We’re repurposing our wine rack into our new TV stand for the new apartment. By we, of course, I mean Eliza is doing all of the work and I’m taking photos of her and posting them on the Internet without her express permission.

Sometimes we communicate this way in the morning. Isn’t Pookers cute?

Last year, when Eliza and I picked strawberries at Pallman’s Poultry Farm, was my first time picking strawberries. So, obviously – this year was my second. This time we had company. Our friends Paul and Sherin joined us and not only did we have a good time – we picked a lot of berries.

At the end of my post from last year I said that this year we’d be determined to pick enough berries to make wine. And we did just that. Based on a recipe that I got from a friend that makes excellent wine (which I will share in a forthcoming post) – it takes 16 pounds of crushed strawberries to make 5-gallons of wine. So I spent two nights cutting and crushing the berries. I’m very optimistic about how it will turn out.

In our garden this year we only have two small strawberry bushes that we planted. Next year I’d like to extend it enough to harvest enough strawberries to make wine and for our general strawberry use. Now that is a goal.

A perfect day for Eliza and I to pick strawberries with Paul and Sherin. Wine, smoothies, and all sorts of goodies to come.

Moments after this photo Pookers stole the Twizzler for himself.

And that makes three. My lovely and talented wife Eliza posted her photos (and I forgot to link to them) in early April. She’s got some excellent shots of Scranton and the trains at Steamtown.

In case you missed them, here are mine and Sameer Barkawi’s photos from the Scranton Photo Walk.

Sameer, Chris, Eliza and I were the only people to show up for the Photo walk. This didn’t surprise me considering the fact that it wasn’t until Friday that Sameer and I actively went out to Flickr groups, Facebook, Craig’s List, and a few other places on the Web to promote the Photo walk. That isn’t to say that anyone would have showed up if we had publicized this thing for months – we’re talking about Scranton here. I have hope that one day, perhaps more than a few years into the future, Scranton will really take off on these types of social gatherings. Perhaps we’ll try again in fairer weather (since it did end up raining a little) and see how that goes.

The Photo walk itself was pretty ok. It wasn’t too cold, but it did start to rain. We took that opportunity to grab a beer at Judge & Jury. I think a really warm summer evening might be better for photos of Scranton since lights on buildings, signs, and cars passing by really add some romance to photos. You can see this from our Carbondale Photo walk at night. Or perhaps by adding a specific topic to the Photo walk (as someone suggested) like trains, automobiles, lights, signs, buildings, windows, etc.

All-in-all I had a good time, though shorter than I’d have liked, walking around Scranton shooting photos and I’m looking forward to doing it again. Perhaps in Scranton, or another neighboring city, borough, village, or area – but perhaps when the weather is a bit more suitable and predictable.

Photos of Scranton, PA

Although I took around 200 photos, deleted well over 120 before importing them, I’ve only selected 16 or so to share. Here they are. Click on the thumbnails to get a larger view of the full photograph.

I’m happy with the outcome of the walk. Looking forward to the next one.

Chilling in the living room.

It turned out really great and makes our living room much more cozy than it was a few days ago. Our entire apartment is now really beginning to become my new favorite place that I’ve lived. Now, if we could just transport our current apartment and rent price to the North Shore on Oahu, Hawai’i we’d be all set.

Thanks Eliza and Carla for your hard work.

This photo, by my wife Eliza, was simply too good not to post.

One of my berries, overlooking the patch.

Eliza harvesting berries.

I picked strawberries for the first time on Saturday.  Eliza had always been the one to go out picking berries.  Last year we attempted to pick some blueberries but that never panned out (the place was picked clean before we ever got there).  This year though she was sure to get out into the fields before the berries were all gone.

Picking strawberries is actually a fun, relaxing outing.  The weather was nice, the scenery was equally great, and we ended up getting several pounds of strawberries for a lot less than we would if we bought them at the market or grocery store.

My bucket.

Now the biggest choice we have ahead of us is how we’re going to use the strawberries we picked.  Strawberry shortcake, fruit smoothies, jelly or jam, and a slew of other possibilities are all possible.  It is strange how my taste for strawberries has grown this year over any other year.  As I’ve gotten older my taste for things has certainly changed, and my palate enjoys a much wider range of foods than it ever has, but I’m pretty surprised that strawberries might make the list this year.

Here is a theory of mine. When you have direct contact with where something comes from, you’re more apt to appreciate it.  I never thought I’d like wine before I turned 21.  And even after I had it took a little while before Eliza and I went wine tasting and really began to have a love for wine.  This seems to be happening again with strawberries.  Going out into the fields and picking some berries myself, eating them directly out of the patch, really makes the experience much better and now I’m finding myself liking strawberries much more.

Rows and rows of berries.

I’m looking forward to going again next year and, perhaps, mustering up the energy to pick enough berries to make strawberry wine.

What a gorgeous day in Lehigh Valley!  We had a barbeque in Slatington after a friend’s dance recital.  A great way to round out the weekend.

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

Eating lunch during a wine tour break.

Eliza Devroe, my wife, captured a nice photo at a 50th Anniversary party that we attended this past weekend. I’m linking to this photo for two reasons.

1. I think it is a wonderful photo.
2. I wanted to test how I plan to link to photos in the future.

Great shot babe.

(Source: Love on Flickr – Photo Sharing!)

One of the many photos.
Peckville, PA

Eliza and I are just nuts over photos. Crazy people. Paparazi-like at times. So the other day she and I wanted to try out her new camera so we did a photo day (see: our first photo day). Being that the new camera is “her camera” – I got the hand-me-down of the old Canon S2IS that she had been using.*

We had a great time snap, snap, snapping photos and when we had gotten home we both realized I had made a grave mistake; I took all my photos at the lowest resolution possible on the camera so they all turned out to be 640×480 pixels.

This was nothing new to us because we had made this mistake in the past. Only, this time I know that I had taken the time out to be absolutely positive I set the photo quality to the highest prior to taking the photos. So what happened? It turns out that the Canon S2IS has a ‘per mode’ preference setting. I had set one of the modes (I believe portrait) to store photos at the highest quality while the SCN > Foliage mode was set at the smallest.

This is frustrating because I know that I got many great photos that are now reduced to the size of the modern day thumbnail. It is OK because Eliza got some really great photos even though it was also her first “real outing” with her new camera (which is a Canon Digital Rebel XTi).

Suffice to say I won’t make this mistake again. I think.

* Just so we’re clear; I get the camera hand-me-downs and she gets the laptop hand-me-downs.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had hundreds of ideas for how I’d write my one year weigh in. And I think the most important thing for me to do is to say thank you to all of those who’ve helped me over the course of the last year to be as successful as I have been.

Thank you Eliza for being my original inspiration for starting the diet. You’ve helped me on numerous occasions over the last year to stick to my goals. You’ve been amazingly supportive!

Thanks to Chris for pushing me during our workouts. I can always count on you to be my exercise partner which has definitely had an impact on me. Many people are not as privileged as I am to have someone to work out with consistently.

Thanks to James for showing me that this diet isn’t just about losing weight or that it isn’t a temporary action but this is a life-change and one that will last forever. You truly are an inspiration to many. (see James’ latest photo showing off his success on his diet, awesome!)

Thanks to Mike for being supportive as a friend and fellow dieter. Your unceasing schedule of getting to the gym every single morning has been inspiring. Hope you find a place in California to settle into and get that schedule back on track!

Thanks to Scott who has shown me that sometimes we need to do whatever it takes to stay on the diet even if it means doing things that we don’t like (like running or going to the gym).

Thanks to Larry who has, via our conversations, really given me great tips and inspiration for setting goals and sticking to them. I know Larry will be making his personal goals and I know how hard he is trying to do so – which inspires me to try as hard as he does.

And thanks to everyone else on the diet, those that read my weigh in entries, and those that congratulate me on my successes and pick me up when I “fail”, all of you have been a part of this last year and I can’t thank you enough for that.

Oh, I almost forgot – I weighed in at 185 again this morning which is no change from last week. For those that are unaware, I am not longer trying to lose weight but I’m trying very hard to maintain my current weight, gain muscle, and lose fat.

This week was a fairly good diet and exercise week. I wish I had done a little better in the “eating department” since I did have a few onion rings and mozzarella sticks the other night. Hey, when you buy a new deep fryer what else are you supposed to do? But I managed to get to the gym on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (just played some basketball), and last night I played basketball for about four hours. There is no doubt that without exercise I would never have lost any weight over the last forty weeks.

Today I weighed in at 194.1 pounds! That means I lost another 1.8 pounds from last week.

For me this is a huge success. Here’s why. I haven’t had three-consecutive good weigh-ins since September of 2006. That means that I have not lost weight for three weeks in a row in 24 weeks (which was Week Sixteen by the way)! Right after that was when Eliza and I went to Hershey Park (which kept me from losing an ounce) and then shortly thereafter moved into our new apartment. Due to my routine being completely thrown out, and the weather slowly getting colder and colder, over the course of the next 20 weeks I managed to gain back 13.4 pounds. So for me, recording three weeks of consecutive weight loss is a huge triumph and the stopping of a trend that has plagued me for far too long.

The more I examined this the more I came to realize a few things. Perhaps I’m finally “settled” in our new place. I’m comfortable enough to get into, and build, good routines rather than feeling out of place. The other realization would be that in twelve weeks we will be hitting the first anniversary of the diet. An entire year of diet and exercise. I think week forty is the perfect week to jump back on and ride it out to hit that first year mark with some good results. Results that you’d be happy with after having dieted for an entire year. For me, I’d love to hit and maintain 180 for at least an entire month before we hit the one-year mark. That’d be my success story for year one. Technically I should hit that mark in seven weeks, giving me a one week margin for error. Exciting times ahead!

If you are considering going on a diet, I suggest you take a quick look at the last forty weeks that I’ve dieted to see how a diet can go. Overall it seems like most diets are rather rocky and full of peaks and valleys that could easily discourage you (they did me, there is no doubt they will again). But I look back at my first weigh in and realize that I am really happy that for the rest of my life I will more than likely never see it on the scale under my feet again. I may see my weight rise and fall, and obviously it slowly went up for 20 weeks in a row, but I am determined to never let that happen again. Perhaps the next time I peak it will be over a 12 week period, and then the next 6 until eventually I’m able to only fluctuate a few pounds (which every healthy person on the planet does).

But please learn from everyone’s experiences that diets do not happen quickly. They never end! They are not wrapped up in a pill or a surgery (though for those who have had them they face all types of new challenges). Silver-bullet diets are not found on DVDs or on the back-page of a gossip magazine. Celebrities should not be your role models when wanting to lose weight, your peers should be. There is no perfect time to start one, so you might as well start now.

Thanks to everyone that has given me encouragement and has shared their story. I look forward to hitting the one year mark with good results to report.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh-in, exercise, food, gym, basketball, eliza devroe, theme parks, hershey park, pennsylvania[/tags]

When we first arrived Jen Simmons, Owen Winkler, and Kel (Joseph Kelter) were already there talking about various topics dealing with WordPress.

At this point I kind of flew off the handle at my disgust in the current WordPress world and with Habari (which I didn’t know Owen was one of the developers). However, after Owen literally gave me his laptop, in cool tablet form, to use Habari – and I can definitely say that the project is showing signs of potential. With Owen at the helm, I think the project definitely has a chance. Perhaps someday I will write up my thoughts on both of these topics.

Rob Sandie and Tom Kim

At this point people started to trickle in until the entire room was filled with people, conversations, and card games. I ended up mingling with Josh, Mike, and Jason for the majority of the time (which wasn’t long enough) and didn’t get to speak with many people that I really wanted to be able to.

Next month I’m going to try to get back down to the meetup (though I think I’m going to Philly at least two other times during the month of March so I have to check on a few things), and hopefully I’ll be able to speak to those I missed this time (Tom and Tony I’m looking at you two).

To any of you that attended that I did not get to meet or talk to – please make it a point to say hi to me next month.

[tags]weblogger, meetup, philadelphia, pennsylvania, ten stone, mike stickel, matt regula, jason santa maria, joshua lane, jen simmons, owen winkler, chris fehnel, eliza devroe, wordpress, habari, tony g, tom kim[/tags]
[slug]meetup0207-recap[/slug]

Chris at Ten Stone Bar – April 15, 2006

So far Eliza, Mike, and Chris are coming with me. It looks like Rob, Tom, and Marisa are definitely going. Andrea and Jason might be going. And sadly Tony G. can’t make it. Update: Happily Tony G. is able to make it!

And, it appears we’re going to have a fairly full house.

If you are in the Philadelphia area (heck I’m 2 1/2 hours away and I’m still going) and you’d like to meetup with some great people to discuss WordPress, blogging, Viddler, or just sit back and enjoy a beer – sign up to the meetup and we’ll see you there.

Note: You can add this event to your calendar program of choice since this post is marked up using hCalendar. Enjoy.

Note addendum: It appears that the above link won’t work for Outlook users? Not sure why – probably because Outlook sucks?

[tags]philadelphia, meetup, webloggers, blogging, wordpress, event, pennsylvania, viddler, rob sandie, chris fehnel, mike stickel, colin devroe, eliza devroe, tom kim, marisa mcclellan, andrea, jason santa maria, tony green, microformats, hcalendar[/tags]
[slug]meetup-021706[/slug]

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]

To start though, I owe Eliza, Chris, and the kids that were at the Rec-center that day – an apology.

Eliza I really thought that maybe instead of handing you just the cash that was in my wallet that I may have handed you my entire wallet. So I’m sorry for thinking that maybe you misplaced it.

Chris I’m sorry for thinking it was in your messy car. Wait a tick – maybe the chance of my wallet being lost in the heaps of clothing, fast food bags and cups, old tires, chicken carcasses, fossils dating back to the Jurassic period, and Frosty-stained underwear – caused you to clean that thing out. Perhaps it is you that owe me!

And to the kids that were in the gym that day – I was really optimistic about you guys. You all seemed like great kids (and I mean this) and I was actually surprised how nice everyone was in the gym that day. Typically you don’t find a large group of young people that are as nice as you guys were, not in today’s world.

In any event – I am really happy that I found my wallet. I suppose that I’d better fill you in on where it was, and how it got there. (Actually, I doubt you care, but I’m jotting this down for my own benefit more than you guys, sorry.)

After returning from basketball I immediately took a shower. After showering I picked up my sweaty clothes, and wallet as it turns out, and brought them with me into the bedroom to put into our hamper. But, what I didn’t realize was that I put the wallet in my robe’s pocket! Since that day I’ve worn my robe a few times (though I usually don’t have it on for more than a few minutes each time) so I never really tucked my hands in the pockets.

This morning when I woke up, and it was somewhere around 2-degrees fahrenheit outside, I decided to wear my robe for a little while. The moment I put it on I felt something in the pocket and I knew it was my wallet. Very strange feeling. The realization that it had been in there the whole time, the way it got in there, the number of times I missed it when wearing the robe, all went through my mind very quickly.

So, even though my bank card was cancelled – I’m happy to not have to get a new license or any of the other things that are in my wallet.

Yipee!

[tags]wallet, found, chris fehnel, newton, pennsylvania, robe, eliza devroe, recreational center, car, elation[/tags]
[slug]back-wallet-back[/slug]

Well I was digging through some video and I found the video that Eliza had taken while I took these photos of the lightning. Although the majority of the video is a simple black screen with Eliza and I having a very uninteresting conversation – I find it a nice video to see how we ended up getting those lightning photos.

If you are reading this in some type of feed-reader, be sure to come to the site to read this post so you too can watch the video.

What I thought was really interesting, after having uploaded this video to Viddler and tagging it with lightning each time a bolt shot across the screen, was that we technically gave ourselves a “graph” of sorts to show the frequency of lightning over the 10-minute period of the video. If you look at the timeline of the video each black dot on the timeline represents a bolt of lightning. Pretty cool if you are a geek like me. This was an unexpected result but a welcomed one.

Hope you enjoy this video and the photos. Thanks for recording it Eliza.

[tags]lightning, video, viddler, weather, storm, thunder, bolt, colin devroe, eliza devroe, photos[/tags]
[slug]lightning-video[/slug]

Not this time.

On Sunday morning I discovered that I was wallet-less. On Saturday the last time I can remember I had my wallet was right before going to play basketball at the Newton Recreational Center. We were planning on having some company for dinner and so Eliza wanted some cash to buy a few things at the grocery store. I had exactly $60 in my wallet at the time, consisting of three twenty-dollar bills. I handed them to her and walked out the door.

Shortly before we were finished playing someone had mentioned we may need to chip in a few dollars to “rent” the gym. Full-well-knowing that I had just gave Eliza every dollar that was in my wallet, I didn’t even check my coat for the cash because I knew it wasn’t there.

We drove home. Life went on as normal. We had a great time with our company, and went to bed.

I’ve literally checked every possible place (even called the Rec-center in hopes someone turned it in and had the nice fellow working there “check around” for me) but I am still without my wallet.

That Saturday-afternoon there was nearly 50 people in that small gym. A pretty good balance between adults and children. It could have been that someone swiped the wallet, though that still does not seem likely to me since there were cell phones and other wallets that were out in the open while my wallet was tucked away in my coat with the pocket’s zipper-zipped. Even if someone did grab it, they’d quickly realize there was no money and drop it.

Since then no one has attempted to contact me. No one has tried to use any of the cards inside (though my bank card is being cancelled anyway). So I am still thinking that my wallet is out there, lonely, sitting either in a dark crevice at the Newton Recreational Center or on the side of the road somewhere after someone realized how poor I am and ditched the wallet.

Ugh.

UPDATE: I found my wallet.

[tags]wallet, lost, frustration, newton, pennsylvania, recreational center, eliza devroe, chris fehnel, car[/tags]
[slug]gone-wallet-gone[/slug]

You can look at my profile over on Viddler, subscribe to the Viddler blog, or just learn how to use the service – while you’re following me around today.

6:00am – Just showered and fired up my Macbook to get last minute directions. I’m going a different way than I did the first time because I’m dropping Eliza off at some friend’s in Slatington (the Rosarios) before heading into Bethlehem.

It snowed last night! I got all of my gear ready (camera, ipod, laptop, etc.) and I’m going to start the Jeep up early. First time I’ve had to do that all winter. Off I go, next time I blog will be from the Viddler HQ more than likely.

9:19am – Just arrived at Viddler. Man, what a hassle with the ice and snow! I didn’t account for school buses or blinding sun on icy roads.

Of all things, Rob and I are talking about how Web 2.0 Viddler is. Oh, and we’re going to start posting in the new Viddler forums!

9:59am – The forums are up and running and you can even use video to respond or post in the forums. Very slick.

10:25am – Just finished a quick video, in better quality, letting people know you can respond to forum threads with videos.

We’re on our way out to Dan’s Camera Shop to see if we can get into some trouble.

1:54pm – Had a great meeting at Dan’s Camera Shop with Mark Woodland. Great guy, great company, if you live anywhere near them, I recommend you check out their site, and their shop.

By odd coincidence we saw Eliza, Andrea, Ava, and Giana there. I couldn’t believe it. I thought for sure they were stalking us.

I got to meet Donna finally! After leaving Dan’s Camera Shop we headed to a chinese buffet and went over what we learned in our meeting. Seeing this business from all perspectives is not only important, but it is also extremely interesting. Mark was able to teach us a lot about their side of the business in a relatively short period of time. Invaluable experience.

We’re now back at “the ranch” listening to some Cold War Kids and going over the new yet-to-be-released Viddler API.

2:56pm – We’re going to head over into the conference room and I’m going to record a “ScobleShow-esque” interview with Rob so that people can get a pretty good feel for Viddler.

If you have any questions, you can send them to me via email or comments.

4:02pm – Rob and I recorded a quick interview video and we’ll be publishing that on Viddler slowly over the next week or so. It has some great insight into not only Viddler’s past, but also Viddler’s present, and future.

I’m on my way out of Viddler HQ now. Going to head back to Slatington to hang out with some friends and get a bite to eat. I had a great day here at Viddler and I hope to come back really soon.

[tags]viddler, bethlehem, pennsylvania, slatington, macbook, eliza devroe, api, andrea rosario, dans camera shop, giana rosario, ava rosario, mark woodland, chinese buffet, food, lunch[/tags]
[slug]live-viddlerhq[/slug]

At the scenic overlook Carbondale, Pa

Eliza and I had our first “photo day” today. We’ve been meaning to do this for quite awhile but we’ve not been able to find the time until today. Oh, and the fact that the temperature hit 66-degrees fahrenheit didn’t hurt either.

One of my favorite things is having a great time while not spending a dime. Eliza and I really like taking and having tons of photos, so doing something like this is far overdue I think. After we get a few of these photo days under our belt I’m sure we’ll have some great photos to make some neat projects out of.

We managed to collect a little over 100 really nice photographs and had a blast doing it. Here are a few photos we took – and let me tell you it was extremely hard to narrow it down to just these to show. We traveled through many different towns and stopped in three or four to take photos – I tried to pick a few photos from each of the spots we stopped at.

Tree @ overlook

Thin branches

Windmills

Windmill

Crystal Lake

Burned building

Me shootin'

Melted glass

Cool tree

Mountain

We were going to give each other photo “assignments” where we focus on one type of thing like flowers or animals, but in retrospect I think simply driving to different locations and seeing what we come up with works much better. I look forward to our next photo day.

My telescope

Last night the moon was nearly full and the sky was crystal clear. So I decided to take my Meade 114 eq-asb telescope that Eliza bought me for our seventh wedding anniversary out for a spin to do something relatively simple; look at the surface of the moon.

At least I thought it would be easy. The moon being the nearest celestial object to Earth one would think it would be easy to zone in on it, look at its surface, and get back inside. Not when you have no idea how to properly use your telescope it would seem.

I did manage to see a little bit of what I wanted but I really need to start taking this telescope thing much more seriously. Here is a photo I took of the moon last night that really does not do any justice for the brilliance of the moon. As with all good things in life, using a telescope takes time and effort to master – and I look forward to trying again on the next clear night.

Oh, on a somewhat related note I read over on Wil Wheaton’s blog today that a free eBook is available called What’s Up – 365 Days of Skywatching which gives you a quick, easy, and printable reference of the night sky for each day of the year for 2007. Brilliant.

If you have any other tips, tricks, or resources that you’ve found useful – please feel free to pass them along. I’d love to get better at using my telescope so that it is much more enjoyable and less frustrating next time.

In June 2003 Eliza, Chris, and I went to Niagara Falls. We had a great time even though I didn’t write about it anywhere. Though, I did post a few photos on Flickr about a year after we went (which just happened to be the very first month I uploaded photos to Flickr). However, a few photos did not make the cut.

I do the patented move [compare]

Now remember this was in 2003, and somehow I managed to not only do the patented move, but somehow Eliza managed to take a photo of it!

Here are a few more photos of the finger puppets from Niagara Falls in 2003 (though I think a complete write up of our trip is in order).

We all had a set

Chris eyes hulk

After a few drinks

Boo

Finger Puppets run amok in Niagara Falls!

I found it pretty funny that one of the first patents I found was of these finger puppets that we enjoyed so much in Niagara Falls. I also like the fact that you can link directly into each page of patent documentation. Well done Google, and well done Hobart Ford (the inventor of the finger puppets).

What are the top five reasons you started to diet in the first place?
For me this is fairly easy to answer because I’ve literally cataloged every step of my journey from the very beginning. The very first time I wanted to diet was in September of 2005, right before my 25th birthday, and just after a vacation in Florida with family. What were my reasons then? To quote myself:

“I’m fat. I admit it. I’m telling you, not because you care, but I’m hoping it will motivate me to become unfat.” … “While on vacation, we’d go back to our condo and unload all of our pictures from our cameras onto our respective iBooks. Each and every time a picture of either of us with our shirts off would appear, we’d grimace in pain. Our eyes becoming watery at the unsightly bellies which have formed on the front of our abdomens.” — “The biggest loser” – September 25th, 2005.

That particular diet did not last very long (on and off for 3 weeks I believe). My attitude and reasons for doing the diet were all wrong, and I think it is one of the major reasons I did not succeed. I would say things like “I only lost roughly 2 pounds this week.”. Which would definitely effect my attitude. Little did I know at the time that losing 2 pounds per week was the best possible way to lose weight and keep it off.

My reasons for starting my second diet, and the one that worked, were the following:

• Health
• Age
• Self
• Eliza
• Sports

Although there is no particular order in the above list, I did try to list them by what I felt was most important to me at the time of starting the diet.

My first reason for sure was my health. I was sick of feeling the way I did, and being overweight can definitely have a huge effect on your health. My back hurt, my self esteem was down, etc. etc. – and I really just needed to get out of the funk. Second was age I think. I really did not want to have to diet when I was older, as I know it would get harder and harder to lose the weight the older I got. Even at 25 you can do the things you could when you were 18, and I didn’t want to be saying that when I was 35, 45, or even 55. I figured “Today is the day to start, not tomorrow because tomorrow always turns into the next day“. Third was self, and I say self because I wanted to feel better about myself. Always hating the way clothes fit, the way I feel, the way my stomach would fly out of my shirt when I bent this or that way, or the way I felt I was being perceived was getting really, really old. So to not have this on the list would be lying – I definitely wanted to look better and in turn feel better about myself. Fourth was Eliza’s success on the diet. She had started her diet before I started on mine and she was incredibly successful on it, was looking great, feeling good, and it was a huge motivation for me to do likewise. I owe much of my success to her lead. Lastly, I really wanted to do better in sports. I love basketball and frisbee and the diet has really made my “game” much more enjoyable. No more chest pain! No more chest pain!

So, those are my main five reasons.

What was your biggest failure on the diet, and how did you overcome it?
Hands down: Obstruction of routine. I had a few small set backs during my diet the first being within the first two weeks of the diet. Obstruction of routine can come in many forms. In that first example we went away for the weekend, ended up eating whatever we wanted at a restaurant, going to a few bars, etc.

One of the largest obstructions to my routine was moving. Obviously it was the reason I stopped doing the diet for almost 8 weeks. It completely knocked my eating habits, posting habits, and weigh in process that I had come to rely on.

However, the way I overcome it is to not worry about those times, get back on track and move on. You can see evidence of this between week two, three, and four of my diet. I went from gaining 3 pounds to losing almost 3 and then almost 5 pounds.

Things come up. Things happen. Vacations are fun! Enjoy them. Going away for the weekend may not fit into your diet. Don’t worry about those times. If you gain a few pounds, that doesn’t mean that your diet is failing – it just means that you need to get yourself back on track to reverse those few pounds the following week or over several weeks. For me, I can still look back and say I’ve lost around 40 pounds overall – even though I had a few weeks that I gained. Routine, routine, routine.

Did blogging help or hinder your success?
For me it helped tremendously. I now have my own, personal and private, journal that I keep – which would have helped in a very similar fashion – but would have lacked the “social responsibility” I felt to keep weighing in. Being able to see my progress over time, and having people comment on my successes and failures – has helped me a lot. To give an example (and this ties in with the previous question as well and where I got my inspiration) was James Mathias saying “Continuing forward without dwelling is what makes the difference.” on one of my posts where I didn’t do so well. This really helped me to develop a similar outlook, and to continue.

What things did you do to help ensure your success?
Simple. I do what I find fun and don’t do the stuff I hate. I love playing basketball and as most of you know I played a heck of a lot of basketball during my diet. I ended up developing a love for Ultimate too, and so I also used that. If you hate walking on a treadmill (I do), then don’t do it. Get outside and walk. Walk at a mall and do some shopping. Whatever you do, get off the couch.

As for food, the same philosophy. Eliza and I really enjoy grilled chicken salads. And, they happen to be good for you! So, we’d often make them, along with other things that we enjoy. Tomato sandwiches for example.

Another note about food is to never deprive yourself of stuff you really really like, even if they are not good for you. The only thing you will do is make that longing for that food even harder on yourself and you might end up bingeing. An example of this is, in my case, Cheez-Its. I love cheez-its, and they are not very good for you. However, Eliza and I would buy 100 calorie bags of cheetos, cheez-its, and other little things – and this really helped us to combat the cravings while not going overboard and staying within our daily limits. These little bags were essential for us.

What is one recommendation you’d have for someone on Day 1 of their diet?
I have a few so I won’t be able to limit it to just one.

The first would be; have the right reasons to diet. You might be told that you need to diet, but unless you believe in the reasons for dieting you won’t actually want to do it.

The second would be; set small and large goals. I set incremental goals for myself as well as long term goals. That way I could always aim for the large goals while feeling good about hitting the small ones. And, if you miss a small one, you have time to correct your strategy to make the longer term ones. I liked having a goal of losing about 8 pounds per month, while keeping goals of 220, 215, 210, 200, and so forth, in sight as well.

The third would be; tell everyone you know that you are on a diet. Hiding the fact that you are on a diet only can lead to 1 thing – not being responsible for staying on it. The more people that know the more you’ll be motivated to live up to your word for being on a diet. Also, it will help notify those people of what to feed you, or that you may not want to be seduced by cake and ice cream all the time.

I really hope the above questions and answers can help everyone on their diets. However my perspective is definitely not the only one. I’m calling on Eliza (who has been a huge inspiration for the entire diet), Chris (who has had a ton of experience with dieting both “alone” and “socially”), James (who is the most consistent person I’ve run across and was a huge inspiration for me), and Scott (who has recently begun his journey and is making staggering progress). I hope they all answer this call, so that you might all be filled with their insight into this extremely rewarding struggle.

Update: If anyone else would like to answer these – please do so. Either email me or comment here or trackback this post with your answers – I’d love to read everyone’s perspective on this. I just singled out a few I’d really like to read – but I’d want to see whatever has to say about these five questions.

Update: James answered, Chris answered, Scott answered, and Eliza answered. Thanks everyone! If anyone else wants to answer these questions too, I’d love to read the answers.

[tags]eliza devroe, scott mcnulty, james mathias, chris fehnel, food, diet, the-diet, goals, excercise, sports, basketball, ultimate, frisbee, meme[/tags]

Let me tell you thought, this is a miracle in itself due to the amount of food I ate. Eliza had some family in this past weekend and she made lasagna (one of many of my weaknesses). But it didn’t stop there. Great wine, salads, punch, drinks, chocolate cake, milk shakes (need I say more?). The fact that I only gained 0.4 pounds really is proof that my workout program is working for me just the way I want it to.

Many times a good diet is a combination of diet and exercise. But exercise can help in many more ways than just to help you lose weight. It can also help you maintain weight. The fact that, after having been off the diet for 8 weeks, I only gained 3 pounds really does show this to be true. By keeping very regular with my workouts, getting to basketball, and being generally active – I’m able to not worry as much about what I am eating.

I still want to lose about 5 pounds (if I could target my stomach only with these pounds that’d be great). But, either way I’m more than happy that I’m at 190 after having such a great weekend of eating.

I hope everyone else had a great week.

Update: If you do not have a blog, please weigh in here. You don’t need to post photos of yourself in order to take advantage of Flickr.

[tags]weigh in, diet, the-diet, eliza devroe, family, food[/tags]

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]

I have a few reasons for really liking this particular day of the week.

• LOST
• New DVDs from Eliza
• A chance to see what you’ve already done for the week, and what is left to do
• Recently: A day at the gym

Obviously those aren’t really in any order though the list probably reflects closely how I would order the reasons.

LOST is easily my favorite show on television right now and so waiting for each new episode is painful. Yet on Wednesday just knowing that a new episode awaits in the evening, makes the entire day enjoyable.

As Eliza mentioned, she brings home new DVDs from work on Wednesdays. Its really cool to have an early look at upcoming DVD releases, and so Wednesday is enjoyable for that reason as well.

I really like my work, and so being able to assess what has been accomplished for the week, and what still needs to be done, is quickly becoming a really nice way to break up the week. Many people call Wednesday “hump day” since they have to “get over it” in order to slide into the weekend. I suppose this is a good way to look at Wednesday too, since you’re one step closer to being out of work. This just doesn’t apply as much to me is all.

Today there is a fairly large group of us joining the local gym. Eliza and I have been planning on joining for awhile, and slowly but surely others are following suit. Wednesday will definitely be the day that I go to the gym with two other visits during the week being slipped in for good measure. Oh, but we gotta be done with our workouts before LOST comes on, of course.

As a side note: Why Eliza doesn’t write more on her blog is beyond me. Her stories are always entertaining and, especially if you know her well, you can definitely feel her coming through each post. I can’t convince her to hop back into it, but maybe some of you can.

[tags]eliza devroe, wednesday, lost, work, dvd, blockbuster, favorite[/tags]
[slug]wednesdays-good[/slug]

My wife has a problem. An addiction if you will. Not to pain killers, alcohol or any drugs for that matter, but rather to deals. Allow me to explain.

My wife’s skill set is a three-pronged sword. First, she is very good at locating ‘deals’ for food, and many other various items. Secondly, she is very good at using coupons to the fullest extent the law allows in order to bring the price of an item very near to $0.00 or below (amazing). However, the third piece to this astounding puzzle is her ability to occasionally combine these long sought after deals with a coupon to make a deal to top all deals. Further explanation is needed.

In the 4 years and almost 8 months that we’ve been married, she’s probably only spent $12.00 at the supermarket. Ok, that’s exaggerating, but the amount of money that we spend at the store would stagger even the thriftiest and most frugal person. For example, a few years back she saw the opportunity to get 2-liters of Dr. Pepper for around .8 a piece. Utilizing the coupon found underneath the Dr. Pepper label itself, and combining it with a deal that allowed for coupons to be doubled to the amount of $1.00 – this would mean that you’d only have to pay tax (pretty much) on each bottle of soda. Taking advantage of the situation, she was quick to clear out our local market of all their Dr. Pepper in a matter of minutes, and doing the same for the next few weeks.

“It’s a hobby!” – Eliza Devroe

Sure it is, but a hobby well done. Currently Eliza and I will not have to buy the following items for several years, perhaps our lifetimes – Soap, Laundry Detergent, Toothpaste, Hair Gel, Deodorant, Dawn Dissolver, Dawn Complete, Lightbulbs, Cat Food / Liter, Windex, Shaving Gel, Razors, Toothbrushes, Fabric Softner, Hand Cream, Paper plates / cups / napkins, Shampoo, Brisk Iced-tea, Tropicana Lemonade (pink or yellow), Zip-lock bags (various sizes), Mr. Clean, Pine-sol, Toilet paper, Paper towels, Sun tan lotion, Fantastic, Clorox (few varieties), Flea Killer, Conditioner, Spot-shot, Off (bug spray), Sponges, Clorox Wipes, Windex Wipes, Orange Clean Wipes, Bandaids, Powder, Vacuum Bags, Toothbrush Cleaner (?), Cereal (all types), Tea, Coffee, Hot cocoa mix, Vicks 44m, NyQuil, Tylenol (both gel caps and capsuls), Bayer, Motrin IB, Whisker Lickins’ (cat treats), and most recently CapriSun.

I am sure that there are many more items that I left out, and perhaps she could fill you in on the rest via her comments. A note about the CapriSun, I did a quick tally of our current stock pile and it appears that we have roughly 3,037.5 ounces of CapriSun that she’s aquired over the last few days. That is not counting those that are cooling in the fridge at the moment, nor the probably countless amounts that she’s given to her Mother and various other people along the way.

This message is an Ode to a talent. A talent which I do not possess, nor could stand it if I had. The relentless drive that keeps my wife going is nothing short of divine. It’s this divine drive that sometimes has my wife going through Wal-mart, Wegmans, Weiss (wow, never noticed it was WWW) and various other stores in the wee-hours of the morning.

Is it worth it? That’s something that she will have to comment on. For me, my contribution is little more than none. She thinks that I am embarrassed at her dime-a-day habit, however this message is being posted to prove that I am not. The fact that she does ‘the work she was put here to do’ is probably the reason that I’ve eaten well for the past 4+ years. Some would say too well, but that’s my fault and my fault alone.

To Eliza: Thanks!

[tags]coupons, deals, discounts, eliza devroe, repost[/tags]

What makes this gift all the sweeter is that I didn’t have to drive either! We opted to take a bus trip down where they provide food and drink, a movie on the ride to and from, and the tickets – all in one package. I am not a big fan of driving let alone driving in Philadelphia during an Eagles game.

Pre-game at Lincoln Financial Field

We had great seats. We got an email one-day prior to the game asking if we’d like to upgrade our seats for only 10-additional dollars. After consulting the seating chart we both decided it seemed like it was worth it, and boy was it ever worth it. Our seats rivaled those closest to the field – yet we both feel we had a better view.

Panoramic view of the field from our seats

Even though the Packers did not win, we still had a great time and were treated fairly well by both fans and staff. We’re looking forward to doing it again sometime.

[tags]football, anniversary, gifts, eliza devroe, colin devroe, philadelphia, eagles, packers, monday night football, lincoln financial field, photos, panorama, nfl[/tags]

Welcome to Hershey Park

This past weekend we visited Hershey Park, and I wanted to make a note of something that really gets me. Theme Park prices are the worst example of good business practices, and also the best example of them, ever.

How are they the worst and the best examples? They are the worst example because they totally exploit a vulnerability in their customers. They are the best example because they totally exploit a vulnerability in their customers. That vulnerability is that there is no choice, while in the park, as to who you buy your food and drink from. You’re forced to buy whatever the park offers – at their price points.

I’ll give you a quick example of how I was sucked in at Hershey Park. After hitting a few rides, I decided it was time for an ice cream cone. I love ice cream. The cone, which was very good, cost me about $7.50. I can buy two-gallons of fairly good-quality ice cream for $5.00, and if I wanted to go crazy I could go to Walmart or Sam’s Club and pick up a 5-gallon bucket for around the same amount. 5-gallons for the price of a single cone at Hershey Park! The quality of the 5-gallons is probably debatable – but sure volume is not.

A water in the park is usually $2.00. Although, if the temperature gets above 90-degrees (which we’ve seen this while at Disney World in Florida numerous times), the price will go up. So, if we are to follow what doctors recommend for our daily intake of water, we’re looking at spending about $16.00 per day on water per person. For a family of four that’d be $64.00 per day. Obviously you wouldn’t be purchasing your daily water for your family through Hershey Park – but you get my point.

How do you combat this wicked-foe? Cook a meal at home prior to going to the park. Bring your own water in back-pack. And wait to eat again until you are ready to leave the park (or bring a small snack or unspoilable sandwich in said back-pack). This will save you tons of money.

I suppose I should have taken my own advice about the ice cream, but boy was it good.

On the tour-ride at Chocolate World
Eric, me, Trudy, Nikki, and Eliza

On the contrary to the above, Chocolate World (which is a part of Hershey Park if you didn’t guess it) is a very inexpensive way to spend a little time. Free parking, free tour of how chocolate goes from the tree to the wrapper, and a free candy bar at the end.

[tags]hershey park, theme park, prices, rides, chocolate world, eric fehnel, trudy maxwell, nikki maxwell, eliza devroe, colin devroe, photos, gripes[/tags]

Not that fall is a bad thing since Pennsylvania has some of the prettiest falls I’ve seen anywhere, I just hate seeing summer fade into fall because that means winter is coming.

Saturday

Ethan almost smiling

On Saturday we went to a “Cars” party at my sister Nettie’s house. She invited a few parents and their children – oh and Eliza and I too but we don’t have any children besides our cats who never saw Cars and don’t like cake so they weren’t invited.

It is definitely nice to go to a party full of kids every now and then. Being able to watch as kids make a mess of their clothes, tear lighting fixtures out of the ground, drink chlorinated water, complain that another kid “touched their hamburger”, and tip over every cup that contains liquid within arms reach – and then getting in our car and driving away without one of our own is sort of liberating. Though I love kids and hope to have a few of my own one day.

Lightning McQueen cake

Tyler likes carrots

Isabelle

Boys watch sub

All the kids seemed to have a great time

We enjoyed their company, had a small bite to eat, and were on our way to Ivan and Andrea’s for the rest of the weekend where we had a great time with Ivan, Andrea, Ava, Giana, and Chris (yes, the very same people we camped with at Keenlake).

Once we arrived Andrea prepared a really great dinner. After dinner we watched a few episodes of Lost to get in the mood for Season 3 which begins on the first Wednesday in October.

Sunday

Andrea and Eliza make breakfast

Andrea and Eliza made breakfast for a pretty large crew being that some guests stopped by early to drop off Ava. My guess is that including children there was about 10 of us – so they did a great job making breakfast for everyone. I’m sure Chris will mention the scrapple.

After breakfast Ivan, Chris, Ava, and I headed for the river. We started our trip down river at Jim Thorpe and rafted down to Bowmanstown. We spent about two and a half hours on the river total hitting about a dozen or so rapids. Being only a class 2 at best, we had a good time without risking life and limb and being able to take Ava with us. Rafting really solidified to me how beautiful a state Pennsylvania is. Living here really has made me take that fact for granted. Although a shame that we don’t have any photos of the event, I really didn’t want to chance ruining one of our digital cameras, so you will have to live without them.

After rafting (and Chris forgetting his keys in the car about 10 miles up river and needing to call AAA to unlock the doors), we headed to Galen Glen winery for a tasting. Some of the wines were really good – though I thought they tasted a bit young. Eliza and I ended up making three selections and getting a bottle of each. I think I might end up writing up the Silver Vidal Blanc we got, as I think that it had the most potential out of any of the wines I tasted (we were allowed six).

Galen Glen panorama – [zoom in]

I managed to shoot a pretty slick panorama that I used Photoshop’s photomerge to stitch together. I have to remember to do more of these when we go places, as I think it gives you a fairly good feel for the area. Beautiful rolling hills each filled with grape vines that reach about as far as the eye can see. Beyond that maple trees that extend until the curvature of the Earth takes over. Great location.

Group photo at Galen Glen winery
Eliza, Colin, Chris, Ivan, Andrea, Giana, and Ava

After downing a bottle of wine while overlooking the scenic vista, we headed to Platz’s for dinner. We’ve gone here twice so far and I really like the feel of the place. A homemade menu with a pub feel. I had crab cakes that made me extremely full.

I really can’t say enough about having great weather in the middle of September on a weekend filled with friends and being outdoors. I suppose you could say that this weekend would represent my favorite types of weekends. I’m definitely going to miss the summer, but hopefully we can figure out how to make some even better weekends in the fall and winter to come.

Update: Eliza posted a few more photos from the weekend.

[tags]weekend, vacation, summer, wine, winery, galen glen, jim thorpe, rafting, photos, kids, rosarios, chris fehnel, colin devroe, eliza devroe, kids, party, cars, platz’s, vineyard, food, ivan, andrea, ava, giana, ethan[/tags]

For me, blogging isn’t about other people caring since I could care less about what people think. (I say this fairly loosely, as I do “care“, I just don’t care enough to care – ahh, you get the idea) I blog to blog. That is as simple as I can put it. If I had zero comments on every single post I’ve ever written it wouldn’t keep me from saying what I want to say.

So, after quite a long hiatus, Eliza thankfully decided to sign up to a WordPress.com account last night while I was at basketball. She’s on fire and has already published three small posts, so head on over to her little place on the Web, and bask in her greatness.

Believe me when I tell you, Eliza has an incredible mind, some really great thoughts, and definitely would add to any conversation – I hope she keeps up with blogging. You reading this babe? Keep it up! Oh, and make sure Pooks gets to post now and then too.

[tags]eliza devroe, wife, family, blogging, elizard[/tags]