Wrist Fat

Over the holidays, I gained a bit of weight. During the time from Thanksgiving all the way through the Super Bowl, my eating habits were quite prolific.

Anyway, since that time, I've dialed back on the calories just a bit, and picked up the pace and increased the distances in my running. And the results have been positive. I can see that I've definitely lost some weight; I've even moved to the next hole on my belt.

However, as my waistline has shrunk a little, a disturbing development has occurred almost simultaneously. Last week, my watch became very uncomfortable on my wrist. It was suddenly way too tight.

Basically, my wrist had gotten fat. Is it even possible to get fat in the wrist? Will friends and family now start claiming that it looks like I've packed on some pounds in the wrist area?

Kristin's "Gambling Habit"

I have a friend. Let's call him "Matt." Matt has a slight addiction to gambling, and thus Las Vegas. Whenever Matt is in a casino, it's not possible for him to walk from A to B without first stopping at every other blackjack table, roulette wheel, etc. Along the way, he can potentially lose hundreds of dollars. Because Matt is so prolific in Vegas, the casinos "invite" him back with complimentary rooms. Matt takes advantage of Vegas' invitation and then proceeds to lose more money while gambling. It's not something I could do, but at least he's having fun, and that's what counts.

I also have a wife. Let's call her Kristin. Kristin has a slight addiction to shopping. There are certain stores (Banana Republic, to name the biggest offender) at which she shops so much that they like to invite her back, through coupons, discounts, etc. It seems she's going back every week to take advantage of "so many great deals." And unfortunately, it never ends. Just when she thinks she has everything she needs, she finds something new on the rack. And even though she doesn't need it (and I might even argue that she doesn't even want it, considering the number of times she will eventually wear it), she has to buy it, because it's such a great deal.

So I guess my question is whether there is much difference in the way casinos and retailers operate. They lure you in by promising something for free (a free hotel room, or 35% off your next purchase), only to have you spend money on something that is of little or no value to you. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Everyone has their own little addictions, I guess.

"Lost" - **Spoiler Alert**

This week, it seems a new episode of Lost will not air. So I just thought I'd recap the last episode and make my prediction for the outcome of the show.

In last week's episode (March 4), the island finally stopped traveling in time, and so did the survivors (Sawyer, Jin, Julliete, etc). Apparently, when this happened, they were stuck in 1974. Sawyer and the gang ended up joining the Dharma Initiative, which was in full effect at that time. At the end of the episode, Jin found Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun, and whoever else had finally come back to the island. It was a reunion three years in the making.

So here's my prediction. Since they will all be part of the Dharma Initiative, I think they are all going to die at the hands of the Ben Linus and the rest of "the others." (We already know that Ben Linus and the others killed off the Dharma Initiative.) In fact, this is the only ending that would satisfy me. I'm really tired of happy endings, and I want to see the bad guy win just once.

Victory On The Diamond

Yesterday, our team eked out a miraculous come-from-behind victory in the last inning. In a low-scoring game, we gave up 8 runs in the bottom half of the second-to-last inning, to go from up by 1 to down by 7. However, in the top half of the last inning, we scored 10 runs in an amazing rally. And in the bottom half of the inning, we held the other team scoreless.

It was unexpected. It was miraculous. It was beautiful.

As for my contribution, I reached base 2 out of 4 plate appearances, lowering my on-base percentage to .600. And I went 1 for 4, with a hit that just squeaked into the outfield. So I am now batting a pathetic .125. (I'm still looking for a batting cage to go to.)

But we did win, and that is what's most important. Of course, right now, I'm really sore. I really shouldn't be running the bases like that. I'm going to hurt myself fairly soon, and it's going to be quite embarrassing (or impressive, depending on your perspective).

Car Accident

Yesterday, Kristin drove my car to work. On her way out of the parking lot, a guy driving a pick-up truck hit her head-on. At the time, the guy was messing around on his cell phone and not paying attention, while Kristin was completely stopped. Based on what Kristin said last night, my guess is that the guy was going about 2 mph. When she got home, Kristin was not happy at all. She felt bad, and mad. And the front license plate on my car was barely hanging on. Beyond that, though, there wasn't much damage. We'll take it to the body shop this weekend and see what they have to say.

So I guess this is a slight stroke of bad luck. Oh well, what can you do?

However, there are two things to mention regarding this situation:

• My car has now been in two accidents at an average speed of -1 mph. In the first one, I hit the corner of a wall while backing up. That one cost me about $650 to fix. Hopefully, this one will cost less.
• Since Kristin is feeling bad about this, I wonder if I can parlay this into a piece of cheesecake this weekend (I'm kind of burned out from carrot cake right now). Probably not, because she doesn't feel THAT bad.

Well, I guess this is a lose-lose for me.

Three Posts In One

Lots to discuss today. I've got three major items, and I'll start with the least important first.

Softball: Yesterday, our team lost for the second straight game. We are now 0-2. However, there was something to be gained from this outing. We were down 19-3 in the bottom of the fifth, when we staged a rally. We scored 11 runs in that inning to bring the score to 19-14. We gave up two runs in the top of the sixth to fall behind 21-14. And in the bottom of the sixth, we scored six runs, to lose by only one. We could have won the game. We had been down by two with no outs, but our rally faltered. So sad. On a personal note, I reached base all four times I stepped up to the plate. I had two walks (I've been told it's bad form to take pitches in a softball game, so I'll have to re-evaluate for next week), and reached base two other times on infield errors. At least I made contact (although it wasn't all that solid). I also scored three times and had an RBI. So it was a definite improvement on last week. My cumulative batting average is 0.0000 (0-4), but my on-base percentage is now a stellar .667 (4-6).

Blogging: It seems my cousin Pam Sciarra has started her own blog. Apparently, I was her inspiration. (The fact that I am inspiring anyone to do anything is alarming.) This blog will have a link to hers as soon as authorized.

New People: And much more important than the previous two items, Ava Lyn Freiburg was born yesterday morning after something like 26 hours of labor. Congratulations to John and Cheryl! In my humble opinion, Ava looks just like her grandmother, Lynda Cabigas. Good luck to Ava in navigating this crazy world.

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you're all doing well.