The pain has been brought...

Unfortunately, I was the recipient, not the supplier... We were doing gun defenses in Krav Maga tonight, and at one point, while I was the attacker, the defender got really into it and hyper-extended my elbow. Ow. That'll be swollen tomorrow. Oh well, all part of the fun...

Went to the midnight release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on Monday. Did the whole waiting in line thing at the Plano Fry's. Actually, I probably went a bit overboard on that, since for about 45 minutes, I was the line. Sat down with a camping chair and a book around 7:45pm. The next people to show up were my friends Brandon and Martin at 8:30 or so...The line grew pretty slowly until around 11pm, when it started filling up pretty nicely. In all, there were probably 75-100 people in line when they opened the doors a few minutes before midnight. That's where I have to give it to Fry's, though... Where other places get around 20 Collector's Editions in, Fry's got 150 of them. Everyone who wanted a Collector's Edition at the midnight release got one. They also supplied free pizza and sodas. They also advertised a costume contest, but only one person came in costume... so I guess she won. I liked the costume, though. She dressed as one of the doomsday cultists from the pre-Cataclysm events, sign and all...

Surprisingly, after the expansion went live on the servers, it only took about 20 minutes for the login server to calm down enough to let me in. And so began probably my biggest ever frenzy of activity in WoW. In the last couple days, I've gotten my main character up to level 82, created about 5 new alts, tried out the new Archeology skill, and ran through the first two Cataclysm dungeons with some guildmates. I have to say, the folks at Blizzard have really outdone themselves with this expansion. The new starting areas are great, and the dungeons are challenging, but not to the point where we were frustrated. A few deaths, but not too bad for new content...

I have one more day of vacation tomorrow. It will pretty much be World of Warcraft nonstop. And I'll be loving every minute of it!

One week to Cataclysm

Only one more week until World of Warcraft's new expansion arrives. Due to the fact that I had a few vacation days left to burn off, I will be off the first three days of release. During which, of course, I will be playing a ridiculous amount.

Not that I'll even scratch the surface during that time... I have my level 80 warrior to level, at least two worgen characters to create, and I'll probably try out a goblin as well... Before the launch, I want to run enough dungeons with my 80 to get an heirloom item or two to pass along to the new guys. And maybe level my new hunter a bit more. I can't believe Blizzard has sucked me back in to this extent.

Anyway, to toss in a fitness note on this post, I am understandably sore from last night's frenzy of activity. I have the kids tonight, so won't likely make it to the gym, but I need to do one of the fitness games or something to work through a bit of the soreness, or I will be dying tomorrow. Weight loss is still going at a slow but consistent pace. Tomorrow, it's back to Krav...

OK, who secretly replaced my energy level with that of a crazy person?

Those of you who know me (and if you don't know me, I'm curious as to how and why you came to be reading this blog) know that "high-energy" is not a term used to describe me, well, ever. And if you saw me at work today, you probably wouldn't have seen much out of the ordinary. I did do the mile walk, as I do almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but mostly, I was my typical low-key self. Somehow, though, after dinner, I just felt this surge. I went to my Krav Maga class, which usually pretty much wipes me out. Had a lot of fun in the class today - low punches, low punch defenses, inside defenses, gun defense for a gun from behind. Used gloves for the first time on the low punches to a pad, and there's something about the gloves that just adds to the feeling of power. Purely psychological, but still a nice feeling of badassery...

Where things really get weird, though, is that after the Krav class, I still had a ton of energy to burn off... So, I went to 24 Hour, and did about 20 minutes on the treadmill (1.25 miles), about 6 machines for upper body strength, and then finished it off with 20 minutes on the exercise bike. I felt like I could have kept going on the bike, but at some point tonight, I will have to wind down and get some sleep. So, I'll probably knock out a random dungeon in World of Warcraft, and then crash for the evening.

I wouldn't expect to see quite so much activity from me very often. I don't want to burn myself out or anything. Tonight, though, I just felt like I had to keep moving...

Survived Thanksgiving and the Shattering

Yep, I've been slacking. Both with the blogging and with the working out. I could blame it all on personal life chaos last week, or having the kids all Thanksgiving week, but really, I should have done more. I haven't been a complete bump on a log, though, and have managed to work in some activity, mostly with the aforementioned kids. I am happy to say, though, that after three full Thanksgiving dinners, with all the carbs and pie those entailed, and some leftovers, I am still down slightly on my weight over the week. Broke the 220 mark, and weighed in at 219.7 this morning. Minor milestone, but I'm happy.

On the geek front, World of Warcraft experienced the Shattering on Tuesday. Probably another reason for my lack of blogging. Made a new character using one of the new race/class combos available, a human warrior. He's only at level 15 so far, but I'm enjoying it... I've also been exploring all the changes in the world with my main character. All in all, it's pretty cool. The Plants vs Zombies quests are a hoot. I can't wait until the expansion proper hits in a week and a half so I can make my worgen (werewolf, for the non-players out there) characters.

Beer, Pie, and Guitar Hero

OK, so yesterday went pretty well. I went a bit over my calorie target, but not egregiously so. I did cave to the temptations of the dessert table at work, but stuck to half a piece of cherry pie (and that’s fruit, right?). The happy hour at Blue Mesa was a bit of a trade-off. I did stick to just two Shiners, but also had a chicken quesadilla with jalapeños and sour cream.

Not a lot of physical activity yesterday. I did do the mile walk at work, so the day wasn’t a complete loss.

Oh well. Even with all that, I weighed in lower than I did yesterday, so win!

On the geek front, someone, who shall remain nameless, had been harassing me about leaving my Xbox Gamerscore at 9999. So, I went ahead and played a bit of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and knocked out a few achievements. So now I have broken the 10K mark, and that unnamed individual can rest easy.

The beginning of the holiday fitness challenges

I am determined. I am going to be losing some weight over the next few months, holidays be damned. I'm currently at 223.5 pounds, which is a backslide of about 5 pounds from where I was a few months ago, but still 10 pounds better than I began the year. Today is kind of the first day of the holiday-related obstacles to my goal. At work today, we have a free Thanksgiving lunch. Hooray for free lunch! Going to do my best, though, to keep things in moderation, and avoid the dessert table.

This evening, challege part two comes in the form of a happy hour after work. Since I despise pretty much all forms of "Lite" beer, I'll just have to go easy on the Shiner Bock...

To help with the ongoing battle, I finally got the Wii Fit Plus set up again last night... Ran through about 130 calories worth of activities on that... I'm really liking the YourShape: Fitness Evolved for Xbox 360 Kinect, too. Never underestimate the power of Xbox achievements. I got a good reinstatement offer from 24 Hour Fitness, so I'll be starting up with them again. Those things, plus my Krav classes, should give me a sufficiently varied fitness program to keep me interested. Wish me luck!

Here we go...

OK, so I'm going to give this blog thing a try again. Had a Livejournal back in the day (still do, I suppose), but never really got going with it properly...

Now, though, I've been inspired by my friend Lisa, who, along with her friend Becky, has started chronicling her efforts toward a healthier lifestyle at The Vice Girls. Of course, I can't focus my thoughts quite to that extent, so I'll likely be posting about fitness, games, movies, books... Pretty much whatever is occupying my nerdy little brain at the time...