* Posted using a Mac

It was a little after 7:45am CT and I had just gotten out of the shower… I was getting ready to head to my Media Communications class at Harper Community College in Palatine, IL. I walked into my bedroom and on TV was news reports of a massive fire in the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Empire State Building - 1945

Immediately, I flashed to images I had seen of the fire after a plane crashed into the Empire State Building back in 1945. Little did I know, not only was I right to remember that, but this time it would be worse, MUCH worse.

After sitting on my bed watching the news coverage, at 8:02 am I witnessed second plane crash into the World Trade Center, this time it was the South Tower. That was.. well, staggering. Did I mention my parents were at O’Hare waiting to board a plane to fly to Las Vegas for their 20th wedding anniversary?

I did not want to be late for class, and I wanted to make sure I got a parking space at school, so I headed out. But I didnt want to miss anything. So, I quickly grabbed my Sony Watchman portable black and white TV. I drove to school listening to WGN (I think). After arriving in the parking lot, I sat in my car and watched my portable TV. At this point, smoke was billowing from the two towers and reports of an attack on the Pentegon were starting to roll in. I watched as the first tower fell at 8:59.

A Tower Falls

I headed into class and sat in the empty classroom watching my little TV. I heard the ESL class across the hallway on the other side of our classroom trailer talking about the events.  I walked over to the doorway and with a shaky voice told them the first tower had fallen.

People started ariving for class and needless to say we didnt have class that day. Our teacher wheeled in a TV and we watched news coverage for the remainder of class. At one point one of the students stood up, whispered to the teacher, and quickly left. His girlfriends mother was in one of the towers… we later found out she survived. We all left class, and I headed home. I later found out classes had been cancelled for the remainder of the day.

Early afternoon mom and dad came home from the airport. With all planes being grounded indefinitely, they were not going to be getting to Las Vegas that day, or any day in the near future. While in the airport, they met a couple from Buffalo, New York who were headed home, but stranded with no rental cars available. Mom and dad asked them to come spend the night at our house until they could get home. Eventually, they were able to rent a car and drive back to Buffalo.

The next few days were some of the most sobering, yet quiet days you will ever hear… there were few, if any,  planes in the sky for the next few days. Seeing an airplane flying over a city would not be the same ever again.

AL East:
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays

AL Central:
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
Milwaukee Brewers

AL South:
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
Kansas City Royals

NL East:
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL Central:
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals
Colorado Rockies

NL West:
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners

• Pay “Uncle Sam” and the IRS (about $109,200,000)
• Pay the state of Illinois (about $15,600,000)
• 15% to church and charity ($46,800,000)
  • Yes Roger, you can get your new gym for the school
• Pay off all of the houses in our immediate family (about $500,000)
  • brothers, sisters, parents, and grandparents only
  • you have to draw a line somewhere, or EVERYONE will want to get paid
• $200,000 Annuity for Each Niece and Nephew as well as Maggie, and Claire ($2,000,000)
  • Payed out over 20 years starting at age 25
• Land and House in central Florida ($3,000,000)
  • 20+ acres
  • Main house, plus 1 or 2 guest houses
• House Boat ($300,000)
  • Just fun to have
• RV ($750,000)
  • After the girls have started college
  • Melissa and I would love to travel the county

After all of that, there would be $133,850,000 left over. That’s $100,000 of “spending money” for traveling, food, taxes, and other expenditures for the next 1,338.5 years!. Or, $1 million per year for the next 133.85 years. Either way, I’m pretty sure it would be safe to say we could retire comfortably.

Here are a few things that have happened since my last update:

• I tried a Boca Burger… something my wife really likes. I, on the other hand, have fond out that I do not. A boca burger does not deserve to have the name burger. It’s a crap patty on a bun.
• The stomach flu made a round in my family. Stomach flu is not an advisable way to drop 3.5 pounds in 24 hours.
• We bought a Wii Fit Plus! It’s been on our wish list for a while, and we finally bought it. I’ve used it a few times. Did some running, boxing, yoga, and hola-hooping. My goal is to workout for 30 minutes three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I have issued a challenge to my family: For the month of March, fast food will be banned in our house. We will not be buying ANY fast food and take-out (Applebees, Chili’s, Red Robin). We will only be eating store bought and home prepared food. This will be a challenge!

Well that is my update for today. Remember, there are a few ways you can follow my progress:

• Twitter. Follow me: @JasonWeightLoss
• GrandtFamily.com: You can see all of my updates here.
• Google Spreadsheet: This spreadsheet will be a weekly record of my weight.

The diet portion has gone pretty well. I’ve been trying to do my best to cut out junkfood and cut back on food portions.

Today I added the physical fitness portion of the plan. I did 10 sit-ups and 15 “on knees” pushups. I plan on adding one to each every other day.

I’ll be totally honest, there are days I think to myself: “is it time to move on to something else?” I want to spend more time with my family. It’s not fair to them that I have a work schedule that takes me away from the house on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, Monday nights, and occasionally Wednesday evenings. It makes planning family events really hard on a weekend when I know I need to be back to work by 3pm on a Saturday to put the sermon slides together for the projection screens and get ready for 5pm church. Then something like today happens….

It wasn’t “the usual”. It was a special event for the youth our church and other area churches called Five14. It’s designed to equip youth to share their faith with others. Part of the event included and opening and closing worship time. The opening featured our Praise Team and the close featured the Praise Band from St. Peter in Arlington Heights. I got to do something dont get the chance to do very often, I call it “mobile Praise Band”.

It’s a chance for our Praise Team to perform outside the usual confines of the sanctuary. Today’s event was held in our multi-purpose room. We moved all of our microphones, cables, and monitors into the room and  set up my 16 channel special event soundboard. It wasnt anything complicated, I’ve done it before. But I love doing stuff like this. It’s what makes my job fun.

The night ended with this comment: “We love when you run sound for us, no one does it like you.” THAT’S why I do what I do. People like what I do, and the end result has an impact on people. If even ONE youth was positively impacted by today’s event, it was absolutely worth the time and effort.

The first Bear went and poured out his bowl on Soldier Field, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the Golden G and worshiped its image.

The second Bear poured out his bowl on Lake Michigan, and it turned into burnt orange like that of a Bears fan, and every living Packer near the sea died.

The third Bear poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became Navy Blue.

So, I have decided to take on the challenge of dropping 60 pounds from my 6’3″ body. I dont currently know my EXACT weight, but I believe it to be in the 270-280 lb range. I will be weighing myself int he next few days to establish my starting weight. But the goal is still the same: lose 60 pounds by May 1, 2012. I could very well lose it much fast than that, but May 1, 2012 is the goal. Hence the name of the project: 60-05-12.

How can you keep track of my progress? I’ll be doing a few things to help keep myself honest.

1. Twitter. Follow me: @JasonWeightLoss
2. GrandtFamily.com: You can see all of my update here.
3. Google Spreadsheet: This spreadsheet will be a weekly record of my weight.
4. Facebook: Yea, I’ll keep most people up to date on Facebook.

Through all of these sources, I’ll be posting what I eat and when. Why? I want YOU to keep me honest.

The journey begins… now!