Games day...

Felt good this morning, legs felt not to bad from yesterday's ride. It was ANOTHER rainy day, I'm sick of this weather to say the least. For all the crap winter and spring weather we've had I sure hope we have a hot summer to make up for it.

I was looking through the online ads this morning and found a guy that sells slot machines, I want to get rid of mine, which is a authentic Japanese casino one and get a real North American Casino one. There was an ad a guy had and we decided to check out his machines, it was about an hour away in the country. Reid, Alice and I took a nice Sunday drive to get there.

The owners name was wade, he was an older guy and he worked from his house and his showroom was his double garage. He had about 4 slot machines and two pinball machines. One of the pinball machines was Corvette, a collectors item. The other was an old Gottlieb game, I loved it, it brought back old memories. Although it was in poor condition. The corvette machine was in nice condition, probably a 8.5 on 10. It was a great game to play, we all like it and he wanted $4000 for it and $1200 for the slot machine and said he could give us a deal if we took both at $4700, including delivery, set up and a stand for the slot machine. He would also make the slot machine a 5 cent slot machine that took Canadian dollar bills and give us a 1 year warranty. I told him we'd think about it and get back to him.

We did some research and the Corvette machine is a collectible, similar to the Harley Davidson. I also liked that it had old school and new school game features and Alice liked that it was 4 inches shorter than most machines, we have a tight space we need to put it in. The price seemed fair market value when buying it with the slot machine and it looks like not much goes wrong with the machines that can't be fixed easily and the parts are cheap and readily available online.

We decided to go for it and Wade is going to check all the bulbs, clean it up and deliver it tomorrow at 9:30 am. I also negotiated Wade down another $100 to $4600, just because. I think getting a slot machine that plays with real money will be more fun. People can actually win stuff and I'll use any proceeds for beer money. I'll encourage people to play for their beer.

After tonight I've got to get off EBay and Kijiji and Craigslist. I've been a buying machine. For a while now I've been wanting to buy a Coleco Telstar from 1976 that plays pong. I had the game as a kid and loved it. I've tried pong with Reid's games but it's just not the same. I ended up finding one still with the box and drove 1 hour to Guelph at 7 pm to pick it up for $20. I negotiated him down $5. I need to pick up a small conversion part at Radio Shack and I hope to set it up with the bar TV and be able to play it at the bar.

I told Reid that his year is going to be the year of the games. We used to play pool and darts all the time. We're going to get back to that this year. I want this summer to be fun and most enjoyed, sitting outside on the deck when it's hot and in the Pig & Whistle when it's not or on weekend nights.

I spoke with my brother today, I have to stop talking to him for a while. I'm finding myself trying to influence him to much. I need to be a support system not a "this is what you should do" system. He's still in the mindset that he's the smartest guy and his decisions regarding the buying of a car and selling of his house seem flawed to me and I told him. I need to sit back and let him do what he wants to do, I don't want to be my dad. The one thing I'm fighting myself from doing and am very proud of is I'm not rubbing his nose in his failure and there is times when he is talking like a big shooter that I'd like to say something to bring him back to earth. Again, I don't want to be my father.

Here is one amazing thing about the Internet. Before going to bed Alyssa said she heard Osama Bin Laden was killed, I looked on twitter and it said the President was making an announcement shortly. Then I turned on the TV and waited and waited and waited. I was super curious. I figured if he was killed it was going to be the stuff of legend and definitely a movie. Turns out he was and I'm sure Hollywood is all over it. I was just glad I was able to stay awake and watch it, I was dozing off waiting.

On the weight front I'm a definitely 185 lbs if I average all the days out. I was hoping to be around 183 lbs right now, I'm not going to sweat it. It is what it is. I'm still not snacking, although I'm seeing the stuff now. I guess I better get back to the tapes. My biggest challenge this week is to remember to eat as much good healthy food as possible. The carbo loading really starts Monday for Saturday and eating healthy will put less stress on the body. I also need to get in 3 solid swims before Wednesday.

I've feeling a little tiny bit burnt out. I couldn't swim today, the pool was near closed when we got back from our Sunday drive and at 9:30 pm I went for a 40 minute moderate run. I'm glad I did. I went really slow and made it an enjoyable run. The heart rate was low and it was more of a recovery run than anything, my legs needed it and I did have to push myself out the door. When I got back I could tell I need to take it easy, the burnout was beginning and more importantly, I want to show up to St. George pumped to be doing the Ironman. I've found this year with more rest breaks I've been more looking forward to doing the Ironman and NOT looking forward to getting it over with.

Mod Run - 40:59 / 7.67 km / 5:19 avg pace / 128 avg hr
185.0 lbs