What, me fat?!

Fatass Hachi can’t wait until Dawn finishes wrapping the Gyoza dumplings

While I was in Indiana this year on business, I ran into several guys from Japan that I had previously worked with.  I hadn’t seen most of them for several years, and I was mostly glad to see them… But after our usual pleasantries, they all commented to the likes of “you’ve gotten fat”, “you’ve gained weight” or “you’ve become rounder than I remember.”  (not all Japanese people are ass holes.  Japanese people that I work with are.)

I have never considered myself to be overweight in the past.  In fact, people used to comment on how skinny I was…  Maybe these guys are just comparing me to the sickly skinny me…  Or Japanese standards of  being “FAT” is a bit skewed…  Of course, there was also a case when I went to a physical in which I was noted as overweight…  WTF…

A few months ago, my parents subtly lent me a Japanese book titled “病気にならない生き方 (how to live without getting sick)” authored by Hiromi Shinya, MD.  He is a pioneer in a colonoscopy surgery, and he discusses in his book healthy ways of living from the perspective of digestive health.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t do much reading usually, but I read this book quickly and intently.

I don’t want to bore you with all of the details of his observations and theories (you can get his English book if you are interested), but I have started incorporating some (not all) of the practices that he describes in his book:

• Exercise (very) lightly in the morning;
• Eat Oatmeal for breakfast;
• Eat fresh veggies, less meat, less dairy;
• Drink cool water (20 fl. oz.) 1 hour prior to meals;
• Eat supper as early as possible; and
• CHEW AT LEAST 30 TIMES EACH BITE!

I found all of the items pretty easy to do.  Chewing 30 times per bite took some getting used to.  I used to be known as a fast eater, now I usually finish last at the table.  Many of the items curb appetite, so I don’t eat as much, and I don’t go hungry during the day, either.

I have lost 10 lbs. so far, and it has been pretty virtually effortless.  Fitting into my pants has become less of an ordeal in the morning and Dawn is not sewing back my pant buttons on as often.

I recommend to anybody following Dr. Shinya’s preaching.  Some of his recommendations are hard to follow (like ‘daily coffee enema’… wtf?), but most of them require little changes in your daily routine.  The book is very convincing, and I can’t wait to show these bastards that I’m not a fat ass anymore.

Smartphone Transitions

Left to right: Sony Clié T415, Palm Treo 650, Samsung Omnia, HTC Droid Incredible

 

My obsession with smartphones started with a practical necessity at work several years ago.  I needed something portable that would allow me to keep track of my schedules/contacts and to take notes.  I had a company standard issue of “Franklin Organizer”, but I kept forgetting to take with me the notebook whose thickness was of a dictionary whenever I left my desk.  I concluded that my forgetfulness had nothing to do with it, but everything to do with the lack of its portability.

Searching for a solution, I started from a pocket-size organizer and eventually ended up with my first PDA Sony Clié.  I even had a foldable full-size keyboard for it and I was able to take notes during meetings.  I was totally geeking out and proud!

Clié was definitely the solution to my issue… BUT now I was dealing with another one… Clié is a PDA, not a smartphone so I was also carrying a personal cell phone (Motorola StarTac, if you care).  I was also carrying a company-issued pager.  Imagine Clié holster, a cell phone, a pager, and office badge hanging from my belt…  I needed a geek tool belt!

Enter Palm Treo.  A PDA and a cell phone in one “compact” unit!  This is the first smartphone that I owned.  I found a used unit on eBay at a good price (at least, I thought so).  I didn’t subscribe to a data plan at that time.  I just used it as a phone and a PDA, and my pants felt a whole lot lighter.

My entry into the mobile data plan was with a purchase of Samsung Omnia in 2008.  Getting Omnia meant having to subscribe to a data plan and $30/month (Verizon Wireless) but my Treo was starting to earn a “dinosaur” status around the office, and I figured that I would get a new smartphone since Dawn was getting a new phone as well.  I liked the slim and simple form factor and the 5MP camera that took a very decent photos .  Negatives: awkward Windows Mobile 6, faulty touch screen, and slow data communication.

My latest gadget: HTC Droid Incredible.  Coming from Omnia, this Android smartphone is excitingly fast and intuitive.  No more drooling when I see an iPhone!  (Camera is a disappointment, but It DOES come with 720p HD video )

I remember paying $3000 for my first PC back in 1996.  It ran on a 200Mhz CPU with a 2GB hard drive.  It had a dial-up connection at 56 kbps…  It was the cutting edge, then!  My $150 phone runs on a 1Ghz processor and has total of 24GB of memory.  It has a 3G wireless connection at 1Mbps.  It’s amazing how far the technology has advanced in the last 14 years…  For a geek like me, the future looks like so much fun!  … if I don’t get left behind…

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Summer Vacation 2010 Day 4

Back to Narragansett,  we tried the famous NTB (Narragansett Town Beach) this time.  Spending the afternoon like a couple of beach bums and topping it off with a good dinner…  Mm, mm…

Tourists at The Narragansett Tower by NTB

Hachi says “Let there be waves for all to enjoy...”  Farmer’s tan is “in”, btw.

Happy Dawn at NTB & other vacationers who tolerate us…

Seagulls fighting over Dawn’s french fries…

Dinner at “Coast Guard House”, an old Coast Guard headquarters converted to a restaurant, located right by the Tower.  My Clam Bake, Dawn’s Chicken Franchaise were wonderfully delicious.  The view to the ocean was also nice.

A near-perfect day.  Sadly, we will be heading back to Kentucky in the morning concluding our vacation… : (  Well, at least, this has been a good idea, and we will definitely do this vacationing thing again!

Summer Vacation 2010 Day 3

Today, we did Boston.  Traffic jam and drizzly weather slowed us down, but we got there in the end.

My idea of getting the most out of a short day in a strange city was a “Duck Tour”, an 80-min tour on a modified WWII amphibious bus with a wacky tour guide or a “ConDUCKtor” (how clever).

Our ConDUCKtor, Ace Bandage

Our guide did a good job keeping us entertained throughout the tour with his wit and wealth of knowledge about the city and its history while we inched our way forward through the city traffic.

Copely Square

After the tour, we raced through the famous Boston Museum of Science.  We purchased the “Combo” tickets for the Duck Tour and the museum, but by the time the tour was over, we only had a couple hours until the closing time…  Good planning, I know…  I think we did a pretty good job covering most of the exhibits.  I do wish that we were able to view everything without being rushed…

Full scale T-Rex model and full scale Hachi

Dinner is at the Daily Catch.  The restaurant is located at the water-front and most of the seating is outside under a large covered  area.  The breeze felt a bit chilly at times, but the view of cityscape, marinas and ocean was spectacular.  Calamari for appetizer, Monkfish Marsala & a glass of Valpolicella for Dawn, Swordfish with a vinaigrette sauce for me, and obligatory Tiramisu for dessert.  Probably the best dinner of the trip so far!  The restaurant was rather busy and the server’s service was disappointingly sporadic.

View from our table.  Even the clouds were starting to clear just for us!

Another good day!  It’s so easy to get used to a good thing.

Summer Vacation 2010 Day 2

A seagull on a rainy pier

We had a slow start today, but still made it to Scarborough Beach in Narragansett, RI, before the rain started.  The water was rather cold, and sun was elusive this afternoon.  I think we will make a return trip on Thursday if the weather is better.

George’s at Galilee was the restaurant of choice for the dinner tonight.  I had a “scrod and scallop” and Dawn had “seafood pot pie”.  While we enjoyed the dinner, it left us wondering, “are there anything better around here?”  We are still waiting for something that would knock our socks off, but perhaps, our expectation might be a tad high…

Summer Vacation 2010 Day 1

We don’t travel much.  Well, not as much as we would like to.  Mostly because I don’t know how to plan vacations like normal people, but thanks to the worse-than-sluggish economy, my employer is requiring its employees to take a week off in July as they did last year, and we have decided to travel to Providence, Rhode Island, of all places.

We were watching a HGTV show one day (I think it was House Hunters, or something…), and it was about Boston area.  It was briefly talking about fresh seafood in the area, and we were, like, mmm…, and then, oooh…, then like, “why don’t we travel to New England for some good seafood?”.  We’ve lived in Midwest for the last 2 decades (almost 3 for Dawn), and good seafood is hard to come by.  And we LOVE seafood.  After some researching, we decided that Providence would be a good balance between budget and objectives.

I hope to post some pictures as a live journal of our trip for the next few days.
Here are a few from Day1!

Starbucks breakfast at CVG Airport.  Let the spending begin!!

Legal Sea Foods, right by Providence Airport.  I said she could have anything she liked, but jeez!  Look at that plate!  And this is just the starter!

We checked into a hotel, played with Dawn’s newly purchased Nintendo DSi (who knew making faces at a camera could be so hysterically funny), and called it the first day.  So far so good!

Our New Arsenal: Kitty Cat

Dawn & Cat: Ready for Attack

The war against terror in our backyard ensued as our archenemy mole decided to open an all-out offensive over the weekend: 5 mole mounds in 2 days!

As we were trying to plant the poison peanuts to battle the bastard, this neighbor cat snuck up on us (I think the whole subdivision heard Dawn yelp when she sensed something approaching behind her).

I am severely allergic to cats so I don’t care for them at all, but this cat quickly assessed what we were doing and went into hunting mode for the mole! It aggressively reached into the mole hole trying to claw it out. The cat didn’t really get anything, but I’m pretty certain that the burrow was filled up as the mole pooped itself.

I don’t know the name of this cat yet, but it has already earned my recognition as a “friendly” despite it being a cat.

 

UPDATE: Click here for a video!  It’s my first attempt to edit a video clip… (8/4/2010)

Restaurant Review: Thai Chow, Fort Branch, IN

During the 10-year period that I lived in Vincennes, IN, I always heard about this restaurant, but I never made it there before I moved to Kentucky.  This is partially because Fort Branch is more than 30 minutes away from where I lived, and also due to the fact that you have to call in your order in advance.

I was in Princeton, IN, for business this week, and I finally had an opportunity to visit this establishment, so here is my second restaurant review (first one done last year…).

• Restaurant: Thai Chow Oriental Foods
• Location: 726 County 800 S, Fort Branch, IN 47648
  (812) 753-3878
• Genre: Thai / Asian
• Setting: Casual
• Price: Under $10

Like I mentioned, it is highly recommended that you call in your order.  We planned to go there for lunch and called in around 11AM.  They told us to “come in at noon”.  This unorthodox business practice adds to its novelty, but if you are on a time constraint, I wouldn’t recommend eating there.

Chuck (my co-worker and lunch mate for the day) and I arrived at this little shack off Coal Mine Road in Fort Branch.

what?  this is a restaurant?

Not really an inviting building at a glance… actually, if it weren’t for the reputation, I would not even THINK about checking it out.  I mean, it’s a pole barn with a restaurant sign on it…  It’s beyond me how it has established itself as a reputable restaurant…

Going through the little door on the side, I found a minimally decorated concrete pad dining room with seating for about 30 guests.  It’s kept clean and tidy.  Kitchen is manned by the owner lady and her son.  They welcomed us by saying “Chicken Pad Thai and Stir fry, right? Coming right out!”

Simple and tidy dining room… guess better than a big cluttered room…

We were lucky that there were only 2 other customers before us.  I hear that the place is packed sometimes and you would have to wait for a long time (like 40 min) before your food would come out… after the specified time provided by the restaurant.  Our food came out almost immediately after we sat down.

My tolerance for spiciness is pretty low, and I was worried that the food would be too spicy, as Thai food is known (by me, anyway) as spicy.  The chicken pad Thai was not spicy at all!

Chicken Pad Thai!  Yummy!

I thoroughly enjoyed the food.  Chuck’s stir fry looked pretty good, too, and I will have to try that when I come back in the future.  Perhaps, after I try their Thai curry…

They don’t take credit cards… cash only.  That’s another inconvenient factor for me… I’m a plastic guy.  Good thing I had some cash on me because of my big win from the previous night at the casino (a whopping $12.  yay…)

Verdict: LOVE the food.  but not so convenient.  It does have a high novelty factor that overcomes the  inconvenience.  Recommended if you are in the neighborhood and not constrained by schedule.

Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson (center) opening his show with a weird musical intro…

On Tuesday, Dawn and I went to Taft Theater in Cincinnati to see Craig Ferguson.  He is the silly Scottish comedian who hosts CBS’s Late Late Show following David Letterman.  His silly wit has made Dawn fond of him, so I thought it would be cool for us to go see him do his show (even if it cost us $115 for 2 tickets).

I just assumed that we were going to be seeing his taping of Late Late Show… it turned out that this was his stand-up show preceded by a stand-up by another comedian whose name escapes me.

While I was a bit disappointed that this was not the recording of the show, we were still thoroughly entertained.  We’ll do our homework next time BEFORE we arrive at the venue…

Anyway, this was a nice ‘different’ night out for us.  Since we live much closer to a civilization now (since we moved from Vincennes, IN), I hope to have more nights like this in the future.

CPAP Machine

“Continuous Positive Airway Pressure” machine is a device that my sleep doctor prescribed for my moderate sleep apnea condition.  According to the sleep study results, my brain wakes up about 24 times/hour during the night causing me to be fatigued in the morning.

I drove an hour to participate in an orientation in using the machine on Monday.  It’s pretty simple to use, really.  The device consists of CPAP and a detachable humidifier.  The machine and the nasal “pillow” are connected with an air hose.  You put the water in the humidifier, put the nasal pillow on your face, then turn it on.  That’s it.

Left: CPAP machine   Right: Nose Pillow Close-up

I also have to wear a chin strap because I sleep with my mouth open, apparently, and CPAP doesn’t work effectively with your mouth open.

Hachi fully equipped.  I look like an elephant with a toothache…

The theory is that the air pressure sent through my nose should keep the airway open allowing my brain to continue to sleep throughout the night.

I have tried it for a few nights now, but I haven’t felt a big difference.  They said it would take up to a month for people to get used to sleeping with the damn thing on your face.   I think it would take at least that long for Dawn to get used to seeing me with that thing on me…

Oh, well… we’ll see how it goes…

Anniversary #2!

Of course, Dawn brought a camera to the restaurant like a good Japanese wife.

Yay! We successfully (?) completed our 2nd year as a wife and a husband!

I took a week off from work to celebrate this monumental milestone (‘Cotton’ Anniversary, if you care).  We originally discussed going somewhere, but I painfully learned that you shouldn’t really hunt for the ‘last minute’ vacation deal at the last minute literally…  So we came up with an alternate local plan.

• Monday (Anniversary Day): Dinner at Mitchell’s Fish Market Restaurant (Newport, KY)
• Tuesday: Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show in Cincinnati
• Thursday: Kings Island Amusement Park
• Friday: Japanese Festival at Krohn Conservatory in Cincy.
• Saturday: Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria at Highland Heights, KY

Rest of the week is to be used for relaxing…

So we had a wonderful dinner at Mitchell’s for our anniversary.  The restaurant has become our new favorite in the recent months as it is one of the very few good seafood place around here.

Bad news: Kings Island is not open on Thursday… (much to Dawn’s disppointment.  She is about to cry…) we may have to postpone to Friday or a later time…

Anyway, a Happy Anniversary, Dawn!  There will be many more to come :-)  I love you!  Mwah!

Mole Attack

The latest creation of our backyard nemesis

We started getting these dirt mounds in our backyard this winter.  Despite our original belief, these were not made by the neighbor kids, but by a creature called a mole.

Dawn and I have no experience dealing with moles, and we pretty much watched our yard being buried in these mounds for a while now.

Today, I stuck a garden hose in the hole and blasted water into it for 10-20 min.  I fancied a thought of water spewing like geysers from all the holes it has created, but that didn’t happen.  The hole continued to take water like it had no bottom.  I have no idea how moles make their burrows, but I have a feeling that it is a vast network of underground tunnels…

I doubt that I drowned our mole in our attempt to fight back, and I guess I will continue to fight this little sucker this summer…

Easter Sunday

Weeping Cherry in front of our house

Noah & Dawn at Easter Dinner Table

The hunt is on… for the fake eggs…

These are robin eggs… not Easter bunny’s…

Johnny, Dawn, Kevin & Noah in egg reconciliation process. Is that all of them?

Sleep Study

I snore. Since I’m sleeping when I do it, I have no awareness of it, but Dawn swears to it, so I must. I have gone through a couple of sleep studies when we lived in Indiana, and they diagnosed me with mild sleep apnea. Despite Dawn’s strong urging, I never pursued any treatment like CPAP, because I thought I would never be able to sleep with a ginormous mask over my face all night.

Well, recently, my fatigue has been pretty severe during the daytime, and after consulting with our doctor, she ordered me to go through another sleep study.

I have talked to a few people who have CPAP now (turns out that MANY people do…), and they all said it was a “life-changing” decision. So, of course, now I’m excited about getting on this bandwagon.

At 8:30pm on 4/3, I admitted myself at St. Elizabeth Sleep Disorder Center in Edgewood, KY, for the sleep study. You get your own private bedroom equipped with your own shower bathroom and a TV. The bed is the Sleep Number bed for your comfort. You get free WiFi, too.

Left: Sleep study bedroom. Right: Infrared surveillance camera on ceiling

I was thinking/hoping that this would be a comfortable one-night stay with all of these amenities. Then my technician Suzanne attached bunch of nodes all over my body.

Cyborg Hachi

Bunch of nodes on my head, a few on my chest and my legs. So many cables were bundled behind my neck like a ponytail. Still, I thought I would be able to get used it pretty quick. Of course, as I told Suzanne that I’m ready to go to sleep, she came in with a chest band, a belly band, and tube to sit in your nostrils and in front of your mouth, all of which to detect your breathing…

I lied down in the dark trying hard to fall asleep, but I just couldn’t. It usually takes a few minutes or seconds for me to fall asleep at home, so it felt very awkward after a while. The tubes in my nose felt increasingly uncomfortable. Then I’m thinking, “I gotta pee…” I hated myself for not peeing before she hooked me all up, but I really didn’t have to, then…

Feeling childish, I pressed the call button, so she can unhook all the cables that she connected a several minutes earlier.

Apparently, I did fall a sleep at some point, but I did not feel rested at ALL when she woke me up at 6:45am. She said she got enough data to make an analysis, but I don’t know how you can get any good data from anybody if everybody has to go to sleep feeling like I did. Maybe that’s why there are so many diagnoses for sleep disorders…