Step Away From the Cake

Well, the first day of vacation and it was wonderful. I didn't do much of anything. Yea!!! I got to sleep in (6:45 a.m.), have a leisurely cup of coffee, work out - hard, and shower and clean up. It was great. When hubby got home around 11:30 we headed out to lunch. I came back and took a nap since I drank 3 beers at said lunch :) It was wonderful...... I don't get to laze around and do exactly what I want to very often so it's a real treat when it happens. Usually on weekends I have a list of things to get done before Monday so I'm generally running around. Today was really, really nice. When I workout, I generally have the History channel on. It's great entertainment and one of my favorite channels. Since I normally workout at 5 a.m. there is some really interesting stuff on then. Anyway, I turned it on today and the show Modern Marvels was on. They were covering candy. Mass produced candy. Did you know it all started with Hershey?? He was the first t...

I made it. It's Friday.... I have the next week off.... I couldn't be happier..... I have been so stressed the last few weeks, my neck is a giant knot. On the way home I was blasting Jimmy Buffet, singing at the top of my lungs, and I could feel the knot releasing. Yeah!!! I have lots I want to do next week. Boring stuff, but it's got to get done. The first thing is we have a party to go to on Sunday and I have to come up with anniversary gifts for this couple. I'm not sure what I'm going to get them. I'll figure out something. Well, tonight I'm going to take it easy. I'm sleeping in tomorrow, then working out, then doing some chores around the house. Sounds wonderful :) Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Geez, I do that a lot!!! But this time it's for real and it's permanent. Okay, here goes. I've been doing strength and interval training since the beginning of this year. Just last week I started the Precision Nutrition Challenge. I really want to lose this last little bit of fat. I'm currently 24% body fat and would like to get down around 18-20. Not a lot of weight but it's all fat - it's hard. So things are working. Since I started the Precision Nutrition I've gotten my energy back - big time. In the afternoons I'm running around here like a fool. I also am feeling leaner. The muscles in my legs are popping and in my shoulders I've gotten those muscle dimples - I love those :) So things are going well. I'm registered for the Honolulu Marathon in December and I've been dying to do a triathlon. What happens is that every week I don't get my runs in I beat myself up and feel bad. That's not good. Then this morning as I w...

Tomorrow we are getting our inspection so we can be certified for another year. I should be cleaning the lab or making sure the paperwork is in order or something. Instead I sit here cruising the 'net. Oh well. I probably should care more but I just don't. One of the owners father died last night. He was very old and very ill so it wasn't unexpected. In fact, for the last month they've been basically waiting for him to go. So she has today off and I'm such a heartless b* tch all I can thing of is will this effect my vacation next week?? I know that's cold but it's true. I have not needed time off this bad in a long, long time. Maybe they will have the funeral over the weekend so she'll be back to work on Monday. I know, heartless!!!! Honestly, the thing is, I don't believe in funerals. I don't believe in burying people in the ground. I don't believe in having a ceremony where everyone sits around and cries and then watches the cask...

So I'm writing this post about Thoof. It's a new website where you can post stories and then it gives the story a rating and a little badge you can put on the story. So I picked a post I did and submitted it, then put the badge on the story. Then I changed my mind only now I can't edit the post. What is going on?? I was thinking this was a pretty cool little feature but now I'm not so sure. But to be honest I'm not sure the 2 items are related. I'm going to write my post here then include the Thoof badge and see what happens to this post. I've checked all my other posts and they edit just fine. Hmmmm....... Kind of makes you wonder no??? Anyway, in theory this is a good idea. Readers submit stories and others can read them, in essence you get personalized news. There are all types of stories from all over the world covering all kinds of topics. It really does sound like a great idea. I guess we'll just have to see how it works though. One of the things I...

I have so much to do at work and I'm just dragging tail. Thursday the inspector comes for our annual certification. We are all ready except the lab needs a good cleaning. I do not feel like cleaning....... But I have too. I can not wait for next week so I can ignore work for a few days. In other news, Kiko laid her first egg yesterday. This should be interesting. I don't know if they ever mated but I guess we'll find out. It looks this morning like she may be getting ready to lay another. Hmmm .... interesting. I may be picking up some lovebirds. I know a guy who has a whole bunch and he wants to get rid of some. I may take a couple off his hands. Not for breeding, just for pets. Well, in truth, the only reason I'm breeding the cockateils is because Kiko is a chronic egg-layer. I figure (and I've read) that breeding them may help regulate the production of eggs. So she is allowed to have a clutch now and that's probably it for this year. I...

10 years ago, when I began this weight loss journey, I couldn't do much. I started out walking and gradually worked my way up to doing all kinds of other things. Along the way Taebo came out. I was so excited, I ran out and bought the set. I raced home only to find out I couldn't even get through the instructional video. But I worked hard and eventually I was able to complete the workout. Eventually I was able to do all the workouts (I think there were 3 videos) in one day. I was getting good. Eventually I outgrew Taebo but it's one workout that I always loved. Well, here we are 10 years later and there's a new Taebo, Billy Blanks' Tae Bo AMPED . It's tempting to pick this new set up. I had such good results from the original set. It's very interesting that Billy uses cardio bursts in his new work outs. 30 to 60 seconds of intensive cardio. Do you know what that is?? That's the intervals that I've been doing that work so well. Increasing yo...

Wow, I'm pretty uninspired today. I had to take my car in for service, she rolled 100,000 miles last week. Anyway, I drop my car off then ride my bike to work. In the afternoon I ride my bike to the dealership and drive home. Because I forgot until this morning that I needed to take my car in, I had no food prepared. Trying to find something for lunch that I could throw in my backpack was hard. I threw something together but it was not near enough. As a result I got more exercise than usual on less food. So now I'm tired, and hungry, and worn out. I'm going to eat a good dinner and head to bed early. I'm exhausted.

I am a chemist. That's my day to day job. I do chemistry. Specifically I do water chemistry (okay, some food chemistry too but mostly water). The largest portion of my work is discharge. Everything that is discharged into either the sewers for treatment or the ocean has to be tested. It has to meet certain levels of bacterial and chemical contaminants. If they exceed their assigned levels they are fined. Apparently BP in Whiting, IN has received permission from the government to dump more into Lake Michigan. They are now allowed to dump more ammonia and sludge. The Chicago Tribune ran an article about it. Since I'm not a fan of the "media" I read it with a jaundiced eye. I find it interesting that environmentalist decided that less mid-east oil dependency is not a good enough trade off for some increased pollution. Now I am not a fan of pollution in any way shape or form. But if we are going to live the type of lives we've established and the environmentalists won...

If anyone out there knows anything about cockatiels I'd like you to contact me. I have my two, Kiko and Chubs. 2 weeks ago I got them a nest box as they seemed like they were getting ready to do their thing. For the first couple of days Kiko (the female) would go in there, hang out, do whatever it is birds do in nest boxes. She would not let Chubs in, but he seemed content to just stick his head in and look around. Yesterday they started doing something and it's freaking me out. Chubs will not let Kiko near the nest box during the day. He will try to attack her if she tries to go inside. He doesn't appear to be hurting her, just basically chasing her around and nipping at her. But he won't let her anywhere near the nest box. Last night he let her go inside and sat outside whistling seemingly quite happy. This morning he even let her go inside for a while. But all day now he's been keeping her away. I read that the males will sit on the eggs during ...

Another Sunday afternoon spent house hunting. Today we only looked at a few. Most of the areas we are getting to know so there is no need to look unless there is a house that really interests us. So we looked at about 6 and called it a day. There was one house......... I could absolutely see us in that house........ It's right around the corner from where we are living now......... It's gorgeous......... It's $900,000...... Hahahahahahahahaha !! Like we could afford that. The payments would be around $5,000 a month. Hahahahahahahahaha !!! Yeah that will happen. But it was beautiful. It had travestine tile floors, granite counters, cedar closets in the master bedroom closet, a pool with a waterfall, stone tile garage floor. It was perfect. But at that price it will never be ours. Hahahahahahahahaha !!! There is the outside. It's setback from the street and backs up to a canal so it's very private. This is the pool and waterfall. All I would need t...