laura705

Friday at last.  I really could have done without today.  This morning the new admin asked me about something she was working on w/ a vendor.  The vendor did a couple things to really annoy us and there was all this drama and discussion.  It sucked up a huge amount of time, and now the boss is trying to figure out how to deal w/ this vendor contact.  She’s very competent at her job, but the people side of her is just not good.  The other manager, the new admin, and I have all had issues w/ this person, and while we know she has the best intentions for us as her client, she just frustrates the heck out of us. 

Yesterday I did a workout in the basement.  The ones I do are strength training, and I use recorded 30 min. tv shows.  By the time you exclude the few minutes at the beginning and end and the warmup and cool down, it’s probably less than 20 minutes - the instructor shoots for about 3.5 min. each on 4-5 body parts.  That’s not quite enough - I prefer to do 2 shows back to back (skipping the first show’s cooldown and the 2nd show’s warmup) and get a fuller workout.  But I just wanted something quick, so I did one yesterday. 

Nothing planned this weekend, and I told bf I didn’t want anybody over.  I just want some quiet, and he agreed.  Or I should I say he said okay.  Different.

Heck, just got into a gossip fest w/ a couple cube mates, so today’s been one of the least productive work days in memory.  Next week will be better.  Has to be.

I’m in a webinar that I’m doing because it’s a requirement.  It has nothing to do specifically w/ my job, but I’m doing it to just get checked off on a list and fulfill the requirement for our company.  Boring.  And guess what - it started an hour earlier than I thought because of a time zone difference.  So hopefully I won’t have a problem getting credit for completing this thing.  On the bright side, I only had one hour of this instead of two, LOL. 

I ate a brownie just now.  Missed the brownie, missed chocolate.  But I can’t eat this stuff all the time.  Need to limit and enjoy sweets less frequently.

Today totally feels like a Friday and I’m so bummed that it’s not.  Not sure why - I’m already having a short week because I took Monday off work.  Sigh.  This afternoon I have a meeting offsite and it should make the day go faster.  In the meantime, my desk is a mess.  I’m still hung up on the two projects emanating from one icky issue concerning conflicting data.  I need to get past this and work w/ what I have.  I hate when I dither over stuff like this.  This just confirms my “behavior style”, which we self-assessed last week for the training course.  I’m both interpersonal and cognitive, and this lingering and agonizing over details is coming from the cognitive side of me. 

Another example of that coming through is last night.  I was going to exercise, but the fact that I hadn’t updated my checking account register was nagging at me, so I didn’t exercise.  Instead I went through the mail that had piled up the past week to make sure I had all the bills gathered to schedule online for payment.  Then I updated my checkbook.  I was already tired, so after that I got ready for bed and of course fell asleep while reading my book in bed. 

I brought a half sandwich for lunch and will buy some soup from the caf or some other place to supplement it.  Nothing going on tonight, so I’ll definitely exercise. 

It’s snowing this morning.  Not sure what the accumulation will be.  Getting tired of this, but it’ll eventually end.  Just not as soon as I’d like.  Then the muddy season will begin.  Muddy as in constantly wiping doggy’s paws when he comes in from outside.  Yes, we’re wiping now, but snow and moisture is easier than mud…  Only 18 more days until daylight savings time begins and I’ll get home from work while it’s still light out! 

Well, today at about 4 pm ends my two weeks of no sugar/sweets.  I have not had any cookies, candy, pastries, granola bars, desserts, non-diet soda, or sugar in my tea.  A semi-slipup was buying popcorn that was a mix of cheddar and caramel corn.  I also had a yogurt which was not sugar free, and gum that wasn’t SF.  And last night’s dinner was a PBJ sandwich.  Out of those three, only the pbj was really something I would typically eat when I want “something sweet”.   What I really miss is chocolate!  I also missed buying a little piece of baklava the other night when we ate a quick meal at a Middle Eastern restaurant we like.  I don’t think I’m going to continue w/ (near) 100% abstinence, but I will try to think up a way to limit my sweets without feeling deprived. 

Last night we saw the movie “Edge of Darkness”.  Whenever I think of that title, I think it sounds like some kind of soap opera, LOL.  This was definitely not a soap.  BF came with me to see it, so there were 4 of us last night.  I enjoyed the movie.  I haven’t seen Mel Gibson in a movie in a while and he seemed to be looking older than his years (54).  He also looked really short.  I think they deliberately cast the other roles to taller actors to enhance the effect of the little guy against the big bad guys. 

Tonight will be some exercise in the basement and that’s about it.  Maybe I’ll file my state tax return.  I usually get a postcard that has my PIN and reminds me to e-file, but I received nothing this year.  Wondering if something changed, or if the state just didn’t mail out the cards because they are too broke to do so.  Every year I wonder if they’ll be able to pay me my refund, small as it is.  

Nothing much else to report, so I guess I better get this published and back to work. 

I’m sore today.  I did two BE workouts last night, and on top of the one from Sat., they all had glute and hamstring routines, so that area is what’s sore.  I could really use a good stretching session and a jacuzzi today.  I skipped my gym session on Sunday, so I haven’t had any cardio except dog walks on Sat, Sun. and Mon.  Good for both of us, and bf when he joins us.  Renee, we don’t use the word “walk” either - we say jaunt, stroll, etc, LOL. 

Didn’t do anything special last night after my workout - watched some of the Olympics and that was about it. 

I brought a sandwich for lunch today.  Tonight is the movies.  I voted for “Edge of Darkness” and that’s what was selected.  Now I recall that bf’s mother wanted to see it.  Maybe I’ll skip it and bf and I and his mother can see it on the weekend. 

Well, nothing much else to report, so I’ll get going.  I don’t want to be here (at the office) today, but things are getting busy again, so no time for wishing I were somewhere else.  Speaking of that…I just finished the book club book, “A Reliable Wife” and it was set in northern Wisconsin in winter.  Ugh.  Why did we have to read that during the winter?!  Now I’m reading the book “The Sunflower” and it’s set in Peru, so hopefully there’s some warm weather to enjoy vicariously through the book. 

Okay, NOW I’m publishing.

Just got back from a short dog walk.  It’s dreary and drizzily right now.  We had snow last night and it’s really wet - more like slush than snow.

The weekend was alright.  I was tired Friday night, so I went straight to bed after work - in spite of bf having a couple friends over and him trying to get me to get up and eat dinner.  I slept from about 8-12:30, then woke up, ate some cereal for dinner and the leftover rule-breaking cheese/caramel popcorn for dessert, watched some Olympics, and went back to sleep around 4-ish.  Saturday morning I did a BE workout, showered, and picked up my contact lenses (and bf’s) from the eye doc.  Still waiting for my new glasses.  On the way back home, I stopped at a resale shop, but didn’t end up buying anything except some paperbacks.  Can’t remember the rest of the day.  I know I didn’t shop, I did take doggy for a walk, sorted my coupons, watched tv….uneventful. 

Sunday was more of the same, except I did pick up a few groceries.  I did my federal taxes.  Still need to do the state filing.  In the evening, we finally went to see the movie Avatar, in 3D at an IMAX theater.  I enjoyed it and it didn’t seem as long as it really was.  That type of movie generally isn’t my cup of tea, but it had amazing effects and it held my interest. 

Today I hit a couple stores, but didn’t buy anything.  I thought I might go to Kohl’s tonight, but I don’t really feel like it now.  I think I’ll do a load of laundry and a BE workout and do some reading or complete my state tax return.  I’ve generally been feeling cranky and sorry for myself in my no-sweets zone.  Bf and I split a potstickers appetizer and a salad for lunch and I’m feeling hungry again.  Dinner will be chicken breast, wild rice mix and corn. 

Doggy is settled down now, so I’ll get this published and feed him his dinner.  

Sheesh, how’d it get to be the 18th already??!!  Yay for Friday coming up, and for my 3-day weekend.  Today was a training class, and tomorrow is the 2nd/final day. 

Still keeping to my no sugar/sweets.  Missing it terribly.  Not quite planning what I’ll do when the 2 weeks is up next Wed. at approx 4 pm (LOL).  Will I continue it and try for a month?  At this point, I’m not feeling converted to a sugar-free life.  Not sure if another 2 weeks will change that.  I have my doubts.  I’ve lost about a pound.  Not sure where this is getting me.  I need to try and eat sweets in a less frequent, more controlled manner. 

I haven’t exercised this week at all.  I’m not in the mood to do it tonight.  Sigh. 

Okay, time to publish and shut down and go home. 

Nothing much to report today.  We had a plumber in to clear our very slow kitchen drain.  He snaked it and that was all that was needed, so we got away for under $100. 

I brought a sandwich for lunch, and then I went out to get some soup to go with it.  I succumbed to a bag of potato chips also and was quite full after eating all that.  But then around 4:00 I was hungry again. I didn’t have an afternoon snack from home so I bought a bag of pretzels from the vending machine.  I miss eating sweets. I’ve now had 6 days without sweets.  Whoopee.

Not very excited about this week.  I have a couple icky projects sitting here that I just need to push through.  I have a 2-day training on Thurs & Fri.  That’s pretty long - I just know I’ll be antsy after a half day of it.  Tomorrow we had a software demo that has now been cancelled.  I’m sort of glad about that because I forgot to book the conf. room and ended up w/ one on another floor.  So now I’ll reschedule it for next week and get the room on our floor. 

Tonight we’re seeing the movie “An Education”.  I’m not very excited about that either, but I think it got good ratings, so I’ll probably enjoy it.  I need to figure out a snack.  I had a ticket for either a free movie ticket or a free lg drink and popcorn that expired.  If I’d gone last week I would have used it.  But I didn’t.  I can try to get them to let me use it anyway.  I’ll tell them I couldn’t use it last week because of the snow… maybe they’ll have some sympathy for me. 

I scheduled a vacation day for next Monday.  Yesterday didn’t feel like a day off because of my doctor appts and bf’s mother coming by.  She’s a wonderful person, but sometimes she drones on about other people’s children and how wonderful they are and it gets old - how smart, educated, good-looking, and wealthy they are.  You can bet that gets real old.  So anyway, I’m taking a vacation day on Monday and I’m warning bf in advance that nothing gets planned on my behalf!  Actually we still want to see the movie Avatar, so maybe we’ll go see that.  But I think it might be nice to go on Sunday night and I’ll still have the whole day to myself.  I also scheduled a half day in March to go to the annual garden show.  I need a bit of spring at this time of year! 

Almost time to go home.  Let me publish this and get going. 

Friday’s game night was nice. I did okay w/ the meal - two servings of salad, a small beef sandwich and some mac n cheese. I ate too much of the chips and dips though. No sweets though, even though they served brownies and a jello dessert.

I chose not to make a fool of myself w/ the Wii Guitar Hero, but unfortunately, no other Wii games were played. We played 3 board games and that was fun. I was dismayed bf’s two nieces were up well past midnight! Too young for that - 8 & 10 yo. I was also ticked we stayed so very late - we drove off just after 2 am.  And we had to stop for gas. Oh well, we got a better price out in the boondocks.

We got home just before 3 am and I let doggy out. When I called him to come in, he had something in his mouth and he wanted me to chase him for it. Unfortunately, instead of getting a treat to get him to forget about the foreign object, I followed him to get him to give up the object. Like he did way back when he was a pup, he SWALLOWED the thing. I thought it was something cloth - maybe a garden glove or sock, but had no idea why either would be out in the yard. It was very clean when we did all our pre-winter work. Anyway, bf and I went around and around about inducing vomiting (we went the ipecac route once in doggy’s puppyhood), and finally got in touch w/ an emergency vet and followed their instructions for adminstering hydrogen peroxide. Worked like a charm and doggy yakked up a sock - oy, where the hell did that come from? It had a diamond pattern on it. Doggy finished his yakking and we all finally went to sleep.

Saturday was a hair appt, but otherwise it was a low key day. Ate out twice, but portions were okay. No sweets! Napped and read and watched tv. More tv this morning - catching up w/ bf on the dvr’d Burn Notice episodes. After that I went to the gym for a cardio session. I did 7 min. on the stairmaster and 25 on the treadmill.  We took doggy for a walk.  Lunch was a steak sandwich.  Dinner was shredded chicken tacos made w/ leftover rotisserie chicken. I watched some Olympics and I don’t recall what else.  I finished reading a novel. 

Well, my Monday off has been sort of ho hum. I had a 9:20 allergist appt. I had to wait 40 min. Grrr. I hate when my time is not respected. And I’m not going back to the doc I saw. I don’t like his manner. I’m going to be sure I make my next appt (annual visit) w/ another doc in the practice that I’ve seen in the past whom I prefer.  Anyway, I reported that I hadn’t had any coughing/wheezing in the evenings at all since my Dec. appt. I only get a bit of that after I exercise, so he advised me to use the proventil (sp?) inhaler before I exercise.

Bf and I next went to the eye doc. All was fine, but expensive. I selected new frames. I’m not happy w/ the way I look in the plastic frames I’ve had for the past two years, so I went w/ a wire frame in a light color that blends into my face. I hope I like them enough to keep them for a while - my prescription is strong and the indexed lenses I buy are expensive.

We had soup, salad and breadsticks for lunch. We took doggy for a walk after that. Bf’s mother came over to wish doggy a happy b-day (he’s 7 today!) and bring him gifts. She finally left and off bf went to buy some dog kibble - we’re almost out. While out, he heard from Best Buy, from whom he learned they had the sale laptop in stock that he wanted, so he’s off buying that right now. I’m doing a couple loads of laundry. Whoopee!

I’m not sure what’s for dinner, but I’m jonesing for some popcorn! Maybe that will be dinner, LOL.

Another sunny day here.  Almost time for my 3-day weekend.  We have a 3 pm office closing today, it being the business day prior to a company holiday.  I wasn’t even thinking of it, but someone brought it up to me.  So that’s nice.  I’m giving myself plenty of time to get my train - I want to get a seat on this one unlike the other day. 

This morning there were mechanical problems on my train line.  I boarded the next train coming, along w/ a lot of others, but when I saw I wouldn’t get a seat, I got back off the train and waited for the next one.  I got a seat on that one, which is good because my knee is bugging me today and I didn’t want to stand.  Too bad the train made every stop.  I was about 40 min. late, but I didn’t have anything urgent going on at work, so it was no big deal. 

I have successfully made it through nearly 48 hours of no sugar.  Well, I just bought some gum, but not sugar free gum, so I suppose I’m not totally sugar free, but I don’t really like SF gum, so I’ll make that an  exception to my no sweets challenge.  I don’t chew much gum, I just like to have some on hand to freshen my breath as needed so I’m not going to begrudge myself a 10 calorie stick of gum.  

Yesterday I left work and was happy to notice that it is still light out when I leave the office.  :) It’s dark when I get off the train, but only 30 more days until DST starts, so I have something to look forward to - getting home in with daylight to spare. 

I changed and exercised right away yesterday after work.  I belatedly realized I shouldn’t have done a couple of the routines because my left forearm muscle is still strained.  I should have gone much lighter during the bicep routine and done modified pushups.  Live and learn. 

After that, Bf and I went to Hobby Lobby to replace the picture frame glass I broke Saturday while cleaning it before framing a poster.  I swear, this poster has been such a PITA to frame, I began to think I didn’t even like it enough to bother with anymore.  But bf finally got it framed last night (without any finger prints or dog hairs visible between the poster and the glass), so it’s hanging on the wall and it’s there to stay. 

We also went to Bed Bath & Beyond to exchange his Waterpik - the button kept sticking after only 6 months of use.  I teased bf that it happened because he uses it 6 times a day.  I exaggerate, but he does like to use it after he eats anything - meals & snacks. 

Dinner was 5 Guys Burgers.  It’s new to our area and it was our first time there.  I had a small cheeseburger and bf and I shared fried.  Tasty. 

Tonight bf and I are going to his brother’s place for a game night.  His brother’s wife and 2 daughters will be there, as well as the SIL’s nephew and his gf.  Should be fun.  We did it last year and enjoyed ourselves, except I hope his nieces are less hyper this year, lol.    I just have to avoid any sweets!  Tomorrow morning is my hair appointment.  Sunday I’m going to the gym for cardio.  Monday I have an allergist appt.,  and after that bf and I have our annual eye exams.  I want new glasses, but it’s always difficult for me to choose new frames.  I don’t like the ones I have now.  In fact, I like my previous frames better.  It doesn’t help that my lenses are still rather thick, even after I buy the highest indexed lens available.  Sigh.

No other plans for the weekend, but that’s good because what I have going right now is plenty.  Okay, it’s time to shut down and catch my train.  Have a good weekend everyone!

Thursday.  Cold, yet sunny.  This snow will be here a while.  I don’t think we’ll hit the freezing mark any time soon.  Poor doggy - even though bf dug out a few spots for him in the backyard, doggy still chose to do his thing in snow up to his belly.  But he did check out a couple of the dug out spots, so maybe he’ll make use of them some other time. 

Yesterday I had a call w/ the “coach” from my ins. co. and told her about my eating struggles.  She suggested I might try giving up sugar for a period of time.  We agreed I’d try it for 2 weeks.  I think this is a good idea.  People deal w/ alcohol or substance addictions by total abstinence.  Not possible with weight problems.  But eliminating something like sweets is definitely possible.  I can’t imagine it, LOL, but some people go a long time w/o chocolate, candy and other sweet stuff.  So I’ll give it a go. 

I intended to exercise last night, but didn’t.  I need to remember to change into sweats right when I get home or I’ll get involved in something else, and then eat dinner, and by then it’s late and I don’t want to wait for my food to settle and then exercise.  So tonight I’ll get it done right away.  Last night I finally got my two stray BE shows copied to DVD, so now I have the complete set for the one series of 26.  I’m hoping that a new series will start airing soon. 

It’s quiet here today w/o the boss and the admin.  The other dept member is taking a half day off, so this afternoon it’ll really be quiet.  Good chance for me to work undisturbed. 

Not much more to ramble about, so I’ll get this published.