A Possible Source of Speechlessness

I mentioned in an entry a couple of days ago that I for once was speechless and wasnt sure of the reason. Deep down I know one of the reasons, I was just denying it or surpressing it as best as I could.

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with Andropause. To keep the definition short and sweet, basicaly my testosterone is on the decline. With the decline in testosterone level comes many different symptoms. Some of those symptoms can be depression, mood swings, non injury aches and pains, loss of sexual desire, fatigue just to name a few. I suffer from several of them. To combat this, I started a hormone replacement therapy in late spring. Basicaly I was given an injection of testosterone in pellet form that slowly over time released into my system and brought my level up higher. Im not sure what the numbers mean but before I started the therapy my level was less than 300. A male my age should be at a minimum of 750. About midway through the summer my level was checked again and I was in the mid 500s. Better but not were it needs to be. With the therapy I have to get injections twice a year. Well I can see that its time as some of my symptoms have come back in full force. I would assume my level has dropped again. Not sure if on this next go around my Dr. will increase the amount of pellets I get or what. I guess its something I need to discuss with him.

Needless to say I know I need to do something. Its not such a great feeling when your wife tells you, "I wish you'd get your next shot". Heh, easy for her to say. She doesnt have to go in, get a local injection, have an incision made and a small load of pellets ( which I cant feel ) inserted into my upper glute area. Its a bit humbling and painful but in the end its worth it. Its also nice to know theres a reason why for the last year or more I have been moody, depressed and so short tempered at times. Not to mention the aches and pains I was feeling. Some of them were from the low testosterone level. Ive learned a bit of the last 4-6 months about some of this stuff.

If youve made it through all of this entry, thank you. If your still gonna check in back in after finding out a bit more about me than you had planned, awesome. Some of you might have heard a bit about this before on Kick but obviously without as much detail. Thanks for reading and being patient with me

More cowbell and the Transfomer's song

With the amount of time we spend in the car a day ( a minimum of 2 hours ) music is very important to my family. Actualy its always beem important to Debbie but its taking on a new or different meaning for the kids and I. Im resistant to change when it comes to my choice in music so Im pretty much stuck in the 80s with a splash of the 90s and today thrown in. Its not unusual for my kids to sing along to and enjoy Styx, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, Nickelback etc. Today as a matter of fact Tyler was singing along to Joan Jett and The Blackheart's I Love Rock and Roll.

Lately, once a song is over, Tyler will ask the name of the song and the artist. Sometimes he gives me the reponse of "correct Daddy" or there are times when we get to Amy's house ( T's baby sitter ) he will inform her of what he was listening to.

On our way to T-ball practice we were listening to Blue Oyster Cult's Dont Fear The Reaper. I guess I never really paid attention to how much cowbell is played in that song. I mean ive always heard the joke about "more cowbell" but never paid it much attention. The sound of the cowbell brought me back to near the finish line in Philly when Lori was banging away on Colleen's cowbell at last years Marathon/Half Marathon. Hard to believe its been a year since I was back there and saw all those people.

The next song that was played was Linkin Park's "What Ive Done" Good song as most are from Linkin Park. When the song was over Tyler asked me, daddy what was that song. When I told him he told me "no, thats the Transformers song. At first I was a bit puzzled and then I remembered he had seen the Transformer's movie at Amy's house and it mustve been in the movie. Sure enough after some Google searching I found the soundtrack and the songs and artists and there it was. Smart little shit =)

Well this entry was a much better one compared to yesterdays. Guess I just needed more cowbell =+D

Wow, for once im speechless

I dont have alot to say lately. Not sure why that is. I noticed I havent written an entry in a week or more. I could talk about my stupid human trick but nah, thats old news already. I could talk about my weight loss. I am back down below 190 again. I dropped 2 lbs since a week ago Monday. Just dont have much to say. Hopefully that changes soon

T Minus 2 months and counting

Well I jumped on the scale Saturday morning as it was the 18th and two months till my birthday. I had lost .6 from when I was on the scale Monday. Its a step in the right direction.

At this point I am 15 lbs from my goal. That means I have to lose 7.5 lbs a month in the next two months. This is were my half empty nature gets going. Im trying to remain positive but its getting harder. In the grand scheme of things, even if I dont make my goal, I wont consider this journey a failure. Since the 1st of the year Ive lost 14 lbs ( had dopped 18 at one point but hit a rough spell ) Ive dropped at least two inches in my waist and ive had people actualy comment on my weight loss. All good things. So even if I dont make the goal of losing 30 lbs, there are still plenty of positives to outweigh the one negative.

Dont get me wrong, im not throwing in the towel. Im going to continue the fight. Ive still got pounds to lose and time to do it =)

I need to quit betting beers =)

Im not much of a betting man usualy but yesterday I entered into a little wager with Kris. Her Cleveland Browns were playing my New York Giants on Monday night football. I shot her a txt msg yesterday afternoon and asked it she wanted to bet a beer on the outcome of the game payable at the next 30s meetup we are at together. She said sure and that she'd pick out a good beer for me when It came time to collect. I thought to myself, the Browns just might beat the GIants as they dont have anything to lose going into the game. Well sure enough the Browns kicked the crap out of the Giants. I will happily pay up my debt when I see Kris sometime next year.

This is the second time in a year ive lost a beer involving beer. I bet Bob Wilber, who is my favorite FunnyCar driver Del Worsham's team manager, a beer on the outcome of a Minnesota WIld vs. Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey game last season. I lost that one too. Ill be paying up on that beer next month in Pomona, CA at the NHRA Finals.

It would be easier to bet money =) I do better at that

Another Saturday, another Tyler T-ball game

This week's game was a little different in that head coach Brenda wasnt there. She was partying in Rocky Point Mexico for her birthday. So two other dads and myself took to running the team. It was fun. As Debbie said in her blog recently we will probalby be spending alot of time at baseball fields with Tyler. I think he'd play everyday if given the chance.

Whats amazing to me is, when it comes to baseball personaly, I can take it or leave it. I only played one season of Little League growing up and I hated it. Tyler seems to have a gift for it. He can hit the ball pretty well, has a strong throwing arm ( and he's a lefty ) and fields the ball pretty well. And he's 4! Who knows with him.

Speaking of sports and ones I do like. I might go play open hockey at the inline rink I used to play at. Its been over a year since I played last. If my back is up to it, I may just go lace up the skates, put the pads on and see how it goes. We shall see.

I told Deb the other day that I may sign up for a league here shortly. Guess it all depends on how the open hockey sessions go.

Thanks for reading!

San Antonio, TX

Have never been to San Antonio but I hear its a great city. Being I'm an American history buff, Id love to visit the city especialy to see the Alamo and to take a cruise down the river walk. I apparently have a reader of my blog from the San Antonion area but yet I dont know anybody that lives in San Antonio. Vedy, vedy interesting.. ;) Would be interesting to know who my mystery reader is.

Positives and Negatives with my weight loss

Ok, so I got on the scale on Monday. I definately didnt like what I saw. I could very easily blame my shitty ( yes I skipped bad and poor ) eating and drinking choices on being depressed over the loss of Shiver the week before. No, thats not fair to my dog, I was just an idiot last week. Why am I so harsh on myself, I gained 3 lbs in a week's time. Ugh.

I know my good friend Kris will say it was just one moment in time and it will pass. This I know, Im just mad at myself.

Moving on to better things. I got paid a compliment today. While I was at the Peoria central office today, an equipment installer that I havent seen in more than a year noticed I had lost weight. He struck up a brief conversation asking me what I was doing differently, was I exercising, etc. I just told him I was trying to make better choice in what I was cramming in my pie hole and yes, I was exercising more. He told me he had quit smoking but had gained weight once he did. I said yeah, the food actualy tasted good now that you werent smoking, he laughed.

While Im thinking about it, I took a piece of info that Kris shared on Kick about a website she uses through about.com thats a calorie counting website. Just in the two days I have entered my caloric intake I can see why losing weight can be a challenge for me. According to the website, Im supposed to be consuming 2100 calories a day. Yesterday I took in 3200. Today, ill be lucky if I took in 1600. I nneed to get more consistent in my intake.

Thats about it for now. Only about 2 1/4 months to go, wish me luck on my remaining journey.

Coach Frankie Pt 2, or what I did Saturday

Well Tylers first t-ball came and went. It went pretty well. At this age and skill level they dont count wins, losses, runs or anything like that. Its all about learning the game in a non pressure, fun sort of way. I wound up helping out at second base when our kids were in the field and I helped the kids with batting. Each team had two turns batting and two tunrns fielding. The umpire told me after the game was over that before the end of the season the kids will get 3 and 3 as they get a bit faster with things. Im glad my mom, dad and neice Makayla were able to make Tylers game. Here are some pics...

Tyler prior to the game

Taking a swing...

Me keeping an eye on the kids

Tyler and I post game

After lunch, we headed to the Solid Rock indoor rock climbing gym to celebrate nephew Ryans 7 th birthday. We had a pretty good time. Even Tyler got into the rock climbing a bit. He went about 2/3rd the way the wall and then he got a bit scared

All in all a really busy day for us. After the rock gym ( were I saw Kris's twin =) ) We went back to Deb's sister's house for pizza and birthday cake and ice cream ( and to watch the 'Huskers get the crapped kicked out of them =) )

We had two tired kids on are hands after all that. Gotta love fun time spent with the wife and kids.

This coming weekend wont be quite as much fun, we have another t-ball game and then im cleaning out the garage, its a huge mess.

Thanks for reading!

Coach Frankie?

Before anybody from Kick gets any ideas, Im not taking Trevors place as a running coach. Tyler started t-ball last week. His coach, Brenda, is new to coaching. She let us parents know that we can have 4 coaches on the field during game play to help the kids. She asked if any of us parents would be interested in helping with the kids during practice and during games. Several of us volunteered.

Last night after about 10 minutes of the kids playing catch ( or attempting to, they are 4-6 year olds ) we broke up into 4 smaller groups and each group practiced some thing different for 5-10 minutes. Then we rotated the kids. I got to show the kids how to run the bases. Brenda wants the kids to learn to just touch the inside corner of the bases as they run and what the go ahead and stop signs are. Uh yeah. We practiced it, some kids got it, some kids not so much. I thought Tyler had alot of energy, a few of his teamates have him beat. After the little exercises we then had the kids take turns batting and fielding. Tylers favorite part is batting and he didnt quite get the fact that he had to take turns.

I think its kinda fun being an assistant coach. Debbie has mentioned to me several times in the past about volunteering to coach inline or ice hockey ( as I have so many years of playing it under my decreasing belt ) I havent gotten around to doing that yet but I am enjoying helping with Tylers t-ball thus far. Who knows, maybe in the next season or two Ill step up and be a head coach.

Tyler's first game is Saturday morning. Hopefully Ill have some pictures I can share of it.

Thanks for reading