I went to the gym today. Finally. It's hard to get back to something you don't like to do. After fighting off germs and viruses around here, though, I knew I needed to get back.

Today's workout was good. I took an abs & arms class and let me tell you, I was workin' those muscles! As much as I don't "look forward" to the gym, I am sure glad I went!

If you notice the ticker up top, you'll see that I lost a little more this week. I'm surprised, to be honest. I didn't think I would. As my loving hubby reminded me, though, a half pound is nothing to be ashamed of. (And since I lost six-tenths, that's even better!)

I got some new yarn yesterday. It's green and purple and blue and will make some beautiful socks, I think. I hope to post a picture later.

Went on a motorcycle ride today. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! While we were out, I did a few geocaches. We were out near the "Pigtail Bridges" for anyone familiar with the Black Hills.

The weather is beautiful here today. The kid and her best friend (a pair normally referred to as "ying and yang") were going to sleep outside on the trampoline last night, but it wasn't QUITE that warm. Tomorrow looks to be very nice, too, and husband and I are talking about going into the Hills on the motorcycle. I want to do some geocaches up there and he just wants to get the Harley out. *smile*

Have a kid issue going on in my life right now. The kid is a member of a group and one other kid in particular is really picking on her. Now the group's state meeting/competition/conference is coming up and my kiddo doesn't want to go. Normally not a problem but first, she took a state office and second, I think it would let the other kid "win." (Yes, I'm competitive!) I don't want my kiddo to think that difficult people can dictate what you can and can't do. And I want her to fulfill that obligation as a state officer (musician, in this case). I know she's practiced hard and I want that moment of pride to hear her play.

Pride... I wonder how much of this issue is my pride in what I want her to do.

Man, being a parent is one tough job!

I went out in public today. Felt good enough to do that, even! The antibiotics are really working -- thank goodness! My right eye is now just mildly annoying, where before it was painful to look at anything. My ear is still a little plugged, but it's not painful, either.

Then, to make my day even better, I tried on a pair of pants I purchased last year (on clearance) that were the wrong size. They fit!!!

Now that makes for a good day!

I didn't think I'd lose any weight this week. Instead, I'm down 1.2 pounds.

Right after the weigh in, I headed for the urgent care clinic. I'm now on two different antibiotics and was told to buy some real sudifed -- the stuff behind the counter thanks to the meth heads of the world.

Does it bother anyone else that the sick have to "suffer" by showing extra ID and it generally being a pain to buy an over-the-counter decongestant because of the drug addicts of the world? Or is my grouchiness at being under the weather coming out?

I have a news flash for anyone who knows me. I HATE BEING SICK!

OK, so that's not news and actually people who know me are shocked that it took me this long to admit it in public, but I really do hate being sick. After getting over the influenza A bout of two weeks ago, I now seem to have some kind of sinus infection that's now seeping out my eye. Yum. Good thing I'm married and loved because I sure don't thing anyone who DIDN'T love me could be putting up with me right now!

Maybe if I was sick more often, I'd be a better patient. Instead, I don't get viruses or bugs (kidney stones, yeah. acid reflux, unfortunately) very often. Maybe I just expect to be well too quickly. Or maybe if the lovely docs had seen fit to give me something for this sinus problem right away, my eyes wouldn't look like they belong on the bad guy of some "B" horror movie.

But no. I have to sit here, in a self-imposed quarantine, trying not to scratch my eyes out while simultaneously reminding my family to wash their hands and then use the hand sanitizer and then wash again.

OK, enough of my pity party. Pass me the chocolate....

I finished Nat's socks today. They're really the zodiac socks, but with a band around the top instead of the zodiac design. The things I'll do for my daughter's friends! *smile*

Other good news today is that I'm down another 4.4 pounds. Now, that's for two weeks, but with Influenza A last week, I didn't feel much like going out. Plus, I'm sure that everyone at the meeting place appreciated my not being there.

The kid, though, is still sick. She ended up with a strong (evil?) case of strep throat and now has an ear and sinus infection. I feel for her. Her poor nose looks like it belongs on Rudolph the Reindeer, not a teenage girl! But this second course of medication seems to be working, so that's a plus anyway. She has even picked out "real" clothes to wear tomorrow, and isn't planning to stay in her pjs! Now that's progress!

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I'm a Wind Spirit


Thought above feeling and mind over matter are your mottos. Others come to you for advice and guidance. Some see you as introverted and snobbish, but they are merely jealous of your common sense knack to think things through. Don't be afraid to listen to your heart though.

OK, so there was no "weight loss" post this week, nor was there anything about the life of Jen. I do have a good reason, though.

Influenza A.

See, told you it was a good reason!

Oh, and the kid got strep throat. Know what that means? Yep. Hubby has become nursemaid.

More later when I'm feeling better.

No one likes to be woken up at 3 in the morning. When you're NOT a morning person, though, and no one is dead or dying, it almost qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

But that's what happened to me today. I was woken to my brave and loving husband yelling my name.

Let me digress. You see, we have only a crawl space under our house. Somehow a stray cat managed to find its way down there about two days ago. Now, we do have three cats and two dogs of our own, so another cat meowing below the house isn't really something we need or want. Not to mention that the temperature last night was -24 (yes, that's negative twenty-four degrees!) -- BRRRRRR!!!!

OK, so for two days we've tried to catch this mystery cat. My brave husband even put a "Have-A-Heart" trap down in the crawl space to capture it. At 3 a.m. today it finally worked.

As he yelled for me to see the cat (which I've named "Harry" for Harry Houdini) did what is supposed to be impossible. He escaped.

My husband dropped the cage and grabbed the cat. Harry didn't appreciate that, as you might imagine. Harry tried to escape again. This time using claws and teeth, he succeeded for a second time in less then 2 minutes.

That's when all heck broke loose. Our three cats scattered in every direction and Harry took off like... well, you get the idea. Thankfully, the two dogs were outside already, doing their own thing.

As a side note, 6-foot tall men with heavy Texas accents should never scream like young girls. Not at 3 a.m. and not if they don't want their very tired wives to laugh.


Harry darted away and ended up in the bathroom. It took every ounce of focus I had at that time of the morning to close the bathroom door and trap Harry. Meanwhile, my husband, still sounding a bit like a pre-pubescent girl, grabbed a sheet to use on Harry.

The brave man went into the bathroom and said "Calm down, boy." It didn't work.

Crash! Bang! Crash!

"Open the door!" Hubby then ran out of the bathroom carrying a wad of bed clothing that wiggles more than when the kids were little and thought we might not notice the lump in the bed. I opened the door as he tossed the pile into the front lawn. By the time the sheet hit the ground, the cat was gone.

I was back in bed by 3:15, although it took much longer to actually fall back asleep!

Have I ever mentioned here that I really don't like Microsoft? OK, so now a whole bunch of people will probably shun me and I'll be taken off Bill Gates Christmas card list for sure, but it's true.

I'm a Mac girl. I think I'll probably always be a Mac girl, much to the dismay of my father. (Who isn't allowed to touch my Mac, but that's another post!)

I'm a Mac girl, but I'm a mystery buff. I really like the Nancy Drew computer games. I also have an AWESOME embroidery machine that I just love. Unfortunately, both of those hobbies are Windows based. (Yes, my embroidery machine runs off a computer. It's a Singer Quantum Futura for those who are interested. AWESOME machine, but I think I mentioned that already.)

So my loving and adoring husband got me a laptop — an HP Pavilion. Unfortunately, it has Vista and I needed XP, so I've "adjusted" it. And there's no recovery disk.... grrrrrrr

After spending two days trying to fix the problem myself, I finally called HP. An hour later I have a set of recovery disks on the way and for a LOT LESS than I was afraid I'd have to spend.

So, while I'm not real happy with my laptop right now, I am very pleased with HP. Let's just hope I can fix what I did!

I finished the Zodiac socks last night. The kid wanted socks with the Taurus symbol on them from "Hip Graphic Knits." They were made with super-soft yarn and seem to be pretty cozy! Of course, she almost never wears *truly* matching socks, so I didn't see the point of making her matching socks! Being the snot of a mom that I am, I made one green with the symbol in blue and the other blue with the symbol in green. Now she can wear matching socks WITHOUT matching!

Yep... I'm a snot!

Down another 1.6 pounds this week. And then hubby and I went out to lunch and I'm not sure that was the best plan I've ever had! (But it was some GOOD Mexican food!!!)

I'm still on a major high from finding out that the book has been published. I ordered a few from Amazon and they were shipped today. The book is supposed to be here next Tuesday. Would hubby be mad if that's all he got for Valentine's? ("Here, honey. I autographed it for you!")

It's here!!!!

OK, after a long wait, the anthology with my story has been PRINTED! It's now listed at Amazon.com and can be purchased for $14.99 (Donard Anthology)

I spent years thinking that I didn't have time to exercise. I didn't have time to eat right. I was wrong.

In the past two weeks (and, yes, I know it's just two weeks - six weeks makes a habit), I've found the time to exercise and eat better and still get to my hobbies. I've completed one sock for the kid (I'm starting the heel of the second one), I've worked on my second mystery novel, I've attended all the meetings and *junk* that I'm supposed to and started cutting out a quilt for my bed. (Or should I say the husband's bed since he's the one who really wants the quilt? Nah. What's his is mine and what's mine is mine, right? *smile*)

I will admit, though, that I didn't get my five geocaches done in January. Nor did I finish any bookmarks on the embroidery machine. That's OK. I have time. Besides, there's a reason I call them "goals" and not "resolutions"!

OK, another weigh-in day and I lost a pound. That puts me at just over the 10 pound mark, which is really cool. Now, with WW, though, I have only lost 7.6, because I lost 3 before joining (which is reflected on the blog, but not at WW).

I took my first-ever yoga class today. That was an experience.

The class was a yoga-pilates mix, and a real workout. I had walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes before that, so I was totally ready for the showers when the hour-long class was finished.

Exercise is usually NOT something I enjoy. I would much rather curl up on the couch with a good book, not walk for a few miles in place. And, as my super-skinny daughter likes to remind me, running could be hazardous to my eyes. (Gotta love teenagers!) Anyway, despite my aversion to exercise, though, I really enjoyed the class. The gym only offers yoga once a week, so I guess I'll be heading there each Wednesday morning for awhile.

Or until I can justify paying for a separate class, anyway!

Down another pound this week. That's a big thing for me, since it's been a tough week.

I found out yesterday that my kidney stone is still there. I guess it's "stuck" in the tube somewhere, which is pretty gross to think about. Yeah, really gross to think about, actually! Now they're talking about breaking the stone with a laser and then some surgery to remove it. Not really what I wanted to hear yesterday!

I'm drinking so much water that I think I could float away!