MIA

And I am not even traveling this week. And I didn't go anywhere last week...

Big Sigh. I have been catching up on stuff around the office. And dealing with a huge project/analysis that they threw at me last week.

And someone asked me the other day if they had filled my equivalent position yet... the one that has been vacant since July..... 2005 that is. My response:

"Yeah, just excuse me as I laugh quietly to myself in my cubicle… it's either that or cry in frustration. They interviewed, again. And they plan to hire someone, again. But they have to jump through the hoops and the loops of our HR department, again. And now my boss (the person hiring, and therefore the person who would make the candidate the offer) is on vacation until the 26th. So it's a waiting game, again. And they plan to hire the person who took the job and quit once already…"

On another note - I have decided for Lent, I am going to exercise every day. No excuses. So Wednesday I got on the Nordic Track in the morning. Thursday, after work I ran 3 miles (in 33 minutes!) and I got on the NT again this morning. Tomorrow, I am meeting with the women's running group my friend has invited me to, and we will do a 3 mile loop around Lake Harriet, weather permitting (if we don't have the predicted 4 inches of snow!)

The run yesterday was actually pretty good. The first mile really kind of sucked, but once I got into it (I told myslef I was going to run the whole loop) I felt really energized and strong. I could have done more, but I'm not going to push it at the moment. I need to work on my 3-milers more consistantly before I start adding some more miles. Sitting here thinking about it really makes me want to go for another run!

This last weekend was actually pretty relaxing - and I needed it, but the food and beverage thing did not go so well. I got on the scale on Tuesday, and I was up 5 pounds. Yikes. So I am working on that.... I'm currently writing down my exercise, and my feelings about that, etc, and my food that I eat - but I haven't bit the bullet to figure out points. It's a start, right?

The other thing I plan to do for Lent, is to get some $ stuff under control. I am not going to go into a department store of a mall - I don't need any more "stuff!" It's quite rediculous, actually. My bonus this year is going to pay off credit cards. And I need to save money. My DH got put on a budget, but I can't seem to do the same for myself. I do well for a while, then I just cave, and go on a clothes shopping spree. It makes me feel good. I need to stick to the running endorphins, I guess.

Make it a great one!
~a

Happy V-Day

At least I did not say V- D! I wonder what kind of hits I could get with that phrase...

So on with the Snackie instructions, with today being a day of self-love.

One thing I like about me: I think at this point, I would say my intelligence, and that I like for things to get done right. Like knowng that RSVP means that the host would like a response, weather it be yes or no. Like knowing the ins and outs of federal regulations as they relate to work policies, so people call me up and ask me questions and my opinion - it give me warm fuzzy feelings to know that I can speak intelligently, and that people listen to me. Like my stepdaughter telling my Mother-in-Law that I am one of the smartest people that she knows... it makes me feel good!

Oh, and I like my hair. (had to add that one in!)

So, here's your chance to tell me what you like about ME!

And on another note, I had a dream about my ex-boyfriend last night... we were actually very civil to each other, but for some reason, he needed to tell me that he had been pregnant with twins... some medical anomoly, and that I had two other friends that were pregnant with twins (I currently DO have a friend pregnant with twins.)

Weird.

~a

V-day Eve

And I am sitting at home by myself.

Spent most of the evening, watching some TV, and working on a baby afgahn for a friend of mine. So am I a geek if I am really wanting to go visit the knitting and crocheting show at the Mall of America on Saturday??? I will admit it, I want to enter into the contest to see if I can crochet faster than the average person, the finalists can go compete in New York. Yep. I'm offically strange.

I had a really "A-HA" moment last week, with regards to getting into shape. I got into the hotel at a fairly decent time, and spent about 25 minutes on the starmaster, and ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill. And the running just felt good, with the music cranked on my mp3 player. Jess talked about how she was dedicating her yoga last week to her uncle, and I am unoffically dedicating my hiking/camping trip to Isle Royal at the end of May to my sister... not that she has what you would consider a "life-threatening" illness, but she is diabetic. As in needs daily doses of insulin. As in would never be able to go out for days at a time without facilities with which to keep her insulin supply refrigerated. I'm doing it because I can. And I know I can.

Of course the feeding of my face the entire weekend, and the absence of exercise was not a good thing. I believe my "experiment" of not tracking what I eat, and planning to get in shape is a failure. If I don't write it, and hold myself accountable that way, it does not happen.

So, I am writing things down again. I got myself a new cute little pink memo notebook, with a rubber band around it (gotta love the stuff at Target) and I am writing things down. I am also writing notes to myself about the day there too, to keep my head in it.

And tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I told Eric that I didn't really want anything, and that I was not planning on getting him anything... but I think that was after he already got me something. Sometimes he just does the darndest things. Like the year that I had lost so much weight, and was cold a fair portion of the time, he bought be two cashmere cardigans "to keep me warm when he was not there to do it for me." Yep. Offical sap. He also pointed out a restaurant on Monday as we were on the way home from the grocery store, and asked me if I had ever eaten at it, and if I wanted to eat there on Valentine's day. An Indian restaurant. He does not really like that kind of food... but I REALLY hate going out to eat on Valentine's day, so I told him I would rather have a nice dinner at home. And so we shall.

In that vein, tonight I looked through my low-fat, and weight watchers type cookbooks, and I think I have set upon what I would like to prepare: Shrimp in a cheese sauce (lf cream cheese, and ff feta, spices, etc.), some sort of potatos (probably mashed) veggies, and "strawberry granache" for desert (basically frozen strawberries, pureed with some sweetner and a small amount of lemon juice). And perhaps a glass of wine.

Anyway, I'm off... it's bedtime for Anneke, if I want to get up at 5:30 am to exercise again in the morning. I did 45 min on the NordicTrack this morning, and I plan to repeat it tomorrow morning. Hopefully I won't wake up during the night to hear the retching of the cats again. The only good thing about hearing it, is that you know to look for it - it really sucks to step in that with bare feet in the morning!

On that note-
TA!
~a

Dreams

I had a really weird one last night.

I was trying to go somewhere to audition for something. I don't remember what I wanted to audtition for, but I needed to drive somewhere to autition. I thought it was Duluth. But when I drove there (and in my former car that I sold 6 years ago) I called my cousin to get directions, and he told me that the audition was in Minong. Why Minong? Not sure. So as I am pulled over in this lot, talking on the phone, some idiot manages to hit my car and ding up the front bumper. He tried to give me $5 then $10 to just forget about it, but I wasn't interested, I wanted his insurance information. Along about that time, my mother shows up, saying she's late and needs to get a birthday present to someone. I figure, why not, I'm not going to make my thing anyway... so she gets in with another lady, the present, and a golden shepard. And then it's my new car with the leather seats. Large dog in backseat with leather seats don't mix... so I tell her that I have changed my mind. So my mother tries to drive off in my car - which is a manual transmission that she really hates to drive (she can in a pinch, but really does not do it well). So I try to put on the emergency brake, but she takes off anyway. I manage to get her slowed down, and yank the steering wheel over so we are turning circles on some park lawn, and I shove her out the door of the car.

Then my alarm went off.

What does this mean????

The good news is that I got out of bed in Fargo this morning, and ran on the treadmill in the hotel. Bad news: it was already in use when I got down there this morning, so I did 15 minutes on the stairstepper. Also, it's snowing, and I have to drive to Harvey, ND for a meeting at noon. So, I am up, showered, need to pack and get out the door.

So really, what does that dream mean?
~a

Sick

But I'm getting better.

I got home Thursday evening, and put myself to bed. My lovely hubby made me a bowl of chicken soup, as I requested, and I fell asleep around 10pm.

Friday, I didn't even consider going to work. I felt completely lousy. I got out of bed to pee, and to find something to eat. I watched a bunch of movies on cable (Actually watched "Fried Green Tomatos" for the first time, really!), and napped. I got up around 5:30 because I was feeling a little more human, took a bath, put on some "real" clothes, ate the dinner of spagetti that Eric had prepared, and I was done. I thought we might be going to a store to look at some stuff, but I had zero energy - back into bed for Anneke!

Yesterday, I slept until 9, putzed around the house for a bit, then started working on a sewing project that took the rest of the day. I made myself a fleece hat, scarf, and mittens. It would have gone faster had I cleaned and lubricated the sewing machine earlier, but hind sight is 20/20 right?

Today, we went up to have breakfast with Eric's sister in Caimbrige, and to his mother's house to see if we could find the reciept for the book she gave me for Christmas (one that I had purchased and read already), with no luck. On the way home, we stopped at the Circut City to return the case for the MP3 player that I had gotten for Christmas, with no luck there... they have a strict 30-day return policy. "It's written on the BACK of the reciept". AAAAAARgh. Um, it's a case. and it was $10. for cripes sake... I know I should not be aggrivated, but I really am. I most likely will not use it, as I prefer the one it came with. And they recommended this accessory to Eric - not telling him that they player ALREADY CAME with one. Am I irritated? That would be a "yes".

And today is the Superbowl. I am trying to decide if I want to watch it. I would just watch for the commercials, how completely sad is that? And there are definately other things that could get done - top of the list is laundry and packing for the three nights I will be gone this week.

It was actually nice to get outside today, even though the high temperature today was predicted to be -4 F. Yep. Since I have not been outside since Thursday, it was a bit of a novelty. It makes me glad that we have cars that run well in this sort of weather!

On that note, I am going to start getting things ready for dinner - Chicken and squash are on the menu at the moment. We will see how I feel like preparing them!

ta
~a

Guest of the Day

I walked into the hotel last night, and saw my name on the board that I was the guest of the day. I got upgraded to a suite at the Holiday Inn in Minot, ND. Woo hoo, glamour abounds!

It was actually kind of funny - it was two rooms, and I swear, there was more floor space than the 1-bedroom apartment I used to rent. The bad things: the refrigerator froze my baby carrots and broccoli that I had packed for afternoon snacks while I was travelling. The wireless internet was being finicky, and kept kicking me off of our e-mail system. The plug on the jaccuzzi tub did not hold water in the tub. I woke up in the morning with the beginnings of a cold, and did not have the energy to get up and run. And lastly, the room was too stinkin' big - it took quite a while to gather up all of the things that I had scattered about the suite of rooms. Ya well, what do you expect?

I had a couple of good laughs today. At the meeting this morning, someone brought in something he had printed out, an item that was for sale on e-bay... I kid you not, an "Authentic North Dakota tumbleweed" I guess it takes all kinds. So in the van, driving with my co-workers, one of them kept looking for some to go rolling across the highway, so he could chase one and pick it up - a new get rich scheme! Of course there were none rolling at the time. We did notice some snagged in some trees by the side of the road, but he wanted to "catch a live one" it just was not sporting if he just picked up one that was not moving!

Okay, I guess you had to be there. Take my word for it, it was pretty funny.

I get to go home tomorrow! I get to go home tomorrow! I get to go home tomorrow! It's been a long week of traveling. And next week, I get to do more traveling. It sure is a challenge eating correctly, staying up with e-mail and phone calls, and finding time to exercise. To top it off, it appears that I am coming down with a lovely cold.

But, I have NO plans for this weekend. I plan to stay home, prep and cook some food for my book club that is in a couple of weeks, and relax. Do some laundry? Perhaps. Only if I really feel like it.

I got nothin' else.
~a

3 days in a row

I exercised!

I went to the Y yesterday to get a printout of what I paid in membership dues for 2006 (our company reimburses about half) and ran on the treadmill. 3 miles. I had some new music on my mp3 player, and it really got me going and motivated. I think it will be a good friend - I am quite happy with that gift from my DH.

I have my bag packed and ready to go this afternoon, but I am going to play it by ear. I have a few things that need to get done tonight, one of them is meeting some girlfriends for drinks and commiseration - a good friend of mine had her father pass away on Wednesday.

I was talking to Eric last night about getting myself motivated to get more into shape, and why... one of them being the trip to Isle Royal in May, the other being that I want to run a marathon this year. He got a pretty surprised look on his face with the second reason. I guess I had mentioned that I would think about it, but did not tell him that I was planning on running the TCM this year. He said that he would need to get organized to resume his volunteer position of running the clock at the finish line so he could be there for me that day. How many people can get a hug and a kiss from their spouse as they cross the finish line of a large race like that?

Anyway, I'm motivated for now. Here's to keeping it up!
~a

Because it does not know the words

Our house has a funny hum to it when the heaters are going. I think there must be some sort of blockage or air bubble in the hot water pipes, but dang, it's kind of annoying in the quiet of the morning, trying to figure out what the strange noise is!

Back at work after a week out of the office. I know I can access e-mail pretty much from anywere, but cleaning out my inbasket can be a task! I am now down to 150 messages. And waiting for my vendor to show up to take me out to lunch. I'm trying to decide where I want to go.

Friday's party was fun. Not as many people last year, but still a respectable showing. I guess e-vite does not send out reminders anymore, unless you tell it to, so as a result I believe a number of people who said they would come forgot about it. I was not stressed at all about getting the house cleaned and food prepped on Friday (took the day off of work) because I had gotten most of the food ready before that day, and the house was in pretty good shape to begin. We still have about half a keg left, but we will be bringing it to Jaycee convention this weekend. My last "official" duty as a 2006 board member.

Today was day 2 of getting up in the morning, and NordicTracking for 45 minutes. And 50 crunches and stretching. I am seriously thinking about cancelling my gym membership. I pretty much just use the treadmill when I go, and if it's nice outside, I would rather run outside than in. The NordicTrack will do for now, and I think I will save up some $ to purchase myself a treadmill for at home. It's less of a hassle than going to the gym - I don't have to spend the extra half-hour to 45 munutes in travel time, etc.

Sunday, I met with some friends to plan our hiking trip to Isle Royal. I am darn excited about it, it will be some long days of hiking though. Which is why I have to get myself in shape. Eric and I looked at some hiking boots and backpacks last night. The trip is planned for the end of May, before the black flies hatch.

I'm actually in town all this week - it's kind of a novelty. But, the next two weeks are going to be another whirlwhind of travel. To the exotic places such as North Dakota, and Northern Minnesota! It's been nice to be at home and be a homebody. I might (gasp) cook dinner for two tonight!

Nothing else exciting going on... or at least anything I can remember.
ta!
~a

Thursday - finally!

My morning started out pretty well.

My phone alarm went off at 5am. I think I remember waking up arounfd 4, but managed to fall back asleep. A few snoozes on the phone, and thinking that the person in the next room needed to turn off his alarm, which had been souding since 5am, I got up and put on my exercise clothes. It was then I discovered it was MY alarm going off. It sure was quiet... I'm glad I was not counting on that to wake me up! The person at the front desk who was nice enough to give me the key to the exercise room commented that I was up early. Um, it was about 6am - later than I usually like to run... I got in 3 miles this morning, better than on Tuesday when I got in about 2.5, walking most of that.

Yep. I had planned on exercising more than that this week, but I could not sleep on Sunday night, and was dead tired. I made the mistake of drinking a sugar-free Red Bull (hadn't ever had one before) at about 6pm, near the end of my drive. It sure gave me a high - but not the kind that makes me shaky, like coffee - I was thinking it might be something good to have in the morning before a race or a long training run to get me going.

We had the last day of safety meetings this morning. My 8th day in 2 weeks, sitting in bad confernece room chairs. My back was really hurting me yesterday. I think it's a combination of all the driving, sitting in the conference room chairs, and the fact that the waistband on my pants is a little too tight.

Yep. My pants are too tight. What does this mean? It means that my intention of eating healthy and exercising needs more discipline than I have been giving it. How, I'm not entirely sure... I don't want to go back to counting points and being afraid to eat something, but I think I need to cut down on the alcohol, sweets, and "empty" carbohydrates.

Eating has been a challenge this week though, since I don't eat beef. They have been providing lunch at the meetings, but it has been a huge beef fest. I think they are trying to see how many ways they can serve beef. And ham, which I just don't care for. Monday for lunch I ate spanich rice, mashed potatos, salad and bread. Tuesday was better, some turkey on a bun (or I could have had ham) potato salad, coleslaw, and baked beans. Wednsday I ate noodles, corn and a bun for lunch. Today was pretty good with half of a turkey sandwich with tomato and lettuce, and a bowl of chicken rice soup.

On the drive home, I was thinking my ear felt somewhat funny, so I made a doctor's appointment to see if I had an ear infection. I have only had one in my life (when I was 29) and it was miserable - it took 3 rounds of antibiotics to clear it up. Turns out I must have a low-lying cold, because there is fluid behind the eardrum, but no infection. The Dr. told me to take sudafed to help with the pressure, but there was really nothing else to do but just wait for it to clear up. He also asked me if anyone at home was sice. I said no. Then I said, well, I think so, but I haven't been home since Sunday!

Well, I have a day off tomorrow, to get ready for our party. I'm hoping I don't stress out too much... I suppose if the house is not spotless, people won't really care. And most of the food is done, I just need to set it out.

Wish me luck!
~a

The flags are still at half-mast

So I suppose this is still relevant. I got this message through the Jaycees, and it really spoke to me, so I had to share:

*JCI Mourns US President Ford, a JCI Alumnus**
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
**December 29, 2006
**Gerald R. Ford was an outstanding example of effective leadership andservice.*-- Scott Greenlee, 2007 JCI President

A JCI alumnus, Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, passed away December 26, 2006, at the age of 93. JCI members throughout the world — and particularly those in the United States and in Grand Rapids (Michigan), where Gerald Ford was a JCI member — are deeply affected by his death.

"Gerald R. Ford was an outstanding example of effective leadership and service," said Scott Greenlee, our recently elected JCI President and a current member of JCI Grand Rapids, the same local organization as Gerald Ford's. "I had the pleasure of meeting him several times, and he was as genuine as he appeared. He was very down to earth and really cared about people."

Former first lady Betty Ford announced his death in a brief statement. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country," she said.

"President Ford was a great man who devoted the best years of his life in serving the United States," President Bush said Wednesday morning. "He was a true gentleman who reflected the best in America's character.

"When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States of America on August 9, 1974, he declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.

"It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.

"My fellow Americans," President Ford said, "our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."

And, true to his unassuming reputation, he added: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me with your prayers. "

He was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.

President Ford acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all the people in the country.

*Ford's Involvement in the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce (JCI USA)*

Gerald Ford firmly believed in the power of the organization to develop leaders who could serve mankind. "By bringing together outstanding young members of communities throughout America, the Jaycees (JCI members) provide a reservoir and a forum for potential national leaders," he said, "by directing their energy and skills to a wide variety of humanitarian projects, the Jaycees serve our country and mankind."

In 1948, Gerald Ford was presented with the Distinguished Service Award by JCI Grand Rapids. In 1948, he was recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in the country by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce (JCI USA).

In 1962, then-Representative Gerald Ford welcomed JCI USA members to the first Governmental Affairs Leadership Seminar (GALS). Since then, the leaders of JCI USA have met annually in the nation's capital to hear from White House officials, Cabinet secretaries, and Members of Congress about issues of importance to young people in the United States.

In 1975, as President of the United Stated, Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4340. "I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning January 19, 1975, as National Jaycee Week a time for the expression of America's gratitude for the many significant contributions of the United States Jaycees," reads part of the proclamation.

While we mourn the passing of Gerald R. Ford, an outstanding and exemplary leader, we also take pride in his great accomplishments. His life is aninspiration to us all.

Read Proclamation 4340 - National Jaycee Week

Social Experiment

Okay, so I wrote this post a couple of days ago, then blogger crapped out on me... then the hotel I was in had a crappy wireless connection... without further ado:

I went over to a friend's house on Friday for a cribbage re-match.

She made a fabulous dinner - Holy Basil chicken, I believe it was, we shared a bottle of wine, and chit chatted and cought up while playing cards. She was telling me about something she had done as a "social experiment"... she set up a hotmail account that was not tied to her, and put an add onto a free personal ad website, that was funny, and witty, and basically her saying that she was willing to get friendly "wink, wink, nudge, nudge". In 24 hours, she had over 60 e-mails responding to her ad.

Some people are complete idiots, we decided - like the man who answered the ad from his work e-mail. She sent him back a note, telling him he could get fired for that sort of thing, and ended with the tag line "Thanks for playing!" It was really funny reading through all of the responses - she specifically stated "nobody married" yet there were about 15 responses from married men - I think that was my favorite response... she told him that was an "express ticket to hell, kind of like shooting the pope..." It might have been part of the booze talking, but we just laughed until it hurt. All of the messages she sent ended in "Thanks for playing!"

So, this week I am traveling. I got to spend a major portion of the day driving from Minneapolis to Chicago. I have an 8am meeting tomorrow here, so here I am. The thing about it, since I won't have things that are happening at home this week, I might actually get up and exercise and post on my blog!

There have been a couple of things I have been planning to write about, so there might be a couple of extra posts!

Moving back in time, I wanted to talk about our Jaycees Gala. The dress I made turned out very well. I got lots of compliments on it. I had one friend tell me that she wanted me to make a dress for her next year, and had another friend ask me if I would help her with alterations on her wedding dress... I love being crafty.

And last week at work was pretty insane - I swear I put in about 60 hours. Lots of meetings, so a lot of time was spent catching up on e-mails and phone calls after "work" hours. And this week will be interesting, as I will be gone all week (well until Thursday) and we are having our "Thank God the Holidays are Over" Party. If last year was any indication, I am expecting we will have many, many people there. So I did a bunch of prep work, food, planning, etc. this weekend, so all I will have to do is clean the house on Friday. Eric has promised to clean up the basement in preparation for the party. If he doesn't I am not going to stress about it. Life will go on if his workshop is cluttered!

Anyhoo, I'm gonna try and catch some sleep, and get up early to run on the treadmill.

ta!
~a

Domesticity

I have been a homebody lately.

And I like it....

It has been a while, hasn't it?

I took last Friday off of work, and cleaned my house. Washed the bathrom rugs, picked up, cleaned bathrooms, swept, and mopped the hardwood, the kitchen and the bathrooms, vacuumed the living room, dining room, and stairs, dusted the bedrooms, and put together a very lovely chicken pesto lasagna.

We had 19 people to the house on Friday evening. My dad's side of the family. We decided, again that it was the perfect house to hold the event. My living room will seat 15 comfortably, and we kept telling the kids to go downstairs to yell and run about. People were also impressed at my culinary abilities, again. Last year, I made a whole ham (bone-in). This year we had a traditional lasagna with italian sausage, a winter squash lasagna, and the afore-mentioned chicken pesto lasagna. My cousin brought a salad. With that and a loaf of french bread, we were all set.

Saturday, I started working on my dress. That continued into Sunday. And then Monday. It turned out well, I think. The patern said it was "easy" but I kept mis-reading the instructions, and of course, re-doing, and re-doing things I did wrong. I guess this is what happens when you don't do this sort of thing all the time. And there were a lot of things that required a lot of time to do... there is actually quite a lot of hand stitching on the dress.

Interdispersed along there were some other activities: we went to a Martini party on Saturday night. I really was not wanting to get dressed and go out, after a relaxed, yet productive, day at home. Sunday, we went to yet another church to see if we can find a new church home in our neighborhood. I liked this on the best of the ones we have been to, but it still did not give me that feeling that I "belonged" there, so there are a couple more to visit yet. Sunday night (New Year's Eve) we actually had invitations to 5 different places - we stayed home, watched a movie, and shared a bottle of Champagne. We kissed at midnight, then pretty much went to sleep. At least we stayed up until midnight. Sometimes I just feel old.

Monday was more working on the dress and laundry. I don't know if I have ever been all caught up on my laundry... anyone else feel that way?

Tuesday evening, instead of going and fighting for a machine at the Y, I decided to stay home, catch up on some e-mails, etc at home (was in work meetings all day), and watch a little TV.

Wednesday evening, I read a book.

Last night, I managed to finish a cross stich that I have been working on for years. Literally. I bought the pattern probably in 1997. Oh, and there was more laundry done.

I have been kind of enjoying this low-key kind of stuff. Although, the travel starts again next week. And the week after. But this year, I am going to make time for me. I just feel better about it.

And the eating plan continues. I am just tired of counting and watching and feeling guilty, and denying myslef someting when I really want it. I think it is working okay - the scale seems to just be in the same place. I have not been exercising lots lately, but part of that is because I don't want to go to the insanity of the health club this close after New Year's.

My parents are taking us out to dinner tonight. I made a reservation at PF Chang's, and I am pretty excited to go. I have not been there in a couple of years, and I adore their food. They are going to stay overnight, and Mom is going to help me hem my dress. On an interesting note, I was going through my shoes last night, and found that I already have a pair that match my dress perfectly. SCORE! Of course there goes my excuse of going shoe shopping with mom!

So, my goals for the year:

1. Make my bed every morning - this has been done, I feel so much better when I can crawl into a bed at night that has been made.
2. Eat healthier, don't stuff myself silly at any time, but no deprivation or starvation - eat when I am hungry, stop when I am satisfied.
3. Run a marathon.

On that note...

Make it great!

~a

It's amazing what a Library card will do for you...

I handed the nice gentleman at the desk this morning my card, and I wondered why he was giving me such a funny look. He says to me "this is a library card..." Too bad I was at the front desk of my local YMCA.

Okay, so I didn't look when I pulled the card out of the front of my wallet. I guess I have been using my library card more than the Y card, since that was the one that was in front. He was nice, and let me go in anyway.

So this means that I did get my rear end out of bed, and to the Y to run on the treadmill this morning. My sorry butt has not exercised for over two weeks. I was starting to go into withdrawals. So I ran for half an hour. With my new Christmas gift - an mp3 player that will hold up to 16 hours of music, or so it says. So I have been putzing with my new toy, putting exercise friendly/motivational music on it. I need to dig through my CD collection to see what I want to copy on to it. Anyone have any suggestions for good music to run to?

Oh yeah, and this morning, as I was getting up and putting on my exercise clothes, there was something odd in my sock. So I pulled out a business card of my husband's. As I was sitting pondering how/why on earth it was there, I turned it over. The note on the back said: "I love you!" Can you say awwwwwwww? He's a keeper.

Christmas was a good time. I did not stress about food, ate what I wanted, never stuffed myself silly, and the scale is pretty much where it started... of course my clothes are feeling a bit tight. This is what happens when you start losing muscle, and gaining some "padding" fat. I don't think that I will be hopping on the "diet" bandwagon again any time soon, but I will be exercising more. I am feeling way less stressed about food, feeling non-deprived, and a bonus is that the nails on my fingers are looking quite healthy and not splitting or cracked. And, I have clothes that fit me, and look good.

Eric really liked the gift that I got him. He was suprised that he got what he did - I got him a small wood lathe. Slowly but surely he is building up his shop in the basement. Last year my parents and I purchased him a table saw, which he has had a lot of fun using in the last year. Now we just need to get him some sort of dust collection system so the sawdust does not end up all over that area of the basement (and all over the laundry that has been put down the chute!)

Anyway, that's about all I have to say at the moment... perhaps more later after I mull over a few things that have been floating around in my brain that I just don't know what I want to say about them - let's just say that I'm not the only one who has drama (llama - Hi Hil!) in the family...

ta!
~a

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

At our household!

Yes, still alive....

We have lights up - Eric and I spent a lot of time on Saturday the 9th, making the outside look pretty. Red and Blue lights on the gutter around the house, 3 spiral light trees in the front, the front door outlined in candy cane rope light, and the front walk lined with blue rope lights. The front window inside also has white lights arount it. I love Christmas lights. We could not put them up at our last house, because there was no outside power outlet... so I am happy we can do it now. Eric helped, but I actually did the majority of the work, including standing on the ladder and hanging the lights on the gutter of the house. He was going to do it, but then our son showed up to borrow the portable ice house, and they started doing "man" things... looking at fishing stuff, Eric showing off some of his home projects, so I just grabbed the ladder and started, being a do-it-yourself kind of gal.

Last Sunday, I finished decorating the tree. I didn't get to it the weekend before, because I had to go to our work Christmas dinner after finishing the lights outside, then I spent three days in Fargo last week. Good times. But, the tree is up and decorated, I finally bought Eric's gift, and my shopping is oficially done! Sunday, also amongst the many loads of laundry, I also got together the Christmas presents and stockings for April and Donovan (stepdaughter and her husband), and boxed them all up, ready to be mailed. That was also a relief!

And yesterday, I got out the Christmas letter. 60 of them. Not sure how the list got so long, but there you have it. If you want one, I still have plenty of cards left - let me know! All I can say is that I am glad that I got the mail merge to work, and that I could print the envelopes on the printer, rather than writing them all out by hand. A friend here at work was saying that she has been sending electronic Chirstmas cards, but even if I take a shortcut with the computer, I still enjoy sending the letters/cards. I know I look forward to the Christmas season and getting cards, so I need to send them myself - the traditional way.

Tonight, on the agenda is baking. At work, I have made a tradition of coming in the day before the Christmas holiday with banana bread and biscotti as gifts to the folks that are working that day. I figure if you have to work, you should get rewarded for it. And I make fabulous banana bread and biscotti, if I do say so myself!

This is definately my favorite time of the year....

So, on the WW and exercise front.

Yep, not so much. I have not been to weigh in since the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I guess I just don't want to. I'm not a big fan of the leader, and I don't look forward to going. I think I am done beating myself up. I am going to try and eat healthy, and in moderation. It has been working a bit, since the scale is down when I step on it in the morning. I just want to be able to live my life without being obsessed about food.

And I have not exercised in more than a week. I keep telling myself that I will go, then life seems to rear it's head. I actually think it has been good for me, since the hip muscle that was giving me some pain has stopped hurting. I think I started out again too hot and heavy. I have to just learn not to push myself so much - knowing that I can't crank out 6 miles when I have been doing no miles.

And I did go out and purchase myself some more pants, sizes 12 and 14's. And they fit. And I feel good about how I look. That's what counts, right?

That's about it. The work year and the Jaycee year are wrapping up, then on to the next!

Ta
~a

Screeeeeeeach.........***CRASH***

Thud.

Okay. So a bit of derailment here. Really, no work pun intended (yes, I work for the railroad) but that's what I feel like.

I was doing so well... until life got crazy again. I tried planning, but then I threw the plan out the window. I had a development course I went to on Friday, the 1st. Packed my lunch and everything, but decided I would rather go and have Arby's. I honestly don't remember what we did for dinner, but I'm thinking it was not "healthy."

I thought about going to weigh in on Saturday, and talked myself out of it. I knew I was going to have a loss, and probably a significant one too... so why did I need to go? Oh yeah, so I could hold myself more accountable THIS week. Saturday started out very well. I NordicTracked for a solid hour, and it was good. Ate a bowl of Wheaties and soy milk for breakfast. Went to the Jaycees' training, ate a healthy lunch. Then the good sense was thrown out the window all for the sake of beer. There was an awards banquet that night after the training, so I rented a hotel room so I would not have to chase home and change, and get all rushed and annoyed, etc. It turned into a hospitality room, with, no lie, 6 cases of beer. And I drank too much. And munched. And spent a good portion of Sunday trying to soothe my stomach with comfort food and carbs.

Monday, I stopped at the store for healthy snacks to eat at my work meeting, because I knew they would have stuff to much on in the afternoon. I still ate the popcorn, soft pretzels and potato chips and dip. And too much food and decadent desert at the dinner that night. At least I was not interested in alcohol...

The next day was some of the same. I told myself I did not need the salty snacks, but damn, do I love salt. Even more than sugar. Put out chip dip and I am gone. My redemption for Tuesday was that I actually ran on the treadmill in the morning for 40 minutes, and got in 3.5 miles.

But about that treadmill... I was planning on spending an hour exercising in the morning at the hotel exercise room, but when I went down the first time, the janitor who was cleaning the floor shooed me away, telling me it was not open yet. When I went down a bit later, there was someone there who had gone in about 5 minutes after I had tried the first time. The room was accessable, and he didn't disturb anyone, but it was outside of their "posted" hours. For cripe's sake... I should have just gone there after waiting to be able to sneak by the "guard."

Yesterday was okay foodwise, until I decided I needed to eat animal crackers that I NEEDED to dip in a tub of frosting.

Can I blame it on my period???

Work has been a whirlwind this week and last. Catching up on things that need to be completed by the end of the year, and since a lot of people take vacation at the end of the year for the holidays, it pretty much needs to be done by the 15th. After that, I might have some time to breathe.

Hopefully tonight, we will be able to get out the Christmas decorations. I keep seeing all these people with lights on their houses, and I am jealous. I was planning on doing stuff on Sunday, but I was not feeling so hot after the beer fest the night before... so I slept and was a slug for most of the day. I am looking forward to putting up and decorating the tree, and wrapping the Christmas presents that are sitting on the guest bed. After we got home from Thanksgiving, I did a bit of cataloguing, and it was great to find that I had most of my shopping done already. And Eric and I got two more people crossed off the list last night after doing a little bit of shopping. I love finding people the "perfect" gifts.

On that note, time to get some more work wrapped up before I head home to wrap!

~a

She gets motivated...

Be warned, I'm going to ramble about things....

Today started out early. The alarm went off at 4:40 am. I had told Eric last night that he needed to kick me out of bed when the alarm went off. I was very tempted to get back into bed and snuggle under the covers, but I did motivate myself to get dressed and out the door.

It was an oddly light, calm morning as I walked out to my vehicle. I almost felt like going for a run, the weather was just feeling just right for it, but I pressed on. I tried starting my heart rate monitor readout, but apparently it needs a new battery.

Yep, I was on the way to the Y to go to an early morning spinning class. The schedule I looked up on the computer said that it was at 5:10 am. But when I got there, it was actually starting at 5:30 am. So I ran 5 minutes on the treadmill to warm up, stretched, and got on the bike for the class.

I quite enjoyed the class, actually - it was an "endurance" day, so basically it was 60 minutes of medium-intensity, cardio work. And I sweated buckets. It was great. I find that morning workouts, when I get my ass in gear, are the best.

So this week, I have gone swimming and biking. I just need to get in a run, and we have a triatholon!

Coming home, I noticed a kid standing on the corner of our lawn, waiting for the bus. I was tempted to ask him if I could give him a jacket, since he was standing there in a t-shirt and long pants, and it was about 26 degrees outside. But I guess wearing a jacket would just not be "cool". Makes me wonder why his parents let him out of the house without a jacket. I know my mother never would have let me do that... plus the fact that I never would have done that - I like being warm!

You know a weird thing happend to me on Monday night, driving home. I had gotten off of the freeway, and was driving on a city street, when all of a sudden, something scampered out of the hood, looked at me through the windshield while hanging on to the wiper, then it scampered back under the hood. A mouse. I suppose it found the engine to be a warm place while it was parked in downtown, and I bet I just freaked it out by driving it to the suburbs. Oh, and now I am having flashbacks to one of my favorite childhood stories - about a city mouse that goes to the country to visit a cousin, or vice versa... anyone remember that one? Well, I got home, and Eric and I looked under the hood to see if we could find and remove it, so it would not eat any of the wiring. We didn't find it. I'm sure it was glad that it had escaped with it's life.

Tonight, we are probably going up to visit Eric's mother and his older sister (who is in town from California, she came for Thanksgiving) so I'm not sure what the food plans are... this is one of the reasons I went to the early morning class, since I don't know that I will get a chance to exercise tonight. I didn't exercise last night, because Eric was kind of whining about having to go to a meeting, and what was going to be for dinner... so I went home and we had brown rice (yum), baked tillapia, and veggies (leftover beans and artechoke hearts for me, corn for Eric). It was healthy, tasty and filling. The trifecta.

I just don't know what to expect with visiting Eric's sister. She called last night and was very civil to me on the phone. I just know last year she was telling everyone that I hated her. Oh well, what is life if you have no drama?

~a

Thunderstorms in November?

In Minnesota? It makes me wish that I had a view of a window when I am at the office. It was really raining down this morning and into the afternoon. If it was that much moisture, but in the form of snow, nothing would be moving right now.

Well, I'm back from Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. I weighed in on Saturday before we left, and I was up 2 pounds. I was not real happy about that, but I figured since we went out for Chinese food the night before, and I had done a bit of exercise that week, that was what did it. Why do we feel so tied to the scale? And why do we let it affect our mood so much? Are we a better, nicer person if we are two pounds lighter? Yeah, not so much.

We had a nice time taking time off. I actually got quite a few miles in, but I think I might have over done it, since my left hip muscle is quite sore. I kept telling Eric that I felt old, because it hurt to walk, and to go up stairs. Not sure what is going on, but I hope I can work through it.

I also took the week off of journaling. I don't think I went nutso with bad food or anything, and made some pretty healthy (and some not so healthy) choices. I never stuffed myself to the point of being uncomfortable. And I exercised. I managed to run close to 5 miles on Monday, we went hiking at a state park for about an hour and 15 minutes on Tuesday, wandered around the Tulsa aquarium on Wednesday, and I ran a little over 6 miles on Thursday. If I calculated it correctly, I earned 11 AP's on Thursday. Friday, we got up early and did a bit of shopping. But nothing extravagant - we were at Target at about 7:30am. Still lots of people, still lots of stuff on the shelves, but not horrible, and no waiting in line to get in the door. I know Best Buy had a number of great deals, but really, nothing is worth standing in line overnight!

We drove home on Saturday (8am - 7pm in the car, basically). It was a long day.

Sunday, I ventured onto the scale to see what kind of damage had been done - and it said that I had lost about 3 pounds. Not sure how it happened, but I will take it!

I am taking today off of exercising - I am sore from swimming last night, I did laps in the pool for about 45 minutes, and my arms are telling me I did something unusual, and the darn hip muscle is sore again. I'm thinking I will run some errands, then soak in the tub for a bit.

Yep, I'm boring!

~a

Pleasantly sore

Yep, that's me.

It took a while to get there - to meet my friend to go running. There was a massive traffic jam on the freeway trying to get there, and I spent about 25 minutes in stop and go traffic, in a manual transmission vehicle. Yep, by the time I arrived (30 minutes later than what we had planned) my left leg was a bit sore. My friend actually did not get out of work on time, so as luck would have it, we got there at about the same time.

I'm glad we went, but it sure was dark at that time. Makes me remember why this is the time of year that I start heading back into the gym. That, and I am paying for the membership, I might as well get some use out of it...

It's nice having someone to run with. Keeps you feeling safer when it is dark. Helps to pass the time in gasping conversation.

We talked about a couple of things - Like the fact that I started running again four years ago the week of Thanksgiving. I think I had lost about 40 pounds at that point, and one of the reasons I wanted to lose weight is because I wanted to be able to exercise without feeling like I was going to keel over. I ran a lifetime ago when I was on the track team in Junior High. My event was the half mile. I consistantly came in last, but at least I was out there trying. I did that in 8th and 9th grades. When I got into 10th grade, I started doing synchronized swimming, and it conflicted with track, so the running went by the wayside. And thinking back on High School, it's hard to believe that I graduated weighing somewhere around 120 - 125. And I thought I was heavy through most of High School. Body image, isn't it grand?

I talked to my aunt tonight too, and said something about going running. She asked me "do you really like running?" To which my answer was "yes." She said that she is just one of those people that doesn't enjoy exercising. I told her that I needed to get myself motivated some days, but once I start, it's a great feeling. I guess I just need to concentrate on "that feeling" to get myself in gear once again.

And I will be doing it next week. I have the week off of work, and Eric and I are heading down to Oklahoma to stay with my sister for the week. I was kind of hoping to find some sort of Thanksgiving Day run to participate in, but it appears the only one on Active is in Oklahoma City, and we will be rather far away to do a silly race - she lives near Tulsa. I did, however, briefly contemplate registering for a race on the 19th in Tulsa. They are doing an inaugral marathon (route 66 marathon) in Tulsa, and there is a Half marathon along with it too. Like I said, I considered, but in reality, we won't be getting there in time without really killing ourselves, and yeah, if I am having issues running 3 miles at a decent pace (we did the 3 mile loop today in about 32 minutes, with two walk breaks for me) there is no way I could finish a half marathon.

In another unrelated topic - I came home to an "intersting" message on my answering machine: My mom calling, and saying that she and dad had gotten back, and went to the emergency room, and dad hadn't had a stroke, but he had something called Bell's palsy that was causing the muscles in his face to freeze up. Um, whaaaa? You were thinking that dad might have had a stroke???? Yeah, he started having the face paralysis when they were in Mexico on their cruise, and mom just forgot to tell me when I talked to her on Sunday. It was still a little unnerving to come home to that message. And again, they both hate the ER, still. And dad will be going to his own doctor, where the ER doc recommended that he have a Lymes test. Makes sense to me - hopefully it will be something like that.

Yep two posts in one day. What is the world coming to?

~a

Running again.

I went running on the treadmill yesterday. After a week of packing my gym bag, and telling myself I would , I finally did. I set it for 5mph, and 45 minutes. And I did it all. I love it when my body, after about 10 minutes, finally says "hey, this is not so bad" and after about 30 minutes when the endorphins kick in, and it feels soooooo good! All told, with the warm-down time, I got in 4 miles. It's a start.

It's also not too shabby, considering that I gave blood on Saturday, and that normally makes me pretty lethargic. I guess the extra iron I have been taking is doing me some good.

Speaking of Saturday, it was sure an experience! I got up in the morning, dressed and got ready to go... went and weighed in (down .4 for a total of 5 lost now), skipped the meeting, and went to meet my friend and her running group. Ran the 3-mile route, then went with them to Panerra, where I stuck to coffee, and the Kashi bar I had brought with me. Then I went to donate. After that, I went home, made a decadent desert (White Russian Tiramisu) from Cooking Light, then took a long bath. Eric and I went to a friend's house for dinner with a bunch of other folks - and I definately ate and drank too much. And the Tiramisu was absolutely divine.

Good news is, I exercised, and had some extra points from giving blood. And I tried to journal it all. It sure is shocking to see that I ate around 65 points in one day. Yikes.

The other good news, is that since I have not been making a habit of eating a lot, it has not shown up on the scale... two days of water, water, water, staying in my points, and the run yesterday, the scale this morning actually said I was down a little more.

Speaking of "yikes" and points, check this out. It is shocking to see that a Long Island Ice Tea (12 oz) is 16 points. That is 789 calories, folks.

I am also excited to say, that I am meeting my friend again to go running tonight, so I am outta here to go get ready.

~a

Update!

Yep, changed my layout. Now I have to play with it again to put back some stuff, but I am not stressed out about it.

The week had a lot of stuff...

Saturday, the 4th, was my parent's 39th wedding anniversary. They were in Florida, because they left on a cruise on Sunday. I did call them and wish them a happy anniversary...

Saturday, I also had a goal of getting stuff done around the house, but not much of that happened. I did get the boxes of stuff for work out of our attic, and the boxes that were in bad shape were repacked, then they were all loaded into my truck to bring them to work to have them shipped out. Some trinkets for a conference - they were left over from last year, and I offered to store them at my house, instead of my boss having to have them shipped to Calgary, then back to the US... and eliminating the need to go through customs twice. Eric, who said he would help me with some house work, then went out to the garage to putz with the boat, fishing gear, etc. I followed him out (nice day) and started going through some of the boxes in the garage, and he started hovering over my shoulder to make sure I did not throw out anything "important". Um, lets see, broken boxes, with broken glass in them, since they have been flung about for many moves, etc. You lose the luxury of keeping everything! I did also find, in a shoebox of crap, his old wedding band. He says - "I wanted to sell that at some time..." Um, you've been divorced for how long?

Anyway, after all of that, we went out that evening on a bar hop. I was one of the organizers of the event, so I drank diet soda and soda water for the evening. It was a lot of fun, but it really wiped me out with the cold I had been fighting.

Sunday, I slept in, and lazed around the house for a while, and Eric went fishing. I did rouse myself, and did a deep cleaning of the kitchen and both of the bathrooms. And some laundry. It makes me happy to have clean sinks, I tell you!

I also got a call from my brother-in-law on Sunday afternoon, asking me if I knew that my sister was in the hospital... now he has been known for trying to joke about stuff like that, but when he asked about getting a hold of my parents, if I knew where they were, I knew he was not joking. Evidently she had a racing heartbeat, and after a visit to the emergency room (in Boston, where she was for a work meeting) they couldn't figure out what it was, they admitted her to the hospital where she stayed for two nights while they ran tests - and found nothing conclusive. My BIL ended up flying there (from Oklahoma) on Tuesday, to fly back with her. They thought she might have a blood clot, so sis was glad for the company, but it was sure a long trip for her husband - he flew there and back all in one day. My sister has scheduled some appointments with her doctor to see if there is anything. It is also putting her over the fence about the decision to get a continuous glucose meter, to go along with her insulin pump. Hopefully this will get her to have fewer health issues and insulin reactions (in case you are wondering, yes, she is diabetic).

Monday was work, and a Jaycee board meeting.

Tuesday was work, again, and in the evening, for fun, after doing my civic duty and voting, I balanced the checkbook, and went to the grocery store. Good times.

Yesterday, I got out of my work meeting at about 2:30, so Eric got off of work early, and we went fishing. It was a absolutely calm, gorgeous night. I am guessing that it will be the last time I will be in the boat this year. Not many times you have 70+ degree days in November, so we took advantage of it. I casted for a bit, then just sat back in the boat, and enjoyed myself.

And I am still enjoying the WW e-tools. It's still my shiny new toy.

The next piece is exercise. Yep. I'm gonna get there, really! I have a running date set up with a friend of mine, to run with a club she has tried and enjoyed, on Saturday - so if nothing else, I will do that!

So that's life in the big city.
~a

4.6

That's how much I lost this week, when I weighed in this morning.

Even after I managed to eat about a half a pound of cheese on Thursday. I knew I should not have started eating the cheese curds after I bought them - but my had just kept reaching in for another, and another, and another as I was driving home.

I had packed low and no point snacks, and ate some of those too, but the fresh squeaky cheese was just so completely tempting. At least I owned up to it, and measured, and jornaled the whole thing. Next time, they go in the back of the truck, and not in the seat next to me.

So... I took my test yesterday. The nice thing about taking the exam on a computer is that the test gets scored right away, and you know if you pass or not. I passed! Woo hoo! Eric took me out to dinner last night to celebrate, and I did really well. There were chips and salsa, but I told him to keep them on his side of the table, and he did. He had a margarita, which I had two sips, but otherwise I drank my club soda with lime. I really think that is my new favorite drink!

But, it's another night of stuff to do. Tonight we are going on a bar hop. It's a "Mystery Bus Tour", and only the planners of the event know where we are going (I happen to be one of the planners, and I am responsible for giving the bus driver directions to each place).

Off to the shower to get ready!

~a

stick a fork in me

I'm done...

I am pretty irritated at the moment.

Why do people ask me questions, and then not follow instructions, then tell me it's my job to straighten out the mess that ensues? Why the fuck don't they just do what they want to do in the first place, and leave me out of it? I want to know where in my job description does it say that I need to straighten out hotel reservations? Last time I checked, that was NOT MY JOB! I had lots of snarky e-mails that I started writing back to this manager after he told me that I needed to straighen out the billing, after he approved an employee's expenses without checking to make sure it was an appropriate expense. Finally, I just wrote: "I am done with this." and I will leave it at that. If the employee gets reimbursed for an expense he did not incur, it is a problem for that employee and his manager. Breathe. Accept that people can be incompetent boobs.

On another note... it is day 15 of journalling everything. Both on paper, and on line. Turns out WW does not support my particular model of Palm Pilot at the moment. I bought the thing 9 months ago, I wish they would keep up! I also stepped on the scale this morning, and as of right now, it looks like I am down a couple of pounds.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I had said something about my friend with the pottery shop in my previous post. Well, she is a small business owner. She has one part-time employee. MN OSHA is currently doing a project to eliminate silica exposures, and since she has a business that falls under one of their "target" categories, she got inspected, and was issued some citations with fines. I helped her draft the documents to contest the citations, then they scheduled an informal conference with her to negotiate a settlement. That was yesterday. The letter they sent her asked to let them know if she was bringing legal representation, and she left a message for them that she would be "represented." So they were there with their legal council... thinking I was her lawyer, when in fact, I was just a friend with knowledge of the safety regulations. Long and short of it, they offered a reduction in fines (40%) and an extension of some deadlines, if she agreed to go to a free one-day safety course for small business owners. I made some good arguments that they should lower the fines more, so they offered a 50% reduction, which was what we had pretty much asked for in the contestation letter. And since she is a retail business, and the holidays are coming up, she does not have to attend the course until after the first of the year. Never take their first offer!

Funny thing is, their lawyer told me at the end of the conference that I argued better, and made points better than a lot of the lawyers that come in to represent people. Made me feel good. I guess the debate competitions and negotiation training that I have had the opportunity to do through the Jaycees is paying off. I think my friend was happy with the outcome. It was probably better than what she would be able to do on her own. The OSHA guy also told her that she was quite lucky to have a friend like me to help her out. The sampling I did last Friday alone would have cost her more than what the OSHA fines were. It just makes me angry, because stuff like this is why small business owners have such a hard time making it. If you are a one-person show, how on earth can you know everything you need to to comply with all of the governmental regulations?

Anyway, I guess I have some stuff to wrap up before I need to get on the road. I get to travel to the exotic locale of Portage, WI tonight. A glamourous life, I do not lead!

~a

Lather, rinse, repeat

I feel like I am doing the same thing, over and over again....

I went to a WW meeting this morning. I need the accountability. I even signed up for the montly pass, so now I will feel more guilty if I do not go - instead of just saying to myself that I am a lifetime member, so all I have to do is pay the weekly fee when I feel like going. The fun thing is that it comes with e-tools, so I get to plug in everything into the computer, and if I cannot do that, I can put things into my palm and do it that way. See, it's a shiny new toy! But, it did motivate me to go out for a long walk, so I could enter it into the exercise section. I walked something over to a friend's house that I keep forgetting to get over to her, and enjoyed the sunny weather - because the nice weather will be gone sooner than I like!

Lots of things going on in my world - I finally got off my ass and made an appontment to take my certification exam. My elegibility expires on Nov 3rd, and guess when I am taking my test? So this week will be dedicated to cramming. Along with other assorted work stuff.

My mom and dad were here yesterday. I went and picked up my mom at the hairdresser's while my dad was getting his hair bleached. And yes, that is what he was doing... perhaps a little background? Well, my dad is Santa. And I truly mean that. He does seasonal work as Santa Claus in the mall in St. Cloud, MN. He has the full natural beard and the long hair. The thing is, he still has some of the dark color in his hair, he is not completely white yet, so he needs a little help from the hairdresser... and it takes a long time, like at least 4 hours, so my mom did not want to sit there the whole time. So, I picked her up at about 1:30, and then I took her to my freind's pottery shop, where I needed to do some air monitoring for my friend. (Another story - perhaps later I will explain.) After that, we came home and my mom went "shopping" in my closet. She and my father are going on a cruise, and she wanted to borrow some things. So, she borrowed three shawls, one dress, a pair of pants, and three pairs of shoes.

I tried on some of my fancy dresses at the same time, just for the hell of it. Yeah. Not so good news, but you know, if you gain 30 lbs, things just don't fit the same...

Anyway, I am plugging along.... still alive.... trying to keep my head above water with all the stuff happening at work... seems like everyone wants to pull me in different direction, and have me do things that really are not my job, but since I seem to do such a good job at these things, etc., etc.

Off to prep some food for next week. Hopefuly I will have time to update next week!
~a

Yargh.

This time of year is crazy.

Too many meetings, too many things to do outside of work, Halloween around the corner, parties to attend...

I stepped on the scale on Tuesday morning. And it said something that I SWORE that it would never say again. I don't know why I seem to keep sabotaging myself. I know I can make excuses, but who is is hurting? Um, that would be me. I know I need to lose some of this weight. I told that to my husband the other day while staring into the LARGE mirror in our bathroom just after getting out of the shower. I don't like how I look. I used to look much better. He asked me what needed to happen - I told him he had to stop feeding me things like chocolate silk pie from Baker's square.

It's been a better week from a food/exercise standpoint. I went to the Y on Wednesday after my meetings were over for the day, and did 60 minutes on the bike, and 25 minutes on the treadmill. And, I have been writing down my food, and making healthy choices. Of course Wednesday was book club, and I overindulged on food, but I did not have any wine. Thursday, at our Jaycee general membeship meeting, as they had the police there doing an alcohol awareness program (4 volunteers drinking lots of beer, sobriety tests, good times!) I stuck to soda water.

Yesterday, I just wanted to go shoe shopping, and to get myself something pretty... and I could have gone with my friend after shopping to get quesedillas and beer, but like a good girl, I decided I should go home. I did make a stop at Target on the way home, but successfully avoided the pitfall of Halloween candy. I thought about getting some cheese dip to eat with tortilla chips - it was 8:30pm and I still had 11 points left - but I told myself to quit making excuses, and went home and ate a banana with some natural peanut butter. Yummy.

Today, a friend and I are planning on going for a run, then out to lunch. A mix of good, and scary for me at this moment.

On another note - I found out something at work this week that makes me completely angry. One of our vendors has been selling a product to our employees (boots) that he was telling them that they complied with our policy. I took a look at them (on someone's feet) and told them that they did not comply, not even close. I guess there are a lot of people with these boots now. We have a list of items that are approved, and that is what they are supposed to sell. If they have something new that they want to add to the list, they need to check with me to make sure it is okay. I have not been able to get any response from this vendor for billing issues I have been having for the last year and a half, and this is just the last straw. They will be pulling a list of the employees who have purchased these boots, and they will be replacing them with something that does comply with our policy, or they will be refunding the company the money that was paid for them. Stupid Bastards. I also talked to our purchasing folks, and I will be removing them as a vendor. When that will happen, I don't know, but it's not going to be soon enough.

On that note, I need to get packed and going, for a day out and about!

~a

update on the life of Anneke

I'm here. Really.

The last couple of weeks were nuts. I was in Calgary, then I returned on the 6th, to go home and re-pack for a weekend in Kansas City, left on another airplane on the 6th...

Had fun in Kansas City. We ended up going to the Renaissance Festival there. It is much bigger than the one here. It was kind of odd going there not dressed up in my garb, but I didn't want to drag it all with me, then have us decide that we were going to go in street clothes, so I made the decision to just not bring the stuff. It was a weekend of poor food choices: with the beer at festival, then the dinner of tacos, accompanied by chips, guac, and con queso, bloody marys, beer, and wine...

I didn't run that weekend either.

Then last week. I was so cranky on Monday, I bitched for about 10 straight minutes to my husband. He was not sure what to do. It's just that I was trying to make sure the things were done for the meetings I was facilitating, and it was not done. And it is really not my job to make sure that these things were done, but the admin person who was here before has taken a different position, and the new person in the job is not sure about what needs to be done. So amongst the myriad of conference calls, catching up from a week out of the office, and getting together the infomation I needed for facilitating the meetings, I got calls from people about their hotel reservations not being correct, I needed to adjust the time the bus was picking us up for the event, and I needed to get someone to pay the remaining $600 for the tickets to the hockey game we were going to attend the following evening. Then I had to go pick up the said tickets, since I did not want to leave that to chance... and honestly, if I had not stepped in, things would have been complete crap, and I would have gotten blamed for things not running smoothly, as I was the "representative" on site.

I'm sure the banquet manager was pretty fed up with me and all of the changes/problems we seemed to have. At the meetings on Tuesday, I needed to fix the direct billing of hotel rooms, increase the number of people we had for meals, and adjust meal times, not once, but twice. I kept apologizing. She kept telling me that it was fine, but I would have been fed up with me.

At least it's over. And people keep telling me that it was a well-organized event. Just a tad bit stressfull for me.

And I ate all of the food I could manage to find at the meetings - delicious pastries for breakfast (not one, but two) salad with real dressing, potato chips and cookies at lunch. Tootsie rolls and hard candies they had set up on the tables for the meetings, then dinner at the hockey arena. More chips and dip. More cookies, but at least, no beer.

And the following day was pretty much a food fest too. (that being Wednesday). I don't even remember everything I had. Eric and I also went out for a drink that evening, so I had a margarita and some tortilla chips and salsa.

Thursday, I made fried fish for dinner. That's what Eric wanted, so that's what we had.

Friday, I took the day off of work. I had the best of intentions on getting up and exercising, but it didn't happen. I went to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, but the milk was completely sour, so I had two eggs and toast with laughing cow spread on the toast. Lunch was microwave popcorn, snack was a TJ chickn pizza (about half) and dinner was at DQ, on the way to camping in Southern Minnesota.

Yes, we went camping this weekend. I realize it was cold (um, lows in the high 20's) but the days were nice, and there was a great campfire. And, we had a cabin with a heater (some folks still tented it, but not us). Again, lots of food and alcohol. But I did have the redemption of going for a short run, and a hike on Saturday, and for a run on Sunday morning.

It still did not make the hop on the scale this morning any nicer...

But, I'm not traveling at all this week, and the meetings are not as large and stressful. I am just glad when this part of the year is over (planning for 2007, corporate safety goals, Safety Committe goal setting, planning, etc). It's my busy insane season.

On that note, I need to compile some more stats.

~a

greetings from Calgary

Yep, I'm traveling, again.

I know that Calgary is an interesing city, but when you are here for meetings, you just don't see much of it... Like yesterday, I got into work at 7:30 am, we had meetings until 4:30, chatted with my boss for about 45 minutes, went to the hotel and changed out of my skirt and heels (jeans and running shoes, big sigh of relief) then went and met co-workers for a drink. I got back into the hotel at 9:00 pm.

The day was gone.

I ate poorly, since they had all of the food out, and I just didn't care what I was eating at the time, since I'm a time zone off, and they scheduled us for lunch at 1:20pm. That's like two hours after I normally eat lunch.... and we only had 30 minues to eat, and get back to our meetings, so it was a case of grab and gobble.

Last night, dinner was a veggie burger and fries. And two beers. I was proud of myself - in the original bar, I started out with a diet soda, and only had one beer.

And yay for me, I got up this morning, and put in 50 minutes on the treadmill. I know it is time to start exercising and losing weight, because my arms keep falling asleep when I am in bed, and it pisses me off. I know what I need to do, I just need to do it, dammit.

So last week, my food plans got totally derailed. Literally. I was doing good, had journaled for four days (on paper) and was staying within my points, had only used like 4-5 flex for those days, and Thursday night, I got about 1/2 hour of sleep before I got a phone call to get out to a derailment. So up and out, and some roasted edamine to munch on in the car on the way there to keep me occupied and engaged, along with a diet coke.... up until 3, grab about two hours of sleep (in my truck...) and back out do observe and deal with things. And they had bunches of non-healthy food. I had Kashi granola bars in my truck, but noooooo, I needed to eat a cookie. Then another. And lunch was then brought in - I wouldn't eat the hamburgers, but the candy and the chips were good options, right????

On another work note - hopefully this re-organization we have been going through for the last year or so will give me a better guideline of my job and expectations. I sat next to the head of our department at the first bar last night, and we acutually had a pretty good talk. About what has been going on with me and all of the crap that gets dumped on me, and why since that is not what I am supposed to be doing that I don't get the stuff that I am supposed to be doing done, then I get a "partially met" on my annual review. It makes me angry that people don't talk to me about their expectations, then when I don't meet them, they say bad things about me. And I am willing to pitch in, but it really is not my job to plan meals for meetings, or to pay invoices for different departments, even if it is for safety gear. I do a lot of stuff that none of the other folks with the same title as me do, but all my "customers" seem to see is that I am not doing what other safety advisors seem to be doing.

Okay. So today and tomorrow we are in meetings, discussing what our jobs are supposed to be, and what we will be doing. Think positive. I need to choose my state of mind. This will be a good thing!

On that note, I need to hop in the shower, and get ready for another day.

~a

weird dream

I had a very strange dream this morning.

I dreamed that I was at an event, I think it was a baseball game, doing what I normally do - trying to smooth out what I percieved as chaos - and this man came up to me, and offered me a job, doing PR and logistics for the Kansas City baseball team. The only catch was that I needed to start the next day. I knew in my dream that I was having a good hair day, and that I feeling excessively capable. I told him I would do it the next day, since I was free, to see if I liked doing the job. Why Kansas City? Well, I am going to be there in a week and a half. Otherwise, who knows.

Then the alarm went off, and I needed to get back to reality.

I had a pretty productive evening, after my board meeting, last night. After making myself something healthy to eat, I finished taking the meat off of the turkey I cooked the other day, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, washed the hand wash dishes, cleaned the sink, and wiped down the counters. I told Eric that I had won. (He had loaded the dishwasher earlier, then watched the baseball game...).

But, he did go do the grocery shopping the other day to get himself food for lunches. I have been so bad at that lately - seems like I just don't want to find the time to do that. We do have quite a bit of food in the house right now, but it all needs to be "prepared". Hopefully I can do some cooking tonight. As of right now, the next trip I have is to Calgary on Oct 3rd. That leaves me lots of evenings free this week to catch up on things. I have also purposely not scheduled anything for myself for this weekend, so I can take the time for myself. I think I need it. I feel like the house is just rising up around me, and I can't take the mess for much longer.

So, the food for today has been:
Breakfast with my boss, I stuck to
Instant Oatmeal, plain - 2 points
Banana - 2 points
Total = 4 points

F/V = 1
Milk = 0
Water = 0

I just need to find some time to exercise today....

~a

Woo hoo, Carrots!

Yes, I believe it has come to this.

I need to start writing down my food intake. And I can't seem to make myself do it on paper anymore.

So, today:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with some creamer - 3 points
Michelena's Lean Gourmet 5-Cheese Lasagne with extra vegetables - 6 points
Apple - 1 point
Boost, chocolate - 5 points
Soup at Hand, Chicken noodle - 2 points
Salad with 3oz turkey, 2T pine nuts, FF vinagrette - 5 points
Couscous - 3 points
Total= 25

Milk = 2
F/V = 5
Water = 6
(This will be updated as I eat food during the day)

Dinner on Friday night was lovely. I got dressed up, had a good hair day, and we went to a lovely dinner. I had the special, scallops crusted in lobster and crab with a tarragon cream sherry reduction, with blue cheese mashed potatos. We shared a bottle of wine, and a desert - white chocolate mousse. MMMMM it was devine. I took the first bite of the scallop, and I actually got goose bumps, they were so good. The waitress looked kind of suprised when I told her that, she said that was not a normal reaction, and that she would pass it along to the chef. I also guess it was the day for anniversaries... there were four other couples there for the same reason.

Saturday, I worked out at the Renaissance Festival. It was acually pretty nice until about 4, when it started raining. That cleared out a lot of people, and made it cold. I was glad that I had brought both of my capes, as my friend would have been very cold without the one I loaned her! It was kind of a long, tiring day... then I went to a housewarming party, where I ate too much of the party food: baked brie, pickle roll-ups, white chocolate, cheese and crackers, etc. I had drank enough at Fest that the beer and beverages were not attractive though...

Sunday was a nicer day at Fest. I bought a Ruth Thompson print for myself. It is "Thunderstruck" if you know her work - she does fantasy stuff, with a lot of cool dragons. I just need to figure out where I want to put it now... It was kind of sad, because it was the last weekend I was working. They are people that I don' t usually see for the rest of the year, so I swung through after my shift was done and said my farewells, and got a lot of hugs.

I did hear something about an "incident" that occured there last weekend, that just makes me sad and pissed off all at the same time. It appears that a good friend of mine was charged with 5th degree sexual assault. I don't know the whole story, but knowing my friend, that is not something that he would do. The person that told me about it (another good friend) said it was probably a case of the woman basically daring him to do something, then when he did it, she called foul. And now it appears that he's the only one that will be getting into trouble. It just pisses me off with how women can seem to do whatever they like, but when they push and inuendo without setting lines, and something happens, they set off a fire alarm. I know I have been uncomfortable out there, but I talked to the person, and we set things straight amongst ourselves. No harm, no foul. Misunderstanding occur. Deal with it without blowing it out of proportion, and without endangering the reputation of a person that can never be repaired. Even if the charges are dropped, he will always have that on his record. It makes me want to cry for him.

That being said, I have some projects I need to work on.
~a

Happy Anniversary!

To me!

Today is my 5th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that it has been that long. Time sure flies when you are having fun! Eric and I have plans to go out to dinner tonight at the Lake Elmo Inn. I am looking forward to having a lovely dinner with my hubby.

And we did some dancing last night. A friend of ours is taking lessons at this studio, and has done a lot of work on their website, and they were having a free group lesson last night. I guilted him into going with me... I asked him "Don't you want to dance with your wife?" "Well yes, but I don't want to look like a fool while doing it." "That's why we need to take lessons!" So we went. It was kind of fun, but I felt like I was in junior high gym class again: "men, form a circle, women, find a partner", dance for 30 seconds, then "move to the next partner", repeat. We learned the basic steps for the Foxtrot, the Tango, Salsa, and Swing. Kind of a teaser to get you to sign up for lessons. I think it was an excellent event. Although Eric told me I was harder to dance with than some of the other women. I guess I need to learn how to follow better. And Eric needs to learn how to lead stronger. Takes practice, I guess!

It's been kind of crazy at work lately. They keep doing reorginization stuff - I am now in the HSSE department (Health, Safety, Security and Environment). They finally posted the position that has been vacant for over a year externally. They want to fill the postion by Nov 1st. I hope that they fill the position soon. I am getting really tired of dealing with all the crap. I honestly feel like a party planner - I am planning a team-building activity for one of our groups, we are going to a Wild hockey game. So I need to arrange a bus, plan a meal, arrange the meetings, etc. And we are having a senior management "walk-about" next week, and honestly, it's almost like herding cats, as I can't get people to follow directions to save my life. I called up my (new) boss the other day and instead of saying "hello Bill" I managed to start my conversation by saying "Hell Bill". At least he laughed.

That's about all I have time for at the moment.... except to say that it has been so crazy and nuts, that I just have not been exercising. I am trying to make healthy food choices, but I need to get my act together. My jeans are really starting to not fit. And I don't want to go up another size.

Le sigh.
~a

Community

So what do you do in the community that you live in?

It's been a crazy kind of couple of weeks. I feel so overwhelmed with the amount of "stuff" that I need to do, and I'm just hoping that I can get everything done that I want/need to and not disappoint anyone.

With that being said, it has also been an amazing few days. I have heard more people speak and inspire me in the last four days, it's amazing. And some of the conversations I have had have also been eye opening.

If you know me, you know that I am a member of an organization, that in all actuality, I have not talked about a lot to people that don't know me. And I have decided that needs to stop. The not sharing with people part.... I am a proud member of the Saint Paul Jaycees. We had a state convention last weekend, and it was such a great experience. Put aside the awards our chapter recieved, it was one of the most relaxing and rejuvinating times I have had in a while. (It has taken me 3 months to find time to go to the dentist...) The national Jaycee President spoke at our dinner on Saturday, and I found out something that I did not know: John F Kennedy had two chairs for guests in his oval office, one on either side of his desk. One had a crest of the place that he credited for his "formal" education: Harvard. The other chair had the crest of the place where he credited his "informal" education: the US Jaycees. Did you know that 75% of the US Presidents have been Jaycees?

Skipping forward - the Jaycees International President was at our chapter's board meeting on Monday night. He had to be one of the most interesting and dynamic people I have had the opportunity to see speak. He talked about the orgainzation, and our responsibility to our communities. He challenged us to "live the creed" (The Jaycee Creed):
We believe:
That faith in God gives us meaning and purpose,
That the Brotherhood of Man transcends the sovernty of nations
That economic justice can best be won by free men through free enterprise
That Government should be of laws rather than of men
That Earth's great treasure lies in human personality, and
That Service to Humanity is the best work of life.

What have I done lately to live this way? Started a business, got involved in the government, learned about a new culture, participated in a community event?

As a good friend said to me the other day: If you do something for yourself, it will die with you. If you volunteer, and do something for the community, it will live forever. We have to stop asking the question "What's in it for me?" and just do.

Nothing happens until someone takes action. I have decided I need to surround myself with people that are going to challenge me, and to raise me up, and inspire me.

Anyone with me?
~a

When you can't think of anything else to say....

Steal from someone else:

This was taken from Kyra who said she stole it from someone else:

Checklist MemeJust bold the things you have accomplished in your life.
1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said "I love you" and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89. Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents (stepfather)
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication.
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone's life

62 out of 150. 41.3% I guess I have to get out more....

~a

I miss my husband

Even though he is not out of town... I hate being a State Fair widow. He reports to work at 6pm. His shift ends at 7am. Therefore, during the State Fair, I get to see him, maybe for a couple of minutes after he gets home, and for a little bit before he goes to work.

I got to see him when he was at work yesterday. I went to the fair, and met my parents at about 2. Called him at 3pm, to see if he was up and moving. So he headed over early to wander a bit with me. We met up around 4:30. He checked in around 6, and there was not much going on, so I got him until 7. I about cried when I had to leave. I have not seen him enough lately. Enough sap already?

So, Food yesterday. I made myself a smoothie for breakfast, then waited until I got to the fair to eat. I had a cone with honey ice cream, an ear of corn, 4 chicken strips, a beer, and a couple of sips of Eric's 1919 root beer. I was actually a little hungry when I got home... I guess the food there just was not calling to me. I don't know what it is - I passed up cotton candy, fries, cheese curds, mini-donuts, popcorn... and at home I ate some chips and dip. It makes no sense.

We were having fun doing some shopping. We put money down on a spray-on bedliner for the new truck. If we are going to haul stuff, we need it, as we already have several scratches in the bed, and I don't want them to deteriorate any.

I did get up this morning and go running. Did my 3-mile loop. 34 minutes, so not too bad. Once again, taking advice from my running magazine, I was taking it kind of easy, and worked on speeding up my cadence. Shorter steps, faster. I did 3 repeats of that. It was a completely gorgeous morning for a run. 58 degrees, sun starting to come up, I enjoyed the morning. Had I had a bit more time, I would have run further - it felt that good, and cheered me up so much. There's something to be said about all of those natural endorphins.

And the scale this morning STILL said 184.

Tonight is happy hour for my birthday. Tomorrow is a 5K race. Sunday and Monday is back out to Renaissance Festival. And next week is shaping up to be busy. I had a bunch of calls yesterday with people wanting my time next week. Good that I am needed, sucks that I go in such streaks of busy, and more relaxed. Such is the nature of this business: hurry up and wait.

I got nothin' else.

Happy Labor day weekend!
~a