As I write this, Hurrican Dolly is still spinning in the gulf, flirting with Brownsville. There are some rubmbles of thunder, and little Samantha isn’t too sure what to make of all this. Jennifer didn’t go to work today due to the hurricane warnings, and tornado watches. In a couple hours, I’m supposed to leave for Del Mar College to take my college assessment test. Not quite sure yet if I’m going. That’s at the time the winds are supposed to become tropical storm strength in our area. I was able to catch a few seconds of video of the rain outside our front door. It wasn’t steady like that all day, but the squalls sure were intense.

Last night, when my wife said “I want IHOP”, I started to fear the fattening selections I would be craving to have. I walked in with the best of intentions to have a cup of coffee, and a bowl of fruit, or some other healthy alternative.

Yeah… like THAT would happen with chocolate chip pancakes staring me in the face.

I caved. I had a super duper meaty omelet, with a huge stack of chocolate chip pancakes… extra butter please. SYRUP… gotta have the butter pecan syrup. Load it on there… oh heck, I’ll just drink the syrup. Here hun, slather that butter all over my body. Oh it’s so good… it’s so wrong, yet so right. YEAH, slap me in the face with those pancakes. Make me your little pancake monkey…….. whoah.

The other day, I weighed in and lost a half a pound. I figured I would have gained a pound yesterday. Instead, I lost ANOTHER half pound. I’m almost to my lowest weight since I started this endeavour. My lowest is 205.8, and today I was 206 even. It’s odd. I ate crap that’s bad for me, and I lose weight. Yet, when I eat healthy, I gain.

So, today, I’m eating some dry cheerios (cause we’re out of milk), some OJ, and I think we’re having some spaghetti for dinner. I’ll have some baked apples for lunch. We’ll see how that big bad scale feels tomorrow.

Last night, Jen wanted some broiled fish. We’ve never done that before, but figured it would a healthy alternative to the rest of the crap in the fridge. We spiced it just the way she wanted it, put the oven on broil, moved the oven shelf to the highest position, and threw the fish in. The package said to cook for 5 minutes. Since we don’t really trust our oven temperature gauge, we added another minute or so.

At the end of 7 minutes, Jen tells me to take the fish out. No problem. I grab the oven mitts, open the door, and grab ahold of what I thought was the pyrex pan. Immediately after sticking my hand in there, I wonder “what’s that burning smell, and why does my hand feel hot”. I quickly pull my hand out to realize that I didn’t grab the pan, I grabbed the BURNER. It burned right through the glove and burnt my hand. I didn’t burn it too bad, but you can certainly tell where I touched the burner. I put it under cold water, and all is fine, it’s just a little sensitive to heat right now.

So, today, I get to go to the store to get some more oven mitts, as the ones we have aren’t any good anymore obviously. Just goes to show that you better pay attention to what you’re doing.

This past Fourth of July weekend was an eventful one. We took our daughter to the pool, went out to dinner, visited family, and went to see the local fireworks show. I had never been to the fireworks here in town, even though I’ve lived here almost 8 years. It just never excited me. This year, my wife told me we were going to see them. I ended up getting excited over the idea. She described them as exploding over our heads, and the colors were amazing. She even had a spot picked out for the best viewing.

Apparently, the city changed their minds this year.

Normally (I’m told), they float a barge out on the bay, and shoot the fireworks over the bayfront. That works well since the bayfront is one long strech, and there would be a lot of good viewing areas. This year, they fired them off the Lexington aircraft carrier museum, and shot them over downtown. We were amongst hundreds that were expecting the prior plan. The view from our end was horrible. Tiny explosions in the sky, blocked by skyrises. Couldn’t even hear the boom from the fireworks. Needless to say, I was dissapointed. We faught traffic, and drunks to find a good viewing spot, just to get frustrated. As we drove home, we went further along the bayfront, away from the fireworks “display”. There were MANY more people, and you know they didn’t see anything at all, because they were behind even more tall buildings.

One local television station said the event was a success, but a “few” people were upset because they were hard to see. Almost everyone I spoke to agreed that they were upset that they wasted time to see the display. I’m not sure if they just plan to talk, or do something about it. I emailed the city, and told them my views on the event. I even went a step further to volunteer for the Parks and Recreation committee. We’ll see what the city council does with my bio. It would be fun to have some input on city events.

This past Sunday, my wife, Jennifer, started some funky new diet. She spent hours figuring out what she was going to eat throughout the week, and every night she spends a good deal of time preparing her lunch and snacks for her day at work. I’ve never been a big fan of vegetables and “low fat” stuff, but I’m supportive of her. We went down to Wal Mart and picked up a digital scale. Jen has been doing good on her diet, and has already lost seven pounds. How she lost seven pounds in three days is beyond me. Her diet must be working.

I figured that since we have this scale now, and Jen is gonna be lookin all sorts of sexy, I better lose a FEW pounds. Gotta look good for the good lookin wife. While I’m not as vigilant as she is, I’ve reduced my fatty food intake, and am no eating QUITE as much. But I still love food. I like to eat. It shows.

As a result of this decision, I downloaded a charting program for the blog, and am posting my results. So far, in three days, I’ve lost 9 ounces. Not much, but it’s something. Feel free to check out the weight loss page, and track my progress. If you’re gonna leave comments, they better be positive. I’m so sensitive

Tim’s Weight Loss

A group of women are calling the iPhone sexist because the touch screen is sensitive to a human finger, not fingernails. They are calling for a revamp of the interface. Why would Apple purposefully create a product that has such a huge markup with such a “flaw”? My answer: They didn’t. If your fingernails are so long that you can’t use a touch screen, it’s time fo get them trimmed. Aside from being a pain in the rear, they can also cause injuries. Just ask my 3 month old who always scratches my face with her tiny baby nails.

If this were such a concern, then 1/3 of the iPhone’s sales wouldn’t exist. This just seems to be another thing people want to gripe about. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lawsuit came of this. People love deep pockets.

I love my wife. I adore her. I find her entertaining, smart, funny, warm (literally), and human. These are all things that Sega’s new “girlfriend robot” isn’t. In September, Sega will release a 15 inch robot with a “Love Mode” that blows kisses to nearby faces, and wiggles all its “assets”. It comes complete with a firm plastic bust. Asking price: $175. Now I’ve seen some interesting robots. One that cleans my floor, a puppy that rolls around, and a dinosaur that screams at me for no reason.  There are entertaining robots, and functional robots. I don’t need one to blow me kisses.

There is, however, a feature that hands out business cards. This might be the only useful program on this robot. So now, we have an expensive business card holder.  Might be nice for the rich guy who has his office filled with toys and novelty items, or for the executive who wants to make a lasting impressionby having a kiss blown to a visiting executive. Why you’d want to leave an impression of an individual who enjoys “robot love” is beyond me.

I’m curious to see how well this takes off. Sega announced they are targeting “lonely men over 20″, but I think they cornered that market 15 years ago with a video game system. Too bad they let it slip away. Perhaps they should release another one of those instead.

As I’m sure many of you have heard, there are plans in the works for a hotel on Alcatraz Island, the infamous prison. I’m from the Bay Area, and I have mixed feelings about his whole thing.

Alcatraz is already a very busy tourist attraction. I think it’s the second largest San Francisco has to offer. It genereates a lot of traffic. I’m not so sure how much I would enjoy tourists walking about in large masses as I fight to get to the hotel. Now I’m sure they’d have plans to avoid all that, but the island is only so big. In addition to the island’s size is the terrain. It’s a very hilly island. Even on the tour there’s a bunch of climbing. This means there would have to be some serious terrain scaping. That brings the whole integrity of the prison into account. Even if they use an old guard building, I’m sure a hotel would be able to consume that space and more. Terrain scaping would at some point have to include closing the prison, and ensuring nothing touched it during construction. From my experience on the island, that’s gonna be tough. But then again, that’s why I don’t have a degree in architecture and construction.

On the flip side, a hotel on the island would be one heck of a money maker, provided they could level the island a bit. Otherwise they’re making it difficult for a number of people. I’m sure there would be ghost hunters and excited tourists quickly filling the rooms, and no doubt night tours on Alcatraz would skyrocket. The only thing missing from this picture is a guided tour of Alcatraz, and not just an audio tour.

In short, this plan may just work, but there are a ton of logistics to figure out. I’m curious to see what the city does. I just hope they don’t give any tax breaks to the aspiring company. If this company wants to make it work, they have to do it on their own. Too many things can go wrong with this.