It's Friday again?!

Wow, seems like the past week went by fairly quickly. Hope you all had a good week. Mine was just there, it seems. Well, that's not true. There were a couple of highlights.

My *mumble-mumble birthday was Wednesday. My lovely wife got me some nice gifts to celebrate, including a new digital watch and a couple of movies. Her mom got me a gift card to Best Buy with the intent that I use at least some of it to get a memory card for the MP3 player I got for Christmas. Ya know, for things like that, I love having a January birthday... I can ask for accessories to Christmas gifts and I don't have to wait until July for my birthday to roll around. My folks sent me a gift card to Claim Jumper so we can go out and celebrate with dinner maybe this weekend. The kids got me a very nice tie and even though I don't wear ties very much anymore, I'm looking for an excuse to wear this one. Ooh! I can wear it to dinner! My sister renewed my magazine subscription for me. Thanks, sis! I don't think you quite understand how much that magazine means to me right now. It's almost like I'm emotionally attached to it. Actually, I spoke to a counselor a few weeks ago and she suggested taht I probably am emotionally attached to the magazine because model trains are so far removed from combat zones and people trying to shoot me that it's part of my coping mechanism for post-traumatic stress. I keep saying to myself, "Why do I have PTSD? I hardly ever left the base camps and worked inside most of the time?"

ANYWAY, the second highlight is sort of a mixed bag. As part of our career progression in the military, we receive periodic reviews of our performance from our superiors called fitness reports (or "fitreps") similar to those in the corporate world. Part of our fitrep indicates our current physical condition as far as height and weight to ensure that we are within Marine Corps standards. To make a long story short, I was a bit over my allowable max when I weighed in, but thanks to the patience of my senior leadership I was granted one week to get within standards. Now, I'm not suggesting this for anyone else out there, but when I weighed-in yesterday I topped the scales at 199 lbs. That was 10 pounds lighter from a week ago! I must admit, I practically lived at the gym for the past week and I'm sure about half of my weight loss was really just water weight, but I passed with flying colors! Now I just need to make it an honest weight loss so I don't have to worry about it. I went to a fitness trainer yesterday afternoon and got some pointers on how to lower my body fat and get into better all around shape. I'll be keeping tabs on that at my other blog, so feel free to stop by over there from time to time.

Hope you have a great weekend. Although I was totally bummed to see Carson Palmer get hurt during the wildcard game a couple weeks ago, I'm not convinced the Bengals would've won with him in the game. I think the Steelers are just that good. by the way, I called them beating the Colts. I did! I said at work that with the Colts having not played well in over a month and the Steelers being in win or go home mode since before Christmas that momentum was clearly on the Pittsburgh side of the ball. This weekend against the Broncos should be a good game and I'm going to stick with the gold and black for this one. Having a buddy who lives and dies for the Steelers helps with that call, and since I've become appreciative of the Chargers I can't very well root for their division rival can I? Of course not! Now, for the NFC. Honestly? I don't care. I think the smart money would be on the Seahawks because they have home field advantage and one of the best quarterback/running back combos in the business. Having said that, if Alexander gets hit too hard and turns gun-shy, it could easiliy tip the balance in favor of the Panthers. Still, I'm more interested this week in the AFC championship. Kinda weird for an Eagles fan, huh? Oh well, I guess that's way it goes sometimes. I'll say this now... If the Steelers win and get to go to Detroit, then I believe they have what it takes to win the whole thing.

Tell me what you think.