The Downside of Thin

So, back in January, my doctor decided that it was time for a physical, and of course, time to give Maurice a bit of a scare. Ran me thru the blood workup, bottom line was that my cholesterol numbers sucked the major big one and my glucose numbers pointed to me being "pre diabetic". At risk squared. Now, I was in pretty good shape, and I have build up a fair amount of muscle mass thanks to the gym. Still, I was carrying too much weight.

Being the can do kind of guy I am, I purged the diet of the usual bad actors and shifted to very complex carbs..which is a nice way of saying I am eating cooked grain and Chana (a green Indian chick pea), salad like a rabbit and lean protein. Two months later I am down 20 lbs from my January weight and 30 from my peak of two years ago. I feel better, I run better and wife is digging the skinny husband.

Have not checked the numbers yet, but I am pretty sure the doc will be pleased.

The only bad side effect is that I now seem to have a bit of insomnia. Nothing too bad, but the past two weeks I have been getting up at 1:00 am and staying up till 3:30 am. This plays merry hell with my schedule and leaves me fighting to get out of bed in the morning.

Does this mean that the fat sleep the sleep of the just? Or is it that us thin guys are naturally sinners?

Strangely, the ex seems to have the same problem. She always had a great figure, but when I was married to her she was carrying a bit more weight, both muscle and some extra lbs on the ass (it was, however, a great ass.) The woman was in bed every night by 9 pm and asleep thirty minutes later. Sometimes it was the drinking, but not always.

Since rehab she has become a fitness fiend and a weight Hun. Not quite anerxoic, but damn close, and the Daughter tells me that she is up every night late prowling around, doing art but mostly puttering. I suspect she cannot sleep, and I wonder if the downside of thin, when you are in your second half of life, is an inability to sleep.

Maybe there is a reason why we think of the fat as jolly.

Tonight I am trying physical exhaustion. After work and before dinner I ran three miles and then spent and hour with the swords. I came up here to get some work done, but I feel tired and that gives me hope. I will let you in on the results in the next post.

Wife's pregnancy is coming along quite nicely. Feeling sick has progressed to just feeling tired. Once we are past the first trimester, I think she will feel fine. As to be expected, the only downside to this period is a sharp drop in our sex life. I am pretty sure it will return when second trimester dawns on us.

Funny, ten years ago that part would have bothered me more than it does. I am older, and frankly the fires burn just a bit lower than they did. That, and knowing the drill brings you understanding. I know that this will happen, and I also know that it will pass, and change and change again. No reason to get all worked up.

Hmm, men, women and sex. A much more interesting topic. I will have to explore it in my next post.

Hanging With the Munchkin

As long as I can remember, the littlest in the brood was known as "The Munchkin" or "Munchkin" or simply "Munch". This is spring break week, and as often happens, I have my youngest daughter, who will here to fore be referred to as Munch. Munch is ten years old, sometimes going on 20, other times going on 3. Just the nature of the beast. She is the daughter that I have with the crazy ex, has her families looks but most of my personality and so far none of her mom's pathologies. We have a lot of fun together, the munch and I. She is into horses, backpacking, fencing, Chinese swords, Go, Ploy, and Risk, both the "Lord of The Rings" and the "Risk 2210" variety. She also has expressed interest in my collection of more complicated strategy games, though right now they are a bit over her head. She also is generally pretty easy going and has a quick wit, all in all a fun companion.

Because of the structure of our lives, I spend a lot of time with her just the two of us. She and Wife get along great, and we do things together...but in the end the kid weekends wind up being a time for father daughter interaction while Wife gets to shop and hang with her girlfriends. This is an acceptable solution for all, and we make a pretty content little family.

As I write this, she is doing Kumon. Six assignments of repetitive math problems, one in the class and five homework to be done every day with out fail.

What is Kumon, you say?

Well, it is billed as a great way to help kids get good at school work, and god knows it helps her with her math. In reality, it also seems to be a somewhat Fu Manchuian method for Asian families to hyper accelerate their kids grades in the quest for straight A's..and of course completely crush their little souls with impossible expectations tied to gargantuan work loads.

You think I am kidding?

Ever spend much time with a second generation Asian American? Great people, love them, and I hate to sound like I am a closet racist (which I am not). But I am a culturalist, and one's culture, good or bad, crafts one's behavior to its norms. Back to Asian Americans. Over achievers, yes. Great workers, yes. Spending every waking minute as if mom is looking over their shoulder down a disapproving set of glasses perched on the end of her nose? You bet. Have a hard time being present, or authentic, or even show a real emotion? Oh ya. Bit humorless and somewhat controlling?

You should see the lady who is the Kumon director in our town.

Of course, I am sure that most Asian Americans don't really care about my opinion on this subject. So you may ask, what's my point?

My point is, that after the next two months I am done with Kumon. Munchkin has benefited, and it was worth the money. But it is getting a bit much, and dangerously nutty. I will be damned if I will let my daughter's life be informed by a process that sees learning as a grinding machine that chews you up and spits out good little test takers and deadline meeters.

I have lived long and well.. and people, that is no way to live.

Spring Break

When I was young, Spring break was a time of fun and friends.
Later, it became a time of madness and mayhem. Years of being
"The Raiders of the Girls Gone Wild."

Spring break now is the time to hang with the youngest daughter for a week. This week is mine, and unlike last year, the older daughter did not fly out to be with us, so for the week it is Youngest and me. Actually, it is a pretty good deal. Part of the time I get to work from home and she gets to hang around and be lazy, something that almost never happens for her. Some of the time she comes to the office and spends the day racing around in her Razor scooter, trying to beat the maze that is our cubicle hell in record time. That one is a hoot, all you can see over the cubes is this high speed blonde head.

Later this week I am taking a day off and we are going to head to golden gate park for the day. The weekend is Easter, wed is Passover. (Wife is Jewish, I am congerationalist, and our solution is to celebrate max holidays, which is just fine by the kids)

All in all, a very family wise, Dr James Dobson (may his pinched face and priggish carcass rot in purgatory for all time) approved school break.

I am sure that many of you are having the same kind of week. Bless your hearts and let's lift a glass of Root Beer in toast to all of us.

But, don't you all miss the wet tee shirt contests, the all night drinking, the erotic banana eating? Be honest, some small part of all of us just wants to get drunk and screw on a beach, sand up the crack and all.

Such is the mystery of existence.

Geeking

So today was spent finishing "C++ in 21 days". Later I am going to do my Python tutorial and as a matter of fact I have an HTML book and the XML Bible waiting for me on my desk. I have build a four computer geek lab in the house and I am very busy upgrading my computer skills. For me it is a necessity. My career has taken a turn full up into geekdom, I run data centers and operations groups and project manage software projects, and until this job I was pretty much a hardware engineer, project manager and a bloody operations exec. Very strange, but that is how it has happened.

Truth be known, I like this stuff. Just for fun I also have a text on differential games to finish, and a couple of books on Space Craft Design and Space Propulsion design. Those are just areas of interest.

By the bedside are "The Other Bible" a copy of the Koran,and Cicero. Hey, I am great for dinner party conversation.

Frankly, I am at a place where I seem to have this unquenchable thirst to learn. Not really sure why. Sometime this year there will be a big career change, probably for the better, and my life has completely changed from four and a half years ago. I suppose I have a chance to define the next 40 years, and it is high time I get to it.

Hmm, wife is calling.. More tomorrow.