Holy Crap - It's set up!

Ok, this is a short post.  I just wanted to show off a picture of my new pool table!  I've been wanting one for quite a while now.  I have spent  many hours scouring the classifieds and doing research into what type of table I wanted.  In the end the size of the table really governed my decision.    Due to the stair well configuration in my place, a small table would be the only thing that I'd be able to get downstairs into my "man cave".  In this case a 3.5 x 7 foot table is what would work in my space.  Not only did it fit down the stairs but it also allows me plenty of room around my table as well, and easily accommodates a 5' cue around every side.  

The table you see here is a Dufferin 3.5 x 7 and was originally covered in a purple felt.  Although it looked great in the former owners basement, the purple felt just wouldn't work for me.  So before setting it up in my basement, I put in an order for some Championship Cloth in a Khaki color which you can see in the photo above.   Ordering the cloth though, was just one step in the process towards getting my man cave set up!


I actually had to spend a bunch of time emptying out the side of my basement that I would dedicate towards housing my new table.  It meant purging a great deal of junk and relocating a bunch of other junk that I still have yet to go through.  Sometime over the course of the next month I'll sit down and wade through the rest of it to make another purge.  


Once I had the space empty I knew that i had to put some sort of floor covering down so that me and my company would have something comfortable to stand on while playing some 8-ball.   So last week I ordered some very cheap carpet and underlay and brought it in to my basement on Friday.  I've always known that I wouldn't spend a lot of time and money finishing my basement so I decided to install the carpet myself.  In this case I just kept things simple, and cut everything to fit and just used double sided carpet tape to secure the carpeting to the floor.  It doesn't look anywhere near professional but it will do the trick for what I need it to do. 

Next up would be the lights.  Another friend came over and helped me out with the electrical and  within about 3 hours we had a new light hung where the table would sit, relocated some track lighting for where my dartboard will eventually be relocated, and hung another chandelier style light in the corner. It looks pretty cool given the surroundings it lives in. 


Lastly the toughest part had to be done.  Another great friend came over and helped me to get the table set up and re-covered with my new cloth.  That entire process took about 8 hours (including some help from my electrician).  The hardest part was putting the new cloth on the rails and the table.  Surprisingly, setting up the frame and making sure it was all balanced went extremely well.  

Now I have my new toy set up and I look forward to the many hours I'll be spending on it to  improve my game.  The next challenge will be to keep my cats off of it so they don't wreck the beautiful new cloth that we painstakingly installed onto the table. Not to worry though, I do have a cover for the table. :o) 

Movember

Well, if there's one thing I'm good at it, it's growing hair.  Ok, maybe not on the top of my head, but everywhere else it seems like I can just hold my breath and grow some hair.  This of course seemed like a natural fit for a Movember competition...

What is Movember you say??  Well, if you think about all the types of cancer and the different fundraising platforms, then Movember is one of those but for the guys.  In Movember we try to raise money for prostate cancer (the #1 cancer that men can get).  We do this by growing a lip curtain.  Yup... a cookie duster, soup strainer, pillow tickler, pushbroom, flavour savor, lip caterpillar, or less commonly referred to as the nose mullet.  Starting on November first and ending at the end of the month, men everywhere are growing a porn stache to raise money for prostate cancer.  


So with my secret super power of facial hair growth, I decided to raise some money for a good cause and have decided to participate in Movember.  If you would like to donate some money to the cause, then please visit my MoBro page at: http://mobro.co/jaicin  


As you can see form this picture I'm currently working on a "Horseshoe" or "Trucker 'Stache".  It'll be a 'beaut' when she's done.  So visit my MoBro page to follow my progress and see where I end up after all this wraps up! :o) 


Since this is a short update, I thought I would also let you know how I'm doing on the weight loss front.  Do you remember this guy on the left?  Yup.  If you guessed Fat Jason, then you'd be right.  I started my journey in June at the tender weight of 252 lbs.  This picture was actually taken in Vegas just before I started my goal to lose a bunch of weight.  


It's 5 months later and I've finally met the first part of my goal - which was to lose 30 lbs by the end of August.  Well it took a couple of extra months but I finally hit it!  Slow and steady wins the race right?  I'm now sitting at about 220 lbs and hope to lose another 20 before the end of December (which was my original long term goal).  Hopefully I can stay on track and get there.  


It hasn't been easy and I'm now finding that the weight isn't coming off as regularly as it was before.  I'm still doing the same things and I have added exercise but it seems like the body has quickly adapted to my routine.  I'll have to find some ways to shake it up a bit and stimulate  the metabolism again.  


If you have a weight loss journey that you'd like to share, feel free to post a comment or add a link to your blog.  I'd love to learn new tips and techniques!  

Back up to speed

My new camping Hat! 

Well, it's been a while since I've taken the time to post anything here and I know you're just dying to find out what's going on in my life, so I guess I'd better man up and deliver the goods!


Not much.


Ha! just kidding.  It's been quite a busy summer for me.  I've been out of town almost every other weekend for most of the summer.  The weekends that I stay behind seem to be jammed with activity too.  I think my cats are wondering who am I these days and are starting not to recognize me anymore. 


Ironically enough, they're not the only ones.  Hopefully you can tell from the picture, but I've dropped a bit of weight since the beginning of June.  I'm now half way to my goal!  I'm down about ~25 lbs and hope to loose another 25 before the end of December.  There are a couple of special occasions along the way that I have to contend with but hopefully I can manage to enjoy them without putting too much weight back on.  I'm averaging about 1-2 lbs a week without too much stress.  


For a while I was pretty dedicated to exercise and was pretty active even outside the gym.   Unfortunately I injured myself playing softball this summer and not only ended up tearing my calf muscle but also severely bruising my heel as well.  I loved playing ball though and it wasn't until my last game that I finally started to put it all together.  They let me play first base (my favorite position) and I stretched to make some great outs and then my stick finally came alive and I was smacking the ball out into the field for some solid base hits.   It's been well over 10 years since I picked up my bat and glove and even despite the injuries, I loved it. I hope they invite me out again next year! 


Now that winter is approaching I'm hoping to break out the snow shoes and get out to do some more of that this winter.  In the meantime I have had a chance to buy myself some new toys.  To be fair I also need to sell some toys too so that I can afford the new ones.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some buyers in the spring when the markets are more attractive to a potential buyer. 

2001 Goldwing 1800

What did I buy?  Well, I finally found a bike that I can really enjoy for some longer touring.  I now own a 2001 Goldwing 1800.  It has a ton of chrome on it, so I'm sure I'll be spending a butt load of time polishing it.  The "wing" does have some nice accessories on it though and I think I got a great deal for the bike.  When I tore my calf muscle this summer I missed out on a ride that was planned with a couple of friends of mine (Darren & Christian).  It would have been the "maiden voyage" with the new bike and as it happened I ended up staying home and spent the weekend being jealous of the trip my friends were able to go on.  Hopefully next summer I'll get a chance to try out the route they ended up taking while I had my feet up trying to heal.  


I was pretty motivated to take the bike out in spite of missing out on a great ride and ended up enjoying two other trips down into the US.  We had a fantastic ride down through Lolo Pass and then a couple of weeks later we took route that spanned Washington, Idaho and Montanna.  On that ride we saw some beautiful scenery near Kettle Falls, Thompson Falls and Kalispell.  We managed to take a run through Glacier Park for the second time this summer and rode the "highway-going-to-the-sun" route up through Logan's pass.  It was fantastic.  


On one of the trips I picked up an HD cam for the bike as well.  You can check out some of the videos from our trips on my youtube channel if you like.  Now that I have some new mounts for the camera, I'm hoping that I can make the footage even more interesting the next time we take the wings out. 

2008 KLR 650

Now as it turns out Christian and Darren were also exploring the back trails on a couple of KLR 650's they bought.  At first I wasn't really too keen on that type of riding and didn't have much interest in getting a KLR as I didn't really picture myself on the back of a dirt bike.  Well that was my first mistake - believing these were dirt bikes.  They are definitely not dirt bikes.  Like their classification implies, they are dual purpose bikes, meant for both street riding and trail riding.  A metaphore that Darren likes to use when describing the KLR is "rock crawler".  It truly is more like a rock crawler than a dirt bike.  Low RPMs with decent horsepower and a "go anywhere" frame, these bikes are great for getting off the main roads and into the back country where the scenery can really be breath taking. 


My second mistake was in believing that I would have no interest in doing any trail riding.  Well one night while I was hanging out at Christians place, he throws in an instructional video on Dual Sport Adventure Riding.  It didn't look that hard and these guys were filmed on their dual sport bikes in some great locations having a lot of fun exploring the "not so" beaten path.  It looked like a lot of fun, and the video really changed my perception of what type of riding that Christian and Darren were interested in doing with their bikes.  


Not too long after and I find myself scouting the ads on Kijiji and the autotrader.  I told myself I wouldn't buy a bike unless I could get a really good deal on one.  Boy did I find a good deal.  I picked up an 08 with only 2000 km's on it for about $3500.00.  They are currently selling for $5000.00 and up.  It was hard to pass up and so now I own 3 bikes (if you include my v-star that I need to sell).  Two weeks ago I finally had a chance to take the bike out and learn how to ride it.


We picked McLean creek to visit since it had a campground that we could stay at for the weekend and access to some great OHV (off highway vehicle) trails for us to play on.  This weekend we plan on going back to get some more experience and to try out some new trails.  I'm really looking forward to it! There will be about 6 or 7 of us out to do some camping and riding and should the weather become uncooperative we'll probably hide out under "tarp town" and play some board games while enjoying some Baileys and Coffee. 

Christian with his 10+ fish!

In addition to getting out on the bikes and playing softball, I even manged to get out do and some fishing this summer too.  Another friend of mine - Darren B - took us out on his fishing boat to a small fishing hole just south of Nanton.  Apparently you can't help but catch fish at this place, unless your name is Jason.  Darren and Christian pulled in 20+ fish between the two of them, while I only managed to hook one.  Yes.... one damned fish.  Truthfully I think it felt sorry for me and hopped on my line out of sympathy.  In the picture is my buddy Christian with his 10th or 11th fish. 


Our day started out with great weather but by the time we pulled off the lake, it had dropped 10 degrees and the wind picked up to the point where it wasn't much fun being in a boat on the water.  The line up to the boat launch was 15+ deep by the time we decided to call it a day and we ended up waiting for over an hour just to get our boat back on the trailer and out of the water. 


Along the way I've also taken in the Global Fest fireworks as I do every year.  There is a clip on my youtube channel of some of this years show as well.  I just love fireworks and was happy that I could make it out for a few different nights during the fest.  Jodi, Christian and I went a couple of times and then by Sister and Brother-in-law came down to see the finale and we went to check them out again that night.  As always they are spectacular and I highly recommend this event if you have nothing to do in the last couple weeks of August next year. 


Oh... minor foot note... t'was my birthday on 14th.


Unfortunately the summer can't be all fun and games.  I've spent some time doing domestic chores, helping friends out with their home projects and even tackling my outstanding chores too. This past weekend I finally re-grouted the tile in my bathroom shower.  That will teach me to do it properly the first time round!  


Coming up in the next couple of months.  Thanksgiving is the second weekend in Oct so I'll be making a trip up to Edmonton to celebrate with my mom.  Also in Sept is a comedy night that my friend Jodi invited me to.  In November we're getting a bunch of people together to go to "Just for Laughs" which should be a great time.  I'm really looking forward to those two comedy events. Of course at the end of October is Halloween.  I have a costume picked out this time round so hopefully it still fits by the time I need to use.  No I'm not telling what it is... I'll post a pic up here after I get a chance to use it though! 


Well, I'm sure I've forgotten a few things but I should probably wrap this up.  Talk to you soon!