Of Hope and Tigers.....

Its 10:39 am

      Ahhh.....Fall is making its way into SE Michigan. Went to work on Saturday morning and was pleasantly surprised at how cool the weather was. The funny thing was there was no warning,it was hot and humid the day before and then crisp and cool as Fall should be. And after a very warm spring and summer,I for one,am ready for some chilly weather.
   Been struggling a bit as of late with my sleep pattern again....I need to find a central bedtime and stay with it,been getting up far to often in the middle of the night and that is not supposed to happen with my CPAP machine. I think a walk around the block or a couple times up and down my street is what being called for. I need to tire myself out after work a lot more.
   My feet may have something to say about that but coming home and then flopping down is not wise or healthy and I need to re-establish my sleep habits.

   Last Sunday saw Lori and I make that rare venture to the movie theater. We went and watched "Hope Springs" with Meryl Streep,Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell. On paper,this looked like a winning trio and  a good movie to watch but in fact,it was the cast was let down by a storyline that seemed forced,especially at the end.

And trying to label this as a "comedy" when it fact,it was a real adult drama with some light touches thrown in   is also misleading. As drama and played straight,this might have been a very good film. But Hollywood just can't handle "real life" and has to force to a "happy ending" into these kind of films and thus ruining it. That said,Lori and I both agreed that Steve Carell stole this movie,it was perhaps my favorite of his so far. We all know he can do comedy but as in a serious role,he was even better. After watching him here,I can't wait for "Looking for a Friend..." when it hits on DVD soon..

  While I haven't been updating my reading list,I have been doing a lot of reading as of late....read Mitch Albom's "Have a Little Faith" was pretty great and stayed local by reading Elmore Leonard's "Killshot" was pretty bland and not one of his best efforts. But the book I'm reading now is called "The Tiger" by John Vaillant and its the true story about a small crack Russian anti-poaching team has to track down a killer tiger in Russia's most rugged territory. While I'm only 30 pages into it,Vaillant's description on how a tiger is built and how it attacks...it breathtaking. While the lion may be the king of the jungle,the Amur tiger is king no matter where he is. It sure causes me as a cat owner to take a longer look at my own little cat and how he is really built.  






I am reading this book at my job during my breaks,I was trying to read "A Mighty Heart"which was about murdered journalist Daniel Pearl written by his wife but I just found myself put off by the pure shrillness of her writing. I have read (and written) first person accounts of tragedy and can/do respect Mariane Pearl's loss but her book does her husband a real dis-service in my opinion and I just couldn't finish it at the moment. I put it back on my stack and will revisit it again when the time is right.

 I also read the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy,it was okay....not as good as I expected it to by but that maybe more of case of super high expectations then anything else. While the action is pretty good,the background story is really what I missed most both in the film and book....just HOW did Panem get created and what caused the total reshaping of the United States. Maybe that will be covered in the next two books but it is a major flaw in the first book.
Did anyone else who read this find themselves asking the same questions?



 
    The weight loss battle continues....at our store,they have a yearly contest called the Biggest Loser. You pony up 5 bucks,grab a partner and try and to lose as much weight as you can during a 3 month period. We do weigh-ins every week and your progress is charted. My partner is our store's trainer. We started with 12 teams but due to the fact one person is no longer with the company means we're down to 11. When I first started at my store,I weighed 282....(now we'll see who REALLY is reading this!) In the 5 months since,I have lost 22 pounds. I'm at 260 and am looking to get to get to 250 by 1 Nov. What started as a tactic to see if I had been hired in (I knew if they let me play the game,I was "safe") now has really turned into a real race as my partner and I are in 2nd place with 5 weeks to go....another reason why I have to fix my above mentioned sleep patterns,staying up late increases snacking and that will add up to weight gain..just trying to hang on....if we win,we each get 55.00 bucks and that would be really nice to have in time for Christmas.
Going to publish this now because I want my blog to stand on its own.