New Years Resolutions - 2010

Never being one for either making or keeping resolutions, I'm taking this opportunity to list area in my life which need serious consideration and at the end, I'll think about picking one to work on. Ok?

1) McDonalds - According to my mother, there was a time, in my youth, when we didn't have enough money to go to McDonalds all that often - it was more of a 'special' thing. Now, when I look at my bank statement each month, I see a third to half of all my debit card charges going to McDonalds. I've already sort of tamed the Sweet Tea demon in my life and at least 9 out of every 10 visits to McD's I get regular tea instead of the diabetic-coma inducing liquid which I would prefer. Since moving to Wadesville, the only McD's on my way in always has 15 cars in the drive-thru in the mornings, so I need to work on taming the McD's Sausage Burrito demon so I don't waste 10 minutes each morning in the drive thru.

2) Weight Watchers - No, I'm not suggesting the ubiquitous resolution to 'diet and lose weight.' What I need to do is either resume going to the damn meetings or stop paying the $40 a month to them. The actual weight loss is not my main concern. It's the $40!

3) Walking - As you may or may not know, depending on whether I'm imaging that I blogged about it, I bought myself good walking shoes and a pretty purple iPod earlier this year for the sole (hahaha! shoes? sole?) purpose of getting out and walking for exercise. When I lived in town, I lived near the University of Evansville and had good sidewalks and nice neighborhoods and a campus that I could walk around. Did I do it? Um.. about 5 times in the 4 years I lived there, yes. I know why, well, other than the obvious fact that I'm lazy. I grew up in the country and am used to wide open spaces. I could take a walk down the road with my Walkman and sing along to the music at the top of my voice and no one could hear me but the residents of the cemetary (and they were not complaining.) I couldn't really do that in town. Might've gotten arrested. So, now that I live back in the country, and I have the shoes, and I have the pretty purple iPod, Rose needs to get her footies in gear and start walking up and down the road.

4) Facebook - Again, as you know, I have a serious addiction to Facebook. Not to the friendship aspect. I don't really like people. But to the games. I have a farm in both Farm Town and FarmVille. I grow and sell crops on an island in Island Paradise. I desperately dig for relics in Treasure Madness f/k/a Mania. And I am currently maintaining both a clan and mafia in Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars, respectively. I'm exhausted. So, I need to decide on one, that's all I'm asking for, just one, FB application and drop it. I was going cold turkey on Treasure Madness this past week, as I'd finished all the maps. But then they drag me back in with more maps! Vampire Wars, well, I'd gotten bored with that, but then they started this special New York thing and I've almost mastered all the New York jobs. Mafia? Well pretty soon after New Year's they'll open the Hong Kong part... and I am on level 200 or so, it seems a waste to give up now.

Yikes! This looks difficult, doesn't it? Well, as promised, I'm going to think about this, and I'll let you know next New Year's which one I picked. Sound good? For now, though, I need to run by McDonalds and get me some tea so I can have something to drink when I get home because I have a lot to do... I have crops to harvest on FarmVille and I'm almost done on that last Christmas island on Treasure Madness. And I'm listening to this great book on my iPod...

Oh, well, Happy New Year's to all!

Weight Watchers - 2009

There are several reasons why I fell "off the wagon," so to speak, last time. I'd lost 50 pounds, I was getting cocky and complacent, I stopped tracking my points like I know is necessary, my co-hort in weight loss, Kathy, got pregnant and couldn't attend meetings with me anymore, I got a part-time job wherein I worked 2 nights a week and weekends which made it difficult to go to regular meetings, and it was the holiday season. All together it made it easy to let things slide.

But I currently have very little in my closets and dressers that actually fits me. And really, it'll be cheaper to lose the weight than to buy a whole new wardrobe! My friend Royale is in the process of getting ready for either lap-band or gastric bypass surgery. And I think my health insurance would pay most of the expense for me to have the surgery. But I'm just not ready to admit defeat yet. And as I think I've already pointed out, being with my dad in the hospital pushed me over.

So tonight was my first weigh-in/meeting. Of course, I've done this before, so I know how the points and everything work. But you know, the actual weighing in makes it OFFICIAL! I was happy to learn that I actually weigh 1.8 pounds less than I guessed I weighed when I signed up online! So that was good news! The meetings are at 5:30 on Tuesday nights (there are tons of other meetings, but Becky tells me that the leader of this meeting is really good), so I arranged with Bosses 1 & 2 to come in/leave work early on Tuesdays to go to this meeting. Despite drinking a bunch of water and tea today, I didn't go wee before I left... after all, you wanna weigh as much as you can on your initial weigh-in, right? :)

The whole system seems to be the same, based on points, as it was before. However, now they allow most all liquids to count for the water drinking, instead of just water, AND they changed the way they calculate how many points you get each day, but otherwise, it's the same. I signed up online yesterday and filled in the points for the food I ate yesterday on the online tracker. Pretty cool, actually. More high-tech than it was last time I did this. Or, well, I don't honestly know how high-tech the website was before because it wasn't free with my monthly membership then like it is now.

Where was I? Oh, I logged in my points yesterday. And I did pretty good. But then I had a horrible migraine last night and, to put it politely, ended up losing my dinner along with the medicine I took. So I wondered if I got to eat those points twice? Of course I was in so much pain as I took my medicine again that eating was the last thing on my mind. I refrained from asking the woman at the meeting tonight about that, as I figured she'd think I was weird and I decided I'd let her find out naturally, rather than all at once!

Tomorrow is my first "official" day, and wouldn't you know it, it's the firm's "Administrative Professionals Day Luncheon" :) But that's ok, since it's the same menu every year, I can plan ahead and know what I'll be eating. The desserts will be what is tempting - after all, I'm not my Uncle Doug's "cookie-mooching bear" for nothing!

Guess nows the time to close. I've rambled long enough, and I need to go skirmish some and try to take over Mozambique in World Domination on Facebook!
Later!

I'm Still Here

I have heard from a large percentage of my fan base (well, one of the sibs) and have been chastised for not blogging since February. So what follows is a quick and perspicacious summary of the sub-plots from March and April.

• Dad was in the hospital for a week, but after much stress on everyone’s part, he’s doing much better. Turns out all the Big D was a result of the antibiotics they were pumping into him killing off the “good” bacteria in his tum, which allowed the “bad” bacteria to run amok.


• Mom was running herself ragged taking care of dad, and consequently forgetting to take care of mom, but the sibs came down and that allowed her to rest some while he was in the hospital, and I’ve been told the plan is for them to come down more often to help her out some.


• Sophie and Gizmo turned the Big Three yesterday, and we spent a good portion of the day cuddling and napping together. Winifred is one hyperactive adolescent, and either Merle or Blackie pee’d in my car. Oh, and Tom helped me get rid of the fish tank, so Charlie’s Angels and their subsequent progeny are no more.

Now, as for the main character, in no particular order of importance:
Late February, I got a new tattoo – I was on the cheezburger website (one of my favs!) and found this pic, and I knew immediately that that was what my next tat would have to be. ‘Specially since it would go so well with the paws. I talked to Shawna at work and she told me about this place in Oakland City, run by a Christian couple, where she and her hubs get their tattoos. So one weekend I was all ready to go there. I had plenty of OT in that week’s paycheck and I was going to do it! Only, when I called to find out their hours, I discover the phone number is disconnected – they’re out of business. So much for Shawna’s connections. Sigh… I was bummed. So, the next weekend, I’m having dinner with Royale, we hadn’t gotten together in quite a while and had tons of stuff to catch up on. She’d never even seen the paws! So, I flashed them at her and she asked for all the details. Then I inquired of her where she would go for a tattoo in Evansville. She said one of two places. I said, do you wanna go with me now? :) She did, we went, I got the tattoo and was very happy! A couple of girls at work are jealous, though, so we might have to go and get them copy cats! Hahaha (Get it? Copy? cats?? Hahaha)

I continue to use my CPAP sleep machine and my mental alertness is much better, although Steve (Boss #1) might argue that point occasionally. I don't feel like my physical pep is improving though, but let's face it, at my weight what could I expect?

So, between how I actually feel and watching them taking care of dad in the hospital this past month, I decided I needed to yield to the inevitable and rejoin Weight Watchers. My fiend Becky (BK for short) goes, and I know from experience that it works, so I decided now was the time. Of course, I can't afford both Weight Watchers and Curves, so since I haven't actually been GOING to Curves much, it was an obvious decision. I cancelled that membership and started the WW membership. Tuesday night is my first weigh in.

What else? Well, late March I took a long weekend (well-deserved, considering all the over time I've been working since October!) and went up to Indy, stopping by Bloomington to pick up Niece #1, Hollian (or Ho2.0, as I like to call her) first, and then the sibs and Nieces #1 and #3 (Brynn) drove up to Lafayette to visit Niece #2 (Natalie) at Purdue. Well, that was one reason to go, the other was to eat at the Triple XXX - a goal ever since seeing it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network. (The goals I set for myself, eh?) Anyway, we got to tour the campus, eat lunch, and meet the skanky roommate.

Ok, so has that been it? Yup, I guess those are the major items for the past month.