A Love Is Born

I had adopted a cute little black cat named Mesha.  It was an adoption day at a vet clinic where people brought their pets who needed new homes where they could interview and hand select the person who would take their pet.  Mesha needed a new home due to bad allergies and too many cats in the house.

I took her home after assuring Mesha's mom that I would be sure to contact her to give Mesha back if I ever needed to give her up.  It went fine at first, but then Mesha started spraying.  After taking her to the vet and eliminating any physical issues, I realized that she just wasn't happy at her new home with my then boyfriend's cat (who was a wonderful cat - just not her family, I guess) and wound up calling to let her know that I thought Mesha just wasn't happy and wanted to go home.  We made the arrangements for me to bring Mesha back.

When I arrived with Mesha the conversation turned to whether I was interested in another cat as her neighbor had one kitten left from a litter who needed a home.  I told her I might be in the market for another cat so, sure, bring the kitten over and I'll see what he's like.  She gave her neighbor lady a call and, luckily, she was home and happy to bring the kitten over.

Neighbor lady showed up with the cutest, most friendly and energetic orange tabby kitty I had ever met. He was adorable!  I called the boyfriend (since we shared a residence) to ask if he'd mind if I took the kitten home.  I got the OK, and was on my way home with a "replacement" kitty.  I still remember that drive like it was yesterday.  I drove home (about 30 miles or so) with a little orange kitty bouncing back and forth from the back window ledge, the front passenger seat, front dashboard and the back of my seat and shoulder singing a steady chorus of various meows.

After a fairly long deliberation, he was named Tasman.  We decided his personality was so energetic - downright crazy at times - that he was like the Tazmanian Devil cartoon character so the name seemed fitting.  I didn't want to name him "Taz" though because that seemed somewhat common/not unique as the trend at the time seemed to be naming dogs Taz.  So I decided on a slight variation - you know, to be different.  ;)  (I later learned the poor guy had ear mites, which were possibly a big part of the cause of the "craziness", and were treated promptly before any physical damage was done to his ears.  Whew!)

His energy and enthusiasm weren't totally stifled though with the elimination of the pests though.  He loved to climb things - bookshelves, the brick chimney on the side of the house, trees, and people.  Yes, on a number of occasions he literally climbed me and my mom - ran right up our legs to hop on our chest or shoulders!  He also liked to lie on his back on my legs with his head at my knees and launch himself off me by using my stomach as a jumping off point.  I must have saved him from a broken neck several times!

He also loved to travel.  Most people marveled at how he seemed to actually like to ride in my canvas bag to go to the boyfriend's place (after I moved back home).  I soon learned that he needed to be restrained in the car due to his interest in running around down by my feet and hopping on my lap and sticking his head through the steering wheel!  Not very safe, admittedly...

Amazing how a chance encounter with a cute little kitty would turn into 16 wonderful years.  I loved him more than words could express - still do.  Back when I thought I would have kids, I would tell him not to worry - that he would always be my "first born."  I know some might think that sounds crazy or something, but he was my baby - the closest thing to a child that I will probably ever have.  He made my life so much richer just by existing.  I just have to keep thinking about and remembering all of the happy times and not beat myself up for the last five days of his life he spent at the vet clinic.

Like the song says, he was my sunshine.

During one of my hysterical sobbing spells SH assured me that Tas knew how much I loved him.

I hope he was right.

XOXO Forever, my little Pooky Bear.

Farewell, My Love

Yesterday, the best baby kitty in the world left this earth.  I feel like a giant hole has been ripped out of my heart.  I am devastated.
I love you my little Tasie.  I'll miss you forever...

Happy B-day, My Little April Fool!

Yesterday was my baby's second birthday!
Here are some pics of the festivities. :)

Ooh! Ooh! More treats PLEEEEAAAASE!!!

Mmmmmmm! That was GOOOOD!!

That is my "little" ninety-some pound birthday girl. I wish I could have gotten some better shots but for some reason whenever I put the birthday hats on them they start running away, pawing at their heads and trying to rub them on things! I don't know why!! ;)


And lastly, here's Shilo after overdoing it a bit. lol

Shortly thereafter he threw up. Ha! Kidding!

I'm thinking maybe next year we should have an actual party and invite friends over!  lol  :)

Status Update

Well I’m making definite progress in my goals for 2010!

I got my crap together and successfully entered one of my photos in a juried exhibition, BVAS Art Fête 2010. (BVAS stands for Burnsville Visual Artists Society.)

Last Thursday evening was the opening reception and awards ceremony, and guess what?!
I won the Award Of Excellence in Photography!

That was the top award for a category. The absolute #1 award was Best In Show. I didn’t win that one. I had my picture taken accepting the award from the mayor of Burnsville (MN). Not sure where that is. I’ll have to do some more searching to see if I can find it.

My good friend, Lena, took time out of her schedule to make it to the reception. And that took some effort, so thanks Lena! Seriously, for someone who is currently out of work she sure is busy! Someone better snatch her up soon because she is dedicated! :)

She took this of me by my photo after the ribbons were put up. (Hubby was there but we told him to go home as he wasn’t feeling well. He was there to see me accept my award so he did his duty.)




I’m still a bit shocked about winning in the photo, not to mention exhausted, so it’s not the best pic of me. I don’t think I’m all that photogenic in general either, but whatever…

Now I am working on getting my submission together for an opportunity to have my work displayed in a gallery in Stillwater. I have to have everything together and it HAS to be received by April 20. My goal is to have it all completed and in the mail by the end of this month.

As far as the running goes, I have yet to run a race this Spring. I am still looking for one to enter that is a month or so out. (I was a bit too absorbed in the whole exhibition thing to get my crap together with the race running.)

However, I HAVE been keeping up with running at least twice a week, and sometimes three times – or THRICE. ;) Also, in addition to joining the running meetup group, I’ve found a work friend who is interested in getting back into running and have gone with her a couple times. Anything to keep me moving – I’ve got a 10K to run this fall!

And in the category of spending good quality time with hubby and taking some vacations with him in the new camper, we have reservations at Glacier National Park in July for our extra alone time around the time of my family reunion in MT.

Slowly but surely, I’m getting things accomplished. That’s how I have to do it. Otherwise, I run the very real risk of losing it. I’ve been seriously burned out lately and so need to spend some recouping time in between it all, which will be a challenge when I have a bazillion e-mails coming from my dad about all the exhibitions I need to enter – and get my stuff entered a month before the deadline.

…and get all of the photos and verbiage to him for the website he is making for me so I have an online portfolio that I can put on my resume. Never mind the fact that I already have a portfolio on a local artists’ site.

…and “getting published” because that is apparently “material” for an artist’s resume. My thought is that you only write something and try to get it published if you actually have something OF VALUE to contribute. My head hurts just thinking about this.

…and start looking at schools to register for to get an MFA that he says he will “help” me with (i.e. cover costs for the next couple/few years – though not even sure if that means everything or just tuition) so that I can teach photography as a way to make steady income since apparently I can’t possibly make an income off my art. That would be a good plan – if I was interested in teaching! I am much more interested in earning steady income working on my own or for an independent photographer or a business doing wedding photography, portraits, event photography, etc. And if I couldn’t make a decent living off of that alone, I could work for a store like Nation.al Cam.era, where I would most likely be provided with free training on advances in photo technology in order to serve customers.

All this because I’m apparently “on a roll.” I’m going to have to rein him in and let him know as diplomatically as possible that I need to do this stuff on MY OWN SCHEDULE and in MY WAY in order to preserve my last shred of sanity!

Like they say; baby steps, baby steps…

Or more aptly, “SERENITY NOW!”

Happy Birthday, My Little Fool (Pics added)

(Pics have now been added. Normally I would only post the "good" ones but I figured the entire series would give a better feel for the "mood" of the party. ;) I just wish that I would have had SH take pictures during the feeding frenzy... )

My little girl turned one yesterday. I'm using the term "little" loosely mind you as the last time we weighed her about a week ago, she rang in at around 105 lbs. or so. It was a bit difficult to tell since the scale kept bouncing around due to the near impossibility of SH standing still enough on the bathroom scale while holding bodonkadog.

So of course since I kind of forgot to do anything special for poor Shilo's birthday, which we had guestimated was around March 20, I decided we needed to do a little something for a combo b-day celebration. I had to stop at the store on the way home for some more packs of that Or.tega Chipotle taco mix (that's some good shit!) so I figured I should get something for the dogs. I found a couple sirloin steak variety Cea.sar dog food - the dog equivalent of Fa.ncy Feast - AND I happened to find a pack of Happy Birthday party hats!

Of course the whole deal was chaos.

Neither dog wanted to wear the hat for more than a couple seconds and they both listen to commands like "Sit" SO WELL (sarcasm) that I only got one good picture out of it (besides the evil eyes).

They LOVED the treat so much though that it was like a shark feeding frenzy. Had I really thought it out, I would have flopped the meat cakes onto some kind of little plates and immediately plaved in from them after putting the hats on so that I could maybe get a decent picture. Instead, I ended up chasing them around for a good 10 minutes with the camera while SH yelled and swore at them as they were ignoring the sit commands.

Then I threw the meat cake down for them - still in the plastic molds mind you - and watched as they mangled the whole thing trying to get to the food, and Shilo run off into the corner with his.

Then, when I tried to help him by wrestling the chomped container away (with the complete meat cake still intact) and plunking it out on the floor, out of nowhere comes fat girl who in a split second snatches up the cake and inhales it! I don't think I have ever seen her move so fast! Luckily she had only managed to get about a third of her portion dislodged from the mold so I quickly grabbed that one and gave it to Shilo.

Happy Birthday little girl! Momma wuvs you! - And of course Shilo too! :)

Interview with an Irish Girl

I meant to do this a few weeks ago (at least!) when I first received it but had to mull over a couple hard questions. These were really good! Also, things got nuts at work backing people up who have the nerve to take vacations when I am stuck here! BASTARDS!
Blah blah blah

Anyhoo...

On to the Q & A! Yay!

1) If you could relive one day of your life, which would you choose and why? (you can't change anything that happens, just relive it)

Probably the first full day in Paris with SH. We saw some sights, wandered around the Latin Quarter and sat in a café drinking coffee. It was wonderful and magical. We’ve been planning to go back there since – for a longer time of course – at least 1.5 to 2 weeks. Or maybe longer. ;)

2) When you are 57 years old, what would you like life to look like?

Be totally debt free, traveling the world with SH and friends, have lots of money socked away in investments, etc. to pay for travels and maybe living somewhere warmer with a friend or two (and SH, of course)?

3) Describe an experience that you've had that really made an impact on who you are today.

Probably my parent’s divorce and grandpa’s death – all within a year’s time. I learned that nothing is a sure thing, someone you love can be ripped out of your life and your whole foundation shaken, your world as you know it can totally change and things can end. But on the positive side, I learned I’m strong enough to survive whatever is thrown at me.

4) If you could give "the perfect gift" to someone, regardless of cost/availability/practicality, what would you give and to whom?

Wow, this is a hard one. ???? I think probably for SH and I to take my best girl, Lena, on a fun (and loooong) vacation to thank her for all that she’s done for us, and especially for me, over the years. She has been by my side through all my shit, listening, counseling, and cheering me up when needed. She is the definition of a best friend. And of course I’d throw in her very own Sheldon geek-type guy for her extra special companion! ;)

5) What color is your bedroom (or the color you would *like* it to be) and why did you choose it?

Oddly enough, the color is called French Castle (it was painted well before our trip to Paris) and is a sort of dusty lavender color. It was selected to coordinate with the bedding for the spare bedroom before SH and I moved our bedroom downstairs after realizing that the climate was too difficult to control in the upstairs living area. I like the color since it’s a mild, soothing color. The funnest color I had in a bedroom though was at my first home that I bought on my own. It was a tiny post-war house in the Como Park area in St. Paul, with a decent sized kitchen and living room, a tiny bathroom and one tiny and one small bedroom (the small one is the one I moved into). I painted the walls a bold blue, sort of like the depths of the ocean or the deepest blue of the sky and the ceiling was painted yellow, like the warm glow of the sun. I had my black wrought iron canopy bed set up with the canopy rails (in the open, flat, square pattern) with a couple violet colored scarves draped over the canopy. I loved going to bed and waking up in that room - especially because it was mine!

Thanks for the questions, IG. Sorry it took so long! I know, I've been lame with the posting these days. There just seems to be so much going on and time is flying by, know what I mean? Ugh. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write about soon. Something's gotta happen, right?

Conehead vs. Dogula

I keep fluctuating between having a good idea for commentary on this blog and not really having anything to say - nothing of interest anyway. Basically I'm trying to get myself geared up to kick ass on another project at work to help propel me to the next promotion and get through the usual holiday shit so my life can be back to normal and Lena and I can get back on track with our training for the next 5K. Which reminds me, I meant to search for a 5K in the metro area sometime this spring. I've been meaning to do that for a few weeks now so let's see if I can actually remember to do it before I log off this evening.

There has been some recent "excitement" in our part of the world. First, I finally managed to get my ass in gear and take care of a little piece of personal business - at work of course - on Monday.

I called the vet to get Tas' annual exam scheduled and to get Greta's spay set up. Well, it so happened that they had an opening Tues. morning for surgery, so I went ahead and scheduled it. We decided to have her micro-chipped while she was out too since SH really wanted that done. AND it was FIVE dollars cheaper to do it while she was already under for surgery (they do that as incentive to have it done), which really put a dent in the FIVE HUNDRED dollar total bill! Well, we did opt for the pre-op blood work to check her clotting factor along with a couple other things to be on the safe side and she was due for a few other final vaccinations, so it wasn't just the spay that cost that much. Still, it was a bit of a shock. But I digress - so I drop her off Tues. morning for her girlie surgery. As expected, they need to weigh her, which I was hoping for anyway since the last time she was weighed was when she was about 6 months old and was about 67 lbs at the time. Big brother Shilo was 72 lbs. So now she's a little over 8 months and when she gets on the scale it does the bouncing back and forth 70 - 94 - 83 - 90 etc. It finally stops (roughly) at 89.4. Yup, our little Fat Girl really is FAT! OK, she's more "girthy" than anything. She outweighs her brother by almost 20 lbs and I don't think she's quite done growing yet at 8 1/2 months! WOW!

She came out of surgery just fine and we picked her up Wed. afternoon. As we expected - and somewhat sadistically hoped for - she donned the plastic cone (or the Elizabethan collar, as a fellow cat shelter lady called it). We tried our best not to laugh at her outright, settled up the bill, got our instructions for pain meds, suture monitoring, etc. and SH led her out the door. After listening to the vet tech explain to us how it will probably take her a couple days or so to get used to maneuvering with the collar on, what does she do? On the way out of the vet clinic - WHAM! She runs smack into the metal frame doorway, creating a large fracture down the side of the cone. So I go BACK into the clinic, wait a couple MORE minutes for a free tech to come out and ask if I could possibly have another cone because my gifted dog managed to nearly destroy the other one on the way out the door. Luckily the tech just laughed, said sure and to hang on a minute while she went and got ANOTHER one.

We tried to hold out as long as possible with that first cone but, of course, within approximately 1 hour of arriving home, that one was just about hanging off her collar. So we had to break out #2. Here are some fun pics of her trying to navigate the house with the cone head.

Leaving the bedroom (pay no attention to the floor in serious need of refinishing :o):


Trying to get out the back door to go potty:


I love this one. "How the F*CK am I supposed to eat?!


Trying to maintain a shred of dignity by acting casual, as if nothing is different:

Look at the poor pathetic baby with the crazy-milky eyes (they're actually brown):

So Thurs. night comes and I'm alone with Conehead because SH is working an overnight shift. Has anyone out there had to deal with a fairly rambunctious LARGE dog who needs to have a frickin' cone on her head? Let me tell you, it was a real treat! If she wasn't ignoring my commands the first 30 times or so, she was banging, scraping, slamming or bouncing that fucking cone off the wall, bed, nightstand, her kennel - really any object she could find - and LOUDLY. After a while of that and my resulting screaming at her to just lie down, I was finally able to get to sleep, only to be awoken a few times over the course of the night with more of the same. Which, incidently, contributed to the demise of cone #2. By morning the cone was literally hanging off of her collar with no way to secure it in a remotely functionable fashion. I would have called in a little late at work and ran to the vet or Pet.co/Pet.smart to pick up another cone but I couldn't remember for sure if I had a morning meeting and frankly I was so close to my breaking point that I needed to just get the hell out of there and away from her before I wound up smacking her silly. After that I can really see how shaken baby syndrome happens. Luckily SH was able to make the run after he got off work and was actually able to do a little research and found the "Co.mfy Cone" which is basically the same deal but it is made with nylon fabric over a foam structure that velcros shut so #1 It won't break apart when slammed into walls, doorways, etc. and #2 it's got to be a bit more comfortable and almost act like a pillow when she rests. So now this is what she's sporting:

Unfortunately, it's hard to see in these pics but it almost looks like a flower (like a tulip) and her head is a giant stamen. I asked SH if they came in other colors like red or purple but he said they only came in black. Now she looks like Dogula. She vants to suck your blooood. It's also trimmed in reflective material so when Dogula goes out searching for victims after dark she's still safely visible!

We also made holiday cookies as part of SH's birthday celebration. (He's been wanting to make cookies. Isn't that cute?) More on the birthday festivities later - this post is already really long and I need to do more searching on 5Ks. But I will leave you with a photo of the family room progress as mentioned previously (even this section is not done yet) and a sneak peak at what Christmas cookies look like in the Gumby-SH household. Later! :)




And yes, it was two adults that decorated these cookies...

Victory Is Mine!

This past week has been a pretty damned good one! I got the confirmation that my promotion was approved by HR. Not only that but my pay increase, on which my expectations were effectively lowered due to the shitty economy and resulting budget cuts, wound up being quite a bit bigger than expected. I was thinking that I would be lucky if I got 4 or 5%. I wound up with a 15% increase! Yeah, you read that right – 15 percent! Whoo hoo! What a great birthday present, huh? Honestly, I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging or anything, this has just been a looong time coming. And for anyone out there having less than stellar luck with the current job and economy atmosphere, I'm crossing my fingers and sending good thoughts your way. :)

Along with celebrating my promotion, I was able to get some more done in the basement/family room remodel that isn’t quite done yet. We now have one end of the room completely painted. It just needs the finishing work – wood door and window trim, baseboard molding and chair rail installed (as well as the floor but that comes last). We also have the new “black Friday deal” tv set up – 52 inches of LCD HD! This weekend I dug out our receiver and speakers and got the surround sound reconnected and vacuumed the layer of cat hair off the sectional sofa from when it was stored not-so-well under plastic in the basement during remodeling. We just threw the new area rug down temporarily to make it more cozy too! I’m working on getting SH to agree on having friends over for movie night before it’s all done. I don’t know for sure where exactly in the process he thinks it has to be before we can entertain. I say, we have comfortable places to sit, a huge tv and awesome sound and that’s all we really need! Really, like our friends are going to say “OMG, their family room isn’t totally done yet. I don’t want to go over there!” If someone did have that attitude, I’d say fuck ‘em! Like any of our friends really care. I’ll have to check in w/SH to confirm exactly what it is that he really insists be done before entertaining before I blow a vessel over it. Maybe he just thinks all the painting should be done. In which case, I could compromise on that.

I’ll try to remember to post a few pics of the progress – in case anyone is interested! ;)

Couple Quickies - ;)

I don't have enough time to really write about anything but wanted to share a couple funnies...

A while back I was e-mailing with a friend (I'm sure most IRL friends will figure out who this is) and she sent me this little "story" about her activities one day. I was laughing so hard in my cubicle that tears were forming and I had to show a coworker because she was wondering what was up. Part of the humor is picturing my friend running around in this scenario, but I think it's still amusing if you don't know her.

"oh, and a funny Fritz story. last night he was running around the house with a full-sized poop stuck to his butt. I pulled it off and found that it was full of these little twiggy dried grass thingy's (from outside on the balcony in a pot that he likes to munch on). after I got the turd off there was still a giant twig sticking out of his ass so I chased him around the house trying to pull it out. he thought it was some sort of game and kept teasing me by running away at the last second. then he bit me and looked all violated. puh-lease!"

Also, SH found this item on some website and of course he said he thought of me. I wonder if they make it in a bumper sticker or t-shirt or something. It's pretty amusing. I think I want it...

We're Runners!

Holy crap, it’s been a while! I really didn’t mean to slack this long. It started out with waiting for SH to get the photos of Lena and me he took at the race (which he still hasn’t done due to some computer issues he was having – must get on him again) and then I was bogged down with my project at work (more on that later) and then blah blah blah…

Anyhoo, the race was great! It started out pretty chilly in the morning, much to our disliking, but we put on our hats and gloves and packed in as much coffee as was safe – didn’t want to have to pee halfway through!

We really had no idea what to expect and were prepared for a bit of a cluster, but there really wasn’t that many people there at first when we were getting our packets and it really was pretty organized and quite the event. We got a bunch of fun info, coupons, free food and drinks AND free Caribou coffee! I prefer Dunn Bros myself, but hey, I’m not going to turn my nose up at someone who wants to give me free coffee! ;)

We were pretty amazed and excited about the adrenaline high we had that had us pumping and allowed us to only have to walk a couple short stints that we figured totaled no more than .5 mile – and that was mainly due to a side stitch that Lena developed. With how we were feeling, I wonder if we could have possibly ran the whole thing if poor Lena hadn’t been plagued with the dreaded stitch.

Our next goal is to do another 5K in the spring and run the entire thing – NO WALKING! Then it will be a 10K, I think, regardless of whether we can run the entire thing. It will be like this time – we’ll just DO IT. And THEN we’ll focus on running the whole thing. Then what? A 10 mile, and then a half marathon…

That’s the goal at this point anyway. We’ll see what happens…

So we ran, cashed in on some “free” stuff (we did pay a $25 entry fee) and then celebrated by taking a leisurely morning afterwards wandering to this cute French café with French foods (like yummy quiches and sandwiches) and the most beautiful dessert/pastry case (patisserie?) over on the Mpls side of the metro. We had a nice brunch and got a few small treats for later. Then we meandered over to a billiards store for fun (well, because SH wanted to stop there because we were in the area) and we stopped by a cute little garden center we happened upon. It was a nice wind down to our eventful morning.

I guess I’ll wrap up with a few pictures that Lena’s dad took, which was a rather humorous moment. He was standing on the side of the road an kind of hopped out with the camera and shouted “Look alive!” at us (thus the excited looks) and I swear, I didn’t recognize him at all! It must have been the fact that he’s been growing his hair out lately so it’s a bit longer than I remember and a bit grayer too. Lena was pretty amused when she found out I didn’t know that was her dad at the time. She exclaimed “What, did you think he was just some weird old guy taking our picture!?”

“Uh, yeah… I thought it was pretty funny!” In my defense there was a bunch of people (race volunteers, I’m guessing) on the sidelines throughout the thing yelling things at us like “Way to go!” “You’re doing great!” “One mile down!” “You’re halfway there. Congratulations! Way to go!” etc. So, it didn’t really seem like that much of a stretch… Anyhoo, here’s the pics I have at this point thanks to Lena and her daddy!

Us "Looking alive"!

We're runners! Whoo hoo!

Very attractive shot of us enjoying our "free" post-race bananas. Wow, I actually look like a monkey too! Blech!!

That is all for now. :)

Lucky Girl

Today is my and SH's fourth anniversary. We will go out for a nice dinner at Kin.caid's and then probably wander around the area where the restaurant is located in downtown St. Paul, which bears a resemblance to Paris so of course we love it there! Then we'll probably just head home and have some more cocktails and cuddle time. ;)

Yesterday he reminded me of something he's said in the past but was something I didn't really want to think about or accept at the time but now... Now it is starting to sound completely wonderful. He said, and I'm paraphrasing a bit because my memory is still intermittent these days:

'No matter what happens with this kid thing - if it just doesn't work out - I really think we can have a great life together, just the two of us, enjoying being with each other because being with you is the most important thing to me.'

I really am lucky.

I love you sweetie. Here's to many more anniversaries...

It's A Girl!

Well, I’m finally getting around to posting about the new addition to our family - a new German Shepherd puppy.
We figured she needed a good German name, so we decided on Greta. Greta was born on April 1 in Albert Lea and came home with us around mid/late May. It just took this long for SH to get his pics loaded from his digital camera for me to post anything because how can you post about a puppy without including pics?

Here we are in the yard. She’s very tired as you can see. It’s so very hard being a puppy, you know.

Shilo seems to be very happy now that he has a little sister to play fight with. He likes to eat her head, as we call it. Seriously, he puts her whole head in his mouth and… gnaws on it – that seems to be the best description. Lena could tell you. They both, actually, like to chew on each other’s head. Doesn’t look very fun to me, but whatever…

A couple weeks ago we were shopping and in the pet section I found the cutest “costume” – that’s what the tag said. It was a pink beret with the Eiffel tower on it and the text “J’adore Paris”. Naturally, I had to get it! So, here is Greta with her first ensemble.

Since I can’t do this stuff to Shilo, I’ll do it to Greta! Hee hee!

Yup, Shilo loves his sister…

Tas, on the other hand (in background), not so sure...

Yay Me!

It appears I am down 3 lbs now. Not a whole lot, but 3 in 1 1/2 weeks works out to be an average of 2 lbs a week. Not too bad. Hopefully I can continue this for the next 3 months or so.

Also, Lena and I are slowly working back into the weekend gym routine; which is very good, and much needed.

I seem to be doing quite well with my restricted calorie plan. To review the past week I come up with:

6 days under my allowed 1500 calories (under by roughly 100)
6 days under my allowed fat intake
still keeping up with my food tracking (obviously)
keeping on track with daily weigh-ins

I'll have to post something non-food/weight loss related. I've been meaning to for the last few days but things have just been kind of crazy - mostly at work. That's right, I still haven't won the lottery and quit my job. ...oh well, there's always next time... ;)

Mmmm... I'm sitting here checking blogs, waiting for it to be time where I'm forced to get dressed to go over to mom's for a visit, and watching the fat squirrels run around and playing games in my backyard. Whilst doing so, I figured what the hell, I'll have a little bit of coffee since I've done so well abstaining in the last 6 months for the sake of my gametes. I didn't want to brew a pot and saw there was some leftover in the maker so figured I'd just heat that up and drink it. Now, as I drink it I find myself thinking that I really can't remember when the last time sweet hubby had coffee was. Did he brew this coffee yesterday (hopefully), or was it Friday? Or Thursday? ...Wednesday???

Apparently all this treatment crap and hard work to try to stay balanced both emotionally and physically and, well, sane, has taken a toll on my memory. I was mentioning to sweet hubby this morning that the thing I thought I needed at Target last night (and couldn't remember) must have been a refill on my thyoid med and figured I better call it in so I could pick it up today since I'm down to 3 pills and that was weird that I never got a call on this to let me know it's ready. Well, apparently the pharmacy's automated phone line called 3 days in a row about a week ago, according to hubby.

"It did?" I inquire, confused.
"Yeah, I told you about it. Don't you remember?" He responds, somewhat incredulously.
"Huh, no. That doesn't ring a bell." More confusion as I wrack my brain trying to remember.
"Yeah, I told you a couple times." He confirms.

I guess it's to be expected with the kind of strain I've been under these last couple/few years with the IF struggle and dealing with the mom-grandma situation (I'll have to post about that later - long story). It's probably nothing to be too concerned about - well, unless it expands to forgetting that dish soap is not to be used as a salad topper and goo gone is not a good source of citrus-based vitamin C...

Progress Check

All in all, I'd have to say that I've gotten off to a pretty decent start as far as this nutrition/calorie monitoring thing started.

Here's where I'm at so far:

Target daily calories - 1500
Fat intake recommended limit - 47g

Tues 1/22/08
1506 cal consumed
6 cal over goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Wed 1/23/08
1439 cal consumed
61 cal under goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Thurs 1/24/08
1866 cal consumed
366 cal over goal
55g fat
8g fat over

Fri 1/25/08
1577 cal consumed
77 cal over goal
65.5g fat
18.5g fat over

Sat 1/26/08
1991 cal consumed
491 cal over goal
85g fat
38g fat over

Despite being so over yesterday (Sat), I'm still rather proud of myself considering that it was girl's night as Jessica's place. She of course HAD to have a yummy spread with caprese snacks (Roma tomato with a blob of one of those marinated mozzarella balls and a spritz of balsamic viniagrette), homemade guacamole with tortilla chips, hummus with pita chips, pesto pasta with chicken, artichoke hearts, great & sundried tomatoes. Oh, and of course a variety of wine and mixed drinks, including key lime martinis (I didn't have any because of the cream) and caramel appletinis (I had two). So all things considered, I did pretty well. I figure the fact that I still stayed 9 calories under what I should consume to maintain my weight is something to be pleased about. Yay me! :)

Now starts the first whole week of monitoring. I hope I can keep this up and don't lose interest and drop it. That seems to be my problem with these things. I get bored and stop doing what I was doing and that's how I fall off the wagon...

Oh, another stat to add, in the last week I seem to have dropped 5 lbs. Actually I think it's more like 3 or 4 and I was just really bloated the initial day I weighed myself and/or weighed at the wrong time - not sure. I am currently trying to get in the habit of hopping on the scale everyday before showering so that I can enter my weight in the Live Healthy America daily journal (and keep tabs on myself). Hope I can keep up with all of this! ;)

Numbers - Oh, My Head Hurts

I've now done some online research (and factored in Dom's two cents) and have come up with the following:

According to the Mayo Clinic website, I need to consume 2000 calories daily to maintain my current weight. To maintain a weight of 140/135, I would need to consume 1850 calories daily.

According to caloriesperhour.com, a healthy calorie deficit for weight loss would be 300 to 400 at my current weight. By their numbers a deficit of 400 will take 9 months to lose 31 lbs, 6 months to lose 20 - a bit slow. But, a deficit of only 100 more calories supposedly will bring me to 30 lbs in 7 months and 20 lbs. in 5, at 1500 calories daily a little better. But now that isn't even factoring in weekend workouts and an increased walking schedule, or increased calorie burn. I'm not sure how accurate averaging is, but I figured if I average my previous typical weekend workouts, daily home exercises and walking (figuring walking 5 days per week for 1 hour) I supposedly will burn approx. 500 calories a day... ?? I'm thinking then that I should be able to drop close to 1000 calories daily (or at least 800 or so anyway) between cutting back on food and exercising, which would definitely keep me out of the extreme calorie deficit Dom mentioned. I have also read before that extremely low caloric intake will affect other bodily systems that are not reqired for survival, like the reproductive system, which we definitely don't want.

I hope I'm figuring correctly, or even close to correctly. I just hate working all these numbers! Too much math! Argh!

Anyway, I think my plan is to a) get back to my previous weekend gym workouts b) be sure to get 5 1hr walks in per week c) force myself to count calories and keep it at 1500 - and see how it goes.

Oh, but what about the fat and fiber...? Mmmm... Do I just say screw that and shoot for just the calories? Maybe to start out anyway, to keep things less confusing. This calorie monitoring will be trying enough for me. I usually last a few days or even a week before just dumping it altogether. I'll have to try to find a way to make it fun - or like a competition with myself. ...something.

Versailles

Time for more Paris pics. This time it's our day at Versailles. Here is a view of the gigantic mansion from waaaay down in the gardens. I'd hate to be the one that has to clean those windows...


This is a very interesting sculpture that is outside the back of the shack. If you look closely you may be able to see the horns/sirens in the animals' mouths. Dad figured it must have been to signal setting out for a hunt. Or perhaps it was to signal danger. You know, like if an entire city is in search of someone in the building and is looking to ransack the place and behead someone.

This is a side garden (to the right as looking at the first pic above). Notice the palm trees and extremely manicured and decorative grassy areas? What a dump, huh?

I thought this was an interesting planter (which was on the giant patio area outside the back, near the fountain). Is that a naked elf pooping on a goat's head? I think the elf may be crowning. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is I NEED one of these.

This is just a cool shot of one of the walkways leading to the gardens. The trees are actually trimmed into rectangular shapes, like a hedge.

This would be the doorway to the hall of mirrors.

One of the many ceiling frescos.

A view of more ceiling frescos, ornate columns, many architectural details in the chapel. That's right, they had their very own chapel!

More of the chapel.

Some of the stained glass as well as more architectural details. Could you imaging living in a place like this? It was completely massive. They also had their own opera house, but unfortunately that was not part of the tour.

Close-up of the building. It looked like the entire building was lined with the statues visible on the upper level, which all appeared to be of different people.

Here is one of the beds (and some annoying person who was in my way). All the beds had the high canopy with the gold leaf detailing and the feathers. Again, what a dump!

I have some more b&w pics too that I'll have to post but this is all I have time for at the moment. If you want to see more pictures of our trip, check out this site my dad made - http://www.ce-h.us/paris/paris.html. Be sure to go into Paris life > art everywhere. Look at the second pic of the sculpture that was in a shop around the corner from out hotel. Dad was fascinated with this piece. He kept talking about it and pointing it out when we walked by it. He was also fascinated with the scooters that were all over the place and the dogs that were also all over the place, and pooping on the sidewalks. He took pictures of both. Yeah, he's a goofy guy. I guess that's where I get it from...