Randman's World

“The best minds are not in government; if they were, business would steal them away.”
Ronald Reagan

from the KC Star Crime Blog:

The Violence Policy Center -- a nonprofit group that's opposed to gun violence -- examined the FBI's 2005 homicide statistics and found that Missouri had the highest rate for black people

I'm glad they cleared that up. I always confuse them with the nonprofit group that supports gun violence.

So, back on 11/7/07, I decided to cut out sweets. It was tough, but I eventually lost the intense sweet tooth I have, and stopped eating anything sweet.

Then, I decided to cut out snacks. Between meals, late night, etc. That was tough as well, but it's become easier now.

And recently, I joined the gym at Disney, and have begun working out again.

It's truly paying off. When I stood on my scale at home in the beginning, I was actually to heavy for it, and it read "ERR" (which I believe was scale talk for "One at a Time, please").

Since starting all of this, I am now 12 pounds below the scale's maximum. So, I've lost at least 12 pounds. Plus, I'm down two notchs in my belt, and the blue jeans I just bought are already too big.

Of, there's still plenty of me to love, but I'm trying to shrink as much away as possible.

This is a book that Charlie loved as an infant. He would do the motions, and then loudly yell "to exercise" at the correct page (or whatever a 15 month old could say that sounded like "to exercise"). He still enjoys it, and loves hamming it up for the camera.
Charlie's Favorite Bed Time Story



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Ok, thanks to Noemi, hopefully here is video of Charlie at Cocoa Beach!
Charlie at the Beach



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Ok, here is the update on our lives in Florida.

Uhhh, hmmm, let me think.

Oh yeah, there was that . . .

No.

Ummm.

Actually, everything is chugging right along. Work is going good for both of us. I’ve worked some interesting cases that I’m not at liberty to post about, but suffice it to say, they were completely out of the ordinary, and quite interesting.

Kim is still learning the art of the query (running queries in Peoplesoft). She really enjoys her work, the people there, and the atmosphere.

Charlie is . . . well, Charlie. He’s a happy, funny 3 ½ year old. He enjoys his daycare, and loves spending time with mommy and daddy. He LOVES space shuttles. We watch them on TIVO. We play with the model he got for Christmas. And now we have season passes to Kennedy Space Center. On our recent trip, he got to walk up to the solid rocket boosters on display, and had the biggest grin on his face. When he walked inside a space shuttle, his eyes were big as saucers. And, he even shook hands with an astronaut. We didn’t get to do half of what we wanted to out there, so there are several more trips to come.

He’s not quite big enough to ride the “Shuttle Launch Experience”, but mommy and daddy did. I have to admit. The pre-show of that ride was as good or better than a lot of the rides at Disney. It was informative, fun, exciting, loaded with special effects and technology, and really really loud. The ride itself, while fun, would be classified as a D ticket at best, something that Disney might have done decades ago. But, it was a lot of fun.

Speaking of Kennedy Space Center, while driving to the visitor center, Kim and I had our first wild alligator sighting. There are canals that line the road to the center. I was looking and saw air bubbles coming up from the water, and mentioned that there was probably a gator in there, as we passed. Kim kept looking, and spotted a large gator in the canal about ¼ mile later. It was huge. Then, as we pulled into the visitor center, there was another one in the water. Apparently, KSC is a wildlife sanctuary, so gators thrive in there. There are also manatees, and bald eagles. It was amazing seeing a wild alligator alongside the road. We always joked that every lake or stream we pass has a gator in it. This time, we were right.

We unpacked the final box last week (the china and crystal), and feel almost entirely moved in. Stuff in on the walls, knick knacks are out, and it feels like home. It really is a wonderful house, perfect for us.

It’s been very cold for Florida lately, with temps in the 30’s and 40’s at night. Jackets have been required several mornings, and due to the poor insulation design in Charlie’s room, we’ve had to kick the heat on several nights to keep him warm.

FYI, I did try to post a couple of videos here, but for some reason, Blogger will not host them. And when I tried to put them on youtube, so I could link to them, they disappeard off youtube. So, I’m still working out away to get them posted.