Western Arab

Swim Mask

Went to the pool again today, Thursday, just like last week. I was prepared with my swim mask this time and it works great. I got one for like $10 from Walmart. You have to be able to see underwater, or you are missing out. Just makes the swim that much more fun. Besides how else can you see all the bikinis in the water?

I did a better job with the sun block this time I think. Last time I got a little burn on my shoulders, had skin peeling. I think this time was better. I did a lot of laps mainly across the width of the pool which was not bad, but mainly because I didn’t want to swim between the people on the vertical ends of the pool.

There was a group of young teenagers in the pool on one end with the girls trying to pull each others tops off to the amusement of the guys with them. I am not complaining. On the other end, there was a group of older women in bikinis as well. And then there is me in the middle of all this. Needed an in between group.

And finally, my weight is moving well. I weigh myself between 196 and 200 depending on what I am wearing, time of day and whether I had just ate or not. Ideal weight of 185 is not so far off now.

Swimming Pool Water

I went to the club house pool today. I have been in this pool maybe 5 times total now, but the weather was really nice today. I think it was some of the best exercise I had in some time yet and it was fun. I think I need to go more often now. I want to get some goggles for when I go. I always lose a contact or two when in the pool or at the beach in the water. Goggles help a lot with that, plus they cover the nose. I took in a lot of water through my nose today.

Other than the fun and water, I am tan skin, and being in the sun for about 2 hours, I am now pretty much black. I like my tan.

When I got home I weighed myself and scale read 197.5. My lightest weight yet since I set the goal of losing weight. Granted I had less clothing on, but being in the pool is a really good work out. My workout routine is still pretty much the same as before, but I am doing a daily fast walk around my community now as well. I started this week and missed yesterday but I think the daily fast walk is good and will continue. The summer is here and this is the best time to start using the pool!

Summer is here. It is already June. Time flying as usual. June starts hurricane season in Florida for 6 months.

Seems my better eating habits and exercise did not pay off as intended. I still need to take Crestor. Regardless. better eating habits and exercise will continue. They must. So that just means everyone should watch what they eat and exercise regularly. I used to exercise a lot, but what really got me here wasn’t just the lack of exercise when I stopped going to the gym. It was a combination of things including not exercising, eating fatty foods, and the type of work I do. I work on the computer all day long, I sit the entire day. This lack of movement, not exercising and eating fatty foods is why.

I loved fried foods, I would eat anything fried. Chicken, fries, shrimp, cauliflower, fish … if you fried it, I probably liked it. Did I mention Crestor is very expensive and the price keeps going up very two or three months it seems. Perhaps I should consider something in the medical field, a huge business that will always be around.

So it will continue. I will watch what I eat, prohibit myself from certain foods. I will exercise weekly, even if it is 2-3 times a week as it is now.

I have stopped drinking soda for a while and that wasn’t bad at all. When I did drink it recently I found it to be very acidic. I also stopped eating fast food, I actually find that it tastes really bad now that I haven’t ate it in a while. In the end it seems like I almost have to be a vegetarian. I need to eat plenty of vegetables, little meat, or avoid eating meat as much as possible. Eggs and cheese are to be avoided as well. And of course junk food is out. Garlic and onions are healthy to eat so I try to have garlic or onion with food I am eating. And I will still eat fruits, I think fruits are fine.

Blood Test

I had my blood withdrawn this morning. And now I wait for the results which should be in next week. I will see if my better eating habits and exercising have paid off. I know I have benefited for my health either way and I have to continue eating better and exercising. But I am hoping that this will also eliminate the need to take medicine which the doctor suggested I take the last time I withdrew my blood. I refused to take it last time after realizing it is something I would have always take. Yeah forever. No thanks. Medicine for me is the very last resort. I don’t like taking any drugs when I am sick. Unless I am in serious pain, I avoid it. So the lesson is, don’t eat fatty foods, which eliminates anything fried which I love, but I have been able to avoid it and I will something every now and then. And we are told junk food is bad for us, from a very young age but we refuse to accept it, so again I have been avoiding it. And finally exercise always, no matter what, but especially if your job is to sit all day long like I do. Desk and chair job is horrible! Besides the health benefits, you feel much better when you exercise, and you are more confident.

I went to a 3azeemeh (invitation) today. It has been some time since we went to one. It was nice with a lot of people. Had some good food and sweets. I liked the fish the most. I saw a lot of people that I haven’t seen in some time, some of whom looked older. It hasn’t been that long that I haven’t seen them but I don’t know, everyone changes I suppose. Some had new babies, some gained weight, some got grayer, and some still looked young.

I was told that I looked younger and thinner, my working out is paying off!!! I had fun chatting and joking with the group. It’s nice to have these get-togethers every now and then.

Just leaving myself a reminder that it was April 28th. Whatever that means

Well it happened again. Power flashed, internet stopped working. This time it was too frustrating. I hooked up the macbook directly and got it to work, put the linksys router back and could not get it to work. Was too stressful and I think maybe the router being a little old may have something wrong with it. This was around 8:30 pm which meant I went to the 24 hour walmart to pick up a new router.

LinkSys WRT160N Router

I picked up the linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT160N). Besides looking cooler than the old square linksys router, it is smaller and has a larger light up display which is easier to read. It is black and shiny so dust is going to show on it a lot. But I like the black and silver look I have going on my desktop with my aluminum macbook, my black and silver 24″ gateway monitor, my 19″ black and silver monitor, my logitech black and silver usb speakers and now the all black linksys router with blue lights like the gateway monitor has. And I also have a black and gray logitech headset and a dynex black usb keyboard. Only thing that stands out is this blue usps mail meter. And so I did plug in the new linksys router and disconnected comcast’s cable modem line and let it cycle up and it did connect. So perhaps the router was a problem, a problem that cost me $76 to fix.

More money to waste, I need to spend less and things keep coming out of no where. I already spent $295 to get an AC unit running about two weeks ago. Working hard to make money and it is flying out faster and so easily. I really need to fix this hole in my pocket! Other than that, I think the woman on line in front of me was flirting with at walmart.

UPDATE: This linksys router has problems and drops connections constantly, after looking it up online, many have same complaints, it seems linksys released new firmware to fix a vulnerability which in turn broke it and they haven’t released a fix for the fix! I am returning it to walmart as I bought a certified refurbished linksys wireless-g broadband router (WRT54G2) from compusa aka tigerdirect for $30. Maybe I am patching up this hole in my pocket after all!

LinkSys WRT54G2 Router

The past week or so …

My youngest sister is now engaged. She had her party this weekend. Everything worked out well with all that. Obviously the talk of me getting married is now on everyone’s mind since she was the last in line to get engaged/married which leaves just me now. So everyone gives their hint here and there that it is time for me to get hitched. Congratulations to her.

So it has been pretty cool, not so bad. Seven kids six and under running around the house, opening doors that they never close after themselves, leaving trails of food, spilling drinks, poop time alarms going off, diapers changing, screaming and yelling, crying … the WHOLE kid package multiplied by seven. But really it has been cool, not as crazy as it should be I suppose.

I finally can complain about the new mac book not having firewire. It really is odd that they left it out. I didn’t think it was a big deal cause I didn’t really need it, until I wanted to transfer the mini-dv recording of the engagement to the computer to do some editing. Yah that was problematic. Luckily what became my gaming machine after getting the mac book, has 4 gigs or ram and I was able to transfer the video file to the windows machine and then copy it over to the mac. I suppose it is like some have said, they needed to remove the firewire so that they can justify their hefty price tag on the mac book pro, or maybe firewire will be dying out slowly as floppy disk drives did. Who knows but it was annoying not having the port.

Other than that, I have been missing my work outs and eating a lot more then I should, including lots and lots of junk food. I need to get back on schedule. Family get together usually meaning gaining a few pounds. At least that is what Arab families do, eat and eat, and complain about the weight we gain afterward. Complaining is usually done while eating more. What can we do? We love to eat! And the best tasting food is always that unhealthy fattening food like the lamb we had on the weekend. Delicious!

Today I spoke with a cashier at the food stand at the muvico movie theater. It was mostly ordering, but I asked her name because her tag was flipped. And I tried to convince her to give me her name tag with the movie theater name on it and all. We went back and forth, she said she was sorry she really can’t. I told her you work there, you can get another. She tells me well I have two! And I tell her there you go and she continues she really can’t. I tell her she can’t say no to me, she says I know cause you are a customer, and I tell her no cause I am good looking. She laughs.

I don’t know what it was about her, but she was an interesting girl. After the movie, she smiled, still refused to give me the tag, and asked me how the movie was. I simply said it was good. I don’t know why it wasn’t taken further than that. Clearly there was flirting from both of us, but I didn’t take the next step. I don’t know, she could of made a good friend at least. And maybe got free movie tickets! I need to push things. Create an opportunity out of every situation. I can’t wait for things to happen, I must make things happen.

This reminds me of the time I tried convincing a hijabi girl that worked at finish line to give me a finish line shirt. I had gotten chinese food at the Boynton Beach mall and sat down to eat. Moments later a girl walks by my table, squeezes herself between my table and the next almost as if she was trying to get my attention. I think it worked. I soon noticed it was the hijabi girl from finish line I had seen before. She had a plate of the same food as me.

I finished up my food and decided to talk to her. She was just one table behind two girls sitting next to me. I said hey to her and asked how I can get the shirt she has on as she looked up at me. It was a nice navy blue shirt with the finish line logo on it. Pretty simple really but I liked it. She responds you have to work there. So I tell her she has to get me one. She says she can’t. So I just throw out a “Are you stalking me?” at her. She looks confused and/or maybe embarrassed. I tell her you got the same food as me and I went back to the shirt. I say just get me a large one. She laughs and says I should ask them at the store. I tell her I am asking YOU. She at some point tells me she can’t understand why I even want the shirt. I tell her I like it and she responds that she works there (at finish line) and doesn’t like wearing it. Go figure.

So far so good in the busy two weeks. But there is more to come, this is just the beginning. I currently still have time to watch LOST and play Left 4 Dead, go to the gym even though I missed one day this week but I went today, and I just shaved. Woo hoo, it feels nice after a shave.

So what is currently going on. I am looking for new work. I have a lot of family coming over and staying with me. We have an engagment party to tend to. That is really the reason for the busy two weeks. But it will fun, interesting, exciting, crazy and I am sure some drama.

Other than that my VW lease is coming to an end, this is my last month. I am returning the car, not getting another VW or buying it. I will be looking at what car to get next in the next few months. I have time on it since I have the van to use in the mean time plus I need money right now. I shouldn’t be spending it.

Oh right I am supposed to be working on a project during these 2 weeks as well, in addition to the other project I am doing. All while finding a new job and when I do find a new job I will probably keep the project as side work. In addition to my side business that isn’t doing so great either. Eh responsibilties … who needs them? Where is my free ticket?

A busy two weeks are coming up. Going to have a house with SEVEN kids as well as a bunch of visitors. But it should all be fun and interesting, as well as stressful . Looking forward to it. It all starts tonight with a 4am wakeup and drive to the airport. Just realized that is in less than 4 hours!!! And of course I don’t know how to sleep so I will most likely be up until 2 or 3 am before I fall asleep, but I must go and try. Insomnia!