William Drew

Billy Does Dallas!

Bright and early Monday morning, I'll be leaving on a jet plane (if you didn't already do it, go back and sing those last five words and make John Denver proud!) and heading to Dallas, Texas for the week.  This is a business trip, and while I am there I get to be in a training room from 8 AM 'til 7 PM each day that I'm there.  Yippee.  I'm bringing my workout clothes so that I Can get in my workouts while I am there, and I have also packed away a bunch of RTD's and bars that I can eat while on breaks.  This trip will not in any way shape or form derail me from how fantastic this last week was BFL wise.

The good news about this trip is I am being interviewed next week for a promotion within the company.  Our company's headquarters are in Austin Texas and I'll be able to meet the people doing the interviews as they will also be in Dallas for these training sessions. 

The other good news is they, for whatever reason, couldn't find me a flight out of Dallas on Thursday night when almost everyone else is leaving town.  So I get to stay an extra night and bring a little bit of Minneapolis Rowdy down to Big D.  Wait 'till they get a load of me (once again, if you didn't already do it, go back and read those last seven words like the Joker in the 1st Batman movie and make Jack Nickleson proud!)

Have a fantastic week everyone, and I'll be back Friday night for another rendition of Friday Night Videos!   

All of my pictures are available

I've finally put the last of my photos from my Disney trip up.  They are in five photo albums and you can see them over in the left column.  The 1st one is various pictures from around Disney World.  The rest are from each of the four parks that are inside Disney World.  If you want to see the full-screen versions of some of these photos, I put some of my favorites in their full-sized glory here.

You will love these pictures.

Today I posted my pictures of Epcot.  They are available in the Photo Album section over in the left column, or you can just click here to see them.  I also have two short videos taken in Epcot.  One is the beginning of the Illumination show, the other is the end of the Illumination show.  I probably should have gone a little bit longer on the intro, but it's still a good video.  Click on either of the links below to watch the videos.  Enjoy!

Illuminations intro video.

Illuminations ending video.

You can also see the photo album from Animal Kingdom, and in the post titled 'I'm Back', you can see the full screen size photos of my favorite pictures from the trip.  Just clik on any of the pictures in that post to see the full sized picture.

Animal Kingdom & Disney/MGM photos posted!

I have put up my photos of Animal Kingdom and Disney/MGM Studios parks.  You can see them by clicking on it over on the left in the photo album section.  Or you can click here.

You can also see some of my favorite photos in the post below.  If you click on any of those photos you will see a full-screen version of the picture.

I'm Back!

I'm back from my wonderful vacation to Walt Disney World.  I'm not going to bore you with a story about it yet, I'll save that for later, sometime early in the week.  Right now I just want to post a few of my photos that I took while there.  This will just be a small sampling as I took 550 pictures!!!  After I have finished taking out doubles (and some triples) and taking out the ones that will be immediately sent to the trash folder I will probably have around 250 photos left.  Anyway, you can click on any of these photos to see the full size version of that picture.  And each day this week I will post more pictures, so come back often this week to check them out! 

    

 

Here is a list of what each picture is:

1. Entrance to the Magic Kingdom.

2. Mount Everest ride still being built in Animal Kingdom

3. A Tiger from Animal Kingdom

4. Imagination building in EPCOT

5. Spaceship Earth and EPCOT entrance flowers.

6. Spaceship Earth and Palm trees

7. Spaceship Earth at night.

8. Upside-down waterfall in EPCOT.

9. The American Adventure in EPCOT.

10. Tower of Terror at Disney/MGM Studios

11. Sorcerers hat at Disney/MGM Studios

12. Cinderellas Golden Carousel at Magic Kingdom

13. The Enchanted Tiki Room at Magic Kingdom

14. Magic Kingdom entrance to Tomorrowland.

15. Cinderellas Castle at Magic Kingdom

16. The grounds outside the Castle heading towards Tomorrowland.

17. Cinderellas Castle at Magic Kingdom.

18. Sign for the entrance to Snow White's ride in Magic Kingdom.

19. Fireworks at the end of Cinderellabration show in Magic Kingdom.

20. Contemporary Resort, Ferry Boat & Monorail all in one shot.

21. The Swan Resort between Disney/MGM Studios and EPCOT.

22. Italy, American Adventure and Japan across the Seven Seas Lagoon at EPCOT.

23.  The buildings at the end of Main St. heading towards Tomorrowland.

24. Yours Truly in front of Cinderellas Castle.

UPDATED!  I had added pics from Animal Kingdom and Disney/MGM Studios.  Click Here to see them.

William, meat Wilma

Alright, how much fun is this going to be?  Bright and early Monday morning I will be boarding a flight to Florida.  And unless you've been living in a state of confusion, you probably know that Florida is expecting another arrival on Monday.  Yup, Hurricane Wilma.  If the prediction people are actually right this time, Wilma is supposed to cut across southern Florida.  I will be flying into Orlando, which might be just on the fringes of the hurricane.  What if little ol' Wilma decides to, say, veer north some 50 miles or so?  Yeah, I keep having visions of Flight 815 from Lost popping into my head.  But instead of ending up on an island paradise, I'll end up in a gator infested swamp. 

This trip also marks the end of my 3rd challenge with BFL. On one hand I am very happy with my progress. On the other, I know I could have done a LOT better.  Especially these past few weeks.  I had set out to really hit it hard and finish this thing out with a bang.  But I let a bunch of distractions slow me down.  I thought playing some football would just be some bonus workouts, but each of the 3 weeks I played football I couldn't do any cardio or LBWO's because my legs were either too sore, or too injured (damn hamstrings).  I was really hoping to get down to 10% Body-fat before heading out to Florida.  And I believe I could have done it if I hadn't dropped the ball.  I did get down to 14.8%, which is a very good number considering where I was just back in February.  These photos inserted in here are from my trip to Florida last October.  They are the pics that inspired me to start making changes in my life.  I found Bill Phillips Body-for-LIFE book in January, and started my 1st BFL challenge February 7th.  When I went to Florida last October, I weighed 257 pounds.  When I started BFL in Feb, I was at 255.  I am now 214.  I wasn't keeping track of my body fat during my 1st challenge.  I started keeping track right at the start of my 2nd challenge.  Just since May, my body weight has only dropped 10 pounds, but I have added 27 pounds of Muscle, and lost 37 pounds of fat.  If that doesn't tell you how well BFL works, nothing will.  I wasn't giving it my all and I still made that kind of change.

I am also thinking of getting a gym membership.  The main reason I've been working out at home is to save money instead of spending it on a gym membership.  But now it looks like it will be cheaper to get the membership.  I also think it could re- invigorate my workouts.  Right now, I am absolutly sick of my exercise bike.  I also use dumbells at home, and I currently only go up to 45 lbs.  I should go get weights up to 60 lbs, and then hopefully each month I should be able to go up five more pounds at least once during the month.  If I will be buying that many weights, I could go get a gym membership that would be less money than the weights would be.  The only problem then would be making sure I actually go to the gym.  But going to a gym, I would have a much bigger choice of cardio/HIIT exercise equipment, and I might be able to get a workout partner or two.  And if I get my ass to the YMCA when I get back from Florida on Saturday, the 'Y' has free sign-ups until October 31st, so then all I would need is the monthly payment.

So, I'm going to go to Florida.  Spend a week there, and when I get back, I might wait a week and then start up my 4th challenge.  But this time I might join a gym instead of working out at home.  I am absolutely sick and tired of riding my stationary bike.  I need some change for my HIIT workouts.  And the main reason I have been working out at home was to save money.  Well, now I need to go buy more weights.  I am maxed out on more than a few exercises.  I just use

So, going back to the beginning of this post, wish me luck on my flight into Wilma.  Hopefully she will be easier on me than most of the other women I've met.

For your viewing pleasure...

I just posted the photos from my trip up to Duluth.  You can find them by clicking on the 'Fall Colors' photo album over on the left colum, or you can click here.  I must say that I am very happy with the pictures, although I wish typepad would display them in a larger format.  You can see the full size versions of some of these pictures by looking through my post titled 'Fall' that is just a couple of posts below.