Mark Fever - 2013 Recap

Mark Fever was a lot of fun.

In addition the make your own six pack, we played bocce ball at work, disc golf, shuffleboard at Park & Co, knee hockey and horse (basketball) in the basement, vibrating football, 6 games of Pandemic, we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese, and a park. Plus, we went out to eat at Brickyard BBQ, Crave Burgers, Lodo's with the mountain view and had an excellent grill session in our backyard.

Week 13

Week 0 = 205 pounds
Week 1 = 200.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 3 = 197
Week 4 = 196
Week 5 = 192.5
Week 6 = 190
Week 7 = 189.5
Week 8 = 186
Week 9 = 184
Week 10 = 183.5
Week 11 = 182.5
Week 12 = 183
Week 13 = 183

Another deceptive week. I was down to 182 before Mark arrived, up to 184.5 while he was here, down to 183 today. So the last two weeks have been a bust because of Anniversary and Mark's visit, but now I should be able to resume. Looking forward to 170's. 

Make Your Own Six Pack - Mark Fever

As part of Mark Fever 2013, we went to a liquor store the size of a Target and made our own six pack. Here are my order of rankings, best on the left.

Maple Nut Brown - Tommyknocker Brewery - Idaho Springs, CO
This was a brown ale with just the right amount of sweetness. Crisp and light.

Twilight Summer Ale - Deschutes Brewery - Bend, OR
This was a great summer beer. It was simple and pleasant, but with good flavor too. If I was bringing a six-pack to a summer party, this would be a great choice.

Major Tom's Pomegranate Wheat - Fort Collins Brewery -  Fort Collins, CO
Didn't taste any pomegranate, but was very crisp. The top three were very close in my head.

5 Barrel Pale Ale - Odell Brewing Co. - Fort Collins, CO
A good strong pale ale, very hoppy. Not as easy to drink as the first three.

Honey Brown Lager - Dundee Brewing Co. - Rochester, NY
Sort of simple, sort of good. Couldn't taste that much honey, but it was pretty good.

Agave Wheat - Breckenridge Brewery - Denver, CO
The only beer I didn't like. It just didn't have any flavor. Tasted like nothing.

For the record, when we out on our last night, I ordered a Angry Orchard "Crisp Apple" Cider. Brit and I both liked it a lot.

Texas Barbecue Roadtrip (food dream list)

The only barbecue I've ever had in Texas was a few places in Houston in 2006. But I've always thought it would be fun to take a barbecue road trip. I've always wanted to go to Austin too.

Based a variety of sources, here are the places I would want to try the most.

Top Four

City Market, Luling
Snow's, Lexington
Kreuz, Lockhart
Franklin Barbecue, Austin

Somewhat conveniently, you could get to all four with only two hours of driving.

If I got to those four, I'd be happy.
I'd probably also want to go to San Antonio and it seem's like Rudy's is the best bet there.

Cooper's in Llano, Louie Mueller in Taylor, and The Salt Lick in Driftwood would be the next four up.

Here's a full map showing all eight places I mentioned.

Yikes

Week 0 = 205 pounds
Week 1 = 200.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 3 = 197
Week 4 = 196
Week 5 = 192.5
Week 6 = 190
Week 7 = 189.5
Week 8 = 186
Week 9 = 184
Week 10 = 183.5
Week 11 = 182.5
Week 12 = 183

So this is the first week where I gained weight. It's because we got some babysitting help and went out 3 nights in a row for our anniversary. The food wasn't even that great, it was just nice to get out of the house. 

Sunday morning I was 181. 
Monday morning I was 182.5.
Tuesday morning I was 185.5.
Wednesday morning I was 183. 

That's what happens when you go crazy and then go crazy the other way. I think it's possible that by this weekend I could be 181 again. But then I'm afraid I might catch a fever...

Halfway There

Week 0 = 205 pounds
Week 1 = 200.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 3 = 197
Week 4 = 196
Week 5 = 192.5
Week 6 = 190
Week 7 = 189.5
Week 8 = 186
Week 9 = 184
Week 10 = 183.5
Week 11 = 182.5

22.5 pounds lost, 22.5 to go until I'm at 160. 

It's a little annoying/frustrating that I've only lost 1.5 pounds in two weeks, but at least I'm still going. It may be that's as fast as I can lose from here on out because I just have less to lose. Or maybe this is a plateau and I'll be able to get some more 2-pound weeks. 

Still some excitement. I dug out all the jeans that I was wearing since I've moved to Colorado. (I don't have anything skinnier) So I've expanded my wardrobe by 200%. 

Also with 22.5 pounds to go, there are a bunch of good milestones coming up.

180 is my wedding weight and I think my standard college weight. 
At 175 I look better. 
Crossing 170 will be really exciting. 
At 168, my BMI officially becomes "normal" instead of "overweight" (Fun fact: at 205, my BMI was just barely obese!)
From there it's just gravy as I'll be looking great in the 160s and it's just a matter of getting in better shape at that point. So, a lot to look forward to.

So the first half took 11 weeks.
If the second half took 11 weeks, I would reach 160 on October 2.

We all know it's not going to come off as easily in the second half.
If I can do the second half in 18 weeks, I can be at 160 by my 30th birthday.

And even if I'm not 160 exactly by then, I should at least be around 165, which is good enough to take some pictures and feel good.

Week 10

Week 0 = 205 pounds
Week 1 = 200.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 3 = 197
Week 4 = 196
Week 5 = 192.5
Week 6 = 190
Week 7 = 189.5
Week 8 = 186
Week 9 = 184
Week 10 = 183.5

I guess this is another plateau. I didn't go off the rails, but I had a day or two where I may have eaten a bit more than I wanted to.

Regardless, I'm back on track. At least I lost something. 

Avs Lines

With the Avs trading, drafting, releasing, and signing players, I wanted to keep track. Partly just to understand, partly so I can update my NHL 11 rosters and play with next year's team.

Before I look at next year, I wanted to recap as best I could where we were last year:

Forwards

Here are the 15 forwards that made up the Avs rosters, arranged in lines, roughly in order.

McGinn - Duchene - Parenteau
Landeskog - O`Reilly - Hejduk
Downie - Stastny - Jones
McLeod - Mitchell - Kobasew
Bordeleau - Olver - Palushaj

Downie was injured all season, but am including him as on the roster. Jones was traded away. Hejduk is expected to retire.

Immediately after the draft, Roy announced his top 3 lines of forwards:

Ryan O’Reilly — Matt Duchene — P.A. Parenteau
Gabe Landeskog — Paul Stastny — Alex Tanguay
Jamie McGinn — Nathan MacKinnon — Steve Downie

I thought this was super strange to announce before any practices. And who's on the fourth line? Some combination of McLeod - Mitchell - Kobasew - Bordeleau - Olver - Palushaj. Here's who I would pick and how I would arrange the top 9, so that the veteran Tanguay could be placed with the rookie draft pick and I'd rather have O'Reilly help Stastny than Duchene.

2013 Forwards

Jamie McGinn— Matt Duchene — P.A. Parenteau
Gabe Landeskog — Paul Stastny — Ryan O’Reilly
Alex Tanguay — Nathan MacKinnon — Steve Downie
Patrick Bordeleau — John Mitchell —Mark Olver


Defense

Our defense sucks. Here's who the Avs trotted out last year.

Johnson - Hunwick
Hejda - O'Brien
Wilson - Barrie
Elliott - Zanon

O'Brien was traded. Zanon was bought out. Hunwick was waived but no one picked him up, so the Avs still own him.

The Avs acquired Cory Sarich from Calgary. And just signed Andre Benoit from Ottawa. No clue if these are actually upgrades.

At this moment it seems like these are the Avs' top 8 defensemen, which is sad.

Johnson - Wilson
Hejda - Barrie
Sarich - Elliott
Benoit - Hunwick

21 Down

Week 0 = 205 pounds
Week 1 = 200.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 3 = 197
Week 4 = 196
Week 5 = 192.5
Week 6 = 190
Week 7 = 189.5
Week 8 = 186
Week 9 = 184

Was able to keep it going. Had a high-calorie day cookout on Sunday, happy to see that this is still working.