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I know lots of people like to act like their body’s been through hell, like they’re crippled from some oil-related offshore injury, and I suppose in the grand scheme of things I’m really not that bad off.

The majority of my aches and pains are probably a result of not really doing enough, rather than doing something dumb. My back aches a lot, but I would imagine if I exercised it more rather than sitting slumped over in a computer chair most of the day it’d probably feel a whole lot better.

I gotta start running again. I feel so chubby and un-fit, and two nights a week of karate is just not making me feel the way I want to feel.

I’m sure Duncan and Ruby would enjoy it a lot too – Duncan loves to get out and about on a nice day, but unfortunately lately the weather’s been kinda crappy. I’m not sure how our stroller would handle traveling at running speeds all the time, and I don’t really want to spring for a baby jogger city select or one of those strollers with bike rims.

Ruby definitely needs to have the hell ran out of her so she’ll stop being so naughty… being cooped up all winter has not been good for her behavior.

With the exception of the 3 days a month I remember to stretch, I really don’t do much except the two days a week of karate classes. I’ve really got to get more motivation somehow.

A guy at my karate class lives in the next town over, but is hoping to move back here sometime soon – at that point our plan is to meet up and run at least a few times a week.

We’ve also got a weight bench and everything here, which I should probably start doing something with but again… sticking with a routine for longer than a week or two is not exactly my strong suit. Late night television ads tell me that all I need is some DVDs, creatine or something called usp labs jack3d and I’ll be fit as a horse in no time flat – but I seriously have a real problem sticking with anything.

I wrote/tweeted earlier about how our splitter broke again for the second time in as many days of use, and despite the fact I got a couple of little things done, my playercard on CoD:BO makes me feel like all I’ve done is sat around and played Playstation all weekend.

One thing I did manage to get done was welding the exhaust on the oldsmobile finally. Previously it was held together – only just – with exhaust clamps. Needless to say it was legal (as in, quiet enough to not get pulled over for no other good reason) but it certainly wasn’t pleasant to drive. Particularly around 40-45mph, it seemed like that was the sweet spot for the drone to sneak out of the holes left just behind the cat.

So I pulled the old clamp off, cut some feathers in the one piece of pipe that connected the old to the new, disconnected the battery and then welded it all together. The results are pretty good – I’m quite sure that out here on these salty roads the weld will outlive the rest of the exhaust, and there’s almost no drone while driving.

I also got a little winterizing done, but not as much as I’d have liked.

The worst of it all was my diet – sitting around eating things like pumpkin pie for lunch isn’t exactly the best way to lose weight, if you know what I mean. Almost reminds me of those shameful days of doing 18 hour stints on MapleStory.

Since we’ve started doing our “advanced” class at the martial arts school I attend before the group class instead of after (so we can get out at a respectable time), it’s basically meant I’ve wound up doing two sets of warmups/exercises every night.

Between that, cutting wood, and all the small-but-not-inconsequential winterizing projects I’ve got going on, I’m wore out. With the exception of a cup or two of incredibly unhealthy coffee every day (I can’t drink straight black coffee, so I’ve taken to using milk and hot coco mix to make it more palatable) I’m pretty much down to drinking straight water.

You’d think all this would cause me to lose weight fast, but that’s just not happening at the moment… at least, I don’t feel like it is. I don’t particularly care enough to get on the scale or anything, all I do is look at this flabby ethiopian belly I’ve had for decades now and notice it’s not going away.

I’ve managed to kick the donut habit, so maybe hope is not all lost.

My brother-in-law and I have been doing Karate for about 2 years now, and we’re finally up for our 6th Kyu promotion (“Green belt” in our system, though with the exception of white, black and sometimes red, belt colors in karate are mostly arbitrary), which is considered the first of the “advanced kyu” grades – which isn’t saying much, Kyu is still a rather demeaning grade, but in the traditions commonly held around where we live, people below 6th Kyu aren’t supposed to read the master text.

What I’m mainly looking forward to is not the belt or the rank, but the acknowledgement that I’ve improved. I’d still probably do karate anyway – it’s fun and it’s the only thing in about the last 10 years besides BMX that I’ve actually stuck with in terms of exercise, and I haven’t stuck with BMX as a form of exercise since the necessity went away.

In a little bit I have to go and pick up Shaina from her new job at Walmart, and I’ll probably pick up a case of bottled water while I’m there – it’s ridiculously hot and humid today, and I’m going to be in a stuffy building sweating and exercising for probably three hours. We have a whole house water filter, but Montpelier municipal water still tastes terrible since our water softener exploded one winter… so I find it’s just as easy to pick up some bottled water every so often and leave it in the fridge at the Dojo.

I’ve been nursing a sprained toe or two for the last few weeks, so hopefully the promotion goes off without a hitch.

Yesterday we went out to play paintball in the woods, for the first time in about 2 years. My Spyder‘s still in pieces, so I borrowed Trevor’s 98… which wasn’t fun at all. Trevor’s had an A5 for years now, and it’s in tip-top shape – but the 98 is in desperate need of a rebuild.

Even though with the baby due any day, we’re forced to cut back on toys… I’ve been looking at the parts necessary to get my Spyder up and working again. I’m going to buy an aluminum clamping feed neck, because I’m sick of breaking the stupid clear plastic ones that Spyder thought would be a good idea. Then I just need to pick up the stuff from Mouser to drive the solenoid from my MSP-430EZ, and I’ll be able to finish writing the firmware for my custom trigger board and I’ll be in business.

As to how it went yesterday, it actually wasn’t bad. Usually when we play Paintball in Indiana it consists of me going out there after not having played in 12 months… running around for about 20 minutes until I think I’m going to die and then spending the rest of the day recovering.

Yesterday, we were severely lacking in people so we only got two games in, and despite trying to run my ass around the entire woods to flank Trevor… I felt pretty great. Perhaps keeping up with the karate is finally paying off!

So on Wednesday me and my brother in law had our promotion ceremony for our Karate class… I now hold an 8th Kyu rank in two styles of Karate and in American Tae Kwon Do, woooh!

This promotion was actually easier than the last one, I think because I’m in a lot better shape. I was still sore for a day or two afterwards, mostly because of the extended time we spent in horse stances (my legs were shaking after the second set of questions)… but on the whole I didn’t get knocked around as much this time. Heck, even the weather cooperated, it was a cool 66F on the day!

I can’t help but think about what tremendous motivation combat sports are for fitness. Paintball, Karate, Aikido… nothing motivates you to move like the potential for getting your butt whipped. The hardest part is finding a school or club that doesn’t get all macho and turn it into a traumatic event, but once you get that out of the way it’s time to spit out that liporexall and get moving!

While there’s no bigger fat burner than having to walk absolutely everywhere, it’s about time we got a vehicle that runs again… So I spent today working on the Suburban, as I detailed in his weblog. The problem with the e-brake was basically a stuck cable, which I butchered with complete disregard to how expensive they were.

Our neighbour was pretty sure that they’re expensive, but it looks like I can pick the part I cut up for about $10 online, so I can’t imagine it being much more in town.

Because the brake shoes are about wore out, I just stuck it back together to keep the weather out (though I think it’s supposed to be nice for the next few days), and I’ll go buy the parts tomorrow. The wheel is free now, so if I put it back together properly it should be driveable – I just don’t care for the idea of driving it around with almost nothing left on the shoes.

Hooray!