The End

I forgot to post on Monday. I remembered it the next morning, and went "oh well."

Yesterday I thought about the fact that I hadn't posted before I shut the computer off for the night, but thought, "well, I already missed yesterday, so what difference does it make?"

Today I'm posting to explain the last couple of days, but really - NaBloPoMo is over for me. Not only that, I think this whole blog is over for me. I just don't really want to write about my life here anymore. I'm not sure why. Maybe now that I have J in my life and am overall pretty happy, there's no reason to? I don't know.

But I feel safe in saying this is the end of my updates here at WatchOutForThisOne. Thanks for reading, to those of you who have - it always meant a lot to me when I'd get a comment or an e-mail from you.

I am still going to be writing on my diet blog from time to time, but that's mostly just for me, to help me work out the food related demons in my head, so I don't mind if you aren't reading it. Feel free to stop in if you want to, though.

Good-bye!

Christmas in November!

Something so exciting happened today! Santa Claus came!

Okay, no he didn't. But there was still a great gift purchased! J handed me the Target ad for this week, and on the second page was the thing I've wanted for so long! A Kitchen Aid stand mixer! And J said to get ready, and he'd take me to get it, and he did! It's sitting in our dining room right now. I don't get it until Christmas, but I got to open it up today and make sure it works, which it does, and woo!

I'm so excited! Is it Christmas yet? :D


Eeeeee! So excited!

Just a Quiet, Boring Saturday

I had a quiet Saturday. J was at work this morning, so I basically hung around the house. I did some laundry, watched some TV, played some Sims 3.

Oh yeah, and then I tried to open the blinds in the bathroom, but they fell down. So I took that opportunity to vacuum out the inside of the window (spiders tend to get in there, because it's an old window with plenty of spaces for them to squeeze through). I cleaned up a bunch of webs, one small spider and something that looked eerily like a nest meant for hatching babies, and then I carefully took the curtain down that hangs over the blinds, expecting the whole time for a huge spider to jump out and attack me, but it was clear. I gingerly put it in the wash, then I put it in the dryer, and then about 15 minutes before J got home, I took it out of the dryer and went to hang it up. I got it on the curtain rod, holding it carefully and looking at the openings the whole time, because I've had spiders hide in the back of the metal rods on me before. All seemed clear, though.

Can you tell where this is going?

So, I get the curtain on the rod, and I get the rod back on its hook, and then I'm straightening the curtain out, to spread it out evenly over the rod and center it. I'm standing on the toilet, so I'm at curtain rod height, just about. I'm straightening it up...and a huge effing spider falls down right in front of my face.

HUGE!

I basically flew out into the living room, then proceeded to say fuck a lot, while patting my hair and clothes down to make sure there weren't any on me. (I get paranoid about spiders - I see one, and then suddenly I feel like they must be everywhere.)

I couldn't face it. It was too scary. So I stood in the living room window, cussing every car that went by that wasn't J, and then cheering when he finally pulled into the driveway.

He smooshed it for me. He felt it go pop. I was very happy. Then we went to Burger King for dinner, then we went to Walmart for groceries, then I read my book for a while, then I watched some Laverne & Shirley season one while playing the Sims 3.

So yeah, it was just your basic quiet, boring Saturday. :P

Three Car Garage

Our house has a two car attached garage. It's a two car garage, but it's very roomy inside, and for a long time now J has been convinced that he could fit all three of our vehicles into the garage, if only we could get enough of the crap cleaned out.

Well, this spring I had a whole truckload of junk taken to the dump, and J has done a lot of work to clean out a lot more stuff. And tonight his dream came true. Behold, our three car garage:



The picture is dark, even with the garage lights on, but here you go - J's truck, my car, J's car. :) You did it, J!

Mmm, Milk

I have always loved drinking milk. I grew up having a glass of white milk with dinner every single night - and I wasn't forced to drink it. I wanted to drink it. It's so good!

So when I started having digestive problems (ahem) when I was about 30, and finally found out from my doctor that the problem was lactose intolerance, I was seriously sad. What, no more drinking milk? No more ice cream? No more cheese? Say it ain't so!

Well, I eventually figured out that I can still eat ice cream, and cheese. I can't drink regular milk, but there are lactose free milk products on the market. There's just one problem - lactose free milk is so bad! It's very sweet (a result of the process they use to remove the lactose, and of what they replace it with). It tastes okay with chocolate in it, and recipes prepared with it taste fine, but to just drink a glass of it, without chocolate? Ick. No thanks.

But then a few weeks ago I was shopping for groceries, and I picked up a different brand of lactose free milk - Real Goodness milk.

(And yes, this is kind of an advertisement for their milk, but they aren't paying me, obviously, since I reach an audience of about five, and probably none of those are lactose intolerant.)

I went home and was opening the milk to use in something (probably a bowl of cereal), when I read on the container that it was supposed to be different than regular lactose free milk, and that it was supposed to taste more like regular milk.

Well, surprise surprise, it actually does! My bones are probably getting stronger as we speak, because I have been drinking so much more milk! Cereal for breakfast or dinner? Yes, I'll have a glass of milk with that. A real dinner that either J or I make? Yes, I'll have a glass of milk with that. Uh, chocolate that I'm not supposed to have but do anyway? Oh yeah, I definitely need a glass of white milk with that.

Thanks, Real Goodness. :) Oh, and thanks for the $1 off coupons that I printed from your website.

Mmm, milk.

Veteran's Day 2009

Today I am remembering, honoring and thanking the men and women who are and who have served in the U.S. military. I appreciate the freedoms you all have served to protect for me. Thank you.

I've been close to a few veterans in my life. My grandfather served with the Marines in WWII. My oldest brother was in the Air Force. My middle brother was in the Navy. My boss was in the Army (I think I have the right branch for him, although I'm not 100% sure). And most important, my J was a Navy man. We met when we were supposed to meet, when we would be able to get together and stay together for the rest of our lives, but sometimes I wish I could have seen him in his uniform. :) So handsome!

(Although, I would have died when he was out on the ship for months at a time. I go crazy when he's gone less than two days!)

Happy Veteran's Day. Thank you again.

Nightly Report

Kate is on the floor next to me, meowing to tell me she wants some attention. The dogs are all sleeping, as is J. I think Sable is the cat that just swatted a cat toy around the living room floor. The rest of the cats are probably napping.

As for me, I just finished playing the Sims 3 and watching last night's episode of Trauma online. It's a good show. And my hands are cold, because you know what? Winter is coming. Also, I have a bit of a bellyache, and I'm tired.

Entries like this are why it's probably not a good idea for me to write in here every day. :)

I hope you all have had a great Tuesday. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Why Wasn't I Watching This Show?

J bought the first two seasons of My Name is Earl recently, and we've been watching various episodes to make sure the discs all work. I never watched this show before I met J, but once I started, I really liked it. I was sad when they canceled it.

Then we watched one tonight - if you know this show at all, you might know it as the episode where they were on Cops? And Earl falls down on the ground because he's trying to run with his pants around his ankles (the story for this has to be seen). When he rolls over, he says, "I skinned my pecker!" When I heard this I went immediately into the breathless laugh - the one where I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe, there is no air whatsoever, and I have tears running down my face (bringing eyeliner and mascara with them, since I actually put make-up on today). My laughing fit must have gone on for close to five minutes, and when I was done my stomach hurt, I laughed so hard.

Why in the hell wasn't I watching this show all along? And why in the world did it get canceled? Seriously, sitcoms never make me laugh like that! If you haven't seen that episode, watch it. Just be prepared to laugh your ass off!

Lonely and Bored!

J played a dirty trick on me. He made me fall in love with him, and then he got me used to having him around. Now when he goes away for a weekend, I go crazy missing him.

All right, I was okay yesterday - I had seen him in the morning, after all. And I was fine today, until sometime around sunset. Now? I'm lonely, damn it! :) I'm so glad he's coming home tonight.

If you're not J, then this entry is probably making you sick, because it's all lovey-dovey. It's true, though. I like having him around. Which is a good thing, since I'm going to marry him someday, and all. :P

Quiet

J went with his friend to the Dolphins/Patriots game in Massachusetts this weekend, so I'm here alone with the animals until Monday. I just got done watching some online TV (I had a lot to catch up on, although I'm miffed at ABC for pulling not just Eastwick from the web, but the forgotten as well - bastards). Once the show I was just watching ended, I took my headphones out of my ears (my laptop speakers don't go very loud), and was just enjoying the quiet. The animals all seemed to be sleeping. The TV isn't on. It was nice.

And then Willow started growling and barking (at nothing, at a dog, at a cat, who knows). Oh, Willow.

Now I think I'll sit here in the quiet and play the Sims 3 for a while. Have a great Saturday night, people.

Welcome Back, My Old Foe

It started to snow last night, and this morning while I was half asleep, half awake (much to Rosebud's dismay - she was ready to get up and have some breakfast), the plow actually went by! Although I'm not really sure what the plow accomplished, since there was less than an inch of snow on the ground (the grass wasn't even all the way covered), and our driveway hardly had any on it at all. But still, that's the first time the plow has gone by this winter.

And here's another first - I actually got my winter coat back out. Winter coat! This is a big thing, because I tend to just wear my light jacket as long as possible. Of course, I still haven't gone looking for my gloves or a hat, but at least my upper body will be warm, and I can stick my hands in my pockets.

So, winter is back, at least unofficially. Fall is still trying to give us some nice days - I heard 60 batted around for this weekend - but for the most part, winter is taking control, regardless of what the calendar might say. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas and of course my week off between Christmas and New Year's, but somehow I kind of wish we could skip right from New Year's to spring. But, if we didn't suffer through winter, then would we really appreciate spring?

Winter coat. Hmph.

TV!

Wow, thank goodness my friend Sarah just updated and reminded me, because I almost blew it by forgetting to do this today! Oops. Thanks Sarah!

J and I just got done eating dinner, and now he's watching TV and resting after a long day of work, and I'm sitting at my desk, doing this, playing the Sims 3 and petting Zelda and Gracie. Being me is a tough job, but someone has to do it. ;)

Ooh, and tonight is Thursday! Which means The Office will be on, plus Community, which I'm enjoying a lot. And there are other good shows to watch online later! Bones, Grey's Anatomy. It's a good TV day.

Have I said I'm watching way too many shows this season? I blame online TV. But I love it. :) The only thing is, Eastwick wasn't online tonight when I tried to watch it. What's up, ABC? Some of us can't watch live all the time. :(

Making Plans - Costume Plans

This year I actually dressed up for Halloween - something I don't normally do. I borrowed a black hooded robe and a plastic axe from J and went as an executioner. Which was kind of boring, maybe, but it's the best Halloween costume I've ever worn as an adult.

Then a couple of days later, J says to me that he is missing a great opportunity! He can't dress up for Halloween in his job, but he can dress ME up. Hee. So he already has a plan for next year's costume in mind, and we're going to do it up right.

I would tell you what it is, but where's the fun in that? You need to be surprised. :)

Y? Because We Like You!

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that I am a fan of watches. I collect them. More specifically, I collect fun character watches, and have somewhere around 50 of them.

So you can imagine my joy when J came downstairs this morning and plopped this down on the counter while I was in the kitchen filling the animals' water dish:



(Pardon the crappy picture - I couldn't get my camera to focus in on it really well without washing it out with light, even though the flash was supposedly off.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a WIND-UP Mickey Mouse watch that J had when he was younger. And it still works! I'm wearing it right now.

How much do I love this watch? Oh, so freaking much. Thank you J! This is the most awesome thing ever!

Introduction, of Sorts

So here I am again, for the second day in a row, dipping my toes into the pool of blog writing after some time away. Since this is the second day of NaBloPoMo, and I may get people here who have never read my blog before, I thought this might be a nice time to do a bit of an introduction.

Hi new readers (and regular readers)! My name is Denise. I'm 40 years old, but I don't really feel any older than I ever have. I lead a quiet life, but I like it.

I'm engaged to a great guy, who I call J here (hi J!). We don't have a solid wedding date planned, but I think we might be saying I do in September of 2010. We've been dating for three years now, and we got engaged on Christmas Day, 2007. He is the love of my life, and I'm so glad to have him in my life.

We have a house full of animals between the two of us. We each came into the relationship with two dogs, but I had him all kinds of beat, number wise, because I also have five cats. Now, we're down one dog (we still miss you like crazy, McDuff), but the rest are there. Willow (my female dog) hates Rosebud (his female dog), but then Willow hates every other dog and cat in the world, so that's not too odd. She REALLY hates Rosebud, though. (And actually, she kind of liked McDuff, not that she seems to be mourning his loss any now that he's gone.) And then there's Bernie, who is my gentle, affectionate, sweet as can be Bernese Mountain Dog Mix.

I work at a local state college, staring at a computer screen all day. It's hard on the eyes sometimes, but I like my job. I have three brothers and one sister, plus a crapload of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. My parents are all gone (one father, one step-father, one mother, all died before they should have, in my opinion).

I like to read, knit, crochet, watch movies (especially romantic dramas) and this season I seem to be watching a lot of TV (I love being able to watch TV online - I'm watching way more TV than I ever used to, because I can log on and watch it whenever I want).

Oh, and I am addicted to the Sims 2. I also play Sims 3, but it hasn't captured my heart the way 2 has, yet. I still enjoy it a lot, though, and go back and forth between the two games.

And that's enough about me, I guess. And look at that, two days down, only 28 to go!

NaBloPoMo

Well, I waited until the day it started to decide, but I signed up to do NaBloPoMo again. So check here every day this month - I'm going to be writing daily again! This should be fun, since I've been so low on motivation for Internet writing lately.

Will I make it all 30 days without forgetting to post? We'll see! :)

Social Networks are Cool!

I was searching on Facebook one day, and found a woman I used to be friends with when I was 10-12 years old. I loved reconnecting with her, and that kind of thing has happened a few times, which is why I love Facebook (more than just for the farming applications, hee).

Today I got a message that she had tagged me in some pictures. Check these out! It's me when I was probably 10 or 11 years old.







I LOVE these. I'm so glad she posted them. :)

Grace

There's a reason my Mom used to call me Grace, and it wasn't because I was full of it.

Case in point, from about five minutes ago:

I see the maintenance guy painting the door frames in the front office, and think that I'm going to have to be careful not to walk into those door frames today (I have a tendency to brush up against walls when I walk, because I'm just that graceful).

Five minutes later I'm heading up to use the restroom. I brush right up against the freshly painted door frame, leaving a ragged white streak of paint on my gray shirt sleeve.

Foreshadowing is alive and well in my life.

I haven't posted here in so long, and now that I am, it's with bad news. McDuff had to be put to sleep this morning.

Good-bye McDuff, we're going to miss you so much. You were the sweetest dog in the world, and I'm so glad I got to know you and have you in my life.

Best Pictures Done!

Uh, long time no entry, right? Well, I've been thinking about just deleting this blog, actually. I don't seem to ever have the desire to post here anymore, so why keep it online? I don't know. I haven't made any firm decision on that yet, though, so here it stays for now.

But I did have to post today, just to announce a 101 in 1001 update. I finally finished watching all of the Best Picture Oscar winning movies! Woo! That took me months, and I enjoyed almost all of them, and only found one stinker in the whole bunch - really, why did Annie Hall even get nominated? It was so stinking boring! Ugh.

Anyway, I found some movies that I really love, including the Lord of the Rings movies. I tried watching the first one when it first came out on DVD, and I was bored and did other things the whole time it was on. This time, however, for some reason I really got into it, and into the two that came after it (it was the third one that won Best Picture). I kind of want to own them, and to watch them again.

Oh, and to be completely honest, I do have one movie on my DVR at home to finish watching. It's Tom Jones, and it's not a bad movie, but it is kind of boring, and I have an hour left to watch, and I haven't been able to force myself to do it yet. I will soon, though, so I can delete it and make space on the DVR for the new season's shows.

I also have three movies to watch that aren't on DVD yet - Wings from 1927, Cavalcade from 1932 and Rebecca from 1940. I have them on my Netflix queue, though, so if they ever come out on DVD, I'll get them and watch them. But since they aren't available right now and I have no way of watching them (unless I happen to catch them on TV), I am marking this item as done! Woo!

30 Days of Denise - A New blog

I decided to start a new blog to chronicle my weight loss efforts. It seems like a big enough topic to require its own space, don't you think? If you care about how I'm doing on my quest to lose weight, you can follow me here. If not, well then, I guess you can ignore this whole post. :)

Feeling

Antsy. Bored. Hungry to devour all junk food before August arrives and brings with it 1200-1550 calorie days. Wanting to both stop time and fast forward it. Wanting to hug my J. Wanting to just be with my J. Wanting to hug our Duff. And then to hug Willow, Bernie, Rosie and all the kitties, too.

Wishing. Wanting. Needing. Desiring. Knowing this makes sense to no one else, but needing to say it anyway.

30 Days of Blank, and Duff

I just had an idea. An idea that will probably turn out to be more than I can bear. An idea that even as I'm getting ready to write about it, I'm wondering if I can even make it past day one.

You see, I clicked a link to Thirty Days of [Blank]. Basically, you choose one thing that you'd like to make a habit, and you do it for 30 days - starting Saturday, August 1st. My immediate thought, and the one I want to do but don't know if I can? This needs its own paragraph, so here it is:

Do I dare, can I possibly, go 30 days staying in my calorie limit? Can I go through the whole month of August without a cheat day? Can I go through the whole month of August working out at least three times per week?

Is this possible? The biggest question here: CAN I GO A WHOLE MONTH WITHOUT EATING AN ENTIRE BAG OF GOLDFISH EVERY SATURDAY AND/OR SUNDAY??????

I don't know. Thirty days is a long time to deny myself. But I spent almost the entire month of July eating anything I wanted - almost the entire month! So I think I'm going for it.

So. Starting this Saturday, August 1st, I will be tracking my food in sparkpeople's website - every single bite that goes in my mouth. I will try my hardest to not go over my calorie limit. And I will work out at least three days per week.

Now, this doesn't mean that I can't eat any junk food - it just means I have to plan for it by eating less the rest of the day. I've denied myself chocolate for 40 days before, and I don't aim to repeat that experience. No, thanks, I like my Hershey bars too much. But still - 1200 to 1550 calories per day, for 30 days in a row.

August should be a fun month. Oy.

*****

In other news, we have bad health news on McDuff. I don't want to talk too much about it, because it both makes me too sad, and it feels like it's more J's story than mine, since Duff is his dog - even though I couldn't love Duff anymore than I do, I don't think. He's such a cutie, and a sweetie.

He was diagnosed with lymphoma. We're medicating him to keep his symptoms in check, but he won't be with us a lot longer. I'm trying not to focus on that, though - I'm just planning on enjoying every day we get with him. He's a good boy.

Annie Halzzzzzzz

Oh, oops. Did I fall asleep while writing that title? I guess it must be because writing the name Annie Hall reminded me of watching it last night. That movie is so boring! I have to admit, I've never liked Woody Allen - I just don't get why people think he is funny. But this movie won the Best Picture Oscar in 1977, so it was on my Netflix list, and last night was when J and I sat down to watch it.

Three minutes in, I was ready to shut it off and have this be the one winning movie that I didn't bother to watch. If I had been watching it alone, instead of with J, I would have done just that (or played the Sims while it was on, and barely paid attention).

Why do people like this humor? Why did this movie win? I like Diane Keaton a lot, and even she couldn't save it! Neither could seeing Paul Simon, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken in it! Wow, the boredom. The DVD messed up near the end and sent us directly to the credits - I was relieved to be done! And then when J figured out that we had missed some scenes, I just couldn't believe that I had to sit there and watch more. Groan.

There were good movies nominated that year, too. Of the four other nominated movies, I had seen two - The Goodbye Girl and, of course, Star Wars. I would have been happy for either of those to win.

So glad that's over. Stupid Woody Allen. (And if you're a fan and you're reading this, I apologize for insulting him, but he just bores me to tears.)

Feeling Fat

I misbehaved on vacation - but it's vacation! I was enjoying myself, so I didn't care. Then the next Monday came, and I went back to work, sure that I would jump right on the diet wagon. Uh, I didn't. Oops.

I felt my middle getting thicker. I felt my body telling me to stop. But I kept eating.

But today is a new day! I am back on that diet wagon, and so far so good. The struggle to lose weight is a constant battle, and I can jump off the wagon sometimes, as long as I jump back on before too long.

****

I just googled the name of a girl I was best friends with in 5th and 6th grade, and found her on facebook. I saw her picture, and it took my mind a few moments to adjust - I last saw her when we were about 12, so I had never seen her adult face. I sent her a friend request, and it's nice to just find out that she's still out there existing. The Internet is an amazing thing sometimes.

Of course, I immediately googled a couple of my other old friends, but found nothing. But if she's out there, then they are too, somewhere. I'll keep searching, and maybe someday I'll find them.

****

On Friday night J took me to see Buddy Guy in concert. He's an old blues musician, and he put on amazing show! I loved every second of it, and only wish he had played longer. I got some amazing pictures, too (which are all on my other laptop, and therefore not accessible right now).

****

Okay, that's all from my fat feeling self. Happy Monday, people!

Third Cake's the Charm?

In all fairness to the people who made my first birthday cake - the horrible one that got thrown away, and put a huge damper on my birthday - I have to say that the manager felt so bad about the cake being bad that she not only approved me getting J's money back, but she also had the bakers make me a second cake, at no charge.


And this time, the baker hit it out of the park. This cake is amazing,. Seriously. So freaking good. If the cake I got last week had been this good, I would have had a much better birthday. Yum.

Notes

Dear Rosebud,

Please don't start whining 20 minutes before my alarm goes off. It makes me cranky.

Thanks,

The woman who scratches behind your ears the way you like during poop loving time



Dear SUV Driver,

Please don't pull out in front of me, when there isn't anyone behind me! And especially don't pull out in front of me and then proceed to go 10-15 miles BELOW the speed limit. You're a fuck head, and I hate you.

Sincerely,

The pissed off woman in the red car behind you



Dear Canadian Geese,

Please don't hang out in the road with your teenaged babies. I don't mind stopping for you, but when I go around you and you're still walking down the road, it makes me nervous that the next car won't stop, and I don't want any of your family members to die. I like you. So please, go back to the water or hang out in the fields.

Thanks,

The woman who likes birds and doesn't want them to get hit in the road



Dear J,

I miss you. I can't wait to see you when I get home this afternoon. If this mood I'm in doesn't go away, I may need you to give me a back rub or something, okay?

I love you,

Dede



Dear work computer,

Please start up when I turn you on. I need to clock in online, and if you take forever to start up, then I take the risk of maybe clocking in late. I don't want to lose money because you decide to update yourself first thing in the morning. Stop being an annoying fuck.

Thanks,

The girl who pounds your keys all day



Dear Febreze,

Thanks for stopping my flip-flops from stinking. You rock.

Signed,

The woman who doesn't fear slipping her shoes off at work anymore



Dear willpower,

Please come back. I miss you.

Sincerely,

The woman who doesn't want to gain back all of the weight she lost


Okay, notes over. Bye!

Hey Maple Tree, It's July! Quit the Orange Stuff

We've had a fairly cool, wet summer. People are having trouble getting their gardens mature enough to get their veggies. We put the ACs in the windows weeks ago and haven't had to run them once.

And tonight I was driving home, and saw orange and yellow leaves on a tree. The leaves are turning! What the heck? It's July!

It's a weird summer.

Also, tonight is the premiere of Hell's Kitchen, woo! You know where J and I are going to be in 19 minutes - sitting with our butts planted on the futon, meeting all of this year's contestants. We love that show.

Later, people!

Vacation Day Nine

My last day of vacation. :( It's okay, though, it's been a great one!

Today was pretty low key - we didn't leave the house at all, except for a trip I made to get us dinner. I got up, watched a DVD, read a little of my book, and then when J got up, I took all of the books out of the bookcase in the bedroom, moved the shelf to the living room, and arranged the books all in alphabetical order. It looks great now, and I love that the books are A. in the same area, and B. in alpha order so that I can find them when I want them.


Doesn't it look nice? I keep looking over there just to look at it. :)

Of course, you can't just arrange bookcases and not clean the rest of the room, so I vacuumed, dusted, rearranged pictures on the walls, and decided I wanted my curtains to be tied back, so I crocheted up six tiebacks and hung them up. The curtains look nice now, too.

By the time I got done, it was about 4:30! This day went by so fast! I love the looks of the living room now, though, so I don't mind.


Bernie seems to like the new book corner - so does Lucy. :)


The top of my computer tower, which holds a bunch of little toys - and my new Binghamton Mets baseball. :)

Vacation Days Seven and Eight

No update yesterday, because by the time we got back from the baseball game, it was after Midnight, and I was tired. So here's a catch-up entry.


It was raining when we left home yesterday to go to the game, and it was still sprinkling when we got there, but it was supposed to clear up, so we weren't really bothered. We got our food ($1 hot dogs for J, a cheeseburger for me, and we shared some fries), ate it, and went out to our seats. We were right behind home plate! How cool is that?

This picture shows them rolling the tarp off the field - they had it covered because of the rain.


Before the game, the mascots came around and high fived everyone sitting or standing up front, including us. :) The black and yellow one is Buddy, the official mascot of the Binghamton Mets.


The game was a lot of fun. I've never been a baseball fan, but as seems true with all sports, it's much more fun if you're there in person, instead of watching on TV. We saw a grand slam! It was pretty exciting.

We didn't stay for the whole game - they got started late, and we had an almost two hour drive home, so we left at about 10:45, when they were in the 7th inning. The Mets ended up winning, which is cool, and I had a lot of fun. It felt like a really nice birthday treat (since it turned into my birthday while we were on the way home).

I'm glad we had such a good time last night. And this morning it was my birthday! I turn 40 today. I'm not upset about the number at all - I don't care what age I am, as long as I feel good, and since those headaches have finally gone away, I feel fine.

I got up before J today, so I relaxed for a while until he got up, and then we cut into my birthday cake for lunch. :P


It's pretty, isn't it? Yup. Unfortunately, when I cut into it, the cake was white, instead of marble. And that would have been okay, but it was also HORRIBLE. I don't know what went wrong - I ordered the cake from the same place that has made my cakes for the last two years (at my work), and those were amazing. This one, though, was dense and chewy and disgusting. J and I each ate one piece, but the rest of it is going in the trash. It was really disappointing. I even e-mailed the director of food services as soon as I finished my piece, to complain, and I'm going to make sure to get J's money back.

So, that kind of ruined the morning, you know? But J offered to do whatever he could to make it better, which was very nice. So we went shopping and got groceries, and we picked up a marble cake mix and a can of chocolate frosting, so I could have a replacement cake.

Unfortunately, J's kidney stone and stent are bothering him a lot today, so we haven't really done much else. We may go out to dinner if he gets up feeling better.

There have been nice things about today, though. I've gotten to spend a little bit of time with J, before he went back to bed in pain. I got a birthday card from my Aunt, who I never hear from, so that was a nice surprise. I got an Amazon gift card from Sally (thanks, Sally), and I've gotten a lot of nice birthday wishes from my friends, both online and in real life. It's all good stuff, really. And while I wait to find out if J feels up to going out to dinner, I'm sitting here reading a book and playing the Sims. Oh, and I frosted my replacement cake.


I stole the roses from the old cake - the frosting was fine, it was just the cake that was bad. I don't have any tubes of icing to use to write on this one, but that doesn't matter - at least I have a decent cake, that is so soft and moist that the top layer broke down the middle as I was putting it on the bottom layer. I tried to tell it I wasn't really broken hearted, and didn't need the obvious symbolism, but it was just so moist and fresh it broke anyway. Hee.


And meanwhile, Rosebud is here to remind me that today really isn't ALL about me.

Rosebud: "Hey, you, it's dinner time. I need food. Can't you tell that I'm starving? Feed me!"


Edited to add: J got up and was feeling well enough, so we went to dinner, and now my whole day feels better. I just needed one more thing to go well, and dinner did. Thanks, J. :)

Now, I'll let my piece of lasagna and garlic bread settle, and then...replacement birthday cake! Yum. :)

Vacation Day Six

We just had the most fun we've had all day - maybe even all vacation! We just watched Smokey and the Bandit on DVD. Oh man, I love that movie. It's so fun!

We also took Duff back to the vet today - his neck has been swelling back up. They took blood to test, and said he had edema, which is basically his tissue holding onto fluids. So they have to find out why. Think good thoughts for him, would you?

Tomorrow we're going to pick up my birthday cake (mmm, cake) and we're going to a baseball game - the first game I'll ever go to! It should be a lot of fun.

Oh and yesterday we went mini golfing, got some great pizza (Cicilian pizza for me, the first time I had ever had it, and I LOVED it), and we used that $50 gift certificate to get us some free steaks. You can't beat that!

And now I'm going to go. Woo, vacation!

Vacation Day Five

Exhausted. Need to go to bed. Have a cute picture of Duff, and I'll be back tomorrow. :)

Vacation Day Four

All in all, today was a really great day.

This morning I had an appointment with my doctor about my headaches. I described everything that had been happening over the last week, the shooting pains, the overall headaches, the nausea one night, and she said she thought they were elements of a migraine (or words to those effect) and she gave me a prescription for a migraine medication. I took one once I got home, and waited to see if it would work (because of course I already had a headache before I went to the doctor). And what do you know? It worked! I've been headache free since about Noon, and it feels pretty darn amazing.

Being headache free made it possible to have a good day today, too. We went to Red Robin for lunch with J's parents, which was a lot of fun. I really like his parents - all of his family, really. We had great burgers, and talked to his parents, and I got gifts! They gave me a Pink Panther watch, which of course I love, and they also gave me a card with $50 in it! Woo! I love birthday money.

After lunch, J and I went to Home Depot so that he could spend his birthday money on a work bench, but the Home Depot we went to didn't have one. So we ended up at Lowe's - where he found a great one! So it was a successful outing.

When we were done shopping, we came home to find a sick Duff - his throat was swollen again. :( But J gave him another Benadryl, and now he's looking much better. Poor little Duff. I'm glad he seems to be getting better again, but I really wish he would stop swelling up.

We spent the next few hours relaxing. I caught up with online stuff, J watched TV and napped, and I played the Sims and read (at the same time - I'm a great multi-tasker). Then we went to get ice cream! We took Duff with us, and they even gave him a doggie dish of soft serve vanilla, complete with a Milk Bone! Too cute and it made me wish I had brought my camera. :)

Yes, all in all, this was the perfect vacation day. Woo! I love vacation!

Tomorrow we're planning on maybe going to play mini-golf and then we're planning on using our $50 steak house gift certificate - the one I won almost a year ago. You've gotta love free steak.

I look forward to our vacation week every year. It's a great week. :)

Constantly Speaking Too Soon

This morning I woke up and didn't have any head pain - it was miraculous! I felt cured! J and I spent a relaxing morning doing our own things, and then we went to KFC for lunch, and then to Walmart so that J could get an oil change in his car. By the time we were done walking around Walmart, my head was hurting again, and I was exhausted. It wasn't the same pain - no shooting pain - just a regular headache. But, following six days of headaches, it was enough for me to actually call the doctor's office and make an appointment. I go in at 10:15 tomorrow. Blah. (And now, at 9:18 p.m., the headache is still hanging around, making me feel worn out and less than normal.)

There was one good phone call before that, though - I ordered my birthday cake, woo! I love birthday cake.

Vacation Day Two

Bedtime. Tired. Today was a good day, though. J and I had the whole day together, which was really nice. We watched a movie (Midnight Cowboy, from 1969 - it won the Oscar, but J and I were both disappointed), we went to Denny's for lunch, we got groceries. The lawn was mowed, relaxation was had - it was good.

I'm going to be calling the doctor tomorrow to make an appointment, though. I am still having the shooting pains. I didn't take any Advil this morning, and the pains pretty much happened all morning. They took a break in the afternoon, but came back in the early evening - which seems to be their pattern. So I need to go get it checked out. I'm not too worried about it, but I'm hoping they can tell me why the pains are coming, and help me get rid of them. We'll see.

Oh, and tonight I got some Sims time, and I created a much more accurate Sim version of myself. J and I were both happy with her - she's about as close as I'll ever be able to get, I think. I need to create J, too, but it's too late and I'm too tired. That will be a project for tomorrow or later this week.

Okay, I'm off to bed. Good night, all!

Vacation Day One

What a great way to start a vacation! I slept in until almost 7:00, which shouldn't seem like "sleeping in," but when you have dogs (Rosebud) who like to get up at 5:30, it feels pretty darn late.

I had plans to go to the movies with Sarah today, to see My Sister's Keeper, but I got to spend some time relaxing first, which was nice. The ice pick headache started again once I got up, but I took some Advil and knocked it back out. And then I felt good enough that I actually did a workout DVD (yoga/Pilates combo from the Crunch series)! It's the first time I worked out in a week, because I'd been feeling so bad, so it felt good to get my muscles moving again.

So we went to the movie, and it was pretty good. I never like movies based on books if I've already read the books, though. I spent the whole time comparing it to the book in my head, and of course the movie didn't match up. But it was a decent movie, I guess. And of course seeing it with Sarah was fun. We went to Friendly's and had ice cream sundaes after, yum. And she treated me for my birthday! Thanks, Sarah!

Other than that, I got some of my regular Saturday stuff done - laundry, dishes. And J got home earlier than scheduled, so our vacation together has officially started! We kicked it off with sandwiches from Jrecks, so our eating vacation is off to a great start. :)

Headache Be Gone

My three day headache seems to finally be gone. I'm being cautious in my optimism, but I think it may have left the building. Woo! And of course, right after I typed that I felt a small twinge in my right temple, but this twinge pales in comparison to the pain I was having yesterday, so I'm still optimistic.

The question now is, what the heck was going on? I'm wondering if this may be the start of migraines? My Mom used to suffer from them - I remember her going into a dark room with an ice pack to put on her head, leaving me with the strict admonition to be QUIET. Or maybe it was a hormonal thing - a new, extra special symptom of PMS. I don't know. All I know for sure is that it felt amazing to be headache free today (it was still kicking this morning, but I took three Advil, and that, combined with the long night of good sleep I got may have been the magic ticket to kick its butt).

So there's some good news. The other good news is that my vacation starts in 40 minutes, woo! I love vacation so very much.

Okay, people, I'm off to do things. Have a great Friday afternoon!

Blah and Look! Cute Picture!

My vacation is so close! And it's a good thing, because for some reason I am feeling so stressed right now. Work is insane this week, because of orientation. Since Tuesday night I have been having what is apparently called "ice pick headaches," which is basically shooting pains in my right temple. They come, last about three or four seconds, and leave. The pain is swift and strong and goes pretty quickly, but it's like a lightning strike (or an ice pick strike, I guess) that just keeps coming over and over again, so it's rather disturbing and painful. I'm actually thinking of going to the doctor about them, and I HATE going to the doctor.

Add in all the stupid ways in which people can get on your nerves (and for some reason today there seem to be many people doing this), and I am just more ready for vacation than ever.

Only one more day to go! Sigh.

In other news, this picture is currently on my work desktop. It's not a great picture, but it sure is making me laugh whenever I look at it. Duff just looks so perturbed at having Willow sitting on top of him, practically. :D

This Brain Has Gone On Vacation, Check Back Later

I still have two more days to work before I go on vacation, and I have enough work to do that both of those days will be fairly busy. And yet, my brain is trying to leave early. It's trying to set an out of office message, like so:

"We're sorry, but Denise's brain has left for vacation. Said brain will return to work on or about Tuesday, July 21st (one day after her body). Her brain will respond to all work requests at that time. Thank you."

I'm having to really concentrate to keep that message from playing every time someone e-mails me or talks to me with something they need done.

Must fight vacation brain! At least until Friday at 4:00!

Vacation To Do List

J and I are taking vacation together next week, woo! We're not going anywhere, but you know what? Relaxing at home together is enough. It's going to be great.

So, last night I wrote up a vacation to do list on our white board calendar, and I thought I'd share it with you. Ready? Okay, here goes.

1. Go to Red Robin with J's parents on Tuesday
2. Go to steak house to use the gift certificate I won last year
3. Go to Quack's (a local diner) to use my birthday month coupon
4. Go get soft serve ice cream (yum)
5. Go to baseball game?
6. Go mini golfing?
7. Have birthday cake!!
8. Go to Home Depot
9. Go to movies with Sarah (me, not J)

A little explanation of each: 1. it's become an annual tradition to go out to lunch with his parents during our vacation. Any tradition involving me getting a free hamburger is one I highly encourage (free because his Dad always pays, which is very nice of him); 2. Self-explanatory, really. The steak house is quite a ways away from us, and it has never worked to go. But while we're on vacation we have the time, so free food, woo!; 3. More food! Love it; 4. summer is synonymous with soft serve ice cream, isn't it?; 5. this one isn't happening - the local team doesn't have any home games that week. But it's okay, we'll just go some other time; 6. maybe! It's fun; 7. The best part of birthdays, apart from the gifts, and I already got those, so woo! Cake!; 8. J is finally going to spend his birthday money to buy himself a work bench. All men should have one of those, right?; 9. I asked Sarah if she wants to go see this, because J definitely won't want to, and neither does her husband. And we've both read the book, and I want to see it. I'm hoping we'll go this Saturday (I need to finalize this with her, though).

So, yes. A vacation centered around food. :D There are worse things! And any vacation that ends with my birthday is one I will always love.

(The diet will resume on the 20th, by the way, although I will try to not go completely overboard on a daily basis.)

Duff Update

Great news! Tonight when I got home, McDuff was running around full of energy, his lump completely gone. Woo! J took him to his regular vet this morning, of course, and was told that since the swelling has gone completely down in just half a day, it was most likely an allergic reaction, and he should be fine with just a few more doses of Benadryl (half a pill, so that it doesn't knock him completely out).

This is SUCH great news. I was already missing having Duff act like his normal self.

Also, the vet said it could be something as simple as a spider bite. Blech. Another reason to hate those 8 legged things.

Duff Don't Be Scaring Us Like That!

A few days ago, J noticed a small lump under Duff's armpit. Then he developed a lump under his throat, so J called and made an appointment for him to go to the vet tomorrow morning. Well, Duff decided he couldn't wait that long - his throat and head were all swollen today, and he was acting sick - just listless and not himself. So we took an unscheduled trip to the emergency vet today.

Duff: "I was feeling bad, man."

The vet game him a shot of steroids and one of Benadryl, and we waited to see if the lumps would go down. They got a little smaller, but not a lot, so the vet was talking about what could be happening - she mentioned the word lymphoma and basically scared the crap out of us, and we spent the next 15 minutes or so in the room alone with Duff, worrying and trying to decide what to do next (leave him there for observation in case the throat swelling closed his windpipe), have them run tests, take him home). I felt his neck, and it had gotten smaller! The vet agreed when she came in, so we took him home with instructions to give him a Benadryl tonight before bed, and then to just keep the vet appointment tomorrow. Now, three hours later, the lump has shrunk so much it's almost gone. Whew! J will still take him to his regular vet tomorrow, but we're very relieved that he is doing so much better.

Why is it that our pets have to scare the hell out of us like this from time to time? I could live without repeating this experience again for a while, okay?

One funny thing, though - all the people there were women (vet, assistants, receptionists), and they all fell in love with our McDuff. He's such a lover!

Duff: "What can I say, the women love me!"

Pictures from Today

July 4, 2009: Farmer's market, parade, talking with my sister, relaxing, my first fireworks with J. :) All in all, it was a pretty darn good holiday.


Prettiest horses.


Best band (I hate when high school bands don't make an effort and look like they don't want to be there - this one was great, though, with the uniforms and marching in step and sounding great).


Is it even possible to have a parade without fire trucks?


A pretty shot of the local college campus, where the fireworks are set off. My camera takes really good low-light shots outside. I wanted to test the fireworks setting, but I'll need a tripod before I can do that. When I tested it, the shots came out all blurry from me shaking as I held the camera.

Happy July 4th!

Well, it didn't take me long to forget to write an entry this month, did it? Sigh. I'll try to make amends by posting twice today. I'm going to the usual small town July 4th festivities with my sister this morning, and I'll take my camera and share any particularly good photos with you.

As for today, the dogs and I are all ready. I'm wearing my Old Navy 2009 Independence Day shirt, and the dogs are dressed up, too.


Willow


Bernie


Rosie


McDuff (who isn't wearing a bandana because it was a bit small, and he's got a lumpy throat issue going on right now, that he's going to the vet for on Monday - but he's being patriotic in spirit, I'm sure)

Happy July 4th! I'll be back later with stories and pictures.

Fighting the Toughest Foe - Me

Losing weight is such a constant struggle. It seems like it should be as easy to take it off as it was to put it on, but it just isn’t, as anyone who has ever had to lose weight knows. Whether you need to drop five pounds or 155, it’s a constant battle from the time you start until the time you get to your goal (and the fight doesn’t really end there, because you still have to maintain).

I don’t have 155 pounds to lose, thankfully, but I have way more than five. I started this struggle weighing about 80 pounds more than I want to. In the last three months I’ve lost 16 pounds, so I have a ways still to go.

So, if this is a fight, who am I battling? It feels like I should put a face to this foe of mine, but really, the only face I can give it is my own. I self-sabotage. Not all the time, thankfully, or the fight would be over before it started. But every once in a while my resolve falls, and I mess up.

This happened to me last week. I had set myself a goal of getting to a certain weight by July 4th, and it became clear last week that I wasn’t going to get there. I had hoped for it so much, and was working so hard, but it just wasn’t going to happen. So I gave up. I ate whatever I wanted, didn’t exercise, and didn’t worry about it. Luckily this only happened for a few days, and then I got back on track this last Monday. I’m doing really well, have worked out for two nights in a row, and will work out again tonight. And I actually weighed myself this morning, and I’m only a half pound higher right now than I was when my meltdown started, so I’m happy.

So now that goal I was working for won’t be reached by Saturday the 4th, obviously, and it might not be reached by my birthday in two weeks, either, but I’m getting closer. I know that I’ll get there, and then I’ll go past it, and I’m not worried about dates anymore. I’m learning all the time while I struggle to take weight off, and this was just the latest of the things I’ve learned.

The fight is back on. I’ve laced up my boxing gloves, I’m doing my dance around my opponent, to keep her (me) from knocking me down. I’m in this fight for the long haul. That 16 pound loss will turn to 20, then 25, then 30 and so on until the 80 is completely gone. I keep going back and forth on what I want my goal weight to be – I have a 10 pound range. Whether I end up in the upper end of the range, the lower end, or somewhere in the middle, I’ll be happy.

It’s a fight worth giving my all to, for sure. And I’m determined to win. That opponent of mine can keep knocking me down, but I’ll keep getting up and fighting back. As long as I get up more than she knocks me down, I’ll have won.

Black and White (and a little tan)

I just signed up to blog every day in July. I'm easing my way back into the daily blogging thing by just giving you some pictures that were on my camera. Behold:







See you tomorrow!

Ring-A-Ding-Ding

I waited a long time to get an engagement ring put on my finger. What was I, 38 when J proposed? Yeah, 38. I've worn it every single day since, proud to have it sitting there on my left ring finger, announcing my commitment to the man I love.

Today I had to move it to the middle finger for a while (I bet I had you all scared, thinking something had happened between me and J, right? Hee. Sorry about that). I've only lost 15.25 pounds so far, which is just a drop in the bucket of the total I have to lose, and yet my diamond has been flopping around all the time, and when I shook my hand earlier, it actually came off. And I do NOT want to lose my ring. My love for J and my love for my Mother are both tied into this thing (since it was Mom's ring from my Dad originally).

I knew that at some point my ring would get too big, but I never would have guessed that it would be getting loose this soon. It's not a big deal - I'll just move it to my middle finger, and when it gets too big again, I'll move it to my index finger. As long as I can still wear it, I'm happy. And when I get close to my goal weight, we'll get it resized so it can go back on its proper finger.

And I'm very happy to have random parts of me, like my fingers, getting smaller. :) The scale is going down slowly, but it's going down. It's a good thing.

Mind Blown. Can't Think.

I just linked to an article that said that popular "Mommy Blogger" Do0ce makes a lot of money in advertising. A lot. Seriously. Are you ready for this number? Assuming this article is correct, she makes $40,000 a MONTH, in advertising from her blog. A month! That's almost twice what I make in a YEAR, and she makes it in one month. In one year? She makes $480,000. What the?!?

My mind is blown. I feel a mixture of feelings, really. Shock, that anyone could make that much money posting pictures of their kids and dogs and telling stories of their family online. An irrational hatred, because why the heck should she make so much money doing something like that? And most of all, jealousy. I want to make that much money! Just for one or two months, even!

Although really, I don't. With that kind of popularity comes an obligation to post all the time; commenters who feel they have the right to tell you every sick, twisted thing they think of; criticisms from every strange person to find their way online.

Still, that kind of money sounds nice, doesn't it? Just for a couple of months? Seriously, two months making that much money would pay off my credit cards, student loans, all of J's bills and probably both of our houses, too. We'd be debt free! It's like dreaming of winning the lottery.

Okay, I think the shock is leaving my system. I can go back to my life now.

Oh, and since I haven't written in so long, maybe I should tell you what's going on in my life, huh? Well, not much, really. I've lost 14.75 pounds so far. I'm hoping to be able to get to 25 pounds lost by my birthday, but that's four weeks from tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll make it. I'm going to try, though.

I got the Sims 3 from J as an early birthday present, and then he made it even better by upgrading my computer's video card so I could run the game properly. So I have a new game to obsess over. Hee.

I finally got a picture of my new niece from my brother, and she is such a beautiful baby! She looks like a doll. (Did I even tell you she was born? I don't remember. Just in case, she's my oldest brother's daughter, she was born on May 14th, and her name is Natalie.)

The dogs and cats are all doing well. Willow continues to growl constantly, Duff continues to be the cutest little white dog around, Bernie continues to just make me love him more and more all the time, and Rosie continues to charm J and I as only Rosie can, with farts and wet ears and some really great hugs.

Kate isn't hiding in her house as much lately. She's been out in the living room, loudly demanding pets instead. She even walked in front of J so that he could pet her last night! Of course then she ran back to her house when he got up, so she's not deciding she loves him or anything. Heh.

I've now read 10 Pulitzer Prize winning books, so as far as my 101 list is concerned, that goal is done! Of course, now I've decided to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels, so in reality I have 73 left to go. Hee. They're too good to stop at only reading 10.

I'm getting really close to being done watching all of the Best Picture Oscar winning movies, too. I only have 14 left to watch, plus four that aren't on DVD right now. I'll be kind of sad when I'm done with this, actually - I've seen a lot of great movies that I might never have seen otherwise.

I guess that's all I need to catch you up on. And writing this has gotten me over the shock of finding out what Do0ce makes, so it's a good thing (also, I'm writing her name like that, and not linking to her, because I don't feel like contributing another hit to her page right now, because yes, still jealous of the 40 grand a month, :P).

Have a good weekend, my four or five faithful blog readers!

Catch-Up

Wow, I'm not really in here chatting much, am I? Sorry! I guess I haven't been in the blogging kind of mood.

So, nothing much has been going on with me. Mostly my mind has been focused on watching what I eat and exercising. I have a significant goal in mind that I want to reach by July 4th, and it's totally reasonable to think I can do it - I just need to do the work! So I've started doing workout DVDs on Netflix online. The first one, and the one I've liked best so far, was Crunch: Fat Burning Pilates. I did it on Tuesday night, and I worked up a really good sweat, worked a bunch of muscles, and did a nice bit of work on my abs, too. My legs were actually sore when I was done! Which I haven't been able to say after riding the exercise bike or doing the videos on sparkpeople, so I'm thinking I wasn't really working hard enough. The videos are helping in that regard.

The next night I did a Jillian Michaels DVD that was targeting the upper body (since my legs and abs had gotten worked the day before). It still worked the legs, so they were doubly sore when I was done, but I did get a decent workout in my arms and chest, too. My chest was actually sore! So it was good, I think.

Last night I took a night off, to let my muscles rest. One of the things I've learned is that muscles need time to rest, to heal. I'm not sore at all today, so I think the rest was good. One night of rest is all my muscles are getting, though, because tonight I'm back to the Crunch DVD.

Oh, and I found this virtual me thing online, and put in my height, my starting weight, my goal weight, and my body type. If gave me virtual before and after pictures (these are from the Levi's website, so she's wearing Levi's jeans and a Levi's top). Here it is:


I have no perspective on what I looked like when I started (11 pounds ago), so I'm not sure how accurate the before side is. From what I remember of being at my goal weight many years ago, the after seems pretty accurate, though. I had a small upper body, with the little bit of extra weight I still had on me in the legs and butt. (My goal weight here is 135, by the way, although in reality I'll be happy anywhere between 135 and 145, which should be about a size 6 or 8 pants (US sizes, obviously).) I have this saved on my desktop at work and at home, and from time to time I open it up and look at the after, for inspiration. I'm going to get there this time, I can feel it. I'm working hard for it, so it'll happen. Eventually. Probably early next year.

Anyway, so that's what been on my mind, mostly. Well, that and Sims 3! Which came out on Tuesday. I wasn't sure if I wanted it, but then I started seeing pictures and stories about it from people who got it that day, and now I absolutely want it! It's different than Sims 2, but that's okay. I'm going into it thinking of it as a totally different game than 2. So the differences don't bother me. I just want it! Unfortunately, it's $50, and I don't get paid until next week, so it'll have to wait. I'll have it in my hands eventually, though. I just hope it works on my desktop when I get it! The video card seems to have what they require, but it isn't a version that's supported by EA for the game, so who knows if it will or not. We'll see, whenever I get my hands on a copy of it.

Other than that, I've been reading lots, and knitting some (still working on my new niece's blanket), and watching DVDs and TV, and hanging out with J when he's home. Life is pretty good.

And there you have a quick recap of what's been going on with me. I hope you all are doing well too!

Lucky Shot

Yesterday at my sister's house, I asked my great-niece Ava to pose for me in the fort on top of the slide. At the same time, my great-nephew Sammy was being pushed on the swing by his Dad. I snapped the picture of Ava, Sammy swung forward, and I lucked into this great shot.



I love this kind of happy accident.

What I Learned This Afternoon

Riding a real bike out on a semi-hilly road for ten minutes is way more work than riding an exercise bike in the living room for 30. WAY MORE. Ouch. To think I used to be on a bike more than I was off it when I was a kid.

Finally!

Today marks a true milestone in my quest to be healthier - I have finally lost 10 pounds! Woo!

It feels like it took forever to get here, but I haven't just been dieting to lose weight - I've also been changing my eating habits, instituting an exercise habit, and basically doing this thing the right way. I'm eating a balanced diet, watching to make sure I get enough protein and fiber without going overboard on carbohydrates and fats - but I'm not doing low fat or low carb. I'm getting a good balance of everything.

I'm also exercising about 40 minutes per day Monday - Friday, and about 10 minutes per day on weekends, which is approximately a billion more minutes than I would previously have spent exercising in a week. (That may be a slight exaggeration.)

All of this work is resulting in a body that is slowly reshaping itself. I'm feeling slightly leaner, a bit tighter, and even a bit stronger. It took the scale a while to start reflecting these changes, but finally it is. And I'm down 10 pounds! It feels so good to be able to say that.

I'm so glad I finally got in the right mental place to do this. I feel so much better already! And hey, 10 down, only 67 to go! :D I just might be there by the end of the year. :)

Minor Excitement

J called me earlier to let me know that the contractor who was at our house (we had four new windows put in this week) had called to let him know that our power line was sagging really low over the road, and the pipe that holds it (our contractor called it a porcelain) had almost ripped off the house. Uh oh!

So I called the light company and sent them out there to check it out, and I drove out during lunch to make sure all was well. This is the point where I'd be sharing pictures if I had remembered my camera, but alas I left it sitting in my tote bag at work. D'oh! Oh well.

But everything was fine. When I got there the contractor was still there picking up the debris from the old windows, and the light company truck was already there. There were cones set up in front of the house to warn people of the low hanging power line, and when I talked to the guy who had shown up, he said it would be an easy fix once another truck got there.

So, whew! Thank goodness for fast acting light company repair guys, and for our contractor who happened to show up after the line came loose and let us know. Oh, and it was most likely ripped loose by the wind - it's whipping at 40 mph or more out there right now.

Now here's hoping that this repair cost is covered by the charges I pay the light company every month, and that it doesn't show up in my next light bill!

Gift for Eli

My newest great-nephew was born last week! His name is Elijah (Eli), and he's a cutie. And for a change I got a baby gift finished when the baby was only a week old! I finished his blanket last night.

And here it is! It's being displayed on top of the cutting board at work, so please ignore the part of the cutter that's showing at the back of the photo. :)

My nephew Ken and his wife Melanie were doing a jungle theme in the nursery. It's hard to knit something jungle like (at least for a beginner knitter - I can't do the fancy knitting designs yet), so I went with a jungle-y green. I hope they like it.

It's done in a basket weave pattern, which I just love the looks of. In fact, I think once I'm done making a blanket for my brother's new baby, I may make an adult sized version of this pattern for myself. It looks so snuggly and warm!

I did have one frustration with it yesterday when finishing it. I ran out of yarn! The end of the border was supposed to be 8 rows, but it ended up being 3. I'm sure Ken and Mel won't mind. :) As it is, I ran out of yarn when I still had about 15 stitches to bind off, so here's what the end looks like:

Oh well. It's the little imperfections that make these things mean more, right? :)

Welcome to the world, Eli! I hope you'll get lots of use out of your blanket once you get it.

Gone

When I bought my house in the winter of 1999, the previous owner left a few things in it. The table I had admired while I was looking at the house was there - we use it to this day. A tan rocker/recliner was in the living room. An old fake Christmas tree was in the basement. And an old Cub Cadet riding lawn mower was in the garage.

In the years since I've moved in, the tree has stayed in the basement, the chair has been used and abused by the dogs and exiled to the garage, the table is still in use, and the lawn mower got used for a few years before it broke down and I finally had the money to buy a new one.

The other things haven't been any trouble (although the recliner is going to be making a trip to the dump someday), but that damn mower has been like a weight around my neck. Or rather, a weight in the garage. A large, yellow, immovable weight, sitting there taking up valuable space. I had a way of getting rid of it last year - the college where I work would have taken it and recycled it. But we couldn't get it out of the garage - it was too heavy to lift into a truck bed (mowers used to be made of solid steel, apparently - this thing was like a tank).

I thought I was stuck with it forever.

This year my new(er) mower needed some work before it was ready to start being used. So I took it to my friendly neighborhood small engine repair guy, who fixed it up for me. I mentioned the old yellow mower to them a couple of times (I might have had some desperation in my voice), telling his wife that if he wanted it to use for parts, or to fix up and sell, he could have it! For free! Just get it out of my garage! I didn't think they were going to bite. But at the last minute yesterday, they did.

Last night they backed their truck and trailer into my driveway, unloaded my new(er), fully functioning mower, loaded up the heavy heap, and took it away. I was never so glad to see anything leave my house.

The empty space in the garage looks so good. The weight is gone.

Yay!!

Celebrating Agriculture

When's the last time you went to lunch and got to see cows, goats, horses, huge tractors and even a turkey? Today was Ag Day on the campus where I work. And I had my camera with me! Look, pretty pictures!

Cows!





Goats!


(Plus some random student holding this baby goat.)

Turkey!



And my personal favorite - Horses!

The foal reared up just as I was snapping this picture - if my camera had been pointed high enough to get his ears in, it would have been a perfect shot! I still love it, though.

Frisky baby. :)

Settling down.

Lunchtime!