It's freezing!

I hate winter. And it's going to snow tomorrow and into Friday. At least I have friday off.

I have been losing about 2 pounds a week on my diet and exercise program. I didn't work out tonight because I went to the store.

I dug out my mom's old humidifier and I have it on in the living room. We only ever used it a couple of times. I think I know why. It shoots out cold water and it's loud. But I'm hoping it helps my headache, my stuffy nose, and the static in my hair. But I have a suspicion that my headache comes from the need for sleep. By Thursday I am usually dead tired and I tend to get headaches.

I read in a magazine that you can replace the eggs, oil and water in a standard box cake mix recipe with a 12 ounce can of soda. I'm going to try it with diet soda. Wonder how it will work. My mom says she's going to try it too.

It's Melting, It's melting

The snow melted and I was able to drive up the driveway tonight. It looked like someone took a snow blade to the driveway. It can't be that a neighbor felt chivalrous and decided to help a girl out. My bet is someone got a new toy for their 4 wheeler and had to try it out.

I got the travel dvds I ordered so I'm ready to watch them when I get on the treadmill next. I'm not on the treadmill tonight because my back is a little sore from all the shoveling yesterday. I figure I should rest another day and then get back to working out tomorrow.

I went shopping this morning at walmart and tonight at krogers to buy stuff I might need if I get snowed in again. Especially, I wanted to make sure I had enough dog and cat food.

I Hate Snow!!!

We got about four inches total here today. After the first three fell, I went out and shoveled much of my quarter of a mile long driveway. I was so sore and tired after that that I couldn't do the whole driveway. Plus, it was still snowing while I was out, so what part of the driveway I cleared was quickly covered over again. But I figured that it would be much easier for the upper 30s temperatures to melt off one ince rather than 4. I still don't think I'll be able to drive up the drive way tomorrow after work. Wednesday is supposed to be another day in the upper 30s or low 40s so maybe I'll be able to bring my car to the house. I parked it at the main road on Saturday in anticipation of the snow. Hopefully, I'll be able to go to the grocery store on Wednesday and bring the groceries in by car instead of carrying groceries up the driveway. I sent an email to mom telling her that if dad got bored tomorrow he could come up and work on the driveway. Interestingly, she didn't email me back. LOL.

Hillary's Running for President

I'm excited to hear that Hillary Clinton is running for President. Everyone expects the big contest to be between her and Obama. Personally, I would choose Hillary because she has more experience in politics and international relations. I mean really, we've seen what having no experience on the world stage has gotten us - Iraq, North Korea, Iran. The question is, will the American voting public vote for experience or for star quality. Even John McCain hasn't spent 8 years in the White House like Hillary has. Plus, with Bill Clinton buddying up with Bush Senior, I think it adds more credibility to another Clinton White House.

Nashville Star

The new season has begun and apparently I've missed a few episodes. I watched it this morning at mom and dad's house and they were down to 6 or 7. I have one comment on the show so far: Randy Owen of the band Alabama told this one girl that the song she sang - he'd never heard it before and that it was horrible. The song she sang is one that Alison Krauss does and does really well. Judges should be some kind of expert in the music industry. Knowing only the songs that are overplayed on the radio doesn't make you an expert. Randy Owen should either get an education on all types of genres included in the category of country music or not show up next week. At least the American Idol judges, for the most part, act like they've heard the song before. And most of the time, they have heard the songs before. Even Simon from England. Maybe we need to get Bono to judge Nashville Star. He's probably heard of Alison Krauss.

Finally

I finally got the books I ordered from walmart.com. Haven't sent the complaint email yet.

Went to mom and dad's today. Mom tells me that dad walks off every calorie he ingests because he thinks that will make him lose weight. I explained to him that he has destroyed his metabolism by doing that and his body will hold on to every ounce he has because it thinks it's starving. Mom says now that dad is thinking of eating some calories that he won't work off. That's good.

I worked out today. Did a little extra since I missed two days this week.

I parked my car at the main road today, anticipating some snow accumulation between now and Monday morning. The latest weather forecast I saw on the web says it should stay above freezing so the driveway should theoretically stay pretty clear, but who knows what the weather will really do.

Australian Open Tennis

I just read an interview someone conducted with Rafael Nadal after his second round match. Apparently, the guy playing Nadal hit at him twice, once it caught Nadal's finger and the other time it caught his racquet instead of hitting him. That's something I've never understood about tennis. If the object is to keep the ball from coming back across the net to you, then why do the players regularly hit the ball to the other player? Why not hit away from the player and make the player run? I don't think these two incidents in this match were accidents. Players of that caliber can play without hitting each other with the ball. But Nadal won so neener, neener as they say to the other guy.

Hodgepodge

Mom and Dad got their well fixed. It was a leak or a wire or something, not too expensive.

It's been cold lately and I hear we're getting some serious snow Sunday, Monday and possibly Tuesday. I'm taking my weekly trip to mom and dad's tomorrow instead of Sunday.

I ordered some books from Walmart.com on the 6th. Walmart.com said I would get them between the 11th and 15th. Well, it's the 19th and they are in Cincinnati. Walmart first used UPS and then UPS passed the package on to the US Postal Service. According to the tracking info, these books sat in Philadelphia from the 9th to the 19th. I'm not happy at all with this shipping procedure. I will probably try to buy stuff from other online retailers in the future. After I send Walmart an email telling them how disappointed I am in their shipping procedures. It's not like Walmart didn't send the books out until two weeks after I placed the order, but they did choose the shipping people. They need to know if customers aren't satisfied with the service their shipping people are providing.

American Idol - I'm watching the audition shows. I will probably stop watching once the welcome to Hollywood shows start and then pick it up again when they get down to the last 4 or 5. Like I did last year. I think Simon is mellowing a little. Sure he made the 'bush baby' comment, but on the whole, he isn't as mean as he has been in the past. I think he's getting tired of the show. I know a lot of people like watching the bad singers during the auditions, but I like to see all the good singers. I close my eyes and cover my ears when the bad ones are on. I don't like to think about what the judges will say to them, because some of the bad singers are very sincere and you know any negative comments are bound to hurt their feelings. And some of the singers the judges thought were bad, I didn't think they were that bad. The one guy who sang opera for the foster kids - he was good. American Idol isn't the competition for an opera singer, but the judges could have done more to stress that he wasn't a bad singer. And some of the singers could be decent, every day singers if they just had some lessons. There's nothing wrong with developing a decent voice to sing Happy Birthday or For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. But I think the judges are afraid to encourage anyone but the absolute best singers who audition. Now, as for the talk about Paula Abdul's much-publicized interview in which she was a bit incoherent. There could be a multitude of explanations for such an incident. Personally, I suspect that she missed a meal and was suffering from low blood sugar. Anyone that skinny can't afford to miss any meals, or any insects that may accidentally fly in your mouth while you're yawning.

Speaking of skinny, I've been sticking to the diet and exercise thing. I should have worked out tonight, but I didn't. It's hard for me to get on that treadmill on Fridays. I'm free from work for two days and I don't want to be a slave to anything, including the treadmill. I'm starting to toy with this notion that once I lose the weight again, I could just limit my fat grams to 10 per each meal and or snack. I can easily eat less for breakfast and lunch. It's supper and evening snacks where I fall off the wagon. If I limit supper to 10 fat grams and snacks 5 or so, excluding drinks (gotta have milk), then I can't put on too much weight. Especially if I work out something like three to four days a week. Think about what a 10 fat gram limit would ban: full sized candy bars, more than one slice of non-healthy choice pizza, most likely any and all doughnuts. I'll have to think more about the post weightloss plan. I didn't reall have one last year when I started gaining the weight again.

Phoebe absolutely loves the squeaky toy I got her for Christmas. She plays with it a lot and has started taking to her crate with her at night when she goes to bed. So, I figured I'd better get her a back up squeaky just in case something happens to this one. I stopped tonight at the store and bought one for her.

I got my first and second issue of my National Geographic magazine I ordered a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I will find time to read some of the longer articles. I've read some of the shorter ones and looked at the cool pictures. I always wanted to be a photojournalist for them.

I've started writing another romance novel. One of these days I will have to actually finish writing one too. LOL.

And both tennis and golf are on tv this week. The Australian Open tennis tournament is going on as well as the Abu Dhabi and Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in golf. I really need that picture in picture feature that some tvs have.

Oprah

I watched Oprah's show today and she had Bob Greene on there talking about his new diet book. Aside from knowing that I already do most of the food related rules he has in his phase 1 and 2, I thought it was interesting that at no time during the show did he stress exercise. You can't lose weight just by restricting calories. Sure, you'll lose some, but you'll end up losing muscle instead of fat.

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

Isn't that how the saying goes? Well, that's what my parents are experiencing right now. Dad came up today while I was lounging in bed not trying to end my morning nap and said that he and mom don't have any water. Something may be wrong with their pump. I gave them a jug of water mom got a few years ago during the big ice storm. While dad was here he cut Steffi's nails (they really needed it), took Phoebe for a walk, cleaned out my gutters, and got some meat out of the deep freezer (they have half a pig down there I think).

How can water be everywhere? Well, it's been raining for over 24 hours. Our county is under a flood warning.

As I said, I took a nap this morning. Worked out this afternoon and after watching an episode of Rick Steves' Europe, I took another nap. The diet's been going pretty well.

Another week

Well, another week has passed. Happy to have Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This week, I've done pretty well with the diet and exercise thing. Worked out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and stayed on the diet. Thursday I was feeling really tired. Not sleepy tired, but gee I can't move my legs tired, so I didn't work out. I think part of it was not eating enough on Tuesday. Gee, never thought I would ever say that. LOL. I didn't get on the treadmill tonight, but I think I'll go do some pilates before golf comes on at 7pm.

I ordered some books with my $25.00 walmart gift card that I got from 'the piggy lords' aka my sister and brother-in-law. The books are Alias novels and the most recent Roberta Isleib Golf Mystery novel. I hope I get them soon. I think walmart is pretty slow this week. I also ordered some Globe Trekker dvds and they were just shipped yesterday. That seemed slow too but this is the first time I've ordered from them so it might be prompt service for them for all I know.

I got Phoebe a little squeaky toy from the Around the Farm store before Christmas. She loves that toy. She plays with it a lot.

Since Monday

Let's see what all's happened lately.

I emailed HP Tech support about my printer. The text wasn't printing but pictures were. They tried to help but I think ultimately, the problem is my black ink cartridge.

I finally took down my Christmas Tree today. Phoebe got to go for a walk today. I'm cooking a turkey for Steffi and tomorrow I'm going to have to cook for me.

Tuesday and Wednesday I got on the treadmill and stuck to my diet. Thursday and Friday were golf tv days so I didn't get to work out.

I spent some money a little while ago on internet shopping. I got the $25.00 gift card from my sister and brother in law so I ordered some books with it, then I ordered some Globetrekker dvds using my prepaid credit card. They are really good dvds to play when I'm on the treadmill.

Yesterday I got to see some of the Matt Lauer Anniversary celebration on the Today Show. That was pretty good.

Golf season has begun in America and I'll be spending a lot of time posting on my Even Par Round blog.

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Part 2 at my parents' house was pretty good. The kids and my brother-in-law got there around noon or a little earlier. We opened presents. The kids played with theirs and the adults put in batteries and gathered up boxes and wrapping paper and watched the kids play. I ate a bunch of cake and finished up the chocolate fudge that my parents had last week. Later we had dinner, the traditional corned beef and cabbage for New Year's Day and home made noodles because they are one of my brother-in-law's favorite foods. I only ate noodles for supper - I don't eat cabbage or corned beef. Cabbage smells and corned beef just doesn't sound appetizing. Jasmine, my niece, remembered the Petz computer game that we have and had to play it. It was on the computer my dad has in the basement so they were down there for a long while. Jasmine got cold she stayed so long. So, we finally brought that computer up to the office room and set it up. My brother-in-law is a computer guru so he could help my parents hook everything up. As for the presents I got, I got a stuffed piggy bank that makes noise and has lights. I got knitted socks with pig heads on them. And I got a gift card from walmart.

Aside from the trip to my parents' house, I also got to enjoy part of a James Bond movie marathon on one of the encore channels and I got to see the Rose Parade on HGTV. This year, they didn't talk as much about the plants as they've done in previous years. I like to hear about the materials used on the floats.

Okay, I'm watching Anthony Bourdain in New Zealand. He is giving a talk about his book in a town called Christchurch. He starts off his talk with references to pornography. It didn't go well. What part of Christ and Church did he not get? I may have to watch something else. I don't really like him that well, but it's a travel show.