The Bet

So I wasnt going to mention this but my coworker and I made a bet last week and today he sent an email to the whole company telling everyone what it was.  I figured I couldn't have my company know about the bet and not my friends.  So here it is:

We are both hefty individuals and so the bet was for each of us to lose 40 lbs in 6 months.  The wager: $500.  As an added rule if both of us make it to 40 lbs and keep going then the person who loses the most weight wins.  

So that is it and I figured you all should know.  I have been talking about losing weight and getting in shape for a while now and I think this is just the thing to jump start the process :)

So good luck to me and for those of you getting married...  I will be a lot sexier for your weddings :) haha

"Never tell anyone that you're writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They'll encourage you to death."

The Christmas Slacker

Ok guys, I have a good one for you.  In all my years of impromptu and all around awesome gift giving I have always sucked at gifts for Christmas.  If a gift should be given on a specific date then I just can't do it.

This years example:  I collected addresses and even bought Christmas Cards early but did not send them out...  Pretty much classic Dan.

So if you want a card let me know but it will be late and I might even wait until summer to send it out. They are pretty awesome  :) haha

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."

Thanksgiving Amusement

So as I sit here looking at the traffic outside I have decided to write a blog entry.

An interesting thing happened this past weekend when I went to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I was made aware of some family drama that I had caused with no wrongdoing on my part. I stayed at my sister's house instead on my Grandma's house!!!

Now that you have calmed down I will give you a little background. My sister recently got married and she and her husband bought a house. My sister called me at the start of November and asked me to come down for Thanksgiving (which occurs at my Grandma's house) and so I changed my plans and agreed. Originally I said that I would be staying at my Grandma's house because for my entire life, until now, I have always stayed at my Grandma's house when I went down to Fresno.

About a week later I was speaking to my Mom and she informed me that my sister wanted me to stay at her house but she didn't want to have to ask me. So now we have reached the first source of amusement to me... I was supposed to know my sister wanted me to stay at her house even though she hadn't said anything about it. So to be the good brother I am, I called my sister and asked to stay at her house, a request she nonchalantly accepted.

I then informed my Grandma that I would be joining the family for Thanksgiving and I would be staying at my sister's house. She was happy because she always likes to see me. Or at least I thought she was happy...

Here is the next bit of amusement... My Grandma called my sister to "talk about pies" and randomly slipped in "you know Dan is always welcome to stay here..." and then quickly finished the conversation. I know of this conversation because my sister made sure to bring it up a few times that weekend.

The holiday went off just fine (except for the part where the family ate more of the pie my sister made than the pie my Grandma made, which I fixed by going back the next day to eat a piece of each of my Grandma's pies :) and I made it home safe and full... I spoke to my Mom a couple days later and she said that my sister was very happy from my stay for the weekend, "practically glowing". My Grandma put on the happy front and will take all this out on my sister later. My Grandma is a great woman but is old fashioned and cannot find any fault in the men in her life and so must make comments to the women... :)

So now I find myself amused by the situation I am in: my sister and my grandma both want me to stay with them anytime I come down to visit and I have to make the decision as to who is let down...

"Forever on Thanksgiving Day; The heart will find the pathway home."

Reflection...

So this has been one crazy week...

We have a new President who won by a "landslide" and so now we all get to sit back and see what the future has in store for us. Hopefully it will go well and we won't have any major problems.

The economy is not doing well and that is all we hear about. Not much has changed in my life or many others I know. The frustrating thing is that all the politicians are blaming the other party when it is obvious that they all screwed it up together. We then hear that things are bad because of low consumer confidence in the markets... Wait, that isn't possible! Everything is so cheerful and optimistic on TV and the news... Why the hell would consumer confidence be low????

So the problem was caused and no one will take the blame and do anything to fix it. I suppose we can just keep making money and throwing it at the problem to fix it. We will be back to normal in no time...

Well here's to progress and "change" for the betterment of our nation. Obama has put himself in a tough position and I can only hope that he follows through on his speeches to put aside party lines and work together to solve the problems. Just do me a favor and put aside the past and focus on the future... it doesn't matter whose fault it was that we are here... just that we are here...

Sad but true...

This years Halloween?

Funny E-mail

This was sent to me in an email and I thought you might like to see it....

"Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze?"

Self Scrutiny

Today I read a blog that I was introduced to by my good friend M and today's post got me thinking about what drives us to the decisions we make. The post was a follow up to a previous post where the author asked:

“let's say you're given the opportunity to donate some money to a desperate family who would use it to feed their children, but were only able to do so if you donated the same amount of money to someone you knew would use it to buy crack. Would you do it?”

My immediate thought was that I would never support drug use and instead would give food, thinking this was a slightly clever way to solve the problem as opposed to following her rules. I read some of the comments to this post (of course, my answer was there…) and people had a variety of opinions. Some felt it was a metaphor for the recent bailout or her way of pushing her liberal views onto others…

Turns out it was from an experience she had with her older brother when she was younger and he gave money to a homeless man selling roses, paying 10 times the asked amount. The post of the story was today and the comments were profoundly different: no more questions of a hidden agenda and complete approval. Most were from people who felt they should give more. So this got me thinking about charitable actions and one’s agenda behind them.

I am sure we would all like to think that we give often and unconditionally. Unfortunately I think there is always something more there. I know that many give because it makes them feel good inside and sometimes make up for other slip ups they might have in the future. I know that some give to get the recognition and approval of others (politicians anyone???). Still others give because they feel they are required to or don’t know any different. Does this make it bad?

My opinion is that it is not a bad thing to give to anyone or any cause. We all trust that it will do some good and be used it the right way. We all have to believe this because if we didn’t then we wouldn’t be charitable… and that would be a terrible thing.

I try to give when I can and would like to think that I do so unconditionally but I know this is not true. I do many things to gain the acceptance of others and be seen favorably in their eyes. This does not mean that I don’t like to give and help others, in fact I enjoy it immensely, it’s just that sometimes I feel like it makes me a bad person that I sometimes give to get something out of it. What are your thoughts?


"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave"