comfortable.  Keith in particular wanted to climb the ladder on the back of the boat, so we let him.  Both he and Sefia would say, 'Climb!  Climb', or 'Sube!, Sube!' (thanks Dora!).

Anyway, he would climb up the ladder, wander a bit, then sit down and slide/jump into my arms.  Until one time he looked like he wanted to jump from standing instead.  Little girl didn't help matters.  She saw what he was doing and decided to encourage him by yelling, 'Jump!  Jump!'.  (Our kids like saying verbs in pairs).  Between Dad and I we were able to corral him.

The second event was related.  It was Sefia's turn to get on the back of the pontoon boat and slide into Pop-pop's arms.  Except she saw Dad dive into the water a couple times and decided that looked cool.  She inched up to the edge, planted her feet square, bent her knees, and shot out her arms behind her in a perfect diver's stance.  We were barely able to keep her from diving off head first.  Note for the future, our kids emulate everything we do.

And...

THE KIDS' CoC's ARRIVED!!!!!!  We finally received the certificates of citizenship for them.  They are now officially citizens of the US.  This means we can update their Social Security cards to reflect their status, as well as update their names on the cards.  This is quite a relief as it was the last official thing that we had no control over.

Rob

Well, it's been a while since we've posted anything.  That's because our lives are either extremely boring, or too busy.  Yes to both.

Anyway, we just returned from Germany after having a great time visiting with Daniel and Rachel.  We arrived in Berlin after getting maybe 15 minutes sleep on the way over.  We then tried to stay up until a normal bedtime.  We mostly made it.  We had mostly adjusted to the time within a couple days (although Anne used the jet lag excuse for quite a few days after that ).  Some of the best pictures from our trip are in the photo album on the right.

The next day we went around Berlin looking at a couple sites, a Holocaust memorial, a church, stuff like that.  The next day we took off on a 9 hour train ride to Innsbruck.  That was pretty nice.  We had a cabin that we shared off and on with two other people.  Traveling by train is much nicer than traveling by plane. 

We made it to Innsbruck that night, but our hotel never got our reservation.  Thank goodness Dan is pretty good at German now.  They carted us off to another hotel (which we think was nicer).  We had hoped to walk back to the train station after getting to the hotel to get something to eat, but the new hotel was too far away.  So we convinced the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel to let us order a meal (even though it was almost 10PM).  Somewhat of a mistake.  Expensive.  But very good.  And the best Pilsner I've ever had.

The next day we boarded a bus towards a small town above Innsbruck, looking for a place to hike.  We found it in Igls.  About a 10km hike across hills, through forests, across a field full of blackberries being pollinated (I've never heard so many bees before, kinda creepy), more forest and fields.  Very cool.  It would have been nice to spend a few more days there, beautiful place.  That evening we walked around the old city of Innsbruck, had some great pizza, and more of that wonderful beer.  Afterwards Anne got hungry for some dessert and back we went. 

The next day we traveled to Munich.  That hotel wasn't quite as nice, but the free breakfast was wonderful (it had scrambled eggs and AMERICAN coffee).  We saw a few sites, but in general we felt there were too many people in Munich for our taste.  Next we traveled to Fussen.

In Fussen was Neuschwanstein.  The fairy castle that was the inspiration for the Disney castle.  Rainy, drizzly day.  The clouds were pretty cool as the mist wrapped around the castles, but it was a little bit yicky.  I wish we had more time to hike around there, since there were quite a few trails.

Well, we'll leave it at that for now.  Maybe I'll get back to describing the rest of the trip later.  Or not.  We'll see.  Suffice it to say that Dan and Rachel are great hosts, and we had a wonderful time.  Thank you.

Keith and Sefia's Aunt Rachel G. made some hats for them for Christmas, and we've finally taken a picture. Sefia loves her critter cap, and pulls it on right away. Don't you love the little 'ears'? Thank you Rachel!

Also, for you cat lovers...
http://www.cs.tlu.ee/~meelis/catmusic/

And for those of you with boys, a little article about gun-play. I agree with the article, especially since I've already seen this behavior difference in Keith and Sefia. Keith thinks an Elmo drill is a gun, and likes to play dead when it is pointed at him. Of course Sefia doesn't need weapons. She just smacks with her hand. Immediate trip to timeout. Where she promptly gets naked and flings her diaper around. Sigh.

Anyway, I remember Eric and me playing with weapons at an early age. We made swords and guns out of legos as soon as we had enough legos to do it. And don't forget the dirt clod grenades from the corn/soybean fields around our New Paris house. Ahh. The satisfying 'smoke' that would erupt when I beaned Eric with the dirt clod. Of course when he ran to Mom, I had to somehow turn it into his fault. I was successful 50% of the time.