Stretching

God wants me to be flexible. I have been learning this lesson all over again. Without going into the details, I have realized that God is stretching me. He's causing me to rethink my old plans and replace them with new ones. He's encouraging me to step out on faith and embrace a little "risk."

The funny thing about it is that you would think I would dread this kind of experience, especially after enduring the faith-stretching that was a major part of my life for the past few years. I don't know what to say about that, but in a strange way, I'm coming to truly enjoy experiences like this. I think I'm becoming addicted to having my faith tested and my plans altered. It's weird, I know. But it's good.

Now I'm going to sit back and watch as everything falls into line and God's will is done. This should be interesting.

Big fat update - 14

Date I started trying to lose weight: 7/8/07
Starting weight: 215-219 lbs. (revised for new scale)
Goal weight: 150-155 lbs. (revised lower)
Current weight: 170.5 lbs.
Total pounds lost so far: 44.5 lbs.

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I made a mistake a few months ago and bought a digital scale. It cost around $30. The scale I had been using was a cheap $5 adjust-the-dial scale. Unfortunately, the digital scale registers a full 10 lbs. higher than the old scale.

My previous "big-fat-update" had me at 164 lbs. Using the new scale, I registered in at 174 lbs. I have stopped measuring by the old scale all together. Now all measurements will be digital.

For the past three months, I have been stuck at 174 lbs. Even though I have regularly exercised and watched what I was eating, the scale refused to budge. That gets old after a while so I have been on the lookout for something that would help me break through this plateau.

A friend of mine told me that he was trying a 3-day diet plan that seemed to be working. It involves eating things like vegetables, eggs, tuna and hot dogs as well as dry toast and crackers. It didn't sound too bad, so I thought I would give it a shot. I am in the midst of the third day and I will admit that I am hungry, but as you can see, the scale is finally budging.

If the scale changes again, I may post another update tomorrow.

Pens in your pocket

I don't like to keep very many things in my pockets. I don't like to wear a watch. It took me a long time to get used to wearing a wedding ring. I don't like clutter. Other than books and CD's, I don't collect or stockpile very many things.

My father, on the other hand, prefers to collect pens and keep as many as possible with him at all times. Observe the unaltered picture above. I believe he had a total of six pens in his pocket when I took this picture, but there may have been a hidden seventh behind the others. Sometimes he also keeps a few business sized envelopes in his pocket as well. I'm assuming that's because his desk and file cabinet are too heavy to carry around.

My father guards these pens with his life. One of my favorite things to do is to sneak up on him, swipe a few, and run. When I was a child, he used to chase me. Now that I'm 31 and still doing this, he's pretty much given up hope that he'll ever teach me to stop.

Taxes

I finished filing my taxes early this year. Believe it or not, I filed them about a month ago. I enjoy paying taxes. It makes me feel great to know that the money I send the government is never wasted. Here's a good example of my tax dollars at work.

According to a federally funded study, "men create more housework for women." (Click here to read the report.) Now that's a productive statement that doesn't reveal bias of any kind. It's good to have another example of how men are bad and women are good.

I'm glad that the study didn't waste our time by noting how much time men spend building houses, repairing them, fixing the sump pump when it fails, mowing the lawn, trimming tree branches, fixing leaks in the roof, getting rid of pests and bugs, installing new light fixtures, replacing the toilet, cleaning pine needles and leaves from the gutters, shoveling snow, fixing the furnace, installing a new dryer vent, removing long hair from sink and tubs or any of those other pointless chores that really don't contribute to making a house nice to live in.

I think I should send the government an extra five bucks next year to help fund a study that reveals the fact that men directly and purposely cause women to be emotional and unpredictably moody. We already know it's our fault, we just want to know what we're doing to make their lives so bad so we can fix it once and for all.