About a week ago we moved out of our charming little 1920s bungalow located in the heart of Historical Highland Park, Los Angeles, California.  We sent our stuff away with Jessie’s parents – they are completely the best to us, piled the car full with left over odds and ends and drove over to our temporary residence with our friends, The Gladdens.

We’re calling it “Camp Gladden” because we have campfires and sing-a-longs every night.  Actually, instead of doing all that whenever we’re all home we sit around the TV and watch the first season Battlestar Galactica… which is AWESOME.

Camp Gladden has been wonderful.  It’s been more than ideal for the 2 of us as we stay and finish up Jessie’s school year.  Kyle & Char have been the easiest people in the world to be around.  We’re going to miss them a lot, but are already planning bi-annual family vacations… you know, the usual “Let’s go to Tahoe!” and “We’ve got a timeshare in Acapulco”.

Unfortunately, not everyone seems to be adjusting.  Moogs, who meowed at a 2-second interval the whole drive over, is freaked out by Francine, Kyle & Char’s awesome cat-dog (cat-like, not actually feline).  Moogs meows which causes Francine to bark, which causes Moogs to hiss, which causes Francine to bark, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  Oh well.  You can yell at a cat, but it’ll just face the other way and ignore you.  Francine just wants to play with her new friend, but Moogs is a little emo right now.

We officially start heading East on June 15th, our 1 Year Anniversary.  T-minus 5 days until we leave.  It’s going to be bittersweet leaving the town where we fell in love and so many dear friends, but we’re headed the right direction for us.  We’ll stay with Patty & Henry for almost a week, pack up a truck and drive out our closing on June 22nd.  This is outrageously soon!

Tomorrow Jessie and I will head to Austin, TX for a 6-day exploratory trip where we’ll look for a house to buy with our pre-approved home loan.  Here is a map I snapshotted from Trulia (where we spend most of our evenings) with 928 homes in our search area.  Home buying in an exploded housing market inspired recession has created a plethora of options inside Jessie and I’s price range.  And thanks to the Internet, we can see every single one and make rash judgments based on terrible realtor photos and wide-angle lenses.  All these options are making the decision extremely hard.

Nostalgia wants me to think that it was easier “back then”.  My ill-conceived version what buying a house in the 80s was like goes like this:
COUPLE: We want a house.
REALTOR: Well, we have these 4 available.
COUPLE: We’ll take that one.
REALTOR: Congratulations!  Here’s a key!  And a fence!  And a dog!

Actually, I bet most people in the 80s were forced with a “BUY or BUILD” dilemma.  I know my family did one of each.  Jessie and I have thought about getting a lot and putting a prefab “ultra-green, made of compost and recycled diapers” house on it, but even that fancy double wide trailer home costs you half-a-freaking-million dollars.  So that’s holding us back.  That and cursed indian burial grounds.

So, it’s shaping up to be an exciting week of looking at zillions of houses that we’ve only seen through wide-angle lens photos.  Will the Ruperts find the house of their dreams? Will they be close to or far away from Dave’s work at Paravel Design in Marble Falls?  Will they brave the gentrified ghettos and settle East?  Will they have  the chutzpah to negotiate?  Wait and see!  It could all happen this week!  Stay tuned!

If this were an Onion article it’d be titled “SPOILED YUPPIE HAS SO MUCH MONEY HE CAN’T DECIDE WHICH HOUSE TO BUY”.  Dang.  That’s some humility right there, son!

real quick, wanted to let everyone know you’re at the right website. I freshened up this blog for the spring time. i’m actually not quite done yet but i wanted to push this out the door anyways so i could maintain it rather than have it loom over me. so if you notice anything shifting around, don’t worry about it.

but welcome. and to celebrate the redesign, you can have this cheesy rupeandconk wallpaper!

Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s officially official.  The Ruperts are making the move to Austin.  To some this may come as a shocking surprise, to some a mournful dirge, but maybe there’s one person out there who is saying “That’s great! Here’s a thing of Jell-o!”

But this isn’t the sappy post where we ball our eyes out and profess our love of each and every Los Angelino – I’m talking about you “Next Door Neighbor Fletch House of Cholos”.  This is just the beginning of a long process of getting us (and our stuff) out East.  We’ll save all the weeping and gnashing of teeth for anther day.

Our trip got broken up into 2 parts.  A trip to Phoenix, then to Austin.

In Phoenix, We saw Jessie’s little brother Tim marry his girlfriend-since-college, Jen.  It was a gorgeous wedding and a charming event.  On a personal level, it really redeemed the city of Phoenix for me.  Who knew there were really cool and beautiful places in Phoenix!?  But seriously, we’re really happy for them and wish them the best and can’t wait to hang out with The Conklins.

The next part of our trip was a long 16 hour drive to Texas. We loaded up the Scion full of boxes and things from our garage and now it’s here safe and sound.  The drive was long and grueling and can be summarized in 3 bullet points:

• From Phoenix, AZ to Las Cruces, NM there was a constant 30mph headwind.
• Pep Boys at Exit 28A in El Paso, TX is worthless.
• We almost hit a deer near Fredericksburg, TX at 3am.  Missed by inches.  Scary.

But we finally arrived at 4am to the Walton residence and passed out soon thereafter.   Last night, I disavowed all my hippy PETA-based “Animals should be allowed to roam free” theories in a single second.  Other than that, it was a pretty eventless trip across America.

We’ll be back in LA on Sunday.  Leaving my Scion in Austin, we’ll be a one-car-family until we move all of our stuff out to Texas later this summer.  We know, we know, “moving to Texas in the Summer?!? bad idea!” – but sometimes you gotta play the cards you’re dealt.  Until then, we’re looking forward to packing things and hanging out with our friends.

Currently, Dave and I are desperately trying to use up the rest of our “card” at Pilates Eagle Rock.  A “card” is one of those deals when you pay for 20 classes up front and have one year to use it up.  The mentality behind these cards is something like, ” That means, let’s see, three classes a week, 4 weeks in a month, Dave and I are splitting the classes, so they’ll get used up faster, but still i won’t have to buy another 20 sessions for at least a month!” 11 months later, we still have 14 of our original 20 classes left and the card expires at the end of April.  So Saturday, Monday and Wednesdays you will be able to find us down at the studio engaging our cores.

Tonight’s episode at pilates started by placing a small ball under your sacrum.  It may sound relaxing, but all I can think of is, ‘What if I pop it?.  How shameful would i feel!  I would be so embarrassed!’.  This evening as my mind is racing with these insecurities I hear a long “pshftssssssshhhh”.  Bless Dave’s heart.  Being the loving wife I am I pretty much lose it and everyone else is trying sustain from laughing knowing they themselves where just running through the horrors of popping their ball in their mind.  Our instructor, who is so cool, quickly calmed Dave’s mind, saying it happens from time to time.  It was a short lived event, but a lasting memory.  How sweet.

I hope there are more pilates stories to come, because that means we are using up the classes we already paid for.

just a quick note from as i sit in the airport alone. my grandmother passed away this weekend and both jessie and i are headed up to Nebraska for the funeral. we are however on separate flights due to a disgruntling snafu with the Southwest.com website and flight registration system. we’re about to board, but i wanted to let you our dear loyal readers know…

there will be no pictures of me in my underwear this week.

also, we want to send a couple of special happy birthday wishes because we’ll be missing some festivities.

To Dave Lockett who is having a very big birthday this week. His band http://www.myspace.com/swordfightsrock is playing on Wednesday night (his REAL birthday) and you should go see them.

I love that there are real birthdays and fake birthdays.

And to Cara Snyder who is also having a birthday this week. Her party sounds totally outrageous. Sad we’re not joining in the fun.

We’re saddened we can’t celebrate with the two of you who bring our lives so much joy. Please! Let us take you out to dinner sometime!

That is all i can afford to say. I have to get on a plane now. Omaha, Nebraska… Cow Tipping, USA!

On Feb. 14th, Valentine’s Day, we went to Nina Lucas Presents Winter Ball 2009.  It was put on by Char’s hairdresser, Nina, to raise money for 826 a non-profit organization that Dave Eggers helped get started.  I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in college and LOVED it.  It was maybe the thickest book I read until Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix.  Needless to say I loved A.H.W.O.S.G so I love Dave Eggers, so I love 826, so  I loved going to a Ball that raised money for the organization.  

As if the cause wasn’t motivating enough, you get to dress up!  Adult prom, full on!  Dave put on his charcoal suit (very Mad Men-esque), too handsome. . . barf if you want, he looked good!  Fun friends, open bar, music, dancing, and so on.  It really was a treat to do it up.  Pictures are worth 1000 words, so I will spare you. 

I know.  Today you woke up and thought to yourself, “I wonder if I’ll see Dave in his boxers today?”  Well, the answer *finally* is “yes”.  And I’m proud of the results thus far.

As of this morning, I weighed 220lbs.  This is a pretty big milestone for me.  Although it’s just 18lbs on my personal Biggest Loser trek, I started this year at 240lbs.  I’ve lost 20lbs!  My next milestones will come up sooner than later.  At 216lbs, I’ve lost 10% of my body weight.  At 214lbs, I cease being “obese” according to the terms set forth by the BMI.  

And furthest away, at 202lbs, I’ll be the weight I was in college – once again earning my former nickname “Deuce-Aught-Deuce”.

I feel rather encouraged that I’m still losing weight despite bingeing on In-and-Out while house-sitting in San Marino this past week.

Because there’s been a huge lapse in my reporting I’ll substitute fake pictures with a graph from WiiFit.

Allow me to explain.  Last time we talked, I was just creeping below the 230 mark.  I had pretty nice success, until the 5 pound increase around the second red dot.  This was due to our trip to Palm Springs (another story entirely!) that was mostly drinking and eating.  I think we ate Mexican food 2 meals in a row.  Which is most certainly “off diet” for fellow South Beachers.   I have a picture from that week, but it was taken at night and is most definitely terrible.

on losing…

So there you have it. By some miracle I have lost weight!   But that’s not all I lost.  I lost my iPhone this week at the gym.  I set it down when I weighed in. Went up stairs to “ellipticize”. Freaked out went back to where I left it 1 minute later and it was gone.  I asked around, no one knew anything.

I suspect they are all liars.

But don’t feel too bad for me, I went to AT&T and thankfully was at a point in my contract that I could get a replacement for cheaper than $399.  I don’t think losing my iPhone would have been as-big as deal, except for the fact that we recently bought a brand new computer!  So my tech budget is officially spent for the fiscal year 2009.

I’m losing all kinds of things recently.  I think I accidentally tipped a car wash guy $100.  D’oh.

But you know what I haven’t lost?  My wife.  She’s the best.  She’s overwhelmingly gracious and has been extremely helpful to me when I was fraught with calamities.  So I’m going to keep my eye on her and “hold fast to what is good” as they say. [/mush]

Ok.  Wish me luck. I’m off to the gym again.  Hopefully this time I’ll lose more weight than iPhones!  HAR! HAR! HAR! NYUK NYUK!

In December we caught the tail end of the epic, make-you-cry, hit television series “Biggest Loser”.  I’ve been going to the gym on and off (mostly off) for the past 4-5 years now. It’s a habit I picked up in Japan with my buddy Eric.  We really “went for it” and saw results pretty quickly and I weighed 87 kilos at one point.  Having knowingly let myself totally go -enjoying the many fine delicacies of Americana (i.e. Taco Bell)- this year is as good as any to pursue health.  My wife and I join millions of other Americans in the most popular of failed resolutions: LOSE WEIGHT

The Support Team

This year is different because I have a wonderful wife who shares my ambition of being fit.  As well as our friends the Rices in Houston, Texas who have formally challenged us to a Biggest Loser challenge.  While I won’t be posting everyone’s results here, I decided I’ll go ahead and post mine since I don’t mind people knowing my weight*.  I apologize to anyone offended by the pictures of me in my skivvies, but for comparisons sake it works the best.

Week 1 Results

I am well pleased with this week’s results!  I lost 9lbs – 3.78% of my body weight!  I’m super thankful for the support. I’ll post a few of my tricks after the jump. 

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