Monday Night Food and Fitness

FOOD

Layered Mexican Chicken casserole. LW did her usual excellent job of making dinner for us this week. My favorite meal of the week was this new one she tried from a WW recipe. LW said she used low-fat sour cream instead of fat-free, but she used less of it than the recipe called for. This meal put me in the flashback machine. One of my favorite meals that my mom made when I was growing up was a recipe of my Grandma's called "Tortillas and Sour Cream." This WW recipe tasted just like it, but it had chicken and black beans added to it. I took some in to work with me the next day, and it tasted great as leftovers, too. Two thumbs up! (Photo is from the WW website).

FITNESS

It wasn't a very good week for me fitness-wise. I had a nasty head-cold and felt like death-warmed-over most of the week. Each morning I would spend about 30 minutes to an hour coughing up all the gunk that had accumulated in my chest and sinuses over the night, so I didn't go to Command PT. Luckily, I maintained my weight. I suspect dehydration may have been a factor in that though.

This morning, I was still coughing a little bit, but doing much better than last week, and I really wanted to start running again. We didn't have our usual Monday Command PT because it's a holiday, so I decided to go for a run out on the bike path. I forced myself to jog at least the first 1.5 miles to get ready for the upcoming PRT, but I was coughing a lot and had to stop and walk the remainder of my usual 4-mile route after that. I coughed all the rest of the way home. Maybe it was too much too soon after being sick, but I really felt like I needed to get SOME form of exercise.

Warning: Tangent Ahead. This post soon departs the "fitness" topic at hand...

It's actually been a while since I ran on the bike path. I've normally just been going to Command PT and running on the base or on the treadmill at the gym. Running on the bike path made me think of another "pro" to add to the list for moving back to the east coast. I miss the nice, clean paths and the fresh air in the parks in Virginia and lots of other places on the mainland. You would think in a place with as much natural beauty as Hawaii that the residents would be more respectful of the environment and not just totally trash the place. I suppose if they've never traveled anyplace else, then maybe they don't appreciate the beauty of their home state. It just makes me sad to see so much trash along the sides of the bike path and elsewhere around the island, and the stench that comes from the trash makes me nauseous. I wonder if that's why the boys don't like to go running with me here like they did in Virginia?

It also surprised me that they don't have a recycling program here. I think everyplace we've been stationed before this had SOME form of a recycling program where the city picks up recycling right alongside your trash can. Not here. If you want to recycle here, you've gotta do it on your own and take the stuff in to a recycling center like at the NEX. At least you get some cash-back that way, but they still won't accept nearly as many types of recyclable products as they would in our previous duty stations.

Okay, sorry, I'll get off my environmentalist soap box for now.

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend!

It's the Little Things...

When I was at Blockbuster this weekend, I had an amazing experience. I had an encounter with someone with manners! I was just browsing the movies on the shelves, and a lady and her son were browsing in the opposite direction. The lady said, "excuse me" and admonished her son for walking in front of me while I was looking at the movies. She most definitely was not from around here. Now, this isn't intended as a slam against Hawaii in particular. I made the same observation soon after we moved from California to Virginia. That time it was in a grocery store that someone said "excuse me" before walking between me and the dozens of varieties of laundry detergent at which I was looking. It's such a simple little thing, really. I don't know why it's not customary in California or Hawaii.

Tangent: This is making me think of one of my favorite movies - Blast from the Past. There's a great line in there about how being polite isn't meant to sound snooty or superior, it's just a sign of respect and courtesy.

Speaking of grocery stores, they should seriously hire a traffic cop for the commissary here. I went to the commissary yesterday, and it was an absolute ZOO. It was just so congested with people going in all different directions and totally clogging the aisles. I had a flashback to the commissary in Groton where they had a defined traffic pattern with one-way aisles. As a young JO, I used to laugh at the little old ladies who would get mad at you if you violated the traffic pattern. I guess maybe it's yet another sign that I'm getting old, for I would now side with the little old ladies and tell other arrogant young whipper-snappers like use-ta-me to follow the arrows. Not following the arrows just leads to chaos and anarchy!!!

Getting back to yesterday's commissary experience... Normally, the checkout lines are horrendous and wrap counter-clockwise around the perimeter of the store past the frozen food deserts in the front, past the dairy products on the side, and into the meat section along the back wall. Much to my surprise yesterday, the lines actually weren't that bad. ...but you wouldn't know that unless you walked by the FRONT of the store.

Luckily for me, I couldn't find the apple sauce. I got to the end of the store and hadn't found any, so I started back-tracking. As I walked from the dairy section back by the front of the store, I noticed that the REAL checkout line was only like ten people long. [Aside: In this commissary, like some others, you get into one line, and when you get to the head of the line you go to the next open cashier for checkout.]

However (comma), a few people who obviously were familiar with how bad the lines normally get at the commissary were strategically staging themselves with their shopping carts right where the line normally comes out of the rope-cattle-chute-things at the front of the store and back along the frozen foods. They did this so if the line DID start to get long like it normally does, they could then quickly get in line and hold a spot while their significant other was off grabbing whatever remaining odds and ends they needed.

Unfortunately for some other people in the store who didn't forget where the apple sauce was, they expected the line to be long and wrapped back into the dairy section, so when they saw a few people with shopping carts standing there, they thought that was the line and they got in line right behind those . I'm mildly curious how long it took for either (a) those poor people to realize they weren't really in line and go on up to the REAL checkout line, or (b) the line got long enough that those people suddenly BECAME the real checkout line.

LW chastised me for not going to the Hickam commissary instead. (See last paragraph of previous post on how the Hickam and Kaneohe commissaries are typically a lot less crowded).

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of All Who Threaten It

Making the YouTube rounds tonight...

Many thanks to Bubblehead for posting the SWCC videos posted by the Navy on YouTube. If you click on the user name, UnitedStatesNavy, it'll take you to this profile page. I really liked the personal information provided for this "user":

Name: United States Navy
Age: 38

Actually I'm 231 years old, but you have to be at least 18 to join the U.S. Navy.

Hometown: There are so many places I consider home...primarily the United States, but you can find me throughout the world.

Occupation: Defender of Freedom Everywhere
Interests and Hobbies: Defending freedom, delivering food, water and shelter to those in need, rescuing people and saving lives, keeping the world's oceans safe, open and free of sea pirates.
Music: Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful
Books: The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights...
Website: http://www.navy.com

There are some pretty cool Navy recruiting videos in there.

In the links to other "related videos" though, there were some funny ones the USNA mids have put together like this "Accelerate Your Life - Naval Academy Style."

Wendy over at All Ahead Full posted a Valentine's Day video from an E-2C Hawkeye squadron, the VAW-113 Black Eagles. I started perusing some of the squadron's other videos. They've got a pretty talented editor and a very supportive squadron cast to put the time and effort into producing something like this (don't forget to scroll down and pause my blog music so you can listen to the music with the video)...

Saturday morning odds and ends

I hate being sick. LW hates me being sick. She'll get the same bug and she'll have a managable cold for a couple of days and be over it. LW says I'm pathetic and I look like I'm on my death bed. For me, it always takes like two weeks of coughing and hacking my brains out. I really hate being up until 2 a.m. coughing and then being dead to the world when my alarm goes off at 5:30. LW also hates it when I sleep through my alarms. She doesn't fall asleep as easily as I do. I'm ready for this head cold to go away.

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In browsing the blogosphere last night and this morning, I found a couple of really good writers sharing stories of their parenting adventures. I found I could relate to both Dad Gone Mad and Sarah and the Goon Squad. They're both very talented writers and fun to read, although Dad Gone Mad is a little foul-mouthed. I found Dad Gone Mad because it was recommended to me by my Google Reader, and then I found Sarah and the Goon Squad off a link from Dad Gone Mad's t-shirt sales. Anyway, if you need a laugh or two, check them out.

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Chances are we'll be heading to the East Coast again in the fall. The detailer sent me a list of five jobs to consider.

First choice is in Norfolk:
Pros:
- Close to many navy friends who are also stationed there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- It's a very career-enhancing job, too, but as a result I'm one of four guys applying for the job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church with friends of ours from church in San Diego.
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- Long work hours and traffic.
- No Jamba Juice or Robeks.

Second choice is in DC:
Pros:
- Close to friends from our last shore duty there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Manageable cost of living - size of house we can afford is dependent on how far outside the beltway we live.
- It's a very really cool job, too. The detailer said if I don't get selected for my first choice, then I'm his top candidate for this job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church. "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came..."
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- DC traffic.


Third choice is in Groton:
Pros:
- Closer to friends in NY.
- MUCH closer to family in New England. LW says my MIL would kiss my feet if we went there. LW is from Boston and I was stationed in Groton when we first met. We haven't been back to Groton since then.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- The job would certainly help prepare me for my next sea tour if I go back to sea again.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...
- Non-existent traffic / easy commute.

Cons:
- This job would involve sea time, riding lots of other boats and spending time away from my family. Again - good for my professional development, but not so good for my family.

Fourth choice is here in Pearl Harbor: See previous post for pros and cons of staying in Pearl Harbor.

HD vs. Blu-Ray DVD - Follow Up

Follow-up to my previous post on HD DVD versus Blu-Ray.

First, on Tuesday, Netflix and Best Buy announced they are letting HD DVD go by the wayside and are sticking with Blu-Ray. It sounds to me like it's "game over" for HD DVD. (See "Netflix and Best Buy Feeling Blu").

Then, yesterday, in spite of this article back in April 2007 in which Wal-Mart had declared HD-DVD the "winner" in the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray format contest.

There is one retailer that has the power to call the winner of the protracted Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fight and that vendor is Wal-Mart. Over the weekend they apparently leaked plans to bring in a massive number of low cost (possibly sub $200) HD DVD players for Christmas...

What does this Mean?

It means that any studio wanting Wal-Mart’s support after year end had better be selling HD DVD movies. Wal-Mart won’t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them. (Rob Enderle, Digital Trends, 23 Apr 2007)

The latest news says that Wal-Mart is switching sides and will only sell Blu-Ray

Wal-Mart Stores said on Friday that it plans to exclusively back the Blu-ray high-definition movie format, in the latest blow to the rival HD DVD camp backed by Toshiba.

In a statement on its Web site, Wal-Mart said that over the next few months it would phase out sales of HD DVD systems and discs, and by June will sell only Blu-ray products.

The decision marks the third retailer this week to turn its back on HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray... (Reuters, 15 Feb 2008)

HD-DVD is like a sinking ship. I wonder how long it will be before Toshiba, Microsoft, and anybody else clinging to a hope of HD DVD staying afloat will give up and get on board the Blu-Ray boat? I suppose they have to continue to publicly support it until they get their inventory of HD-DVD players and DVDs sold off to minimize their losses. In fact, I think that must be why my mom found such a great deal on the HD-DVD player - the retailers see the righting on the wall and they're trying to clear out their HD-DVD inventory (note: HD DVD movies are like 50% off on Amazon.com right now).

Follow-Up 2/25/2008: Toshiba has raised the white flag and announced they will no longer manufacture the HD DVD players. Game over, man.

Monday Night Food and Fitness

Food

Tortilla Soup: LW made a really good tortilla soup from a Family Circle magazine recipe. According to the nutrition information in the recipe, it was only 5 points per serving on the WW scale. She also put in some avocado slices, low-fat cheese, and tortilla strips that added like 3 points. Next time she plans to use one less tablespoon of olive oil to reduce the soup to 4 points per serving.

Thinking about tortilla soup sent me on a flashback to Monterey. Turtle Bay Taqueria in Monterey made an awesome soup called Sopa de Lima that I used to get all the time. They had the broth for the soup already made up and ready to go. When you placed an order for the soup, they would grill a couple of chicken breasts, dice them up, put them in the bowl, and then add the broth over it. It was really good! If you live in Monterey and haven't been to Turtle Bay, you should try it!

Another one of my new favorites LW made this week was Baked Falafel Sandwiches from this WW recipe. Only 6 points per serving, and they were really good. I loaded mine up with fresh tomato slices, onion, and lettuce to add some volume to it without adding any significant calories. (The falafel recipe photo on the right is from the WW website).

Fitness

My muscles ached for a few days after our Wednesday morning session with the new PT She-Nazi. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit she's a bit older than me, and she kicked all of our butts. Her husband is a pretty senior officer (a couple of paygrades above me). She had already led a 6 a.m. class that she was just finishing up when we got there for our 7 a.m. session.

After stretching out, she started us off with "two laps on the bleacher steps." Now, with the old PT Nazi, he would have us all divide up so that there were two or three guys per set of steps. When he said "two laps" of the bleacher steps, we would go to our chosen set of steps and run up and down that set of steps twice. Nope. Nyet. No more. When the new PT She-Nazi says, "two laps," she means start at one set of bleacher steps, run up and down that set, run clockwise around the basketball court to the next set of steps, run up and down that set, run clockwise to the next set of steps, run up and down that set... I think there are like 16 aisles / sets of steps going up into the bleachers, so "two laps" is actually running 32 sets of steps.

Then she had us doing sets of 40 tricep-dips on the bottom bench of the bleachers, walking lunges across the basketball court and back, squats, football-style sidesteps, leg lifts, crunches, another set of "two laps" on the bleacher steps, more tricep-dips... It was a really good workout, but my shoulders, triceps, ankles, hamstrings, gluteals all ached.


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Rewind to my previous post about TV shopping. Today we got the thing in the mail from Circuit City explaining why I was denied credit there. Any guesses why??? My credit application at Circuit City was denied because I already have a credit account established at Circuit City. ...UNbelievable. Why don't they just TELL you that at the counter??? We haven't bought anything at Circuit City since we bought our washer and dryer in Monterey back in 1999, so I didn't remember opening an account way back then. We had a bad experience dealing with Circuit City then, so we have been hesitant to ever go back.

As I stated in my previous post, I got what I wanted for the price I wanted, so it's Circuit City that lost out on the sale. Still, it would have saved me a couple of trips zipping across town if they would have just said, "You already have a credit account with us. What would you like to buy today?"

Sunday night rants

Sleeping In on the Weekend (or not...)

Like CC, I have never been a morning person. It boggles my mind that we set an alarm clock to wake our boys up on weekdays to get up and get ready for school, and LW has to drag them out of bed and it's a daily battle for her to get them dressed and ready for school. WHY WON'T THEY BE THAT WAY ON THE @#$% WEEKEND?!?!?! We turn their alarm clock OFF on the weekend in HOPES that they'll sleep in. Good Heavens, no! They get up at the very butt-crack of dawn WAY before their alarm clock EVER would have gone off!!!

I suppose I wouldn't mind so much if they would just go downstairs and play quietly and not wake us up, but they get into arguments about things and LW and I wake up to ES yelling at YS because YS isn't complying with his orders, or YS crying because ES took something from him.

This morning was a new one on me. I startled-awake at 6 a.m. to the sound of YS making his "shpew! shpew! shpew!" shooting noises. It was still pitch black in our room, and I leaped out of bed to go tell YS to be quiet before he woke up Mommy. I got to their room and saw the boys' door wide open and saw the light from the TV down the stairs, so I assumed they were both downstairs. I went down to tell the boys to be quiet. Arriving in the family room, finding ES in my chair, I lit into him, "What on God's green Earth are you doing up at this hour?..." and was surprised by LW startling awake on the couch at my interrogation of ES. Yes, in my half-awake bolt out of bed, I didn't even realize LW wasn't IN bed because she had already gone down with ES at like 5:30.

I was also surprised not to find YS in the family room. Next thing I knew, he started yelling, "MOOOOOMMY!" from upstairs in his bedroom, so I went back up there. He said he wanted to play Lego Star Wars. I told him fine, go down and play with ES but be quiet. I went back and crawled into bed. Not 30 seconds later, YS starts crying. So I get out of bed and go back over to the boys' room and ask what's wrong. He said his jammies were wet and he wanted to change clothes. I felt his shirt and sure enough, he's sopping wet (he wears a pull-up to bed, but he must've drank a couple'o'gallons of water before he hit the rack). While I start to pull out some clothes to change him into, he pulls up his pajama shirt and starts using it to wipe his face. "Oh, YUCK!" I said, and told him not to do that with the shirt that's sopping wet with pee.

It was a fabulous morning I tell ya. Oh, and did I mention that YS has been sick with a cold this week and now LW and I have it, too. I woke up feeling miserable this morning, and being startled out of my cold-medicine coma by YS's "shpew!" noises just didn't start my day off on the right foot.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to LW though. Thank you, Sweetie, for enduring the boys this morning and letting me go back to bed for a while!

Monday morning update:
Saturday: Up at 5:30 a.m.
Sunday: Up at 5:30 a.m.
Monday: In spite of his alarm going off at 6:50, had to be dragged out of bed at 7 a.m.

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Crazy Drivers

I've seen people make a left turn from the right lane.

I've seen people make a right turn from the left lane.

Tonight was a first though. Tonight I was driving to the NEX and waiting at a stop light. I saw the car in the right lane make a left turn at the SAME time as the car in the left turn only lane drive straight through the intersection. I seriously witnessed a miracle tonight. Those cars passed with like millimeters of clearance. Both of those dudes' guardian angels had to have been there exerting every ounce of their Godly might to keep those two cars from colliding.

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They Never Hear Me Coming

I'm discovering one of the drawbacks of driving a hybrid... Stealth. You see, stealth is a good thing if you're a submarine or a NAVY SEAL or an Army Ranger or a Force Recon Marine. At first, I thought it was pretty cool having such a quiet car. Over time though, I am discovering that stealth is not such a desirable attribute for a car.

The first time the effects of driving a quiet car became apparent to me was when I startled one of the gate guards driving on base after dark with no traffic. As usual, I dimmed my headlights as I approach the gate sentries, so there were no bright lights to grab his attention. He never heard me driving up until I said "good evening" to him out my window. I find whenever I go on base during low traffic times, the gate guards comment on how quiet my car is.

The second time the risks of driving a stealthy quiet car dawned on me was just driving around our neighborhood. There are always a lot of kids playing in and around our street, so I have to drive slowly and be alert for little kids darting out in front of me (which they have on a few occasions). As I drive slowly though, the engine shuts down and I'm just creeping along on the battery, so kids that may be just sitting there drawing pictures with chalk on the street or in my driveway don't hear me coming until I honk.

Tonight was the third time this has come to mind as I'm driving through the parking lot and nearly hit this lady that stepped right out in front of me without looking. She didn't even notice me there and proceeded to just walk along right smack down the MIDDLE of the aisle in front of me. I didn't want to honk so close behind her and give her heart failure. As she turned to go toward the store though, all of a sudden in her peripheral vision she caught a glimpse of my car, did a double take, and was startled there was a car driving down the aisle right behind her.

I know they sell those little things you can mount on your bumper to make a whistling noise that scares deer away. Maybe I should look for some kind of noise maker that makes my car sound like a Freightliner truck so people will notice me coming and get the heck out of the way.

Okay, time for me to get off of my soap box, take some more cold medicine, say a prayer of thanks for the many blessings we have and should be grateful for, and go to bed. Good night, all.