Summertime... And the Living is...

It just is.

Over a month. Yeah. I have sucked as a blogger, here. Again. I think about things I want to talk about, think that they aren't worth talking about and I don't. Or I figure that I am so nattery on Facebook why bother or whatever. But what the fuck? This is my blog. I'll write what I want, when I want.

Duh!

That was kind of liberating.

Speaking of which...

I got on the scale at a doctor's office last week and:

 

 Yeah, I know. What I didn't know, because I was too chicken shit to get on my scale was just how much... 

I am back up to 371.

Needless to say, I am madder than a wet hen at myself. I am doing something about it. Hence having been at a doctor's. More deets to come, as things progress. What I will say is I am back on track eating better. I am going to get back out walking next week. This shit has got to stop. It is going to stop. I am not getting any younger and I can't expect to keep dodging a bullet as far as my health is concerned, forever. Especially with my frightening family history!

We are still in the condo. I don't understand William's malfunction. I mean, seriously. He doesn't even seem interested in house hunting. Not even interested. WHY????????????????? I am so. Fucking. Over this place. Over it like a cat is over a bath. Over it. I am sick of opening my windows to enjoy the cool evening breeze and getting a face full of my neighbor's cigarette smoke. I am sick of not being able to sleep with an open bedroom window for the same reason. I am tired of being cramped into this small place. I need more room. I want one level. I would like all hard surface floors. We had the broadloom shampooed which has made this place more pleasant and a lot cleaner but still...

Broadloom is disgusting. And I am over it, too. 

Bitch, bitch, bitch. 

But seriously. I can't figure the hubbs out. I just can't. Why is he so in love with staying here? I mention hunting and he rolls his head, gets that muleish look, changes the subject. I am sick of his bullshit. Really. Sick of it. I am ready to throw something at his head. Something heavy and covered in spikes. 

With my luck I'd miss. I throw like a girl. 

Not an athletic girl. A wimpy, weak armed, mall crawler girl. 

So, Topmax. Or the generic,Topiramate. My cheap-ass insurance. It likes generic. Same shit, Whatever. Anywhoozle, it worked great for a couple of weeks. I only had a couple of auras and minimal, Cat. 1-2 pain. Now, not so much. But it helps me sleep which is good, my sleep rhythms go to hell in the Summer, for some reason and I sleep like shit, this time of year, and I don't want to stop taking it until I see my doc, again so I keep on, hoping it will magically start working, again. Ha! Fat chance. Migraines blow. They suck ass.

I can't wait until next Saturday. I have an appointment to have my hair done. I have roots out to here and my fringe needs trimmed.

Got Back In

Weirdness... Couldn't get back into my blog for a while, there. I finally figured out how so now when it happens again, if it happens, again I won't be trapped out.

It's warming up. Mid eighties, we have had to turn on the air in the afternoons, it isn't super hot around here but because of the way this place is built the sun bakes down on us and turns this place into an oven in the afternoon and the air makes it more pleasant so on it goes. Add to the heat the fact that Smoke Man insists on blowing his obnoxious cigarette smoke all over the place and I don't enjoy the "fresh air" so much.

I want to move. Seriously. I am over this condo. And, since we had Sabryna put to sleep (on March 29th) we don't have to stay here any longer. Not really and I want to start looking. Seriously looking and I want to move.

William keeps talking about getting another dog. I don't want another dog, right now. Not in this condo and honestly, I am just not ready to add another dog to the family at the moment. I still miss my Velcro dog too much. But Mr. Stubborn keeps looking at dogs online. *sigh* I told him that when we find and move into the house that I want... Largish, single level (I am over stairs, thankyouverymuch!) bells and whistles that I crave, all hard surface floors and a large, securely fenced back yard, we will get another dog. I think that is a fair compromise.

I am healed up from my laproscopic gallbladder removal that wasn't in March. Hell of a thing, a surgeon not being able to find a person's gallbladder. I am not too surprised, it was a remote possibility, as it couldn't be imaged on the studies before surgery or on the CAT scan I had after. So, I still have that malfunctioning piece of shit in my bod making me miserable, now and again. *sigh* If it goes critical, we'll have to deal with it but for now, I'm just going to leave it be. I have a good prescription anti nausea med that I can take from time to time when I need it and other than some discomfort from time to time, it isn't too bad. I can live with it, for now.

I had a nice chat with my mother, yesterday, I called to wish her Happy Mother's Day and we talked for a good while. She is doing pretty well. Feeling good. I am going to respect her privacy and not go into too much detail here, but she had some treatments and is receiving some others and has some upcoming. She feels good and has had some good results. I am overjoyed by this, and thrilled at how well and strong her voice sounded on the phone, yesterday. I am hopeful that she is going to be with us for a long time to come.

On the migraine front:

Imitrex: Fail
Propranalol: Fail
Topomax: The Jury is Out. It is promising, We'll see.

Coffee, Muscle Bound Hulks and Snow

So, it's supposed to snow. Get stupid cold, really windy and snow. Yuk. I guess that this is part of Winter Storm Gandolf? Okay, I have to ask... Is anyone else as endlessly amused by The Weather Channel trying to make "fetch" happen? StormCon and TorCon and Named Winter storms and the like are so funny, to me. Seriously... Who the hell is coming up with this shit? And how are they getting it on?

So, I'm sitting here, this morning. Drinking my coffee, getting my morning pins and twats and Facebook posts up for my polish blog and bantering with my son about my taking steroids. William was dusting and suddenly he turned to me and asked, "They aren't going to make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, are they?" Bwahahaha! I have to admit, that was funny. I reassured him that no, they weren't going to turn me into a muscle bound hulk. He seems relieved.

Oh my sainted Aunt! I am such a fucking moron. I had to set the date on my camera, the other day after I replaced the batteries. For some reason it loses it's settings after a battery change, from time to time. And it has been happening more often. Anyway, back to being a fucking moron. When I re set the date, I set the year as, yep. You guessed it. 2012. You know what that means, photographs from two days in January of this year are slotted in with the January 2012 photographs. So, to get to them, I have to go hiking back to Jan. of 2012 every time I want to access them. Must change the date on my camera, ASAP. I am so not willing to put up with this nonsense long term.

If I had a brain I'd be dangerous.

Time's Fun When You're Having Flies

I meant to blog more often this week but every time I thought about it I didn't have time and when I had time, I was off in another world in my head and well... Yeah. Proof, once again that I suck.

So, did I ever talk about how my husband is the pushover of the world? I mean, just look as Marley. William hated cats. He met Marley, when he was just a tiny, wild thing living outside. I started feeding him and the next thing you know, William is coming home with fancy canned food and toys and a cat bed and a blanket for the little guy. And the moment he came in, one phone call netted a brand new litter box and litter and more toys and the cat hater was the cat lover. lol And he still adores Marley, to this day.

So, Mr. Soft Touch, Sucker of the Year and I decided to sell the Jeep and use the proceeds as a down payment on a different vehicle. Since our credit is crapola on a stick, thanks to being freshly out of a BK, we have to put down some money to get financed and we will be a little limited in our choices, this time around. But, in the future, as out credit improves, we will have more options. So, time to start at the bottom and work up, again.

Anywhoozles, the Jeep was listed for 1,750. A fair price, it wasn't new, by any means but it was a good, solid, dependable SUV, had imperfect but intact paint, no rust or dents and it was clean and had icy cold A/C (a real boon, in this neck of the woods). We got call on it and William and the man went around a bit about price and payment. The guy is having a bit of a tough time and is about to relinquish his present vehicle back to his lender and he really needed something else. At first, they agreed on 1,500. I thought it was fair and William was even going to let the guy pay $500 three times, park the Jeep in the garage and hold the funds until it was fully paid, to make it easier for the guy to buy it. Well, somehow that kind of fell through but then he called back late this afternoon and said that he was able to scrape together a thousand.

Here is where Mr. Soft Touch came back to life. And decided to just sell the Jeep to the guy for a thousand. Seven hundred and fifty dollars less than the asking price.

Sucker.

Soft touch.

Compassionate.

Empathetic.

Did the right thing.

And I am proud of him.

The sucker.

The buyer got the vehicle he very much needed and we have a grand towards our down payment. We'll have to come up with a little more but it's doable.

I just hope that William didn't get played. I don't think that he did. I don't get that feeling and I usually get feelings about people and situations. I was hoping to have the full down payment we needed and a few extra clams. There were some cute workout clothes on the Avenue site I kinda had my heart set on. They were even on sale, dang it. Oh well. I'll just go with what I have and it's all good.

We have been a little bit busy getting some projects done and doing the shopping and looking around at new places to live and so forth. We found one place that would have been terrific. Hardwood floors, three nice sized bedrooms, two baths, lovely kitchen, larger living room, pretty master suite for a very affordable rent (for this area, especially) but it was AAO. We could probably have talked them into letting us have the cat but the dog would have been out of the question. A couple of other possibilities also fell through for that reason. Also, Sabryna is having some tough days and we think that trying to move her would just be too hard for her to take so we have decided to just hang here until she throws off this mortal coil. She doesn't have too terribly long and we just want her remaining days to be as comfortable, happy and peaceful as possible. After she has moved on, we will begin the hunt, again. When the time is right something will turn up. It always does. And it is more important to us that Sabryna has this time in peace and comfort.

It has been mad windy all day today and it is supposed to be windy tomorrow and only in the mid sixties. Must have a little low moving through. As far as I know we aren't supposed to get any rain. Just wind and a few clouds. The cool break will be nice. The wind and cooler temps are lovely and I like not having to run the A/C.

William goes back to work on Tuesday. It hasn't been too heinous having him around but I am looking forward to the return of my peaceful and routine days.

I wonder if Draz did BYOC this week? I'll have to go reading and find out.

BYOC... A Day Late But Better Late Than Never

1. What religion were you raised as a child, if any, and are you still a member of that faith today? Why or why not?

I wasn't raised in any particular faith. The whole thing is a little convoluted, what with various influences, this, that and the other but the upshot is I was left to do my own searching and make my own decision. Something for which I am deeply grateful because when I did develop my faith (if you want to call it that) it came from the conviction of my heart and the Holy Spirit, not because it was drummed ruthlessly into me from infancy. 

 2. Do you have an all time favorite candy or do you change favorites often?

One word: Caramel. 

   3. Are you a green thumb? Do you landscape your yard or plant any flowers or a garden? Do you pay someone to do it for you? Do you not plant a single thing?

I am a ruthless murderer of all things living and green and leafy and flowery. Well... Not all things. I have one very pathetic little philodendron this is alive. After a fashion and, I can successfully keep a limited range of outdoor plants, like pansies, petunias and portulaca alive, as well. I am wholly unsuccessful at nurturing any other kind of plants and if I had to live on the produce I grew, I would have withered up and blown away long, long ago. 

To illustrate the severity of my black thumb,  the last time I went into a nursery, all of the plants were passing around a flyer with my photo on it and the words "Do Not Let This Woman Buy You! You Will Die!" printed on it in three inch tall bold font. 

 4. Let’s just say you were a tattoo junkie and you were planning your next tat and it had to be words only. What words would you choose? A quote? Phrase? One word? Would you do it in English or a different language?

This is a good question and one for which I simply do not have an answer at this time. 

   5. Repeat question: Summarize your week.

Busy. A couple of good days followed by a lot of ill advised munching and self hatred and all that fun shit. I did hold steady weight wise. And I am working on getting my mojo back. I am having a good day, today and for that I am grateful. I have gained back a total of thirty pounds since I reached my low weight of 282. And it pisses me off that I have to re lose lost weight. I feel strongly that that is fucked up in the extreme. But I am not quitting. Right now, I am just taking it hour by hour, going back to the fundamentals, even taking it minute by minute. 

The old Ball and Chain is on vacation until next Monday. Nine. Days. Of. Togetherness. Good times.

Beauty dot com is running a 20% Friends and Family sale through tomorrow and I splurged and treated myself to an Urban Decay Naked Palette. I can't wait to get it and play with it. I have been wanting that palette for a long time. And now, it will be mine. :D

Warm, the days are. Mid to upper eighties. We are expecting to hit ninety, this coming week. As long as it is breezy and cools down nicely at night, I don't mind it getting hot during the day. And we have air so it isn't as if we are suffering. 

I need to do my roots, soon. I think I am going to pop into a local salon that specializes in colour and see what it would cost me to have them paint the dye on my roots, for me. I love my hair colour and I am willing to do the work to have it but I dislike doing my roots, as it is difficult, with all of my hair to get the dye painted precisely on my regrowth, only. Especially in the back. Gah! It would be worth it to pay someone to do it for me. I can wait another couple of weeks, unless my hair gallops. So far, my roots are hidden by my hair's natural body and springyness. 

I really want to go house hunting. NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cna't even open my bedroom window to enjoy the cool night air because my neighbour is out there smoking at all hours and polluting my sleep air with his noxious, choking smoke. I have had it. And I want out of here. 

There was something else I wanted to say but of course, idiot that I am, it slipped the surly bonds of my brain and flew into space. I'll probably recall it. 

When I an frakking ninety. 

Saturday!

The sun is shining. The birdies are singing and my allergies are so crazy bad. Ugh! My beak is a mass of misery and my eyes are burning and sticky and I wish that it would rain and settle the pollen for a while. A little relief from the symptoms would be lovely.

I have my sheets in the wash and I need to wash my quilt, as well. Patrick is going to wash his later, too. It seems as if some days that poor washer never stops running! lol

I have another headache and I need to do my coupons so i suppose I should get to it.

I am eating well, in control and calm of mind. This is good.

Noms of the Day and Other Nattering

Let's just get right to it, shall we?

 Brekkie: A cup of my regular coffee then William brought home a latte. Oh, yeah! Sooo Good. Method Coffee, a local coffee house is as good as Starbucks. The falvours are different, of course but still, delicious. I will happily go to either. :D The cup was actually empty by the time I took this photograph. I sucked that latte down like someone was threatening to take it away from me. I also had some scrambled egg whites softened with a little water, mustard and Tabasco for flavour.

Calories: 285

 Lunch: A Lean Cuisine Mushroom Tortaloni with snap peas and sun dried tomatoes. (I love this bag of food like I love my mother, kids.) I added a serving of frozen peas, heated to the entree to bulk it up a little and to add a little extra veggie nutrition. Yum. Seriously. Yum. 

Calories: 380

Did I mention that stuff is yum?

 A vat of coffee with ff 1/2 &1/2 and Truvia. 

Calories: 80.

 Dinner: Salad. Then I piled on top of my salad a Smart Ones Sesame Chicken micro in the bag meal. Hey, I am well aware of the fact that I eat weird food combos. You are reading a blog written by a broad who thinks that French fries dipped in chocolate milkshake is the height of heavenly noms. So, weird tho it may look, it's delicious, all piled together. Don't judge. You do weird shit, too. lol

Calories: 440.

I just needed to snack snack: An orange. Isn't it freaky that there are fabulously delicious oranges in the store, right now? This time of year? And a serving of Triscuit Thin Crisps. These little crackers are da bomb. They are slightly cheesy, slightly herby, a little salty and full of win. 

Calories: 205.

Total for the day: 1390. I got plenty to eat, lots of yum and came in well under my 1500 calorie cap. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. :D

So, to prove that Prescott, Arizona is the suckhole of the universe, I went into Big Lots in search of prime goodies as detailed in blogs I had read and had yapped about earlier and hoped that I would find, too. Ha! Know what I found? 

That's right. You see, our Big Lots is the Big Lots to which other Big Lots in better places send all of their random, useless, nobody-wants-this-shit shit that they don't want to try to sell. It is hard to find anything truly useful in that store. Once in a rare great while I score. But not very often. Usually it is just a pile of crap. Some of it overpriced crap. I saw some cute as hell lamps. Fifty clams a piece. Huh? At Big Lots? Knockoff lamps. At Big Lots. Fifty freaking bucks? Are you shitting me?

I also went to Ross hoping to score Color Club collections. Ha! Again. They had some but I already have them. I am looking for the Spring and Summer collections. I'll keep trying. I did find another palette to repurpose. I'll tell you all about that, another time. It's an ongoing project. :D

I found the prettiest pink eyeshadow at Walgreen's, tonight. It is a new Loreal Infallible shadow the colour is Pink Sapphire. Oh, buy is is ever lovely. I could see it working for eyes and for cheeks, maybe as a highlight along the top of the cheekbones. Over a pretty peach blush... Or with bronzer... Loreal is all BOGO 1/2 so I grabbed a lipstick from the display, as well. It is Rose Agate. Wow! Perfect Summer lippie. It's a subtle your lips but better rose packed with a gold fleck. So. Pretty.

Shit. My manicure is chipping. I'll have to change it, tomorrow. Early. I have a busy day, tomorrow.

Oh! Did I tell you that Patrick (my son) was awarded Employee of the Year for 2011? He was. *proud mama moment* He went down to the Valley today for a little company awards ceremony where all of the EotY for the region were honored, given plaques and had their picture taken with the president of the company.  He had a great time. Ate a ton of food and came home smiling ear to ear. I am so happy for him. <3

Tired, now. Must go nighty-night.

Tuesday Morning

Good morning blogland.

I am up. I am drinking coffee and I am contemplating trying my new protein powder in my smoothie, this morning. I hope it isn't nasty.

The guys are getting ready to take the in-laws down to Yarnell. MIL has to see her health care practitioner and they want to visit with SIL for a bit. So it will be just me and the pets here. Ahhh... Peace and quiet.

I'll report back in a bit with the verdict on the protein powder. Happily, Hi-Health allows returns so if I hate it I can take it back and get something else. I will find something that I like. I am determined. :D

Okay. I have to run.

Busy Day

I saw this on Tumblr. 

Boy, am I tired. William and I took down the Christmas decorations and put them away then the cleaning began. Every January First after the Christmas stuff comes down, we go on a cleaning frenzy. Bathrooms get scrubbed from top to bottom, the furniture gets moved and vacuumed behind and under, the sofas are vacuumed to remove pet hair and dust, all hard furniture is polished by hand, hard floors mopped and polishes, stairs vacuumed, ceiling fans cleaned, every inch of broadloom, including edges vacuumed. I keep a clean and tidy house but it is nice to start the New Year with everything fresh and sparkling clean. It was a perfect day to air out the house, it was warm enough to throw the windows open and enjoy fresh air. Lovely.

After the house was all done, William helped me assemble my new nail polish storage cubes. What an adventure that was. The first one was a huge pain in the ass because we had no idea how to go about putting them together. Once we got the first one together, the second was a snap and we had that one up in a fraction of the time the first one took. I got them downstairs in my sanctuary and sorted and stashed my polish. And found that I need one more. I don't know if I should be bothered by that, or not. Probably not. Some people buy shoes, some buy cars, I buy nail polish. And makeup.

Urban Decay recently marked down their Book of Shadows IV palette. From $69.00 to $44.00. I had my greedy eyes on that baby since the first rumblings hit the blogs last Summer but seventy bucks for a shadow palette, no matter how pretty is a little more than I can be spending. But I can do forty-four. I can't wait to receive it. I have the Naked and Naked2 Palettes on my wishlist. I had the 15th Anniversary palette on my wishlist as well  My little heart is broken. When I couldn't afford it, it was everywhere. Now that I had the money to get it, it is gone, forever. I haz a sad. *shrug* Other pretties will come along.

I have an unscratched lottery ticket sitting on my little side table. As long as I don't scratch it, I am $50,000 richer. When William asked me which ticket I wanted, yesterday when he was buying his lottery tickets (I buy polish and makeup, he buys lottery tickets) I just had a feeling and pointed to the ticket I now have. Yeah. I liked it because it is sparkly. Sue me. And I just had a feeling. I am sure that that feeling was just the buzz from the grande skinny peppermint mocha I had just gulped. I seriously doubt that ticket will render anything but a few minutes of scratching and trying to match letters and words.

William keeps opening the window at night. It's nice, but it isn't that fucking nice. I am so sick of him being too hot and freezing my ass out of the house. He isn't the only one in here.

I need to find a new background for this blog. I am over this one. 

For Autumn Leaves

Here is a photo of one of Patrick's paintings. He did this one in oils all in shades of blue with a little white. Needless to say, I love this painting. He did this when he was eleven. He did a few, I have a couple others, his grandparents have one as does his Aunt and Uncle. He hasn't painted since he was twelve. He did it for a while, loved it. Got over it and left it behind.

You can clickety click to enlarge it, if you are so inclined. I'll take pics of and post his other three paintings I have, in coming days.

Monday, Monday

Holy moley. Where goes the time? I decided to hide, this Mothers Day. I am still in a weird head space. I thought I was coming out of that but I guess my fear and anger are still driving me. Add frustration and a wish to step in and change things and you get one screwed up daughter and mother who just wanted that day to disappear, this year. Hell, I didn't even call my mother. I couldn't. I actually blanked it and didn't even think about it until yesterday morning.

Luckily, my mother understands me better than I do myself and I know that she is okay with it. I am the one who isn't okay. I am the one who is not okay with the fact that my mother has breast cancer. There. I said it. And now I am shaking. I am not okay with the fact that not only does she have breast cancer but the fact that she has chosen an unorthodox treatment based on looney bird shit she reads in books and online. My mother is not exactly the biggest fan of mainstream medicine. I get that. But damn it! This no time to goof around with alternative theories. This is the time to act. Aggressively.

But I can't make her do that. I can't force her to do the things that she feels are wrong for her. It is her body. It is her choice. I have no right to dictate to her about her health and her body. I can't legislate her into submission. I can't force my viewpoint on her. I just have to STFU and accept the fact that this is how it is. And keep praying.

Add to this the fact that my aunt, my mother's sister and her daughter also have breast cancer, all in the right breast and you get a kind of freaked out me. I am beginning to think that there is a genetic component, here. I am going to discuss this with my doc when I see her in August. If I have to be tested for the BRCA gene, I will do that. And if I pop positive, I will seriously consider prophylactic measures. In my personal opinion, no bags of fat hanging off the front of my body are worth risking death for. No frakking way.

So, that is where I am, right now. In a weird head space. I have good days and not so good days. And, I am eating some of my feelings. I am not falling completely off track but I admit some days I eat at maintenance level calories. It isn't good and I am slowing my progress. And I am reverting to old, bad habits that I have been working so hard to change. I am trying to get through this weirdness and get my head screwed back on straight. I really am working at it.

I think that just laying it out, getting it off my chest is going to help a bit. I couldn't keep it all bottled up, any longer. I felt as if I would explode. I can't talk to my husband about this. He has no clue what to say and he has no desire to deal with it. So, it sat in there, festering and building pressure. Mothers Day almost sent me over the edge.

Definitely the right decision. I can feel a lot of the tension draining. I know that I violated my rule of not talking about this publicly but that is the way it has to be. This was necessary. And sometimes it does have to be all about me.

Okay, so. It is Tuesday. And I am feeling a little better, now and I am also thinking it is past time for me to get my ass solidly back on track, stop making excuses and get my head back in the game and get this job done. Meeza thinking that blogging my feelings is far more constructive than eating them.

Duh! lol

Okay, I need to get a move on. I want to wash my sheets, clean my bathroom and dust and vacuum. I also need to get my brekkie. Patrick is off today and I think that we are going to start Operation Surround Sound. Our old DVD player is toast and I want the better one and surround speakers set up. William won't do it because he doesn't like the speaker wires showing so we have had to put up with the old DVD player that freezes up in the middle of what you are watching. He stubbornly refuses to even consider installing the other one. Asshat. So, I think that Patrick and I will just do it. And when William gets home, it will be done and he can just get the fuck over it. Besides, I think I can fix it up so that the wires to the speakers don't show that badly. It is a matter of putting them in the right spots, running them in the right way and anchoring them. And they are white and so are my walls. So... I think I can make it work.

Okay, I have to run, now. I'll talk to all of you, later.

Grilling

It is a gorgeous evening. Clear, warm. 68 degrees, down a little from 72. Ahhh... So lovely to say buh-bye to the cold wind.

I have chicken and zucchini on my grill. William and Patrick are also having corn on the cob and Spanish rice. I am going to toss together a little salad for me. :) Yes, I do have corn on the cob, now and again. But not tonight.

My frakking head is banging, again. *sigh* The break was nice. Back to it.

Okay, must run. I have food to check on.

Later, lovebugs!

On Top of My Cold

I got slammed with a migraine, today. I was completing a post on my other blog when the right side of my head imploded. Gah! I am now having waves. It gets really bad and I can't even think, then cycles back a little and I can breathe and then blammo! I am obviously in a calm period, since I can actually type, right now. lol I am hoping that a good nights sleep will help.

It snowed, last night. Just a little. We woke to clear skies, wind and stupid cold temps. It didn't warm up much, but it was warm enough for the snow to go bye-bye. Huge banks of puffers came sailing in, then cleared again as the sun went down. Now, we are expecting warmer and warmer temps, from here on out. Hopefully, this was our last slice of Winter. I am sick of that pie. I want Spring, for real. :)

Thank heaven tomorrow is Monday. I had both guys. Both guys in this house all weekend. All frakking weekend long. They both go back to work, tomorrow. I am so ready to have my house back. I have some laundry to do and some cleaning to catch up on and I need to measure my stride and calibrate my pedometer. And, I might sit down with Knitting Help videos and work on knitting in the round on two circular needles. I will conquer that skill! I will. I just need to dedicate myself to learning the procedure and practicing. Once I get it down, I can get to using all that lovely sock yarn I bought. I have enough for several pairs of socks. :D

My beak is stuffy and runs nonstop. I am burning through Kleenex at an alarming rate and my poor nose and the skin between my nose and upper lip are rubbed raw. I have it all slathered with Carmex. It helps.

Okay, my head is beginning to implode, again so I am going to go before I start typing in Martain. Have a great night, all. I'll see you all tomorrow.

But Whenever Monday Comes

Hello everyone. How was your weekend? Mine was okay. I got a few things done, Moved a bookcase into my room, cleared out a few things, put a couple of items on Freecycle, went out and blew a few bucks on nail polish at Big Lots. I got five bottles of polish and a nail art striper for six dollars. Man, I love a bargain. :D Willy Dog bought some cheese popcorn, a bag of stadium peanuts and a back scrubbing brush. We spent ten bucks, altogether.

It is a pretty day, today. Sunny and it is supposed to warm up a little, later on. I am beginning to feel the first tiny stirrings of Spring fever. Sunny, pretty days like this, this early make me crave warm days, gentle breezes, rich soil and flowers. Open windows, lighter clothes, fresh air and pollen. Allergies. Sneezing. Runny nose. Itchy eyes.

All of it totally worth it.

But, there is still some Winter to get through and I need to get out of my fantasy land and back to reality. Reality is that I am having a good morning. I had Willy Dog and Pookey bring my glider up from the walk in downstairs and I got on it (yay! I have lost enough weight to use my glider, again!) and did fifty minutes/two miles. I used my arms hard during my exercise and got an arm, shoulder and back workout while I worked my legs. I like using my glider because I can get my cardio on and not put so much stress on my hips and knees. My hips hurt less after using my glider than when I pound it out on the street. Boy, am I ever going to be sore. My arm and shoulder muscles are already beginning to ache and I can feel it in my back, too. It is a good ache and it means I worked hard, burned calories and am doing good things for my bod.

I had coffee, a Fage and an apple for brekkie. I'll do something full of protein for lunch. Probably a can of tuna and salad. And I might just trat myself to a glass of Crystal Light to go with it. I am not drinking mearly as much Crystal Light as I used to... It is water, water, everywhere for me. lol

Okay, I have to pee and I need a shower. I smell like a camel and my hair is manky, so...

A Little Less Freaked Out, Now

I am not happy about my weigh in, this morning. But I am calmer, now. I have to remember that I have a bod with a certain history. And I shouldn't be so surprised. The fat is coming off. I can feel the difference in my body composition. I am still on track and working and I am certainly not going to let this setback send me off over the edge. I am going to stay on track, keep slugging water and have a good yap with my doc when I go in for my appointment on Wednesday morning.

I am low on calories, right now. I had two cups of coffee and a Fage for brekkie. And I just chowed a veggie cheeseburger for dinner. I did a Morningstar veggie burger, half an ounce of 2% cheddar melted on top, a multi grain sandwich thin, a little light mayo, a couple of slices of tomato, some onion and lettuce. Yum! I had some Special K crisps with it. The Special K crisps are kind of like Pop Chips, thinner a bit more crisp. But yummy. I have enough calories to have a little nosh later, should I desire while we watch a movie.

I ran out today and did some shopping. Picked up some things I needed, hauled a little polish, including two Color Club sets at Ross. I also got a pretty China Glaze Halloween polish at Sally's on clearance. A buck ninety-nine. That is my kind of bargain. :D I picked up some other girlie necessities. And a jar of the new Loreal souffle foundation. I am hoping it will step into my beloved mineral foundation's shoes. Getting old is hell... Lines and wrinkles that are forming are not working and playing so well with mineral, anymore. *sigh* And my lines seem to be forming a little faster as I deflate. Time to start saving for that face lift, I guess. lol

Brrr! The temps are dropping fast, clouds are streaming in and there is a 30% chance of snow tonight and tomorrow morning. But it is supposed to warm up to the mid forties, so if it snows, it shouldn't hang around long. Rain would certainly be better! I love rain.

So, we have a new common wall neighbour. The condo next door finally rented. A lady and her little pooch moved in. She is single, right now but engaged to get married. Funny enough, my son and her fiancee know one another. He works for a loval vendor and delivers to the store where Pookey works. Her little doggy is kinda cute, a fluffy ball of cocapoo type canine life. He isn't too yappy, thank heavens! I am not thrilled with sharing a common wall, but as long as she is reasonably quiet, clean, her dog doesn't bark the walls down and I don't have to listen to her and her guy getting freaky, we will all get along just fine.

What is it with people who hang on Freecycle? I offered a very nice pink Razr cell phone. Received seven replies from people who wanted it. I offered it to someone, she was supposed to come get it and her son offered to buy her a newer model. Okay fine. So, I chose a gal who needed a new phone for her daughter. She was just desperate! to have it. It has been sitting outside my front door in a little gift bag for two days. If she doesn't pick up tomorrow, it is going to the next person on the list. *sigh*

Well, I guess I have nattered on enough, for now.

Please don't forget to enter my giveaway. You can find the link at the top of my right hand column. Click the logo, if you are a follower, enter. If you aren't a follower, click the follow button and enter. :D You have until the end of the day, tomorrow.

Friday Evening

Yes, Polar's Mom, I really like my new Vortex. It is enough smart phone to get up and go and do all the things I like to do with it but it isn't too much phone that I feel stupid or as if I am not going to utilize half of the features. It is a super easy platform and once you get the rhythm of it, very easy to learn. I started off simply making a phone call, which lead to trying the Internet which led to learning to use the keyboard which led to setting up Facebook, G-Mail, my Yahoo mail and so on and on. I have downloaded apps, browsed on my blog, tho I haven't tried posting, yet. I am amazed at how fast and fun it is to learn to use. I now know how to send text messages and add contacts and take pictures. I downloaded a program to my PC so that I can move music, photos, videos  from my 'puter to my phone. No need to buy an MP3 player, now.

I am ridiculously pleased with my new toy and I am having a lot of fun with it. I am sure the novelty will wear off, eventually and it will just be there. But for now... :D I need to read up on how to uninstall an app. I installed Pandora, then got a message that it is a data hog and I don't want to pay extra to run it, so it has to go.

Other than that, not too much going on, here. Dinner is in the oven. Willy Dog is in the shower, Sabryna's bed cover is in the dryer and Pookey is downstairs in his lair, doing whatever it is Pookey does in his lair.

Yum! I can smell dinner baking. It smells good and my stomach is growling. Baked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, baked potatoes. I don't eat potatoes very often, they are now more a treat than a staple in my diet. I am going to enjoy tonight's. :D

I need to get more water and I am going to read blogs and see what everyone is up to.

Later, gators.

Happy New Year!

Hello my pets. I hope that all you party animals aren't too hungover. :P I hope that those of you, like me sat on their bootays in front of the tube aren't puffy from too much salt. Amazingly enough, I am neither. I know... Right? No whining about the Puff Monster? Water. It works, dudes and dudettes. :D

To finish my year and my personal I Refuse to Blow It Challenge I jumped on my scale today and was 305.4, down 3 pounds for the week. I am pleased that I ended on a loss. I am not pleased that I ended the year still above 300 pounds. I had planned to be well and solidly below that number by this time and I am pretty pissed at myself that I am not. It is entirely my own fault. And I take full responsibility for my choices.

So today begins a  new year. Sparkling,  fresh, right out of the package. What am I planning to do with this new year? Well, a few things... Continue losing this weight. Work on some other personal goals. Get my health even better under control by finally getting a real doc all my own. Finally learn to knit in the round on two circular needles so that I can knit socks. Spend more time taking photographs, something I enjoy so much. Those are just a few things. And no, they are not resolutions. :P

It is stupid cold, this morning. It was 0 overnight. It was 4 degrees, a little while ago. Hopefully it is beginning to warm up and that sun will soon be melting the snow. Willy Dog and Pookey are going to go out and see if they can't clear the drive well enough that we can get out of here, tomorrow. I am trapped like a rat up here and I am not liking it. Time for the snow to go bye-bye. As frustrated as I am with our little bit of snow, I can't imagine how utterly frustrated and just plain pissed off the residents of NYC have been since their big snow and the city's failure to get it cleared and get people moving, again. I don't understand that. New York is in the North East. It snows there. A lot. You would think that they would be prepared. Of course, if the citizens had cooperated, got their cars out of the way, not driven and packed the snow down to ice and so forth,  it would have helped. It was just a big, stupid clusterfuck all around, seems to me.

I seem to be in love with the word stupid, lately. :P

Okay, so... time to go in search of some brekkie. I am just killing off cup #2 of coffee and thinking some food would go down very nicely.

It's Over!

Another Christmas is in the books. I can relax a little, let my guard down and know that I no longer have to ride the "It's the holidays and I can eat anything I want, because it is" monster, anymore. New Year's Eve doesn't count. We are such party animals on that night. I always have soup and toast for dinner that night, we watch the ball drop in New York and we are all out like lights, snoring, long before Midnight, local time. So no worries, there. lol

I finished yesterday at 1900 calories and four+ quarts of water down. I intended to land in a lower calorie range. I allowed myself to snack a bit and forgot to log as I did and the pretzels got a little out of hand.  That big mug of sugar free cocoa doctored with some fat free 1/2 and 1/2 and a little Redi-Whip didn't help. :P

 *sigh*

Idiot.

Anyhoozle...

Moving on,

I love my Christmas decorations and never take them down before New Year but today I have the insane urge to get it all down and put away. I won't, but I might do it on Wednesday. Pookey is off and can help me haul containers up and down and I can have everything but the outdoor lights down and packed away before Willy Dog gets home from work that day. Then next weekend, I can just concentrate on the Big Mid Winter Clean and Rearrange and  not worry about taking down decorations, too. Something to think about.

I am mildly sore from yesterday's walk, but not too bad. I expected worse, considering how much I haven't been walking, lately. And I am pleased at how well I did, yesterday and how great I feel, today. I need to get out again, today. If Willy Dog's foot is hurting him too much, I'll just go by myself. Sissy girl, has a widdle blister.

I am so cold hearted. :P

Okay, I have to run. My water is making it's presence known in my bladder. I'll be back later to read any updated blogs.

Earned My Christmas Dinner, Today

Hello dearlings. I hope that you are having/had a fabulous Christmas.

Mine was nice, tho busy. Housework, tons of laundry, Willy Dog did a little repair work on the TV stand and hooked the DVD player back up, I cooked dinner. Pookey cleaned up and loaded the dishwasher. 

I decided that I needed to get some exercise and earn my Christmas dinner so I insisted that we go for a nice walk, today. After the housework was done and the dinner was in the oven, we all laced on our walking shoes and piled in the Jeep and went out to the lake and took a good, hard three mile walk on Kickass Trail. Amey, I thought about you, while we were out there. :) It felt good to get out there and really work the old legs. There were a lot of people out there, people alone and in pairs on bicycles, walking dogs, walking kids, large group families walking dogs and kids. I guess a lot of people had the same idea... Work off or earn some of that Christmas dinner. :D It was a gorgeous day for a walk, warm enough for short sleeves with a breeze to keep one from getting overheated. Lovely. I am not even all that mad that it didn't snow.

I ran a little bit, today. Granted, it was on a down slope  and only for about a minute, but I did it. It felt good and I did much better than I did last Summer when I made an attempt. I wasn't shuffling, barely lifting my feet, barely moving forward. This time I actually put on a little speed, got my feet up and really moving. Unfortunately it hurt my poor hip. I still need to get more bulk off my frame before I am going to be able to run, again. But I know that I can. And I feel really proud of myself for trying it, again and actually doing it. :D

I am sitting at just over 1200 calories, including dinner for the day. I may have a  sugar free cocoa, later and maybe a sugar free pudding or some popcorn.  We'll see what I am in the mood for. Right now, I am still stuffed from dinner. I have just one more big tumbler to get my full four quarts of water down, not counting the 16 ounce bottle I took with me when I went to the lake.

Okay, I have to pee like a racehorse and check on the laundry. You know.. I don't think I am ever going to finish. I am waiting for Willy Dog to take his shower so that I can do up the last load of whites. *sigh* I wish he would get up off the sofa and do that. Dangit! I want to just get it done so that I don't have to hassle with it for a few days. It isn't as if he hasn't seen Home Alone 2 before. Fifty thousand times, before. :P

One Pound?

That's it? Down one to 308.4 this morning.

Pfffft!

Not pleased with myself.

Oh well. As Willy Dog says, a one pound loss is better than gaining a pound. He is right. This time, last year I certainly wasn't losing a pound. I was chowing down on fudge, cookies, rich foods, boxes of chocolates. Did you know that a box of chocolates has like 11,000 calories? Horrifying, isn't it? No wonder I weighed 400+ pounds. Again. Damn. If I hadn't lost a nice pile of weight in 2008, I would have been closer to 500 pounds. Looking back, I can't believe it. Actually, I can. It is simple facts. But it freaks me out.

It is clear and cold. My realm was all covered in frost and my breath puffed out in clouds of steam when I put Sabryna out this morning.  Our storm is moving east and there are a lot of people getting all of our snow. Enjoy your white Christmas, you storm thieves. *sniff*

Speaking of Christmas...

*** Merry Christmas! ***
 Pookey is sick, this morning, He overdosed on tacos in the break room yesterday at work, ate Taco Bell for a late dinner last night and he is spending all of his time on the toilet, this morning, Poor thing. A few Pepto tablets and he should be fine. I doubt it will teach him, tho. lol

I have proof that there are lovely people in the world. Yesterday, while Pookey was out gathering carts at work, a man in a very nice pickup pulled up next to him, rolled down his window and called him over. Pookey, thinking he needed directions or other help went up to his vehicle and asked how he could help him. The man just smiled, said "Merry Christmas" and handed Pookey a fifty dollar Target gift card, rolled up his window and pulled away. What a sweet, generous random act of kindness.

I am going to drink my second cup of coffee and get started glugging water. Have a beautiful day, everyone.