Day 15

It’s Friday, YEA!!! TGIF. I love me some Fridays. I got up today know that I would be having an interesting day. I think my journal as I write it is going to be small and you’ll see why. After getting up going to the bathroom and doing my daily thing I went downstairs to the kitchen and prepared my IDS protein shake and took my IDS Mass Tabs and supplements pills. I decided against lunch and said my goodbye to my family. I walked over the bus stop and sat down, turned on my headphones and waited. I looked up and the bus just passed me up so fast that it didn’t even see me sitting on the bench. I got startled but then saw another bus right behind it and I calmed down. It just so happens that both the 379 and 384 arrive at my stop almost at the same time which was really stupid for Pace Bus to do since a few months back the 384 arrived at my stop at 6:37 but for some unknown reason they moved it and now it arrive at my stop at 6:50 just like the 379 bus. Anyway, after the bus ride which arrives at Midway Airport Train Station, I catch the orange line to downtown. I sat on my favorite chair which happens to be the corner single seat chair since I can watch my laptop and not have to worry about people seating next to me looking over and starring at what I am doing or watching. I did spend some time looking over the book my father let me read regarding building decks and I must say that I learned a lot by reading and looking at all the wonderful illustrations that book has to offer. When I got to work I finished configuring my Brother in Law’s First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana firewall. As I mentioned a few posts back, I am installing and we have donated tons of Cisco equipment to the church and one of those pieces is a Cisco Pix 515 unlimited user license firewall. After I finished this and caught up with Ricky I decided that I needed to get something to eat since I was going to spend the rest of my day in a waiting room. I crossed the street and entered the Willis Tower. I walked into Corner Bakery and ordered and bacon, egg and cheese Panini. I took it back to work and enjoyed it with some kitchen brewed Star Bucks coffee. After I was done eating I printed out the instruction on how to get to Northwestern Hospital.

My brother in law slash manager of the company I work for had some medical routines he needed to get done and he needed a designated driver after he was done. His wife parked the car in the parking lot and gave Ricky the keys in the morning. I took these keys got in his car and drove down to the hospital. I parked the car in the hospital parking lot and walked over to where he was waiting. We talked about work related issues and then he went to go do is procedure. This was at 10:45. I sat there with my laptop and finished watching a documentary on the legalization of cannabis or hemp then I watched a comedy movie. My battery died just as the movie was over so I stuck my laptop in my bag and asked the nurse about Wilson status. She told me he started late and it would be a while before he came out. I decided to walk to the car and throw my bag in the trunk so I wouldn’t have to lug it around. When I came back into the hospital I saw a cafeteria and I ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese on a jalapeño bagel with a small cup of coffee. I sat in the eating area and after I was done I walked back to the waiting area and turned on my Microsoft Zune. During these times I did catch up on my reading and read my AP news application for my blackberry 8900. I also took some work calls and was able to take care of some work related ongoing projects. By about this time which was 3:30 I was bored and actually laid down across several waiting chairs and was in and out. I received an email from Wilson wife wondering what was going on and since I didn’t know I asked the nurse and as she was find out Wilson came out and was done. We got in the car and I drove down to where his wife works. I got out of the car said my goodbye’s and walked a block to the train station.

On the way home I stopped at Home Depot to find out how much it would cost to rent a jack hammer. I also asked about decking wood but the person in charge of helping design the material list wasn’t in. When I got home I decided to go to the back yard and move the remaining 2x2 slabs and then I attempted to move the huge concrete slab. It was hard but I did manage to wrap a steel cable around it and using a steel bar I was able to push it away from the house. I thought I could save the entire slab but it was deformed at the bottom so I took a sledge hammer and pound the crap out of it. After it cracked in so many different parts I used my 2-wheeler and hauled the rocks across the yard to the other side.

After I was done I drank my IDS BetaNox drink and got ready to go to the gym. I got on my motorcycle and was at the gym a little after 7:00. I took the time to record my workout sets for today since it is the last day of July. I think I had an awesome workout and when I got home I had my daughter take some pictures and also got on the scale. I came in at 210. For dinner I had a bowl of honey nut cheerios with a banana and 2% milk. I guess my journal wasn’t going to be short after all.

Here is my last day of July workout log: Here is how this goes. The first number is how many times I did it and the second number is how much weight I pushed, lifted or pulled. The comma is the end of the set and the period is the end of the exercise.

Pactoral Fly: 12-135, 12-150, 10-120, 12-90.

Shoulder Press: 12-100, 10-110, 10-90, 15-60.

Lateral Press: 10-90 , 10-60, 15-60, 12-60, 12-45.

Arm Curls: 12-80, 12-100, 8-100, 10-80.

Seated Dip: 15-210, 13-255, 12-195, 15-150.

Seated Rows: 12-105, 12-105, 12-105, 10-120, 10-120, 10-120, 8-135, 8-135, 8-135

Lat PullDown: 15-105, 10-120, 9-135, 8-150

Back Extension: 20-280, 20-280, 20-280

Triceps Extensions: 20 100, 15 110, 12 120, 10 130

Incline Chest Press: 15-135, 20-150, 12-165

Shoulder Press: 12-110, 11-100

Abdominal: 40-50, 25-70, 25-70

That's it for this night.

Day 14

Today is Thursday and I woke up on time and ready to get to work. I again did my daily routine and how repetitive this sounds by now. Geez, I wish I could come up with something more exciting to say but it is what it is as I am sure it’s the same for many. After I got ready I went down stairs and made my IDS protein shake this time throwing in a frozen strawberry from the smoothie frozen fruit packet that Yolanda had purchased a few days ago. I also took my IDS Mass Tab and additional supplements. I will be honest and say that it is 9:44 if the evening and I am tired. I have been working on creating a design for the deck that I am building on paper. Well, actually on the computer so I can print it and take it to city hall for a permit. I am exhausted and my wrists hurt or are in pain today so typing is difficult. I just finished drawing the design on Microsoft Visio and was going to print it when I realized that I uninstalled the printing software yesterday as I was trying to reinstall it since I couldn’t scan the survey of my land. So, I had to go downstairs and fix this on the server and after doing so I decided to type out my log here on the server. Getting back to this morning, I didn’t take a lunch because I still had my left over food at work in the refrigerator. When I got to work I began working on my projects and didn’t buy coffee at Dunkin Donuts. At some point in the morning I had kitchen brewed coffee which is pretty good considering that it is Star Bucks grounds. I added regular sugar but not to much. For lunch I had my left over cheeseburger, a fruit cup and some wheat thin chips with my IDS creatine lemonade drink. After the day was over which was rather late since I had to work with AT&T to downgrade our MPLS bandwidth from 10 Megs to 3 Megs, I gathered my things and left the building. Getting back to AT&T for a minute I want to share some frustration. We have a MPLS network connection because we have an office in Red Bank, NJ that needs connection back to Chicago. AT&T is the only carrier in the building so we created an MPLS network connection. The problem that I have is that we decided that they didn’t need all the bandwidth that we were offering so it was costing a pretty penny to keep paying for useless bandwidth. Instead of AT&T cancelling some of the circuits we didn’t need and configuring the router they issued us they instead order new circuits and provide a new router. This to me doesn’t really make much sense. At the end we have to submit a cancellation for the unused circuits and ship them back the original router. By the time I was done testing and wrapping things up I missed my chiropractor appointment which was at 5:15. I called them and rescheduled for Saturday at 8:00. I arrived at Midway airport train stop and Yolanda picked me up in the van since I had to go directly to my father’s house to pick up the two wheeler. When I got there I hung out with him in the kitchen and he showed me a book he purchased on building decks. I showed him the design I created on my building deck software program and showed him the 3D view mode. We had coffee and some buttered bread. On the way out he gave us an album and other scented goodies to make the house smell good that he had an abundance of since he works for a distribution warehouse that carries these things. On the way home I was hungry but I waited until I got home to decide what to eat. During my conversation with my father he said I should remove the concrete step slab that was installed by the builder. I was so hoping that I didn’t have to do that. I changed to my backyard work clothes and began digging around the parameter of the concrete slab in preparation of demolishing it or prying it out so I can use it somewhere else. At this point Yolanda had to go pick up Jazmin from marching band practice and she went to Chucks restaurant and ordered a chicken sandwich with fries. I ate have of it and saved the other half for her.

Day 13

Today is Wednesday and the days are ticking away like seconds. It is amazing how fast these days go by. I woke up at 6:00 with the alarm going off on my blackberry but I snoozed twice and woke up at 6:20. I knew today would be the day that I would bring Andrew to work since Wilson my brother in law slash the Chief Technology Officer of the company I work for wanted to take him to lunch and spend some one on one time with him since Andrew is leaving to the Air Force in a couple of months. I rolled out of bed and did the whole bathroom daily ritual thing then went down stairs to the kitchen and prepared my IDS protein shake and swallowed my IDS Mass Tab and supplement pills. Yolanda purchased bananas and other additional frozen fruits like strawberries that are packaged so that they can be inserted into smoothies. This morning I decided to add a half of banana to my shake to sweeten it up and make it taste a little better. After I drank my shake I packaged up some lunch which was a left over burger that was cooked up on the grill the night before and a fruit cup. After Andrew got ready we were driven to the train station. When we got to work we almost immediately walked out to dunkin donuts with Ricky, Gio, Andrew and I. I ordered a small cup of coffee and a chocolate frosted cake donut. When I got back to work I started my projects and I also was able to acquire some software that allows me to design homes and deck designing and then view it in a 3D model.

For lunch I was approached by Gio and asked if I wanted some Mickey’s Chicken which is a takeout restaurant that is famous for the jumbo deep fried chicken strips and fries. I knew I had brought some lunch from home but I am weak and so I decided to fold in and went with Gio, Franky, and Johnny. I orderd three jumbo battered deep fried chicken fingers and fries and a side of ranch dressing. On the way back to work I came across a sign for a Chinese resturant that I thought was funny so I took a picture. "Hot Asian Buns" What?

Wilson took Andrew to lunch and they went to Nuevo Leon which is a very popular Mexican restaurant on 18th street. After coming back to the office I had my food with a cup of water. I just realized as I am writing the journal that I completely forgot to take my IDS creatine lemonade drink. Oh well. During the day I did contact the City Hall of Burbank and received some information about a building permit and they said I needed a land survey which I didn’t know where that would be since I have been in my house for over 10 years. Yolanda called City Hall and she was able to get a few copies from them. I will now need to draw in where I plan to build my deck and then submit it for a building permit. Today, Yolanda took the car in for a repair check since our 2008 Nissan Versa was experiencing a problem turning on. When you insert the key and turn the engine, sometimes it takes a little while in cranking before it turns over. It turns out that there was a recall with a component that can cause this issue. Our car is still under warranty so it was taken care of. Since the car was at the shop some additional maintenance was done and my bill came out to $250.00. After work was over we drove down to the Nissan dealer ship and picked up the Versa.

When I got home which was earlier than normal since I left at 2:45 which I typically leave at 4:00, I was able to get ready for the gym and was working out by 5:00. This is awesome because I usually start at 6:00 or 6:30. Yolanda and Jazmin came to the gym and they were able to work out and do their routine. I hit the gym super hard since I knew I was a bad boy with what I had eaten for lunch. After our workout we came home and it was still light enough outside to commit an hour out in the backyard. While I was back there I went to the alley to retrieve my recycle trash can and said hello to the neighbor across the alley. She is doing fine and her husband Frank is still recovering and collecting compensation from an accident in which I person in a car ran him over as he was throwing away trash for the waste management company. Back to the yard work, I was able to pull up the remaining slabs while Yolanda grilled some cheddar polish sausages. I called my father and verified that my two wheeler is at his house so I will pick it up tomorrow night so I can use to move the concrete slabs in position to where I am building the sidewalk. After I was done I ate two cheddar polish sausages one with guacamole and the other with ketchup and mustard. I drank a cold miller light and the food was yummy.

Day 12

It is Tuesday and I woke up sore from last night’s work out. I also had a difficult time going to sleep last night and at 11:30 I got up with my wife making noises. She was cleaning the little mess that our Yorkie “Rocko” made under our bed. He was kicked out of our room and his bed was moved out into the hall. On top of this commotion Rocko wouldn’t want to stay in his bed so I had to force my voice to make him stay. It was the second time of doing this that my daughter stepped out of her bedroom and took Rocko with her. I could not go back to sleep so I pulled out my laptop and watched the remaining part of a movie called “I Love You Man”. I also took some medication for a cough that I am trying to get rid of. I finally fell asleep at 1:30 and I got up tired but hoping for a good day. After a shower and brushing my teeth, my wife ironed my clothes as she always does every morning. I have to say that this is great and she is amazing in more ways than one. I finished getting dressed and went down to the kitchen to prepare my IDS protein shake and I drank it with my one and only straw. I swallowed my IDS mass tab and my supplement pills. I kissed my wife goodbye and off to work I went. Work was productive and I was able to take care of more tasks that manifested in real-time throughout the day. When I got to work I went to dunkin donut and had a small cup of coffee. For lunch I had a delicious ham and cheese with bacon on wheat nut bread and drank an IDS creatine lemonade drink. At the end of the day I performed a small work out session with my office dumbells. On the way home I stopped at Lowes and purchased a 3 foot level so I could use it when I begin building out a sidewalk along the side of my house. Part of my yard work will be to remove the 2x2 concrete slabs that were placed down to make a patio flooring. Since I will be building a wood deck these will be removed so I decided that it would be best to make a sidewalk with them. After I got home I got ready to go to the chiropractor at 6:00 and was back home by 7:00. After I got home Yolanda had a delicious and juicy beef burger with cheese and guacamole and I had it with a cold blue moon. After I was done eating dinner I called my father and he told me he was already putting together a list of materials that we would need. I updated him on what I had already done in the backyard and that I was planning on removing some of the 2x2 slabs.

After starting the removal of the slabs I was able to remove half of the patio and place the slabs up against the house. By the time this was done I was tired and it got late. I put away my shovel that I was using as leverage to lift the slabs and came inside to wash up. I opened the fridge and saw a 2 litter of Coca Cola so I poured some in a glass and added some low fat soft vanilla ice cream as a substitution for ice. It was yummy.

Day 11

It is Monday and I woke up prior to my alarm waking me up at 6:00. I have to really go to the bathroom so I get up wishing that I would have slept up until then but rather I get up about half an hour before. I find myself back in bed and wait it out. I did wake up hungry and need to eat. After getting ready for work I went to the kitchen and fixed up a cup of Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk and I also prepared my IDS Protein Shake and consumed my IDS Mass Tab and other supplement pills. I did my regular routine and rode the bus while reading my AP news of the day. It is amazing how much crime happen in the city of Chicago. It is obvious that the political powers that be are preventing the local news from releasing all the murders and shootings that are happening on the southeast side of the city. It is kind of depressing but I am so thankful that I remain safe and pray that something positive happens in the city to slow down or stop it all together. There must be a solution to the insanity. Anyway, when I got to work I am already aware that Ricky is troubleshooting a technical problem that is very serious and must take priority over everything else going on. Below is a write up that I put together regarding this incident but before you read it I must say that at 10:00 I had a bacon, tomato, cheese on wheat nut bread with a small cup of dunkin donuts coffee. For lunch I had a peanut butter granola bar with a cup of water and during the day I also had a cup of IDS creatine lemonade juice. What follows is my explanation to the incident that we experienced at work. After my explanation I will proceed with what I did after work.

This morning Ricky was notified that the office in Garden City could not make any inbound or outbound calls through their local voice router gateway. The PRI is provided by Light Path and they were called and a ticket was generated. We attempted to troubleshoot the problem up to our capability with Light Path but with no success. We escalated our troubleshooting skills by involving our voice consultants and they determined that the problem was not physical but logical in the configuration of the carrier based on error codes and debugging techniques.

Throughout the day Light Path insisted that they did not make any changes and we had them dispatch a technician on site to further investigate this problem. While at Garden City the Light Path technician plugged the PRI into their equipment and verified that they were able to make and receive calls when bypassing our voice router. However, when connecting it back to our voice router the problem would continue to exist. We did reboot the router via a soft and hard reset and even swapped the CSU/DSU to another slot which required a reconfiguration of our router.

Since the issue wasn’t repaired we opened a ticket with Cisco and had an engineer continue to further troubleshoot the problem and they also said that it appeared to be a configuration issue on the carrier’s side of the circuit. During the progress of troubleshooting with Light Path they did make configurations changes and by the end of the day we were getting inbound calls and the phone would ring but after picking up the call the phone call would be silent then it would disconnect. We were still unable to make outbound calls.

By the end of the day the Cisco engineer assigned to the case transferred the case to the second shift Cisco engineer who reconfigured our voice router back to its original state It was at this point that the problem was finally resolved. It is obviously apparent that something was changed at the carriers end since our router is configured to its original configuration prior to this incident.

When I got home I came hungry so I had two cheddar filled hot dogs on two hot dog buns with mustard. I prepared to go to the gym and drank an IDS BetaNOX drink and took a bottle filled with some IDS Waximizer, Gatorade and Water mix. I went to the gym and hit it hard. It was seriously a good session. Yolanda and my daughter Jazmin came with me and my wife showed her some of the routines. After the gym we passed by dunkin donuts to visit my son and I had a small soft ice cream in a cup with chocolate fudge and a splash of whip cream. YUM!!!

Day 10

It is Sunday morning and I am up at 8:30. I remembered that I didn’t submit my log for the day before so pulled up my laptop which I have on my night stand since I leave it plugged in to keep the battery charged. Yolanda was already up and getting ready for church service. She was making coffee and wanted me to join her. I took several minutes finishing my log entry and then I got up and began getting ready for church service. On Sunday, I always take the beginning of the day to surrender some of the time that my creator allows me to have and give it back and congregate with others who are like minded. I don’t claim to be a fanatic or an extremist and actually I am just like anyone else with wonderment of the unknown and I seek to relate with others who also are within the same atmosphere of curiosity. After getting ready I went downstairs to the kitchen and my wife made me a cup of coffee and two waffles. I decided to hold off on the IDS protein shake and instead I poured some orange juice in a cup and used it to swallow my IDS Mass Tab and supplements pills. I finished my coffee and had my waffles with butter and syrup and then proceeded to church. This week we visited EBC which we have been attending for over 5 years and currently we also have been visiting MVC a couple of times because we enjoy listening to and learning from various biblical perspectives. After the church service was over I headed home and when I arrived I got ready to work in the back yard. My back yard has been neglected ever since I had the pool removed last year. I also had a trampoline that was thrown away so both circles of where the pool was and the trampoline caused two major bald spots one with lots of sand and the other with dirt. By now these two areas had all types of natural growth all over the place which made the yard look horrible. After taking my IDS Protein shake for added energy I began getting to work. It was at this moment that my father Jose and my brother Pablo stopped by for a unexpected visit. I was right in the middle of putting together a list of things that I would need to buy at Home Depot or Lowes. I mentioned to my father what I was planning on and I told him that I also wanted to build a deck while I was at it. I asked him if he would help me and of course he said yes. I will be building a 24’ by 14’ deck in the next few days. It is my first time but the cool thing is that I am not afraid to get into things since I enjoy learning. I will be taking pictures as the yard progresses. I am concerned how this will work out with my exercise schedule but I will always get to the gym since that is priority. By the way, the reason why I am redoing my backyard is in preparation for a farewell party I am giving my son as he heads off to the United States Air force in October. After my dad and brother left which was after we had a cup of coffee and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich I began by pulling out old shrubs and plants. I finished this part of the job by mowing the lawn. I took a long time since the details add time to the clock. After I was done and dirty my wife called me in for dinner. I had spaghetti with meatballs, 2 bread rolls and a beer. For those that are against drinking and find it taboo I understand your views but those are yours and I respect them. I finished the evening with a nice shower and laying in bed watching lockup raw and typing this post.

Day 9

Today I woke up to a nice Saturday morning. The sun is out and the temperature is warm. I fell asleep late on Friday night so my eyes opened at 9:00 in the morning which is late since I usually wake up at 6:00. After rolling out of bed which was a little difficult to do since I felt like my body had just been hit by a truck after last night’s workout I managed to go into the bathroom and begin preparing. Getting dressed and then drinking my IDS protein shake and taking down my IDS Mass Tab and essential supplements I mentally prepared for my Saturday morning jog. After walking for two blocks to 76th street and plugging in my ear plugs I turned on my music which I always do when running since it helps distract time I started my run. After 3 miles my body temperature was hot and I was sweating. I was suppose to jump on my bicycle and ride the same 3 miles but I was too tired so instead I took a shower and got ready for my daughter’s summer band camp family picnic which started at 12:00. My daughter needed to get dropped off earlier so I rode her on my motorcycle then returned with my wife and a few fold out chairs. We watched her and her band perform some marching routines and I was also able to go out on the field and while holding her shoulder she performed a marching routine and I followed. It was a nice time. After that part of the event was over the band parents cooked up some food and I had a hotdog, cheeseburger, pasta salad, a slice of water melon, a piece of strawberry cake and a coke. Seems like a lot of food but I was hungry. Afterwards we came home and I literally slouched around. At one point I noticed one of my dogs face and saw that Rocko’s hair was long and covered his eyes. I grabbed him and trimmed his facial hair so he could see. He loves when I do this and remains perfectly still while I am trimming him. For those wondering what kind of dogs I have, I have a Yorkie, and a Shitzu. After I was done I rested and even took a nap. My wife Yolanda woke me up and told me we had to leave. Today was the day that I would hold up football yardage markers on the field with my brother Julio for the semi-pro Chicago Mustang team at Morton West and Jazmin would sing the National Anthem. We left and arrived there at 4:30. Andrew couldn’t come because he had to go to work at dunkin donuts and Greis our unofficial adopted unofficial God daughter was unable to come because she had to go to work at the hair solon. When we arrived we saw a few people scattered about practicing and getting ready for their first home game of the season. This is a brand new team so it was a huge moment. Fast forwarding in time my brother showed up my daughter sang the National Anthem and it was amazing. I will be including a video of that so you can see it. I was able to perform as a yardage marker holder even though I lack the knowledge of the game. It was very interesting and I was able to be up close with both football teams and hear both perspectives. The night ended with us driving back home and we stopped at White Castle and I had 4 White Castle cheeseburgers with fries and a coke. Yum!

Day 8

So this morning after taking my IDS protein shake and my IDS supplement mass tab capsule I fixed up a delicious peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. I placed it into a sandwich bag and tossed it into my work bag. I turned on my Microsoft Zune and flipped some music while on my bus ride to the train station. The day was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. When I got to work I immediately began to work on projects and cases. When I had a moment I took a walk with Ricky for some coffee. I thought about what type of coffee I wanted from dunkin donuts, caribou coffee, ROM coffee, Starbucks coffee or McDonalds coffee. I stopped into caribou coffee and saw that a medium coffee cost $2.00 dollars which I thought was rather expensive. I decided to go to ROM coffee and paid less than $2.00 dollars for the same size cup and the coffee was good. It went perfect with my P&J sandwich. At 10:30 I went to a meeting dealing with a product that we are considering purchasing and within the meeting there were several product specialist that explained technical diagrams drawn on a whiteboard. If we decide to move forward with the new technical solution we will be spending about $70,000 dollars. It is steep but will be well worth it and will allow our technical services to be moved to another level of professionalism. For lunch I went across the street and entered the “Willis Tower” formerly known as the “Sears Tower”. There is a restaurant called Venice Cafe within the lower level that serves Italian food such as pizza, pasta, salad and sandwiches. I chose to have clam chowder soup and on my way back to work I got an email from someone where I work that had chicken tamales so I picked up 2 of them. I had my IDS creatine lemonade as my drink of choice. Throughout the day Ricky, Johnny and I lifted the dumbbells which allowed us to get some exercise.

When I got picked up at the train station Andrew told me he had purchased a nacho platter which is made with cheese and barbecue beef and that he was only able to eat ½ of it. I warmed it up and ate it knowing that I shouldn’t but it was too good to refuse. I rested for about an hour and prepared an IDS BetaNOX drink and got ready for my workout session. Yolanda and I decided to drive instead or riding the motorcycle since it looked like it was going to rain. We got to the gym and immediately began the intensive workout. I like to take my Friday workouts and hit it really harder then the Monday and Wednesday workout sessions. I was sweating a lot and didn’t take many breaks in between sets. Prior to going to the gym my brother Julio called and said that my other brothers Daniel and Pablo and their family were going to the park to play softball. After the gym session I went to the park and played a game of softball then went to my brother Daniel’s house and sat around the kitchen table drinking coffee with a piece of coffee cake and we had great conversations. At the end of the night we picked up our daughter Jazmin at her friend’s house and I heard her sing the national anthem several times. She will be singing tomorrow for the Chicago Mustangs Football game at Morton West high school football field at 7:00 in the evening.

Day 7

It’s Thursday evening and I am watching a movie called lies and illusions which I thought was going to be a good movie but turned out to be a B rated flick with cheesy acting. I would not recommend anyone watching this movie unless they have about hour and half of absolutely nothing to do. The evening is coming to an end and I think I had a good day. This morning after having my delicious IDS protein shake and my IDS Mass Tabs with my vitamin and B12 capsule, I made a sandwich with ham and cheese on wheat and went to work. After settling in I got up and went to Dunkin Donuts with Ricky for a cup of coffee. I ordered a small cup with a shot of espresso. I returned back to work and enjoyed my hot cup of coffee with my sandwich I made before going to work.

Work was rather interesting and I will attempt to spill out some of it into words so that you can understand a little of what I do during the day. One of my projects will be to develop a in-house marketing material that will display a network diagram showing the layout of a redundant network with dual mirrored storage area network devices consisting of 10 terabytes. This will also include two ESX VMware virtualization servers that will allow multiple virtual servers to run on one single box and it be synchronized with a redundant VMware virtualization server to prevent any single point of failure. For those that are reading this and do not have any understanding of networks then this will make absolutely no sense. Anyway, for lunch I went to Venice Café with Gio and had lunch with Joel and Gio. I ordered lemon chicken and angel pasta with red sauce. The food was really good and the conversation was even better. During the day I had my IDS creatine lemonade drink and started working on a firewall that will be configured for the First Baptist Church of Hammond Indiana. I am currently under charity configuring a full network setup for their new administration office building. In my office I have some dumbbells and I did my usual end of the day reps and ended my work day.

During the train ride home I felt tired and fell asleep which isn’t uncommon. When I arrived at home I laid down for about ½ and hour then got up and finished a water bottle of mixed water and IDS BetaNOX. I then changed and strapped on 10 pound ankle straps and a 20 pound chest vest for a total of 30 extra pounds. After getting ready I took a 3 mile fast pace walk with Yolanda. It felt really good and I have to admit that I was able to finish this walk without feeling really tired as I did before in the past prior to my commitment of continued exercise and the added benefits of IDS Sports supplements. After this walk was completed we got on our bicycles and invited Greis along and we rode the same 3 miles. We stopped on our way back to see my daughter Jazmin practice on the field for marching band. She has been playing the flute since fourth grade. To wrap up the evening we went to a taco restaurant and I ordered one chicken taco with lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream and one steak gordita with everything. I had milk as my chose of drink.

Day 6

Good evening the time is 9:07 and I am now lying in my bed with the laptop propped up on my lap. I am watching America’s got talent on the TV and typing away on the keyboard today’s entry. This morning I got up feeling good as I always do especially after seeing the Chiropractor the night before. I am getting four different treatments and they alternate depending on the situation. I sometimes get a massage first which is really good and I love the pain so I don’t mind the massage therapist working deep in the back muscles. They then have me lay down on my back over a machine that rolls in waves up my spine. After that I am laying on my stomach and they have these probes on my back which release an electric charge and I have them throttle that up as much as possible. Finally, I get my back cracked by the Chiropractor. It is very interesting and I really feel better after the session is over.

So this morning I did fixed up an IDS protein shake which is a combination of one scoop of IDS cappuccino flavored protein offering 24 grams of good stuff with 2% milk and a little chocolate syrup to give it some flavor. I always add some ice and mix this up in a blender. I took out my weekly pill dispenser and swallowed my IDS Mass Tab, one a day men’s vitamin and b12. Later that morning after getting ready I caught my bus and train and walked into work. Today was a productive day to a certain extent. For lunch I warmed up left over Chinese food from the night before with an IDS Muscle Volumizer Pink Lemonade drink. After the day was over I went home and got ready to go to the gym. I mixed up some IDS BetaNOX with some water and poured it down my throat. I had a hardcore workout with my wife again and we were able to go through all the machines that I tend to use regularly. I will have to say that this is day 6 of taking the IDS Mass Tabs and I do feel stronger. I am somewhat of a skeptic so I must say that even if this system didn’t really contribute to reengineering my physic it does make me feel that way and so I force myself to push the limits of the weights and I am lifting, pushing and pulling heavier weights. I finish the exercise routine with 20 minutes of high intensive elliptical motion.

Here is a couple of pictures that I had my daughter take since this is a science experiment then I should include some historical pictures. I will take pictures every six days and show them online.

Today, my son found out he will be taking on the job of an Air Force Integrated Avionics Systems Engineer and will be going to boot camp on October 1st. I am so proud of him and I know he will do awesome in all he does. We are beginning the planning stages in setting up a party for his farewell.

Day 5

This morning, after taking my IDS supplement pills I packed up my bag and proceeded to the bus stop and waited patiently. Catching the bus is something that I do most days since it takes me straight to the train station stop. I got on the train and found my little corner and played some music in my ears while I read the AP News from my plug in application in my black berry. I am currently typing out this blog this morning on the train since I was too tired to write it out last night. The work day went smooth and I was able to work on a few projects. During the day I did mix together some IDS Pink Lemonade Creatine mix with water and I was also able to drink another full cup of water. For lunch I had a Ceaser Salad with a mixture of chicken pasta with a piece of bread. After getting picked up by my wife at the train station I decided to buy some Chinese food since I had gained an appetite. I ordered beef fried rice and some curry chicken which by the way was very delicious. I had a chiropractor appointment at 6 which is session 5 of 8 so it is almost over. In case you’re wondering why I have to go to a chiropractor I will explain. A few weeks ago for no unknown reason I was bending over to pick something up and it appears that I pinched a nerve which felt like my muscles went into spasm experience and I was in pain for a while. This happened again a few weeks later so I said I needed to check this out. I am going for treatments and should be good to go in a few weeks. I did not work out today which is rare. I instead went to a friend’s house who just purchased his home not so long ago. I strapped on my motorcycle helmet and jacket and rode through the forest preserves to get to his home. It was an enjoyable time. I am feeling like positive changes are happening everywhere. I also found out that my son is going to the Air Force on October 1st which is exciting and terrifying for both him and I.

Day 4

I got up this morning to get ready for work and I of course had my IDS protein shake and IDS Mass Tab supplement capsule. I have to find a way to say that without it sounding repetitive. Some would say to simply just not make any mention of it unless I forget to take them. This would work but this is a journal that is also acting as a log so I must make mention that I did take the IDS products. Work was interesting and I performed my function and held up to my responsibilities. For lunch I walked with my nephew who works in the same company to the DMV since he wanted to exchange his Florida driver’s license to an Illinois driver’s license. On the way back to work we stopped at Wendy's and I had a double cheeseburger meal with fries and a coke. I know what you thinking... I should have not had that but I was so hungry and I needed to eat meat. The day went on and when I got home I had an IDS NOX drink and I also had a b12 pill for added energy. Finally, I added Gatorade into a half water bottle and the other half I mixed with water and an IDS Waximizer powder packet. After this task was complete I loaded up my wife on the back of my motorcycle and went to the gym. I had a great workout and for the first time my wife walked through my workout and she was able to go through my routine using her ideal weights. I completed the workout with a 15 minute high intensive elliptical machine. For dinner I had a chicken sandwich, breaded mushrooms and a cup of coke. I wished I would have had a cup of cereal with 2% milk but I gave into the chicken for the added protein.

Day 3

Today is Sunday and I got up this morning and had my morning protein shake and my supplement pills. I did notice a little pimple on my upper back and they say that these mass tab pills can cause pimples and I hope this is a normal pimple from working out rather than a side effect. I will be watching myself closely. After leaving church service I went over to my mother's house since I haven't seen her in a while and took her to Huck Finns restaurant for breakfast. I had a Mexican omelet with egg white and a cup of coffee. After coming home I went for a 3 mile jog and then I cut my front grass and trimmed the bushes. Afterwards, I went to my nephew's baseball game and invited them over for coffee. Later that evening we decided against the coffee and instead we warmed up left over pizza and buffalo chicken pieces. I consumed some of this food and really felt guilty doing so. Oh well. We only live once even though we should try to make it last. I don't feel too guilty since I will use this eating experience to work out harder tomorrow. I always feel that I should work out harder when I eat unhealthy. I am wrapping up the night and will be getting ready to go to sleep. My stomach feels bloated.

Day 2

It is Saturday morning and the time now is 8:21 a.m. I just finished drinking my IDS protein shake. This 5bl bucket comes with a scoop and one scoop mixed with 2% milk gives you 24 plus grams of protein. I take this with to Vitamin Shoppe b12 capsules, 1 one a day men’s vitamin and 1 IDS mass tab capsule.I am going to introduce you to the supplements that I have and started taking. I think this will be important for everyone to know. Oh, if you ever are interested in purchasing some IDS products let me know. Ok, here we go.

Complete Multivitamin Plus More† for Men to Support:*
Heart Health with Vitamins B6, B12, C, E and Folic Acid
Healthy Blood Pressure†† with Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin C
Healthy Eyes with Vitamins A, C, E and Zinc





A dynamic blend of herbs, super foods, and botanicals with vitamin B-12 for those desiring a natural energy boost without caffeine.






Mass TabsTM is made up of an updated molecular structure designed to remain in the body longer and further resist breakdown by the body over anything previously seen. The result is a more effective, longer lasting strength and mass building compound with the same low side effect rate.




Multi Pro Whey Isolate™ is a great tasting, quick-digesting pure protein source fortified with vitamins and minerals ideal for gaining or losing weight.





Muscle Volumizer combines both Titrated Creatine and Di Creatine Malate using the blood vessel dilating power of AKG as a pump inducing rapid delivery system. This powerful combination yields both fast acting strength results and lean body weight increases with dramatically improved recovery.



BetaNOX pre workout intensity drink quickly buffers lactic acid, preventing the normal pain associated with intense training. At the same time BetaNOX spikes Nitric Oxide levels in the blood helping to increase blood flow to working muscles creating Flash Pumps! Engorging muscles and swelling every blood vessel along the way in just seconds!


The evening is here and I think I had a good day. My brother called and asked if I wanted to go for a bicycle ride. We drove down to Willow Springs and pulled the bikes off the car. We cruised for a long distance about 1 hour and 45 minutes of high intensive cycling. I was able to have conversations with him about home life, work life and life in general. There is nothing like an awesome relationship. Anyway, I was able to go to the Toys R Us store and we purchased some leap frog educational toys for our God daughter's 1 year old birthday party. I wrapped up the day by having a cheese burger, broccoli salad and some potato chips.

Day 1

For starters, I am Jose M. Laboy and I am currently 38 years old. I have been working out since my early 20's on and off over time. Most recently as of this February I decided to take it up a notch and get serious with my workout. I am tired of feeling that I was a little to round around the mid section and so I decided to reverse that and find a place outside of me that I could feel comfortable with my outer appearance for the rest of my life. I have a membership at Bally's Total Fitness and I workout at least 5 to 6 days a week. I go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and sometimes once on the weekend. On Tuesday and Thursday and sometimes on the weekend I will jog 3 miles and then ride my bike the same distance. This is a life style that I have decided to hold on to for long as I physically am able. I do not want to get very spiritual in words but I do have to quickly and honorably say that my driving force behind my existence is the creator who allows me to live.

A little bit about my background must be mentioned in order for you understand who I am and where I come from. I was born in Chicago in 1971 in the month of April on the day of the third. I was raised in the concrete jungle of the streets within little village. Growing up was rough but I survived it. I wasn't much of an athlete but did ride my bike up and down the streets throughout my younger life. In high school I played trumpet up until my junior year and then proceeded to getting my GED which followed college in the studies of computerized business and accounting. Ever since my professional career has been based on technology and I am currently a Cisco Network Engineer which consist mostly of sitting down and watching computer screens.

Clearly my lifestyle doesn't consist of much physical activities so I must implement exercise routines to balance out my physical requirements. I have suffered from weight fluctuation and throughout my life I have been physically semi fit or over weight with that extra unwanted tube around the waist. Either way I have never been truly physically fit and at the age of 38 I have decided to spend the rest of my life attempting to achieve a physical level that I have in my mind.And so, I recently met up with my nephew in Florida who works for the IDS Sports distribution warehouse and he was able to send me some samples of their products. I tried them and liked them so much that I purchased some of their products. The purpose of my blog is to report my progress as I pursue to develop a physic that will make me feel healthier and stronger. I am going to be writing specifically about my intake of MASS TAB and report back on how I feel, and if there are any changes that I can see or sense outside as well as inside myself.

This morning I took my first MASS TAB from IDS Sports. This is a 30 day program in which I am to take one pill a day. I am taking it with an IDS Protein shake, 2 b12 and 1 one a day men multi vitamin. I am suppose to drink plenty of water and will be taking one pack of IDS Bio-Engineered Waximaize which is a complex carb dietary supplement that you mix with water. It contains creatine, testosterone boosters and amino acids. I will include photos of myself as soon as I can.