The post is both touching and honest. It reminds me of the better days of blogging when people wrote journal entries rather than gadget reviews. When people wrote about how much their day sucked rather than how much their Internet connection does. When people wrote about family vacations rather than writing about topics that are good search engine fodder.

We need to get back to blogging.

Date taken: September 30, 2008 | Eliza wanted to test out her new waterproof camera. Andrew and I helped her out. All photos credit: Eliza Devroe.

Lady Chancery trolls by our “secret” cove where Andrew and I did some snorkeling. Today we had planned to head out either Sand Dollar Island or Shackleford Banks to do some snorkeling, shell finding, or seeing if we could locate some wild horses.

Instead we ended up snorkeling off of Radio Island. When we arrived to Beaufort, North Carolina to hit a ferry ride to one of the islands, Captain Don let us know that the tide was in and that visibility would be extremely low. He did mention that there would be 3ft. black tip sharks – and that made Andrew and I want to go more – but he said we wouldn’t be able to see them in the water.

You see, North Carolina just recently got an incredible amount of rain due to Tropical Storm Kyle. All of that rain washes out the marshes and stirs up silt from the rivers that feed into the ocean. All of this extra sediment and junk floating in the water made it pretty murky.

Captain Don then told us of a free, safe spot to do a little snorkeling. It was off of Radio Island, beyond a Yacht Club. So that is where we went and ended up saving $60 and having a pretty good time to boot.

We managed to sneak a peak of quite a few fishes, crabs, and snails in their multi-colored shells. A great time. Looking forward to trying to find more of these little-known areas on the Crystal Coast.

I am laughing at Eliza. Andrew is hitting construction cones.

Photoshop my friend Andrew

I’ve created a zip file that contains the following:

• A Photoshop document with Andrew already “cut out”.
• Five original photographs of Andrew.

Download this zip file, create your own creations, and either link to them or (preferably) embed them into your comments below using the IMG tag.  If you want to go really crazy cool you can record a screencast, upload it to Viddler, and use the video commenting plugin here on my site to include a video of your work too.

I’ll work on getting some sorta prize together.  Right now the winner (which I will choose before the end of the week) will get a Viddler tshirt for sure. But I think I can find some things to sweeten the deal in between time.  (If you have something you want to add to the pot you may contact me.)

Examples!

I took a few moments to create my own examples of some of the things you could do.  Here are two really quick Photoshop jobs to help inspire you.

Basejump!

Underwater

What can you make Andrew do?

I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys can come up with!

Update: I’m getting submissions for this through email, but I’d much rather them as comments so that others can see them too. So if you are going to email them in, at least leave a comment here, and I will add the image to your comment myself (if you don’t know how, etc).

Parental discretion is advised.

Look for gonna scccrrrape you sucka to hit store shelves and the iTunes Music Store soon.  If you would like to request my services for your upcoming album, please feel free to contact me.

So instead of just covering the amount of gain/loss each week I’ll also toss in some of my other goals that I am working on at the gym, on the court, or on the field. However, just to keep up-to-date I weighed in at 189.2 pounds for a loss of .8 pounds from last week. The amount of weight that I lost does not reflect well to how good of a week I had on the diet.

At the gym

I was able to cover a few goals that I had for myself at the gym for this week. The first was actually timing out a sub-10 minute mile. Although I had never timed myself running prior to this week, I already knew going in that I should be able to accomplish this. So, this I accomplished pretty easily (and by easy I mean sweating like a pig).

My next goal was to be able to run 2-miles, since that was something I had not tried to do before. For those of you that do not know, running and I do not get along, in fact – I loathe it. But, I have goals and I am going to make them. So I ran two miles but I added the goal of making it in less than 20-minutes which I just barely made it. I actually had the opportunity to do this twice this week and the second time I came in at 19:20. I’m looking forward to giving this another try and coming in under 19 minutes before moving onto my next goal.

In my I ran one mile post I said: “So, what is my next goal? I’m going to run a mile in the seven-minute range.” Well, that is kinda what I am working on right now. I’m slowly building up my stamina for longer distances while simultaneously going a little bit faster each time. My new goal is 1 mile in 8-minutes and 2 miles in 18 minutes. I’ll let you know how this goal goes.

In the field and on the court

A small group of us went to the park this weekend to play frisbee, a little tennis (I am absolutely horrible at tennis, and I do mean horrible), and basketball. The weather was great (though we’re expecting bad weather this weekend, ugh).

Andrew and I playing frisbee – March 2007 – Photo credit: Eliza Devroe

It was nice to play at least a little frisbee again for the first time this season. One of my goals is to be able to play competitive ultimate this year sometime. I may have to find a local team or something since I don’t know enough people that would like to do this to create my own team. If anyone knows the best way to do this, hook me up.

Tennis seems like a pile of fun but I’m just horrible at it. Obviously it is because I’ve only played like 30-minutes worth of tennis in my entire life – but maybe I could try to play with Andrew a little this year.

The first game of basketball was a game of 21 with Andrew, Paul, and I. And I was shooting really, really well. Then, when we hopped into a larger game – my shot went into outer space for some reason. I was having trouble getting any type of rhythm back and I was starting to get frustrated – which is the worst thing to do. But I had a great time and it was good exercise. I love basketball.

That was my week of activity. Running, working out, some sports, and a fairly decent diet. The change in weather definitely helps me to keep on top of things and I’m looking forward to making and setting new goals on the scale, at the gym, in the field, and on the court.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, andrew nelson, paul kozlansky, running, 2-miles, gym, ultimate frisbee, basketball, tennis, goals[/tags]

It is always a crap shoot when buying a Frosty. One day you get a Frosty that will literally knock your socks off and on a different day, even in the same location, you find the Frosty lacking in texture, taste, color, or even the temperature isn’t quite right. I’ve actually even had Frostys that I didn’t enjoy simply because I thought the effort was poor.

Today after basketball Chris, Andrew, Eliza, and I went to Wendy’s to get a Frosty. What ended up happening may have changed our Frosty-eating lives forever!

L to R: Chris, me, and Andrew

Today we all had Frostys that could be rated 5 outta 5 fpoons (the highest rating for a Frosty using our patent-pending rating system). If you are not sure what a fpoon is, it is the only utensil to use when eating a soquid.

These Frostys were nearly perfect or as perfect as my taste buds would allow me to experience. Their color, feel, temperature, and taste all melded together to make for the best possible Frosty that we’ve all ever had. Reactions to this ranged from speechlessness to exhilaration. From eyes rolling into the back of our heads to our eyes popping out of them. A wide range of emotions washed over each one of us as we did whatever we could to preserve the feeling for as long as possible.

Frostys this good don’t come around too often. I’m just glad that I was able to experience it with my friends and with people who also understand the intricacies of the Frosty-world.

[tags]wendys, frosty, fast food, eliza devroe, chris fehnel, andrew nelson, basketball, food, dessert, chocolate[/tags]
[slug]5-fpoons[/slug]

We have a few Wendy’s “near” us. One is in Dickson City (about 10-15 minutes away) and one in Clarks Summit (about 20-25 minutes away)*. Both of which have drive-thrus, both serve up the Frosty.

After some Japanese last night we got some Frostys at the Clarks Summit Wendy’s, and I have to say, they were not very good. They melted quickly, the chocolate was not chocolate enough, and they just weren’t quite right.

I am not sure how Wendy’s makes the Frosty but I assume that there is some sort of mix or common recipe between any Wendy’s location that would be the same. So why aren’t all Frostys created equal? Perhaps if you are an employee of Wendy’s, you can fill me in on this.

* Actually, there is another one in Dickson City inside of the Viewmont Mall but since it would be pretty annoying to go inside of the mall instead of through the drive-thru, I am not counting this one.

[tags]wendy’s, frosty, dessert, eliza devroe, mike stickel, chris fehnel, andrew nelson, dickson city, pennslvania, clarks summit, food[/tags]
[slug]wendys-frosty[/slug]