p90x

The latest new craze in the work out world seems to be p90x. I know several people that have tried it, and some seem to be getting some good results. I thought all the whining and complaining about it being tough must be overrated. However, a guy I work with burned me a copy. I've been working out for years, so I thought I should be able to do it pretty easily - wrong.

I tried something called core synthetics for the first day. This was on the "lean" program. It was basically an hour of exercises that work every muscle while engaging your core. I was drenched in sweat after 15 minutes. I was soar the entire next day. I haven't been following the program 100 percent but I've been doing the workouts about 3 times a week. After the arms video the following day I could barely lift my arm. The legs video was slightly less painful.

Jen has stuck with it more than me. She said the yoga was pretty cruel. The worse thing I've found is something the called the abripper. It's 15 minutes of hard core abdominal work. I can definitely see why this workout plan gets you in shape but its pretty tough.

In the event I become sculpted like an Adonis like the people in the photos I will post pics. I don't think that will happen though.

Easter

Last weekend Jen and I headed home for Easter weekend. We had a great time. Saturday I went golfing with Scott and Dusty. It was fun, despite the weather man totally missing the forecast.

Sunday Jen and I went to church with my parents. Then we did some family events. One cool thing we did was went to Barry Litton's farm and saw his miniature horses. Barry Litton is the owner of a local Knoxville restaurant. Jen's uncle is friends with him and took us up there. The mini horses and mini donkeys were pretty neat. They were kind of like big dogs.

We also had an Easter egg hunt for Taylor. We put treats in eggs and let her find them in the back yard. She had a great time. It was pretty entertaining to watch her sniff out the eggs.

One thing I noticed more this Easter than any other were the amount of people I know excited about their church services. It appears to me that Easter Sunday has become the "superbowl" of church service Sundays. It makes since that this would happen. Easter is the one day a year most people attend church. Therefore, you must pull out all the stops to hopefully pull in people that wouldn't normally attend in. Almost everyone I know that works or is associated with church was excited about the plannings of their Sunday morning. My church in Knoxville had a great service lined up as well. The music was great, and their were some surprises as well. I think it's good that churches go the extra mile on Easter to encompass more people.

If you care, here is the latest

So, I've been pretty lazy and haven't updated this thing lately. I don't have any stories to speak of, so I'm just going to run down some of my most recent happenings.

- Joined twitter - not sure what I think about it

- Saw Marley and Me - cried like a baby

- Got a new tennis racket. It hits awesome.

- Had my review at work - went well, job seems safe, bills will be paid another month.

- Made a customer really mad at work. Inadvertently got in the middle of a "domestic" dispute

- Started tracking my calorie intake on www.livestrong.com - Really like it

- Booked our Caribbean cruise vacation - only have to wait 4 1/2 more months to go.

- started spring tennis league - first match on Thursday

- Got three new fish. Named them Elvis, Sonny, and Lulu

- Tried out Presbyterian church. Preacher was boring, and apparently on twitter.

- Jen got in to Pharmacy School Honor Society. Big accomplishment. The narcoleptic professor who talked like Napoleon Dynamite that led the ceremony was hilarious. He fell asleep three times.

March Madness

I filled out a bracket and got in a pool with some work people this year. After the first round I was 27-5, the best I've done in a while. Here are the highlights of my pics.

Elite 8
Louisville
Kansas
UConn
Memphis
Pittsburg
Duke North Carolina
Oklahoma

Final Four
Duke
NC
Kansas
UConn

Finals
UConn
NC

Winner
NC

We'll see how this pans out.

This stuff never happens to me

Saturday morning I got up and ran a 5k. I didn't place in my age group, but I did run a minute and a half faster than last year. I was pretty excited about that. My day just got better from there.

Saturday afternoon there was some craft show downtown in Birmingham. It was at a place called the BJCC. Also going on this weekend at the BJCC was the Davis Cup. For those of you who aren't tennis fans that is a team tennis tournament.

I originally wanted to get tickets to the Davis Cup but it was sold out minutes after the tickets went on sale. So we are downtown walking to the craft show when some guy asks us if we need tickets to the Davis Cup. He said it was $20 for the pair. I originally tell him nah, but then turn around to ask him who is playing. he tells me it's just the doubles. He then says, if you want the tickets you can just have them. I thought he was joking until he insisted I take them and told us to have a good time. So we got in and the seats were great. We had a great view of everything.

It was a blast. I have never been to a sporting event wher eyou cheer for your country. People were excited about tennis, there were cheerleaders, music in between games, chanting - it was awesome. The US won there match Saturday and beat Switzerland overall for the weekend.

computer troubles

For the second time this year the ac adapter to my Dell computer has shorted out. In the past year this makes the third AC adapter I will have used and I'm on the computer's second battery. The fist battery died out after a couple years, but I didn't replace it for a long time after that.

I have had several problems out of my Dell computers. It's pretty irritating that they consistently provide bad service and faulty parts. Kendall recently bought a Dell computer that had problems after two months and they would not do an on site visit to fix it. I guess as long as we're buying they aren't going to change anything.

While at work on Saturday I had a computer repairman sit at my desk. In casual conversation I asked him if he thought one particular brand of computer was worse than others. I expected he would confirm my suspicions about Dell. Insteak I got a 40 minute dissertation on the computer market, price ranges, and life expectancy. He proceeded to draw me a graph and diagram with a bell curve of computers. All the while people that had legitimate banking needs sat in the lobby. I felt like a tool talking to this nerd who too my question way to seriously.

Anyways, I'm blogging on Jen's hp laptop today. It's a good computer, but the battery is dead on it as well and won't hold a charge.

That's my rant for the day.

Signs I might be getting old

I've been thinking about getting older some lately. The signs keep becoming more and more apparent. I am getting old. I will list the signs that have lead me to arrive at this conclusion.

I spend most weekends dog cussing my neighbors for throwing loud parties.

It's usually 12am when I start getting irritated because I'm in bed. I think I can count the number of times I went to bed before 12 in college on two hands.

I find that I am very comfortable talking and making friends with 30 year old people.

My hair line is not what it used to be.

I have a friend that has a one year old child.

In college I thought I would never want to have a 9-5 job. I now find myself incredibly irritated at staying at work past 5.

I college I didn't care about making money, I just wanted to make a difference.

I'm currently looking at grad school vs career options that would maximize my annual income.

My biggest worries used to be making decent grades and having plans on the weekend.

Now my worries include bills, my credit score, my future, saving money, providing for my wife, feeding my animals, the safety and security of the banking industry, among many more.


I opened a checking account for a college student that was born in 1990.



I'm sure there is more than I have listed, but that is all I got for today.

Random Happenings

I haven't blogged in a while, but I'll give a brief summary of semi-mentionable things going on with us.

Yesterday we received our car renewal notices. In Tennessee everyone pays $60 per tag no matter if you drive a pinto or a loaded Mercedes. However, Alabama prefers to tax you based on the value of your car. My 2000 civic rang in at $82 this year. We were billed in arrears for Jen's Jetta, plus for the coming year. Thus meaning that we received a bill of $332 dollars to renew her tag. For those of you who didn't major in math that is $400 in car tag renewals for us. If we lived in Tennessee, which is the state in the union we prefer to live in, our renewals would have been $120. We could have even gotten one of those specialty plates for cheaper the here. Yet, we'll just put a new sticker on our "stars fell on Alabama" license plates.

I'm still playing in the tennis league. I clocked a match last week lasting for over two hours. For those of you not familiar with competitive tennis, that is a long time to be on the court. I was soar for days. We also bought a wii fit, which Jen really enjoys. We compete nightly to set the new records on the games.

Speaking of why Tennessee is better than Alabamistan, they had snow this week. Schools got called off for 2 1/2 days and banks were closed early. Apparently it snowed for two days. Enough to make everything look nice, but not so bad you couldn't get out and drive. In Alabama we got rain, followed by freezing temperatures. However, they did not coordinate before they each arrived, so we got no snow.

That's all I've got for tonight.

Bank Holidays Make me Happy

So, It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I'm off work to celebrate. Unfortunately Jen had to work, so it's just me and the critters today. I am currently sitting in the middle of the couch with Emma on my left and Taylor on my right.

Jen and I went home last weekend. We didn't do a whole lot, however we did buy a Wii and a Wii fit. I have spent the better part of this morning playing with them, especially the fit. I am really glad we bought the wii, however I am looking for any suggestions for games that might be good for it. (my blog is open to public comments, so ANYONE can make suggestions.)

I don't have much to do today. I've done a few things around the apartment, and I have a tennis match later this evening. I just flipped through the 200 channels on my tv and found there is absolutely nothing worth watching on tv at this time of day. Hence, that is why I'm mindlessly writing on my blog.

76-100

76. I don't do foreign voice impressions very well, except for Chinese. All my foreign voices sound like I'm talking in a Chinese voice.

77. Every year on my friend Emilee's birthday I call her and sing happy birthday in my "Chinese" voice on her voice mail. I think I've been doing that for 3-4 years now.

78. The most serious automobile accident I have been involved in was with a deer. We both collided. It did about 5k worth of damage to my car. The insurance company called it an act of God. I'm pretty sure the deer died.

79. When I was 16 I backed in to the garage door - from inside the garage.

80. I have never beaten Kendall at poker. I'm decent at hold em' but every time I have been involved in a game with Kendall he has won.

81. I have only won two major gifts in my life. The best gift was a a round trip airline ticket to anywhere in the continental US. I told my parents I wanted to use it to go to California. Instead, I went to Gainesville, FL, with my mom, and stayed with my grandparents, on their farm.

81. There is video footage of me driving a John Deer Tractor and shooting a BB gun on my grandparents far. My grandmother chose to show this video to Jen when we visited them a few years ago.

82. The other major gift I won was a mountain bike when I was in the first grade. I won the bike in about March, and I had just received a new bike for Christmas that year. It was slightly anti-climatic.

83. I have gotten two speeding tickets. The first was when I was at the beach my freshman year of college on spring break. I was going roughly 95mph down a highways in Destin.

84. I have worn boxers since I was 13 years old. I can not comfortably were briefs.

85. My favorite meal is my grandmothers chicken n' dumplins. I only get them once a year because she lives in Florida and my mom doesn't know how to fix them.

86. I have never been in a fist fight in my life.

87. My honeymoon was by far the best vacation I have ever been on. Jen and I got upgraded to the penthouse suite on the cruise ship. We still miss being on that cruise.

88. I am very particular about my clothes matching. I don't mix colors that don't go together. I am also know for wearing "wild" ties at work. My favorite tie has beach chairs trees on it.

89. At age 17 I started a lunch first policy about dating. I would take a girl out to lunch first, before I would commit to an evening date. If the girl wasn't worth spending an entire evening with, lunch was an easy out.

90. I have been to New York three separate times. I have seen three Broadway plays and been to the US Open tennis tournament once.

91. I had a stuffed dinosaur when I was little name Little Foot. He was actually from the Land Before Time movies. He went everywhere with me. He got his tonsils out with me and he had tubes put in his ears.

92. I got really in to random music when I was in college. I have tons of cd's of artists that most people have never heard of.

93. My dad is partly in charge of the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck race. One year in an attempt to help sell ducks I dressed up like a Giant Duck at the mall. Kendall and I took turns wearing the costume. We sold a few ducks, and got accosted by a lot of teenagers.

94. I can hardly stand to be outside without sunglasses. My eyes are incredibly sensitive to light.

95. I have consistently worked out with weights for the past 4 years. I'm by no means ripped, but I can throw around a decent amount of weight.

96. I got really in to disc golf when I was in college. My friend Justin and I used to play almost every day. We were some of the few people not smoking pot while we played.

97. I am pretty hairy. I'm not a fan of it.

98. I learned to water ski my last summer of college behind Kendall's parents boat. We went to the lake almost every weekend until I finally learned to ski.

99. I played soccer through elementary school and some of middle school. My parents found it quite boring to come to the games and watch me and the other kids pick clovers while waiting on the ball to come near us.

100. My best life decision was falling in love and marrying a girl way smarter and better looking than me.

51-75

51. I have only broke one bone in my life. That bone was my little toe.

52. I broke my little toe while running down a hall and tripping in to a wall. I was running to the room, because my friend Jay informed me there was a good fight on Jerry Springer. I was a freshman in high school.

53. While trying to pick up a girl my junior year of high school I called her the wrong name. I ended up getting a few dates with the girl though. However, I relationship was ended one night when I was told she was too busy making soap to talk to me.

54. I have done the email "breakup."

55. The first time I smoked a cigar it was New Years Eve of the 1999. Adam gave me a cigar to smoke that night. Afterwards I felt really guilty. On my way home I went by Scott's house and sprayed febreeze and cologne all over my clothes. I was not really a fan of the cigar either.

56. I used to go to Cotton Eyed Joe's on Monday nights on occasion in high school. Monday was teen night and me and some of my friends would go there and line dance.

57. I went to Las Vegas my last semester of college and won a grand total of $100.

58. When I was in second grade another kid in my class told me his middle name was Stephen and he spelled it with a ph. I thought that was cool, so I started writing my name like that. My teacher never caught on but my mom was not happy when she realized I was trying to change the spelling of my name.

59. My favorite Holiday is Christmas. I'm going to be that guy with all the lights when I buy a house.

60. To this day I still get presents from my mom for almost every holiday. Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, Valentines, St Patricks Day, and Easter.

61. I have never smoked a cigarette. (or done drugs)

62. I am a Christian, but I could not name all the books in the Bible if you gave me 50 tries.

63. Jen and I will never be official aunts and uncles, nor will our children have cousins, aunts or uncles.

64. I hate roller coasters that go upside down. I have absolutely no desire to visit places like six flags.

65. I have worn the same size shoes since I was 13. size 14 athletic shoes, size 13 dress shoes. I had really big feet for a middle schooler.

66. While in seventh grade, I accidentally stepped on the back of my teachers shoe and it broke. My teacher was like 65 and was not happy. Mom wrote her a note offering to pay for the shoe. She declined.

67. My first backpacking trip was on January 19, 2005. That was the coldest day recorded that year. We slept in a shelter with it snowing on us, unable to start a fire. It fell to 15 below zero.

68. I probably own more clothes than most girls. I do not however have more clothes than Jen.

69. On any given day I can probably tell you roughly how many calories I have eaten.

70. I hate being called by my last name. There were 3 Steve/Steven's at my first job out of college. So by default I was called Brooks for more than a year.

71. I cannot sleep in socks. I typically don't sleep in pants either, but even on the coldest days of the year I can't sleep in socks.

72. I email Ryan and Kendall from work daily. I can probably count the days I haven't talked to them via email in the past two years by email on one hand.

73. In introduced my friend Scott to his wife. His (girlfriend at the time) introduced me to my wife. If I wouldn't have given my friend Clay, Christy's phone number, he may not have met his wife.

74. I did not eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a child. I probably eat at least one a week now.

75. I attempted to learn to surf when I was 16 years old one summer at the beach. I rented a surf board. I wasn't very successful with the surfing, but I did try to impress some girls by walking around with the board. On my way to the beach in front of a group of girls I tripped over the leash, dropped the board, and fell on my hands. They were not impressed.

26-50

26. The first concert I went to was Joe Diffie when I was in middle school.

27. I have driven my Honda for 9 years now and it's still running strong.

28. I wore glasses from the second grade through the eighth. They were always the teardrop style. I got contacts before high school and I have rarely worn glasses as opposed to contacts since.

29. I bought a guitar after my first year of college in hopes to impress girls. I wanted to be the guy with the semi-long hair that could whip out his guitar and play the white blues. I can play a few chords and pretty basic songs on the guitar. I did not impress any girls with my playing, yet I did put it out there a few times when trying to meet some girls.

30. The first time I kissed Jen I chickened out and kissed her on the head instead of the lips. When I say head, I mean hair, like the crown of her head.

31. My sophomore year of college I took the history of rock n' roll. There was a girl that I wanted to take out but I hadn't talked to her. In an effort to strike up a conversation I used a classic pick up line. I said "hey, nice shirt." But sadly it wasn't a nice shirt, it was a Joe's Crab Shack t-shirt and she was not impressed.

32. I can probably recite every line of the Karate Kid.

33. Speaking of the Karate Kid. When I was in Kindergarten I asked my hair dresser to dye my hair black and part my hair down the middle. My did not allow me to part my hair down the middle.

34. I had a bowl cut in the fifth grade. I thought I was cool like Zac Morris. I was really just a chubby kid, with teardrop glasses, and a bowl cut.

35. The first time I tried alcohol it was wine from a box and I was 17. I thought it was nasty.

36. I have never beaten Jen at Monopoly.

37. When I was introduced to Jen I did not intend on dating her. I told the person who fixed us up that I might hang out with her and that's it. We all see how that ended up.

38. I once scored 22 points in a JR. Pro basketball game. The was the most I'd ever scored in a game. I was in the eight grade and I had this nice strap to wear on the back of my glasses so they wouldn't fall off.

39. I made the All-Star basketball team when I was in the eight grade. I road the pine most of the season.

40. Before I got my first job, I worked for my dad's office. They paid me to do data entry from home. Every day I would enter information in to an Excel spreadsheet and watch Magnum PI. It was great.

41. When I was in Kindergarten Evy Harold punched me in the face and gave me a bloody nose. My mom said it was because she liked me.

42. My first job was as a dry cleaning clerk. I got paid to watch tv and do my homework.

43. My favorite book is probably "A Pirate Looks at 50" by Jimmy Buffett.

44. At two separate times in college I grew a beard.

45. I can not sleep without a small pillow that I have had since I was a child. Jen thinks the pillow is nasty and should be thrown away. It was my grandfathers when he was in the Navy. I consider it a family heirloom.

46. I have worn a watch since I was 5 years old. Not the same watch, but I've always had a timepiece on my left hand.

47. The summer I moved to Birmingham I bought two fish at Wal-Mart. One of the fish ate the other but it is still alive. Her name is Lola and she is currently a year and a half old. That's a pretty long life for a Wal-Mart fish that lives in an aquarium that has dirty water in it.

48. When I was in the first grade my dad told me he would give me $5 if I could recite the alphabet backwards. I practiced and could do it pretty well. I went to school to share with my teacher. She felt there were more important things I could be learning than how to recite the alphabet backwards.

49. In middle school everyone either joined the band or chorus. I chose to join the band. I attempted to play trumpet and was horrible. I was forced to switch to the tuba. The ultimate of nerdy band instruments. I wasn't much better at tuba. I quit band after 8th grade.

50. I always smile with my mouth open in pictures. Sometimes they don't quite turn out correctly. Christy Widener used to call it my "steven smile." If the mouth is too wide though, Jen says I just look goofy.

1-25 Interesting Things

In the blog world, all the cool kids write 100 interesting things about themselves for their 100th post. I'll probably break my 100 things in to a few posts, and "interesting" may be a stretch, but here are some things you may or may not know about me.

1. The only time in my life that I voted republican was in Kindergarten. I voted in the Brickey Elementary Election for George Bush Sr.

2. I have been on stage at the Tennessee Theatre - I was dressed as Cher

3. I have been involved in a high speed automobile chase. I was 17 in the back of Zac's car. The Chase lasted approximately 15 minutes ending in a neighborhood of Fountain City.

4. My senior year of college I was a columnist for the UT newspaper.

5. I can drive a semi-truck well enough to maneuver in a parking lot.

6. I have run 4 half-marathons.

7. I have never beaten my dad in a race. My dad is one of the fastest runners his age in the state of Tennessee.

8. I had acne and over sized glasses all through middle school. If I could erase 3 years from my life, it would be 6-8th grade.

9. While working at a bank in high school and college I picked up two girls in the drive-thru. It did not end well either time. The downside was they knew where to find me.

10. I was once interrogated for an hour before attempting to take a girl on a date. Coincidently one of the girls from the drive-thru. I canceled the date after meeting the psychotic dad.

11. I spent a long time thinking that I wanted to be a weatherman. I would watch the weather channel like it was HBO. However, all the math and science required for that field drove me in to communications.

12. I never had a pet until I was 24 years old. My first pet is a cat named Emma. My second pet is a dog named Taylor.

13. My last semester of college I worked in the athletic department. I had a pass to get on the field and in the sky boxes. I have watched kickoff from the sidelines - It was pretty much awesome.

14. Both my parents have degrees and backgrounds in working with children. I was once asked to watch an after school community center as part of a job I had. It was a horrible experience. I am horrible with children, which is funny considering my parents backgrounds. The tv broke so I organized a game of dodgeball. Bad idea. It ended violently with a white kid calling a black kid a monkey. I had to separate them. They were scary.

15. I quit my first bank job to work at a public relations firm. It was supposed to be a lot of hands on experience. I was basically a runner. I wrote one press release and ran about 50 errands a day.

16. I lifeguarded two summers and never had to save a life.

17. I was the number one tennis player at my high school my senior year.

18. My doubles partner and I were runners up at the district tournament my senior year.

19. Every time I go to Miyabi (Japanese food) I plan my evening around stopping by the house to use the bathroom.

20. I never pooped at school from Kindergarten until my college graduation.

21. I have phobias of public bathrooms.

22. While in high school and some in college I put highlights in my hair and spiked it.

23. I did not like to eat steak until I was 22 years old.

24. I rarely wore jeans in high school. I may have only owned a couple t-shirts. I wore khaki pants, sweaters, or Abercrombie button downs almost every day.

25. My sophomore year in high school, me and my friends (the preppy kids) all bought khaki JNCOs and wore them with Abercrombie sweaters.

Welcome Back

Today marked the first tennis match I've played in 7.5 years. It was somewhat what I expected. I was rusty, but I gave my opponent a decent match. I did however get beat which was kind of a downer. Yet, the guy a played is probably better than his USTA ranking, yet it was a good wake up call to where I need to get back to.

Jen and I had a pretty good weekend. Friday night we headed out to Wings restaurant and then to Walmart. We are still in the market for a wii and wii fit which we have been unable to find anywhere since Christmas. Saturday we worked out, cleaned the apartment and headed out to the mall. We ate lunch at the Olive Garden, which ended up being fantastic.

Taylor got groomed today and she looks really good. We kind of went too long in between groomings this past time. We also tried a new recipe tonight. We had ranch pork roast and it was delicious. Jen also made from scratch cookies.

Sorry there isn't anything more interesting to ride about.

2009 off and running

So 2009 is now upon us. So far my resolutions are going alright. I've managed to cut back on the soda. However, I have noticed my morning coffee intake rising. I don't know if that really is any better.

Jen and I have been hitting the gym regularly. This Sunday I will play my first "official" tennis match in about eight years. It's kind of a weird feeling. I'll be doing something I've done hundreds of times before, but stepping on that court in a semi official capacity will be surreal. I'm really enjoying getting back in to recreational competitive tennis. It's also been good for trying to get back in shape.

Jen started her winter rotation on Monday. She is working for the district pharmacy manager for CVS. So far it hasn't been too bad for her. She gets lunch provided about every day, works six hours a day, and just kind of hangs out most of the day.

My work has started a new incentive program. Basically, I'll be making more money to do stuff I was already doing. I'm pretty excited to see how that turns out. Unfortunately, it will be a few months before I reap the benefits of the new system.

That's about all I have for now.

Happy New Year!

2008 has come and gone and today starts a brand new year. From my last post everyone learned of my resolutions. I am happy to say that I only drank one soft drink today. It was pretty rough, but I drank mostly water. I did have a Gatorade and a glass of eggnog. Yeah, I'm one of those weird people that like eggnog.

Jen and I spent this New Years in Birmingham. This is something we have not done before. My parents came down on Tuesday and are leaving tomorrow. Last night we went to a restaurant called Sweet Bones Alabama. It was very good, I got the pork chops. Then we headed back home and hung out with Carson and Dick and rung in the New Year.

It was a good New Years. Very laid back, but Jen and I enjoyed spending time together and it was good to hang out with my parents. Ironically, we saw the ball drop at 11pm Central Standard Time and there was no countdown or tv special to speak of for those of us on central time.

We also went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button today. It was not exactly what I expected, but it was good. A little long but it was one of those movies that its good just to say you've seen.