Maine or bust!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Progress...

Fitness - I've been keeping up with my crunches and bicep curls, but I'm still (furiously) waiting for the treadmill parts to come in. I know, I know. I keep griping about this. But for pete's sake, I've now been waiting for even a hint of information, never mind the parts I already paid for! I want to get walking again. At this rate, spring will arrive before the treadmill is repaired. Matter of fact, it's a gorgeous day out today, I think I'll take a walk at lunch :) I made myself a new little motivation poster that hangs above my computer at work, and I've made copies for the wall in front of my computer at home, my fridge door and on my bedroom door at home. Basically, every time I see a grossly overweight woman, I'm secretly terrified that it's what I look like. And the truth is, that IS what I look like. My brother took some pictures of my cousin's wife holding his new baby this summer, and I was caught in the background. I was horrified at how I looked (and at the fact that he'd caught me during the one time I ate that day LOL). So I cropped my cousin's wife out of the picture and was left with this:


If that's not motivation to lose weight, I don't know what is. I look like a bloody great blob of fat. I know I'm better than this. I know I *deserve* better than this. And I'll be damned if I am going to continue to look like this. This? This is gross. This is not a person, it's a lazy eating machine. And I want to be a healthy, energetic person :) The kind that can go for hikes and bicycle rides with my boyfriend. The kind that can keep up with my kids :) The kind that doesn't just melt into the couch. I need to let go of the guilt I'm constantly wallowing in and allow myself to become what I want.

Knitting - There has been some small progress made on several projects. I'm about 2/3 done the Baby Surprise Jacket, I managed a few rows on Skye's sweater, and I knocked out a hexipuff and a half yesterday (the cat then tried to eat the remainder, but Zachary rescued it). I also did a couple of pattern repeats on the spiral scarf. I'm still not crazy about the yarn, but I figure this will be one of those projects I work on at odd times when I feel like knitting but don't feel like knitting ON anything I've got going. I promise a glut of knitting pictures very soon! (like maybe tonight, since I'm sure Jeff will want to have his camera for the trip to Disney he's taking the kids on).

Food - OMG. I recently discovered the wonder and ease of curries with Kari. Kari eats these all the time. I've never bothered trying at home, because I used to work near an Indian restaurant, and I'd just pick them up every so often. Well, it's been a while, and I really LOVE curries of all kinds. So the other day, Skye had some leftovers from Zachary's birthday dinner to nosh on, so I chopped up some beef stewing cubes, paneer and zucchini, and cooked it up with a bit of Tikka Masala sauce, and Zach and I ate that with tortillas. Took maybe 10 minutes to prepare, and it was amazingly good! SO EASY. So this morning, when it came time to prepare my lunch, I cooked up a few more pork stewing cubes, a bit of paneer, some wax beans and a shallot with some more tikka sauce. Delicious :) I'm now addicted to paneer, although I'm not sure that's a good thing, given that I'm supposed to give up dairy (I'm still not sure about that.) I also brought myself some fresh fruit (a small golden delicious apple and a small pear, quartered, some strawberries, and a bit of almond-based yogurt to dip it in) and a bit of ham with russian sweet mustard. I may save some of that for later in the afternoon to offset dinnertime. I've been trying to up my water consumption too, so I'm going to try to stick to a rule of drinking a glass of water before putting anything in my mouth. Kick me in the ass if we're out together and I'm not following this rule!

School - not much to report. I'm slowly plugging away at the project, but it'd be helpful if I could find the notebook I had all the handouts in! I'm meeting with the Rabbi tonight at Judaism class to reaffirm my desire to convert :) I'm so excited! That, and I'm really having a lot of fun in Hebrew class :) Hillel's an awesome instructor! I skipped the Purimspiel this weekend, but I had to get some work done at the office, and it helped a lot :)

Everything else - I spent most of this past weekend on my own. Friday night's knit night was a bit off somehow, and I didn't feel like moving on to the pub afterward. I went home, talked to Rob for a bit and went to sleep. I spent a good part of Saturday at the office, got a lot done, but I basically had NO human interaction most of the day. I went to pick up the kids, and Jeff and I took them shopping and then out to dinner at Fatboys for Zachary's birthday (he turned 14 last week). I swear, I just love this restaurant more each time I eat there! And this was two weekends in a row, since Rob and I were there with our friends Sylvie and Sarah last weekend. Can't eat out again for a while though... I'm starting to crave simple, homemade food and a lot of greens. So much so that I've started dreaming about planting gardens again. I know it's a pipe dream at least for this year, but mark my words. Someday I will have this:


Yup, it's mid-February. Lynne wants a garden ;)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Six days of silence...

Sorry about that! Rob was visiting ;)

Fitness - Would you believe, I'm still waiting for word from the treadmill people? The best part is, I've called them three times since I last wrote, and still not one iota of information has been given to me. They keep promising to find out and call me back, they never call back. If there was ANYONE ELSE within a reasonable distance that sold/serviced this treadmill, I would go to them in a heartbeat. I will never shop at Club Piscine again. Their customer service is ABHORRENT! In other news, Rob has set me a 14-day challenge to do 20 bicep curls (each side) and 20 crunches per day in exchange for a half-hour back rub :) I like back rubs. I've also decided that printing out pictures of grossly overweight people (to remind me of what I actually look like) and keeping them around will be better incentive. Because I saw a lady the other day, and I looked at Rob and whispered, "Is that what I look like?" and he said, "Yeah, pretty close," and I was totally grossed out :(

Knitting - Oh knitting... I've done a bit of work on Skye's sweater (a couple of rows) and a bit on the Baby Surprise Jacket (a couple of rows) and a whole lot of nothing else. I did finally find and kitchener that last Hexipuff I had worked on. I also knitted two worsted-weight hexipuffs to experiment a bit with more immediate gratification (I'll use scraps to make baby blankets, maybe). No knitting was done while Rob was here, because, well... Rob was here ;) He arrived during knit night. His original itinerary said his arrival time was 9:41, so I was prepared to leave knit night around 9pm for the airport. I get in the car, notice I missed a call, and my stomach drops. Poor Rob landed at 8:40, not 9:40, and he's been sitting around the airport by himself for half an hour! I rushed over to pick him up, but it still ended up being another 20-30 minutes before I could get there. NEVER AGAIN. I will print out his itinerary from now on, and keep it with me. I was too hyper at knit night to get much of anything done LOL

Food - Other than roasting a chicken the other day (just basic roaster in a pan with potatoes and onions - and a bit of lemon zest), I haven't done much. I do have a butternut squash in the fridge that really wants to be soup, and I think the zucchini and paneer I have in the fridge are going to make an appearance in some quinoa salad. I have to steam the leftover baby bok choy and the brussel sprouts are going to be part of tonight's dinner (the kids love them!). Other than that, I have three pomegranates I really need to take apart before they go bad, and I'll have to do my second batch of applesauce sometime soon, since I still have two six-litre baskets of apples in my back room.

School - Well, I've finally started the project we're working on in my Documentation and terminology class. OMG how boring, but I need to get it done. And it requires a fair bit of research, so I can't just leave it to the last minute. I'm tired of the stress that creates anyway. No Intro to Judaism class this week, since Monday was Family Day in Ontario, but I've been practicing my Hebrew reading a bit. I want to start reading one of the books they gave us this week (in the middle of a short Margaret Yorke mystery I need to finish first, that I'm now realizing I read a few years ago).

Everything else - Not much going on other than Rob's visit. He ended up being stuck here for an extra day because Toronto is apparently terrified of snow. :) I'm not complaining... but if we'd known he wouldn't make his connection to Chicago when we got his boarding pass, we wouldn't have then wasted another two and a half hours at the airport, so boo to the counter agent who forgot to check the weather advisories, because the lady at the gate knew all about it, and so did the other two counter ladies when I went back to check. Yay to Porter for being super-awesome though and rescheduling his flights TWICE (once last week, once on Monday) with no hassle (and no extra fees). There's a reason we only fly with them now. This week has been a bit of a non-starter, what with my computer doing wonky things at work and my brain being slightly fried from the remainders of the headcold that just won't let go. The boy turns 14 today, so happy birthday to my too-tall teenager :) Now you can enter the weight room at the gym, so no excuses for mom not going!

No, this isn't his cake. He'll say it's because I don't love him
that much, but in fact, it's because he doesn't particularly
like cake. He likes cheesecake. Which is what he is getting.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy what now?

Fitness - The fitness section is in the naughty corner until my treadmill gets fixed. I'm so annoyed with the bloody store at this point that I wish I could get my treadmill serviced by ANYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET. I have called SIX times to find out when I can expect the parts in, and they keep telling me they'll check and call me back. They NEVER call me back, it's always me who has to call them, and I never get an answer. At this point, I have paid for the parts, in full, and I want to use my damn treadmill!

Knitting - I've had very little knitting time since I last wrote. I did work on the Baby Surprise Jacket for a while during class on Tuesday, but that's about all. I think I've been too discouraged to work on Skye's sweater, because I know I've got to rip back a bit. I've misplaced my latest hexipuff (which just needed stuffing and a kitchener close) and I can't start any more until I find it, because the needles are in with it LOL Ooops. The Laura's Fingerless Mitts, I am ashamed to confess, have been living in the passenger footwell of my car for the last week. I'll have to bring them upstairs when I get home tonight. I've been a bad knitter this week. I watched the Two Tangled Skeins podcast on Tuesday and I realized just how much I miss the girls when I don't get out to knit nights!!!! (Go check them out, tell them I sent you!) I feel kind of guilty for planning on going this week because I've got a cold... but I've been sick since Sunday, so academically, I know I'm not contagious anymore, but I still feel bad being out in public. But I needs me some grownup interaction time, which I don't get otherwise.

Food - Ugh. Rob challenged me the other day to track everything I was eating on Fitday. Now I've been honest with Rob about the whole eating disorder thing, and I've told him that I have no self-control and we've been round and round this ferris wheel any number of times. Logged my food the first day and did fine. Logged it yesterday and did not so fine. I had a bit of a binge around dinnertime. This is not so unusual on grocery nights, because I don't plan dinner before I head out and by the time I get home and everything is put away, I'm starving and crabby, so I just eat. And eat. And eat. And now Rob knows what a small binge looks like, because he got to read the whole sordid thing on Fitday. And he was a bit shocked. And all I could think of was, "Gee, and that was a relatively healthy binge! Imagine how he'd react to a bad one!" I know he's trying to help, and I do appreciate that he loves me and wants me to be healthy, but holy hell, did I feel awful last night :( On the plus side, I really did not like that awful feeling, so today I've pretty much kept on track. The kids and I will have to explore possibilities for dinner when I get home.

School - First note of importance: I finally got my grade for the class that got cancelled by the strike last March! I got a B+!!!!!! I'm really thrilled with the grade, because I didn't think I did all that well on the final project (which was worth about 60% of the grade). Second note of importance: I need a major kick in the ass. My entire class right now revolves around one major project. There are no assignments for this class, there are no quizzes, there are no exams. There's just this big project. And let's be honest. For me, being fully bilingual? This project is a walk in the park. And I haven't even started it yet! ARGH. Procrastination is a major flaw of mine, and I usually end up feverishly writing my assignments on the day they're due, and I usually pull off a pretty decent grade considering how I work... but this time, this time I want to get this done ahead of time. I want to do a good job and get an AWESOME grade, not just a so-so one. This prof is awesome, he has total faith in me, and I don't want to be that lazy bum that disappoints him. So do me a favor and kick me in the ass!

Everything else - Not much else going on. I'm kind of in this rut of needing to improve things, but not quite getting there. I need to buckle down and start getting shit done. And I can't help feeling that it would be a lot easier to make it that last little step if only my brain wasn't drowning in mucous...


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The best-laid plans of mice and men...

Okay, so by now, everybody knows that Rob's flight got cancelled on Friday, so I didn't get to spend the weekend with him as originally planned. So instead, I spent the entire weekend in seclusion. I didn't go out to knit night on Friday because the weather was horrendous, and I was so bummed that Rob wasn't coming that I didn't want to see anyone else. Saturday, I sat around all day watching episodes of Smallville, knitting, and fighting off a migraine (I lost). Sunday, I bummed around most of the morning, still fighting off the migraine (I finally won), and then we went to my mom's for the afternoon.

Because of Rob's impending visit and my inability to read a calendar, I had booked Monday off - Rob was supposed to come for Family Day weekend, since I get that Monday off. Family Day is February 18th, not February 11th, so I had to book it off. I decided not to cancel my day off because I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, and both kids had a PD day, so we had a nice quiet day at home. I had a dr's appointment in the morning, got a referral to a counsellor who specializes in eating disorders (Yay!) and got an order for an EKG. Turns out my doctor never got the blood test results back from the lab, so I went by and picked them up. There are a few things on there that worry me slightly, but more on that after I've discussed them with my doctor. So.

Fitness - Don't talk to me. I feel like crap, physically and emotionally, and I will post about this when I'm feeling a bit more human. My doctor did confirm that I have a soft tissue injury to my left knee (she found three separate pockets of fluid after I told her it had been sore since I started doing squats. Her solution? Stop doing squats!) I'm still waiting on the treadmill people, and I think I'll phone them today because I'm getting tired of waiting.

Knitting - I was getting bored with Skye's sweater, so I cast on a few things. First, I cast on a Spiral Scarf using Staci Perry's tutorial, size 7 needles, and this god-awful Noro Maiko I bought when Knit Knackers was closing their doors. It's full of VM (vegetable matter), it feels horrible to knit with, and I just don't like it. I'm glad I gave the four skeins of forest green I'd bought to Sue!


It's a gorgeous colour though, so I figured I'd turn it into something small and pretty that I can wear to dress up my favourite black outfits. I also cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket on size 5 needles using some Lang Javolll Magic I had bought to make the Riverbed socks.


This is a gorgeous ball of sport-weight yarn that's more than enough to do a BSJ, and I've kind of fallen out of love with the sock pattern (I'll go back to it someday when I find the right yarn - this wasn't it). The BSJ is kind of a fire and forget type of pattern. I've made two or three of these so far, and I love them for almost-mindless knitting. While in class last night, I knit on the BSJ for a while and then decided to pick Skye's sweater up again - where I knitted for a few minutes and then realized I had somehow managed to knit 2-3 rows at some point that weren't marked on the row counter, because I was way off. *sigh* So now I have to tink back a few rows. Kari said I could just keep knitting and tink back where the cables should be and fix them, but that sounds too much like work, and with my brains leaking out through my nose right now, I'd rather go the easy way. I've gotten a lot of knitting done this weekend!

Food - I finally made the applesauce! I spent a few hours peeling apples, cooking the applesauce and canning it. I think I didn't let it boil down long enough though, because there's about a half-inch of liquid at the bottom of each jar LOL It set though (without pectin!!! literally all there is in this stuff is a bit of water, and apples!). We'll see how it tastes when I cook some pork chops this week. I love savory applications for applesauce. I was meant to make the asparagus pickles with the kids yesterday, but I felt so rotten that I took a nap before class - and it's a good thing I did, because I felt fantastic when I finally got there!

School - Kevin gave us all a fantastic student-led presentation on Purim yesterday - which was useful, because I had no idea what Purim was about! Hebrew class went about the same as always. The instructor keeps telling me I'm doing really well, and I'm getting a lot better at sight reading, but I'm still having trouble telling the chet, the hei and the tav apart, and the bet/vet, kav/chaf and pei/fei... and then there are the dots that change the letter sounds, and then the sofit (final) forms... and now the ayin and the tzadi... and I'm a bit lost LOL I need to make myself some flash cards to practice.

Chet (letter phlegm)
Hei (h sound)

Tav (t sound)

See why I'm confused?

Everything else - well, I covered most of it in the first paragraph, but I was an idiot, stopped taking ColdFX when I felt a bit better, and then the cold kicked my ass. Thank goodness for Buckley tablets (AWESOME) and lots of water. This is what happens when I watch tv or movies until 2-3 in the morning because I'm depressed. Hopefully, the worst of it will be over when Rob finally arrives this coming Friday (hey, what do you know? On FAMILY DAY WEEKEND!) Shut up. Don't judge me. It's the mucous talking.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Living in Castle AAAAAAARRRGGHHHHHH...

I don't know what the heck is going on, but I can't post to Facebook, I can't like or comment on anything, I can't do anything, and my best friend is MIA and my office has been completely turned upside-down by year end and changing cabinets *sigh*

DEEP BREATH

I know the Facebook thing isn't a huge deal, and I'll survive and all, but it's REALLY FRUSTRATING when things don't work the way they're supposed to! GRAAAAAAAHHHH.

That said, I'm beyond busy, and I really don't have time to write a proper blog post, so this'll have to be it. I've had next to NO knitting time, very little house-cleaning time, didn't do my squats or curls last night because I had yet another sick kid and wasn't feeling too hot myself (again). I'm going to dive back into the mountain of paper that is my office and hope that I don't drown before it's time to go home. Wish me luck!


ETA: oh yeah duh... if I can't post to Facebook, it means I can't post the blog entry to Facebook either. UGH.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

10,000 maniacs...

As of today, there have been 10,002 views on my blog (none of which are mine LOL)!!! Holy crap, y'all! That's a lot of page views!!!

Fitness - Ugh. I need a serious kick in the pants. I think I finally figured out what's been messing with my knees so much. I change out of my boots when I get to work, and put on a pair of low heels (1 or 1 1/2 inch tops). Today, after an HOUR in the office, my knees were so bad I could barely take two steps without stumbling. Took the shoes off and went barefoot for a while (well, I had socks on), and then went back to my boots and felt way better. The second I start heading down stairs though, the pain is incredible. No more heels for a while (sorry Rob). So squats were skipped yesterday, but I should be on track to do them tonight. I've been doing the dumbell bicep curls Rob challenged me with, and it hurts to knit now LOL Can't wait for the treadmill parts to come in!

Knitting - I am knitting this top for Skye:

It's a child's sweater, so I've had to restart a few times to get the sizing right. I'm doing it in hot pink cotton, and I swear I've restarted this sweater five times. In the beginning, I was knitting it in pieces, as written in the pattern. I got about four inches into the back when I realized that there was no way this was going to be big enough. I keep forgetting that cabling really narrows knitting. So I ripped it and cast it on in the round with a few extra pattern repeats. Got about 8 rows in and realized I'd messed up the start-up rows, so I ripped back to the 3rd row, spent 40 minutes picking all the stitches back up (backwards - every last one of them) and another 20 minutes re-knitting the remaining setup rows, making sure I was doing it properly. I now have stitch markers for each pattern repeat and should be able to continue without incident. The poor ribbed mittens were forgotten in the back of my car over the weekend, so they remain untouched. I did a whole ONE hexipuff this week.

Food - Would you believe, I STILL haven't gotten around to making that applesauce? I've been so busy lately that I keep putting it off. It really needs to be made though. Rob may have to help me bring the new stove upstairs on Saturday so we can get it done with more than one burner! Food has been on the 'super-easy-to-digest' plan for the last few days for reasons I'll get into below. I'm now thinking of using the Spiced Applesauce recipe from the Food in Jars cookbook (I love that book!)

School - I didn't go to Judaism class this week because I wasn't feeling well. I'm current IN my other class, and still wondering why we seem to be discussing the very same things we've been talking about since the beginning of the term. *sigh* I have to get to work on my assignment.

Everything else - Well.... Sunday evening, after his swimming class and dinner at my mom's, Zachary spent the night throwing up (and at nearly 14 years of age, he still can't make it to the bathroom... I can't fault him for that though, I was an adult before I could). At least three times in different locations until I could get him to sleep with a bowl. He spent the rest of the night on the couch, and spent the next day sleeping until I got home at 5pm. Even Gravol wouldn't stay down :( I wasn't feeling too well myself by Monday afternoon, so I stayed home from class (you know, they teach us to share, but I doubt anybody would have appreciated a stomach bug being shared). Poor kid had no idea what was happening to him. The last time he got this type of stomach bug, he was six months old. Fortunately, Skye is doing great :) I'm hoping everybody will be in decent shape when Rob arrives on Friday! Oh yeah, Rob's coming to visit this weekend :) I'm very excited, because we're going out with my friend Sylvie and her wife while he's here :D I haven't seen them in way too long!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Talent beyond measure...

I've posted one of Nick Pitera's videos here before. This kid is phenomenal :) He deserves to be viral. Make it so :)


Check out his other videos on Youtube too :) I'm going to knit night. Talk to you all next week!