Well, we're just about ready to head for the airport for our flight to South Dakota. It's not looking likely that we'll have any reliable internet access at any point, so don't hold your breath for posts. I'll be back on October 7. Hope every has a good week! Later, fishies. |
I actually managed about four hours of sleep last night. I should be plenty tired (and hopefully not have trouble sleeping) when we get to South Dakota tonight. Knowing me, I'll be so wound up about being on vacation that I still won't be able to sleep. We need to be heading out the door in approximately four hours. Packing waits for no woman. I better get back to it. |
I still can hardly believe we're going to be here in six days time. |
"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 112 Since I'm not going to be here next week, I (for once) am getting an early jump on the movie contest. Before I get to the new one, however, Round 112 is still open. There weren't a lot of scenes in this film that were good for the contest. Hopefully, someone will be able to figure it out from these. Good luck! |
When you buy new clothes, do you wash them before wearing them the first time? |
So far, so good. Looks like we're going to have perfect hiking weather in the Badlands through the weekend. |
It's been just about two weeks since my last visit, so I made my follow-up phone call to the vascular specialist this afternoon, as per his request. I have been diligently wearing my compression stockings (sexay!), elevating my feet as often as possible and we even raised the foot of the bed up on blocks so my feet will be up even when I'm sleeping. Unfortunately, all of this hasn't made any difference. I still have one skinny and one fat leg. Sigh. The next step is Lymphatic Drainage Massage to see if that will get some of the excess fluid out of my leg. I told the nurse about our vacation, so she will have the physical therapist call me the week we get back. I probably should be excited about getting massages on our insurance's dime. However, I have a feeling it's going to be more painful than relaxing. |
Yesterday was weigh-in day. Last week's weight loss: 0 lbs. I'm plateauing again. Joy. I haven't been good about getting my workouts done though, so it's not a big surprise. I need to stop being so lazy/busy/otherwise preoccupied and just do them. Height: 5' 2" Current Weight: 116 Highest Weight: 167 (January 14, 2006) Goal Weight: 110 Pounds Lost: 51 |
Today is errand day for our trip. We've got a million and one things to do/buy/pick up before we leave on Wednesday. Anyone need anything while we're out? |
Just when I thought I had seen every shade of stupid there is... Woman held in airport bomb hoax I know! Let's walk around a freakin' airport with a fake bomb strapped to our chest. What a great idea! |
Mr Moo took me to see this tonight: |
I have spent pretty much all of this afternoon working out the logistics of our annual trek back east for Christmas, booking tickets and setting up car rentals. Doesn't sound like much, but it takes frappin' forever. I'll be heading to MA for a couple weeks, 12/16-31. Mr Moo will join me later, 12/21-31. I will be taking a red-eye flight for the first time for a Christmas trip. We normally leave Portland late in the morning, fly all day and get in quite late at night. I'm always completely wound up from traveling and have a very hard time going right to bed when we get there. This time, I thought I'd try something different. I will be leaving Portland late Saturday night, flying through the night and arriving Sunday morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to stay awake for the rest of the day, get to bed at a relatively normal hour that night and avoid the worst of the jet lag. Time will tell if it works. |
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This morning's breakfast was a blueberry/banana protein shake. The Quick Magical Breakfast Blaster 1/2 scoop soy protein Break the banana into chunks. Put all of the ingredients into a blender. Add 6 ounces of water and ice. You can also add powdered vitamins, if you'd like. Cover and blend until fairly smooth. |
Just as I was about to cut this rose on Sunday, I noticed it had a tenant. |
Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the yard doing some clean-up. All of the plants out front needed some serious deadheading and pruning. Before: After: It doesn't look a whole lot different, but it was quite a bit of work and, after also doing the other larger flower bed (not pictured), I have a nearly full yard debris can to prove it. Before anyone asks, yes, cutting almost all of the flowers off the marigold plants is actually good for them. Assuming we don't get a hard frost, they'll flower again just as much, if not more, than before. |
TODAY'S WORKOUT: Gilad Janklowicz's Arms of Steel It's been a couple weeks since I last did this workout. It was tough and I'm sure I'll be suffering for it tomorrow. No pain, no gain though, right? |
I recently placed an order with Mary Maxim, a company that sells needlework and craft kits. One of the items I purchased was the following beaded banner kit: |
TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Low Impact Step Today was weigh-in day. Weight change since my last official weigh-in two weeks ago: -2 lb. I'm back to 116 again. Hopefully, this time I'll be able to stay focused long enough to actually keep going and reach my goal weight finally. Height: 5' 2" Current Weight: 116 Highest Weight: 167 (January 14, 2006) Goal Weight: 110 Pounds Lost: 51 |
Today, I went to lunch then shopping with my mother-in-law. We were trying to find her some shoes, but, somehow, I was the only one who came home with anything. My first purchase was from a camera store, which we darted into for a couple minutes. I bought a monopod for our hiking trip. We stopped by Macy's to check out the shoe department and, unfortunately, didn't have much luck. Since we were already there and had time to spare, I asked my MIL if she didn't mind stopping by the intimates department so I could look for a bra. The biggest, and quite possibly the only, disadvantage of losing weight for women is that your breasts are the first things to go. Having lost 50 pounds so far, none of my bras fit properly (read: at all) anymore. I've never had much in the way of bewbies and now they're virtually non-existent. So, for the first time in my life, I saw a bra fit specialist and had myself measured and properly fitted for a bra. I expressed my displeasure at the idea of yet another miserable, uncomfortable, stabby underwire. The fit specialist said, "Have I got the thing for you." and immediately had me try on one of these: |
TODAY'S WORKOUT: Cathe Friedrich's Low Impact Step I haven't worked out in an age and it felt good to do so tonight. Amazingly, I didn't feel like dying either. I've been in a terrible funk when it comes to working out and my food plan lately. I haven't been eating badly, but I haven't been eating great either. And I've had zero motivation to work out. Not much of a role model for those I'm trying to help lose weight. Sigh. I really want to drop these last few pounds and just be done with it finally, so I'm going to try very hard to get re-focused and back on track. I also want to make sure I'm in the best shape I can be before our trip in a couple weeks. We've got 10 solid days of hiking planned and I don't want to be holding us back. |
There was an article on cnn.com today about a young man making a huge difference in the world. CNN Heroes: Child of privilege helps Haiti's orphans His name is Aaron Jackson and he's devoted his life to setting up orphanages and eradicating the parasitic worms that kill many of the children in Haiti. He's given up literally everything for his cause and even lives in a homeless shelter when he's back in the US. The article didn't mention his charity directly, but, with a bit of Google Fu, I found it. It only takes $0.05 to de-worm a child. That's right. A nickel. I bet if you dug around in your sofa right now you could find at least a few nickels. How about making a donation today? You can donate online through the website or by mail. And, since they are non-profit, everything you give is tax deductible. |
I'm back from my doctor's appointment. They did an ultrasound on my leg. Everything looks good and there are no signs of a blood clot or lymph node tumors anywhere. Phew! For whatever reason, my lymphatic system just isn't working very well and isn't able to drain fluid from my leg properly. I get to wear compression stockings for the next couple weeks to see if we can get the swelling down. I also need to lie on the couch with my feet elevated a few times per day and we have to raise the foot of the bed a couple inches. If, after a couple weeks, all of this has helped, I will be considered "cured". If it's not any better, I go back to see the doctor. I assume the next step at that point would probably be an MRI to see what's going on with my lymph nodes. |
This afternoon, I'm going to see a vascular specialist. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have quite a bit of edema (swelling) in my left leg that's been a bit worrying. It doesn't bother me that I retain water. That's something all women have to deal with at one point or another. What troubles me is it's almost exclusively in my left leg. It will bloat up like a parade float while my right leg looks perfectly normal. I've read that a difference in circumference of up to 2cm is perfectly normal. Anything more than that, get thee to a doctor. The difference between my legs has been upwards of 4-5cm, so I went to see my primary care physician about a month ago. She was disturbed enough by the difference to refer me to the specialist, who I'm seeing today. Since it's been going on for quite a while now, she's confident it isn't a blood clot, but we need to rule out all the possibilities. |
Happy Birthday, Miss Zoe! (click on image to see full-size) |
Here, kitty kitty! An assortment of feline (and other) visitors, including one of our own, caught on the Random MooCam lately. |
We've been slowly acquiring things for our hiking trip to South Dakota later this month. One of our most recent purchases was two of these: |
Last week, when I was completely bemoaning the Red Sox losing four games in a row (three of them to the Yankees - UGH!), Mr Moo kept trying to cheer me up by reminding me of their miraculous come-from-behind win of the 2004 American League Championship Series (ALCS) and subsequent World Series victory. We've often regretted not recording and saving those games so we could watch them again. Just for kicks, I got online to see if Major League Baseball ever got smart and released them on DVD. Lo and behold, they did! Me: Look! The ALCS is out on DVD. Can I get it? I told Mr Moo that I would watch all of the games in order and not jump straight to Game 7. If anyone needs me after it arrives next week, you now know where I'll be. |
Yesterday, I took the monkeys to the vet for check-ups. He wanted to check Zoe's weight and kidney numbers again to make sure she's continuing to recover from her near death experience back in June. I also brought Josie along for a general check-up and to have her ears examined. I don't recall if I've mentioned it before, but she's very rapidly going deaf. I first started to notice it several weeks ago. I caught her red-handed on the kitchen counter a few times. Normally, she would hear me coming and jump down because she knows she's not supposed to be up there. I also noticed when I would walk right up behind her, her ears wouldn't twitch or turn at all like she could hear my footsteps. The biggest indicator of her hearing loss, however, is the vacuum cleaner. Not only can I vacuum in the same room that she's in, I can practically vacuum on top of her before she notices and moves out of the way. The vet examined Zoe first. He was thrilled to see that she's continued to gain weight and now weighs a whole 7lbs 8oz. That's up almost a whole pound since her episode in June. What a fatty! :-) I don't think we'll ever get her back to her fighting weight of about 12lbs, but she looks so much better than she did a few months ago. Her blood tests revealed that her kidneys and liver are functioning well within normal range once again. All in all, she's in absolutely fantastic shape for a 15 year old cat. We had a few things to discuss about Josie. First up was her hearing loss. He faced her away from him and made a very loud noise by dropping a heavy metal canister lid on the table. She didn't even flinch. His immediate diagnosis, "Yup. She's deaf." Yeah, thanks, I had no idea. ((groan)) He thoroughly examined her ears, checked her blood pressure and ran some blood tests. Everything looked okay and came back normal. The final official diagnosis: profound deafness due to old age. My poor baby. There really isn't anything we can do for her besides staying very aware of it and making sure not to step on her or startle her too much. I find she can hear us if we shout, so we've been doing a lot of that. I've also started working on teaching her some hand signals for when she's completely deaf. She's a very quick learner so that's going well already. Josie's other issues were relatively minor. She's developed two large calluses on her upper lip. They look disgusting, but the vet assures me that they're nothing to worry about unless they start to cause her pain and she stops eating because of them. Josie stop eating? HA HA HA! Yeah, right. The final thing I had him check out was the scabby things she has on her head by her right ear. She's been seen for it before and I have an antibiotic ointment to put on her. They just never seem to go completely away. If it clears up enough that I stop putting the ointment on, they eventually come back. Without doing a biopsy (read: lots of $$$ for them and lots of discomfort for her), there's no way to determine 100% what's causing it. However, since the ointment does help, he said there's no way it could be anything serious like melanoma. More than likely, it's an overactive gland in her head that's oozing and I should just treat it with the ointment when it flares up. When all was said and done, I was $200 poorer, but I have two very healthy geriatric kitties who should have many good years ahead of them. |
When my sister was here for a visit in July, we drove down to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. Their most popular display is, by far, the Hughes Flying Boat, H-4, HK-1, better known as the Spruce Goose. I cannot even begin to describe how huge this thing is. To give you some sense of its massiveness, I PhotoShopped a couple of my photos together so you could see the whole thing. Click on the image to see it full-sized. |
A recent DVD purchase: |
"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 110 Round 110 is still open. This one isn't that hard, peeps! |
Today, Mr Moo and I are going to visit Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Neither of us has ever been there before. We recently purchased new GPS units and will be breaking them in with a couple geocaches in the area. Should make for a fun afternoon. |
Since the weather was so nice today, Mr Moo, the kitties and I spent some time out back on the patio. There were a couple of blue jays making quite the racket and flying around all over the place. At one point, they seem to have spooked Zoe, who made a mad dash for the kitchen. |
TODAY'S WORKOUT: Gilad Janklowicz's Arms of Steel Today was weigh-in day. Last week's weight change: +1 lb. Again! Gah! I didn't eat great this week, but I didn't think I was that bad. I blame the bloat from too much salt. Yeah, that's the ticket. Height: 5' 2" Current Weight: 118 Highest Weight: 167 (January 14, 2006) Goal Weight: 110 Pounds Lost: 49 |
From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Good, The Bad and The Hairy: |
