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.

last night i had this weird dream where jessie bought me a shirt from some upscale department store (*ahem* H&M *ahem*) and either the size wasn’t right or something so I went back to return it and maybe see if a few other things fit my fancy.

I shopped around for a long time amassing a huge heap of clothes. Which is weird because I don’t buy many clothes* and the clothes I do have are not very fancy either.

* I talked with laaazlo yesterday and we both reminisced of our years of cargo short abuse. From 1999-2003 I probably wore cargo shorts every day of my life, yet only owned approximately 3 pairs of shorts over that 4 year span. They were extremely utilitarian pants. I never knew if a CD was going to be dropped into my full hands, but I was always prepared with a CD-sized pocket on my thigh. Or maybe I wasn’t quite ready to put away that book I was reading; the pocketed pants quickly became a useful “holster of knowledge” with just enough book showing so that people would think I was super smart.  Those were the glory days.

Back to my dream.

I go to check out with my assortment of t-shirts and pants and the total comes up to $2800!  Whaaa!?  The panic that can only be felt in dreams starts to set in:  ”She’s already rung it up!  The price is fixed! I have to pay!”  Then a moment of bravery strikes and I gently ask the cashier to take an item away.  It knocks about $300 off the total.  Relieved, but afraid Jessie would be angry that I spent that much on clothes, I took a deeper look at the collection of clothes I had decided to buy.  Most of them were terrible t-shirts with terrible innuendos on them (i.e. one of them had the name of a popular Eagle Rock restaurant that is 2 doors West of the Coffee Table).  Still in panic of making a misrepresented purchase, I was able to make quick judgements and my pile of clothes had diminished to nothing.  It turns out I didn’t want any of those clothes.

Fin.

So I leave it to you, Daniel called Belteshazzar, to interpret my dream.  I have a few thoughts but I don’t want to interfere with your psychoanalysis of me.  If it helps, my current outfit is a pair of jeans my wonderful mother-in-law got me for christmas, a well worn hoodie (you know when the wrist cuffs get kindof rigid with snot), and a $5 Minnesota North Stars t-shirt I got from the MightyFine Sample Sale.  I’m going to just leave it at that and see what happens.

This weekend we’re going to Bakersfield.  Vroom Vroom.

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!

Boiling hot, blue skies.  It is mid January and we ran our air conditioner yesterday.  sheesh!  It is gross how hot southern california is right now.  To all our friends and family in cooler (straight up cold) climates, DO NOT BE JEALOUS.  Also, do not be jealous of my ability to tie in the title of my post to the content. . .

And now presenting “Blue Skies” (there is my mad pun talent) recorded by the generous Dave Lockett.  Dave (my Dave) and I recorded it for my Dad for Father’s Day which was also our wedding day.  Enjoy.

Download

Right Click to Download “Blue Skies”

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. 

Read more

my fancy pants camera has an overlay feature.  this “collage” is glorious.

Jessie and I have a new favorite movie.  We did not find it, it found us.  We were sitting in a hotel room in Cedar Falls, Iowa and this came on the Free HBO.  At first we said “What are we watching?!?”  But then after we saw John Travolta in drag yelling “Tracy Turnblad!” we were sold on it’s value.

But it doesn’t end there!

We Netflix’d the movie to see the whole thing because we were so rudely interrupted by “Thanksgiving” “dinner” “with” “my family” who we “only see” “once a year or so” [/quote fingers].

Now when we say that this movie was *star studded* you might think that we’re referring to Queen Latifah, but we’re not.  We’re talking about 2 minor characters whose appearance sent us into fits of “NO WAI! OMG! I CAN’T BEELEEV IT!”

#1 Playing the roll of Brenda -the girl who gets kicked off the Corny Collins Show for getting pregnant- was played by Cassie Silva who I’m sure you all remember our Favorite Show of the Summer, Clean House!  Cassie was a benefactor of the great kindness of Niecy Nash and her 3 sidekicks.  Her house was full of mayhem and foolishness, but she’s since gone from the show to playing the pregnant girl who has 1 line!  It was an amazing time for us.

#2 This is kind of a bigger deal.  At the end of the movie (no spoilers) there’s a huge dance going on and low and behold, who do Jessie and I see!?!??!?!  CAN YOU STAND THE SUSPENSE!?!?  It’s Stephen Boss better known as Twitch from So You Think You Can Dance!

The addition of these 2 into this overall well rounded movie instantly catapulted this movie into the esteemed collection of The Rupert Family Classics.