Step Away From the Cake

Yet another cheesy 80's song for your listening pleasure :) Wow, I was tired yesterday!! And this morning was the first morning in 15 days I could sleep in. God, it felt good. So it's back on track and back to business. Also, it rained most of the night so it was wonderful sleeping weather. And, the cloud cover kept the air a little warmer so it wasn't 40 below when I got up this morning. Nice. Interesting, my murdering-drug-dealing neighbor is up extremely early this morning. I wonder what kind of nefarious activity they have planned??? So it's back to my workout program this morning. When we were out with friends on Thursday, one was looking at my tattoo and reading it. It made me realize that it's written on my arm but I still tend to forget about it. Do or do not. There is no try. I have to get back into that mindset. Actually, I'm a lot better than I used to be. I rarely use the terms, "I'll try..." or "I'm supposed to .....

So today is Good Friday. The day Jesus was crucified and died. If you are a really religious person, this weekend is the most important of the year. Even more important than Christmas. On Christmas he was born, but this is when he died and then rose from the dead. This is it, the big celebration. I was raised in the Lutheran church. I had to go to Sunday School every Sunday until I was confirmed at 16 (or so). I learned all the stories over and over and over and over and over......... You get the idea. I always questioned some of the stuff, even as a little kid. Don't get me wrong. I believe in God. I believe there's a heaven. Not so sure if there's a hell, I'm not convinced of that. I believe that Jesus was a very important, influential person. I even believe he was born of a virgin and the son of God. I believe that miracles occur. I believe that we will be called to account for our actions here on earth. I believe that we should all strive to be the be...

The lab I work in is small, there's only 3 of us. But we can get really busy. Some days the phone is just ringing off the hook and the calls never seem to stop. We have asked the partner repeatedly to get another phone line, we only have 1. Yet in 4 years we have been unable to convince her to. Part of the problem is it's not cheap and once you have more than 1 phone line you really need a phone system. Since we are so small a phone system would probably bankrupt us. I may have found the answer, small business phone systems may be just what we need. Xpander Communication offers VOIP (voice over IP ) and that may be a more economical way to go.. I don't know, but I think it's something we need to check into. Now if we could just get the partner to look into it. Of course it is Easter and miracles have been know to happen :)

For drinking that is :) I only had a couple (maybe 5) beers last night and I am feeling it this morning. The problem is I don't sleep well when I drink, so the next morning I have a little hangover and a lack of sleep that work together, how fun. Well, this week of slothiness began with a drunken binge on Saturday, so I think ending it with last nights drinking has a nice symmetry to it. So that's over and all my hard work resumes again tomorrow. It's Good Friday, which is a holiday for a lot of people here - not us :( I'm just hoping that the day is quiet and I can sneak out a little early. Okay, I'm going to try and hide in the back.

I just spent the evening with some great friends that I haven't seen in a while. Kyle and Lindsay were in town with their new baby and we hooked up with them and some other friends. What a great night. I was a little nervous about tonight because I haven't seen these folks in years. But I have to say it was great time. It was so good to see everyone and catch up with them. By reading their blog I really felt like we hadn't missed a beat. It was a great time and I can't wait till we can do it again. Hey guys, I will forward you that info in the morning. It was great to see you and I can't wait till you come back again.

Okay, yes!!! I'm on lunch and I don't feel like going back to work so I'm blogging, get over it!!!! ;) Hubby and I have tossed around the whole moving thing. We have lived here in Hawaii for 20 years and while I love it, I may be getting a little bored. I say that I have ADD and after 2 years I start getting antsy. The thought of moving somewhere we've never lived before and starting all over sounds very exciting to me. It's that whole responsibility thing, or my desire not to be responsible Just pack up and run away - yeah, what fun!!! Anyway, we've kind of talked about it some. Hubby lived in Colorado for a few years and really liked it there. I'm from the east coast and wouldn't mind moving back there. Maybe we could check into Boston Condos and use that as our home base for our mainland living. I do love the northeast, all the history. The weather, eh, not so much. Oh, I know, maybe we'll become snowbirds and go to Florida every wint...

Your Brain is Green Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual). What Color Is Your Brain?

I'm not sure what was going on yesterday but I was deep in my head and thinking some strange stuff. But, thanks to you guys, I realize I'm not so strange and not so alone in all this nonsense. Thanks.. I know part of the problem has been my sleeping. For about a week I would wake up around midnight every night. It wouldn't be so bad if I was just waking up, but I would wake and find myself out of bed, sometimes in the living room, thinking something is wrong. This would just freak me out and I wouldn't sleep well the rest of the night thinking something was wrong. One night I kept thinking there was a cat in the house, which is just ridiculous since the dogs would be all over that and they slept on. Anyway, the last 2 nights have been really cold and I have been sleeping with all the blankets and the quilt pulled up. I think that helps a lot. I feel all snugly and warm and have been sleeping like a baby. So that helps. Exercise has not been happening. I have a...

about what I wrote earlier. I think I struck a nerve and didn't even realize it. I have just kind of rolled along during my life. Until recently I never really had things I desperately wanted to do. I worked, raised my daughter, had fun, and that was about it. I didn't really plan for the future. I didn't have a vision of my future at all. That's really kind of embarrassing to admit. It was only when my daughter graduated from high school that I felt like I could make plans for myself. Does that make sense?? Prior to that I had been pretty focused on raising her, I didn't plan for myself. Wow, does that make me look bad?? I wasn't, just flaky maybe? When my daughter graduated, I went back to college. I had always wanted to be in science so I pursued a science degree. It really was only at that point that I started planning for the future. I was going to get my degree, find a job, and settle down to do the things I wanted to do. You can't imag...

is just around the corner. Have you considered what you're doing for your Mother????? This time of year is always hard on me. My mom's birthday is February 27 th and then Mother's Day in May, it's hard. We were pretty close. Even though she's been gone 4 years I still want to pick up the phone and call her sometimes. Okay, that's not what this post is about. It's about holidays!! So Mother's Day is coming, so is June with graduations and weddings and all that stuff. It gets hard to come up with gift ideas. Have you ever thought to send flowers ??? Flowers are a great gift, especially if you don't live near your loved ones. You can send you mom a beautiful custom arrangement of spring flowers. Or, send the graduate some flowers fresh cut from the farm. What a great way to say you're thinking of someone.

I should always go with my instincts. On Sunday, when I was looking forward at my week, I realized it was going to be a tough week. There are things going on and I knew by Wednesday I'd be tired. Then, Monday night, I had myself a rethink and decided it wouldn't be as bad as I thought. Well, guess what?? It's shaping up to be as bad as I thought. The worst part is, it's not any one thing that's bad, it's a bunch of little things that have to be dealt with and they piss me off and create stress and ugh!!! So, basically the alarm went off this morning, I pulled the covers over my head and rolled over. No way. Plus it's been really freaking cold here in the morning!! Really cold. I have a whole lot of things rolling around in my head right now that I just don't feel like getting into. I know I haven't been commenting much on the blogs and I apologize, I just can't seem to find something to say. Also, I feel like such a slacker. Everyone...

They are gone. I have discovered what the problem is though and let's just say, I'll be excused from PE for the next couple of days :) I'm at work now and I do not feel like working. I'm kind of tired and worn out and would like nothing better than to lay on the couch and read a book. But that's not going to happen. I have to update my other blogs but I feel totally uninspired to write. I'm going to devote some attention to them tonight. Okay, I'm going to go eat my cereal and force myself to do some work.

Apparently there is this thing in the UK called endowments. It seems that an endowment mortgage is a mortgage on your home where you only pay the interest. The principle is covered by an insurance policy (called an endowment) that you pay monthly premiums on. Then, at some set point in time I imagine, your policy will pay off your mortgage. The English are pretty ingenious in mortgages. I've heard that England is where reverse mortgages started because there were lots of older people who were property rich (with huge estates) and cash poor. A reverse mortgage was a way to draw money out of your property while still living there. Endowments were issued in the 70's and 80's with the assumption that the investments of the endowment policy would outgrow the interest on loans. For a variety of reasons this didn't work out. People with endowments are now stuck with policies that won't pay their mortgages. Many surrender the home to the policy holder. How sad is ...

I woke up this morning and it was like 69F. Yeah, yeah, I know, colder climates, blah, blah, more snow, blah, blah, ice on the roads, blah,blah. But, like I've told you guys before, I don't live there. I live in Hawaii and 69 is freaking cold. I could not get out of bed in that cold, just couldn't do it. So I'll do my weights later. Brrrr ......... So a friend of mine asks me last night if I know where they can get an HDMI cable . Now I don't even know what that is so I'm pretty sure I don't know where to get one. I ended up not going to drawing class last night for some reason that escapes me now, but it was good at the time. I do want to continue my drawing. I have loved it since I was a little kid, but something about sitting in class being told what to draw doesn't sit too well with me. I have been really, really good in my eating lately. I've been avoiding refined carbs and really feeling good because of it. I haven't had a blo...

to my dogs. My yellow lab, Rocco, won't eat most store bought biscuits. There was one kind he liked but they stopped selling them. You have no idea how pathetic it is to give Nala a biscuit and have Rocco sit there looking so pathetic. So I started making their biscuits. Luckily they are really easy. I can mix the dough and roll it out before dinner, bake it, and then it sits in the oven overnight to harden. Piece of cake. So I'm making the dogs biscuits tonight and I'm thinking about my giving myself a break the next 2 weeks with all that's going on. And it dawned on me, I've been so focused and committed to this weight loss effort that I can't let it slide for 2 weeks. So I'm going to start right back up tomorrow. I'm going to get up and do my weights, then run at lunch like I want to get in the habit of. So there you go. My break didn't even last 24 hours :)

One of my all time favorite places on earth is Disneyland. I absolutely love that place. Believe it or not though, I have never been to DisneyWorld. I've always wanted to go there. We used to go to Disneyland every year and I would embarras the kids because I would be having so much fun. Ahhh, good times. Hubby and I are planning a big east coast trip and I'd love to work a trip to Disney World in if I could somehow. I've found some discount Universal Studios tickets and I'd love to go there too. I'm seriously a big kid at heart. So this place offers discount tickets to all the attractions in Orlando; Disneyquest, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach Water Parks and more; okay, I've never heard of most of these. I think I need to get my butt to Orlando. They also offer discount tickets for dinner shows, Arabian nights and Medievel times?!??!? Oh, these are things I need to check out. I love Medievel things. W...

Does anyone else watch this?? I'm probably the only one left who still watched it. I've loved this show from the beginning and I still love it. I'm trying to find someone who would go on it with me, but everyone who's interested there's always some sort of conflict. Ugh!!! Anyway, last nights show was interesting. I've never seen that happen before where the teams were leaving the rest stop before some of the teams were in. I knew the Guido's were going to get eliminated. They had to finish in 1st place or suffer a 30 minute penalty. Well, they arrived at the rest stop after 3 teams had already left. You know they were toast, and they were. That's too bad. I hated them the first season they were on, but I've grown fond of them this season. Age has apparently mellowed all of us :) I want to see Joyce and Uchenna win, or Oswald and Danny. They are the nicest 2 teams and are really racing their hearts out.

This month is going to be busy, I can tell. It's already packed with stuff and it's only day 2. I didn't get up this morning, I was just too stinking tired from my crazy weekend. Plus school starts again tonight so it will be a late night. I decided to just sleep in a little. I was reading a blog (sorry, I forgot which one or I would link it) about dieting. They had some great practical jokes that people of done. Like the weight loss socks. They supposedly sucked fat out of your body as your body temp went up. Apparently people bought them. People will buy anything, and that's scary. If you need to lose weight you need to do a diet comparison before you jump into something you're not familiar with. I've given myself a slight reprieve for the next 2 weeks. Nutrition will be closely watched, but exercise is flexible. I'll be having classes again and I'm starting the Nutro work on weekends. I'm allowing an adjustment period. I find that ...

or the training plan that doesn't work. When last we left our hero she was heading off to her Nutro training. I left the house yesterday morning and rode my bike to the Nutro training. It was a beautiful morning though cold. There was dew on the grass. Okay, I know our dew point is 70F but dang that's cold here. So I rode to the training. Then proceeded to sit through 5 hours on a hard bottom chair (lucky I had my bike shorts on). After the training (watch closely, here's where it gets ugly) I rode over and met hubby for lunch. He had a pitcher of beer waiting when I got there. We polished off that and I ordered another. We ate and drank and ate and drank...... Oh my goodness !! I probably should explain, I have beer every Saturday with lunch. But I have 1 beer!! One!!! We then went grocery shopping and bought cookies and ice cream and all kinds of useless stuff. Yeah, nothing wrong here. By the time we get home I'm seriously drunk. I start eating ...