Wedding Weight Watch induces hypnotic flashback to high school.

I have accomplished something that I am pretty impressed with myself over. No, it wasn't that I was able to spring out of bed at 5:20 this morning when my alarm goes off (truth be told I usually wake up before my alarm and slowly work my way to the shower).

The truth is that I have now entered a lower numbering association with my weight. The glorious 250's. Now, this is great for me in a few different ways. The first being that it means I am just 9 pounds away from my target wedding weight with around 3 1/2 months to spare. The second is a throwback to the glory days that were high school.

You see, I have not been in the 250's club since those glory days of gel-filled hair, Limp Bizkit, Will Smith and before the movie world knew who Harry Potter was. The late 90's.

I finished high school in the 250's range and spent the next few years succumbing to the freshmen 15. Problem was, is that since I spent almost 7 years in undergrad that meant a few extra years to enhance the art of the freshmen 15. I pushed the limits of human capability and by 2003 I entered into a dark time for my weight. I was in the sad-sack club that is the 280's.

this is me circa 2004 I believe

XXL became a label I had to constantly associate myself with. I'm sure my pack-a-day of cigarettes didn't help any (I know I know, but hey, I've been off the smokes for almost 4 years now).

So I spent the next few years living la vida college. Cheap beer, even cheaper vodka, wing night specials and late hours were the norm. There was also the year I spent living above what I still consider to be the world's best Chinese restaurant, "Empire." Sadly, I realized that eating Gereral Tso Chicken with Fried Rice EVERY DAY was not cool.

Over the next few year's I spent going up and down 5, 10, 15 or so pounds. I never topped my ceiling weight of 280, but after a while 270 became the norm.

Enter present time. I finally have a solid reason to meet a weight-loss deadline. I get to marry my best friend! That has been a huge motivational tool for me.

And so you may ask (or you may not ask, but you're going to get the answer anyway) of how I am doing this.

Well let me first state that It's not some special hollywood diet. No atkin's, zone, slim fast, 19th century leech method or anything like that.

I started by not pushing myself so hard to get to the gym every day and to work so hard at the gym everday. All I was doing was getting annoyed at spending so much time at the gym (and around those guys who wear hat's while they pump iron, have huge arms and tiny legs). This annoyance and push all the time just kept leading to more food intake.

I'd snack when I came home and after the gym. It was not working.

So I set a standard.

• Go to the gym at least twice a week.
• Have a good cardio and maybe some weight lifting as well.
• Eat three squares a day
• No more bad snacking (a handful of veggies is alright)
• Drink lots-o-water (H20 is the way to go)
• Reduce the stress level (work, home and life)

And here I sit, on this cheap computer chair in my cube at work at 259. I'm excited to continue towards my goal of 250 and then see where I can go from there.

Here is a current shot of me at 8:30AM Central Time on Monday morning. I really tried to take a picture that didn't look all MySpace/Facebook but had a hard time since taking a picture of yourself at work can look really weird to people walking by.

Minimoon Tournament: The Elite Eight

Minimoon Tournament: The Sweet 16

Minimoon Tournament: Round 1 Updates

Here is breakdown of each region that has completed its first round of games along with a full bracket picture at the bottom:

Please note that only four regions have completed first round games so far.

The Penguin Suit Adventures: Episode I: Hopscotch Players Unite

We are at least a month away from going into a place and sifting through catalog's with different tuxedos, but I thought I'd just throw some stuff out here.

What it won't be:

I really hate the bow-tie look.

Minimoon Tournament: Selection Monday

The field of 32 hopefuls is set. Who will emerge victorious? Will it be a powerhouse pick or will this be Cinderella's time to dance?

I could have scanned all night...

We finally started one of the most amazing parts of wedding planning. The sweet pie that is the gift registry. We had been planning on starting it during the spring and finally had the chance (and free time) to head over to Bed Bath and Beyond (hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge) to start the process.

After we parked the car and starting walking into the store, I thought in my head about what this process would be like. Of course I'd seen versions of how it's done in the movies, but not having been married before, I was alone to dream of it anyway I desired. At first, everything was happening just as I had imagined. We walked in and went over to customer service. Cara proudly announced that we were here to start a gift registry. But that's when things got different. The customer service person directed us over to an open office just to the right of the store entrance, an office with purple painted walls, a desk with two guest chairs on the outside and a good amount of fine china on display.

We have been in this particular Bed, Bath and Beyond countless times before and I swear to you I've never seen this purple office before. I began to get my bearings. I'm in Geneva, right? This is the store I think I'm in, right? As we walked over to this purple office, currently vacant as they called their wedding representative over the loud speaker, I thought that the man from the Twilight Zone was going to step out at any moment and declare to me: "You're traveling to a world you didn't know existed. In a world with a purple office you never saw before. You have now crossed over to... the gift registry zone." And cue the theme music.

So we sat there, waiting for the mysterious wedding rep to swoop down on us. And that's when the weird darkness, the feeling of uncertainty, the knowledge that I had not been aware of this visually apparent purple office before this trip... all of that faded away and the sun was shining again. The rep greeted us warmly and sat down (editor's note: I have forgotten her name as I am horrible with names. She will henceforth be known as "the rep").

The rep had a great, upbeat personality and an amazing approach to customer service. You see, I have certain feeling (it's like a mini-philosophy) on customer service. Any job where you have to wear your name on your clothing for all the world to see is a job where you can find the best customer service people. This is above any good encounter with a call center person you might have had, because even though you get to hear their name, they can hide behind a phone. An in-person, name on chest, face to face customer service associate. These are the best people at customer service. They cannot hide from you and they know it. Their face and their name are right there in front of you. So, if you treat them good, most of the time they will return the favor.

Wow, I went down a different path there for a bit. Back on track...

The rep helped us get our information put into the computer and gave us some great information and tips on registering. She then asked us what we wanted to accomplish today. We locked in on cookware and kitchen items. She walked us over and stayed there for a while, informing us on different products, asking about our needs, who does most of the cooking (me) and just about every question she could ask. She was absolutely invaluable to us. She even broke into the cutlery case when her keys didn't work so that we could handle the knifes. A potential move against what I'm sure is a company policy against breaking into things and giving sharp objects to customers. Thankfully my thirst for human blood was at a lull and I didn't feel the need for a slaughter.

Anyways, we spent the next hour or so walking around, judging, touching, discussing and scanning. I forgot to mention how awesome my fiancée is, because she made me the official scanning gun holder and shooter. I liked that.

We did end up leaving before we really wanted to, mostly because I was intent on watching the Final Four games that were starting in a little over an hour and we still had to do our grocery shopping at Meijer.

Up next in this gift registering adventure? Well, everything else. All we did was register for cookware and a few kitchen items. But let me say one more thing, the cookie sheets we registered for our amazing. They are dark and heavy. Very manly. I feel like if I bake cookies on them I need to infuse them with diesel and present them with the verbal adrenaline of a Monster Truck Show commercial.