Mostly Game

Got this link from a friend and it is a chock full of life-saving information. It is from the blog of Mario Vittone, a marine safety expert for the Coast Guard. I recommend everyone read it, including parents.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

Not so good on the weigh-in this month, and I was expecting that. We had a stretch of nice weather with lots of cookouts and eating out, and I’ve discovered I always overeat when we have a cookout. The problem (for me) is that I want to eat everything: a hot dog, a brat, a burger, every side dish. I really need to quit that.

• Jan 2010 = 196.5
• Mar 2010 = 194.5
• Apr 2010 = 190.5
• May 2010 = 193.0

Phew, my posting has been sucking hind teat this year. I’ve been meaning to get back to it, really I have.

Anyhoo, weighed in at the end of February and was surprised to see I was down a couple pounds. We’ve been making an effort to eat more veggies, which is going really well — it just sucks doing dishes a lot more because we’re cooking at home more, but that’s a good problem to have. We’ve also decided to start cutting high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from our diet, especially in products the kids consume. I’ve actually started using the Wii Fit for some daily exercise, although that is far from a habit yet.  I went running once when the weather warmed up, then we’ve had a few weeks of illness in household that put a damper on things.

• Jan 2010 = 196.5
• Mar 2010 = 194.5

I need to get a habit going for both exercise and blogging. I think my eating is under decent control, if I could just get the exercise going along with it.

Well, finally got around to my official year-end weigh-in. Actually, I stuffed myself so much at Christmas and New Years Eve that I was afraid to weigh right away, haha. Anyway…

• Jan 2009 = 197.5
• 2009 Goal = 180.0
• Jan 2010 = 196.5

So, officially down one whopping pound for the year, which is almost progress toward my goal. Over in the half-full end of the glass, though, I didn’t gain back any weight, which means I’ve been sub-200 for two years now, yay. I think I’m still aiming for 180 pounds, and I don’t think 1-1.5 pounds per month is at all unreasonable; I just need to actually get with it on the exercise.

Apparently, I don’t look at my blog while on vacation, heh. A belated Happy New Year to everyone. We had a good time, with our friend Marty visiting for his birthday, chili fest part two, and gaming. We actually played a $5 game of hold-em with five people, which was really fun since we haven’t played in two years (or longer?).

Out with the old, in with the new!

Merry Christmas, or if you prefer, Happy Holidays. Looks like we’re going to have a white Christmas here with a NWS blizzard warning in effect for the next 12 hours — which is fine with me since I’m not working and we’re not driving anywhere for the next few days. Woot!

The official fundraiser closed on Wednesday. The Marine Team won for the first time, cruising past the $35K goal with a day to spare. Thanks to everyone who blogged or contributed to this great effort.

I think I may join the Navy or Air Force team next year, as they were significantly behind the Marines and Army. I need to research some potential donors ahead of time, I think — in it to win it

Oh, I also forgot to link up to the 2009 birthday message from the Commandant and Sergeant Major. Here it is.

Tomorrow, Nov 10th, is the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Bob Parsons has already posted his annual “birthday card” to the USMC on GoDaddy.com:

USMC 234th Birthday Tribute

He also wrote in his email announcement:

I’d also like to extend this tribute to all of the men and women serving in all branches of the U.S. Military – Army, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. Thank you all for your tireless dedication to keeping our country safe.

Bob Parsons

Reposted from Villainous Company:

Tomorrow is the Marine Corps Birthday. One of the traditions we keep to in the Corps is the Commandant’s Birthday message – it is played at every Marine Corps Ball and at any place where Marines gather all over the world. This is last year’s message from the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. It makes the point that Marines have been at the forefront of the war on terror for over a quarter of a century:

The Marine team is within sight of our 35K goal, but we need your help to get there! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the birth of our Corps than to boost the Marine team to its first victory ever.

Valour IT provides adaptive technology to help severely wounded vets recover faster, establish a support system, and regain their independence. Since the program began, every single dollar raised by Valour IT has been used to provide:

• 4,100+ voice activated laptops
• over 30 Wii systems
• and nearly 100 handheld GPS devices to wounded vets at:

• • Balboa Naval Hospital
  • Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton
  • Brooke Army Medical Center
  • Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital
  • Madigan RMC
  • Walter Reed AMC
  • National Naval MC (Bethesda)
  • and VA centers nationwide.

The men and women of the United States military have given their all to defend the values we Americans hold dear. For the price of a few sixpacks of beer or some dip and chips, you can tell them that you honor their sacrifices and their service. Please give generously. They did:

GO MARINES!!!

The following is an excerpt from an article about female marines from a 2005 issue of Glamour magazine, that I got from one of the Marine Team blogs. Unfortunately, the link to the full article is dead and I have been unable to locate it on Glamour’s site using the search function. It illustrates that (a) female marines are still marines, and (b) “Every Marine is a rifleman.”

From the second truck in the convoy, Marine Sergeant Kent Padmore heard a screeching of tires and an explosion, then his own vehicle braked to a stop so quickly that all dozen or so men in it went tumbling to the floor. When Padmore sat up, he saw the women’s truck in flames about 250 yards away. A flight medic back in Miami, Padmore, then 38, had been good friends with Saalman, Clark and Humphrey.

Immediately he jumped from his truck and ran toward the burning seven-ton, barely aware of the bullets zinging past him; the insurgents had staged an ambush to coincide with the car bomb.

There’s no way, he thought as he ran. They’re all dead. He stopped – it was useless to continue. But then he pushed forward. Keep going, he told himself. He thought of how Clark couldn’t wait to go backpacking with her son when she got back to the U.S., about tough-as-nails Humphrey, and about Saalman, the music-loving beauty. It can’t be, he said to himself, and kept running as fast as he could.

Just as Padmore reached the scene, he saw Saalman staggering toward him, her charred, flayed hands held up before her, her eyes vacant in a blackened face. She’d lost her rifle during the explosion. “Sally, pull yourself together,” he said. “You are not going to die. I promise: You are not going to die. But we need some leadership.”

He watched her expression change instantly from shock to rage. “Somebody give me a fucking weapon!” she screamed. “I need a fucking weapon!” The adrenaline pumping through her body obviously masked her pain. Padmore handed her his own M16 and headed off to find other wounded marines, with the sound of Saalman firing her gun toward the insurgents ringing in his ears.
( … )

On the evening of June 23, as word of the disaster spread, a freckle-faced young female marine stationed in Ramadi, a city near Fallujah, had approached Colonel Robert Chase, who was helping run crisis control at the command center, to say she urgently needed to talk to him. He told her the timing wasn’t good, but she insisted.

Reluctantly, Chase stepped outside his office to meet with her — and in the hallway, he encountered about 10 more female marines. “Sir, we know we’ve had women killed,” said the marine who’d first approached him. “We have to replace them — we want to go.”

Chase was stunned. “I’ll be candid, it was one of the most emotional and profound moments for me,” he says. “I don’t often work with women as an infantry officer, but at that moment, there were no women there — there were just marines.”

Please consider donating to Valour-IT on the right, or better yet, if you have a blog/website, join the team!