Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 68, Down ~38.5lbs

This morning, first thing, all of the girls were off to the hair dresser to get their hair done for the wedding.  So I was in charge of watching Luciana and Liesl while they were gone.  So my morning was pretty busy.  It was basically impossible for me to get ready at all since I was watching the kids.

The girls made it back from the hairdresser in record time.  I was amazed how quickly that went.  Very impressive.  I thought that it was going to take several hours.  I know how hair is.

It was a bit of a rush to actually get dressed and out the door.  The wedding was early in the afternoon and with the kids and everything that meant that there was barely enough time to get there.  I have no idea how people would do a wedding actually in the morning!

We got picked up by the limo which delivered us to the church and then took the girls over to Brittany’s parents’ house to pick up the bride and maid of honour from there and would be delivering them to the church when they were ready.  We were really impressed with the limo and our limo driver.  This was the best limo experience that we ever had.  He really worked hard to take care of us all throughout the day.

Joe and Bennie disappeared into the front of the church while the groomsmen took up positions in the front and doubled as ushers until ushers were found and assigned once they discovered that there was no accommodation for the groomsman to be the ushers.  There was a bit of confusion going on up there, but we pulled it all together.

It was a very traditional Catholic wedding service.  My dad was one of the very first guests to arrive and the first one ushered in for the service.  This was, believe it or not, actually his first ever Catholic wedding but not his first mass.

Liesl was the cutest little flower girl and Garrett did great as the little ring bearer.  Both of them kept it together and performed admirably.  Last night during the rehearsal Liesl had come down the aisle and had stopped halfway to take a bow for her adoring audience.  Today she declined to do so and walked normally all of the way down the aisle.  Garrett followed suit and everyone was impressed by what a good job they both did.

It was a little difficult coordinating the wedding with so many of us being in it.  With Brittany’s sister, both of Joe’s siblings and their spouses, Madeline and Emily as junior bridesmaids and both toddlers all in the wedding we had nearly the entire family engaged in direct wedding activities.  Only Clara and Luciana were too young to take part and extended family had to watch over them as there was no one in the immediate family available.

We had a brief period of in-church pictures, but that did not take long at all.

After the pictures in the church it was back into the limo and off to the Hotel Utica for the wedding pictures.  I love the Hotel Utica.  I wish that we got to stay there more often.  It has been years since Dominica and I have been able to stay there.  One of these days we plan to check out their restaurant as well.  We like the look of their menu.

From the pictures the limo took the wedding party on to Ilion to Francesca’s banquet and catering fall where the reception is being held.  I passed by Francesca’s some years ago while on a late night walk from Frankfort to Herkimer and always wondered what events there would be like.  Now I get to find out.  Francesca’s really stands out in Ilion.  Not the type of facility that one expects to see in a town like Ilion.

We had a really good time at the reception.  Joe and Brittany’s favourite band, Hair of the Dog, an Irish folk rock band from the Albany area played for a few hours and MC’d the evening as well.  Liesl thought that that was great fun and spent the entirety of their performance standing front row, dead center on the dance floor dancing like only Liesl can dance.  She did more to get people out on the dancefloor than anyone else in attendance.  She is dedicated to her dancing.  She was quite adorable in her frilly white puff of a flower girl dress.  Everyone adored her.

We all had a good time at the reception and very much wore ourselves out.  We partied until everyone was packing up and heading home.

Dominica and Francesca took the kids back to their grandparents’ house so that they could go to bed.  I drove everyone over to Brittany’s parents’ house so that those of us looking for the late, late reception party could keep on going until the wee hours of the morning (the “wee” hours being defined as those hours after you have “broken the seal.”)  Before heading over to the Gages’ house we stop off at the Toccos’ to change quickly.  At this point we discovered that I had no sneakers to wear.  Everyone, of course, blamed me for losing them but I was sure that I had not.  I had used them this morning just before heading to the wedding and they could not have gone anywhere.  I did nothing but dress for the wedding and go.

We didn’t hang out that late at the Gages’.  Maybe two to three hours at most.  Bennie regaled us with his stories of adventure and misadventure and he torched marshmallow upon the roaring fire pit filled with loose wood and pieces of hardwood flooring.  Bennie demonstrated, over and over again, the “proper” way to roast a marshmallow, that is to thrust it deeply into the first, set it alight, put out the fire leaving the marshmallow covered in ash and devour it immediately leaving no time for the searing mallow-lava to cool.  I declined to try this Texan delicacy myself but Joe did try it as did Brianna who failed to eat it nearly as quickly as Bennie prescribed although she was still unhappy with the burned tongue and cheeks that she received as it was.

After the late party was exhausted I drove the newly-wed Toccos to their hotel in Utica and dropped them off then drove Bennie back to the Toccos’.  All were asleep by the time that we arrived.

 

 

Medifast Status: Day 67, Down ~38.5lbs

Today is the wedding rehearsal so we have a ton of stuff going on all day.  The family was running around most of the day trying to get everything set up for the rehearsal dinner tonight which involves a secret performance of “Rock Band” that pretty much no one knows about.  The family has been practicing this for weeks or even months to get ready, it is going to be quite the event.

I had to work all day so I was tied to the house.  Joe and Bennie went out this morning and got manicures.  I was fortunately spared from this event.

Dominica’s parents picked up the PA system that we are going to use for the event and around lunch time we hooked it up in the house (Joe was out for the afternoon) and did a run through of the set list for tonight with the Wii hooked to the PA system and we tested out the projector that we are borrowing from my dad as well.  It is amazing that we have managed to keep this entire thing a secret for months as this has been such a tremendous production.  Joe didn’t even suspect anything when the Wii was moved into the dining room to facilitate practicing.  Nor did he notice that we had a projector stashed in the house all week.  Or any of the numerous secret Rock Band rehearsal sessions.  We’ve worked really hard on this.  We even have complete outfits to wear tonight that we’ve had to hide in the house.

The practice went well and after we did a run-through of the set list we had to break everything down and most of the family headed off to the Utica Train Station’s Blue Flag Room to set everything up for tonight.  It is a ton of stuff and we are far, far from a professional roadie crew so a lot of time was going to be needed for that.

I stayed home and worked.  It took all afternoon for them to set up at the train station.  No small project.  They have a banner and everything that needs to go up.

At four forty-five, after I worked like crazy trying to get everything done for the evening deployments since I myself was not going to be able to do the real deployments, I signed off and we ran out to get to the church in Utica for the actual rehearsal.  We were a bit late but not nearly as late as the priest so that worked out just fine.

The rehearsal didn’t take too long, then it was a mad rush over to the Utica Train Station so that we could prepare for the Rock Band performance.  Of course, being in a hurry, I did something stupid with the car keys and we were stuck looking for them for a little while.  That didn’t help anything.

We got to the train station and everyone piled into two bathrooms and changed into our rock gear, wigs, temporary tattoos, hair extensions, etc.  This was a major undertaking.

The performance went really well and, as far as we could tell, was well received.  We played “I Love Rock and Roll”, “I Wanna Marry You”, “The Power of Love” and ended with “Bad Medicine.”  It was a hard line up for those of us singing.  Some really tough songs.  Liesl was awesome standing up front playing the tambourine and dancing.

There was a video taken of the performance but it is pretty long at twenty-three minutes and it does not have very good sound so it is kind of hard to hear how the performance went but if you listen hard to can kind of get the idea.  It is nearly 2GB in size so it will be a while before I am on a network where I am able to upload the file to YouTube.  I’ll announce it when it is there.

We were in the Blue Flag Room at the train station tonight and the food and venue were really good.  We really liked it.

After the party was done we came home and pretty much everyone went straight to bed.  While they all turned in for the night I set out on my evening walk.  I went just around town tonight.  Dominica later remarked that I now know the village of Frankfort better than she does as I have walked so much of it.  It was a nice night for walking but was very dark so I stuck to the well lit parts of town.

I started out up on Cemetery Hill and came down the back side of the hill past the fireman’s memorial and down to “The Aves”.  I walked up one avenue and down the next hitting nearly all of town that way.  I listened to “The Scratch of a Pen” while walking and got a good way through the book during the walk.  I am enjoying that book.

It was a nice walk and I got almost exactly six miles in when I arrived back at the house.  Just the smallest bit over six miles.  Then it was off to bed for me – tomorrow is going to be a big day.

Before going to bed I explored iTunes University which I had never heard about previously.  Pat, next to whom I sat at the rehearsal dinner, told me about all of this free academic content available through the iTunes store.  So I logged in from my iPod and checked it out.  I downloaded several videos and audio content items from iTunes U to explore.  This is looking like it is going to be pretty awesome.  I love this kind of stuff and being free, well you just can’t beat that.

Medifast Status: Day 66, Down ~38.5lbs

I stayed in bed as long as I could get away with this morning.  Oreo was very snuggly and I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed.  The room was so cold (Dominica really cranks the air conditioning) and Oreo was so warm.

Today was rather a busy day at work for me and I ended up working all day long.  No chance for a walk.  After work we ran out for dinner at Appleby’s with the family.

The evening was spent just getting ready for the wedding this weekend and the rehearsal dinner and show that we have tomorrow night.

Medifast Status: Day 65, Down ~38.5lbs

New article up on SMB IT Journal: “Why You Never Get Advice from a Reseller or Vendor“.  Please check it out and remember to Tweet or post of FaceBook to support me!

Amazingly, perhaps even miraculously, I am officially completely caught up with SGL now!

I was up at 5:55am this morning, got dressed, stretched and got Emily up and we were out the door for our walk before six thirty.  I had the mapping software running and we did a nice, long walk up into the country and around the south side of Frankfort.  It was a really nice morning for a walk. We did a total of 5.7 miles and were home at eight thirty.

Shortly after returning from our morning walk, most of the family headed out for Gilbert Lake State Park near Oneonta, New York to spend the day with the kids at the lake while Dominica and I stayed home with Luciana.  Liesl was originally going to stay home as well but she was really excited to “go to the beach” and so they took her along with them.

Today I began reading “The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America“.  This book chronicles the long term aftereffects of the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 which signaled the end of the Seven Year War which is often known as the French and Indian War here in the US where it began.  Amazingly, even though this war is of immense importance to Americans very little is known of it.  I wonder if students today study it at all.  It was barely mentioned when I was in school.

Work ended up being really, really busy this afternoon.  I was hoping to be able to wrap up on the early side today so that I could sneak away for Joe’s surprise bachelor party but instead of being able to finish up just after five (which was really a pipe dream anyway) it ended up taking until after eight before I was able to sign off from the office and leave the house.  That wasn’t good.  I was crazy late.

I am the designated driver tonight since I am both late and I am not supposed to be drinking on Medifast (it hampers ketosis.)  As soon as I reached the restaurant we loaded everyone up and headed out to the pool hall to play pool, darts and foosball for the evening.

It was a pretty early night and we were home by a quarter after midnight.  We even ran into a Town of Frankfort road block out on NY 5S stopping every car as they go by.  Good thing we had a DD (or a Weekend PASS as they call them in Texas – “Person Assigned to Stay Sober.)

We got home and found the girls still up drinking from their own party.  Bennie, Joe, Francesca, Dominica and I ended up staying up until after three in the morning playing cards and drinking whiskey.  Tomorrow is going to be a rough day and I need to get started early to help deal with the issues that we were unable to deal with tonight that kept me at the office so late.

I cheated significantly on my Medifast tonight for the first time.  I had part of a slice of cold pizza and a small cupcake that Francesca had made.  We will see how much that hurts me tomorrow.  I’ve been a little light-headed, though, so a few extra calories is probably not a bad thing.

I borrowed Dominica’s mother’s car and drove out to New Hartford to meet the guys at the restaurant there.  They had been having beer and wings for hours and had been just waiting for me to get there for a while.

 

Medifast Status: Day 64, Down ~38.5lbs

First thing this morning, probably around eight, Emily and I headed out for a morning walk to get some exercise.  We walked down Litchfield and found a hidden trail running along the Frankfort Gorge and Moyer Creek.  So we went back in the woods and walked along the trail.  Emily said that this was the first time that she had ever gone for a real walk in the woods – and it was not much of a woods with houses being visible just to the side of us.  It was a really nice walking area, though.

The walk took us a little over an hour and was roughly 2.3 miles.  Going through the woods made it much slower going than if we were on the road the entire time.  We walked back through town.  We are planning on trying another early morning walk tomorrow.

For lunch, Madeline, Emily and I went to The Bistro and ate there and brought food back for Dominica.

After lunch Francesca, Bennie and I took Madeline, Emily, Garrett and Liesl down to Moyer Creek near where it spills into the Mohawk River so that the kids could see where Francesca, as a child, used to come to use the “ol’ swimming hole.”  It was pretty hot to be down there but the water was nice and the kids had a good time playing in the brook.  That was a pretty short walk, just .6 miles in total.  Liesl did very well trying to keep up with everyone.  She thought that that was great fun.  She spent her time standing by the brook’s edge throwing small rocks into it.

After work was done and after I was done helping Dominica to look after the kids I went out for an evening stroll around the village.  I also tested out a new walk mapping app for my iPhone that makes a map of my walk, in real time, as I do it.  Very cool.  This will, in theory, make it easy for people at the house to watch me as I travel and not wonder where I am or worry that I am not moving anymore.  So I am testing that out on this walk.

My walk this evening came out to be 3.5 miles and took almost exactly an hour.  That makes my day total to be roughly 6.5 miles.  Not too bad at all.  I’m feeling it in my legs a little bit today but not as much as after the five mile walk to Ilion a few days ago.  I am doing all of this walking in my new Sketchers Tone Ups so I am getting more or a workout than normal.  I’m not sure how much more.  Probably not very much but a little.  After a long walk I can feel the difference in my leg muscles in a way that I don’t feel without the Tone Ups at least.

On my walk tonight I finally finished reading “The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd” which, to say the least, was pretty depressing.  This one has taken me forever to finish because it was both quite long and rather depressing and I have been reading it alone so I only got time to read it when not reading along with other people.  So I have finished several other books in the meantime.

I was off to bed as soon as I got home.  Emily and I are planning on a six in the morning walk tomorrow so that I can get a real walk in before it is time for work.