I'm fat. Not fat, fat, but significantly pudgier than I want to be. I knew I was getting quite out of shape, but it didn't really hit home until I weighed myself at the gym (you know, the one I was going to go to twice a week) and saw 186 lbs on the display! WTF? 186 lbs? You've got to be kidding me.

So. A new plan have we. Erin is going to lose 10 lbs. Before I've said I would get in shape, but now I have a goal. Hopefully I can stick to this, unlike all my other promises.

Here's my complicated plan:

• less junk food (especially chips)
• less dessert
• more water
• exercise

I am pretty confident on the food side of things, but I am concerned I won't do the workouts. With two contracts, plus the family, plus the move, I always feel like I don't have enough time. However my health is quite important so I simply must make the time.

I have a radical plan on how to manufacture some time...quit wasting it. Christine and I have realized that most of the shows on TV are crap. Most of the shows we watch we download anyway, so why even have cable? Therefore we are going to reduce our package to just the basics, plus sports. We will watch less TV and our kids will watch less TV, which are both good things. The non-TV time will be reading time, exercising time, stretching time or working time.

Let's see how I do!

The two most interesting things that are going on right revolve around our house and my career. Our house is still for sale and our purchase agreement on the other house will end tomorrow night at midnight. Our plan is to let the agreement lapse, lower the price of our house and keep it on the market till the end of September. If we do get a decent offer, then we are going to see what is available and suite-able and then decide. If we don't get anything, then we will take it off the market and try again in the spring. If we take it off the market, we will likely do the flooring (carpet and hardwood) and we may fix the back patio.

My career is taking an interesting turn also. When I got laid off, I got a "temporary" contract doing development for a former colleague of mine; not my ideal role, but one that allowed me some breathing space while we figured everything out. The intent was that I would look for full-time work while I was doing the contracting. Funny thing happened though...I started to like the working my own hours from home; I enjoy the flexibility and the freedom. Not sure I can go back to 9-5, especially if it involves a commute. That, on top of a slow job market, has meant my transition back to full time work has been slower than expected.

The upside has been I am well on to my way to getting a two more contracts, both of which will be doing thing I like much better, like sales, pre-sales and business analysis. I am continuing to look for full time work but I am not sure how it is going to turn out.

Anyhoo, back your regularly scheduled programming...

The other day Christine commented that she feels like our place is finally coming together and I have to say I agree. Most of the interior issues are resolved with only either really minor things (light fixtures, etc) or some major ones that need some fiscal planning (W/D, new flooring, etc). And we recently made some major improvements to the back garden; we removed some ugly paving stones, shaped in a garden, moved some plants and put in some sod. The only thing left to do is weed and put bark mulch in and our garden will look great!

We are contemplating fixing up the back patio as well; it looks like the most cost effective solution will be to replace the crappy, ugly, broken, uneven paving stones with matching 10mm aggregate, remove the rotting wood spacers, acid washing the other two aggregate slabs, then sealing the whole lot of them. That will give us a nice, nearly new surface to work on and we plan on getting rid of the ugly awning and replacing it with something nicer and moving the awning to be over our sliding door. Then once we get rid of our patio set (we don't use it and it is hard to store) and get our new fancy, schmancy BBQ, we will have a calming place to admire our pretty garden and some space for the kids to play.

On the work front, both Christine and I are really enjoying me working at home. I am going to try to start work early and then take a break in the afternoon to spend time with the family (so Christine can take a break), then pick up work again in the evening once the girls go to sleep. I have also started working out again and plan on doing that two times a week. Working from home feels "right" to me and I really hope I can continue it when I become gainfully employed again. Regarding that, the contract I am on can be full time if I so choose, so we have no financial worries. It also gives me the ability to really find the perfect job (again), although I don't expect anything to happen until the fall as summer is slow and the American economy is lousy.

On top of all that, Christine's fitness business is starting to gain some traction and the girls are doing great, so life couldn't be much better!

No meaningful (ha, as if they were ever meaningful!) updates in a long time. I suck. Saying I have no time is a lousy excuse...there's always time for something you want to do. More likely is that my life has nothing exciting going on right now...still unemployed..still have two wonderful children and one wonderful wife...still doing this contract...great money, so that helps...still looking for cool work...still rambling...

You know how they say bad things come in threes?

First I got laid off last week. Then our car started to sound funny when accelerating and we may have coolant leak into the engine.

And tonight I think the 3rd thing happened...our kitchen freezer seemed to stop working. I hope that there was just something blocking the vents, but if not, then we need to get that fixed as well.

Sigh...

Update: fridge fixed in the morning...only $123. Next up, the car.

Update 2:Car needs a new engine...thankfully it will last a while longer