Step Away From the Cake

I can't believe it's Saturday already. These weeks seem to be flying by faster and faster. Well, tomorrow is the big day. I turn 48. It's really taken me by surprise how much this birthday is affecting me. It's really caused me to step back and examine my life. To really think about what I want, where I want to go, and what I want to do. And I've made some serious decisions. I want to work at home. I do not want to go out to work everyday. I have done that for the last 30 years and I'm done with that. I will be working on a way to make serious money at home. I'm not sure what I will do, but I have some very good ideas on what I won't do. I won't do any type of MLM - that's just a giant pyramid scheme, I most likely won't do anything related to sales, just not my style. I am seriously considering medical transcriptions, they can make pretty decent money if they are good. Or possibly getting into real estate. I was an appraiser ...

You are a Social Moderate (41% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (70% permissive) You are best described as a: Republican Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Well, there was no police busting in next door at 6 a.m. this morning. It was a quiet morning in the neighborhood and my workout was completed with no interruptions. It was really quiet last night too with the murdering drug dealing neighbor gone. They don't get loud at night but when they're gone it's super quiet. That was nice. I hope it remains that way. I spoke with a guy in the attorney generals office and he checked it out for me, they did find drugs in the house again. That's actually very good. It's only been 3 months since the last raid and that case is still ongoing, to be caught again makes the case even stronger against them. Also, even though the murderer himself wasn't home, because he lives there and there were drugs found, they can charge him. So yeah!!! I'm hoping this does it and he is put away for a good long time. Other than that it's a quiet Friday. After my post last night about online education, I really got to thinking....

I went to college at a late age. I had my daughter when I was 18 and was a single mom for most of her life. When she graduated high school and I was 36 I decided it was time to go to college like I'd always wanted to do. When I began college I was all excited and, being older, I was the overachieving nerd in all my classes. I also really, really enjoyed college. I learned things I didn't ' know I didn't know. It was great since I have always loved learning. I decided fairly early on that since I took so long to actually go to college I was going to go the entire way. I wanted to get my PhD . Of course, as I continued on I got tired of going to school and after getting my BS went out and got a real job, thinking that was a good idea. And it was at the time. But now, 6 years after graduating, I think about getting higher degrees but there is no way I would go back to school now - too old and tired :) The idea of getting an online college degree now has real appe...

I keep saying how my eating is going so well and I'm really eating clean.... Well, it's been a lie. Not a total lie. But I have left off a vital detail. Okay, confession is good for the soul so here goes...... I've been having dessert almost every night . Hubby and I got into the habit of having dessert and it's gotten out of control. Initially it was a small bowl of Dreyers Slow Churn Ice Cream. Excellent stuff, lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream. We would have just a scoop which is a 1/4 cup, no biggie . It was like 60 or 70 calories. That's just fine. Then we added syrup, chocolate and/or strawberry. Then there was the whipped cream. For the last couple of weeks it's been cakes or cookies with the ice cream. A small, manageable snack has become a nightly monster. I was thinking it was one of the causes of my nightly flights out of bed. So last Sunday I swore off dessert. I know myself, and when I'm having trouble like this t...

Apparently lots of English people visit Florida, who knew??? Well, I guess you knew if you lived in Florida :) Anyway, a UK based company has been providing sales and rentals of Florida Villas since 1947. They now have an office in Florida ( Kissimmee !!!) and have consolidated all the info you need to visit Florida onto their site. They can provide car rentals, air tickets, and lots of places to stay. You can rent single family homes as well as condos and town homes . This is great. I much prefer staying in a condo to a hotel room when I travel. I don't like eating out all the time so having a kitchen where I can fix my own food is a huge plus to me. Also, it makes the trip cheaper. You have a kitchen, so you can make your own meals and snacks, plus they sleep like 8 people. so if you split the nightly cost among 8 people it ends up costing much less than a hotel room would. This really is a great site. I wonder if I could use it even though I'm not in England???

I thought I slept pretty good last night but maybe not. I was at lunch, sitting there reading the newspaper and I feel asleep! I did not think I was tired. I was reading the newspaper and just nodded off. How bizarre is that??? That's something my father used to do and we would laugh at him. Sitting there holding the newspaper, asleep. Now I'm doing it. It's just never fun when you realize you are becoming your parents :)

I got up this morning and was supposed to do some yoga poses but I really felt like running. I decided to just go with what I felt and run. Well, one look outside quickly dissuaded me from that idea, it was really dark and overcast like it was going to pour. Not to worry, I headed back to the studio and hopped on my elliptical machine. I'm cruising along, watching TV , really enjoying myself when all of a sudden I hear this loud banging and yelling. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on but I immediately assumed that my murdering drug dealing neighbors were fighting and I got pissed and decided to call the cops. I hop off the elliptical, turn the TV off and hear "Police, Search Warrant, Open the door!!!" Woooo Hoooooo , it was the police executing another search warrant. I look out the window and there are SWAT guys with big guns all over the yard. YES!!!! I went out front and there were about 8 vans full of cops there. Unfortunately the did ...

I've heard it said there are no coincidences. If that's true I'm beginning to wonder what it all means. I've really been thinking of traveling lately and Florida keeps throwing itself in my face. Websites for hotel bargains keep appearing before me. Like this one for Kissimmee Hotels . Seems that there are 52 theme parks around Kissimmee , who knew??? There is also the obligatory golf courses, this is Florida after all, there are more top rated courses within a 40 minute drive than anywhere else in Florida. Hubby would love that. Beaches are only 40 minutes away too. Everything you could want to do during a vacation. There is always the choice of doing nothing too. That's fun sometimes too. So maybe I need to go to Florida for some reason. I don't really believe in coincidences.

So it was weights again this morning. I was thinking about it as I was getting ready and I realized I'm a little bored with the routine. So, in an effort to stick with my program, I decided to up the weight some and see if that relieved the boredom. Oh yeah, that worked. My muscles were screaming by the end and the final reps were a stretch. That's good. I've been having this weird sleeping issue where I wake up suddenly and find myself out of bed heading somewhere. I've just put it off to stress and worry over a couple of things. Last night I googled it and now I'm a little concerned. It sounds like a condition where your mind doesn't paralyze your muscles during REM sleep and you are actually acting out your dreams. They say people who do this wake suddenly (I do) and can recall the dream in exact detail (I can). This is generally associated with other sleep disorders and can be an indicator of Parkinson's disease later in life. I am not thrille...

I'm going to ask you to visit my other blog and click on the link at the bottom to sign a petition to support Duane, Dog, Chapman, the Bounty Hunter. Thanks.

Because of my back issues, I've adopted a new plan just for this week. Yesterday I did weights and interval training, today it's stretching - more like yoga. My back is feeling really good so I thought rather than overdo it I'd baby it just a little. Some nice yoga poses and I'm all stretched out and ready for the day. Tomorrow it's back to weights and interval training. I'm just going to do that this week and hope that by the weekend my back is back to normal :) Vickie commented that for some exercise may be counter intuitive for back pain. I know that's a common belief, your back hurts, stop and rest it for a while. I've always been of the mind set that the human body was made to move. We were not made to lie on a couch and watch TV. We were made to be hunter-gatherers, constantly moving looking for food and trying not to become part of the food chain. I look at a lot of things that way. We may live in the highly modern age with lots of tech...

As a scientist I spend my days looking for cause and effect. If I add chemical A, I'll get B and that can be measured. I also try to not make connections that aren't there. Just because there is CO2 in the air doesn't mean it's causing global warming. So you could say cause and effect are my life. I also get good at seeing connections in obscure places. Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is that I feel confident is stating this cause and effect. Last week my lower back was killing me. I would get these shooting pains that would bring me to tears. It was horrible. I finally decided I'd had enough and it was time to get back to exercise. Saturday I started my weight training again. Sunday I ran. Today I did my weight training. Guess what??? My back feels way better!! It's not a 100% but it's probably 85%. I'll be back to 100% by the end of the week. I am feeling so much better. I knew this would happen yet I put it off for other reasons...

So I was watching the Discovery channel today, my usual Sunday TV viewing. I put it on while I'm cleaning house and it's good background noise. Also, it keeps the birds quiet since they hear people talking and I can actually get some work done. Anyway, I was thinking how they think they found the burial tomb of Jesus. Okay, I could go on and on about why I'm not buying into this but I'll save that for another post. Anyway, they say there is material in the osuaries and they are going to do DNA test to see if it's Jesus osuary . What I'm trying to figure out is, who are they going to compare it to?? There are no descendants of Jesus so who are they going to us?? It's not really important, it's just one of those weird things I think about.

I just had to address the comment left by anonymous on my Happy Easter post. I do love when anon leaves a comment and we can't chat back and forth. I need to clarify something they said, the only products recalled by Nutro were the cuts and gravy pouches. It that's all you fed your animals that's not good. Dogs and cats should eat dry food. None of Nutro's dry food was involved in the recall because a) they do make all their own dry food, I actually visited one of the plants once; b) there is no wheat gluten in the dry food. Wheat gluten is used primarily as a sauce thickener so is not in the dry food (except some Hill's prescription cat food which uses it for some unknown reason); c) and the products used in Nutro food comes from this country. I can explain why they may have taken the statement that they manufacture all their pet food off their website, it's basically a matter of the public not being smart enough to understand subtle differences. Ther...

I've been very busy this morning. I ended up going for my run. Yea Me!!! I did 4 miles in 1 hour. I was going real slow because of my back and from my house to the 2 mile mark is completely uphill. So I was slow but it felt really good and my back felt awesome. I had picked up new insoles yesterday and they made a HUGE difference. So that was all good. Xena's cage is in my computer room. As you may guess, with birds you get ants. She throws food all over the place and no matter how many times a day I clean I always miss some. I move her cage every night and sweep under it but still, there's ants. So today I decided to put her out in the living room, clean around her cage, and spray for ants. Now she has never spent much time in the living room. It's only the past week or so that we can pick her up easily. So I put her in the living room on her play set . She immediately gets down on the floor and runs to the full length mirror I have on the wall by the...

Why exactly are bunnies associated with Easter? Why are eggs associated with Easter? Why are eggs associated with bunnies? And what is that duck doing in the picture????? For all of you that believe, Happy Easter. For you that don't, too bad :) Yesterday I worked for Nutro and we go into pet stores and basically tell people about our food. Well, I could not believe the number of people buying bunnies for their kids. Do people not understand that this is a living creature that they are now responsible for and must take care of for the rest of it's life??? And to get it for a child??? Oh please!!!! Anyway, it was really ticking me off. So I don't do the church thing anymore. I was reading another blog and the person commented that they don't believe in God. I stopped and thought how sad for them. Now I don't go to church because I have issues with formalized religion. But that in no way means I don't believe. And I believe how you live your life is w...