laura705

Went to the gym last night and did only a lower body strength workout.  It was fine, it just didn’t feel like enough exercise.  I know I need to do more exercise, but we got a late start and so bf and I just decided to make it a semi-short session.

Before the gym, I had some bad news from my mother last night.  My brother, who is going through cancer treatement, is in the hospital “for a few days”.  My mother tries not to be the bearer of bad news, so I don’t know if it’s worse than what she’s telling.  I’ll probably have to phone my SIL to find out what’s really going on.  But not today.  It’s my SIL’s b-day today.  Horrible that this is not only her first one without her mother, but her husband is in the hospital. My brother has lung cancer, the small cell fast growing kind, so it’s been a rough road for him and his immediate family.  I’m not very close to my brother, so communications are infrequent and always feel awkward.  And they live out of state, so that makes it more difficult for me.  I know other people keep up relationships just fine even long distance, but for a family that’s not close-knit to begin with, it seems all that more difficult.  Anyway, the thought that my brother can have his life cut short in his 50s and his wife and kids and all of us lose him is just an unbearable thought. 

Had a long offsite meeting this morning with a vendor.  It made me feel like my role in the department is the most boring and unimportant.  Like I do the garbage work and the boss and manager do the interesting projects.  But there is a value to my work I guess by the very fact that no one else would want to do it… 

Tonight is the movie “Knowing” with Nicholas Cage.  I suppose I’ll go, if only to get out of the house for a bit.

That’s about it for today, so I’ll just post and get back to work. 

Well, it’s Monday again.  I just had a meeting, so I sort of jumped into the work week and maybe skipped some of the Monday morning grumpiness.  With the admin-related stuff that’s been going on here the past couple months, I haven’t been very happy at work, so Mondays have been even more difficult than usual.  The past couple weeks have been busy with projects, but this IS the week my boss and I will talk about offloading my supervisory duties. 

We met about my quarterly stuff on Friday afternoon.  The grouch that we usually deal with wasn’t grumpy, but he was his usual difficult self.  What’s difficult about him is that he won’t address issues in advance, even though we’ve been reminding him to all quarter.  So during Friday’s meeting he was mulling things over, asking all his questions, and making requests for additional information.  Uh, it would have been nice to know this in advance and have the additional information available at the meeting to discuss.  Sigh.  Anyway, I have a few additional schedules to prepare this week, but it’s not a rush job. 

My weekend was alright.  The weather was awful on Saturday, but can’t do anything about that…Our brand new blue-ray dvd player wasn’t working right, so bf had ordered a replacement (upgraded of course, to the latest greatest unit).  It came in, so on Friday night we went to dinner (buffalo chicken nuggets – not breaded, at least) and then went to return the old one and pick up the new one.  Unfortunately, bf forgot to bring the remote.  So that was a wasted trip. 

Saturday I had a hair appointment in the morning.  Afterwards was lunch (soup and lamb kebobs, yum) and shopping at Target and the market, and back to the electronics store for our exchange.  I took the dog for a walk late in the afternoon.  Did some housework while I talked to my mom on the phone.  In the evening, bf and I watched an on-demand movie on cable, “Smart People” with Dennis Quaid, Ellen somebody (the actress from “Juno”), Sara Jessica Parker, and the actor from Wings that was in the movie “Sideways”.  Yeh, I’m great with names, LOL.  Anyway, the movie was good, but we got through most of it when somehow bf had it paused and then we couldn’t get back to the spot where we left off.  It would have taken forever to fast forward from the beginning, even at the fastest speed, so we postponed it til the next day.  We turned off our inside lights for Earth Hour, but didn’t turn off the outside ones. 

Bf’s buddy came over later to watch a movie on dvd, and that’s when bf determined the new dvd player wasn’t functioning properly.  Come on, two in a row??  Too coincidental.  I thought it was either a bad cable or the tv and dvd player weren’t somehow compatible, which would be strange.  It turned out to be a bad cable.  So we likely returned the first unit for no reason.  Then bf decided to download a movie from Netflix via streaming video, but of course we had to hunt for the wireless router security settings so it could be set up….Grrr.  I couldn’t get to sleep because of bf grumbling about the cable and looking for the settings he’d printed out and asking me for help.  We finally found them and I read my book and finally went to sleep around 1:30-ish. 

Unfortunately, I woke up at 7:30 on Sunday – too early!  We’d gotten a couple inches of slushy snow overnight and into the morning, but it cleared later and was  sunny.  I read the newspaper all morning and in the afternoon puttered around in the basement.  I did a load of laundry and cleared off a spot on a cabinet we use mostly for our laundry supplies.  I made room for my grow light stand on the cabinet so it’s easier to access.  Before this, it was in the corner by the sump pump on the floor and it was awkward, and there’s also spiders over there.  Eeek.  So this is better.  Then I washed the containers I use for seed starting (old yogurt containers with lids) and planted some seeds – 3 types tomatoes (sweet 100 cherry, better boy, and a type of plum tomato), red peppers, and basil.  They aren’t this year’s seeds, so we’ll see what happens.  I’ve used older seeds in the past, so my fingers are crossed.  I also repotted a couple African violet plants.  Right now the seed containers are covered and sitting on top of the fridge upstairs, so hopefully it’s cozy up there.  I don’t know, our fridge is one of those Energy Star models, so maybe it won’t be giving off much heat up top…  After the seeds germinate, they’ll go back downstairs under the grow light.  We need to buy another timer to turn the light off & on because we’re using our only timer elsewhere now. 

We went back to the electronics store late in the afternoon to exchange the defective cable (3^rd trip to that store in 3 days), and ate an early dinner (shared a flank steak sandwich and a blackened chicken breast sandwich, with mashed potatoes). 

It was still bright and sunny after we ate, so I took the dog for another walk.  I realized once we’d started walking (i.e., he was pulling and I was trying to keep up) that I was still full from our meal and should have waited a bit.  But I wanted to go while it was still light out, so luckily I didn’t suffer a stitch in my side or anything. 

In the evening we watched the end of “Smart People” and some other tv.  I got to bed around 10:30.  No more meetings today, and nothing going on tonight.  I should definitely go to the gym.  My only exercise this weekend was some ab work on Saturday and the two dog walks.  I feel disappointed once again that I didn’t cook meals at home at all this weekend, nor did I plan and shop for any meals for this week.  Tonight’s dinner will probably be shrimp over garlic/olive oil pasta.  I didn’t bring my lunch today, so after I post this, I will be off to the ATM and then to lunch. 

That’s three hours I’ll never get back.  I coordinated a training session for this morning for our department and a few other people we work with.  The instructor, who is also our software vendor contact, was not good at all.  Not knowledgeable enough on our software, and just not a great instructor.  (Truth told, she’s not impressing me much on the support side either.)  But at least it was an intro or the 3 people who don’t use the software at all and can now see some of its capabilities.  Disappointed.

Nothing much else to report.   Bf met his friend at the gym for a workout last night at the gym by his buddy’s house.  I didn’t get the yogurt chicken he said he’d make for dinner.  I didn’t do much at all last night.  Dinner was a Lean Pocket.  Snacks were an apple and a rice cake spread with peanut butter, and later, 3 peanut butter cookies.  Too much food.  Not too much peanut butter, which I like a lot.   

I was really tired at the end of the workday.  What wasn’t sore from my previous night’s workout was fatigued.  Especially my abs.  I’m doing several different exercises on them, and I’m seeing results.  If I don’t get it together with my eating, though, I know the results won’t be as good as they can  be.  So I really have to work at the meal planning, shopping, and cooking.  I  have to be the one.  Bf couldn’t plan his way out of a paper bag, so the plans have to be my plans, and I have to stick to them.   

That said, I have nothing planned for this weekend, LOL.  No, I take that back.  I have a hair appointment tomorrow.  Another two hours of my life gone, but I guess the time is worth it every 6 weeks.  I think my stylist will be happy that I like the haircut she did last time.  I won’t guarantee I’ll still like it once the heat and humidity start messing with it in the summer, but for now, I like it. 

Other than that, I need to start my tomato seeds this weekend!!  Also do some shopping and the same old stuff I keep putting off.  The weather is supposed to be crummy, so I’m not going to worry about any yardwork, except to buy some yard waste stickers, which technically isn’t yard work. 

Okay, I need to finish up one of my quarterly schedules before a 2 pm meeting, so I’ll publish this and get to it.  Have a good weekend. 

Thanks for the comments on camisoles!  I ended up buying one at Sears in white with a wide lace strip across the top.  Not until I was wearing it in the afternoon did I wonder if I felt comfortable showing lace at work.  I always thought it was cute and feminine on others, but not sure about wearing it myself.  Maybe it was the type of lace.  I wouldn’t have thought about wearing a sports bra outside the gym, but I’ll have to try that out.  Definitely less bulk  - no extra layer of fabric.  Not sure about the way they make my girls look though - okay for the gym, but….  I’ll also have to check out Target.  MissMel, when you mentioned Newport News, it reminded me of my neighbor - that’s where all her secret shopping spree packages are coming from…another one was delivered yesterday - to our address, of course, LOL 

Busy today.  I was asked to do my quarterly work earlier than usual, so I’m scrambling to get the prelims done by a meeting tomorrow afternoon.  Found an error the lead admin made that I’ve told her about before, so I made sure I gave her the correction to do, and asked her to find any other of the same type errors she might have made so she can fix those too.  We’ll see how she responds.  Lately we’re generally trying to avoid dealing with each other, or communicating via e-mail. 

Yesterday bf and I went to the gym.  We did about 55 min and it was a good workout.  I’m sore today.   Bf made a stir fry and it was good.  Beef, chicken, mushrooms, ginger, garlic, bell pepper and other goodies.  I like them, but they’re a lot of prep work w/ the fresh veggies.  And frozen veggies just don’t seem to work as well. 

Nothing planned tonight.  Dinner might be chicken marinated in yogut, a recipe we haven’t had in a while.  It’ll be good if we can use up the rest of the pain yogurt I bought because I haven’t been eating it - haven’t felt like experimenting with mix-ins.

Okay, better post and get back to work on the quarterly stuff.

Feeling very discontented with the week.  I have a lot of resentment inside me. Maybe it’s being “enhanced” by TOM, but it’s not over nothing or petty stuff.     It’s directed towards others, but I need to do something about it.  And I don’t mean have a hissy fit or clobbering someone.  I mean do something about the part that I can control.  My reactions and responses.  Communicating my expectations and feelings. 

Speaking of TOM, I unwisely stepped on the scale this morning.  Not pretty.  Up a couple pounds.  Now why did I decide to that when I know there’s bloating going on.  I guess my bad choices aren’t limited to food.

It rained a wee bit yesterday, but we didn’t get any seepage in our basement.  Bf needs to remove the paneling from the one wall in the basement where the water gets in so the waterproofing people can look at it.  It seems like the past few years, we’ve had enough heavy rains to experience the seepage multiple times during the year.  This year alone, 2009, less than 3 months into it and in the WINTER to boot, we had two instances of it.  I hate to see what the wall/foundation looks like behind that paneling.  We don’t have chronic dampness in the basement or bad odors, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some mold in that spot… In a twisted sort of way, I hope to see a visible crack so it’s obvious where the water comes through.   Have the waterproofing co repair it and be done with it. 

Last night I was home with the dog, and he was being whiney.  He needed some exercise.  I should have taken him for a walk, but it was sort of rainy.  I wish I’d done it right after I got home.  It wasn’t raining steadily, just off and on sprinkles, so it’s not like we’d get soaked.  But we played a little bit and he eventually settled down.  I watched some tv and read.  I did some exercise while watching tv, but not a full workout.  Some lower body, ab work, and push ups. 

Nothing going on today - no meetings scheduled.  I didn’t bring my lunch.  At lunch I might shop for a camisole to wear under tops that are a little bit too low for modesty’s sake.  What I already own seems to be cut just as low and are no help.

I will go to the gym tonight!  No excuses!

The photo of the fat and muscle was just a test to see if I could successfully post a photo.  I think I originally saw this photo in the journals and decided to save it.  No I don’t have it posted on my fridge, but maybe I should!

Yesterday at work was alright.  I feel like I’m running behind and my desk is horrifying, but I’m finishing up a couple larger projects and will hopefully be able to address my messy desk this week.

No workout last night.  Dinner was a turkey blt sandwich at Culver’s.  I had some of bf’s fries and a bite of his cole slaw.  Bf had the walleye dinner and not having looked at the menu board (just the photo), he was surprised that it was $10.99 for that meal - and it didn’t include the beverage.  Sheesh!  Looking forward to the warm weather when we can just slap some fish on the grill for a “fast food” dinner. 

I’ve determined what’s causing irritation on the outer part of my arm pits.  It’s my exercises.  I’m wearing regular old cotton knit t-shirts to the gym and I think the seams or the fabric might be rubbing when I do certain exercises.  I will switch to my other workout tops, which are a smoother synthetic fabric and see if that helps.  I was originally thinking my deodorant was causing the problem, but was wrong, since it wasn’t irritating my entire underarm.  I guess I was suspicious because the last bottle I bought looks different, but the label claims the formula hadn’t changed.  However, it seems more watery than before, and it doesn’t seem quite as effective as before.  Maybe I need to switch brands.  Darn.

No movie tonight, our leader is out of town.  I will go to the gym tonight.

I’m reading what I thought would be a fluffy romance novel (before I start the book for April’s book club).  However, in this book the woman does rescue and foster care for dogs and one of the subplots is about the city banning specific breed dogs.  I haven’t gotten very far yet and the waterworks have started! 

Lunch today is a pbj sandwich.  I have two apples and some baby carrots for snacks.  Not much else to report so I’ll get this posted. 

Lately, I feel like I haven’t anything interesting to say in my entries.  Not that the purpose of my entries is to entertain, but just that it’s a reflection of how I’m feeling.  And so I’m feeling nothing much is new in my life.  Which means I’m not changing, my life is not changing.  I need to shake things up.  I need to be more proactive. 

I was angry with bf this weekend because he decided to go by a friend’s house Saturday night.  He sprang it on me at the last minute.  He was probably certain I wouldn’t want to go, which is true, and he probably didn’t want me to go.  Not because I’m horrible company, but likely because I wouldn’t want to stay out until the wee hours.  And he’s right about that.  So I was ticked.  Ticked that he does that, and ticked that he didn’t want to do something that would include me.  Now why don’t I take the initiative to make plans for the two of us?  Or even just for myself?  And why did I let that bug me?  I don’t mind spending time alone.  Quite frankly, I like the quiet time.  BF spends a lot of time on the phone and it feels like everything we do gets interrupted by his phone calls and there’s never peace. 

I guess the hermit in me is becoming more prominent.  So maybe I am horrible company after all.  LOL.  I probably do need to make more of an effort to be more sociable.  (Why is it “sociable” and not just “social” or “socialable”?  And now I want crackers, because isn’t there one brand of crackers called Sociables?) 

On Friday night, bf and I went to dinner and then went to the condo of couple we know.  Bf and his friend assembled their new tv stand.  The wife and I watched tv and talked a bit.  It was alright, but their condo scares me with its wall-to-wall clutter.  They’re expecting a baby in August and I don’t know how they will ever find room for all the stuff that comes along with babies!  It took a few hours to build that tv stand, so it was a late night.  Bedtime was around 1:30 am.

Saturday morning I actually slept until after 9:30 and didn’t wake up until the dog woke me up wanting breakfast.  I fed him and puttered for a bit - finished reading the book “Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates (on which the movie is based).  I’d like to read another of his novels.  I also got some laundry going.  I finally dressed and got out in the backyard early in the afternoon.  I raked and bagged a bunch of leaves that had collected on the patio, and along the border on one side and by the fence on the other.  It was a nice day and good to be outside in the sun.  I saw that weeds are popping up in the flower border (along with the peonies, daylilies, sedum, and daffodils), so I think I need to apply some preen before more weeds germinate.

The latest with our neighbor:  Saturday she apparently told her daughter she was going for a walk by the park.  In actuality, she to go to the drugstore and market for a few things, but then ended up also walking to a nearby department store that’s not too far of a walk.  She ended up buying more than she could carry home and phoned bf asking him to come get her.  Her purchases went in the trunk, and she didn’t want a ride all the way home…he dropped her off a few blocks away.  So she not only needed help getting her stuff home, but she wanted to keep her purchases a secret.  I haven’t asked her point blank what’s going on, but she’s certainly on a secret shopping spree.  I just don’t know what will happen when all this stuff (and/or the bills for it) is discovered by her family. 

BF and I skipped lunch and had an early dinner at a restaurant we’d never tried.  It’s tucked away in a strip mall that’s in what I would consider commercial – a bunch of small businesses, but it turns out the place is very popular – especially on Saturday nights.  We showed up around 6 pm and were asked if we had reservations!  We ended up in a small table in a high traffic area, so that was a negative, but the food was great.  We’ll be back, but with a reservation so that we can get a nice corner table. 

Saturday night I worked on my little sewing project and it’s about 95% done.  It’s a cloth cover for paperback books with a little flap to keep it closed.  I have an old vinyl cover from way back in college, but I thought it would be a fun project to make a fabric one, complete with a sewn-in ribbon bookmark.  At least now I’ll be able to shove a paperback in my backpack and not totally trash it. 

After sewing, I watched a bit of tv and soon dozed off.

Sunday I puttered some more in the morning, but managed to get to the gym by noon.  I did an hour of strength training.  No, I haven’t been doing any cardio lately.  I know I need both.  The problem is that I’m not getting to the gym frequently enough.  Last week I went on Sunday, and exercised at home on Wed. and that was it.  For this week, I went yesterday and hope to get to the gym twice more… It’s just not enough.  And I admit that I prefer the strength training over the cardio machines, so with limited time, I will choose the strength training.  So I need to go more frequently or do longer workouts that also include cardio.  The latter could work if I get to the gym earlier.  My other thought is to cycle the 2 miles to the gym in the nicer weather and have that be my cardio workout.  Not sure about the logistics – is the bike safe locked in front of the gym (I noticed they have a rack there)?  Will it be too dark on the ride home?  Or I could do separate bike rides for my cardio, but on nice bike paths.  Of course everyone likes to think they’ll do more outdoor activities like cycling when the weather is nice…

Anyway, after the gym and a shower, I took doggy out for a walk, went to the library, and bought some milk.  The rest of the day was folding laundry (lots of socks, ugh), tv and reading.  

Back at work now.  No meetings today since my morning meeting was rescheduled to next week.  I have a project to finish today that took a back seat for two weeks partially due to the time-consuming admin drama. 

Not much to report today since yesterday’s post was later in the day.  I didn’t go to the gym after work.  BF said he was going to help his buddy put together a tv stand (his buddy’s) because his friend is helpless at that stuff.  So I figure he’d be using the car.  I decided to instead get up to date on balancing the checking account and did that.  Missing a couple receipts and that drives me nuts, especially since the amounts weren’t recorded in my register.  So I didn’t ever have them?  One is for Target and I’m sure it’s our transaction, the other is a transfer between accounts, and that’s probably ours too, but banks do make mistakes too sometimes, not that mine does it very often.  Anyway, at means bf might have had them, but he couldn’t find them, and of course he gets offended when I assume it involves him.  Too bad -  it usually does involve him.  He’s horrible with the bank account, which is why I’ve finally given up on the joint checking account.  I closed it a couple weeks ago.  I’m generally sick of all the stuff that needs tracking and monitoring and doing - balance the bank account, submit receipts for the medical spending account, pay the bills, do the taxes, yada, yada, yada.  Maybe it would be better if I were one of those people who are blissfully carefree about this stuff and only worry when something big happens.  

Anyway, this one car thing gets to me occasionally.  I plan to go to the gym tonight, but I overheard bf on the phone last night saying he’s got tentative plans tonight.  I don’t know if he was just using that as an excuse in rescheduling his hair appointment, or if he really does.  He springs this stuff on me at the last minute.  He didn’t end up leaving the house last night to go help assemble the tv stand, so that may be what his plans are tonight.  I’m getting annoyed that he isn’t more thoughtful as far as sharing the car.  We may give up and buy a second one. 

Nothing much else to report.  Lunch was a subway turkey sandwich.  Dinner was the last of the bbq pork, on a bun.  Had 2 cookies for dessert.

Just want to get work over with today and start my weekend.  I better get this posted and get in the shower.

I had an off-site industry meeting today and a meeting upon return to the office, so that ate up the entire morning.  I’m working on something yucky right now, but it needs to be done.  The new admin will be out of the office tomorrow and I have no meetings, so I hope to be able to accomplish more.  This week has been a bad one for meetings.

I got home from work last night and changed into workout clothes, but bf had his workout clothes in the washer.  I waited a while for him and his laundry so we could go to the gym together, but was really cranky by the time he was ready to go.  He said so, and then suggested I work out at home and he go to the gym alone.  I said fine and headed to the basement.

I did two Body Electric recorded shows and worked delts, pecs, abs, quads, hamstrings, glutes, inner thighs…can’t recall what else, but it was a good workout.  I suppose I’ll go to the gym tonight.  Maybe by myself.

The weather was nice again yesterday, but today is sort of chilly (40’s) and windy.  At least it’s sunny.  Tomorrow is more of the same I think, then we’ll have some more milder weather.  I’m so glad the winter weather is breaking up and we’re getting warmer temps.  I’m not saying we won’t get another blast of winter weather before spring, but we’re at the end, so I’ll deal with it better than I did in December and January!

Happy tomorrow is Friday.  Nothing firm planned this weekend.  There is a pet expo going on that I’ve never been to.  Maybe I’ll go to that.  If it’s mild and dry over the weekend, I might get out in the yard and clean up the remaining leaves.  Also need to start some tomato seeds and set up the plant light.  I still have my little sewing project, and of course the usual abhorrent house cleaning and piles of paperwork that need to be organized, filed and/or purged.

I better get back to the yucky so I can get it out of my life.