Walking Wednesday #4

2020 (day 7) - 15.83 miles.

I've changed this up as in I'm not tracking this on a map anymore. I still keep my stats, just not tracking it. I got a Fitbit for Christmas so I'm back to tracking my steps with that instead of my phone. I was actually looking at a Samsung watch to sync with my phone, only the thing was, I only use my phone for 3 main things, Tracking my Steps, Texting and Phone Calls. Sure I Snapchat (usually once a day to send out streaks) and get on Reddit while I'm in the can but the big 3 are tracking, texting and talking. I rarely even do Facebook on my phone, I even shut off the notifications because they constantly sent me ones I didn't ask for. To be honest, I do very little talking. More for work than anything. So I opted for a newer fitbit because they can do all 3 of those things and are a lot cheaper.

That number up there is pretty low because at the start of the New Year, I didn't work up until Monday of this week so the majority of that mileage was in the last 2 days (today isn't included because the day isn't over yet). I'm lucky to get a mile in when I don't work. From here on out, I will show what I did for the week and give the total for the year.

I am off to a good start in that I've hit 10,000 or more steps 2 of the last 3 days so next week should definitely be higher if that keeps up.

2019 Stats

Woo Hoo, my favorite post of the year. I realize most of you could care less about this one, but I love stats, I love the end of the year because it brings all my stats to a close as well as starts a new year of them.

Firsts things first, here's the previous years post, minus 2015 because we just moved into our house and I was a little busy.

2013 - 2014-1 - 2014-2 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018

We'll start off with restaurants I've eaten at this year.

• 1 Time - 5 Guys Burger & Fries, 7-11, Cracker Barrel, Domino's Pizza, Dutch Essenhaus, Gerace's Pizza, Hotbox Pizza, IHOP, Johnny Carino's, Kobe's, Mango Mango's, Meehan's Irish Pub, Mojo's BBQ, O'malleys, Pizza Hut, Rise 'n Roll, Simonton Lake Drive-In, Smith's Food Mart, Sonny's BBQ.

I love 5 Guys and this is the 2nd year in a row that I only went there once, I need to remedy that. The majority of those are from Florida and Virginia while I traveled.

• 2 Times - Between the Buns, Bojangles, Buffalo Wild Wings, Culver's, Fazoli's, Flippin' Cow, Little Ceaser's Pizza, Long John Silvers, Nedderman's Steak Place, Rally's, Red Lobster, Volcanos Pizza, Waffle House.

A couple more pizza places in there. Flippin' Cow needs to be way more, that place is the bomb.

• 3 Times - Dunkin' Donuts, Hardee's, Walmart Deli, Wendy's

Dunkin' Donuts gets brought into work occasionally, Hardee's was traveling as we just recently got a local one. Walmart Deli is also brought into work. We have Wendy's around here, but the closest one was tore down and is being rebuilt.

• 4 Times - Chick-Fil-A, Pal's, Sonic Drive In, Steak 'n Shake

We love Chick-Fil-A as well but none are all that close so we hit it when we are in the area. Pal's is a place where my wife lived for 20 years so we go there when we are in town. We've been hitting Sonic more lately and while we love Steak 'n Shake, the insides are filthy and the service sucks so we hit the drive-thru occasionally.

• 5 Times - Ben's Pretzels, Dairy Queen, Jade Garden, KFC, Martin's Deli, Subway

Jade Garden is the local chinese place we get take out from and Martin's Deli is the local grocery store but they have the best fried chicken.

• 6 Times - Mancino's

They have the best grinders and garlic bread.

Next up is my top 6, all of these made double digits.

• 10 Times - Jimmy John's

We still love their sandwich's but the number of times we eat here has declined the last 3 years but it's still in the same spot on the countdown as last year, 6th place.

     

• 11 Times - Arby's & Burger King

Arby's is one of the closest fast food places and I love their mozzarella sticks, also the greek gyro. Burger King is up here because if we are getting fast food burgers, this is where we go. Both are also down from last years numbers. Burger King was 3rd most last year and Arby's was 4th.

• 17 Times - Bruno's Pizza

This is still our go to Pizza place, especially since they deliver. Last year it was tied with Arby's for 4th most so it's moved up to 3rd most and we ate there 3 more times this year.

• 42 Times - McDonalds

Finally got knocked out of being where I go to most. It annoys me that it stays up this high because I really can't stand most of McDonalds food. The only things I eat there are McMuffin's, Filet-O-Fish and McRibs. I stop here twice a month when I have to go to the other plant for work and I get some quick breakfast. Then twice a year, they have McRib's for a month at a time and I stop a bunch. The fish I get when we stop because there are no other options to stop.

• 46 Times - Taco Bell

Finally, my favorite fast food overthrows freaking McDonalds. It is also the closest fast food place to us so that helps as well. Although they just shrunk down their menu and took a few things off that I liked.

Those are our totals from eating out the last 7 years, I didn't mean to screen cap 2020 in there. Those 3 are all from coming home from Florida yesterday. We brought it down some from the previous year but we still do eat out more than we should. My daughter is usually working and if my son isn't home, it ends up being the 2 of us and it's just easier to get something.

Next up, my reading. I had scheduled myself to read 25 books in the Goodreads challenge. I failed as I only read 21. I only read on my breaks at work so about 40 minutes a work day.

I did read more books this year than last so at least it went up. You can follow the books I read on Goodreads.

The following is how many movies I've watched and how I watch it. This includes movies I've already seen.

After 2 years of not renting any DVD's, we broke out the DVD player and started watching them again. The DVD player is still out, but we haven't rented any in awhile. Streaming is done on Netflix, Prime and Hulu. The theater movies were Captain Marvel, Pet Sematary, Avenger's Endgame, Spiderman: Far From Home and Zombieland: Double Tap. You can follow along with the movies I watch on Letterbox.

I watched 145 sporting events this year. Either live or on TV.

Baseball was higher this year because with Michigan making the college World Series, they put a lot more of their games on TV. Hopefully they'll carry over that this year and play more on TV. The rest of the baseball were White Sox games. The basketball is a combination of the women and men Michigan games. Football is Michigan as well as the hockey and softball.

Last year I used my phone to track my steps but this past Christmas, I got a newer fitbit so I'll be using it from here on out.

I didn't track my steps for the first 3 years, then I got a Fitbit in 2016. I've steadily increased each year. This past year, while I didn't walk a whole lot more, I had a lot more days over 10,000 steps. The majority of those were probably work days.

I used to keep track of my miles, but now I track the miles of all 3 vehicles in the household. It's relatively easy to do because my insurance company does it for me, all I have to do is transfer the amount over to my spreadsheet.

I didn't keep stats the first 3 years listed and I didn't buy the Equinox until 2018 and the Impala for my daughter last year. The Gallant was my car until I bought the Equinox, then I gave it to my daughter who was starting to drive. It broke down and she shared my wife's Outlander until I bought her the Impala.

I never realize how little variety I had in the drinks I drink until I started logging it.

In the 3 years that I've kept track of this, I've only had 15 different drinks. Only 5 or 6 of those I drink with consistency, all the other are occasional, some as little as once in the 3 years. I drink a Coke with supper at home as well as most restaurants. The Gatorade/Powerade I drink to and from work. Mountain Dew for lunch at work. Orange Juice during 1st break at work and water most every other time. I drink it at work and at home.

I also keep track of the music I listen to. I used to do it manually but now I have a website that tracks it and it is so much easier. I just wish I could plug in everything that I tracked manually because I just joined the site this past October so that's all I have on there. I will show you my top 10 artists and how many songs I listen to this past year.

Taylor Swift is number one because I get stuck listening to her when my wife is in the car. I do like her stuff and have a ton of tracks on my playlist but she isn't the top artist I would listen to. I could probably name 20 or so artists I like before her, if not more. Petra, DC Talk and Michael W. Smith are all Christian artists and I have a ton of their songs on my playlists so it's more a matter of how many songs I have.

You can check out my playlists on Spotify or follow exactly what I am listening to on Last.FM.

I guess that's about all I got for you. I loved this post, I'm sure most of you don't. I should be back to regularly scheduled stuff now that I'm back from Florida.

Walking Wednesday #3

Just a quick post today.

Day 1081 - Lakehead, CA (3626.3 miles)

I passed my previous years mileage this past week. My highest in the last few years (since I've been keeping track) was last year at 1209.4 miles. I'm currently at 1238.1 for this year. I only have 2 more days of work this year which is where I get most of my mileage. We'll see if I do anything as far as exercise the 2 weeks I'm off. If I had to guess, I'd say no, but I have been contemplating doing some walking again. Lord knows my fat ass needs it. We'll see.

Walking Wednesday #2

It's time for another walking post? Has it been a week?

Day 1074 - Mt. Shasta, CA (3596.4 miles)

For those that don't know, the above number reflects the last 3 years. Getting ready to start a 4th year in a couple of weeks.

I mentioned last week, I think, that I don't really walk to exercise anymore, that most of my steps come from work. Well, I'm thinking about changing that. I feel like I might be putting on some more weight and being as I'm just a touch south of 300 lbs, I really can't afford more weight. The problem with that is, unlike what it says above, I'm not in California. I'm in northern Indiana. When I went to work this morning, the wind chill was 1°, it has only supposed to get in the 20's today. While I need to start walking for exercise, I have no plans of freezing my ass off to do so.

Right now, the only thing I can come up with is hitting the mall on my way home (I drive right past it) and become a mall walker. Even if it's just one lap around it, it would be better then nothing. It's not an overly huge mall so I have no idea how far a lap would be. The hardest part about walking the wall will be smelling Ben's Pretzels when I go by.

I also have the option of stopping by my mom's and using her stationary bike. My knees don't do very well on a bike though so I'm not real keen on doing that either.

I found out today that we're working 10 hour days the rest of the week so we'll see if I feel like stopping. I might wait until next week to start. If I start at all, I know how I am. I really struggle with motivation.

The good news is, I'm only 1.2 miles off of what I walked last year so I should go past that tomorrow.

Walking Wednesdays

As I mentioned on Sunday's post, I'm trying to think of some weekly posts. This is one of those as well.

Day 1067 - Grenada, CA - (3571.3 miles)

If you followed me for awhile, you know I keep track of my steps and track them on a map. I've been doing this since the start of 2017. On the map, I started at home and headed towards Chicago. When I got there, I decided that I will "walk" by all the MLB stadiums, then I later added the Big Ten Stadiums and if I happen to go past others, I list them. I'm been traveling to the West coast so there was a long time with nothing. I'm on the West coast now, the last place I posted about was in Seattle. I'm heading South to hit the 5 MLB teams in California. I'm currently in Grenada, CA on my way to Oakland, CA.

To give you some stats because we all know I love my stats.

As you can see, I've gone up a little every year. This year, I'm on pace to do it again. I've been able to do that because I've been averaging more steps at work per day which has made up for the lack of steps on the weekends. In 2016-2018, I averaged 52 days of over 10,000 steps. This year, I'm currently sitting at 81 days with over 10,000 steps. Like I said, been getting more at work and less on the weekends. I'm certainly not going to blow away last years numbers, but I should bypass before we head out to Christmas break.

I know it's nothing terribly exciting, but I'm trying to get more out there. I have a couple more posts planned this week, we'll see if I keep it up.

the Walking Fat

If you remember way back at the beginning of 2017, I started tracking my walking on a map just to see how far I'd get with my daily steps. I changed it up a little after I started and decided to walk to all the MLB and Big Ten stadiums and if I go by others I'll log them. Well, the last stadium I was at was in Colorado and from there I went to Seattle, there is a whole lot of nothing between those cities which is why I haven't really posted about it much. I'm finally in Seattle so you finally get another stadium post. Sadly, it really didn't look that impressive from the ground.

Only thing I know about this stadium is the retractable roof and when I watch games there (on TV), I always hear horns in the background because of the train tracks next to the stadium. Oh, and the Mariners play there.

I also noticed the Seahawks stadium was next door so I went around it as well. So let's see where that puts us on our tour.

1. Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox - MLB)
2. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears - NFL)
3. Ryan Field (Northwestern Wildcates - B1G)
4. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs - MLB)
5. Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers - MLB)
6. Camp Randall (Wisconsin Badgers - B1G)
7. TCF Bank Stadium (Minnesota Golden Gophers - B1G)
8. Target Field (Minnesota Twins - MLB)
9. Kinnick Stadium (Iowa Hawkeyes - B1G)
10. Memorial Stadium (Nebraska Cornhuskers - B1G)
11. Coors Field (Colorado Rockies - MLB)
12. Pepsi Center (Denver Nuggets - NBA)
13. Mile High Stadium (Denver Broncoes - NFL)
14. T-Mobile Park (Seattle Mariners - MLB)
15. Centurylink Field (Seattle Seahawks - NFL)

So that's my 6th MLB stadium and my 3rd NFL Stadium.

Day 928 - Seattle, WA (3108.2 miles)

2019

Goal - 1,500 miles (4.1 miles/day)

Currently - 719.8 miles (3.64 miles/day)

As you can see, I'm below my goal pace but I don't really go "walking" anymore. Most of my steps come from work and a little around the house. I have already matched my days with 10,000 or more steps from last year and we still have 4 1/2 months to go. I don't know what all that means, but it is what it is.

Random Catch-Up Post

I was going to post today, but I don't really have much to talk about it so I'm just gonna start typing and see what comes out. It'll probably end up being a random type post but it's better than nothing.

We've been binging on some shows this weekend. Yesterday and this morning we knocked off what was left on the DVR and we watched the whole season of Bonding on Netflix, that sounds like a lot but all 7 episodes were under 20 minutes a piece. I didn't know that when we started it but oh well, it wasn't bad. It had it's funny moments, and raunchy moments, glad the kids weren't home. Now we're watched Dead To Me, also on Netflix. It's listed as a comedy but it's much more of a drama, but either way it's still good. Lots of twists for such a small story. When we're done with that, we'll watch the new Game of Thrones tonight.

Things are going pretty good at work. I just got enrolled for a few classes this summer as well as a class in September to prep me for a huge test that could get me some certifications, which will hopefully come with a big raise. I just hope that's the way my job sees it. It would save the company money, quite a bit so I would think that would be raise worthy. The first class is in less than 2 weeks and I have to travel an hour and a half one way. All 3 of the classes are there (the other 2 are in June) and the test prep class is in Indianapolis which is just under 3 hours from here. It's overnight as well so they'll have to put me up in a hotel. So like I said, I think my job is going well.

We've felt bad that we haven't been taking the dog to the dog park, our oldest always did and said he had a blast so we finally got around to taking him. He pretty much just smelled around everywhere and barely interacted with any other dogs. So now we don't feel bad for not taking him so often. He sniffs and runs around in our back yard, do I really need to take him somewhere else to do that?

I got tickets to my first White Sox game in awhile, I think the last one I went to I took my kids to their first game in 2013. I'm taking my brother and his wife (who hate baseball) and my mom and stepdad (she hates baseball, he doesn't, but he also never watches it). They've been begging me to take them. They said "I don't know why you've never invited us?" Um, because you hate baseball. They'll enjoy it though because they'll like the atmosphere. It's also in a couple of weeks.

I'll post about my walking again in the near future. I've been going from Coors Field in Denver to T Mobile Park in Seattle so there has been a whole lot of nothing to post about. I am in Washington so I'm closing in on Seattle.

If you're confused about this paragraph, go click on the Walking label.

I guess that's it for now with my exciting life.

Slow Saturday

I feel like I should post something, I'm sure nobody is really waiting for anything but I hate neglecting the blog. My life pretty much consists of home and work.

Home life is pretty boring. Sam is driving now so I don't have to run her back and forth anymore. We've actually taken in a friend of hers who has just had a rough life. Her family just don't want to take care of her so she doesn't get anything she needs or help with getting to work or anything. We've taken her in which essentially means we've taken financial responsibility for her because in reality, that's all we've done. She wanted to move in because she knows living here, she has to keep up with school work and doesn't have the stress of dealing with all the crap at her place. We met with the guidance counselor and straightened some things at school and are trying to get her on track to graduate on time.

I guess I had something to say after all. I'm still keeping track of my walking on a map. I believe I'm in Idaho at the moment but it'll be awhile before I reach anything because there isn't much around.

Work life is pretty good. I enjoy most of my job. I finally got my lab built and have moved in so that's great. I've had some issues with some of my employees but to be honest, I'm not comfortable posting about work online. Anything can happen with the information and the company I work for is pretty huge and like I said, I enjoy my job so I don't want to jeopardize anything so I generally don't say anything.

So between my boring life at home and not wanting to post about work that pretty much leaves me with nothing to post about. So there you go.

I still post on My Sports Obsession fairly regularly but if you don't like sports cards, that means nothing to you. I also post almost daily on Last Song of the Day which if you like music, or even if you don't, you can check it out. I post the last song that I listened to off of my playlist that currently consists of 3,306 songs. It has pretty much everything on it. Rock, Country and 80's are the top 3 genres with songs posted so far so go check it out.

2018 Stats

Are we ready for another year of stats? Are you excited to know what I've been up to? I know, you don't care, but I do so let's get to it.

First off, let's give some links to previous years. I didn't post in 2015, which was when we moved in our house (the first of January) so I probably forgot all about it.

2017   -   2016   -   2014, part 1   -   2014, part 2   -   2013

As per the usual, let's start with where I've been eating. In the () is how many times the previous year.

• 1 Time - 5 Guys (4), Angler's (0), Bonnie Doon's (0), Buffalo Wild Wings (2), Calihan's (0), Chili's (0), Cock-A-Doodle Cafe (0), Cracker Barrel (1), Domino's (0), Fazoli's (2), Fudpucker's (0), Hardee's (0), Huddle House (0), IHOP (0), Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (0), Joe's Crab Shack (0), Kilwin's (0), Panda Express (0), Schoops (0), Volcano's (1), Whataburger (0), Wings Ect (2)

5 Guys really surprises me, I love that place. You can see a lot of those I haven't eaten at before or at least in awhile. 10 of those places up there came the last week of December when I traveled to and from and spent 5 days in Florida.

• 2 Times - 7-Eleven (2), Between the Buns (2), Bravo Cafe (5), Dunkin Donuts (0), Pals (0), Pizza Hut (4), Rally's (3), Simonton Lake Drive In (0), Taqueria Tijuana II (0)

7-Eleven is a convenient store but I love their hot dogs. Bravo Cafe is down because they have new owners and we're not fans of some of the changes. Dunkin Donuts is brought into work because I couldn't tell you the last time I ate there. Same with the Taqueria Tijuana II, we order taco's from there at work.

• 3 Times - Bojangles (0), Chick-Fil-A (3), Gerace's Pizza (0), Hacienda Mexican Restaurant (2), Lux Cafe (1), Rise 'n Roll (2), Smith's Food Mart (3)

Bojangles is in Virginia and my wife eats there practically every day when we are there. Gerace's Pizza is the pizza work has brought in when they are really treating us. Lux Cafe is also a work related place we get for breakfast occasionally.

• 4 Times - Long John Silvers (5), Martin's Deli (2)

Martin's Deli is the local supermarket deli, they have the best fried chicken in the area.

• 5 Times - Dairy Queen (4), Flippin' Cow (4)

Flippin' Cow has the best burgers in town.

• 6 Times - Culver's (0), Little Caeser's Pizza (5), Steak 'n Shake (1)

Culver's is up last year because I grab lunch there at work occasionally.

• 7 Times - Mancino's (1), Subway (1)

Both of those places we just didn't eat there much the previous year but for different reasons. We love Mancino's grinders but we kind of forgot about it until late last year. Subway, I'm just now a huge fan of but my daughter started working there so we picked it up more often.

Up next are my top 7, all are in double digits for the year.

• 10 Times (10)

Last year was the same 10 times but if was in 5th place, this year they dropped to 7th.

• 13 Times (19)

Down a little bit from the previous year but we still love their sandwiches. If they delivered to us, it would probably be a lot more.

 

• 14 Times (Brunos 17, Arbys 7)

Bruno's is our go to pizza, they are the best around, and they deliver. A lot of the Arby's was a snack, they have the best Mozzarella sticks and they are next to Walgreens where my wife gets her meds.

• 19 Times (9)

Burger King was way up this year because they had a limited time burger that I loved and I was picking it up more often. While they have good burgers and they are fast food, our BK is very slow and they are more expensive than most fast food so we don't generally go there a lot.

The final 2 should be no surprise as they have been 1 and 2, in the same position, every time I've done this stats page.

• 24 Times (28)

Even though this is 2nd place, it is my favorite fast food restaurant. It used to be my wife's as well but they changed their chicken and now my wife doesn't want it as often so it has fallen off the last few years. From 2013-2015, this was in the 40's and 50's.

• 49 Times (32)

Oddly enough, this is probably our least favorite fast food, for anything other than breakfast. The exception of that rule is the 2 months of the year that the McRib is back. So take away breakfast and McRib and McDonalds would probably be less than 5, and those 5 would all be someone else's choice but we were hanging with them.

We were gradually getting our eating out down until the last couple of years now we're going up. There are probably 2 reasons for that. 1, my wife's pain leads to less time in the kitchen and she's had more pain this year and 2, we are able to afford it more than in the past which leads me to picking up snacks here and there after work.

Next up we'll check out my books. It was way down this year compared to the past. I only read on my breaks at work which is the reason it's way down. I only get a half hour worth of breaks all day.

I only read 18 books this past year. That may be a lot for some of you but like I said, it's down for me.

Ever since I kept track of my books, I've only read at work. 2013 was slow at my job, as you can tell. 2018 is the first full year at my new job so there you go.

You can follow the books I'm reading on Goodreads.

Once again, in the movies section, you won't see DVD's listed because we didn't watch any. They will be back on next years list because I've been getting behind on my movies and it's a lot cheaper to rent them than pay to stream them.

I watched 7 movies in the theaters this year. A Quiet Place, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Tag, It, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Aquaman.

I watched 14 movies on TV, which means either on a network or on demand. I could list them all as well but I won't.

I also streamed 12 movies, which means online or a streaming service (Netflix, Hulu or Amazon).

I watched 34 total movies on the year. The ones listed above are only the ones that I had seen for the first time.

You can follow the movies I watch on LetterBox.

I watched 111 sporting events (games) this past year, either live or on TV.

I watched 22 football games.

I watched 35 basketball games.

I watched 54 baseball games.

I generally watch "my" teams. I don't really watch a ton of sports like some people do. I watch Michigan games in all 3 sports and the White Sox in baseball. There might be a few games here or there that weren't my normal teams but for the most part, that's what they are.

I need to change my header now that I don't use Fitbit. I'd prefer to use it but I can't wear it around my wrist at work and that's where I get more of my exercise/steps. So I've been using the Samsung app on my phone to keep it.

There, that's more accurate.

Top row is steps, bottom row is mileage. As you can see, I put a little bit more than the previous year. We'll see if I can keep that trend going up next year.

I only hit 10,000 steps or more 45 times this past year. I hit that mark 59 times last year and since I have more steps this year, that says that I'm getting more steps on the weekends then I used to so that's good as well.

You can follow my Samsung Health account here.

I did change my header photo for my drive section. It's the photo that Davco took when I purchased my new car. This year, I only kept track of the miles I put on in my car as opposed to any car that I drove. A little less stressful on keeping the stats. 

As you can tell, the difference in my jobs is making a huge difference in my mileage. 

My beverage consumption has increased as well this year. I'd say that's probably better except my water consumption went down and that's probably the only healthy thing I drink.

The Coke has gone up since I tend to drink one at home with most of my suppers now. The Gatorade/Powerade has gone up because I've been drinking it more on my way to and from work. Mountain Dew ICE, my brother wanted me to try it. It wasn't bad but I prefer regular Dew. I have OJ for my first break at work.

Last but not least, my music. Yep, I've been keeping track of that as well this past year.

I listened to 15,848 tracks last year.

My top 15 artists (because they are all in the triple digits) listened to.

• DC Talk (241)
• Petra (195)
• Michael W. Smith (180)
• Taylor Swift (152)
• Ed Sheeran (145)
• Keith Urban (142)
• Halestorm (121)
• Michael Jackson (118)
• Blake Shelton (117)
• the Beatles (110)
• Carrie Underwood (109)
• Russ Taff (107)
• Billy Joel (104)
• Pink (102)
• Eminem (100)

Those top 3 (Christian) artists are probably mainly because I have a ton of their songs on my playlist but that's because I really liked them back in the day. You can tell by the list that I listen to a lot of different stuff. You can check those out on Last Song of the Day or you can follow my playlist on Spotify.