the unlikely orange

happy thanksgiving, everyone.  i have so much to be thankful for.  so, much, in fact, that it's almost overwhelming and embarrassing.  but one of the things i am most thankful for this year is my health.  at the beginning of 2019, my weight had reached an all-time high, and i was about as physically unhealthy as i had ever been.  i decided that i needed to do something about it, but it took me several months to get started.  i started in earnest around the beginning of June, and since then i've been running regularly and eating better.  and since the beginning of the year i have lost over 50 pounds.  this picture of me shows me in the same t-shirt back in march, and yesterday.  you can see the difference.  today, as part of my ongoing journey, i ran a half marathon.  13.1 miles.  #thanksgivingthirteenpointone.  it feels so good to have gotten that active and to feel better in my joints and in my energy level.  ...

i've been running again. i started on august 31st.  so it's been over a month now, and i finally feel like i can take a moment to reflect on how i've been doing.  here's what its looked like so far.... 8/31: 3.1 miles 9/2:   3.3 miles 9/4:  3.5 miles 9/7:  4.16 miles 9/9:  3.18 miles 9/11: 2.82 miles 9/14: 3.24 miles 9/16: 3.10 miles 9/18: 5.00 miles 9/22: 3.10 miles 9/24: 3.14 miles 9/25: 7.00 miles 9/28: 3.10 miles 9/30: 3.20 miles 10/2: 7.24 miles 10/5: 3.14 miles 10/7: 3.10 miles that's over 64 miles in just over a month.  i know it's not really that much, but for me, it's become a consistent thing, and i am proud of that.  i don't know how much weight i've lost, if any, but i know that my clothes are fitting better, and i am feeling much better about myself.  and i know that when i'm sweating, and i'm just not sure if i want to keep running up the next hill; or when it is 6:15 in the morning and i just think i...

best workout song that played on my ipod while at the gym this morning?  without question it was the theme to the original popeye cartoon. 

that's right.  in the last 11 weeks i've lost 20 pounds!  i've also earned 4 new cd's in that time (since i give myself a cd everytime i lose 5 pounds!).  i've been eating better, cutting WAY down on my evening snacking, and burning more calories by working out regularly and doing some longer running.  i am so happy to be shedding some of these pounds, but i have further i'd like to go, and i hope i am becoming a more healthy person overall, in the process.  also, i want more music! 

that's my sister-in-law and i, striking a pose before running a 5k on saturday.  that's right.  my second 5k of the year!  i never would have thought i would do such a thing once, let alone twice in the same year.  i finished with a time of over 32 minutes.  i have already run another one on my own since i ran this official one on saturday, and am happy about getting myself in better shape.  if this old chubby guy can run 5k's then just about anything is possible!  also, since i have run two 5ks this year, doesn't that count as a 10k?  i can't understand why it wouldn't..... so what's next for me?  a real 10k?  we shall see.... ps.  LET'S GO BUCS!

well, i did it.  i donned my hat, pulled up my st. patrick's day socks, pinned on my number 13 (wow, i registered early!), and lined up in the snowstorm for the starting gun.  it fired, and i was off.  i had my playlist ready and rolling, and i was running.  it felt like the first half of the race was slightly uphill, punctuated by a bit of a steep uphill section, before it came back down and levelled out.  it snowed beautifully the whole time, which, while cold, was a heckuva lot better than an ice cold drenching rain.  i felt pretty good most of the way, until quite close to the end, when i was fairly sure i was dying, so i stopped to walk for about 3 steps before i said to myself, "what are you doing, you idiot?  you don't want to do this!"  so i started running again, turned a corner, and there was someone telling me that i was nearly finished.  so i kicked it up a notch (as much as an old...

in one of our greatest moments as a couple, shannon and i thought it would be a great idea to put our three sons (7 years old, 5 years old, and 11 months old) into our minivan and drive 1100 miles to florida for what fancy people call "vacation."  brilliant. and so we tried it.  that's where i've been for so long, in case you've been wondering.  well, actually we've been back for several days now.  i just haven't been able to write yet, what with the therapy and recovery.  truthfully, i started writing this post in my mind as i lied in a hotel bed somewhere in the middle of virginia (which is for lovers, i am told). after a long day of driving north, i felt dizzy and sort of fell into the starched bed and began to see the trip flashing before my eyes.  i saw the whole week unfolding once again in my mind.  from our drive south towards reports of genesis-level flooding in pensacola, to the repeated image of my sons bent over the toilet...

i'm pretty sure that universal blogging rules dictate that i'm not supposed to apologize for my lack of writing, but i feel compelled to hang my head in silent shame.  sorry i have been absent.  life has been a bit...overwhelming.  i keep thinking that i have a million things i want to say, but i don't just want to say them, i want to say them well.  and then i get distracted by other things and i lose track of time and then i'm too exhausted to say much of anything well.  and that pretty much gets us all caught up.  with that in mind, i don't have a good 3-point sermon here today, or anything particularly witty or creative.  just my musings on this beautiful fall tuesday in central pennsylvania.  -today is quin's 3-month birthday.  he is so smiley and cute and, well, round.  just really round .  -coldplay's new album came out yesterday.  if you don't know, now you know:  i'm a big coldplay guy.  and ...

well, this morning i'd thought i'd just reflect on yesterday's mri experience.  my head didn't itch as furiously as i feared.  but there were a few rebellious pores on my face that thought it would be hilarious to do an irish jig right on my cheek, daring me to twitch my cheek or squirm in the machine.  as it turns out, that was the least of my problems. while i was lying inside this sanitized mechanized death trap, wearing headphones, they pumped light classical music into my ears.  this would be nice and calming except that the music coming through was frantic classical music, like schubert on speed.  and, to be honest, the music didn't really matter.  i could have been listening to death metal and i wouldn't really have noticed because you don't get much of a chance to hear it, when the blips and beeps and buzzes of the mri machine start assaulting your ears.  it felt like some acid-induced techno music made by someone with access to a variety o...

well, today i'm scheduled to get an MRI, which supposedly stands for magnetic resonance imaging, fancy medical jargon used to conceal the fact that it really stands for "may result in insanity" or "major reduction in inertness."  in other words, i'm going to have to sit very still for however long it takes and try to think about how i'm not allowed to move.  with every thought about not moving i will want to move more.  i imagine that i will feel every pore on my scalp calling out to me with an intense and torturous itch, begging me to scratch it.  it will be man vs. nature and man vs. machine all wrapped in one, as i wrestle against both my baser itchy instincts and my will to conquer this picture-taking torture chamber.  hopefully this will provide a picture of my back that will be helpful in understanding what caused my very debilitating pain this summer, in addition to turning me into a slobbering, scratching idiot.   i'm ...

-time for another random post.  which is just another way of saying that i am unfocused this morning.  deal with it. -i finished reading "the girl who played with fire" the other night.  if books were rated, it would definitely be rated R, but it was quite good.  the main character, lisbeth salander is a really fascinating protagonist, and a very interesting study in morality.  this particular book was so suspenseful that i was literally sweating and shaking during the last 75 pages.  this book is the second in a series (between "the girl with the dragon tattoo" and "the girl who kicked the hornets' nest").  - i also watched a movie this week while i was a bachelor for the weekend. i watched "the exorcism of emily rose," and i was very intrigued.  i was worried that it would just be a shallow horror-type film with demonic elements, but it relied less on gimmicks and tricks and more on a very interesting story latent with some significan...

up until the last few years, this delightful picture of homer simpson would have summed up my attitude towards that steroid/fat called cholesterol which our body actually produces.  if i thought of cholesterol at all, i thought it was an an ingredient that the FDA was adding to meat to make us all love it even more.  if shannon made a particularly good steak, i would chew it with deep admiration while commenting, "mmmm, the cholesterol in this rib eye is really tasty.  make sure you go back to that butcher next time."  okay, i'm joking.  but i didnt' know much about cholesterol.  until 2008 when my doctor (at the time) did some blood work on me and saw that my good cholesterol was a tad bit low, and my bad cholesterol was borderline high.  i don't mean that i was one small french fry away from a quadruple bypass, but that i was someone who should probably stop treating cholesterol like the top of the food pyramid.  this is where my story starts...

well, i've been waiting until the time felt right to share this here on the blog, and i guess now is as good a time as any.  so here goes. i moved last summer, do you remember that?  moved to a new town in a new zip code in a new state.  and before that, i was dealing with all the stress of worrying about my pastoral appointment, and where we would go, and what the house would be like, etc.  then we had to start packing up each and every belonging.  while trying to adequately finish up a season of ministry in one place and anticipate and prepare for the beginning of a new one in a new place.  after we moved we needed new licenses and new banks.  all of this added up to an enormous amount of stress for me.  and i tend to deal with stress in the conventional way: grabbing every morsel of unhealthy food i can get my stressed-out paws on, and packing it away into that growing intertube around my midsection.  to put it more clearly and blun...

may the fourth be with you. that's all i got today.  i hurt my back somehow, and am mostly moping in bed because it hurts to walk, talk, or get up to go the bathroom.  so if you can walk today without pain, be thankful.  i know i will be when this gets better. 

-so how about that performance by hines ward on DWTS the other night?  huh?  not bad, right?  that is, if you enjoy your favorite football players half nekked on national tv pretending to be a matador.  sheesh.  it just doesn't get any easier.  and then today i read a story about a group of ravens fans who are organizing themselves to try and vote for everyone but hines.  really?  are these people really going to make me vote for this stupid show?  really?  -maybe they are the ones who planted the messed up hines ward voodoo doll that my sister-in-law "found."  when your sister-in-law tells you excitedly that she found you something for your birthday, you assume that she means that she was at a store (where you buy things) and that she saw something nice that reminder her of you, or that she thought you would really like, and she bought it.  you don't think that she literally found it on the street, covered in soggy cigarett...

well, it's friday morning and, i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack in the saddle again, to quote that quirky american idol judge.  seriously, though: it's good to be back.  i am sitting here with a cup of coffee, my first cup of coffee since monday morning, which means people who know me well will either (a) think the apocalypse is upon us, or (2) realize just how sick i was.  i was just not myself.  more good news:  it's going to be in the sixties today here in central pennsylvania.  sorry al gore, but i have to be thankful for this one.  any sign that spring may be near, even if it's just a tease, is more than welcome.  i saw the grass in my front yard for the first time in more than a month.  you'd think i would have more to say after being bed-ridden for 3 days, but, well, i was just lying in bed, so, not much to say.  you might assume that i had some time to think while the clock slowly ticked away the soundtrack to my si...

i love television's the office .  for years now, the show has been dramatizing and hyperbolizing real-life awkwardness and making us all laugh uncomfortably at it - and maybe ourselves - in the process.  dwight schrute, one of the most ridiculous characters on the show, has always been over the top with his extremism, whether it be in beet farming or volunteering at the scranton police force.  last night's episode was no exception.  the show opened with a discussion about office hygeine, and one character suggested that she would set up hand sanitization stations around the office.  this suggestion was greeted mostly with enthusiastic nods of agreement from coworkers.  but not dwight.  true to form, dwight took the opposing view, and took it (hilariously) to the extreme.  saying that he believes we need to stop coddling our immune systems, he opposed the idea of hand sanitization stations.  he said we need to toughen up and give our bodie...

happy monday, friends. its been a great weekend for me, enjoying annual conference, celebrating pentecost, and attending (and leading) a retirement dinner for my senior pastor. - *big sigh of relief* - today is also a special day. for the past several months i've been participating in a little competition called "milinovich biggest loser," in which i have been competing against my mom and my two sisters to see who could lose the most weight. while i haven't been as intense about it as some of the other competitors, i have worked at it. and today is weigh-in day. i have already conceded victory to others, but i am very satisfied with my own progress: i have lost 20 pounds. - actually, what makes me most satisfied is that i lost that weight earlier in the competition, and then, over the last 6 weeks i have not been so intense about it. and yet i really didn't gain any weight. this shows me that i made some real sustainable change in my life. i have made s...

well, i've been debating about whether or not i should blog about this, but i couldn't resist sharing something that happened the other night, so i might as well share the whole thing. here goes... i don't normally give up things for lent, because i hate the disappointment when i fail. it is a defense mechanism that i learned at perfectionists anonymous (pa). the p.a. system (get it?) is to not make any commitments so that you won't be disappointed when you inevitably fail. i know, its stupid. i'm working on it. but i seriously haven't given anything up for lent for a long time. but this year i recognized that one of my 'addictions' was eating at night time. this might not seem like that big of a problem, but it really is for me. upon further reflection i realized that my night-eating habit is deeply ingrained in me. when i was a little kid, i always got a night time snack. when i got older, the snacks got bigger. when i moved out on my own th...

i seriously need to get off my duff and get some physical exercise. at least that was what i was thinking yesterday, in a moment of weakness. so i found out that our comcast on demand has some exercise programs that you can try. having heard some good things about it, i thought i'd try bob's biggest loser workout. all i can say about that is that with every step i take today, my legs are calling out unspeakable curses on bob and his 'jumping lunges.' i want to throw dumbells at my tv and overly dramatic words at bob. exercise. blech. - as i started the workout yesterday, i noticed that it started off with these words: "please consult your doctor before beginning this or any exercise program." - as i began lunging my way into sore-muscle-hell, i was thinking about how that warning is like the warning on the side of the cigarette package. i know that it is there in case you've got some pre-existing condition that would make exercise dangerous, but i...