Luke, Luke, Where's the Luke?

In my head, I picture pirates walking around and chanting that - like they do on Hook.

Many of you have probably noticed the extreme lack of any blog input from Luke. And, like the excited pirates, you may even now be bursting off your seats and indeed chanting (whether in your head or aloud) "Luke, Luke, Where's the Luke?" If you haven't gotten this far, perhaps you've been at least the tiniest bit curious. So, I will assuage your curiosity.

Where's the Luke? He's busy.

Yep. Luke is a busy guy. Here are some of the things that he's up to:

Work: He works hard at his job and lately has been getting up at 6:30 AM for calls involving teammates in India. He often works after he gets home from work, too. Fortunately, Luke enjoys what he does. He will be leaving for a long trip to India this Saturday.

Running: Luke signed up with some colleagues to do an overnight relay from here to somewhere in Rhode Island. As such, Luke has been running more and more to build up his endurance.

Church work: Luke's weekends are often very limited in free time. Every other Saturday, Luke works at the Boston temple. And on Sunday's, Luke has early morning meetings and church from 2-5 PM.

In addition, I wanted to let people know that Luke was accepted to Harvard Business School and he as decided he is going and will start in the fall! I'm very proud of him and excited about what the next few years will bring.

I am often impressed by how Luke handles his work and other things (including taking care of me) so well. He is a wonderful man and I sure feel like I lucked out.

Being a Raging Chocoholic

Here I am posing beside a Chocolate Tree in the green house at the Calgary Zoo.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I am officially a Chocoholic. Here's the evidence I had:

- I would eat some form of chocolate for dessert after EACH meal, even breakfast, and as snacks between meals. Pretty much all day

- I ate so much of it, I didn't even like it any more, but some how I just couldn't stop

- I have been known to go to "extreme" measures to find my next fix of chocolate. These include stealing from other people (never from a store), searching through my parents house hoping to find a secret stash, and actually getting the in the car to go buy some

- I swear I had withdrawal symptoms if I ever went too long (i.e. longer than 4 or 5 hours) without chocolate

Having thus concluded my diagnosis, I decided that, like alcoholics staying away from alcohol, perhaps I just need to stay away from chocolate. So, Luke and I decided that I would try to go for 2.5 days without chocolate. My punishment if I failed: Luke would make me eat enough chocolate chips till I would puke.

I got excited as time went by and I didn't eat any chocolate. I would update Luke or my Mom, "I'm 4 hours off chocolate," "It's been 6 hours!" "8 hours sober!"

I failed, though. I couldn't make it 2.5 days. The call of the chocolate was too strong. Fortunately, Luke had mercy on me and could tell that I was genuinely remorseful, so he gave me another chance.

Since then, I have worked my way up to going for 4 days without chocolate.* It hasn't been easy. I've also decided that 4 days (or rather 96 hours, or thereabouts) is a good amount of time for me to aim for between my chocolate intake. 5 days is too overwhelming and as soon as I think about how many days I have till my next chocolate, I want it right then - not good emotionally. But 4 is enough of a challenge that I feel good after making it that long.

Tomorrow evening, I will have chocolate and I'm really looking forward to it.

* the chocolate that I am avoiding includes: chocolate chips, chocolate bars, Nutella, Reese's Pieces (which actually doesn't have chocolate in it, but is too close a substitute). Forms of chocolate that I am allowing: hot chocolate, chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding (which I don't eat anyway), and Oreos.