"I gave you my heart, the very next day, you gave it away..." Come on, you know the song. I think its by George Michael or Wham! originally, but the only version I have is a cover by Jimmy Eat World.

So another Christmas is in the books. Being Jewish, I don't really have strong feelings one way or another on the holiday. I will say though, it was nice to have a few days off and a nice long weekend. Now its back to work and back to the program. I may have eaten a little too much over the past few days, but thankfully Missy and I went spinning on Sunday and Monday morning. I just need to really go to the gym tonight and eat well today and get back on track. I know I'll be OK, so I'm not too worried.

So what did I do with that long Holiday weekend? Saturday Missy and I went into Queens to have brunch at one of her best friends apartments. A bunch of her friends from college was there and it was the first time they were all together in one room in awhile. I had met a lot of these people on separate occasions, and knew most of their spouses as well, but it was cool to be around them all at the same time, and I got along great with everyone, so thats good. I hope they liked me! Especially the guys. There's just something about wanting to belong and get along with a bunch of guys. Don't ask me why.

Sunday we spend the day at my parents house, celebrating Hanukkah with my family, since my parents were in Hawaii when the holiday actually started. I had already gotten a few small gifts from my parents, like socks and cologne, but Missy got what my parents gave her and we exchanged gifts with my brother and Beth. Nothing major, but it was a nice night.

Monday we invited Seth and Shari and my little brother Mark over to Missy's apartment. We played some Scene It movie trivia on Xbox, a whole lot of Rock Band, which was crazy fun with four people playing, got some Chinese/Japanese take out, and drank a whole lot. Another fun night.

Tuesday we drove up to Connecticut to spend Christmas Day with my aunt and uncle, because he celebrates Christmas. All in all a fun time. I was exhausted when I woke up this morning and still am kind of tired, with a slight stomach ache from eating way too much crap all weekend long. Thankfully its a short week now. Only three days of work!

Speaking of, time to get back to it!

Come on. If you don't know where that title comes from, crawl out from under your rock. Johnny Cash. The Man In Black.

We're going to see Walk Hard tonight, and I can't wait. It looks hilarious, and my man, Jack White is in it doing a cameo as Elvis. How awesome is that? I hope its as good as it looks. I don't care if some of the reviews have been less than favorable or just average.

I did my official weigh in yesterday because I stayed at Missy's last night, and I don't like her scale at all. I don't trust it. I'm down four pounds this week, for a two total of 11.5. I'm on my way to 75 and the Wii Missy said she would get if I got down that much. The secret? Spinning classes at the gym. I went to 4 this week. They all kicked my ass and gave me such a great work out. I'm going to two more this weekend! One on Sunday morning and one on Monday. And I'm going to try to hit as many during the week as possible. Its a great hour long workout. I never sweat so much in my entire life as at one of these classes. I just hope I can keep it up. I know I can. I feel like I'm in the zone.

Also, my holiday weekend started early this year. I called in sick this year to help out my future brother-in-law with some important errands he needed to run. I had a really good time doing it. Its one of the few times that we've hung out just me and him, and I think we get along really well. I just hope I was helpful to him today. I'm sure I was.

Thats about it for now. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Title courtesy of The Rolling Stones.

Well, no Browns for me. My trip to Cleveland got called off this morning on account of a Nor Easter storm making its way throughout the area. It stopped snowing here, but Cleveland is supposed to get some kind of a blizzard today and tonight, so that means going away is a no no. I'm a little disappointed as I was really looking forward to it. I hope it'll get rescheduled though. I was checking online and the flight we were supposed to take eventually did leave New York, about an hour or so late, and will be about that late getting into Cleveland. But who knows what it'll be like when it gets there. Getting around in a strange city in the midst of a blizzard is no fun, I'm sure.

So new plan for the day. I'm about to hit the gym and got to my first spin class in awhile. I need it. Not that I've been bad this weekend, but I need a good workout, and an hour on one of those bikes is more than a good workout. The rest of the day is up in the air. It will probably involve Xbox 360, the guitar and little else. Missy is still in Florida and is due to get home tonight, late. So thats about it for me and this weekend. I may take this coming Friday off, which would make for a short week and an extended holiday break, since my company gives us off Christmas Eve and Christmas, obviously.

Check you later!

Title courtesy of Nince Inch Nails off of their recent album, Year Zero.

This isn't the beginning of the end of anything, except hopefully me being a fat bastard. I was really good this week, both on diet and exercise and as a result, I saw the scale jump down 7.5 pounds. I'm not taking that as the real number, since I at Chinese Sunday night before I stepped on the scale Monday morning, but I'll take it. The key now is to continue, because one week is nothing. Its going to be tough this weekend because I'm heading to Cleveland on Sunday morning for work, until late Monday night. Its going to be rough, but I think I'll be OK.

That's about all there is to report. Work has kept me busy and running all over the place.

Missy is heading back to Florida this weekend because her grandfather is in the hospital, as of Tuesday, with a minor stroke. I feel horrible because all she wants is for him to be at our wedding, and I just hope that happens and he's healthy enough to. Our anniversary was fun too. We went out to eat at the same restaurant we had our first date at, then went back to her apartment and drank some wine and rum and cokes, while looking through the online proofs from my brother's wedding and laughing at how drunk we were. Good times.

Alright, back to work.

Title courtesy of Alice In Chains.

Yes, there are no excuses whatsoever for the lack of posting, other than the usual, I've been extremely busy with work and life in general, and just been kind of lazy. Sorry.

That is the truth though. Work has been insanely busy. I'm rarely in the office anymore. I'm usually at a customer these days, which is an extremely good thing. That was my whole reason for wanting to switch jobs a year ago, was so that I could be an earner at a company, you know? So its cool with me to get out of the office. Its a nice change of pace, and very cool to be at a customer for a few days in a row, implementing a project and seeing it make progress.

Last weekend was very enjoyable, if short. Friday night Missy came over and we got some takeout with Mark. She helped me with my ironing (meaning she did it for me) while my parents are still in Hawaii, for another week at least, those lucky bastards! Saturday we celebrated Hanukkah at her parents house which was a lot of fun. Her dad made the best potato latkes (pancakes) I've ever had, and thats a bold statement. Sunday afternoon Missy met me at my house and we watched the last half of Superbad together, and went to see Enchanted together. The movie was cute, and very predictable, but not as bad as I was expecting. Thankfully she paid for the tickets! We got some Chinese afterwards and that was basically it for the night.

Oh, and in milestone news, tomorrow is our first anniversary! We'll be going out to dinner at the restaurant we had our first date at, in the town where my old apartment was located. I'm looking forward to it!

That's about it for news from me. Take it easy!

Title courtesy of The Toadies. Come on, you know them from the mid-90's. Possum Kingdom anyone? Google it, you know it.

The burn I talk about is the burning in my leg muscles. I've decided to stop screwing around with my gym workouts. Instead of just hitting the elliptical or the occasional spin class and doing cardio, I'm doing weight and strength exercises for my legs, my quads mostly. I suffer from what is known as a patellar tracking disorder. Basically my knee cap likes to move out of its normal groove it sits in, and that can cause my knee to buckle on me. Case in point, my brother's wedding. I don't do any extensive damage to it, but it hurts like hell for a few days afterwards, up to a week. Now, since I don't want this to happen again, especially at my own wedding, I'm finally going to listen to my doctors orders and do weights to build up my quad muscles. Strong quad muscles will keep the knee cap in place. In doing things like quad extensions and the leg press, I can so tell that my left knee sucks compared to my right. Hopefully they'll be evenly matched soon enough. I hope. I do one leg at a time so that I know each one is getting a good work out. The bad side effect is that the leg press works other muscles other than the quads, like the glutes, and something else, which I think is groin related. So yeah, I'm feeling stiff, but so far so good. Three days in the row of the gym and eating as well as I can. You gotta start somewhere, right?

In work related news, I may have to go to Cleveland. Details to follow, as I don't want to jinx it. But it sounds like fun, despite the fact that its Cleveland, Ohio.

Other than that, nothing really going on that I can mention. Take it easy party people. Don't party too hard. Well, party hard, just not excessively.