Month: April 2009

No New Wheel

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

Well I was supposed to get my new front wheel for my bike today because on Monday when I went in to buy one they told me that they would get them in on Friday.  Well, today is Friday and so I called at around 2:30pm or so and they said that the UPS delivery won’t come until 3:30.  So I called at 4.  They told me that it will be in by Monday.  So I gotta wait just a little bit longer.

That’s ok because I’ve waited all this time and my Camelbak and Skull cap haven’t come yet and I’m sure they won’t be here until Monday anyway.  So that’s ok, I can wait.

New Way of Thinking About Food

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Boy oh boy.  Here comes the post where I have to talk about changing my diet habits when I start riding my bike again.

I haven’t actually gotten the new front wheel yet and I haven’t gotten my Camelbak or Diablo skull cap so I can’t really start riding yet.  Even if I get my wheel tomorrow, if I don’t have the camelbak or the skull cap I’m not riding yet.  Yeah I know I’ve ridden without them just fine in the past but I really want to have them when I start riding again.  I think it will help me stay hydrated a lot longer than the old 32oz bottle because I can feel free to drink more since I now have 70oz of water to drink so I won’t be conserving it so much.

But what about my food habits?  Ok, well, no more McDonald’s that’s number one.  No more fried chicken from Albertson’s or cocoa pebbles cereal filled all the way to the top of the bowl.

From now on I am going to try my hardest to only eat good foods.  I don’t know what is a good example of good foods but I’m sure I will figure it out soon enough.  Instead of buying the crap cereals, I’m going to buy either Raisin Bran or the Weight Watchers cereal.  Costco used to have the Weight Watchers cereal and it was so good and I was measuring it instead of just pouring it into my bowl.  I have to start doing that again.

It’s all mentally and physically preparing myself for the torture I’m going to be putting myself through on a daily basis.  Can you imagine riding for 20 miles straight in a couple of hours burning something like 1000 calories?  Then coming home and taking a shower just to get ready to go to McDonald’s to eat lunch?  OMG That totally cancels out the whole ride.  Just 1 McChicken sandwich cancels all that out.  Not to mention the 2nd chicken sandwich that I would normally eat as well as the small fry and 2 apple pies.  I don’t count the diet coke, it has no calories.

No, I’m going to have to spend a little more money on my food at the store rather than eating a $5 lunch at McDonald’s.  And when we go out to restaurants I’m going to have to get the side salad or sandwich every time so I don’t cancel myself out again.

Oh and forget about ever being able to have ice cream again lol.  Ok, Ice Cream is fine in moderation.  I can safely eat ice cream as long as it’s 1 scoop of ice cream, not an entire container of ice cream.  You know, those little $5 cups of Häagen-Dazs.

With my birthday coming up it’s not going to be easy for me but I think I can manage.  And Darrin is diabetic so I know he’s not going to buy me a cake that he can’t eat.  So I think that we will figure it out.  They have these single serve cakes that we can buy and we can buy 1 of those small Häagen-Dazs ice cream cups and split it.  It’s hard to scoop from a tiny cup lol.  Oh wait they have these little tiny cups that measures to I think half a cup of ice cream which I believe is 1 serving so maybe I’ll buy 2 of those lol.  They ain’t cheap, they cost $1 each.

The point is, I’m going to start riding my bike again hopefully this weekend maybe tomorrow.  I’m not going to ride on Chips days off, just 5 days a week when he works so that he won’t think I’m blowing him off to go bike riding.  But before I start riding again I’ve gotta rethink my whole eating habits so that I don’t keep making the same mistakes I always make and think hey well I’m exercising so one ice cream won’t hurt or 2 McChicken won’t hurt.  They will.

Ugh!  It’s a lot of mental preparation and a lot of physical torture but I gotta do it.  I just wish my stuff would come in so I can do it sooner than later lol.

Last Week In Obama

On By Michel McDonaldIn News, Patriotic, PoliticalLeave a comment

Last week President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama visited the Queen of England and there was a question of whether Michelle broke protocol by putting her arm around the Queen (touching her) but apparently it was no big deal because the Queen put her arm around Michelle first.

There is a tradition I guess that the Queen and heads of state exchange gifts to one another.  The Obama’s gave the Queen an iPod with all of Barack’s speeches and the Queen gave the Obama’s a signed painting of herself.

An iPod of all your speeches?  Really?  Is that what you are giving her?  Are you kidding me?  Do you really think that she wants to hear your voice drone on for hours and hours?  Look, I don’t hate our president but I certainly would not want to hear his voice for hours on end.  If someone gives me an iPod, I’d like it to be blank so I can put what I like on there.  The Queen already has her own iPod so what, she’s supposed to have 2?  You know that she gave it to one of her servants and they erased it and put Elton John on it.

Another thing happened last week in Obama.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5XXL5IrvVA

As you can clearly see in this video, Barack Obama bows to Saudi King Abdullah at the Group of 20 summit in London last week.  Can you believe this guy?  No heads of state have ever, ever bowed to the Saudi King ever.  Bowing to the Saudi King is reserved only for his subjects.  People who are beneath him, not someone who is his equal.

“Mr. Obama later said in Strasbourg, France, “We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect.” Symbolism is important in world affairs. By bending over to show greater respect to Islam, the U.S. president belittled the power and independence of the United States.”

That was a quote from the Washington Times.  Is he joking?  “WE” have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect?”  What about the respect they show the rest of the world?  Huh?  This is just showing more and more to me that he is a Muslim and not a Christian.  He even did his first tv interview with a Muslim TV show as President of the United States.  What does that show about him?

I just don’t see why people love him so much and why he was voted as president.  Why people voted for a muslim during a war with MUSLIMS but they wouldn’t vote for a patriot.  I personally don’t get it.  This guy is proving how dumb Americans are with every act.

Hamburger Helper

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

I went to the store to buy something for lunch and also wanted something for dinner.  I sat and thought about what I wanted before I left to go to the store and Hamburger Helper entered my mind.  We used to have it all the time or whenever it was 10 for $10 at the store.  I’d buy like 10 of them and just keep them in the pantry until we wanted it.

I’m so glad I thought about it but when I went to the aisle that the hamburger helper was on I was overwhelmed with the variety of helper products.

It’s not just hamburger helper.  But then again they’ve had Tuna helper since I was a kid at least.  I seem to recall some time in the late 80’s or maybe early 90’s when I first started seeing Chicken Helper.  But I could be wrong, I wasn’t really paying attention to the chicken helper.  They actually have more than 60 different flavors.

There is so much of a variety of helpers that I just find it so hard to decide.  If you know you want a particular meat like hamburger or tuna or chicken then your choices are at least slimmed down a bit but even still there are so many choices.

I’m a simpleton, I like the original hamburger helper that’s like macaroni and cheese with meat.  I do like to get the stroganoff sometimes and the nacho.  We also like the tuna helper.

But I’m sure you don’t have to be limited to tuna, chicken and hamburger.  I’m sure you can put some other meat in there like say you want meat balls instead or you want to use ground turkey which is actually a lot leaner and healthier choice.  Or you can add ground sausage meat or even maybe spam ground up.

I’m sure all the hunters just love deer helper or bear helper.  Maybe they might like some other kinds of meats like maybe possum helper or road kill helper.  The possibilities are endless in the flavors you can have.  Even cannibals on the islands can have people helper.  There are even people in different countries (which I will not name for fear of being sued) who might like dog helper or cat helper.  Oh and cowboys and jockeys who have a horse with a broken leg don’t have to lose out.  They can have horse helper.

No?  Did I go too far with the horse helper?  Or was it all the way back to the people helper?  Oh come on, that was funny, don’t deny you are laughing out loud.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a product that does exactly what it says it does on the commercials.  Wow, I just never knew that it would work that well.  Darrin doesn’t like buying things that he sees on the commercials because 9 times out of 10 they don’t do what they say they are supposed to do because you can usually buy the generic brand and it does the same exact thing.

Our tenant next door left the house just filthy when he moved out.  It took me 2 hours yesterday to clean out the refrigerator.  The freezer was completely covered in mold because his electricity got shut off.  There was this one spot on the fridge door that was just so beyond gross.  It was a build up of something, I don’t know what.  All I know is that it was so gross and it would not come up.

I gotta go back there today after I eat my lunch and clean the stove top and the oven so I bought some oven cleaner and I bought a package of magic erasers because I know if anything will clean that stove it will be the magic erasers.

I just did a test with 1 of the 2 that were in the package on our stove.  There are these certain spots that I just cannot get clean.  Although, when I try it’s usually with just a wash cloth and soapy water from the dish soap so in all fairness I’m not really trying that hard.  But the magic eraser got it all up real fast and the stove was sparkling clean.  Wow, I just couldn’t believe it.  With very little effort too.  Just amazing.

I’m going to have these on hand from now on because this is an amazing product that does exactly what they say it will do.  In a world of false advertising, it’s nice to see a company who is actually telling you the truth.

Stargate

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I’ve always loved the show Stargate SG-1 but only watched it occasionally but since I wasn’t a regular watcher of the show I was always lost.  So a couple of months ago I decided to sit and watch it every day when it came on Sci-Fi.  I started paying attention to it when Ben Browder came onto the show.  No reason why I paid attention to him, just a coincidence lol.  Don’t put any thought into it lol.

I know that I’m still probably lost and I figured that they would be nearing the end of the last season soon so I can start watching it from the beginning again but I don’t know when that will be.

Stargate Universe will be coming in the fall and I really want to be caught up by then.  Although, it doesn’t look like it’s from the same era, it looks like it might be in the future but I won’t know until it comes on.  I want to be really caught up with SG-1 before I start watching SGU anyway.

Yesterday I bought the original 1994 Stargate movie which I have seen before but I want to start it all over by watching the movie.  Plus I’m sure there are some bonus features.  Maybe.  I’ll have to wait until it comes in the mail.

I also bought another Stargate which I had no idea even existed.  “Stargate Infinity: The Complete Series” which apparently is a cartoon with half hour episodes.  There was only 1 season so it wasn’t a very good one I guess lol.  I can only assume they were trying to target the show to kids because some of the cast members were teenagers lol.  As if Stargate Command would have teenager soldiers fighting the fight.  Hilarious.  I bought it because it’s campy to me.

I was going to start buying each season on DVD but there are 10 seasons at $21 each and I can buy the entire series in a big box for $115 and get 2 bonus discs with all bonus features.  So I’m just going to do that.  I’m going to have to wait until next month though to set aside half then on my birthday pay for the rest so this will be my birthday present to myself lol.

When I’m done with all that then I’m going to buy Stargate Atlantis.  Although, I might wait until they have the entire series in a box.  Right now I think they only have each season sold individually.  I will work on getting that before the fall so I’m REALLy caught up hehe.

Easter

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

It’s that time of year again where all the kids of America gorge themselves on hard-boiled eggs and chocolate rabbits.  For Christians, Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ but for children it’s the celebration of the Easter Bunny coming to bring them baskets filled with cavities and egg farts.

It’s a joyous occasion for all, whether they be christians, pagans, atheists and children because no matter what you believe, you still get to eat junk food for the day then ham for dinner and then ham sandwiches for the next few days afterwards.

I’ve been enjoying Easter for the last 2 months since the stores took down the Valentine’s day goodies and started putting the Easter candy in.  My dentist loves the business that I give him.

24 Hour Fitness

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

I’ve always wanted to go to 24 Hour Fitness but they always charge you so much money up front.  You can’t even get a membership unless you have $200 in your pocket (or debit card) so I’ve just given up hope.  Also I’d have to take 2 buses to get there and wait about 45 min for the bus.

The bike trail is near where the 24 hour fitness is so I could get to the bike trail from home then when I get to Rosedale Hwy I can just start riding on the sidewalk (because it’s on the wrong side of the street) until I get there.  They have a special right now that is $19 down, $19 a month.  Now I can afford it and I can be exercising on the way there then get a couple of hours of exercise in before leaving where I will be exercising some more to get home.  Good plan.  We’ll see if I do it when I get my used bike.