The Emerald Rose

          As any of you who know me know, I am not “Mr. Sentimental”, nor do I believe in supporting your local Hallmark Card (or like company) coffers. Ask me what I think of you,….I’ll tell you, in as much honesty and truth as you can take. (Like it or not). That being said since I am now officially a card carrying old fart sucking off the medicare teat, well, I decided to try and be a little more “caring”. (No applause please,…I might regress!)

          Anyway I decided to “do the day with my Valentine, my wife. So I bought tickets to a Chamber Music concert at three this afternoon, (Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, the usual cast of characters), followed by a fixed price Valentines Day dinner at a local Italian restaurant at 5 p.m. (Sure wish I spoke Italian, but I’m damn sure none of it was spaghetti, ravioli, or Lasagna,…..so it’s a sort of “blue collar pot luck Italian”, but it should make her happy. The only thing that would make her happier is probably if I quit drinking Guinness. (NOT HAPPENING!!)

      We took her cat to a vet last week to the tune of $165 to learn what the other vet told us that he might have diabetes and be insulin resistant about it. Can’t tell us if there is a solution if that’s the case, but the poor cat is probably very confused. He thought his name was “Smokey”, but for the last two years it’s either “Hoover” (because he will wolf down anything he sees and even remotely thinks it’s food, and even if it’s on your plate and you are eating it. Much like the vacuum cleaner), OR his other names, “Get Down” and “Get Out”. Talk about someone with pure determination, that’s him. He’s gotten sop bad it’s easier to just lock him up while we eat than get indigestion from yelling at him. (We can blow through a whole squirt bottle of water just eating breakfast.) Well Tuesday he’s got another blood test so we’ll see what the result is before “the next step”.

        New business is doing fine, but I find I’m spending 60% of my day cleaning up errors, mistakes, and just plain bad sloppy work by the previous management companies. (As the Association Portfolio Manager for a Management Company you aren’t supposed to talk with, interfere, or otherwise even give a shit about the accounting, the filing, and the updating of official records, your job is just “piss on the highest fire” and don’t get your ass burned, 24/7) Now I am the company and By GOD it will be done right ALL the time. I find if you do it right there are far less fires to have to piss on as time goes on, and sooner or later you become, “da’ man” in the clients eyes. (It also means you are going to find it far easier to increase your fees as well, without argument)

        Working out is really becoming a game for me. I’ve e gone from walking 49 miles a month in November, to 53 in December, to 76 in January, not to mention raising my average heartbeat while exercising from 98 beats per minute to over 110 beats a minute (by way of reference just hanging out my average heart beat is about 60 beats per minute or less.) Also I’ve been able to cut my workouts from 2 1/2 hours to 1 3/4 hours and do the same distances. Next week I start in earnest on the “strength” exercises. (I’ve been putting it off in favor of strengthening the heart with aerobic exercise first.) I’m pretty happy with an every other day 4-5 mile treadmill walk at 3.5 mph, so I’ll pick up the other four days a week with strength stuff.

        Been able to keep my weight within a 2 pound either side of 190, and I guess I’m going to have to drop some more, but I want to get through the entire first year (April to April) after the Bypasses before I “kick it up a notch”.

         I’m beginning to play with Microsoft Excel and see if I can convert all these stat’s I’ve accumulated over the past 10 months into charts so I can see a clear visual record of my progress as well as make some cool “graphics” for my book. I’m moving the target date to submit to publishers until the fall of this year (2010) believe it or not to try and hit the “Holiday” season in stores, etc. No one wants to read anything much except hot steamy romance novels and the like during “vacation time”.

        Well gotta get ready to go to the concert, live long and prosper!

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