Finally, A Little Bit Of Sunshine

Today is weigh in day and there was no change from last week, which, by itself, is a huge accomplishment. I ate too much on Thursday and went out for pizza last night. I should have been up. But the real bit of sunshine came this afternoon. I went out to buy pants and I fit into a size 36 for the first time since I can't even remember. Last fall I was in a size 44 pant. I've hit one of my goals!! I almost cried in the fitting room. As long as they don't go and shrink on me in the wash, I will be fine!

I still can't believe I can shop in a normal store to get pants again. In *any* store.

Going Back

The new computer is going back. After dealing with nothing but problems this morning, a call was placed to Dell and they are sending call tags to have this computer taken away. It's been nothing but problem after problem. I've pretty much ruined my mp3 player and definitely threw away a five day weekend. Dell does offer new computers with XP, so we're going to look around to see what we can get in place of this one.

Microsoft can blow me.

More mp3 player Drama

So I thought all my issues with my Creative Zen Xtra were over. But I've spent the better part of today trying to reload all the music back onto my player. It was going pretty well until the player's hard drive gets half full. At that point, Vista doesn't want to have anything to do with it anymore. It's done and that's that. After a few hours of banging my head against a wall, I fired up the old XP computer. Same issue. Since installing the new firmware, the player acts very differently. So right now I'm creating a mirror folder with all the wma files I tried uploading. I'm going to pare that down to what I believe my player will hold. It's still about 6000 songs, but it seems crazy that I have to dump almost that many just to use my (until yesterday) perfectly good mp3 player. I think it's time to bite the bullet and get a new iPod. I've got a teeny little 2 gig right now. I think I'm going to splurge and get an 80 gig.

To anyone reading this who is running Vista, have you had any compatibility issues with Vista and your iPod? Please let me know. The only reason I ask is Ken just called Apple to ask that very question and the woman on the other end of the line said that Apple hasn't run any tests to see if iPods will work with Vista. What?

I'm irritated and should have been in bed two hours ago with my nice new stack of comics. I took Wednesday and Friday off from work to have a restful, relaxing, calm 5 day weekend and so far it's turned out to be a big pile of shit. Except tonight when I completely blew my diet by going to Pizza Slut. First time I've had pizza since July (you know I must be on a diet if I can remember the last time I ate pizza!!)

Reloading

For Christmas this year, we decided to get a new computer. We did the same thing last year, but Ken has managed to shut me out from using it, him being addicted to World of Warcraft and all. So I got stuck with the auxiliary computer in the other room. It worked (as long as you didn't try to do two things at once), but it was slow, had no hard drive to speak of and was basically a step up from an abacus. The new machine arrived on Tuesday. It's a Dell something-or-other and it's pretty. The monitor is totally ridiculous. Twenty-two inch widescreen. It's BEAUTIFUL! It makes the 19" widescreen on Ken's computer look teeny. The only sucky thing about this new machine is it comes with Vista. Now, I'm not anti-Vista, per se, but I'm so used to XP that it was a little bit of a shock going with the new system. Things aren't exactly where I want or remember them to be. I'll get used to it, I know. But the major issue I'm having with Vista is my mp3 player is not compatible with it. I spent most of yesterday researching and reading about what I can do. Ultimately, I needed to update the firmware on the mp3 player, but I was really afraid to do it. I kept reading about all these problems people were having doing it. My mp3 player is my lifeline. It gets me through work, it gets me through exercise. Sure, I've got an iPod, but it's only 2 gig and how much can you really hold on that? My Creative player is my baby.

So we update the firmware and it takes. What a relief. But now I've got to reload every last song on it. They all erased. I'm in the process of doing that right now. I can fit just over 10,000 songs on the ping box. My backup file is about 13,000 songs, so I've got to upload, then edit, then upload some more. It'll take me all weekend to do, I'm sure. I'm up to the letter E right now.

Another bummer is all the software I used with the player does not work in Vista. At all. So I've got to use Windows Explorer to play with the contents of the player. Not a huge whoop, but I am very used to the Creative software.

Change is bad. (Except when I'm sick of the old layout of my blog, that is.)

Turkey Day Recap

It's 10pm and I really want to go to bed. I'm beat and it's been a long day.

Today, like most Thanksgivings, was spent at my Mom & Dad's house. I didn't have any intentions on going this year, but my brother was making a special trip down from where he lives in Canada. He's not down very often at all, if ever, so Ken convinced me it was a good idea to go. So we did. My brother, of course, canceled his trip a couple of days ago. It irritated me, but as I may have said before (I can't remember now), it was no surprise at all.

My parents live about an hour away from here. We got to their house around 11:30 this morning. I was instantly overcome by all the cigarette smoke. My folks smoke like chimneys and they have for my entire life. I've never had an interest and with the exception of one drunken night in a bar, I've never smoked. I always leave their house with a sore throat and itchy eyes and today was no exception.

But I'm not writing to bitch. I'm really not.

The family this year consisted of Mom, Dad, my uncle Tommy (Dad's brother), my sister, Ken and I. My mom made the full spread of food, like always, and it was damn tasty. I think I overdid it, too. Sure, I probably ate less than I did last year, but my stomach is smaller this year. We ate at 12:30 and I'm still stuffed. I'm afraid to see what the damage I did looks like on the scale this week.

The weather was surreal this year. It's been damn cold this week. Except today when we took the dogs out for a walk. It was 66 degrees. 66! Tomorrow is only going to be 37, which sucks. I need to get out there and walk today's meal off. But it's gonna be too cold. If there's no wind, I should be okay.

I commented at one point today that we had considered buying a treadmill, but thought twice about it. My sister said we could have hers. It was packed away all the way in the back of the basement. It had been down there for three years. It needs to be cleaned up, but I'm going to try it out. Worst case senario, it gets tossed on the next Trash Amnesty Day.

I'm not working tomorrow, which is good. No intention of hitting any of the sales. Partially because after looking through the Black Friday ads, I decided there was nothing but shit in them but mostly because all my years in retail have taught me that Black Friday shopping is a terrible idea. If I had the energy, I'd get up early and head out to Wal-Mart (a store I despise more than I can say) to watch the white trash punch each other in the face to get a bargain. My only plan for leaving the house is grocery shopping and hoping to get a clearance turkey since we don't have any leftovers.

The Story of Thanksgiving

Day 50

It just dawned on me that this is my 50th day in a row soda-free.  I did it for two weeks the last time I tried this.  Seven weeks is pretty amazing.

Justice Society of America

This cover was just released today. It's to an upcoming issue of Justice Society of America. I LOVE it. It's modeled after an old Justice League of America cover from the 80's. I think it's beautiful.

Delayed

I was all ready to write something here earlier this afternoon when Ken got home and completely interrupted me. We ended up going out looking at computer desks (I need a new one), then to dinner (even though I was planning on cooking), then looking at more computer desks. There's a whole lotta shit out there. We didn't find one that i liked, so we gave up and came home. Then Ken went searching online and found a couple for me to check out. IKEA has a few that I like. It's too bad we live about three hours from the closest store. Shipping was twice as much as the desk, so we'll find a day for a road trip and go fetch one.

We're going to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. I don't really want to... I just want to lay around at home. My brother is coming down from Canada, so I felt obligated to say "yes." Until now. He's canceled. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I surprised? No. He says he can't get off of work. I don't know if I believe it or not. He's known for making plans to come down and then canceling. Maybe this will help me get out of there a little earlier now. I've got a new computer coming (hopefully Wednesday) and I want to play with that.

I haven't posted as many pictures lately as I would like. There are three recent pictures in this post. One is of my friend Melanie from Texas who was here a couple of weeks ago, with me, out at dinner. I love Mel. She's so much damn fun. I'm so glad she was in town. There's another picture of me with the cats. They decided they needed to sleep and I was the bed for them. This picture was from a couple of days before I was talking about them sleeping on me (the last post?). They're so fucking cute, I can't stand it. Ollie's facing the camera, Lucy is not. The third picture is of Ollie. It came out really well. He's a good boy.

Since it's Sunday, here's my obligatory mention of my weight. I was 215 this morning, which is a pound higher than last Sunday but still three pounds lighter than two Sundays ago. I'm a little bummed, but I really have no cause to be. I lost 4 pounds last week. That in itself is amazing this far into the diet. I should be losing a pound a week max. I'm still doing extremely well. I want to hit 213 by the end of the year, which is very possible. I'd like to be there now, but that's not going to happen. I just need to get through the holidays without losing focus. I did it last year, I just hope I can keep it up.

I've got four minutes until the Amazing Race starts. Good a time as any to end this.

Cat Hotel

Both cats have decided to use me as a bed tonight. Lucy jumped up on me about an hour ago and promptly fell asleep. Feeling left out, Ollie jumped up about a half hour ago and is now asleep. I'm typing with my one free hand right now. Not very efficient. They're so damn cute and I'm going to feel bad in a few minutes when I have to get up.

Wednesday

I meant to write on Monday, and it didn't happen. Then I meant to write on Tuesday, but I didn't have time. Then I meant to write tonight, but I'm losing interest, so if I don't do it now, I'm not doing it.

This week has been screwed up. There was a fake holiday on Monday, so that meant the day off. I used to hate these fake holidays when I worked retail because people would shop like it was the last day the stores were going to be open. I never understood three day weekends and shoppers. Saturdays and Sundays would be really busy and then just when you thought people couldn't buy any more, Monday would be ultra busy, too.

Anyway, I had Monday off and it was an awesome day. I did next to nothing, I read comics, I took a nap, I watched tv. It was glorious. About the only work I did was cleaning up my portable hard drive. The thing was getting full of stuff and I organized (or at least started to organize) it and burned a bunch of things to disc to clear up space. Rock on!

Tuesday was a heavy cd release day for me. I'm a little overwhelmed by all the new music. Haven't had too much of a chance to get into the news cds more than once or twice, but I like what I've heard so far. If I can get sufficiently caught up on my podcasts this week, I'll have more time for these records.

214 For A Day

Weigh in day. I hit 214 this week. I finally broke my "realistic" weight loss goal. Anything below 215 is cause to celebrate. So I did. I originally decided that the first Sunday I saw 215 (or below) I was going out to buy a box of Drumsticks and I was going to feast. Well, I changed my mind and went out to lunch instead. I had a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a brownie sundae. And the brownie in said sundae was the Barefoot Contessa's recipe. She makes my absolute favorite chocolate treat ever. It's 6:30 and I'm still not hungry from lunch. I'm sure I did a little bit of damage, but fuck it. I hit a goal, dammit. There's plenty of time to feel like shit for mis-eating later, but not today.

One of the reasons we went out today is because Ken talked Mary Jo, the owner of our favorite restaurant, into letting him build the website for the restaurant. She's been open 11 months and doesn't have a website yet. People keep asking her about it but she hasn't had a chance to get around to it. So Ken, being Ken, got sick of it and told her he's building a site. He started yesterday morning and this morning we headed over there to show it to her. He was like this with her menus, too. The company that was supposed to do them for her put her on the back burner for a while and Ken took it upon himself to design and print the menus. Anyway, if you want, you can check out his handy work at MJ's On The Avenue.

There's been a lot of good music out there lately to listen to. A band I just discovered is called Scouting For Girls and I love 'em. A lot of energy, a lot of fun. I want to compare them to Barenaked Ladies (new live record coming!!!!!!!), even though they don't sound anything like them. They both have that kind of fun energy about them that makes them really enjoyable. Here's their new video. Yeah, they repeat a lot of lyrics, but who cares. I like them and that's what counts. I hope you do, too.

Saturday

What a good day, even though it didn't quite turn out like I had hoped. I really wanted to get a little more done around the house, but I've got two more days to accomplish that. I did get all the laundry (including the sheets..... I love fresh sheets!) done, the dishes done (AND put away...) and went to the grocery store (where I wandered around in a daze and didn't really buy much of anything). I started cleaning my office (aka the comic room), but spent most of the day playing around with iTunes. I'm trying to upload every single song I have to it. I'm at about 16,000 and counting. I need to get the Christmas music on there soon.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. That's never fun to read.

I was going to read comics this afternoon, but I guess I'm doing that tonight. It's always better to read in bed anyway.

So, I was poking around the computer and I came across my September 2005 Disney pictures. I was shocked when I saw them. And disgusted. I was almost at my all-time high weight (probably about 10 pounds below it, actually.) What's fucked up is at the time, I thought I looked pretty good, especially in the picture posted here. Now I look at it and I fight not to cry. To show some contrast, I'm posting a picture from my trip in September of this year. What a difference, huh? I'm down almost ten pounds from when that picture was taken. I still think I look a little heavier than I really am. I've spent my entire adult life overweight, so I don't think I'll ever be able to look at myself 100% rationally. Ninety percent, maybe.


I went out for a walk this afternoon. I must be getting used to the colder temps. It was 42 degrees out, but it felt nice. And the walk felt really, really good. I haven't been walking as much lately and I think it's been affecting my mood. I've been crabbier than usual. This week I walked a lot more and have been in a better mood. They might not be connected, but maybe they are. Later, I came down with a terrible headache. Just nasty. I realized that it was 3 o'clock and I hadn't had a single thing to drink all day. I'm sure I was just dehydrated. I drank a couple glasses of water and I was much better shortly thereafter.

Gripping stuff, this blog.

Trisha

Trisha Yearwood is back with a new album next week and I'm thrilled. She's one of my favorite singers and I can't wait to hear the new songs. I really like this song. This is something she needed to record, I think. My one problem with Trisha is over the years it seems like she's become way too serious for her own good. Like she's an artiste or something. Bah. I'm glad to see she's recorded something really fun and she's let loose in the video. Don't know what the rest of the album is going to be like, but I hope it's half as fun as the first single.

Burning The Candle At Both Ends

That's how I've been feeling this week. I've been working as much as I can stand again. And it's starting to take it's toll on me. I feel that I need to work as much overtime as I can put in to catch up on bills, not that I'm behind or anything, but I'm just not ahead. I've got about 16 hours in on this time card with a half a week left. I've been fighting with myself about tomorrow. We have a three day weekend, so could it hurt to go in on Saturday? I think the answer is yes. That's why I'm still awake. The later I stay up, the less likely I'll be able to get up at 5:30 to get ready. All I know is I'm running on fumes right now and I need some "laying on my ass" time.

I don't know if this is actually making any sense. I'm too tired to care, so hopefully you can translate this rambling mess.

Tomorrow I should clean house a little and read comics a lot. Just got a huge stack in the mail yesterday and I've barely looked at them yet.

Cats

These cats are getting on my nerves. They're all wound up and tearing through the house, back and forth, back and forth. They need a chill pill.

I worked too much today for my brain to be of any use tonight. I'll try this again tomorrow.

Good Intentions

The clocks were set back an hour yesterday. I love that. I had every intention of putting this extra hour of time to good use before my body acclimated to it. I was going to get up early today, either do some chores or go to work early... Yeah, I was going to, but I screwed myself yesterday. My friend Melanie was in town, so I went out with her last night, stayed up too late and got the shit scared out of me when the alarm went off this morning. I think my body is used to the revised time already and that makes me sad.

I've still got all of last night's tv to catch up on. And my iPod didn't sync correctly this morning, so I have all my podcasts from today to get to yet. I hate this feeling of being behind.

Unhappy

I'm not in the best mood right now. It's probably the lack of sleep, but it's not just that. Tonight was supposed to be my quiet night at home alone. Ken bought tickets to go to a fund raiser for a local no-kill cat shelter. Silent auction, live auction, dinner.... You get the idea. He invited our friend Pat to go with him. I was going to have the whole place to myself to unwind and relax. But things never seem to quite go the way they're planned. Pat called this afternoon and had to cancel. Ironically, she was having a cat issue and had to have one of her cats put to sleep tonight. I feel horrible for her, knowing exactly how shitty it feels to have to do that. So I got to go in Pat's place. Now really, I had no interest whatsoever. Zero. Zip. Zilch. But I sucked it up and went. Ken bid on a bunch of things and I let him. I didn't, but I didn't really want to. We sat around for a while. Had some fruit, cheese and crackers while waiting for dinner. Ken walked around some while I sat at our table and played Bejeweled on my phone. It was a buffet dinner and when I got up there to get something to eat (I was starving, by the way), I realized there was next to nothing that I could eat. But I loaded up my plate anyway, because if I didn't eat, I was going to pass out. The buffet was a vegetarian/carbohydrate bonanza. And not very tasty either. I'm sure it's going to impact tomorrow's weigh in, but I hope not. When we left the event, Ken starts to pull out of the parking spot he's in and managed to start to rip off my front bumper (he was driving my car.) He snapped it back in, but we won't know until tomorrow if he did it correctly. It's way too dark out to check it out.

So let's recap. I'm exhausted (been up since 5), I feel really gross and fat (from dinner), I'm stressed (car issue) and I'm irritated (I spilled something oil based - probably salad dressing- on my hoodie and I'm rewashing it now, this time treating the stain with Lestoil. I hope it works.). All great things to feel on a Saturday night.

In positive news, I ran into my old friend Kris at the fund raiser. I haven't seen her in two years. So it was really nice to catch up.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. I can feel it.

The Heat Is On

We put the heat on tonight. It's so nice in here. I don't think I'm going to have to get dressed to go to bed tonight! Huzzah!

My dilemma. I have a choice of two things I don't really want to do on Saturday. Do I go in to work (because I really need the money) or do I go to over to Lee, MA and help Ken's step-mother make salads for her church's dinner? I really have no interest in either. With work, I have to get up around 5am, which sucks. But I'll be home at 12:30 at the latest. I do get paid, which is nice. With Ken's mom, I don't have to be there until 11am, but it's an hour away and I really don't have much interest in the church or salad making. Sure, it's the supportive thing to do for Ken, but he just gave me the all clear if I don't want to do it.

Sunday night going to eat with my friend Melanie. I've known Mel for years online and we got to meet in person last September. She's awesome. She's going to be in town for a convention and I'm really looking forward to seeing her. This weekend I need to come up with a gameplan for dinner and stuff.

I forgot to mention that yesterday was my baby's third birthday. Lucy is now three. I don't know for sure that yesterday was her birthday, but when I got her, the vet estimated she was a year and a half old. I counted back and Halloween was pretty damn close to that estimate. It seems to suit her, too, just like Ollie's April Fools Day birthday suits him.

Todd, do you read this blog? If you do, when do you want to hang out next? I keep meaning to write, but I'm so easily distracted.