Weight, Oscar Wagers, Baseball, Bowling, Basketball

Poundage
I have been a little concerned lately about my extreme weight fluctuation. I typically weigh myself every morning and am within 2-3 pounds of 233.  Sunday I was surprised to see 228, my lowest weight since a week before our wedding.  Then Monday I weighed in at just 226, the lowest since 2004.  I would be jubilant except that there was no good explanation for it.  When posted on Facebook, I received a ton of ideas—tapeworm, disease, weather, etc.  Mom pointed out that our five days of binge-eating with the Glanzers in town followed by overcorrection was likely to blame.

All I know is today, I made sure that weight went back up in the northern direction.  I didn’t really intend to eat non-stop all day, but opportunities kept presenting themselves.  After arriving to work way too early even for me, I went to McDonald’s for breakfast, only to arrive at the office and find out Jorge brought donuts.  With Bax at daycare, I didn’t need to go home over break and wound up getting Chinese for lunch.  After work, Lauren and I met for happy hour at ZTejas but were unhappy and went next door to a second happy hour at Eddie V’s, and we had a huge appetizer at each.

Now I’m beginning to feel like I should have just shut up and embraced that 226 reading.

I Win Big at Oscars
This weekend Lauren and I watched as many Best Picture nominees as possible before the Oscars on Sunday night.  It has been our goal to see every Best Picture nominee each year for the past four years, and this year we saw eight of the nine in time.  In fact, I saw The Artist twice in the theater.  It was hands-down my favorite of the nominees, although Moneyball held a special place for me as it was about baseball and even had several Twins-related scenes.

Without Jason and Patrick to bet against, we bet against each other with some playful wagers. Out of the 24 televised categories, we agreed that the loser would have to tend to dishes for the week and let Baxter out at 6am every morning.  And of the “Big Six” awards (Actor, Actress, Supp. Actor, Supp. Actress, Director, Picture) the winner could choose a restaurant and activity for this coming Friday night.  Lauren got off to a hot start in some of the minor categories, but as the night went on I swiftly took the lead and won with 13 out of 24 answers correct.  The only award that truly surprised me was Meryl Streep for Best Actress after I had heard such mediocre reviews for Iron Lady.

I was happy to see The Artist claim most of the big awards.  I’ll soon be reviewing it on my Best Picture Review blog, but in short, it was one of my favorite Best Picture winners yet.  For a silent movie with a boring title, I went in expecting an artsy over-my-head kind of movie, but found myself laughing out loud or smiling through most of it.

Minor League BP?
We have a jam-packed weekend planned.  Aside from whatever I choose to do on Friday night, we have several other Saturday and Sunday activities in mind.  On Saturday morning, the AAA Round Rock Express hosts its fan fest, and everyone in attendance gets to take five swings on the Dell Diamond field.  If I can crack a home run, I can win season tickets.  I’m not concerned about the prize, I’m just excited about the idea of taking BP on a field that the Texas Rangers will be playing on in a few weeks in an exhibition game.  I honestly think that I could hit a HR there… not in the five pitches I would see, but if I took 300 swings I bet I could hit one out.

There has also been talk of a camping trip with some friends at a nearby state park known for its waterfalls.  Believe me, if there is a time for outdoor camping in south-central Texas, the first weekend of March might be ideal.  A fire might actually feel nice before summer hits.  I’m sure little Bax would have a great time anyway.  We also have the March Beagle Brigade downtown, so one way or another Small Hound (my new name I’ve been calling the beagle) should have plenty of excitement.

Rejecting a Pre-Teen
Monday night I joined in on basketball for the third straight week with co-worker Randy and his old high school classmates, now all in their thirties.  When we got to the court to play, a couple 12-year-old kids were there and weren’t about to give up their hoop, so they joined in and amazingly held their own, as long as they were guarding each other. In one bizarre sequence, a screen was set and I switched up on defense and guarded one of these kids, only to block the living shit out of one of his shots, sending it blazing into the wall, which garnered quite the laughter from everyone.

Then last night I subbed for one of the three company bowling teams.  I promised the team I hadn’t bowled much recently and couldn’t be counted on anything more than a 120, to which they were quite receptive as 120 would be a decent score in this ultra-casual league. Ha… in the first game I technically bowled a 70, though I started out with a 104 due to the player’s handicap I was replacing.  My biggest problem in bowling is thinking.  I kid you not, in three consecutive frames I went gutterball, spare; gutterball, spare; gutterball, spare; gutterball, gutterball.  All of my spares went to waste because I know I overthought it and tried too hard to follow up with a strike.  In the end, no one gave a crap about the score.  It truly was about who could drink the most.

By the Way…
It sure is nice these days to have the day-to-day schedule that I do.  Gone are the days of giving up my precious weekends to DJ wedding dances.  And you know what, I never dread going to work each day like I did a year ago… in fact, more often than not I look forward to it.  Fill in the nights with the occasional sport, gathering, or happy hour, and I am quite content right now… smallish things aside like obtaining paperwork to title the pickup, a beagle suffering from separation anxiety, and of course paying off massive debt, anyway.