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