I lost 1 lb since last weigh-in two weeks ago.

That’s a 25 lb loss since starting the contest.

This is despite not following my diet too strictly over the holiday weekend. But I have been walking with Molly more and playing a lot of active Wii games.

Only two more weeks until the final weigh-in. Time to buckle down for the final leg of the contest.

I left work on Friday, June 20th, for Brookville, PA, where I met my family at Plyler’s Buffet (the same place we dropped him off last year). The food wasn’t as good this time around, but the company was great. Daniel and I arrived back home after midnight.

Over the following week we saw Get Smart, ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, went to Huntington Reservation (where I took some pics), taught him to make pasta, watched Spiderwick Chronicles, ate at The Town Fryer, and watched the Indians soundly defeat the Reds (6-0). Apparently, his favorite part was the baseball game, especially since Grady Sizemore hit a home run and it was fireworks night at the ballpark. Molly and I drove him back to Brookville to return him to my family on Saturday, June 28th.

The whole time Daniel was here, Molly and I tried to help him refine his manners. I’m not sure how much stuck with him, but he seemed to be appreciative of our efforts. I think it was a pretty good visit for both of us.

I lost 5 lbs since last weigh-in two weeks ago.

That’s a 24 lb loss since starting the contest.

The gain at last weigh-in really motivated me get back on track with controlling my eating. Also, my activity level has increased because my ear has been getting better and I’ve been playing Wii Sports.

Only two more weigh-ins to go…

All of the pain is gone from my ear, but the hearing is still muffled. I went back to the doctor on Monday and he gave me some drops that are supposed to break up what is blocking my hearing. I’ve noticed a slight improvement since then. I guess it’s just a matter of waiting for things to clear up and I’ll be back to normal.

I’ve been fighting with Sony Support for over two weeks now. Their documentation says that the SRS-NWZ10 cradle is compatible with the NWZ-A728. My guess is that Sony came to this conclusion by knowing that the mp3 player has a 22-pin port and the cradle has a 22-pin jack. Sure, the port and jack are compatible, but the problem is that the mp3 player is too wide to get to the jack. It doesn’t seem that Sony actually tested the player with the dock.

After going back and forth with the first level of (Indian) support a couple times, they sent me to Customer Relations for a return. Customer Relations, of course, told me the units were compatible and they couldn’t issue a return. Then, they directed me to the second level of support, the Product Specialist. This guy was American and very friendly. It seemed that things were going well and I thought I was nearing the end, but he wanted to talk to the Product Engineer, who had already left for the day. He promised to call me back the next day. Of course, he didn’t.

It might be a bit cynical of me, but I feel like they are just trying to wear me down until I give up and keep the useless thing. I’m not giving up. That system cost me an arm and half a leg, there’s no way I’m keeping it and absorbing the cost.

In other Support News, I had a pleasant experience with TomTom Support on Wednesday. I bought a refurbished GPS that was supposed to come with a free map update, but the TomTom Home program told me I was not eligible. I called up support; they were American and they took care of it pretty quickly. I should mention that it might just be a case of an easy request (enable new map download) versus a hard request (your products are incompatible, even though your documentation says they are compatible).