My Beloved Gets Buff

My husband has set some goals to improve his overall health over the next few months by eating more rabbit food and starting a regular exercise program. This was prompted by noting how much air he rapidly sucked down when he was scuba diving in Egypt this past November. We have tentatively planned a trip to Hawaii for this fall, and he wants to be in better shape for going diving there in order to prolong his down time. Besides, he'll just plain feel better if he gets more consistent cardiovascular workouts and drops a few pounds.

So, in support of this goal, today we bought an Image 8.25 Elliptical machine. The promo material says: The smooth, elliptical motion of the Image 8.25 Elliptical trainer provides an effective fat-burning workout while eliminating the harmful impact on your ankles, knees and hips. Silent magnetic resistance allows you to adjust your workout intensity without interrupting your workout. With ten intensity levels, grip pulse sensors and a large LCD display.

What it DOESN'T tell you is that you take it home in a box full of itty bitty pieces which have to be assembled and some of the directions are about as discernible as the ancient hieroglyphics we saw in Egyptian burial tombs.

It took him a couple hours of trial and error, puzzling over diagrams, swearing, sweating, and much teeth grinding...but my beloved prevailed. He managed to interpret all that Insert tab A into Slot B jargon, combine it with his innate Bob-the-Builder handiness, and come away with one fully assembled soothly operating machine with no parts left over. What a deal! I hope he likes it, cause there is NO WAY we'd ever get it back into the box to return it if he changed his mind.