Another Week Passes

It's been a busy week and an even busier weekend.  Ken's sister and her son have been here since Thursday evening.  His step-mother was here Friday and Saturday.  It's been exhausting.  The sister and nephew are heading out early tomorrow morning and my house will quiet down again for a few days before the next round of house guests.  Needless to say, I'm pretty fried right now.  I'm putting off doing my Wii workout.  Today is the last workout of my 30 Day Challenge.  I know tonight's workout will be the toughest of them all, too.  Another reason I'm dragging my heels.

Unrelated to all of this, I baked something fan-fucking-tastic this weekend.  My friend Sandy gave me the recipe for Avocado Poundcake.  Now I know what you're thinking.  That it sounds gross.  Well, my friend, you are wrong.  It turned out incredibly delicious.  At first I was nervous.  So nervous that I wasn't going to do my favorite thing when I bake.  That is to lick the bowl of the remnants of the batter.  But I did and the batter was so sweet and delicious that I was tempted to take a little bit more out of the loaf dishes, but luckily they were already in the oven and baking.  I ate a little more than my fair share of the cake this weekend.  I'm sure it will show on the scale tomorrow (as well as the extra helping I had of the white chicken lasagne I made tonight.)  I have all week to work it off, though.  No worries.

Okay, time to workout, then off to bed to watch the Amazing Race.  Gonna save The Walking Dead for tomorrow night.

Happy Halloween all!

Bad

Last week was pretty fucking bad, all the way around.  I'm glad it's over and I'm hoping for the best from the upcoming week, but I'm not going to get too excited.  You know how things tend to fall apart.

So what made last week so bad?  Well, it started slowly and built up over the course of the week.  Monday was actually pretty good, which surprises me because Mondays generally blow.  Tuesday, however, I got up and did my morning routine as usual only to come downstairs to feed the cats and find a surprise they left me.  A mouse. Well, that's not entirely accurate.  It was most of a mouse.  The bottom half of the mouse.  On the kitchen floor.  And the heart (and other guts) on the family room floor.  The head is still missing.  

Wednesday is when things really started sucking.  FrankenKlinger, the prescription drug abusing skank whore who sits near me decided it was my turn to take her bullshit.  She was already at work when I got there (a rarity), standing up in her cube watching for me to arrive.  I thought that was weird, but she's a retard and I dismissed it.  Apparently she was waiting for me to see my reaction to the perfume she sprayed in my cube.  She didn't get her reaction right away.  It took me an hour or so before my allergic reaction to it kicked in.  At this point I still didn't know what was going on.  I thought some douchebag decided to spray themselves and I was catching the overflow.  I thought that until a co-worker stopped at my cube.  She said I smelled pretty and I told her that someone sprayed them self.  She sniffed around and said that no one did that.  The smell is coming from my cube and isn't noticeable anyplace else.  I stewed about it for a little while before finally contacting HR.  I have no proof that it's her, but about every three months, knowing I have allergies to a lot of perfumes, she likes to do it anyway.  And she's good at her game.  She makes sure no one is around.  She knows how to play the game.  That left me pretty miserable, but talking to HR, knowing there really isn't much they can do, helped.  Thursday I had another reaction because the fragrance was still in my cube.  Friday again.  And Friday I went to my floor's director to talk to him about it, again knowing not much will be done, but he made a point of meeting with the managers in my area who are supposed to keep her under control.  Like I keep saying, there's no proof that she did it, but she absolutely did it.  It's been a while since I've been a victim of her bullying, so I guess it was just my turn.  I find it most ironic that she chose the Wear Purple For The Victims of Bullying day to do it.

Earlier in the week, Ken wanted to make plans to go out to dinner with our neighbors on Friday.  I hate going out on Friday nights, but I've been agreeable to all the plans he's been making over the last few months.  Not this time.  Friday nights are the one night of the week that all I want to do is finish up work, go home and unwind.  I'm usually exhausted from the work week.  I go in a couple hours early every day and it catches up with me.  So he changed the plans to Saturday night.

We meet the neighbors at the restaurant only to find they lost our reservation.  Joy.  Ken put up a stink and they got us a table.  Dinner was great.  Afterwards, we stopped at Target for a little shopping.  On the way out, I had a slight twinge in my back.  I didn't think anything of it, just that it was probably a sciatic twinge.  Within minutes, I was starting to hurt.  And then felt nauseous.  I was really feeling like crap.  I just wanted Ken to get home.  I made him stop talking.  Got home and headed for the bathroom, thinking maybe if I went, I'd feel much better.  Only I didn't.  It kept getting worse.  The pain in my back was increasing exponentially.  I felt like I had to go the bathroom, but I couldn't.  I started sweating.  My temperature dropped.  All the color went out of my face.  I was a mess.  Ken called 911 and got an ambulance to the house asap and I was taken out by stretcher.  They gave me something for the pain in the ambulance which did absolutely nothing.  Long story short, turns out I had a kidney stone.  And it was the single most painful thing I've ever experienced.  You hear people say that, and now I believe them.  I was in the ER until about 3 am Saturday night.  I didn't sleep more than 15 minutes at a stretch the rest of the night.  

The stone has now passed and it amazes me something that small can cause pain that big.  I took today off from work to rest up.  I have an appointment with the specialist next week to find out what I can do to decrease the chances of another one.  My kidney still feels a little tender, which I guess is to be expected.  But otherwise, I feel so much better.  I will never take for granted not being in pain ever again. 

Here's hoping to a better week.

Day 07 - A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event





This reminds me of Austin Texas and my trip there this summer.

Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep 
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year

Weekend

This was the perfect kind of weekend for me in so many ways.  It was one of the few "normal" weekends we've had since we've been in this house (which is 5 1/2 months for those keeping score.)  No plans whatsoever.  I feel really good about what I got done around the house, but still wish I got a little more done.

Saturday started with me sleeping in until 11:30.  I know I've been dragging my ass on the ground lately, but I didn't ever dream I'd sleep for 12 1/2 hours.  I was really groggy and out of it when I got up and that was hard to shake.  This is how tired I was.  We had a new chair delivered on Saturday morning to replace one that Ken wasn't loving in the family room.  That chair we tried and tried and tried to get up the stairs on Friday night, but couldn't figure it out.  When the delivery guys came, Ken asked if they could move it and they did.  Right up the stairs and into the bedroom and I didn't even stir.

Saturday I got back into the swing of the gym.  My feet still hurt a little from the running, but they're feeling a whole lot better.  Good enough that I got back on the treadmill.  That hour on the treadmill was enough to shake the groggy from me.  

I had a couple of errands to run, so Ken and I went out and grabbed lunch but he decided he wasn't feeling well and asked if I'd bring him home before going back out.  I think he wasn't looking forward to going to the comic shop.  :-)  I had a specific mission when I went.  I wasn't buying the different Lantern Corps action figures and I wanted to correct that mistake.  I was hoping to find a Red Lantern and an Orange Lantern.  The shop was out, but I did pick up a Blue Lantern.  And a few figures out of the clearance bin that weren't in there the last time I was at the store.

Saturday night and Sunday were all about cleaning, straightening and organizing.  I spent a lot of time in my office hanging pictures and shelves, cleaning surfaces and all that jazz.  I wish I had one more day off because I think I'd be able to get everything exactly where I want it.  Sure, I had all the time in the world this weekend, but I ended up wasting a lot of my cleaning time playing online.  Like usual.

I didn't realize it until this afternoon, but when I was at the gym today, I crossed another walking milestone.  I've now hit 600 miles for the year.  Just barely.  I'm about 1/5 of a mile over it.  I'm well on track for hitting 700 miles, if not 800 by the end of the year.  Next year I'm hoping to hit 1000.

Ken's mother is coming to stay the night tomorrow.  She's flying out to somewhere on Tuesday morning and we live much, much, much closer to the airport than she does.  That's going to interfere with my plans to go to the gym tomorrow.  I never in a million years thought I would ever say that.

Next week Ken's sister and nephew are coming for a visit.  His nephew is going to be home from Afghanistan.  The two of them are coming and Pete wants Ken to take him to NYC for the day.  I'm bowing out of that (mis)adventure.

I'm not really looking too forward to this week at work.  No reason in particular, just not feeling it.

And I've been listening to Bob Schneider all day today.  Don't know why, but I am and I'm digging it.

I Ran

Not just a song by A Flock Of Seagulls, but something I did this week for the first time.  I ran.  Since I started my diet four years ago, the only real form of exercise I've done is walking.  I walk and I walk and I walk.  I've walked over 500 years this year so far and I'm still going.  Something I've tried on occasion with much failure is running.  I thought that after four years of walking, I would have developed some stamina.  I walk at almost 5 mph after all.  But I've never been able to go more than 1/10 of a mile or so.  This week at the gym, I started off walking on the treadmill like usual, then slowly increased my speed until I was running.  The first day I tried, I ran for 1/2 mile, then slowed back down to a walk, then ran again for 3/4 of a mile.  And I felt good.  Really good.  So good that when I went back last night, I wanted to run again.  This time I walked for a while, then ran for 1/2 mile, walked, ran for 3/4 mile, then walked and then another 1/2 miles.  Again, when I was done, I felt really, really good.  I was sore as hell, but I felt good.  

Today, though, I hurt.  There are muscles in your legs that you don't normally use except for running, I suppose.  My legs are really, really, really sore today.  I over did it and I'm paying for it today.  And my feet hurt, too.  My shoes are great for walking in, but I'm guessing they aren't designed for running.  I hope I didn't fuck my feet up already.  It's going to kill me to try and chill out until they feel better.  I'm just getting into this and to have to stop because I hurt my foot is not good.

One thing I've always been wary about running is whether or not it was going to screw up my sciatic nerve.  So far, so good with it.  It's been achy for a little while, but it's neither better nor worse after running.  I'm pretty psyched about that.  I don't like that it's achy in my lower back right now.  If it has to talk to me, I'd much prefer it to be in my hip.  There it's most bearable.

The other thing I've been doing is I'm back on the EA Sports Active for the Wii.  I started on the 2nd of October and have been trying to do it every night, but I haven't been as on top of it as I should be.  The premise behind it is you do a 30 day workout.  It's actually 20 days of exercise and 10 days of rest.  Two days on, one day off.  I knew last week was going to be hard with all the running around I had to do and going away, so I did the first three and then I was off of it for 5 days.  Since getting home Sunday, I've been doing it every night.  Tonight I got about half way through it when I realized I was doing the same workout as yesterday.  For some reason, it didn't save yesterday's workout.  It only recorded a rest day.  Now I'm yet another day behind.  I've had 6 rest days according to the game.  I only have four left.  It's getting easier each day, which is good.  When I first started it up, it was handing me my ass on a platter.  

I'm really trying to get serious with my health.  I'm sick of getting on the scale and not being happy with what it says, even though it says things that a perfectly sane person would love to hear.  I know I'm really much too hard on myself, but as I've said in the past, I think that if I start giving myself a little slack, that slack will lead to a little more and then to a little more and then I'll be 300 lbs again.

Catching Up

It's been a busy week for me.  Busier than usual.  To quickly recap:

Monday night, Ken and I took that long dreaded (by me) trip and signed up at the local gym.  I've been crabbing about it long enough and finally just did it.  I figure the only way to work through my gym-phobia is to join one and go.

Tuesday night was the first night I went.  It made me remember that walking on a treadmill is a lot harder than walking around the neighborhood, even if you're walking at the same speed.  With the treadmill, it keeps you going at the same pace whereas walking outside, you constantly change your speed.  I was drenched by the time I finished my first workout.  And I was proud of myself that I did it.

Wednesday night Ken and I both went.  I did another hour on the treadmill.  He did about 1/2 hour and then waited for me to finish.  I'm proud of him for going in the first place.  His foot has been killing him and he had a perfectly good excuse to not go, but he did it.

Thursday night I was exhausted from work, but I planned on going.  Didn't happen, though.  I had a bunch of errands to run and had to get ready to leave for the weekend.  

Friday Ken and I headed to NYC for the weekend.  Our friends George and Steve have been wanting us to come back down for a while.  We haven't been to their place in about two years, so Ken and Steve, planners both, took the reins and planned the trip.  George and I spent Friday at the New York ComicCon.  I haven't been to a big con in many, many years.  I believe the last time was San Diego in 1988.  The New York show was bigger than that particular San Diego one was, though not quite as busy as the San Diego one currently is.  I think they were expecting between 90 and 95 thousand attendees this year.  I think San Diego gets about 125.  Another year or two and they'll be equally as big.

I had a lot of fun, though things didn't quite work out like I'd hoped.  George got hung up at work and couldn't meet me when I got there, so I was on my own.  I sent a text to Stevie from the Comic Book Queers podcast, hoping he was going to be there at the same time.  And he was!!  I went over to meet him in person.  He's even more awesome in real life than on the internet.  That sounds odd, but you know what I mean.  He's so damn cute and he's tall and he's funny and he's charming.  My crush on him only intensified.  :-)  He was there with Laura from the Geektress podcast and I got the chance to hang out with them for an hour or so.  By then George was at the show and I bid a fond adieu and searched him out.  We played text tag for a little bit before connecting.  We poked around a little bit and then started playing text tag with our friend Michael, who was in town from California.  We finally found him and the three of us wandered aimlessly.  We met up with another friend, Rich, who was working the show.  I had a lot of fun with my friends, but before I knew it, the show was winding down for the day and I didn't get a chance to load up on books and shirts and toys like I hoped to.  I did end up with a Batgirl and a Batwoman shirt and two trade paperbacks.  Oh, and George surprised me with an action figure I was looking at!

Friday night the Geektress girls were having a party and I was tempted to go, but by the time we got back to George's place, it was too late.  We (being Ken and I and George and Steve) called out for pizza, played cards and hung out.  It was nice.

Saturday we spent the whole day with G&S.  Lunch was spent at George's parents' place.  His mother made a great spread.  Dinner was out at a Turkish restaurant.  I was a little afraid of it, I'll admit, but I found it amazing.  I had a lamb and eggplant dish that was incredible.  Steve gave me a bite of his salmon.  Again, it was amazing.  I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

Today we needed to be on the road relatively early.  Our catsitters were gone and it was our turn to start catsitting for them.  When I got home, I headed straight for the gym.  I love Sunday afternoons there.  There must have been 15 people in the place.  I LOVE that.  A little while after I got home I decided today would be a better day to go grocery shopping than tomorrow.  All my chores outside the house are now done and I can take tomorrow to sleep in and do whatever I want.

Oh, I forgot to mention, but on the way down to NYC, we stopped at the Woodbury Commons outlets.  I wanted to go to the Converse Outlet.  My timing for the place was perfect.  They had just marked down almost everything on the clearance wall to $9.97.  Guess who walked out with six more pairs of sneakers?

Sad

I'm a little sad that it's Sunday night.  I hate that the weekend is ending and it's back to real life in the morning.  And for me, that starts at around 5:30 tomorrow morning.  Ugh.

Today wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped it would be.  No, that's not right.  It was pretty productive, it just didn't go the way I hoped it would.  I wanted a little more slouching around time, but I had things to do.  I was in no mood to go walking today, but I knew I had to.  I blew it off yesterday after about 1/2 mile, so I knew it was the right thing to do.  I was hoping to push myself for 5 miles, but somehow found it in myself to push on for nearly 11.  I really should have pushed that last 1/4 mile, but I was ready to quit.  I did my weekly grocery shop (and spent way more than I anticipated, too.) and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen.  I was able to do the prep work for dinner pretty early, also got my lunches made up for tomorrow and Tuesday and I baked brownies.  Tonight I tried empanadas again, this time much more successfully than last week.  I made them using chicken instead of beef and they were delicious.  I also made myself a ginormous brownie sundae and I'm regretting it a lot right now.  That's how good it was.

I was hoping to get a couple of little projects in my office done this weekend, but I ended up starting one and blowing the rest off.  The one thing I did was fix my Barbara Gordon/Oracle action figure.  One of the wheels on her wheelchair broke off in the old house and I crazy glued it back on.  During the move, it broke off again and I haven't had a chance to fix it, until this weekend.  Now that she's displayable again, I need to organize the rest of my toys.  I also have a couple more pictures to frame that I've been putting off.  And I need another IKEA run to pick up one or two more things I want to complete what I want to complete.

I'm excited that I've got a four day work week this week.  I didn't realize that next Monday was a holiday when I requested it off, so that's back to back four day work weeks.  I'm very happy about that.

Dammit, I Missed One Already

I jumped right over #5.  My bad.



Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06. A song that reminds you of somewhere
Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year



This song always reminds me of Ken, mostly because it's a song he loves, but more importantly, it's a song he loves to walk around the house singing opera style.  For real.

Saturday

Today was such a great, quiet day.  It's the first weekend that I had no plans (well, except to bring Lucy to the groomer to get her nails did), no obligations, no anything.  It was fantastic, but not long enough.  Back in the old house, my typical Saturday began with me cleaning the house top to bottom, then goofing off the rest of the day. This is the first Saturday since being in this house that I got to do just that.  Ken had plans with our neighbor to go up to the Saratoga Showcase of Homes, something I had less than zero interest in.  Once he was out of the house, I got to work.  The kitchen, living room, dining room, sitting room, bedroom, guest rooms.... all done.  The only things I didn't do were the bathrooms and my office.  The bathrooms could use a once over, but my office is mostly good as is.  Just a little straightening is needed.  Anyway, I ran a few errands and then spent the afternoon going through old pictures and scanning them.  

Tomorrow I need to motivate and get out and walk.  I've started slacking off this week.  Sure, it's due to the weather, but still.  And I have tried compensating by working out with the Wii.  Which, by the way, has handed me my ass all three times I've done it.

The other night I mentioned to Ken that I'm thinking about joining a gym.  Not because I want him to join with me (though that would be great), but more so that I've said it out loud and it's out there in the universe.  I have  gym phobia that I need to get over.  And I know that once I get into a routine, I'll feel much better about it.

That's all.

Day 06 - A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere

Day 01. Your favorite song
Day 02. Your least favorite song
Day 03. A song that makes you happy
Day 04. A song that makes you sad
Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone

Day 06. A song that reminds you of somewhere




Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year

Day 04 - A Song That Makes You Sad

Day 01. Your favorite song
Day 02. Your least favorite song
Day 03. A song that makes you happy

Day 04. A song that makes you sad



Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06. A song that reminds you of somewhere
Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year