Friday List o' Random

So I haven’t posted hardly at all this week, and I want to blame the husband. He has been attached to the laptop until past my bedtime, stumbling upon random shit that makes him giggle like a schoolgirl. It’s amusing (and I’ve been able to get lots of reading done this month, hello Book #5 in 10 days), but I do miss the computer. And also you haven’t gotten any Delaware/Philly updates. Oops.

A thought after a particularly strenuous work-out session: I now understand why women who exercise a lot get boob jobs. Last week I had to go buy new bras, and I’m now mourning my breasteses. Thankfully, they are still going proportionally to my body. How do I tone my arms without losing my rack? I implore you.

Price is Right is on during my gym time, so I get to watch it nearly every day. What is with those California prices? And what on earth is with Drew Carey’s hair? Is he going for The Donald look?

On Tuesday I messed up my back with my workout. I’m not sure what I did, but by Wednesday night I had further tweaked it by jostling H around at a baseball game to keep him entertained. I thought I would need a trip to the chiropractor, but good ol’ Excedrin seems to be helping.

I did get my first ever massage, by an androgynous man named Richard with hairy arms and excellent hands. It was some kind of awesome. Back still hurts, but it seems to be significantly better.

I’m in the middle of some sort of meandering down memory lane with my music these days. Lots of 90s alt rock. Someone save me, I might be digging in my closet for my old CDs soon.

H's birthday is THURSDAY (he'll be one, I don't even want to talk about it) and his birthday party is NEXT SUNDAY and I still have no idea what to do for it. I think I decided on this cake, which is awesome, and I believe there will be cupcakes and buffalo chicken dip and chips and guacamole. And kiddie pools. Otherwise, not really sure.

And to save the best for last, Hubs got a job! Which is really pretty much his old job, but that’s a rant for another day. He starts 8/23, so woot! PLUS he’ll have a work laptop so maybe I’ll get on the computer again soon. Hehe.

Ten on Tuesday plus a little about the weekend

I had a fantastic time in Delaware and I put together a little post for Monday about the very many foods I ate (I put on 4.5 lbs in 4 days – shoot me now). However, it wouldn’t have been complete without the photos, and I was a lazy April when I got home from work so that didn’t get done. Therefore, no Monday food post. Moving on! Maybe I’ll just have a Wednesday food post instead. You know you want it.

But TOT is on today’s agenda, so here you are!

1. Mac or Windows? (Or Linux for you super geeks!)
Windows.

2. What drew you to that operating system?
I’m not necessarily anti-Mac (they do/did have cutie Justin Long to campaign for them, you know) but they just cost so dern much! If someone wants to give me one I wouldn’t turn it down though. Just sayin’.

3. Mice – Wireless or Wired? Mouse pad or none?
At home I just use the touchpad on the laptop but if by chance I use the desktop (which never happens – that is for hubby’s video game obsession and photo storage only) there’s a rollerball mouse in there, no mouse pad. At work, wireless.

4. Other than the Internet – What do you use your computer most for?
Hubby’s shoot-em-ups and photo storage. Words with Friends. Solitaire (I’m obsessed w/ Solitaire).

5. What’s one computer-related thing you wish you were best at? (CSS, Photoshop, Excel, etc.)
photoshop, I think. I do a lot with Picasa and lately, Piknik, but it would be nice to do fancy shit.

6. Describe the first time you ever used a computer.
I don’t remember, but this weekend we were discussing back when Prodigy was the thing and we would dial up, go make a bowl of cereal, and wait for our chat rooms to load. We were so cool.

7. How often do you upgrade to a new operating system?
Hubby likes to upgrade. I think upgrading is generally what screws things up. So whenever he wants to, and then shortly thereafter I complain enough that we get a new computer. Or, Spencer pulls the keys off the keyboard and then we get a new computer.

8. Are you a short-cutter (CTRL+C) or a right-clicker?
I heart shortcuts.

9. Is computer-use a constant thing in your life (such as using it both at work and home) or do you get a break (because you don’t use them at work)?
All the time. Constantly, work, home, phone-in.

10. Where do you think the world would be if personal computers did not exist? I’m not sure I would want to live there. It would be nice to vacation there though. Can I bring my phone?

Confessions, Live from Delaware

I didn't think I was going to be able to blog while I was up here, but I'm an early riser and my hosts are NOT, so I thought I would drink my coffee in my pjs on the back porch and read, but right now I thought first I would blog from my phone. I love you that much.

1) I confess, I hate making decisions that have an effect on other people. Don't ask me what to do, or what to eat. I can contribute to the conversation but don't make me make the decisions. It makes me want to cry.

2) I'm staying in a house with 12 cats, and I haven't yet taken my allergy medication. They are damn adorable cats, but holy hell that's a lot of cats. And holy hell, I'm allergic to them.

3) I confess, I think Kourigs are wasteful and unnecessarily expensive, but boy do they make a delicious cup of coffee.

4) I confess, I miss my family and I've been gone less than 24 hours.

5) I confess, Cowboys and Indians was the worst movie I've seen in a very long time. It really felt like someone had a script for an alien movie in one hand and a script for a cowboy movie in the other and they tripped and all the pages went together.

6) I confess, in reading a Terry Pratchett book that a friend recommended and it feels like something I've outgrown. Like, if I were a 12-year old boy and started reading it, I totally would have loved it and been attached to the books through my adult years, but since I didn't try to start until 31 I just don't get the amusement.

7) I think I really need that allergy pill.

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And ... I'm out!

Hello, August! (TOT at the end)

This is my calendar for August (and thank you Jennie for introducing me to the world of Google calendar). I’m pretty sure that weekend of 8/27-28 is a fluke and I’m missing something, but as it stands now, I have 3 free weekend days in the next five weeks (although I'm trying to set up an out-of-town lunch with the girl whose baby shower I missed two weekends ago, so there goes one of the days). I’m assuming it will all be fun, I hope, but holy goodness I’m busy these days!

And beyond that, there’s regular old life with two kids. Regular, exhausting, exhilarating and annoying, life with two kids. For every complaint I could have, there is something amazing going on. I’m trying very hard not to dwell on the constant headache I’ve been having lately or the tantrums or the twice nightly wake-up calls or the screaming or the viruses … instead, there’s the look on this boy’s face when he gets to ride with daddy on his co-pilot bike. There’s two very small children playing peacefully together for a solid 15 minutes. There’s the little one, staring rapt at the television and giggling while watching Where the Wild Things Are (thank goodness I have one who has the attention span for movies). There is Spencer, spelling every sign he sees these days while he tries to learn words. There is Henry, overjoyed at the prospect of walking but not ready to let go (he likes to hold onto my dress now, so I’m not actually supporting him. I’m like his own personal security blanket).

It was a hard weekend. I came down with whatever the kids had and I’m a little whiny baby about being sick. I came in late to work after the kids’ doctor (no ear infections, no antibiotics … just have to ride it out), muttered through work for four hours and then went back home to lay on the couch and feel miserable for awhile, went to bed at 7ish and slept for 12 hours. The kids are starting to get better – the noses are drying up a little, Henry’s rash went away (he had a rash on his belly and up the sides of his back) and they are both back to being in normal form (i.e. loud and rambunctious). I accidentally got S all excited for a birthday party on Saturday that actually was set for Sunday, so I took him out for a little Mommy & Me time … he chose to go to the mall (I’m not complaining) and I chose to take him to the airport to watch the airplanes take off, and the trams and the taxis. We walked around the ticketing counters and the building and talked about our October airplane ride. It was a good time. Henry is still not sleeping through the night, waking up angrily twice every night to scream in his crib until someone comes to rescue him, and I’m still not sure what to do about it. We are back to CIO, and he woke up once Sunday night, cried terribly for 20 minutes and went back to sleep. Monday night, he woke up, cried terribly for 30 minutes, and went back to sleep. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears. At this point I’m pretty sure we’ve tried everything.

We had our first family bike ride on Saturday. We got a co-pilot bike trailer for S, and a new bike helmet (Cars) so Henry could get the hand-me-down helmet and the iBert. Spencer was so excited about that bike. Henry … he didn’t know what to think, but he hated the helmet so he spent most of the ride fighting with it. We went 7 miles, and Spencer would have gladly gone longer but it was long enough for Daddy and Henry. We’ll have to work up to longer rides.

And there are only 52 hours until I leave for Delaware! Ahh!

So I forgot to post on Monday, so M/T are combined today. Here's this week's TOT, via Chelsea (although my answers are a little bit of a cop-out; I hate laundry):

1. Do you do laundry all at the same time or a load here and there? I try to run it all at the same time, but I sometimes forget half way through and leave a load in for a day or two that then has to be rewashed.
2. What kind of detergent do you use? Up&Up Allergen Free, or sometimes All Allergen Free.
3. Do you use fabric softener? Downy
4. Do you use dryer sheets? Only if the clothes are just on the brink of needing to be rewashed and I don't feel like it.
5. Do you iron your own clothes or take them to a cleaner to get pressed? I hate to iron, but it has never occurred to me to pay to have clothes pressed. If I'm taking my clothes to the cleaners, it's because they need to clean them for me. Usually I just go wrinkly.
6. Do you like heavy starch or light starch? I don't have much of a need for starch. Hubby likes heavy. He also prefers to do the ironing.
7. Do you wash all your laundry at once or separate it? I separate unless the load is small and then sometimes I stuff extra stuff in.
8. How do you separate it? By people or by colors? By colors, and then all the outdoor stuff goes separately, like the towels etc.
9. What clothes get hung up and what goes in drawers? We used to hang everything, but now it's mostly our work clothes and everything else goes in drawers.
10. Do you use plastic, wire, or wooden hangers? Do they all match? mostly plastic, wood for my work pants and hubby's work clothes. the wood ones all match, but the plastic are a mish-mash. No wire, ever.

Bits and pieces - too tired for confessions.

I started out to do a wine and love Thursday, but this has been a little bit the week from hell, so all I got down was that I love book club. God, I love book club. Here's what I had to say:

This week I’m loving:

- Book club. I’m so glad that I took the initiative and started a book club. We’ve been going for a few months now, have read some great books (I haven’t been a fan of all of them, but that’s the point sometimes, right? Every book has had its fans in the group). It’s nice to get out of the house once a month and hang out with a different set of people than I normally would, have good food and good drinks and good conversation. Because of the diversity of the group it’s made it necessary to go out rather than rotate houses, and we’ve been making the rounds at local dining and drinking establishments. I don’t know if we’re going to ultimately decide on a restaurant to keep holding meetings at or if we’ll keep changing it up, but I’m flexible! I’m just up for the fun!

In other news:

The germiness of earlier in the week has escalated to the summer cold from hell (times two and possibly soon to be times four). The kids have been up coughing for hours at night, low grade fevers, congestion, all-day whinefests ...

...and Wednesday night we elevated one side of Henry's crib to alleviate the congestion, and he fell out of his crib. The time was 12:44am. It was the scariest moment for me in his life. Somehow, he managed to fall from the crib, clear the humidifier and land on his hardwood floor with nary a scratch, bruise or anything. I watched him for two hours scared his brain was going to start swelling and he was going to stop breathing. He: is fine. Me? Still not so much.

...and Spencer's fever spiked a bit Thursday, so he gets to visit the doctor bright and early today.

...and Henry's now been up since 4:30am, too tired to do anything but whine but unwilling to sleep. Here's to hoping the doctor will sneak a look at him this morning too.

...and Hubby is coming down with it, and I have a scratchy throat and a sore ear. I've washed all sheets, kid pillows, and sprayed down all toys with disinfectant. Please God let this run its course soon. I'm beat.

...and I'm exhausted. That's all I've got, folks.

Weight Watcher

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So I have not been making healthy choices in my meals these days. I think it’s by the grace of God that I haven’t gained any weight, given the pulled pork sandwiches and bacon ranch chicken sandwiches and pasta and the creamed spinach and banana nut pancakes and the chocolate cake and the beer and the wine … you get the point. It’s all been deliciously naughty, but I need to shape up if I am to continue to lose any weight at all.

I’ve never been good at denying myself things, which is why when I started this weight loss journey I decided to make changes in my diet instead of cutting things completely out. Brown rice instead of white, wheat pasta instead of white, water instead of soda, unsweetened tea and coffee, etc etc.

This worked for awhile, except that lately I’ve been allowing myself the occasional Dr. Pepper which has turned into two a week (I know that’s really not bad amount, but I really don’t need it and shouldn’t be drinking it). Also, worse, I’m not drinking the water that I was getting so good at drinking. While it was close to 60-80oz a day for awhile, I’m struggling for 30-40 now.

And portion control, which has never been my strong suit. I need to focus on this most of all. Chocolate cake and milk for dinner probably doesn’t help either.

Additionally, I really need to start actively training for this half marathon that I’ve agreed to do in February. Any ideas?

What are your downfalls? And how do you cope? And do you have any training suggestions for someone who doesn’t do well on interval training schedules? Or android apps to make training schedules easier?