You know what I learned today? Taking antibiotics causes weight gain because not only do they kill off whatever infection you are fighting (in my case, a middle-ear infection), they also kill off all of the helpful bacteria in your gut that helps you effectively digest food. I had finally been trending back downward in weight until mid-December, when it started to spike back up again. You know what else happened in mid-December? I had to do a round of antibiotics due to diverticulitis. So, there's at least a partial reason for spiking up again. On the upside, today not only did I do 200 push-ups, but I also managed over 4 miles on the treadmill for the first time in ages. So that was nice. Also today, I jumped back to finally start watching the infamous Shada for the very first time.

Good lord, what a long day. For the past eleven months I have been watching two 25-minute episodes per day, but this morning's viewing was the twentieth anniversary special that is effectively a movie with no breaking point. That meant that I spent a full 102 minutes on the treadmill, walking further than I ever have in a single day. Then I had a full day of work, and then a big birthday party. Aside from being Alexander Hamilton's birthday, today is my wife's birthday (and also my boss' birthday, and also a friend's birthday), plus my own birthday is on Monday. So we had a whole big thing planned for tonight. Unfortunately my wife has the flu and couldn't go out, but we filmed everyone singing to her. After that I had to go back to work to do a software release, and so now here I am at nearly midnight just finally writing this post.

So let's talk about the big twentieth anniversary special.

I actually got to sleep in a bit today, which was nice. Then I hit the treadmill for an hour, go cleaned up, and went and did a performance of my show. It was a special one for me, a Sensory Friendly performance specifically for autistic persons and their caregivers, and my son was in the audience. It was pretty dang cool. Now I"ve got about thirty minutes before I need to go back to do the evening show.

So that gives me enough time to talk about today's viewing.

I gotta tell ya, these days just keep catching up to me in the worst way. It's after midnight, and I am just finally sitting down to write this. The good news is, my moving average is back below 250 as expected, and is withing six hundredths of a pound of my record low. Tomorrow is going to be a brutal (but rewarding) day. I have two performances of my show, and the first one is a Sensory Friendly show, to which my autistic son is attending. It will be the first feature-length theatrical production that he has ever gone to, and the first time he will ever see me performing on stage.Not that I have any kind of a major role, I am just one of the ensemble players doing six different parts over the course of the show, but it has been a great experience and I am thrilled to have my son coming to see me. On the downside, it's hard enough to squeeze in an hour on the treadmill along with my full time job plus performances. Getting this blog post done is tough to fit in. But here I am.

So let's talk about today's viewing.

Today has been an extremely satisfying day. After missing two days of treadmilling last week due to being sick, and another day this week due to being buried between work and my show, today my weight dropped back under 250 again. I expect the moving average to drop back below it tomorrow. I also built some really cool software stuff at work today, and then had an excellent performance of Annie tonight with a full house. All in all a good day.

I also finished watching the current vampire story, so let's talk about that.

Here's a fun bit of trivia for you: the tempo of the 80's-era theme music is exactly the same as my natural stride at 4.7 mph on the treadmill. I started out at 4.6, and had to bump it up one notch during the opening credits because it was just enough off to be annoying. I almost didn't make it to the treadmill today, but after missing two days last week due to illness and then missing yesterday due to.. stuff... I just couldn't put it off again. The good news is, it was a good story today.

Let's talk about that.

Blah blah, Doctor Who, treadmill.

Let's talk about it?

One of the quirks of a five-day moving average on my weight is that, although I have consistently dropped weight for the last three days running, my average has increased on each of those days. The two days I missed while I was sick have really set me back in that regard. But it's all illusory, and tomorrow the moving average will flip back around. It wasn't that long ago I set a goal to weigh in below 250 at least once before Christmas, and now it looks like by the time Christmas gets here I should actually have my moving average well below that number. So it's all good.

On the not-so-good front, today's viewing brings aboard the TARDIS my single least favorite companion in the history of the show. So I guess we should talk about that?

What a day. I had two more performances of the show I am in (the second one of which was plagued with minor costume issues and one almost-disaster that turned out just fine). My wife and I got the last of the Christmas decorations down, and she has started putting them up. I keep saying that tomorrow is the day I will put up the outdoor lights, so... maybe tomorrow is really the day? We'll see how late I sleep. I have another matinee performance tomorrow. And yes, I did watch the second half of my current Doctor Who story.

So let's talk about that (briefly).

We have been talking about re-doing the upstairs floor in our house for a while now, and a few weeks ago we finally decided to go ahead and do it. We picked out our new hardwood floor, ordered the materials, and yesterday they arrived at the store. So this morning I took a van and picked up 29 boxes of wood planks, plus underlayment and trim pieces, and brought them home. First I had to unload them into our garage, which wasn't bad - only a few steps from the van to the ground. Later in the day I had to carry each 52.6 lb box from the garage, up the stairs, and then into one of our bedrooms so that the wood can acclimate properly for a few days. Twenty nine trips, hauling that weight up the steps and then carefully stacking the boxes. As I was doing it, though, it occurred to me: as exhausting as it was, and as heavy as those boxes seemed, the weight of me plus the box going up the stairs was actually less than my total body weight only nine months ago. I used to haul that weight up the stairs, and everywhere else, all day every day. No wonder I was exhausted all the time. Honestly, I don't think that nine months ago I could have moved 1,500+ lbs of wood planking upstairs by myself, I would have had to pay someone to do it. Today I certainly broke a sweat doing it, but it got done and in a fairly short amount of time. Yay!

On top of that, I spent an hour on the treadmill today watching Tom Baker dress up like a cactus. So let's talk about that.