The wrap-up

"And as the moon rises, he sits by his fire,

Thinking about women and glasses of beer;

And closing his eyes as the dogies retire,

He sings out a song which is soft but it's clear—As if maybe someone could hear.

Goodnight, you moonlight ladies;

Rockabye sweet baby James . . .

Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose;

Won't you let me go down in my dreams

And rockabye sweet baby James."

James Taylor

It took me about 25 hours spread out over three days to make the drive from St. George to Madison with the only minor problem being the snow and unavailability of hotels in the Vail, Colorado area of the drive. I spent the first night in Denver, the second night in Omaha, and the third night in my own bed.

As I mentioned before saying goodbye was always the hardest part of the time at Fitness Ridge and friday was the worst of all the days because I had to say goodbye to my fellow campers and all the great staff people at the Ridge as well. There is a litany of people at the Ridge I should thank, however, it's best to just thank all of the wonderful people who made my stay in Utah memorable, enjoyable and rewarding. I look forward to seeing many of you again in the late summer and hope to convince many of my fellow campers from the past six weeks to come in for a little "tune up."

I know you guys want totals so I will pass the grand total on. It was 63 pounds in the six weeks at the Ridge and one week in Vegas. It's a nice start but plenty more what that came from. I got my first workout in this morning and I know you will find this hard to believe but it was a full "treading" class without Michelle reminding me to "make my body want to change." I also spent sometime researching some walking paths and will get on those tomorrow if the rain stops and we can get the temperature up above 40. I'm keeping a food log because the one thing that is most important for losing weight is calories in. Exercise is great but you can always out eat your exercise, so for now it under 2000 calories a day.

This year's NCAA tourney was as bad as I can ever remember. Although it was a highlight for me to watch UNC lose twice on Saturday. Just when they got their fans to believe they were coming all the way back from 28 points down they hit the wall and lost by 18. It was also fun and painful to watch future NBAers from Memphis chuck up some ugly free throws late in the game. A 9 point lead with 2 minutes to play gets it done 95% of the time but not last night. Congrats to Bill Self and Kansas.

I also saw the movie 21 about the MIT blackjack teams. The book was a pretty fun informative read. The movie was silly and a bag full of inaccuracies, ridiculousness, and lunacy when it came to portraying these very successful blackjack teams. Read the book, "Bringing Down the House" don't see the movie.

Let's hope we all have fabulous summers. I am signed up for volleyball 4 nights a week and can't wait for the season to start next week. No major travel plans except of course back to Utah in late August. Again thanks to my angel whomever you may be.

As for you blog readers. Take the time to leave a comment if you want me to keep this going through the next 6 weeks at the ridge. I have gotten a lot of nice feedback from the readers but have no idea how many of you are out there. I have had two people find this blog who will be attending the Ridge shortly and I want to wish them both good luck..... Kristin and Kelly have FUN in Utah. Like me hopefully you will be able to come home with an awesome tan, and if you see a crotchety old lady on the stop sign hike, flip her off for me. Peace to all my friends and come visit Madison it's beautiful in the summer here. Jim