I've never in my life been on a diet. Well, there was this time when I was in jr. high school ("middle school" they call it now...go figure) where my mom decided I wasn't getting enough protein or something and made me drink these hideous shakes that were just the nastiest things. They tasted like chalk.

Well, now I'm on a real, honest-to-god diet. I've known for some time that I've needed to lose weight. It just never was high on my priority list. For some reason though, the time has come to make it happen. There was nothing earth shaking that prompted this decision. It's just time to do it I guess. I don't want to be fat forever.

I've got some help this time through. I have my diet buddy who I mentioned before. I have Gail helping as well. She's been reading through different books about the low-carb diets (which is what I'm trying) and is helping me to eat better. We had meatloaf (with lean beef), beans and instead of mashed potatoes, we had mashed cauliflower. Gail chopped and whipped it up, put in some sour cream (low-fat of course ;), and some cheese, and wa-la! Mashed Cauliflower! It wasn't bad at all, but the real surprise was how Cody wolfed it down. He LOVED it.

So here's to hoping the diet works, I lose weight, start feeling better about myself and get all the hot young chicks to notice me without sucking in my gut all the time. Makes my head swell up funny when I do that.

Cody and I went to Whitetail yesterday with our Indian Guides group to do some snow tubing. In getting ready, I discovered that I didn't have a hat or gloves. As we were meeting everyone in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, I figured that I'd just pick up a new hat and some gloves there.

Well, silly me, I forgot that it's February. I mean, geez, apparently Spring is just around the corner (mind you, as I type this there's 5 inches of snow on the ground left over from last week, and it's snowing now). They had all their tank tops and flip flops out. When asked about ski caps and gloves, they looked at me as if I was silly and said "No, we don't have any of those". I was almost stunned. Wal-Mart, not HAVE something? sheesh

So Cody and I went hat-less, but the day was nice and neither of us was too bothered by it. We had a good time. I managed to find a tube that had a plastic bottom instead of a vinyl one. Got myself a good running start, belly-flopped down onto it, zoomed down the hill, crashed into the hay bails at the end and went through. It was awesome!

Also went and saw the new Jackie Chan movie, Shanghai Knights, this weekend. Oh man, I laughed my butt off. Hopefully, I'll get a review of it up and stuck in my movies section. I've let that part slack off a bit, but I'd like to get it up and running again, along with the Gallery script for picture management. Time will tell.

I think this is the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent on my own. Due to a last minute change in plans, Gail and the kids went down to see my folks in North Carolina. I'm flying out from BWI at 7am tomorrow morning to go to Cleveland for work related reasons.

Gail and I also celebrated our 10th Anniversary yesterday. Seems like it should be a big milestone, and I guess it is. We didn't celebrate it like it was one though. We exchanged cards, and then she left to go to NC. I spent my anniversary evening alone as well. How weird.

We have a gift certificate for Maggiano's though, given to us by a friend for our anniversary, and she's even going to watch the kids. So sometime this next week, month, whenever we find the time, Gail and I will sneak out and spend a quiet evening eating some very good food. It sure doesn't seem like it's been 10 years. I mean, that's almost a whole third of my life. It sure doesn't seem that long. I can't imagine my life without Gail, and I imagine if we weren't together, I'd be that much poorer. Not financially speaking, can't get much more broke than we are now. But I'd be so much less of a person. She's definitely become my better half, and I'm much better off with her with me. I love you Gail!

I had to go to the school last night to take a couple of tests for my Student Development class. One was called "Choices" and was basically a career placement test, telling me what I'd be good at. Seems I should be a writer, journalist or screenplay type, or maybe an educator. I think helicopter pilot was in there as well as financial advisor.

I think that test is full of prunes. Financial advisor? HA!

The other test was a personality test called "Please Understand Me" and after asking a ton of questions, it printed out this long report of myself, which, scarily enough, I found to be mostly true.

Go figure.

I had to run to Sam's Club last night to get some moose food for the perpetually hungry moose in our house. It was probably one of the more comical visits to Sam's Club I've had.

First off, don't go at night, or on weekdays. You really should visit Sam's Club (or Price Club/Costco) during the day on the weekend end. Yes, it's crowded. Yes, the checkout lines are long. Yes, parking sucks. But! There's a much better variety of free samples during weekends, and you can practically feed the whole family a well-balanced meal just by going through the different isles.