laura705

Brrrr. Cold.  I did not wear longies today.  I wish I had.  The train was about 10-15 min. late, and then it was full, so I had to stand the entire ride – about 45 min.  Bah!  I wasn’t even able to put on all my makeup.  I managed to apply concealer, eyeliner, and lipstick while standing in the aisle.  I’m debating about adding the rest, except I do have a lunch w/ a vendor today…  I should. 

At least it’s Friday.  Yay for that. 

Last night I went to the Yoga/Pilates class.  By myself.  Not a surprise.  Bf was like, “Is Pilates a chick thing?”  When I got to the gym, the class before mine was still in progress so I waited outside the door.  I glanced at the schedule and noticed that the class I planned to go to was now different - the class was called “Fusion/Yoga” (note to self – print new schedule).  While waiting outside the room, I chatted w/ another student and she told me about the class.  It was a mix of stuff, starting off w/ a Tai Chi sort of warm-up, and segments that included yoga, balance, twisting and core movements.  Unfortunately, she also said that this was the last class.  Apparently the pregnant instructor was being cut (even though she could have gone several more weeks), and there was doubt that a substitute instructor would take over the class.  

Before class began, the instructor pretty much confirmed all that I’d heard.  A petition to keep the class was sent around and I signed it after class.  I don’t know what Bally’s maternity leave rules are – I imagine there might be rules that prohibit an employee from working after a certain point in her pregnancy.  But it seems like they might also be trying to cut costs.  Anyway, I enjoyed the class.  More than the yoga only class, but I wish there had been more core movements.  I definitely got a workout though, and that’s what counts.  And there were about 5-6 men in the class, so there.  We’ll see what happens next week.  I might e-mail the gym and ask what’s going to happen w/ that class. 

Nothing planned for tonight, but I imagine we’ll be getting ready for entertaining tomorrow evening.  Bf will do some shopping today, but some cleaning also needs to be done.  I have no idea if the couple we’re having to dinner is bringing anything, so I will take care of dessert and let bf handle the main course.  Oh, we need to do some appetizers too.  

Plans for Sunday include a cardio session at the gym, as well as trying to do more with my de-papering project.  Have a good weekend everyone. 

It’s really cold today, so I’m wearing my longies under my dress slacks.  But it’s sunny too, so I did get out and walk a few blocks to get lunch – just to get some Vit. D.  The wind wasn’t all that bad.  Must’ve been walking in the right spots.  Steps so far today are 5,718.  I could be getting more steps if I walked all the way home from the train station in the evening, but bf picks me up about a third of the way home and I can’t say I don’t like getting a ride when it’s so frigid and windy like the past few days have been. 

Last night was ho hum, nothing special.  My muscles were sore, so I’m glad I took it easy, but I was a bit bored.  I’m feeling like I’m in a rut.  Just the winter blues I guess.  Sometimes if I’m tired after work, I don’t mind chilling out in front of the tv.  Other times, I feel like I could be doing more.  And not just letting the dog in and out of the backyard and wiping his paws. 

Tonight I’m going to the combo yoga/pilates class at the gym, and bf said he’d join me.  We’ll see if he does.  Nothing much else to report.  I remembered to put some of the reading from my pile into my backpack the past two days, so that’s good.  Pretty soon I should be receiving my W-2 from work.  That’ll force me to dig into the office paperwork piles and locate all the stuff I need for my tax filing.  There’s not all that much I need, but it’ll be a good excuse to get back into that project.

I could ramble on and on, but I better just get this posted and get back to work. 

Brrr.  Very cold and windy outside, and it will be like this the rest of the week and on the weekend too.  Makes me want to hibernate.

I was sore from Monday’s workout, but I did another workout last night.  I did the next show in sequence, yet it had a couple routines working the same body parts as the prev. night, so I switched those out for other body parts.  I worked the inner thighs, deltoids, glutes, obliques, and pecs.  I’m going to give myself a rest tonight because I’m planning on going to the gym tomorrow night for a pilates & yoga class.  I’ve been to a yoga only class, but never the combo.  I really liked the pilates classes I took a while ago, so I think I’ll like this. 

 TOM started yesterday and so I’m experiencing my set of irritating things - headache, digestive problems, and bloating.  Well, the bloating started earlier, but the other stuff came yesterday.  I got to bed at a decent time.

This morning I had an off-site seminar for two hours.  It was nearby, so I was able to take my normal train and get to the office to drop off my backpack & change into my shoes before going there.  I have a training webinar in an hour.  I didn’t bring my lunch, so I need to go get something before that begins.  My feet are so cold right now.  I’m putting my boots back on.  I don’t care how it looks w/ my dress pants!  Oh, and the next two days are no-jean days at the office.  Oh well.  Still another two months left after this to enjoy wearing jeans.  Jeans days are nice in the winter because jeans are a bit heavier and warmer than my dress slacks.

Okay, I’m rambling and I need to stop, publish and get my lunch. 

Cold today.  We got a dusting of snow last night.  Oh well, the mild weather was appreciated while it was here.  It also gave bf a chance to take down the last of the Christmas lights that had been encased in ice until that last mild day on Sunday.  And to pick up all the dog poop in the backyard, LOL. 

I received my pedometer yesterday, so I set that up.  Steps so far today are 3,401.  I did one BE workout last night.  Worked calves, hamstrings, biceps, triceps and obliques.  I did a load of laundry and purged one more file in the filing cabinet.  I’ve got a long way to go w/ getting the paper under control, but I hope to keep plugging away at it.  I’ve started so many times…  I forgot to put a few more bits of train reading material in my backpack this morning.  See how that happens?  It starts out as “I’ll put a couple things from this pile into my backpack each day to read on the train and the pile will eventually disappear.”  Then I do it once and forget about it.  Sigh.  Maybe I’ll try and put that stuff in the backpack right when I get home from  work when I’m taking other stuff out of my backpack. 

I’m skipping the movie tonight.  I just decided I wasn’t all that excited about any of the movies suggested.  I’ll do another BE workout and purge another file or two. 

Bf told me on Saturday at lunch that he’d set up a dinner with another couple at our house for this coming Saturday.  Actually, he said something like he was “running it by me”, but then it turned out he’d already arranged it, so I just went with it.  I’m not in the mood to entertain yet after the holidays, but I’ll just let him be the one to do everything.  His first meal suggestion was to grill something if it was nice out.  Uh,  January 30th in Chicago?  Not much of a chance it’ll be nice.  His next meal suggestion was the ever practical ribs.  Typical guy.  Sure, something that takes 3 hours in the oven at 300 degrees so that nothing else can go in there, and the only other oven we have is a toaster oven.  Sigh.  Just thought I’d vent a bit about that. 

My weekend was alright.  I don’t recall what we did Friday.  I’m sure it’ll come back to me as I type.  I think we watched tv, and I recall my abs still being sore from my BE workout Thurs. night. 

Saturday I woke up early and sat on the sofa with the tv on in the background and went through papers in our “mail cart” all morning.  The mail cart is this rolling cart from Ikea that has shelves, drawers and cubbies.  We put our mail in a basket on top.  Catalogs are in one cubby, coupons in another.  Shelves contain other stuff – magazines, etc.  It gets messy, but at least the paper has a home.  Well, it did until it got too piled up and bf started putting mail on the end table.  Grrrr.  Anyway, the basket on top didn’t have much mail per se (because bf is now putting it on the end table), but a lot of reading materials that came in the mail and just piled up – magazines, newsletters, etc.  I purged that pile.  I’ll pick a few things from it every day to go into my backpack for train reading.  At the bottom was a pile of Christmas cards – from 2007!  Most of those went into the pile that I’m sending to a charity that recycles them into new cards and sells them (St. Jude’s Ranch for Children).  This morning I dug up a large mailing envelope and put it on the table with the shipping tape so that bf or I will get those ready to mail.

We went to lunch, then to Bed Bath & Beyond for a slipcover for our leather recliner and then to Hobby Lobby for a frame for a poster I’ve had sitting around for a while.  Oh, we looked at more posters and I think we finally found some that we agree on for our hallway. And I bought some fleece for my mitten sewing project. Even though the patterns are always 40% off at HL, I didn’t want to pay $9 for the pattern for what’s a fairly easy project.  We also picked up some books at the library.  Back at home we put the slipcover on.  Oh fun.  And, okay, the chair will probably be more comfortable in the winter, but it definitely doesn’t look as good as the leather does!  I’m eager for warmer weather so we can pull off that slipcover.  Speaking of countdowns – 48 more days until DST begins. :)

Sunday morning I went to the gym and did 35 min of cardio on the recumbent and upright stationery bikes.  Afterward, I went to Walmart for dog food and picked up some groceries.  The size of the Iams bags went down by two pounds, but not the price of course.  Grrr.  I need to find coupons for that.

Bf and I went to lunch and then finally bought a wall calendar for the kitchen.  Bf started to frame my poster and the frame isn’t the right size.  Aaargh!  I printed off a couple mitten patterns I found online.  The rest of the day I did some laundry, cleaning, and some file purging in the office.  Now the pile of paper to shred is even bigger.  I wonder when the next community shredding event will be?  There’s a truck w/ a giant shredder in it and you just have to drive your car up and they pull the bag out of your trunk and put it in the shredder.  Way better than sitting there feeding pages into our little shredder at home. 

Not much going on today.  I brought in the bag of the remaining hit-or-miss clementines to the office and put them in the upstairs fridge w/ a post-it saying “help yourself”.   There wasn’t much else in the fridge when I did that first thing this morning, so I’m hoping more people put their lunch in the fridge and see them.  The boss is out of town for two days so it’s quiet here.  I think tonight I’ll do a BE workout. 

Yay for Friday!

I feel a bit more awake now, but when I first got to work, I was yawning and not feeling very energetic.  I wasn’t up horribly late.  Not sure why I was tired.  I hit the snooze button several times this morning, so I was running late when I finally dragged myself out of bed.  But I got myself out the door at the usual time. 

Last night bf picked me up about halfway from the train station.  He didn’t see me at first and drove right past me.  He was apparently very distracted - doggy somehow hurt his paw and he was worried.  Bf thinks doggy hurt himeself when he went crazy over the mailman’s visit.  This is a daily occurrence, lol, but maybe this time when he was jumping up w/  his front paws onto the window sill, he did some damage.  We’d been meaning to trim doggy’s nails for a while now, so when bf fed the dog his dinner, he put a couple sedative pills in his food.  I came home to a dopey doggy. 

While waiting for the pills to take full effect and for dinner to cook, I did a BE workout in the basement.  One of routines had us using a small playground ball behind our back and doing crunches from that semi-upright position.  I think there’s an infomercial for ab workouts using something similar.  Anyway, I felt it right away and I feel a small amount of soreness already, and I’m sure I’ll feel it more as the day wears on.  I might buy another one of those small balls for upstairs.  I have my big fitness ball in the upstairs closet, but it’s really big and cumbersome to pull out, so I was thinking of putting it in the basement instead.  I’d be more likely to use the small ball than the large one upstairs. 

Right before we ate dinner, we trimmed most of doggy’s nails, including the one we suspected was injured.  Bf said the dew claw on the injured paw was split and he trimmed it back quite a ways.  At that point, doggy had enough, so he walked off with one paw’s nails untrimmed.  Then we saw blood on the floor and had to use the powder that stops it and wipe up all the spots (thank goodness for laminate and hardwood).  Bf always feels just awful about doing stuff to the dog that the dog doesn’t like, but in this case he felt physically sick (I think he might have eaten bad leftovers for lunch), so I ate my dinner and he left his mostly untouched.  After cleaning up from dinner, I took doggy for a walk and he didn’t seem to be favoring that paw and was trotting along just fine.  He was moving differently because he was all doped up, but didn’t seem in any pain. 

Nothing planned for this weekend.  I will go to the gym on Sunday.  My knee still feels a bit funny - not painful, but not quite normal.  So I’ll do my cardio on the regular stationary bike and the recumbent bike instead of the treadmill and the elliptical.  Other than that, there’s plenty to do at home.  I also want to do some shopping w/ some gift cards I have.  I noticed the book store in the train station has all their calendars priced at $4.  However, I stopped there the other day when they were marked down 50% and really didn’t see anything I liked and definitely nothing bf would like.  So I might head over to the store by my house and shop for one there.  It’s a better store, so I hope they have a better selection.  By now, I’d be okay w/ a freebie, but we haven’t received any.  I suppose businesses are cutting back on that stuff. 

I’m also thinking of sewing myself some fleece mittens, so I’ll see if any stores have the color I want.  Joanne’s seems to have tons of fleece, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all I find there is prints for the kids.  I just want plain old brown.  Finding that’ll probably be just as difficult it was finding ready-made brown fleece mittens - impossible. 

Okay, I’m rambling.  I better just post and get back to work.  Oh, look at that, it’s almost lunch time.  Less than 6 hours until the weekend.  And as long as I’m counting down - 51 more days until Daylight Svgs Time begins. 

Not much to report.  Yesterday at work was ho hum.  Reviewed a couple boxes of old decrepit files that we’d pulled from storage a while back and they had some of that icky carbonless paper in them.  Between that and the dust, I felt grimy and itchy after I finished.  But about 3/4 of the files are being tossed, so that’s good.

Didn’t do much of anything last night, so that was ho hum too. 

I finally ordered my pedometer online.   I paid for it w/ the credit card that has the credit amount from the return of the other pedometer so I could use up the credit, but I got a good deal on this pedometer so I’ still have a small credit balance to use.  I don’t use this credit card much (I stopped using all but one of my credit cards to make my life easier) but now I’m forced to use this one for something so I don’t have a credit hanging out there.   Could be worse!  Now I have an excuse to shop, LOL. 

I’ve been taking clementines to work as a snack and they have been very hit or miss as far as taste goes.  The taste ranges from not good to bland to sweet.  I’ll stick to naval oranges in the future.  What to do w/ the rest of the clementines?  I’m not into wasting food, but I’m not very enthused about eating them.  I discussed this w/ the admin, who also eats clementines and she expressed that the first box she bought was great, but the last couple boxes have been disappointing.  I might put them out in the coffee room or  our vending area on the other floor. 

Well, that’s about it.  Tonight I’ll do a workout in the basement.   

Very late and I’m about to shut down my computer and go home. 

Not much to report.  Knee is getting better, but I still feel twinges of pain when I do turn or pivot movements.  Not much pain, so that’s good.

“It’s Complicated” was funny and I enjoyed it.  I didn’t need to see Alec Baldwin in various states of undress though!!  Meryl Streep was wonderful, as always, and I liked Steve Martin too.  I didn’t like Alec Baldwin’s role in this as much as his character on 30 Rock.  Oh well. 

Nothing planned for tonight, and I’m tired.  I should do a Body Electric workout… 

Okay, gotta post and get going. 

Not much to report today.  Bf picked me up from the train last night and dropped me off this morning.  My knee is feeling better, but not 100% yet.  I took it easy last night and spent most of the night on the sofa relaxing.  I worked on a couple more crochet stitches.  Maybe I’m read for a project now! 

Bf did the shopping.  Before that, he got the pork roast in the crock pot, but not early enough to have it for dinner.  Sigh.  I didn’t really have dinner, just snacks.  Crackers w/ a Laughing Cow wedge, then an English muffin.  I guess the crochet kept my hands busy enough. 

Tonight is the movies.  We’re seeing “It’s Complicated”.  I’m looking forward to that.  It starts early, so I won’t have much time for dinner.  Bf bought me a few Lean Cuisine meals, so I’ll eat one of those.  I’ll bring some pretzel rods to the movie theater. 

I was shopping around online for a pedometer at lunch today.  I thought I was set on the brand and model, and now I’m wavering and thinking of another brand.  I wish I weren’t being so flakey about this.  All I want a reasonably accurate pedometer that doesn’t rattle.  Good enough, and it’ll motivate me to move more.  That’s all I need.  Just order one!

Okay, I’ll get this published. 

Late entry today. 

My weekend was alright.  Would have been better if it were three days instead of two, LOL. 

Book club Friday was fine, but after a while the talk, as usual, turned to being about kids, their schools and their teachers.  That part mostly bores me, but sometimes there’s something interesting.  Like the one mom who told us that she made her daughter’s teacher cry, LOL.  I drank two bottles of hard cider (bought at Trader Joe’s along w/  English toffee - my Britsh themed snacks) and ate small portions of many of the snacks.  Actually, I had less than two bottles of the cider because the hostess’s dog was let out of his prison (a bedroom) and was very happy to be out.  So happy he wagged his tail as he made his way around the coffee table and sent plates and cups flying, including my cider, LOL.

Breakfast the next morning was nice.  Bf and I met w/ a guy I used to work with.  He’d just taken a long trip (I’d taken the same long trip years ago) and we talked about how horrible it was to travel nowadays.  I’m so glad I don’t have to travel for work anymore!  I took home about half of my meal. 

All of the indoor decorations were taken down Saturday.  I still have to launder the holiday dish towels and put them in the last bin to go into the attic.  Good news – we’d thought that one strand of lights on our pre-lit tree had burned out, but it turns out it was only unplugged!  The outdoor decorations are all down, except for a few strings of lights that are still frozen on the gutters. 

Rest of Saturday - walked the dog, ate a late lunch, watched some football, started a new book.  We bought an insulated blanket for the hot water heater.  Whoopee.  Of course it has to be cut to size and taped in place, etc.  I’m sure it’ll sit around for a while, unless I hound bf about it.  I hope it makes a difference in the gas bill! 

Sunday I went to the gym, returned library materials, bought milk, walked the dog, returned my pedometer, ate lunch, did some shopping.  Home, then laundry, dinner and tv.  In the evening my right knee started hurting.  It feels a bit better today, but still sore.  Had bf drop me off at the train today and will have him pick me up tonight.  I also didn’t sleep very soundly last night.  It felt like I was constantly waking up. 

Getting organized is on my mind.  In our basement we keep shifting around my two bikes and the tandem bike depending on when bf uses his pool table and when I need my space to exercise.  This just brings home the fact that we need to get both our garage and basement spaces organized.  And it also begs the question why do I need 3 bicycles (one of my bikes is up in the garage)?  Sigh.  And so there’s the garage, the basement - and can’t forget the home office - that need significant work in terms of organizing.  Ugh.  I just need to break it down into manageable projects and motivate myself w/ rewards when I make some progress.  Not unnecessary stuff that will create new  clutter, but stuff that will help organize the spaces.

Boss left a bit early today for an appointment.  Her laptop was infected with viruses and so the IT people had it for half the day.  Not sure why I find that funny, but I do.  Not much else to report.  Nothing planned for tonight, but I think I’ll try to do a Body Electric workout and a load of laundry.  I’ll also get to bed early tonight. Time to publish.