DWTS, shopping, still going
So last night was the Dancing with the Stars finale. I have only been loosely following the show this season while Ali has been glued to the tv set for each show. Most weeks I didn’t see it all and would just ask Ali who got kicked off. I did sit down and watch the final with Ali however. Ali made a miscalculation and started watching the show at 9:15. She thought the show started at 8, it really only started at 9. Only giving it a 15 minute head start meant we soon caught up to the live broadcast on Tivo and had to sit through commercials! It’s funny how used to commercial free tv you get.
Anyway I dozed off through parts of the show but woke up enough to see the final result after two hours of them dragging it out. I’m glad Helio won. He represented what the show should have been about, a non-dancer learning to dance. Having the Cheetah and Spice girl on the show was a joke. Yes they were fantastic but they are already professional dancers. Helio has an incredibly positive, uplifting personality which is hard to believe. The guy seems like he shits sunshine. His partner, Julie Ann, whom also won last year is just as cute as a button and surely is a big part of why he won. Oh well, it’s over.
Ali started our xmas shopping yesterday, working off a number of items that we came up with from catalogs. This year we are trying a different approach when it comes to buying for our brothers and sisters that have kids. Instead of buying presents for everyone we are just sending a check for the kids savings account. The kids will certainly get plenty of toys and “stuff” from other people and Santa. Our siblings are certainly old enough that they no longer need us to buy things for them either. Likewise we don’t need tons of stuff bought for us. I told Ali last night that I wanted to cap what we bought for each other to three things each since we were going to Vegas the week before Christmas and surely will be spending tons of money there. I have always loved the Christmas season (although in recent years it has rung a bit hollow). Sitting down in front of a beautiful Christmas tree loaded down with presents is one of my favorite images, but I have to realize that I am an “adult” now and being more practical regarding Christmas is the adult thing to do. Heck we aren’t even going to have a real tree since we are going away. We are going to put up Pop Pop’s old artificial tree instead. It’s going to be a different feeling sort of Christmas morning.
So even though the Spartan Halloween contest is nearly a month past, I have still been following some of the changes I made in preparation for it. My weight is still the same and I still have been substituting my egg beaters, a piece of toast and a small glass of orange juice for the bowl of cereal I used to have. I am only doing my 300 work out once a week instead of twice. Instead of a second 300, I use that day to do some more unconventional exercise like explosive push ups on a bosu, handstand push ups, combo overhead press/squats and any other weird exercise that comes to mind. For being less than a month away from my 40th birthday, I am in good shape, if I do say so myself. I may not be the strongest I have ever been but I think I am definitely as fit as I can ever recall. As I take a look around at my fellow forty year olds, I am holding up better than most.
I can only hope my generally good health continues. When it comes my time to go I really hope it is via a quick hitting, unexpected manner. Blow me up, kill me in a car wreck or something along those lines. The idea of fading away in a torturously slow manner as my mind turns into mush and my body disintegrates is my own personal idea of what hell is.