Just Weight a Minute!

my home gym

A neighbor of mine works out at the same facility as me, and he is very proud of the fact that he has lost 66 pounds over the course of a year. He said that he modified his diet some, but mostly it is due to the fact that he walks on the treadmill 30 minutes a day. I am happy for him that he has lost the weight, but here is the thing. Every time I see him he asks me if I have been to the gym that day, and proceeds to tell me that I need to be going 7 days a week. Now, I did not ask for his opinion, nor do I want it. Who is he to imply that I am so heavy that I need to work out 7 days per week?

Yesterday I was walking the dog and he was driving by in his car. He rolled down his window and true to form, inquired as to whether or not I had worked out that day. Indeed I had my butt kicked by my small group trainer that morning, so I answered in the affirmative. In fact, I told him, I have been going to the gym 4 days a week in addition to walking the dog every day. Was that enough for him? Oh, no..."You need to be on the treadmill seven days a week Kim!"

Where does this guy get off? And how can I politely tell him to shove off?

Love thy neighbor as thyself, but choose your neighborhood.
-- Louise Beal

What a Zoo!

Saturday Jim and I went to a family picnic at the St. Louis Zoo, courtesy of the general contractor on the new sea lion exhibit. All of the subcontractors who worked on the project were invited to bring their families for the day. We arrived a little after 8:00 a.m. while it was still fairly cool outside. We were given special brown arm bands, which allowed us to get into the paid activities at the zoo and also into the lunch tent. Having the band was great because normally we don't go into any parts of the zoo that charge an entry fee.

Sea lion exhibit

We began the morning at the sea lion exhibit, because we knew how crowded it would get later in the day. It is so awesome! First of all the new outdoor area is so much nicer than what they had before. But the indoor water tunnel is just great! It was fun to listen to the exclamations of the little kids. They also have a huge glass wall outside where you can watch the sea lions as well.

After seeing the sea lions, we passed some time in the flight cage while waiting for the 4D motion simulator ride to open at 9:00. The plant material in the flight cage sure has grown since it was remodeled back in 1996.

Happy Feet, the motion simulator, was another one of the attractions we were allowed to enter for no charge, so we decided to see what that was all about. There were only two other people in there with us, and I think it would be more fun when filled so you could catch the excitement of everyone else. We still had a good time as our seats twisted and turned, wind blew in our faces, and things touched our ankles and the back of our heads. And there was some water spraying in our faces at times as well as we watched the movie.

Next up we rode the carousel and then stopped in to see the penguins. One of the little devils took his flipper and sprayed me right in the face. Let alone having the stinky water dripping from my hair, my mascara immediately began to run into my eyes and down my face. Of course I had no tissues in my camera bag, so we had to beg a food vendor for some napkins to try and repair the damage. I had been a little worried about having b.o. since it was getting so hot out. No worries - I simply smelled like rotting fish instead!

stingrays

Since I had already had a close encounter of the smelly kind with ocean dwelling creatures, we went to the stingray pool next. You can put your hand in their holding tanks and touch them on their backs. There are sharks in there as well, but you are only supposed to touch them if they touch you first. The smaller stingrays felt kind of slimy, but the big ones felt like velvet. They also have a separate pool for baby stingrays, where you could look but not touch. Those little suckers are really fast swimmers!

We then entered the children's zoo, and found this guy sunning himself on the rocks. He certainly was very content. After that it was time for the sea lion show. Our assigned time was 11:00, and we were told to be there 30 minutes early. They had reserved an area for our group at this show and the 1:30 show, but those seats would be released 10 minutes before the show began. I was grateful we got the first show before it got too hot, and getting to the seats early ensured that we got a place in the shade.
I have not been to a sea lion show in years, and this one was pretty good.

 The show finished up in time for us to head to the food tent, where they had a buffet lunch set up for us. Everything was quite tasty, which is hard to pull off when you are feeding a large group of people - especially outside.

The last thing we wanted to do before heading home was to ride the train. I think the last train ride we took there was with my brother and his kids quite a few years ago. It almost made me want to go to Six Flags. Almost. All in all, we had a great time, and everyone who worked on the new exhibit should be very proud of the way it turned out.

The 1976 Summer Olympics

Olympic Park Montreal

While we were in Montreal we took the Metro out to Olympic Park, site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The whole complex lacks a grand entrance, and the remaining buildings and property appear worn out and tired. Which got me thinking about how old the park really is - those games were 36 years ago! I was going into my junior year at Iowa State and Jim was not yet my fiance, though we had been dating since freshman year. Can that really be 36 years ago? I guess the lines and cracks in the concrete at Olympic Park match the ones that have appeared on my face during the same time period.

Biodome, Montreal

Pan Am Games, Montreal

We decided to tour of a couple of the buildings, and we learned how much money the city of Montreal lost hosting the games ($1.5 billion) - a debt that was finally paid off in 2006, primarily through a tobacco tax! Can you imagine? I hope they never decide to try to have the Olympics in my town. Of course the murder rate around here would probably keep us out of contention anyway. It was nice to see that they have re-purposed a few of the buildings. We tried to get into the Biodome, which houses an indoor zoo, but the line wrapped around the building several times and we decided we didn't want to see it that bad. The Junior Pan Am games were taking place in the stadium, so we watched a water polo match for awhile and imagined ourselves at the games in London.

At the end of our tour the guide informed us that the Olympic torch was lit, if we wanted to go see it. The only time they light it is when Olympic games are taking place, so it seemed like kind of a big deal. After hiking around for a bit we finally located the torch, which was somewhat diminutive in size. It was very hard to see the flame, but I managed to catch a picture of it with a tree as a backdrop. Not too impressive, but hey, this may be as close as I ever get to anything Olympic. Let the games begin...

Olympic Park, Montreal

Olympic Torch, Montreal