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Fly's, Flights and Fat

I had one day home to catch up on email, voicemail, send out some DVD orders and adjust to the 12 hour time difference in sleep schedule. Well, that and jet lag from spending about 43 hours of actual in the air time ( not counting layovers ) in one week of flying.



I celebrated my day of recovery by hopping on a plane and flying to Denver to visit my wife's family last weekend. It was also her brother Ken's birthday so some of us chipped in and got him a fly fishing rod and reel. Ken is my fishing buddy and a good friend so it seemed like a logical progression to spring it on him during this trip so we could head up to the mountains with another brother and brother in law to go for some trout.



After several hours of back yard practice casting we took off and I was able to catch a juicy rainbow trout that was big enough to cook up but I forgot to bring a leader on the plane and anything to contain a gutless fish in a car for several hours. It was sent on it's merry way with great ceremony as the first catch of the day. Out of the massive investments of skill and gear made in the fly world I was able to catch a trout right away with an open reel and scented marshmellows. Go Figure. I also ran up to the car for the camera, felt the burn of oxygen deprivation ( we were at least a mile higher than the mile high city itself ) and realized I left it back at the house so I'll have to paste in some silly substitute pic I found on the internet.



We were at the Denver airport by 11:00 AM on Tuesday and very ready to get home. Weather rolled in and our flight was delayed an hour, then another hour, then two more.... then around 8:00pm - canceled. We tried to get another flight but United was already booked well until Wednesday for other stranded passengers so we canceled our tickets and tried to get a flight back from another carrier. Hmm, apparently tons of requests at the last minute for flights insanely drives up the price of remaining tickets so we looked for other options. The airport was PACKED with stranded people with blood in their eyes so I immediately tried to book a rental car. We ended up with a minivan and after waiting in more lines, securing something and trying to retrieve our bags that had been checked all day ( another 2 hours from the time we requested our check in and when it actually showed up in a carousel ) we were on a 14 hour joy ride back to Minneapolis. WOW. What a couple weeks of being in transit mode. It's nice to be home now. :0)

I also realized that I've put on about 6 pounds in the last two weeks. Maybe something about having rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner or eating regular meals but sitting still in a seat for days on end... or maybe I'm a pig that eats more than he can expend, somehow I bumped up from 248 to 254. Not a huge panic other than obviously having to make my way down to the 230 range sometime this summer except for a deadline on a weightloss program I started before Scrapped that will refund 1/2 my money at my final weigh in if I meet my goal... which was due last week. DOH! Before I started Scrapped I came in at about 275 pounds and needed to desperately drop some excess cheek, neck, butt and belly before I was captured in time. The idea wasn't so much vanity ( although I'm obviously over wieght and not excited about it ) but I just didn't want extra belly parts hanging out and distracting what's happening on camera. I made it down to 250 while we were shooting and leveled off. Chubby enough to be aproachable but not thick enough to get in the way of all that hugging that seemed to happen everywhere I happened to be scrapbooking with women. So now I'm trying to shed some poundage in a short amount of time to take the money and run. Looking good is one thing but cold hard cash... that's a motivator!

Now before you start thinking about how big 250 pounds really is just remember that my fit weight out of High School when I was trim, benching around 250 and fitting into size 32 jeans was still around 210. Don't you 5 foot 5 inch ladies be comparing two of you to one of me and gasping in horror at my gravitational pull based on sheer mass. besides, it's fashionable to publicly declare your weight. I saw the other night that it got Tyra Banks on Larry King! I'm just hoping for a continued audience to my blog...


Here's what happened when Connie snuck a picture of me sitting by her mother for dinner and I spontaniously decided to plant a big juicy smooch or her. This is unheard of in her family as we were coerced into even giving goodbye hugs so I milked it for shock value.

posted by wes @ 6:44 AM