My roses are getting ready to bloom. The leaves are all out and there are loads of large buds forming. When we went outside to do yard work this weekend, I noticed a lot of the leaves were looking rather nasty and torn up. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the culprits - aphids!

Blech! Ever want to see one up close? Here you go.

I gave the rose bushes a good dosing of some Ortho Kill-Everything-Within-10-Miles spray. I'll check in the next day or so to see how well it worked.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 096

Click here for the entry form.

Today, we went medieval on some shrubbery. They are were two photinia bushes that were growing next to our driveway.

They were getting so overgrown that I couldn't get out of Mr Moo's truck if he pulled onto that side of the driveway. They were also starting to interfere with the street tree growing near the sidewalk. We spoke with someone from our HOA and learned that we didn't need to submit a proposal to cut them down. It was time for them to go and Mr Moo, who has hated them since the day we moved in, couldn't be happier.

After gathering a collection of cutting implements, including more than one saw, he was ready. Saw away, Merrill!

It's amazing how fast a project like this goes when one is properly motivated. Before I knew it, the bushes were gone, Mr Moo was raking with glee and we had a new visible side yard.

It took a few more hours of cutting and a couple trips to the yard debris recycling center to get rid of it all, but it is finally done. Ding! Dong! The photinias are dead!

A photo of my current cross stitch project taken back in early April.

I'm averaging about one strand of floss per month. At this rate, I may very well die of old age before I finish. The rest of my progress photos can be found in my photo catalog under "Crafts & Hobbies - Cross Stitch - Birth of Christ".

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Low Impact Step

One word: brutal. It doesn't help that I didn't get much sleep last night and my energy level was in the toilet before I even started. I've got some work to get done tonight, too. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to just give in and take a nap first, or surrender myself to the artificial stimulants, aka several cans of Dew.

After nearly two weeks of phone tag and crytic conversations, I'm finally moving forward with the results of my blood tests. To recap, my iron levels have always been wonky. I have it checked every year and every year it's "You're iron is low. Take supplements." or "You're iron is too high. Stop taking the supplements." This past year, it was on the high side again. I mentioned to the doctor how we've been doing this back and forth thing for a while now and how annoying it was getting. She told me to stop the supplements for just a few months this time and have my iron rechecked again. I did so earlier this year. This time, the iron came back fine, but there were some other readings that were strange, so I was told to have the CBC panel run again, which I did a few weeks ago. I started calling the doctor's office early last week to find out the results. When I finally was able to speak to the physician's assistant (I swear my doctor is never in the office), I had a cryptic conversation along these lines:

Her: Well, the good news is that you're not anemic.
Me: And the bad news?
Her: Well... I can't really say. I'll have the doctor call you.

Great. That was informative. Thanks. That was a week ago. Not one call from the doctor since. I've started calling every day this week in an attempt to get some answers from someone as to what is going on with me. I finally had to resort to being very curt with the receptionist, which I feel bad about because it's not her fault I'm getting the runaround, and got a call back from the PA within 10 minutes. It really bothers me that you have to be the squeaky wheel to get a response anymore. So much for trying to be nice.

Anyhoo, to sum up today's conversation with the PA, she still wasn't able to tell me anything specific. The doctor wants me to see a hemotologist (blood specialist) to determine the exact cause of my wonky results, so I'm getting a referral. It concerns me that the doctor feels it's serious enough to referral me to a specialist. However, I'm sure she's just doing it to be thorough and I'm not going to let myself get completely freaked out over it. In the meantime, I'll just sit here and google all of the horrible blood diseases I could be dying from. Sigh.

When Mr Moo returned from his business trip to Israel last week he brought a piece of candy home with him.

I immediately figured out the main ingredient was white chocolate. However, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the giant turd-like things. White chocolate with cow poo? Never one to turn down a piece of chocolate, I ate it anyway. The cow turds ended up being bits of some sort of crispy cookie. It was all quite yummy and it's a good thing for my diet he only brought one.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 095

Click here for the entry form.

I can't believe I'll be posting round 100 of this contest in just a few weeks time. I'm considering doing another prize giveaway in honor of the occasion. Anyone interested?

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 093



Click here for the entry form.

Round 093 is still open. If someone doesn't guess this movie now, I'm giving up all hope! :-)

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Crunch - CardioSculpt & The Best of Crunch Step - Fat Blaster

Weigh-in day today. Last week's weight loss: 0 lbs. Not happy, but totally not surprised either. I'm grateful it wasn't a gain considering I ate an entire pizza by myself on Thursday. Guh.

Mr Moo slept for approximately 14 hours last night. Think he was a bit jet lagged?

TODAY'S WORKOUT: The Firm - Complete Aerobics & Weight Training (BSS2)

This is another new workout that I rented from Netflix. I did so without checking the equipment list first. Turns out, it conveniently requires the use of a couple pieces of equipment made exclusively by The Firm, masters of the infomercial. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on equipment only to discover I don't like the workout, so I was about to send the disc back. I happened to mention this to my mother-in-law earlier this week and, amazingly, she actually owns the equipment I needed. She stopped by today and dropped it off. Behold, The Firm Fanny Lifter and Sculpting Stick.

If you can manage to ignore the ridiculous names, the equipment was pretty useful. When stacked together, the total height of the two step pieces is 14", which made for some rather challenging sections of the workout. The bar, which Mr Moo and I are now amusingly referring to as a Klingon Pain Stick, is weighted (9lbs total) and has removable end pieces that can be used as hand weights. It's used repeatedly throughout the workout as both resistance and as a support for balance when doing high steps. The one thing I disliked about this whole workout was the workout itself. I don't think the instructor cued well enough and she didn't do nearly enough reps of any of the exercises. By the time I saw what she was doing and set up to do it myself, she was already moving on to something else. I'm sure if I did this one a few times, I would be able to keep up better, but I still wouldn't be happy with the lack of repetitions. I'd rather do one of my other weight training workouts that focuses more on working the muscles thoroughly instead of trying to cram so much into the workout. I think I'll try another one or two of The Firm workouts before completely giving up on the series.

It's just past 1300. Mr Moo should be home any minute now. Squeee!

EDIT: Mr Moo is home. He's already back to work on his laptop. The cats are rolling around in his dirty clothes in the suitcase. All is right in the world.

I told Mr Moo he needn't contact me unless there was a problem today. Since I haven't heard anything from him since he arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv, I assume he made his connection and everything is relatively on time. He should be about two hours into his flight from Germany to Portland right now. Only nine hours to go. Poor boy. I wonder what sort of shape he'll be in by the time he walks through the door this afternoon.

I received an email from Mr Moo a little while ago. He is at his hotel after a long day of sightseeing. He's gone to bed for a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep before heading to the airport for the journey home. He has a difficult time sleeping on airplanes, but, hopefully, he'll find a way to sleep a good portion of the way home. Otherwise, he'll be seriously hurting from jet lag when he gets back to Portland tomorrow.

Pea-sized hail and thunder and I'm sitting in a room with four skylights, a solar tube and one regular window. Can we say "deafening"? What? WHAT?

EDIT:

Whole lotta hail on our patio. It's a couple hours later and there's still piles of it on the roofs of the houses across the street. We got hammered.

I just finished chatting with Mr Moo online. He's still in Israel on his business trip. Amazingly, they managed to finish up all of their work and meetings early, and are planning to take the day tomorrow to do some sightseeing. They are going on a private guided tour of Jerusalem. He didn't give me any details, so I haven't any idea where exactly they're going or what they will be seeing. They'll be staying at a hotel in Tel Aviv tomorrow night, then starting the long journey home very VERY early on Friday morning. He's not sure if the hotel in Tel Aviv has internet access, so I might not get to chat with him again before he heads home, which kind of stinks, but what can you do? I'm really looking forward to having him home again. While it's been nice living the bachelorette lifestlye this week, I'd much rather have him here with me. Besides, the lawn needs mowing. :-)

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Basic Step

I used one set of risers under my step this time. What a difference 2" make! You wouldn't think you'd even notice such a small amount, but I certainly did. I was barely breaking a sweat without them, but I worked hard today. Phew!

Will someone, please, explain to me why people keep saying things like, "If the communications at Virginia Tech were better, they could have prevented all of those deaths"? What exactly did they expect them to do? Have a secretary call nearly 30,000 students and faculty and leave a message? Send out an email that I bet 95% of people wouldn't have had access to or read until well after the fact? I don't understand what magic "communication" they think would have prevented all of this. I think the police and administrators did the best job they could, given the circumstances, and people need to cut them some slack.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Tamilee Webb's Tighter Assets - Weight Loss

Another day. Another workout. Yup. Yup.

Caught on the MooCam just a couple hours ago.

Yikes! Who is that? It looks like a wolf!

EDIT: Yes, I'm fully aware it's a dog and not a wolf. I was trying to be funny, but I guess it didn't work.

We had a new interloper on our patio yesterday.

I've really got to move that catnip plant.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Tamilee Webb's Tighter Assets - Cardio Blast

Today was weigh-in day. Last week's weight loss: 0 pounds. Normally, I would be disappointed with that. However, considering the garbage I ate all week, I'm just thrilled that I didn't gain anything.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 094

Click here for the entry form.

And, finally, the new contest for this week. I don't think I've ever had three rounds of this contest going at once before. Come on, fishies! Someone has to know one of these.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 093



Click here for the entry form.

Round 093 is still open, too. Lots of guesses last week, but they were all incorrect (I'm starting to wonder if the footage was used in multiple movies). The newest image may not be a dead giveaway, but I'm sure someone will guess it this week simply by process of elimination. Good luck!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 092



Click here for the entry form.

Round 092 is still open. Is this one impossibly hard or have people just given up on the movie contest?

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Crunch - CardioSculpt & The Best of Crunch Step - Fat Blaster

I have three new workout DVDs from Netflix this week. Since two of them are fairly short (only about 30 minutes each), I decided to do them both today. Turns out they go very well together. Contrary to its title, there really wasn't any cardio in CardioSculpt. It pretty much was all sculpting with weights. The Fat Blaster program on the Step disc more than made up for the missing cardio though. I got a good overall workout by doing both programs. I'm not sure if I'll buy either one of these just yet. I need to try them a few more times before I decide.

I got to feeling really lonely, wallowed in self pity for a bit and ate a lot of crap yesterday and last night. I haven't added up the calories yet (I'm afraid to), but I know it was WAY more than my daily allotment. Between that, my Outback binge on Tuesday and the fact that I haven't worked out much/enough this week, I'm not expecting good numbers when I do my weigh-in tomorrow. Today is a new day, however, and I'm attempting to get back on track. I just had some fruit, cucumber slices and carrot sticks so I won't be completely starving by dinner time. I find if I let myself get too hungry, I get too impatient and won't take the time to make something good for dinner. And that's never a good thing. I don't want to be telling Mr Moo that I gained 10 pounds while he was away.

Got an email early this morning from Mr Moo. He's arrived at his hotel safely. He also added that the trip over there was uneventful and they were heading out for some dinner. Since it's coming up on midnight in Israel, I assume (and hope) the jet lag caught up with him and he's fast asleep now since he has to be up in a few hours for work.

According to the Portland International Airport website, Mr Moo's flight departed on time. He is now winging his way to Israel via I don't even know where. Germany, I think. He'll be landing in Tel Aviv approximately 15 hours from now. He then gets the immense pleasure of riding a shuttle for two hours to get to his hotel. It's a brutal trip. Although, the timing works out such that he arrives in time to have some dinner, do a little bit of work in his room for a couple hours then head straight to bed. He says it really helps reduce the jet lag for him. Unlike the time we went to Paris, arrived early in the morning and struggled (ultimately unsuccessfully) to stay awake all day. The work week where he's going is Sunday-Thursday. When he wakes up in the morning, it will be Sunday so he'll head straight into work. And, like his last trip, he'll start the journey home just a few hours after finishing up work on Thursday. No time for any sightseeing again.

Brothers? Father and son? Or just a couple of bachelor buddies hanging out together?

Someone remind me this weekend that I really need to get out there and refill that feeder.

Yes, Don Imus is a jackass. We get it. Can we move onto something else now?

I think I've sufficiently freaked out enough people with the gun post. Here's a photo of one of the killer attack kitties instead.

She's terrifying, isn't she?

Does anyone else out there have the gene that makes their urine stinky (in addition to the gene that enables you to smell said stink) after eating asparagus? Mr Moo thinks I'm insane. He, apparently, is missing one or both of these genes. I, on the other hand, have them both. I've told him about articles in medical journals regarding this phenomenon, but he continues looking at me strangely whenever I bring it up. I think he just enjoys calling me crazy.

Oh, I was a bad girl yesterday. Mr Moo and I decided to go out for dinner last night and ended up at Outback Steakhouse. Since I hadn't eaten much all day, I decided a day off from dieting might be in order so I threw my meal plan out the window and ordered what I wanted. Did you know that a bloomin onion has 2300 calories? Twenty. Three. Hundred. Calories. I don't even want to know how many calories my babyback ribs dinner contained. And, while we're at it, let's pretend I didn't buy any snacks from the grocery store we stopped at on the way home either. I think I ate my entire week's calorie allowance in a three hour time span last night. Ugh. I'm not beating myself up about it though. Today is a new day and I'm right back at it. I need to call my tax preparer to ask a few question then I'm going to work out. For about eight hours. :-)

On Saturday evening, Mr Moo and I did this...

...to make these...

...and they're almost all gone already. We should have made two dozen instead of the one. I loves me some eggies.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Basic Step

I'm getting loads better with the footwork on this one. I still get confused in one or two places, but the rest of it is starting to become second nature. I've decided to add risers to my step next time since my perceived exertion isn't as high as it should be. It's only a 30 minute workout, so I need to make the most of it.

Yesterday was weigh-in day. Last week's weight loss: 2 pounds. Woot!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 093

Click here for the entry form.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 092



Click here for the entry form.

Round 092 is still open!

Mr Moo and I spent a good portion of the day at his parents' house today and had a wonderful time visiting with family we, shamefully, don't see often enough. We had ham for dinner that was incredibly delicious. I grew up eating scary too-pink over-salted jelly-covered ham from a can, so whenever someone says we're having ham for dinner, I cringe. Fortunately, this was nothing like that. It was a smoked bone-in ham that was cooked to perfection.

We came home full of grand ideas of getting a ton of stuff done around the house and promptly fell asleep for two and a half hours. I even missed the end of the Red Sox game that was on ESPN. Sigh. Found out they won, at least. I'll probably be up most of, if not all, of the night now. I just hope I can wake myself up enough to be useful.

We're going to my in-laws' for dinner this afternoon. We're supposed to be there in about an hour and I've been so busy doing work for a client that I haven't even started getting myself ready. I can already tell we're going to be late. Sigh.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Basic Step

What a difference a day makes. I had a much easier time with this workout today than yesterday. I had a fairly good understanding of the overall workout, so I was able to really focus this time on the footwork and not falling down. I did find if I stopped concentrating 100% on what I was doing for even a second, I got confused and misstepped, but, fortunately, that didn't happen too often.

I did this workout downstairs in my client fitting area instead of here in the bonus room like I normally do. Because of the sloped ceiling, the desks and my cutting table, there really isn't a whole lot of room to work out in here. I find myself hesitating on a lot of moves because I'm afraid of crashing into something. The room downstairs is a lot more open, which was great, and I was really able to move about freely. Unfortunately, the room is carpeted, which is an absolute nightmare for working out. It's just a matter of time before I catch my foot on it and twist my ankle. I guess this means we'll have to start thinking about putting in wood floors down there soon. Hint hint, Mr Moo!

A few weeks ago, Zoe developed a horrific case of diarrhea. We had been giving her egg yolks mixed with canned cat food almost daily and had switched the dry kibble from their typical Iams lamb and rice to the new Hill's prescription k/d formula. There was no telling which of the dietary changes was giving her tummy such troubles. To find the culprit, we had to go back to square one. We switched the kibble back to the Iams and ceased the egg yolk mixture. It took a while, but her poo-poos finally cleared up and we started our investigation. Two days ago, I added one cup of Hill's to the kibble. I figured if she could go a week without any digestive "issues", we could eliminate the Hill's as the guilty party. A week. HA HA HA! She didn't even make 24 hours. I cleaned out the litterbox yesterday afternoon and, as I told the vet during our phone call yesterday, a little piece of my soul died while doing so. Let's just say Zoe's stomach really does not like the Hill's and leave it at that.

Mr Moo took today off from work and is about to head out to run some errands. He's going to stop by the doctor's office and pick up a bag of Purina Veterinary Diets NF formula, another prescription only cat food. We won't be able to try the new food until Zoe's current stomach troubles have completely cleared up, but cross your fingers that the new food will go down (and out) a bit better.

Since we don't have an actual pond in our yard, Mrs Duck decided to make do with what we do have the other day.

I've wanted to put a pond in the backyard for a long while now. Maybe this will help convince Mr Moo that I'm not the only one who would enjoy it.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Tamilee Webb's Tighter Assets - Weight Loss

Someone remind me to close the blinds next time I work out so I'm not staring directly into the sun while on the step again.

I haven't worked out (or posted much for that matter) for the past couple days because I've been recovering from some sort of 24 hour stomach thing. I was sick as a dog and spent pretty much the entire day in the bathroom on Monday. My stomach felt a lot better yesterday, but I was still quite knackered. It seems unlikely that it was food poisoning given how bland my diet has been of late and the fact that I didn't hurl. I'm going to chalk it up to a stomach virus and be happy that it's over.

Nocturnal interloping felines aren't the only visitors we've had on our patio lately.

I put cracked corn and millet in the tray feeder, which they seem to love.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 092

Click here for the entry form.

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Good, The Bad and The Hairy:

Annie Jokely
The Great Burger Rush saw ranchers, rustlers, butchers, and the like come from far 'n wide to see the FIRST FEMALE COWMIC. Every Saturday night at THE CACKLIN' FIRE, Annie'd mix in her strange brand o' OFF-BEEF HUMOR with her wild chicken dance. She was such a laugh riot, she'd start one. These cowboys would whack each other so SENSELESS, they wouldn't be much good for workin' the next day.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Tamilee Webb's Tighter Assets - Weight Loss

Today was weigh-in day. Last week's weight loss: 3 pounds! Woot! I've finally broken my plateau. What a relief.

I started my weight loss journey in January 2006. I lost quite a bit by the fall, but started gaining again (with a bigness) when the holidays hit. Today's weight is finally below my lowest from last year. I am now down 32 pounds from my highest weight and only 24 from my goal weight. There is a light at the end of this tunnel.