Sunday, July 17, 2011

Inspiring Weight-Loss Documentary

I recently watched a documentary film called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", which was an incredibly inspiring tale of a man fed-up with his weight and health problems, who used a 60-day "juice-fast" to address his problems.

For the second half of his "fast" he traveled the US, engaging locals in conversation about food, weight and health issues, all while continuing his own "fast".

One truck-driver he met had so much in common, that he offered to help. The truck-driver subsequently accepts the offer and the second half of the film follows his progress, which is perhaps even more uplifting than the inspiring original.

Anyway, this is a film that is good enough that I feel it worth recommending:

I streamed it on Netflix.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Canyon Creek Ride

Back in June I had Dulcinea on the Canyon Creek Road during a workout.
It seemed like a good opportunity to get a picture of her "in the wild".

Saturday, July 09, 2011

The View From Green Mountain

Arthur and Jamey gamely climbed Green Mountain with me today. I was lead to believe it was a 3.5 mile round-trip, but I think it was actually 5 miles.
Anyway, they were great sports. Arthur even found the trail that led us to this beautiful view of Lake Merwin.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Wordsmiths

Snowbear, Heidi's Great Pyrenees puppy, is already taller than a full-grown Golden Retriever. His shaggy white fur and black nose brings to mind a polar bear. So it was very understandable when Heidi coined a new phrase to describe him: rugamuffin. Yet another perfectly apt word coined by Heidi.

And the gift shows signs of emerging in our oldest boy. Today, while waiting patiently for the doctors to come around and do their thing, Jamey mentioned a "word": dewblop.

"That's not a word"
"Look it up"
"OK"

So I Google it and find only one page in the entire interwebs that has dewblop in the URL, but no reference to it on the page.

Of course Jamey conceded that it wasn't a word.

However, as I continue to think about it I realize what a feat of mental agility it is to coin a word like that which has no precedent in Google's entire catalog.

Meanwhile the doctors were coming back a bit stumped as to what type of fever Jamey had. His symptoms were fatigue, fever for 3 days, and pink spots all over starting on the 3rd day.
The immediate care clinic, unsure as to the diagnosis, sent us on to the ER to give them a chance for a more thorough battery of tests.

While on our way, I described to Jamey that when you had the first instance of a disease, they usually name the disease after you (think Lou Gehrig).
Well, the ER docs didn't think it was anything remarkable enough to investigate beyond saying "it's a virus".
Feeling just a bit jilted for not having the disease named Jamey G. Fever by the doctors, we decided instead to name it ourselves. And the name that seemed to fit best: Dewblop Fever.

Hopefully Dewblop Fever doesn't last beyond about 5 days, or our trip to Seattle will be in jeopardy.