Let's get this part over with, I weighed in this morning at.....259.5 pounds. I lost two pounds this week which brings the new total to 76.5! I breached the 75 pound milestone, finally. I'm very happy with that amount but I have to say with yesterday's hike in the woods i thought I would have lost a little more, but I'm not complaining.

Did you know that the traditional early English Christmas Dinner was the head of a pig prepared with mustard. Yummy!


There was a nice article in one of the local papers this week, Northumberland Today, talking about the No Cop Out Challenge. Hopefully that generates some more pledges for the hospital. It was quite the spread actually with a picture of me wearing a Santa hat...just keeping in the Christmas spirit. I just wished that Cecelia (reporter) had captured my good side...what am I thinking, I don't have a good side...yet!

Did you know that Santa Claus has to visit 42,466,666 homes in 12 hours on Christmas Eve. That's 983 homes per second! I wonder if he gets wind burn? Hopefully Air Miles!

On Tuesday I was able to hand over some more money to Rhonda Cunningham, Northumberland Hills Hospital Foundation. Both the Lion's Club and Cameco donated money to the cause, thanks folks!

I'm still able to resist the Christmas goodies, but it's hard!!

Christmas trivia...if you received all the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" you would receive 364 gifts!

Several of us went for a big hike yesterday in the Northumberland Forest. In the group of adventures were Mia Frankel from the County, John Russell, Doris Biron and the Sarge. I brought up the rear, literally! We trudged through almost 10 kilometres yesterday, from what i saw the woods were beautiful! Most of the time my head was down looking at the trail so I didn't trip over ice blocks, nook and crevices! We made it up to this one huge hill and admired the view for 10 seconds...I guess we were on a mission. Anyways the downward slope was very steep and icy, which can be treacherous walking. So John, mountain goat, Russell led the way down the cliff. he was followed by the sure footed and experienced hiker Mia, then the Sarge (muttering to herself about quad muscles). The next going down the cliff was Doris...what can I say, she skips in the parking lot during the winter months and now she utilized her butt muscles while going down the hill. She slipped and started to slide down the hill, it was liking watching the luge in the Olympics! The sarge had to jump out of the way! She stopped part way down, then she used the laminated map that Mia had given us and used it as a "magic carpet"! It really reminded me of Chevy Chase in the movie "Christmas Vacation"!

By the time the hike was done I was absolutely beat! Even though I've come a long way in my training and getting healthier, it made me realize I still have a long way to go! It was a good eye opener for me and not to be complacent in my training. I think the other four could have done another 10 kilometres but I was finished. My legs felt great, but for some reason my shoulders were killing me...don't know why. It was also an indicator that I need to work on my cardio even more.

Big Dave ...out!