3 slabs of ribs, 2 chickens...

...one happy crowd. For Labor Day festivities, we had several people over to the house (14 adults and their kids). I got a chance to break in my new upright smoker. It's gas, which really makes cooking easy. At any rate, I was taking a big chance since I hadn't cooked on this unit yet (you have to get to know your smoker), but things seemed to work out well. The ribs were OK, definitely not the best I've ever cooked, but they were decent enough and every one seemed to like them. I'm my own worst critic when it comes to cooking, but I have to say, the chickens (2 whole chickens) were INCREDIBLE. My mom gave me a beercan chicken recipe book a couple of years ago and I've never really had the facilities to put the book to use. That's no longer an excuse as this smoker has tons of room in it. That chicken was INCREDIBLE. completely full of flavor and very moist. It was so good, I'm going buy a couple of chickens tomorrow to cook during the week. It's easy, and healthy. My mouth is watering just writing about it!

Hundred pushups - My shoulders are beginning to hurt, so I took a few days off to give myself a couple of days to recover. I did my end of week 2 assessment, I pushed out 35 pushups. I'd imagine at the end of another week I'll be very close to 50. We'll see if this old body will hold out.

Enjoy Labor Day!

Wearing your dad's clothes

When I was 5 years old (1984), my grandfather (who was a railroad engineer for Southern Pacific) surprised me for my birthday by taking me on a train ride. I got to drive and everything. It was one of the greatest days of my young life, and I still remember it fondly. As part of my day, he gave me a set of engineers coveralls. I still have those, and as I was rummaging through a drawer today, I came across those coveralls. I remember that I loved them so much, as I began to outgrow them, my mom made them into shorts so I could still wear them. Tonight, I let my 5 year old wear them, and we snapped this picture. For those of you with a Cajun or French background, I'm sure you'll agree with me that the only words appropriate here are "awww, cher."

No sleeping tonight

Well...here it is, a quarter to 1AM and I'm still awake. Ironic considering that today is the first day I've woken up at 6AM since school let out.

First day of school - both kids came home excited today. Kylie is no longer nervous about Kindergarten and she's written a "letter" to her "boyfriend" from last year. It's nothing more than a piece of paper with a bunch of stickers on it that she folded and put in an envelope, but to her, it's of utter importance, no doubt.

Dillon informed me tonight that he likes the way I think ahead, and that he thinks ahead too. Here's how our conversation went:

• Dillon - If I had a girlfriend I would tell her I was a racer and I would go to her house in my racing uniform. I would tell her that I came in first place in my race. But she would ask where my trophy is, and I would tell her I came in 4th place.


• Jeff - Good thinking Dillon. Did you have a specific girl in mind?


• D - No, but I would like a girlfriend.


• J - You would?


• D - Yes, I think that would be good for me, but I'm a little nervous about asking a girl to be my girlfriend.


• J - Well...you can have a girlfriend if you want, but you should probably just take your time getting one.


• D - Yeah, you're right. Good night daddy.

Pushups - I'm still on my quest to 100 pushups. I've added crunches / situps back into my routine. More than my scrawny arms, I'm really unhappy with my gut, er stomach. I lost a LOT of muscle as a result of my injury a couple of years ago (you don't know, I might have had a lot of muscle then), and it just never came back. My stomach and arms atrophied the most, so I'm really on a quest to get them back into decent shape. I pushed out 66 pushups tonight (in 4 sets.) Not too bad, my initial test to see how many I could do was only 14 just less than 2 weeks ago. In a single set now, I can run off about 26.

DNC - I started to watch the DNC tonight, but then I saw James Carville on and that was enough. I got in all of 13 seconds of the convention, that's enough. Bring back rythmic gymnastics from Beijing please.

Enjoy your week. Work hard, you have a nice 3 day weekend coming your way as a reward!

First Day of School

Well...we managed to get the kids off to school, and Suzanne officially started the new school year. Kylie was "nervous", and Dillon was so excited he wasn't "even tired" at 6:30 this morning. I wish I had more pics of Dillon, but as soon as we got to the school, he took off to hang with his buds in the cafeteria until classes started. Kylie hung with me until time to go to her class. If her teacher looks familiar, that's the same teacher Dillon had when he was in Kindergarten.

Week 2, Day 1

I'm still on my quest to 100 pushups with the help of hundredpushups.com. Today was week 2, day 1 (I'm not like most normal people, I didn't start my routine on a Monday.) I had to do 50 pushups today, which was a LOT harder than the 63 I did on Wednesday. I get the weekend to rest and then on Monday I have to do 66. Considering my level of "Fitness" today, I'm a bit concerned I may hit a wall at week 2. Worst case scenario, I do week 2 twice. I've had bigger problems in my life.

Big night tonight, huge concert. As many of you know, I'm a fan of all kinds of music. I have an appreciation for everything from Gershwin to jazz to Christian contemporary to country to rap, but my heart really lies with 80's metal / hair metal (longing for the good old days, I guess). So, tonight is the "Masters of Metal" tour with Judas Priest and Motorhead. I'm looking forward to hearing some songs from back in the day, but more than that, I'm looking for affirmation. Every time I go to one of these concerts I feel better about myself when I walk out than when I walked in. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Getting ready to take the kids to school to meet their teachers. School starts on Monday. Dillon is absolutely excited and anxious about starting 4th grade. Kylie on the other hand...is a little "nervous" about starting Kindergarten. Justifiable in her mind, I'm sure.

Have a great weekend.

Photobucket Album

Day 2, Week 1

I'm on the 2nd day of my 100 pushup challenge. It's not as fun as it sounded when I started, but I'm going to keep up with it. Did 54 pushups this morning, I get tomorrow off and then on Wednesday I have to do 63. Of course, right now it comes in 5 sets. The end goal is 100 with no break.

The program has already done a LOT for my physique, as proved in this picture.

Hundred Pushups

So, Mark Daddy posted on his website how he's trying to get to, and maintain the ability to do 100 pushups. Not to be underdone, I've decided to go for it as well, except I'm applying the same program to not only pushups, but situps as well. I'm only a couple of days into it, but man, I'm sore already, but feeling good about what I'm going to achieve.

Let me know that you're going to do 100 pushups by publishing a comment here.

Big Lew is hardcore

Cary from List of the Day sent this to me. This is the most hardcore Big Lew out there. I only thought I was hardcore til I saw this.