What do you mean I missed Friday???

Seriously, the last few days have been so shitty, I'm amazed I remembered that today is Saturday :( I have the plague. Not the normal plague though. I have the type of plague that had me passing out randomly on Thursday and Friday, and not making much sense, having very delicate digestion (as in, don't bother eating anything, because you probably won't keep it), I nearly hit a cyclist while leaving the grocery store - evidence that I should NOT have been behind the wheel of a car, and feverish and generally miserable.

Today, I was meant to be going to a friend's for her baby shower, but I've begged off, since I woke up with a very angry porcupine lodged in my throat and left ear (yay dizziness!)

I've done very little other than sleep (a LOT!) and whine since last night LOL I dragged myself out to the mall to get some wonton soup and managed to cut myself in two different places AND break a nail trying to get from my car back up to my apartment *sigh*  Add to that the fact that it's currently 32 C in my apartment... I'm sweating like a pig! They turned the heat on. No, really??? But I can't get the guy to turn it back off, because I haven't managed to catch him at home yet. Bleh. i've got the AC running full tilt and I've got my bedroom windows open and the fan going in there (the AC doesn't reach that far).

It's a grey, gloomy sort of day. 3pm, it was already pretty dark out. I hope Rob's having better weather for his bbq today! I weighed myself this morning, and considering that it's STILL that time of the month (it lasts anywhere from 8-12 days now, stupid Mirena), I'm pretty proud that I weighed in at 277.5.

So I was listening to this today:

I downloaded it on the say-so of a friend whose taste in music I respect.... and it may just be the plague talking, but I do *not* get the huge fuss everybody is making over this girl. Yes, she has an amazing voice, but she's wasting it on chavvy-sounding lyrics and intentionally mispronouncing words "I'm the only one in lowwwwve" - wtf??? There were three decent songs on the albums, but the others all made me cringe. She has so much potential, but I'm not seeing her reach it on this album. I will give it another listen when I'm not so plaguey and see if I still feel the same about it. Severely underwhelmed :/

I'm going back to sleep now! ;)

Oh Mr. Monday...

Had an okay day at work today... lots of running around, but all in all, I accomplished a lot :) Climbed the stairs TWICE. I was going to make it a third time (I ran downstairs a lot today), but I figured I'd better not push it too fast. Progress at home included 100 steps on the stair machine thingie and 50 crunches without the ab-rocker. I think that thing is going to find its way back down to the garbage pile where I found it. I also did my mile, although I didn't time it.

Lynx says hello.

So I've kept to the plan :) Last night Rob was a bit disappointed that I hadn't done my crunches, so I ended up doing 40 of them IN BED. BOOYAH. Doing crunches in bed may not be the best form, but it's a hell of a lot easier on the tailbone! My butt does not like me lying flat on my back. Yoga class promises to be interesting for this reason LOL (since I can't kneel either).

Dinner was a lovely frozen lasagna (which I cooked in the microwave, so even less effort than usual). The ten-year-old was sick this morning, so she spent the day with Daddy. So I don't have to make her lunch tomorrow (since she has two lunches sitting around in the fridge - unexpected PD day last Friday, and today's lunch - the kids can fight over who gets which).

And apparently my friend Stephan and his wife are expecting their third little boy (oh come on, you've had two already, my chances are good!), and Chris and Shumin are expecting their second little Rakos, so HUGE congrats to them :) I swear, EVERYBODY AROUND ME IS BREEDING... and Rob wonders why my biological clock has suddenly started going haywire. Logically and intellectually, I know that I don't want another baby. I know I don't want to raise another child (got my hands full already, thanks!). But the raw emotional reaction? I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the baby move inside me and I loved holding that little body that trusted me implicitly. I loved nursing, I loved sitting in the living room at 3am with the balcony door open, listening to the city's night noises. I loved all of that, and I wish I could experience it again.

Once everybody stops popping out kids (or maybe once I get to babysit for a few of my pregnant friends, hiiiiiiiiint to Kit & Phae!), my hormones will probably calm down some ;) In the meantime, I'm very thankful to be lucky enough to have a fantastic guy who puts up with my irrational behavior and wicked mood swings. (He's off playing with power tools tonight with some guy friends to compensate LOL) Wait... Rob, does a welder count as a power tool? Meh. I'm a girly girl when it comes to tools. I know what some of them do, but I'm pretty useless with most of them LOL

Oh, and it's September 19th, making today....

TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY~!!!!!!! YARRRRR!!!

So how was THAT for rambling nonsense? As you were...

The Long Walk...

I got up at an ungodly hour this morning to go walking with some of my knitting friends. Picked up Sarah shortly after 8am (hey, that's ungodly when you've worked until 3am!) and headed over to the Running Room on Merivale Road. Our friend Sandy joined us and a few other dedicated souls (who were in much better shape than me, but that's ok) and off we went. 2.72 miles (or 4.34 km) later, I was wiped, sore and wanting to go back to bed. I did get catcalled from a passing van, but I think there may have been some drugs or hangover involved there...

I will confess, I have not done my 50 crunches. I had fully intended to do it when I got home, but my stomach is still full enough that it will cause some upset, so I'm skipping them. I did do my 100 steps on the stair machine though! I got baby time, I got a tiny bit of knitting time (was interrupted by baby time) and I picked up some beautiful Macintosh apples at the Orleans Fruit Farm. My cousin says his father-in-law would pay handsomely for some more of my apple butter, so I'm going to make a full batch just for him (I'll make more for us later in the fall). I figure the apples cost me $10 and a box of jars will cost me $10, so $20 is a fair price for a batch of apple butter. Not really in it to make a profit, but if the ingredients and equipment are paid for, that's fair :).

All in all, it's been an active day, and I'm tired and happy. Mom also sent me home with leftover corn on the cob (beautiful stuff from a farm in Richmond, ON - you can buy it from a truck on St. Joseph in Orleans, just across from Place d'Orleans - best corn I've ever had) and some leftover t-bone steaks (yum!). So the kids and I are having corn and steak for our lunches tomorrow ;) Spoiled? mmmmm yeah, just a bit ;)

Saturday in the Park

Well okay, there was no park involved. There was, however, some fantastic time spent at Knit Knackers Yarn Warehouse on Bank Street this afternoon at a free sweater demystifying workshop taught by a fantastic knitter I met through Ravelry. If you ever want to take some knitting classes, Lillian Trudeau teaches all the classes and workshops at Knit Knackers (except spinning - Juliana teaches that), and she's very good at it :) I can't wait to take some of her more involved classes! I've made a lot of progress on my DROPS Designs tank top in the last week, and I can't wait to finish it! I'm hoping to wear it to Thanksgiving dinner, but failing that, I'll wear it to American Thanksgiving!

Photo mine, steal not please :)

I accomplished my 100 stairs once today (might do it again before bed) and I did my 50 crunches. Not sure the ab-rocker helped any - it's actually quite difficult to use! I might try just doing crunches normally. My tailbone HURTS lol I'm also going to turn into a total girl for a second here and say it's definitely time to cut my nails as I bent one backwards while doing the crunches - don't ask me how. I'm gifted.

So after knitting, I came home and watched De-Lovely (2004), which is one of my favorite films. It's a biopic of Cole Porter's life with his wife, Linda. Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd are absolutely brilliant in it, and I love the music - even Alanis Morissette's performance of "Let's Fall in Love". (it was quite good, really!) I cry every time though, several times throughout. These were extraordinary people. I highly recommend it, and although it might be a bit chick-flicky (it *is* a love story, after all), it's definitely worth a watch even if you're not a chick :P

Tomorrow morning, I'm getting up at an ungodly hour to go walking with some of my knitting friends at the Merivale location of the Running Room. I'm a bit apprehensive - in my experience, Running Room people take their walking/running groups seriously, but Sandy and Sarah promise they won't leave me in the dust. Starting the first week of October, I'll also be attending YOGA classes with several of my coworkers. We got an excellent deal at Jack Purcell, and a bunch of us will be schlepping our non-yoga-doing butts down there every Wednesday lunch hour for eight weeks! This could be interesting (and comical for the others). They did promise not to laugh *at* me ;) Again, apprehensive, but cautiously optimistic.

It's been a beautiful Indian summer day, and I'm more in the mood for fall than ever. My mom told me today that she's buying me a small chest freezer as a combination birthday and Christmas gift. You can not imagine how thrilled I am about this :) I've wanted one for years, but could never quite manage it financially. It means I'll have to get rid of my kitchen table (which is the kitchen table my parents bought when they got married) but I'm okay with that, since we never eat at it anyway and it's just a place for stuff to accumulate. So while my friend Chris is sunning himself at DisneyWorld and taking pictures of his son and beautiful pregnant wife on the beach, I'll just hope fall lasts a really long time and keep enjoying the leaves turning and all the beautiful things around me. Enjoy your weekend!

Also mine - leave it be please :)

Friday weigh-in: 277!!!

To be perfectly honest, the scale said 277 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, and then jumped to 282 this morning, but Aunt Flo arrived at the same time, so I'm going with the 277. Sue me. ;)

Why yes, that is a picture of a man being lifted by a bunch of balloons. Did you know that you can pay to do this? Seriously. They have a website and everything. Clusterballoon.org. Go see them!

That said, I'm a week early, I'm annoyed about it, but at the same time, it's par for the course these days. Food-wise, I've not been making all the SMARTEST choices, but I've been smart about my BAD choices, if that makes sense. Last night, we got home really late, so I stopped at the mall to pick up some Subway for dinner. However, instead of getting a footlong sub like I normally would, I got a six inch and piled on the veggies. (I do love my footlong subs... part of the reason I made it up to 310 at my heaviest).

So as of today, I have three weeks and two days until Rob arrives. The goal was to hit 275 by my birthday, and I'm hoping to leave it in the dust! Here's the plan:

Week ONE:
100 steps on the stair master at least once a day
3 flights of stairs at work at least once a day (that's from the 4th floor, which is where my boss is, to the 7th floor where I am)
50 crunches with the ab-rocker every day
1 mile walked every day.

I will revisit and re-evaluate after week one to see how much progress I've made. This starts tomorrow, Saturday morning :) Week one will be entirely about exercise, and I don't plan on changing my eating habits just yet.

Yesterday I forgot I was wearing buttoned pants, and when I went to the bathroom at one point, I just slid them off. Um..... yay, my pants just slide off, but at the same time, boo - my pants just slid off. That said, I need new pants. I can not yet afford new pants. This is a dilemma LOL Fortunately, I should be able to get pants in a couple of weeks! PANTS. Have I used the word "pants" enough yet? No? PANTSPANTSPANTS. Pants. I've always liked that word. Moreso after I found out that it was my ex-boyfriend's favorite swear word (he's British... I can't explain it). Right, this is getting silly, so I'll go now.

PANTS.

Lazy Thursday...

So I barely have time to think anymore. I got home last night to discover water all over the bathroom floor, an overflowing toilet, and two hungry kids *sigh* After nearly an HOUR of working with the plunger, I managed to get the toilet working again (thank god!). Off to swimming lessons for the twelve-year-old, where, for the *third* week in a row, we had a fight to get him into (and then subsequently OUT of) the change room... *sigh* I'm not sure why. But for some reason, although he LOVES swimming, he hates that change room. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the guys (all strangers) are getting nekkid in front of each other, and he's not used to that. Might have to tell him to pick a bathroom stall and get changed in there.

Between my schedule and Rob's, we rarely get to talk to each other until late in the evening, and it's taking a toll on my sleep schedule. I hate it, because if I put a moratorium on late-night conversations, I won't get to talk to him at all until the weekends. Stupid distance. Well, September's always crazy for both of us anyway, especially since I started school and he decided to take some classes as well ;)

I love Tracy Chapman, always have. But this song is just where I'm at right now. It came up on my iPad (which I use as an mp3 player at work) and it just made me feel so good. Right now, I've got a semi-headache, my throat is trying to decide whether it wants to be scratchy, I'm tired enough to fall asleep, and I'm a bit congested. This likely means I'm succumbing to the cold everyone's been trying to throw at me for the last two weeks, but I'm pretty mellow about it right now. I'm drinking a lot, and I'll be going to bed early tonight.

So as I sit here at my desk with a crisp fall day going on outside, the reflection of last night's rainwater on my ceiling, and my lovely knitted wrap keeping me warm, I'm feeling lazy, but happy. This is my favorite time of year, and I'm going to enjoy it, even if I do get sick.

Photo is mine, please don't steal, mkay?

Friday On Time....?

Well, weigh-in isn't fantastic, but at least it's down. Saw 278 on the scale this morning. It's a sign of hope. It's a sign that even when things are incredibly hectic and I'm not always paying attention, I'm still moving in the right general direction. That's an encouraging feeling. It doesn't mean I'm going to completely disregard eating and exercise from now on, but it means I'll beat myself up a bit less when I'm maybe not 100%.

I get the feeling it'd be at 277 if my body could get into a decent rhythm. What does that mean? It means my innards are on a weird schedule and my body vacates its waste mid-morning instead of later in the day. TMI? For sure. but it's one of those things that affects my weigh-ins, and it bothers me.

I had my first class on Tuesday, and it was awesome. My Prof is this feisty old lady who has some definite passion for our field of study (I'm in translation) and she's really fun and interesting. I kept trying to figure out what she was wearing. Looked like a high-necked dress (long sleeves, down to the ankles) - to be honest, it looked like some old pilgrim dress. On top of that, she was wearing a huge square of fabric like a Clint Eastwood poncho (from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, say). No idea why, unless she naturally runs to being cold, but she made it work :) I think this is going to be an awesome class.

Both kids had their first swimming lessons - the ten-year-old took to it like a duck to water. See what I did there? :P (puns truly are the lowest form of humor!) The twelve-year-old stood against the wall, not moving, until I broke the rules and went into the pool area with *gasp* SHOES on to sort out whose class he was supposed to be in and argue him into the water LOL To be fair, he's a great deal older than most of the kids in the class, but that's only because his form is a bit off, not because he can't swim. He enjoyed it once he got going :)

Aaaaand I'm officially working at Michaels now :) Weekends only, of course. Fortunately, I'm not working THIS weekend, so I can still work my closing shifts at the pizza place tonight and Saturday without painful sleep deprivation ;) And on that note, it's time for me to go to my day job LOL Have a great weekend, everybody!

Yes, this is one of MY pics, please don't swipe it.

Belated Friday?

Wups... *blush*

Ever since I got back from Chicago, I've been running from one place to another with barely enough time to sit down and breathe. Therefore, no blog updates! Anyway, I did weigh myself last Friday, and I was at 280 even. Not great, but I'm ok with it considering the stress I've been living with!

Rob took my measurements and a photo while I was visiting. (he fails in the picture-taking department!)

You may be able to make out a person at the end of that murky hallway. That'd be me. Current pic. Not that it shows any detail, and not that you can tell how fat (or not) I am compared to pics from last year (which I haven't posted). Lord love him, his camera sucks, so that's the best we were able to do LOL Next time we'll use mine.

Measurements are currently

Bust (under): 43 inches (previously 43.75 inches)
Waist: 46.5 inches (previously 47 inches)
Hips: 58 inches (previously 59 inches)
Biceps: 16.75 inches (previously 16.75 inches)
Thigh: 29 inches (previously 28.75 inches)
Calf: 18 inches (previously 18.5 inches)

Not a great loss, but a loss! It'll do for now. As for stress, well Dad's still in the hospital (I think, I visited on Sunday), the 9 year old has swimming lessons on Tuesdays from 5 to 5:30, then I have class from 7 to 10. The 12 year old has swimming lessons on Wednesdays from 6 to 6:30. I work full-time during the day, then I also have a part-time job for the pizza place (evenings), and I'm currently working on getting hired on part-time at a craft store (weekends). Add school to that, and I can barely breathe *sigh* However, I need to become financially independent. I'm tired of relying on my ex-husband to get me through. (I'm sure he's tired of it as well!)

My dad said I could have the smaller of his two bikes. If he holds to that, then next spring I will have a bicycle! :D It's too small for him to ride. So now if I want to be able to use it, I have to stop letting stress and lack of time dictate my eating habits. I'm going to make a pot of chili this week for school nights and times when I don't have time to get elaborate meals ready. I also need to bake some corn muffins (the boy's favorite) and some fruit muffins for breakfasts. I just really need to purge my living space and pare down so we're not constantly battling with mounds of stuff. We need to be able to find things quickly and easily ;) The livingroom floor got cleaned up on Monday. Now we just need to clear off the couch.

I got a couple of bookshelf frames out of the garbage a few months ago when a neighbor moved out. For some reason, she kept all the actual shelves. Ugh. So I need to pick up some wood to make backings (1/4 inch should be fine) and some half-inch particle board that I intend to coat with shelf paper for shelves. Then I'll be able to reorganize the front room to hold a lot more books, and give my poor son a bookshelf for his room again!

Both kids have - amazingly - cleaned their rooms without being asked! Granted, the nine-year-old packed every piece of dirty laundry she owns into boxes and bins in her closet, and the twelve-year-old has a large pile of books and magazines int he corner, but they cleaned! Sadly, the nine-year-old did the vacuum cleaner in while she was doing her room, so I need to see about fixing that.

Most people go into a spring cleaning frenzy. I tend to do it in the fall when it cools down outside. I want all the excess stuff GONE. All of it. I need the landlord to fix my bathroom sink, the bathroom ceiling, and I want that new stove he promised me (2 years ago). ugh. So that's where we are today. I'll try to be a bit more regular in my posting (for the two people who read this LOL)