That's More Like It

We finally got back on track with our diet, and the results show it!  I lost 3.8 pounds last week.  That's more than I expected and the WeightWatchers website says that a bit too much, but I'm happy with it.  It means that I can get back on the diet when I fall off.  Sweet success.

Kay reached an important milestone, last week.  She can now sit up unsupported.  There'll be pictures of that online, soon, of course.  She can't pull herself up into a sitting position, but if we put her there, she stays there.  Now that she's discovered it, she seems to prefer that position, too.  I took her on a walk in her stroller that day, and she sat bolt-upright the entire time.  It's super-cute.  It also means, though, that some of her furniture is going to have to go very soon.  We're looking for a good crib... well, Misty is.

I'm working on my CCG Console program again, because I've spent more time with my cards lately.  I've already got a basic user interface with card searching and sorting capabilities.  Now, I have to get together a system to import and export card lists and game profiles.  I want to design that part our pretty thoroughly before I start coding, because it could get pretty complicated.

Current weight: 320.8 lbs
Total weight lost: 7.2 lbs

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.

-- Confucius

Riding the Rollercoaster

Getting back on the diet is proving harder than I anticipated.  I gained again this week, if only 0.4 pounds.  I'm not surprised, though, since I ate poorly too often last week.  WeightWatcher's plan allows for a certain amount of flexibility, but I took it too far.  Once again, I'll just have to try again.  I will definitely lose weight this week.

Misty got to attend the Tampa Bay Anime meeting this week for a couple hours.  She hadn't attend for months, because of Kay, so she'd never seen our new projector setup in action or seen the majority of the membership in a while.  She had fun, and Kay was well-behaved.  It was fun having her, and I'm glad she was able to get out of the house for a bit.

Speaking of TBA, I updated the meeting archive on time this week.  That shouldn't be news, but my horrendous record in that regard makes it momentous.  I'm using emacs to edit the web site while simultaneously getting better at PHP, and those things introduce a learning curve and make the whole task take longer, for now.   Emacs is supposed to be a very flexible editor, but it takes a lot of getting used to, because it differs in many important ways from the editors I'm used to: Notepad, Visual Studio, etc.  It doesn't even behave like a normal Windows program, because it was originally created to work on a terminal, with no mouse or GUI.  It is very useful, though.  I can see the potential power in there - I just have to work to get in tune with the program.

Kay is trying her best to crawl now.  The only thing she can manage right now is scooting around in a circle.  She can roll, though.  If you leave her on her back for any amount of time, she's roll right over to her stomach.  She can even get up on all fours for a few seconds, but she hasn't quite coordinated everything into movement.  Soon, though.  If you're so inclined, you can see new pictures of her on my Picasa page.  There's also some pictures of Misty when she was a baby.  Marvel at the similarity!

Current weight: 324.6 lbs
Total weight lost: 3.4 lbs

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
-- Wendell Phillips

Uncertain Times

I missed a couple of weeks here, because they were exceptionally busy.  It finally came to crunch time at work, so I had to work several nights and some weekdays.  That wasn't a lot of fun, but we did end up putting out a great product, which should roll out soon.  Metrocon also ate up a lot of the time I wasn't working, mostly because I procrastinated in making buttons and gathering prizes for our raffle.  More on that in a bit.  Finally, I was helping Kali with a Flash project for her class.  I feel a little bad about it, because it ended up being far more complex than it needed to be.  She's almost guaranteed to get an A, though.

All of this craziness meant that I spent little to no time on my diet.  I didn't completely pig out, but I didn't eat healthily enough to lose weight.  In the last couple of weeks, I've gained 0.6 pounds, which really isn't all that bad in the short term.  Now that all the craziness is behind me, we'll be back on our diet this week.  Expect weight loss to return.

Ah, Metrocon.  What a cluster-fuck that almost turned out to be.  For some reason, Anime Nation decided not to participate in this year's Metrocon, and they (through a friend) were the ones who were supposed to get me passes to the con.  I didn't know they had bailed until the day before the con, so I started to panic.  When I got to the con, hoping beyond reason that something would work out, it turned out that TBA had a table, but I didn't know which one, and I had no passes.  I walked around the con for hours (in my staff friend Justin's escort), looking for someone who could help me, but to no avail.  Finally, the con started, and I had no table or passes.  I started to despair when several TBA members found me and started to help.  They went out into the four corners of the con, looking for anybody who could help.  Finally, I got a call that all was taken care of, and I was able to set up our table and get to fund raising.  It was all pretty fun thereafter.  Special thanks to Mike, Jon, Les, Kali, and Angela for their help.  I'm gonna write up a Metrocon report today, and I'll have to make sure to thank them publicly there.

This was Kay's very first con, and she was a champ.  Misty and I worked out a system of taking turns watching her at night, and it worked out well.  We both ended up having a good time and we got to spend time together on the last day.  Kay drew lots of complements and even scored Misty a new friend from Orlando.  Pictures will be uploaded to the web this week.

Current weight: 324.2 lbs
Total weight lost: 3.8 lbs

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
-- John Quincy Adams