Long day...

No workout today.
I just don't want to. My stomach finally feels back to normal and I had a rather stressful evening last night, so I'm just relaxing. My mum was flown to the hospital here in town yesterday from the small town one she was at neat the cabin, as her lungs and breathing were not picking up. Now, she is getting great care...her lungs are full of fluid and her heart is weak...but the cardiologists here are the best in the province. It has been nice to go and visit her and I'm glad to know she is here...I'm hoping to go see her today and I am hoping that the people here will be able to do more for her...
Dad just arrived...later taters...gotta go :)

Day 21: Note to self

Bleh.
This morning after 3 days of scrumptious meals (there was coq au van, people!) I got up this Am and went to workout. I learned a valuable lesson though. I usually workout on an empty stomach...this Am I had a glass of cranberry juice first. BAD idea. In the ball DVD I do pushups to the point of exhaustion and then you hop on the ball on your stomach to do back exercises...and YUK. I made myself quite ill. So yeah...now I know. No food or drink until after I workout. Especially when I'm going to be ON my stomach...maybe it was the rich meal last night too on top of it all. Either way, not the best idea I've ever had.

I feel a bit better now with some toast and coffee in me, but I am still a bit off. Part of it might be form all the feasting the past few days. I didn't overeat to the point of feeling bad, but it's been a lot of rich foods...on Christmas Eve it was stuffed chicken, on Christmas J and I had my famous tofu Parmesan, and boxing day was turkey supper and lots of wine at the inlaws...and then last night a friend and I made coq au van together (with a real capon). Yum. But all far more rich and such than I'm used to. I'm looking forward to normal foods again. I didn't do too badly as far as over indulging, but I know myself...I just can't eat what I used to (which is a good thing) and I've learned when to stop or I feel gross. I weighed myself and I am 132, so I've not really changed with all the crazy eating, so I'm pretty happy.

My Dad called this Am and ny Mum is back in the hospital overnight, as they need to adjust her water medication...boo to that. Poor Dad sounded so worried. He's all by himself, and I wish I could be closer for him, just for him to not have to be worrying by himself. Hopefully she'll be out right away. They'll have to cut their New Years plans short, which is a shame, but they'll pack up and head home from the lake to be sure Mum's condition stays level before they come up here to visit in mid-January. I hope she'll be OK. I know it's very discouraging for her...

Now that I'm coffeed and toasted, I plan on sewing for myself today - a nice choli for bellydance. I finished up all my sewn gifts just in time for giving and they were muchly appreciated. They all turned out really well...I was very pleased. Now some sewing for *me* :)
Have a good day all...

Day 20: Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas Everyone :) My friend Shamik sent this to me...I've been giggling at it all morning.

This AM I did my ball workout and it's my last day of work before 10 days off. I can't wait...home tonight to tofu parmesan, apple wine and chillaxing.

Merry Christmas!

Day 19: I'm too sexy for my pants...

Too sexy for my pants!
(Damn, what rhymes with pants....?)

Hiya.
I feel fantasticulastical...ish. I went to bed early last night cuz I was tired and got up bright eyed and worked out this morning. I did 40 minutes on the elliptical, with the first 25 of 40 minutes on resistance 2, with 4 minutes of cooldown. 500 calories. Add in some oatmeal and bananas and I'm ready to go. It's going to be a long fun day today so I wanted to be awake. And, an unexpected christmas gift to myself was that last year I bough some tight "skinny pants" as a goal. And guess what? I'm wearing them right now. Yup. They fit great - not tight at all and I feel FINE...bwa ha hah!

Tonight after work it's Kline Yule at my brothers - ebelskivers and mulled wine and little sausages for supper (his wife is danish), exchanging gifts and then J and I are off to see a play - Little Women. And THEN after that (bwahah) a great night of funky dance music at the local pub - Dekoze and Shakrakhan (some great DJs who've moved on to bigger and better cities) are home for the holidays and will be spinning music till late. It'll be a long great day to ring in the holidays good and fully... I just have to get through work today.
Tomorrow I will limp through the day at work, happily exhausted, and I'll be done at 3PM and then I'm off work for 10 days. That's right 10 days.
Aaahhh. I'm looking forward to the nice holiday break before the MSc working madness begins.
So I gotta be good and finish up so I can get to it :)
Have a great day K?

Day 18: You've come a long way baby. Now don't be a jerk about it...

I woke up and did my ball DVD this morning. I had a nice breakfast and am here at work, ready to go. I'm on track! :)

I'm a little off mentally, as we ran into someone I knew many years ago after seeing Avatar last night. (Avatar is AMAZING. Go see it. Right now. Go on...off with you you can read this later...)
At the theatre we ran into a casual acquaintance through school we hadn't seen for years...and didn't really want to. Now I must clarify that this person isn't a bad person...I don't strongly dislike them or anything...I'm more ambivalent to them. I have a small amount of gratitude to him, as if I hadn't found him to be so annoying many years ago, I wouldn't have dragged the man I happily ended up marrying along with us when he asked me out for coffee and I didn't want to give him the wrong idea. In a way, I owe him big time. :)

Thing is, we know he and his wife live in town. If we'd wanted to reconnect we would have. I've politely brushed off Facebook contacts, as this person had tended to be clingy and I don't have a lot of free time and I choose how I spend it and who I spend it with. Regurgitated TV humour and casual discussion wears thin really quickly. I just don't have much in common with them. I'm past the point where I feel bad about myself and just hang out with people for the sole merit of the fact that they will talk to me. I know I have value. I'm OK with myself, by myself. I have taken time as I've grown in confidence and years to choose friends I care deeply for and...well, for a lack of another way to put it, this person was not chosen to be one of them. I'm hoping they don't just start"dropping by" or calling. I don't want to be rude and give them the firm brush off...I just don't have any desire whatsoever to reconnect on anything other than a very casual level. I'd rather they just drift back into the ether from where they came. And I resent them for feeling guilty about this.

Ah well...we'll see what happens. How do you deal with this?

Day 17: Back in the saddle...wagon...thing

Well I got up this morning and worked out. It felt really good. I kept to resistance level 1 for the 40 minutes, but I gave it all I had and I feel great.
I did my weigh in too...and it's not so bad. I didn't go down but I didn't go up either. I'm still the same. Considering that I haven't been eating clean (to many mindless nibbles and rummy eggnogs) and had a big holiday meal sunday I'm pretty happy about that. I still have a few days to lose that last 1.5 pounds. We'll see...I'm going to be good this week and see what happens :)

Have a great day everyone :)

Music to workout to: The Saint Soundtrack
Which has this AMAZING little song on it. LOVE it. Makes me move whether I want to or not!

Cabbage Rolls 1, Geo 0

Whew.
I may have undone my entire few weeks of work in one meal.
But what a meal :)
Early christmas at J's Grandma's...cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes and gravy. Mmmm.
Actually it wasn't that bad, but I'll be glad to work out tomorrow. It's been too many days since I've worked out last. I put on my dress pants today for lunch and they were baggy. I haven't worn them since last year around this time. Exciting...! I really like those pants, but I can find a new pair I like as much :)
My parents are back home and I've caught up on just hanging out with my J and sewing up some christmas gifts. Almost done...Family stuff on the 23rd and then we're free until boxing day. The 2 of us can spend Christmas together...I can't wait.

We finished up our odd bit of holiday shopping on saturday. This year people seem particularly rushed and grumpy. Granted my J is a bit of a humbug, so I'm usually too christmasy the other way round to compensate, but the manic rush was very palpable today. I was glad we only had a bit of stuff to do...it was very disconcerting. It's supposed to be a time of joy and happiness. That was NOT the vibe I got today, that's for sure... Thankfully there wasn't too much to do out in the greater craziness...mostly homemade gifts this year. I prefer it that way.

Right now I'm feeling pretty damn grateful for what I have.

G'night all!

On the first day of christmas my true love gave to me...a beer, in a tree

Yesterday was nice. I got to visit with Mum and Dad. Mum napped while I made supper so I got to visit with Dad...then visit with both of them. She is slower...and she coughs a lot now. I think it is medication related. I feel so bad for her...there's nothing like watching someone in a 5 minute fit of intermittent coughing (after she eats)...coughing so hard she nearly is ill. She's OK...and sort of embarrassed about it all...and feels bad during it...so I don't want to make a big deal of it so she feels worse. But there's nothing I can do. And I don't want to focus on it...she's so shy she'd feel worse. She is seeing someone about it next week. Hopefully they help her out.
It's so hard to watch. It was one thing to talk with Dad and get the honest level on how she's really doing...he warned me about the coughing spells...but then after supper she started coughing for a bit.
Awful.
The worst was when I saw her lip quiver in the middle of it when she thought I wasn't looking. She looked scared and sad all at the same time. I wanted to just hug her and say she'd be OK. But I can't. I don't know that.
Apparently ACE inhibitors (heart failure meds) can cause coughing, so I'm hoping if maybe she takes them at different times in stead of after food she won't cough so much after meals...It would be hard to eat and keep your strength up when you cough and are nauseous together. Yuck. Parrt of me wants to call up her doctor and yell at him...but I know he's not a jerk. He's not ignoring Mom's symptoms. Maybe it's how it is now. I just want the gorey details. The real details. Not knowing all the nitty gritty is worse.

Don't get me wrong...it's not so horrible. It's just hard to see. Mum did everything for us. She was a nurse who cared for everyone...but now she has to take it easy cause her body is not able to keep up anymore. I'm so very very glad to see her. I got to sew with her last night - she helped me make and sew on some bows to some christmas stockings and it was nice to see just my Mum for a bit... it was stuff we used to do together and stuff she could do no problem...she was like her old self for a bit. It was nice. I hope it cheered her up...
I heart my Mum.
I really do.

I slept in a bit this morning and didn't work out. Yesterday was very long and I was tired...and I wanted to be as awake and level as I could today while they are here. We're going out for supper tonight with my brother and his wife...I hope it's OK. Sometimes I find his wife hard to take...and I hope Mum won't cough too much in the restaurant and feel bad. I know she wants us to act like it's not happening while it is, but how do you carry on a conversation and act normal when your tiny little Mum is coughing so hard she's nearly ill? It'll be weird.

I'm glad I have tomorrow off to visit with them.

Day 16: crazy day

Whew! What a day.
Seeing as I was up until midnight working on my talk for my first MSc committee meeting last night, I slept in a bit but still got up to do my exercise ball DVD again. It was nice...it took the edge off a bit.
Today I had an experiment to do PLUS my MSc presentation and a lunch meeting...and cleaning up from the lab tetris. It all went well. My talk was good. It's funny how I can be so shy and yet talking and speaking on a research topic to 7 people doesn't even make me blink. Odd...but I'm glad for that...makes the whole process less stress.

I got home to a house full of parental units. Mom and Dad are here for a few days. Visited with them and even got to sew a bit with my Mum to help a friend finish up a gift she started for her grandma but didn't know how to finish. It was nice to just do stuff with Mom.
It's nice to see Mum and Dad. I had a good talk with my Dad while Mum napped. He's hanging in there...She's really slowed down, and has a real coughing problem sometimes. I'm glad she's "OK" but she'll never be like she was before...I think she'll be slowed down. A lot. It's weird to see. She is better in some ways than I had imagined...and worse in others...but still Mum. She's tired, but still her. I'm glad...I still have her here. For now that is enough.
I'm just glad to be able to visit with them a bit...
And now...finally...sleepytime.
Ah.

Day 15: Ole

Well, last night went well. I had supper out, but I stuck to a steak and salad and diet coke with lime...and 2 spoons of iced cream and a shot of Baileys....and WAY too much coffee :). Pretty good all things considered. It was my favourite mexican restaurant with a huge selection of import beer...and I managed to resist. It was a fun evening with good people, so I didn't miss it...and I'm starting to find healthy menu things at my favourite restaurants that I love...who would have thought?

My stomach has been bothering me off and on lately. I don't know if my vitamin B12 is low again or what, but I'm trying not to eat too much and really keep to healthy stuff, as it makes my innards much happier. Maybe it's stress...don't know. I'm taking vitamins again as of this week, as I know I get this when my B12 is low. I'm hoping that gives me the kick I need. Nothing says holiday relaxing like stomach gas and cramps. Fun fun...on the plus side, it amplifies the blech feeling I get when I eat crappy foods and removes the whole munching urge...still not worth it in my mind.
ANYways...
This morning I did my ball DVD and relaxed with the cats and had a nice breakfast of (surprise surprise) oatmeal and blueberries. Today I get to hang out with my brother and his wife. His exchange student is going back to Japan next week, so I've gotten her a gorgeous black and red hipscarf with red gold and silver coins and beads...she's been curious about bellydancing and they don't do it much there. Her favourite colour is red. I thought it would be a nice Christmas gift and not take up too much space in her luggage :) It's always sad when their students go home right before Christmas...every January they get a new student. Every one is so unique and distinctly different. I'm so curious to meet their new student, but will be sad to see Yukiho go home - she's so incredibly kind and happy :).

I must be off. We are playing tetris in one of the labs trying to get a biosafety cabinet to fit against the far wall and trying to arrange and move it around all the protruding lab benches. It's about 2 inches too long - I'm hoping the pro movers can fit it back there. It's turned the lab into a gong show and we need to get it in place. Sure it could go back where it was but that's like giving up. :) I'm giving it one more solid tetris try today to see if we can fit it in. Our one tech is VERY pregnant and she cant use it where It is...she can't fit in there. It's funny, but not for her...so we're trying to fix things for her. We'll see how it goes...

Gotta go. Have a good day!

Day 14: Brrr...

I found it rather hard to believe, but this AM I weighed in and the needle was between 131 and 132. Cool! Seeing as I went out saturday night for a few beer and I nibbled some natchos, I sort of expected nothing...but hey! I'll take it! Cool! I have been good otherwise, so I guess it all balanced out.

This AM I was up and did 40 minutes on the elliptical plus a cool down. I almost made the whole time with resistance 2, but switched back and for the the last 10 minutes...still burned 525 calories. Not too shabby.
I made some insanely good pumpkin curry soup on the weekend...I had a pumpkin I'd bought to carve on Halloween but never did, so it became some muffins and some soup. The soup was deadly good and really healthy, so some potato bread (thanks bread robot) and pumpkin soup were yesterday's and today's main food. It's been stupidly cold here (-44 with the wind) so I've worked on my sewing for gifts and I am trying to finish off my MSc talk I have to give Wednesday. It's getting there...I have a bit more time to tweak it so it should be good. I haven't given a talk in years...

I'm going out for dinner tonight, but I will be very good. No beer (sniff) and healthyish meal. I'm excited that I might actually make it to 130 by Christmas.

Mee hee.
Have a good day everybody!

Day 13: Nitty Gritty

I love this song...the whole album is funky funky stuff...makes you want to shake your groove thing. It's in one of my workout mixes on the old iPod.

I'm in a great mood. After the furnace adventure things have gone rather well. I am officially a graduate student. My Mum is home from the hospital (and she loved the big poinsetta I sent her) and last night at bellydance class we did lots of zills and hip drills and I got to balance my very own sword on my head for a while :) Yippedee!
I got up this morning, after a snooze button or two and did my ball DVD and had a good breakfast. The cool thing about it was as I was drying my hair after a shower I noticed something - you know the top front part of your shoulders? Yeah, I have *muscles* there. Noticable pronounced muscles. When did that happen! I haven't had muscles there in a while...me hee. I literally stopped and stared and started moving my arms around a bit and flexing my arms. It's so cool! I haven't had muscles there in a long time. It was all I could do to not go and wake J up to make hom look at my shoulders...but I figured that'd be mean :)
So yeah. It's a good day really. I am quite happy. My parents are going to come visit next week for a few days. Mum still ahs lots of doctor's appointments over the next few weeks, so Dad is going to come up in January and do the renos then. No biggie. It'll be nice to have a visit with them.
I'm looking forward to a weekend of sewing and relaxing...yeah yeah. Have a great weekend!

It's the boodiggity


I am officially a graduate student!

They can't get rid of me now...(just take all my $$ and time!)

My first committee meeting is next week. I start my research in January.

YAY!
As my J would say - "it's the boodiggity!" :)

Day 13: Today's workout is cancelled due to weather

I can honestly claim my indoor workouts were cancelled due to temperature!

I got home last night around 10 after a LONG day to a freezing cold house. It was about 12 degrees...turns out the squeaky noise the furnace was making was rather important. The motor had gone on our furnace. Thankfully where J works there are a lot of space heaters we could borrow so we kept the house from freezing up overnight and arranged for someone to come in first thing 7AM to fix our furnace. Saved ourselves about $200...

I heartily recommend and thank the guy we hired - Integrity Plumbing and Heating in Saskatoon. An independent contractor who's a journeyman for plumbing and heating. He was really nice (no bullshit to me as a girl - that's *huge* in my books), and did everything he could to save us what he could and his labour was reasonable. It wasn't too expensive in the end and we now have heat again...

But needless to say, I didn't get my workout in this morning. Ah well. I have bellydance class tonight, so it's not a total loss. And I had breakfast...
I am exhausted though. After class I'll be glad to come home to a toasty house and go to bed very early.

Moral of the story? Change your furnace filters so you don't wear out your motor....And if your furnace starts making odd squeaky noises don't go "huh, that's odd"...have it looked at! Where I live a broken furnace is critical. -35C is not kind to you. I'm quite relieved to have it all fixed and glad we have a rainy day fund for stuff like this now...makes it a bit less freaky.

And now I must play catch up on my day...later taters...

Day 12: creaky me

Last night I spent the evening on the living room floor cutting out fabric for 3 bunny hug patterns that I'm sewing as gifts for my 3 nieces this Christmas. They're pretty simple, so they won't take too long to sew, and once I got into a groove, I figured I'd cut everything out so that I would be able to sew at them whenever I had time. I have 1 a week to do until Christmas. Hopefully they'll be done with time to spare and it won't be a late night Christmas eve sewing fest (like last year...*cough*). We're doing Christmas on a low scale this year, so homemade things for the girls suits the time. I like it better too...more thought and heart.
When you spend 4 hours bent over on your knees your back gets sore. Go figure! At the end I just laid down on the floor for a bit to let my back relax. I'm fine this morning, so no harm done, but I was so intent on what I was doing I didn't think about getting stiff. I'll have to set a timer for breaks next time I do that sort of thing...I felt very old for a while.
I got up this morning to work out but I was tired. I did it though, I'm proud of that. I did 40 minutes on the elliptical at 15% incline and went back and forth from resistance 1 to 2 until I sort of hit a groove at the the last ten minutes and finished off at 2. Then I did 4 minutes of cool down. My mind kept wandering so the extra resistance helped me focus.
My Mum is still in the hospital after a week in for diagnosis and tests and they're still trying to find a medication to help her weak old heart out a bit, so I admit I'm a little preoccupied. I finally have a phone number for her so I can call her today. Dad says she's bored, as she was hoping to be out on monday...she has a great doctor who doesn't want to let her go until they've tried all they can. I just hope they can find something to help her, otherwise she'll be a much much slow er lady than before, and she's already slowed down a lot. She's done addressing all her Christmas letters and is now looking for something to do to keep alert. I bet she's crocheting up a storm as we speak.
It's a catch 22 really - you have a defective heart valve and a flutter so you take medication to strengthen your heart and thin your blood to help your heart beat stronger and faster to compensate...and then your heart gets tired from all that extra work after years and years. A few years ago Mum's heart started to tire out from all the extra work and those meds didn't work very well anymore. I just don't want to think about the fact that perhaps her heart has just gotten tired and from all those years of extra work, so it just can't beat like it used to anymore. This may be "her" now from now on. Doctor's aren't magicians. My Grandma had the same problems when she got old...I guess we'll see. She's still in good spirits, altho frustrated and getting bored. I'm sending her happy thoughts. Dad is keeping himself well and he is concerned, but there's nothing either of us can do really. If I was closer I'd visit, but they're too far away. They won't be coming up tomorrow as planned, which is too bad. I'm still hoping they'll be up for Christmas...Dad keeps apologizing about the renos being delayed. Phah. The renos can wait...

I do think I will send her flowers today though. She'll like that...

Day 11: frosty day

It's another cold day today - what a change from last week! -34. Brrrr.
I got up to a chilly house today to do my exercise ball DVD workout. I actually counted the "on-the-ball" push ups I did in the workout: 38! Split up into two 1 minute intervals, and with my body up on the exercise ball, with the ball at about mid thigh, but still! Woot!
I had a happy weigh in this AM. I stepped on the scale (once before and once after the workout just to make sure it was real) and the bouncy needle is now between 122 and 123! Me hee! Slowly but surely. I'm particularly pleased, as even though I've been good with workouts and generally eating well this week I have had some munchables, and a night out. Plus it's PMS time...I was sure I'd be holding some water in me too...not too shabby. There has been a beer here and there and little extras like a warm glass of hot chocolate last night before bed. And still it goes down! Mee hee. Made me smile...it's good to see the diligence counting for something.

I'm inspired to keep at it. It'll be hard as this week is "all my bosses take me out for nice lunches week". As a bonus, I haven't had my expected monthly PMS attack of the munchies yet. Perhaps this will be one of the good months where I don't want to eat everything I see for a few days. Especially around all the buffet tables :) Here's hoping...
Gotta keep at it. I have 2 and a half weeks to lose 2 and a half pounds...I'm curious to see if I can do it, especially around holiday time.
We shall see my little pretties. We shall see...

Day 10: Well, it's officially winter

I'm certainly glad we put the snow tires on and I got a new winter coat (with a hood!!!) on the weekend while it was still mild. Today I woke up to a balmy -30 degrees C. Chilly walk to the bus that's for sure. Usually it's that cold around here in winter...it's just been unseasonably warm until now, that it's a bit of a shock. It was nice to be all toasty warm in my new coat though...the zipper on my old old coat finally died so I found a new one on the weekend. It's WAY cooler than my old "responsibly warm, yet horribly boring" coat AND it has a hood. It's a nice metallic silver colour and has lots of pockets and handy little places to put my iPod and bus pass and such. I like. I don't know what I was thinking before withnot having a hood...it's nice to be all bundled up in weather like this and not totally wreck your hair with a toque.

This morning I got up and did 40 minutes on the elliptical at 15% incline and resistance 1 and 2 (rotated back and forth 10 min of each), with 4 minutes cooldown after. 495 calories according to the robot. It felt nice to workout, but the house was quite chilly indeed...makes you want to work out harder just to warm up!
Then I had a nice relaxing breakfast with the cats looking at the christmas decorations and psyching myself up for another week. I'm training a student in something today so I'm putting on my rediculously patient hat and getting ready for the day.

Hope you are all having a great (and much warmer than mine) day!

Day 9: resistance is futile

Ah...it's friday. I'm so glad. It's been a productive week, but I could use a few days away from work...

I've noticed a somewhat annoying side effect of getting up so early to work out...I find myself falling asleep during TV or movies at about 9 ish. It used to not really matter, as my husband got up a full hour before me even so he'd be jsut as tired, but now he sleeps in 2 hours past me (lucky lucky) so I feel like a party pooper nodding off all the time. I know it didn't bother me when he got tired, it jsut was what it was. Last night we sat down to just sit and relax and listen to a few new CDs and I only heard half of them, as we sat sprawled on the couch all snuggled up. He said it was terribly cute and he doesn't mind at all, so hopefully he won't as this goes on. I'm one of those people that when I'm tired I sleep wherever I am and there's nothing for it if I'm not actively doing something...it does get annoying to miss the end of movies (prime example: After 5 attempted viewings I still have not seen all of Beowolf!) Suppose we'll have to learn and start films earlier if I want to see the whole thing! I'm such a night owl that it's odd to be so tired so early. Makes sense tho - I mean I should really be in bed by 10 if I'm going to get up around 5...7 hours sleep is a minimum really.

This AM I got up (almost hit snooze) and did cardio on the elliptical. It went well. I thought I'd try something new and I varied the resistance. I started off at 15% incline at resistance 2 for 6 minutes and then dropped to resistance 1 for 4 minutes...and did that 4 times. The cool thing is I did do 40 minutes in total (plus 4 minutes slow cool down after), which is longer than before. I burned a few less calories this way (~490) but I think this might be how to increase my time. I want to do a minimum of 40 minutes and I know in building up running time you run a few minutes and walk a few minutes... so I'm going to try and transfer that over to the elliptical and see what I can come up with by varying resistance and incline as I go forward to increase my workout over the same period of time. After a yummy breakfast and a cat snuggle I am good to go for today.
I'm looking forward to sleeping in and then tackling a list of stuff for the weekend and lots of relaxing too. I plan on putting up some christmas lights this weekend. I can't wait!

Have a great weekend!

Snowy morning

This morning I got up and did my exercise ball DVD and had breakfast. It felt very good. It's finally snowed again. Not much, but enough to make it a bit white, and it makes it finally feel a bit more like the holidays. Tonight is bellydance class, so I'm looking forward to it...Then a bit of relaxing with J and figuring out what the weekend has in store.

It's odd - I have been so busy for so long that I find too much free time makes me antsy...so I'd rather have a bunch of things I *could* do and then pick at them here and there...mostly getting gifts off to family in Ontario so they'll get them on time, and putting the snow tires on (we never did paint them...the paint was the wrong color) and getting my craft room set up. I'm making a lot of gifts this year (sewing) so I need to set up and get the fabric this weekend so I can work on them. I also really should buy the arborite and taps for the kitchen...unless something is very wrong the renos start next week...I was going to do white counter but now I'm wondering if a pattern or a blue colour would be better. It certainly would wear better than just plain white. I'll have to see what my options are...I honestly don't even know :)

I'm trying not to be too annoyed as the side panels for my stove (which arrived in June) are STILL not here. I'm having it installed ~ the 15th so they'd better be here by then. If you are considering a Whirlpool or Jenair product - don't right now. They're moving factories, so good luck if you need a part for something. And yes, technically the side panels to my stove are a "part". When we picked it out they said that it was a slide in model, but not to worry, the side panels come with it and it looks like a regular stove. Lets just say if I'd actually installed it then I'd be PISSED (well OK I am still) ...the sales guy called me at home to apologise and promise they'll be here and tell me all the reasons why it's still not here, but honestly....don't care at this point. Just want the panels.
And now I must go. I've been volunteered to do more work today in an already full day, so I should get at things so I can get away to my class after work on time.
Have a great day, K?

Day 7: Wow I can do a lot in the morning :)

This morning went well. I got up at 5:15 and went on the elliptical at resistance 2 and 15% incline for 36 minutes and then 4 more minutes of cool down...the robot said I burned about 500 calories. I wanted to do 38 minutes but my asthma told me it was enough, so I didn't push it. Breathing is a good thing. In the midst of this I also did a few chores, made lunch and a load of laundry. Time was tight, but it is nice to know that after a long day I'll get home to less to do.
We're really getting organised and it's really encouraging me. After finally finishing up moving things to the computer room upstairs I've been doing some more decluttering and organising. What is left downstairs is now J's stuff, so he can do what he wants with it. We moved a bit of furniture around yesterday, and it's looking even better...not perfect, but I am quite happy with how things are now. For the first time in ages I feel like I live in a normal house...like if my Mum just showed up out of the blue I wouldn't be embarrassed to let her in, you know? It's not perfect by any means, but there has been so much clutter and disorder for so long with renos and reorganising that it's almost a physical release to have things "sort of" in order. I still have some work to do in my craft room and in a week we're renoing the kitchen so everything in it will then be downstairs in boxes (*sigh*) BUT at least it's not piles on top of other piles...it'll just be that to redo once the kitchen is fixed up. So much easier. I have to book the gasman and pick out a faucet and grout colour (light grey or blue I think)...but other than that, I think I'm ready for a parental visit and some kitchen renos. Maybe even some Christmas decorations too. Woo.

It's been a good day so far and it's not even 8 AM :)

I love it when things start out this way.

Workout CD of the week: Plastic Compilation Vo. 2

Day 6: much better

Well today went much better. I was up at the right time (check and rechecked the clock this time!) and I worked out to my ball DVD, and have had a yummy breakfast. Oatmeal and blueberries. Yum yum yum.
Plus, I do believe I may actually be done editing my MSc proposal (finally...who knew you could edit something so many times. It's much better for it, but I've no patience for editing...and one of mys supervisors is a stickler for grammar. Fun fun fun!). Tonight I get to hang out with my friend Heather who I never get so see because of her shift work. We don't have any grand plans...just catching up on a whole month of missed time. I can't wait...
On the plus side, I had my first weekly scale weigh in ages...I was good and didn't step on before I said I would. We have a cheapy old scale so I *think* I am down at least a half pound, but it will take another month to be sure...the needle is definitely below 134 now...more in between 134 and 133 and sort of touching 133. So I'm "<134." Woo! Going down is all I'd hoped for. It may take another week or so to see for sure. Encouraging. Definitely.
Have a great day K? :)