9 Years ago today...

Nine years ago today, a baby girl was born that changed the world for me. In that moment she was born I went from being just a guy to a father.

It was somewhere around the month of January, 1999, I was back in college working towards my BS degree and interning at a small start-up. OhCountess and I had been married for a little over 2 years.

My internship was in a city about an hour away from our home. The drive didn't bother me much, I enjoyed the quality radio time I was getting.

My life had worked itself into a nice routine. School and work kept me busy during the week and most of my weekends were free to be young. That is until I received a small box that changed it all.

On this winter day, I got home from my day like I usually did. My first order of business was to find my beautiful wife and give her a kiss. Today she wore a big smile and handed me a small box with a ribbon on it. This is weird. There is no scheduled reason for this present.

I could never let a box like this last too long with opening it. I pulled the tail on the ribbon and let if fall away. Lifting the cover off the box revealed something I never expected. Inside that box was a tiny baby bib that said 'I love my Daddy!'

Seven months later, my lovely bride was walking a tightrope. She has a preexisting condition that when mixed with a growing fetus was causing her to battle for her life while nurturing our unborn baby. We even had a talk that no young husband ever wants to hear.

The team of doctors looking out for my wife were fighting a battle. Everyone was playing this sick game of chicken. Keeping the pregnancy going long enough for our baby while watching my wife's health deteriorate. I like to gamble, but this was sick.

With 5 weeks to go in the pregnancy, the doctors looking out for my wife pulled the plug and said it was time, either we induce now, or we risk the mother. The baby doctors agreed that the baby should be big enough to be out of the woods. I chimed and said "Just get it done. I want the jackpot...I want both of them!"

9 years ago today, I became a father. I held her in my arms and for the first time in my life, I was filled with a love like I had never known.

I love you OhPrincess - Happy Birthday!!!

The time has come for a change

When I was growing up, my brother and I were extremely active. This is back in the day when we'd kiss Mom good-bye in the morning and come home around lunch time because we were hungry, leave again after eating and come back around supper time cause...we were hungry again.

What did we did between meals? We rode bikes, built things, explored the woods, played baseball, football or any variation of a game near you. We were never sitting still.

In high school, I swam 9 months out of the year competitively and played tennis for about 6 months a year. Back in the day, a pair of shoes for tennis lasted me approximately 3 weeks. I kid you not. I had 3 tennis racks: 1 in the bag, 1 in my hand and 1 in the shop getting restrung.

My biggest weight problem growing up was losing to much. A few times I ran dangerously close to a BMI that was too low for a teenage male as active as I was. Oh, and I almost forgot, I worked too and maintained a B average in school. Nope...no weight problems for me.

College came and I did gain a few pounds, not a lot, but my diet sucked and I wasn't nearly as physically active as I had been. I was burned out on swimming.

After my first tour of duty at undergrad, I went through a few jobs trying to find my way. Most of these jobs were very physical and I felt the need to spend more money on beer and girls then food. No real weight problem here.

I met my wife and found a passion for computer science, I finally discovered the chair. No big deal, I still played softball and tennis and now rollerblading. Yep. I was doing well, weight-wise.

I came home from work one day and OhCountess has a surprise for me. It was a bib that said "I love my daddy." Really? Yeah, really. I was going to be a dad. I had no idea what this really meant, but I discovered one thing, my wife was now suddenly hungry and there was lots of food in the house. Before OhPrincess was born, I gained 30 pounds.

After she was born, I kept my new found weight about the same for 3 years. Never really losing the extra weight, but never gaining any more, until OhCountess tried the "I'm pregnant!" trick again. It worked, and I was able to gain another 30 pounds. CRAP!

In my entire life, I had never really had a problem keeping weight off, but now things were different. I am now a professional chair occupier. I'm really good at sitting on my ass. No, I excel at sitting on my ass.

Tonight, I've embarked on a new journey. I bought Wii Fit. I have my doubts that this will magically remove the weight, but what I'm hoping for is a reason to start a new routine. I've even started a journal to record my efforts. I spent about 30 minutes tonight trying it out. I'm one out of shape rounder.

I hope to chronicle some of this here. Post my progress, my accomplishments, my goals and hopefully, not too many failures, but with a little help my friends and a lot of poking me with a stick, I think I can get myself off the couch and into a smaller waist.

First goal - Lose 3 pounds in 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

Introducing a future MN Twin and Hall of Famer

Oh yeah! It's OhPrincess2's first night at t-ball. She starts kindergarten this fall and the school she will be attending offers a little t-ball league for the incoming little ones.

The pictures really need no captions. She's just the whole package! She runs, she hits, she wears a glove and does that uniform fit like a glove or what???






Yeah. We are busy. Summer is over in a couple of weeks. If you really want to see more of what I've been up to, check out the photoblog and the poker blog, they've been getting updated too!

Here they are at the Honkers game!

Here's the gang at the Honkers game! All tied up after 3. 1-1

At the Honkers game

Some fun baseball. No big league contracts. Just playing the game.