I kind of expected this, but I managed to lose the holiday pounds I gained over the couple weeks I completely ignored the food I ate. I weighed in this morning at 178 pounds, and of course WeightWatchers yelled at me for losing more than 2 pounds. I’m hoping to get back to losing a more predictable 1 to 2 pounds per week now that the holidays are over.

Next Update: January 19, 2009

My wife, Donnell, has been an incredible advocate for our daughter who has a medical diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified). As I’m sure you can imagine, our daughter’s diagnosis translates into significant social, behavioral, and educational issues at school and at home.

Donnell has taken the lead with our daughter’s therapy and doctors’ appointments and also works with our daughter’s school to make sure she is receiving all of the services she needs to have a successful education. Donnell takes classes from the Special School District here in Saint Louis and has also become involved with the Parent Advisory Council.

On top of all of that, I am very excited to report that Donnell has been accepted into the Partners in Policymaking program. The program provides leadership training designed for adults with developmental disabilities and parents of young children with developmental disabilities. I cannot put into words how proud I am of her. I know she will do an incredible job in the program and will become an even stronger advocate for our daughter and other children with special needs. I am a very lucky man to be married to such an incredible woman.

Please join me in congratulating Donnell on this extraordinary opportunity.


Thanks to helping my wife, Donnell, eat through two pregnancies and an overall lack of control over my taste buds, I am back on WeightWatchers. Donnell and I used WeightWatchers before our wedding, and it worked incredibly well. It turns out if you actually pay attention to what you eat, you can lose weight. Crazy concept, huh?

Well, we’re back at it again. Donnell worked her butt off in 2008 and earned a cruise for two from lia sophia. We’re very excited about getting a week to ourselves and are very motivated to lose a few pounds.

To share in the fun, I have decided to update all of you every week on my progress. I have been at this for several weeks already so here is a little history. My first official weigh in was on November 7th at 190 pounds. I actually started watching what I was eating a week before that, and I weighted 193 pounds so I tend to think of that as my starting weight. My progress for the subsequent weeks was as follows:

  • 11/17/2008 – 185 lbs
  • 11/24/2008 – 183 lbs
  • 12/01/2008 – 186 lbs
  • 12/08/2008 – 181 lbs
  • 12/15/2008 – 179 lbs
  • 12/22/2008 – 178 lbs

I have to admit that I am very scared to look at the scale on Monday. We have been traveling since last Friday, and we pretty much went crazy with food. With the holidays and family and food like Portillo’s, how can anyone possibly not partake? Anyway, we’ll see where I’m at on Monday, and I’ll provide an update. My guess is that I gained several pounds, but I’ll wait until Monday to weigh in.

If you have any good WeightWatchers stories or opinions, please feel free to leave a comment. It should be interesting to see how things go by the end of March. Stay tuned.


Well hello everyone. I know it’s been quite a while since I posted anything new here. Once the election was over, I needed break. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Probstisms Election Night Conversation. We had a lot of fun, and it made election night that much more special.

I have been trying to figure out what I was going to say about the election of Barack Obama, but words cannot convey how excited I am that the American people chose such a capable leader to direct us out of the funk President Bush will leave behind. The electorate decided to ignore the fear mongering that has unfortunately become so ingrained in our political campaigns and backed Obama and Biden and their vision of hope and change.

The road ahead will not be easy. For all of those parents out there that have been watching Wall-E on DVD over and over again, the mess Obama and his team are inheriting is just as enormous as the futuristic Earth portrayed in the movie. I have been very impressed with the team that Obama has put together so far, and I have great confidence that over time, Obama and his team will put us on a course that will lead us to prosperity once again.

You can expect more posting from me in 2009. I will do my best to diversify my topics a bit more this coming year because I know I focused a lot on politics in 2008. Expect me to get back to writing about technology again, and hopefully, the Cubbies will give me something good to write about this summer.

I would like to thank everyone who read my blog in 2008 and hope you stick with me through yet another year.

Happy New Year!

I am asking all registered voters out there to please turn off the television, turn off the talk radio, turn off the opinion websites, and go to Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s websites and learn about each candidate’s positions that they have put in writing. These are the positions that you need to know, and because the candidates put them in writing, they hold much more weight than something said on the campaign stump to pander to voters. Learn as much as you can so you can make an informed decision on Tuesday in what is likely to be the most important election of this century.

Then on Tuesday, get to the polls and vote. If there is a ten hour line, stand there for ten hours. If there is ten feet of snow on the ground, bring a shovel. If there is a flood, bring a boat. Whatever it takes, get to the polls and vote for the candidate you think has the best skills to lead our country.

Learn, then vote!

Obama/Biden 2008

As someone who works in finance and technology, I have had a front row view of what is happening now with the financial and credit markets. Just a couple years ago, I was helping a large European bank develop reports for the very financial vehicles that are helping to devastate economies around the world now. In preparation for developing the reports, I did a ton of research to learn exactly how these vehicles worked, and to be honest, I had a very difficult time figuring out how the money flowed through these vehicles, and it seems like a lot of people that needed to know how they worked really had no clue. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but we’re in for a very long and rough ride, and I mean the whole world here. This crisis is something that historians will write about much like the way that they write about the Great Depression.

If you want to understand more about what is happening, please take an hour of your time, and listen to the October 3rd episode of This American Life. You can also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes if you prefer. It will help you understand how we got into this mess.