Moving, Cheat Day and Milestones

I am officially moved in with all of my sundry crap transferred.  Unpacking has commenced and I am making good progress.  Bedroom, Kitchen and Bathroom are all unpacked.  The dojo is 90% done with just the need to hang a kick bag and get mirrors (funds permitting.).  However, there still is a mound of boxes in the living room.  Most of it is metalsmithing, architecture or other art supplies  Ideally I will condense it to as few boxes as possible and put in the scary crawlspace of doom.

Crawlspace is a bit of a misnomer actually, the damn thing is 8' deep.  I guess it is a basement, just one that you access through a rickety ladder and descend into a collection of massive beam-works, rusting hardware and artifacts from the past.  My kitchen is the bottom of what used to be the elevator shaft for the mill.  When they tore down the shaft they just dumped all the rubble in the bottom and called it good.    I will try and remember to take pictures next time I go down... which I don't do alone.  A rickety ladder + 8' drop onto rubble sounds like and pretty gruesome way to get trapped with a broken leg/back and die of dehydration.

Anywho... onto more lively topics.

Today is um.. my 7th cheat day?  I think?  I said that on my 30 day was my third cheat day but that seems wrong.  In any case I have no special plans on my cheat day.  There was a cinnamon roll for breakfast and there might be pizza later.

Cheat day aside I realized yesterday I officially hit a milestone that I hadn't been consciously aware was coming up.  I have officially resumed a weight I was at nearly 10 years ago.  When I first was brought face to face with the fact I had gained a lot of weight.  It had sorta crept up on me and it hadn't weighed myself because I felt fine... and I never looked in mirror (I mean really looked.)

When I did I was shocked at what my weight had become.  I tried a few easy methods to deal with it, but frankly sought solace in food.  Consequently, over the last 10 years my weight crept up another 20 lbs.   At that rate it's hard to notice, I mean who notices  .5 pounds a year?

But now it's gone.

In 46 days I have lost 20.6 pounds, a loss of 7.6% of my body weight.  At .44 lbs a day average it means my daily loss average is slowing*, but I haven't been as vigilant as I could be.  Some of it may also be attributable to muscle gain from the daily walks, but I also have been not staying as hydrated as I need to be, taken an extra cheat day when going out with friends, etc.

But that's a good motivation to return to the straight and narrow, if I can undo 10 years of damage in less then 2 months... well the rest will be easy.


*One other thought that occurred to me is that shortly after my supplementation post, once I realized I was going to have  move and decided to launch the Kenpo studio, it was obvious I was going to have to cut all expenses to the bone.  No eating out, no lattes, and no $100 a month supplements.  I was also tired of the 21 pills a day regimen and and really didn't have money to spare to get the one that allowed 4 pills a day.  So I stopped taking them.

Right now there are to many variables to determine whether the supplements were the reason I was seeing .7-.6 pounds a day in the beginning, or if it was because I was starting and my body was reacting quickly, or if it was because I had just started I was really strict with my self.  But I can't discount the possibility that the damn hings work.

New house... roommate blues...

So we got the cool awesome place we had hoped for. It is closer to town, with better amenities and less rent.

The bad news... we are losing a roommate. Although he agrees the new place is superior in every way he has decided to go his own way, so our total rent bill actually ends up going up per person instead of down.

What makes this worse is the boy can cook. He just made an awesome taco salad. It is amazingly good, I can't even begin to describe.

To be fair the other roommate can cook too, but it seems like he mostly cooks cooks either italian or burgers.

Actually now thatI think about the soon-to-be-ex roommate cooks vegetarian a lot of the time... maybe it's good that he's leaving.

I need my bacon.

*edit* Pictures of the new house soon.

Quick post update...

Oh how the time has flown. 5 months since my last post.

The less said about the last 5 months the better. I survived it.

Onto the updates.

Our lease is up (has it been a year already?) and busy looking for new digs.

So that is (not) fun.

Got some summer projects lined up, which has me excited.

I was regifted a small enamel kiln, which after I finish refurbishing I will doing more plique-a-jour pieces.

Also I have been inspired by the cool little blog called Knock-off Wood. So after I get moved in I am going build this.

From Furniture pics

Lastly, a chance encounter with a lovely lady has put me on the trail of new tattoo artist. I'm terrifically impressed with his portfolio, now I just need to finalize my design (and finish my green belt.)

The New Casa de' Architectures

So this is gonna be a picture heavy post, and I discovered a new trick... Photoshop Elements has a spiffy photomerge tool built into it... so I will be abusing you with panoramas. Also we are moving in, there are boxes and random stuff everywhere. Cope.


The House. Not a whole lot to say here... looks big doesn't it? It is. Over 3000 sq ft.

First Panorama. The Backyard. The 1 Acre backyard. There are horses next door. The dog is thrilled.

Living Room, from the landing.

Living Room, from the dining room.

Bonus shot of the roommate and girlfriend comparing swords. Yes... we are geeks.

Dining Room. (Aka .. the soon to be gaming room)

Second Panorama. The Kitchen. The Panorama is a little messed up. Really I needed three pictures to get it to work instead of two. However, this is what you get. The backsplash is steel.

Master bedroom with beached squid. Okay, it's actually my bed all rolled up. The picture doesn't do justice... the room is really long.

Master bath. Actually, there is a closet opposite of this and it acts as a sorta of a hallway to the actual bathroom.

Guest Bath. But if my camera is there... how did this picture get taken... hmmm...

Wait? Stairs? Where do they go?What is this? Another door? What horrors lie beyond?

Ummm... okay. Not so much a horror... just and unfinished basement.

REALLY unfinished. (Panorama three for those keeping count.)

Oh... that's better. The one of the roommates is claiming this for his office.

This one will be my cave...err... office.

There is even a workbench in the utility room.

If these pictures haven't bored you to tears, there are some more here. They include the other two bedrooms (to become a sewing room and roommate bedroom respectively,) exciting pictures of the utility room, storage room, laundry room and other fun and exciting things... like bathtubs! Ooooh!