I Don't Like the Cold

It's gotten pretty chilly around here lately. Earlier in the week, my employer held an Appreciation event in a park next to a river and we all had to attend. It was freezing. Barely 58 degrees by the end of the day and we had to be there at 11:30am - when it was much colder. I loaned a pair of gloves to a co-worker and wore a pair myself. That co-worker also brought a blanket and wrapped up in it during the event. This shows I work for a bunch of idiots. Managers claimed that the majority voted to have this outside. Hah! I doubt that. Oh and the most idiotic part - an egg toss game. They wanted us to pair up and toss unboiled eggs at each other until they broke. It was freezing cold and the only sink available to wash hands was in the very dirty park bathroom that only had toilet paper with which to dry your hands. Someone handed me an egg and when I figured out what they were doing, I said "oh no. I'm not doing that." and put the egg down on a table. I then made it look like I was busy doing other things so I couldn't be roped into participating. My boss won two awards at the event: King Macho and King Boss. Boy do they fit. If they had a King Ego award, he would have gotten that one too.

On a related note, I've had bad sinus problems all week. Killer headaches that just wouldn't go away, even when I took OTC cold/sinus medicine. Today after I took my nap, I stayed in bed and covered my head up, hoping that the warmth would move the sinus around. This sinus has worn me out. All week, I've been very tired. I think I fight the headaches at night in my sleep and I don't sleep that soundly. The last couple of days, I've been going to bed at about 8:30pm.

I'm looking forward to another round of shopping next Friday. I've got a five day weekend coming up and I can't wait. There were some stores I didn't get to visit the last time I went shopping and I'm hoping to get to them this time.

Today, I saved $9.44 buying food on sale at Krogers. Granted, most of it I didn't need and only bought because it was on sale, but I'll use it.

My sister emailed her family's Christmas Wish List to mom earlier this week. Mom forwarded it to me but I haven't had a chance to really look at it. I got it on a day when my headache was really bad and I just couldn't spend too much time looking at a computer screen. Mom has already picked out a few things on the list, so I plan to look at it tomorrow while I'm at mom's and check out what's left. I need to finish up my Wishlists and email them to Mom and my sister. If I'm feeling good I might do that this weekend.

I'm thinking I should drag out some vampire/werewolf/witch romance novels out of my storage boxes to read this coming week, in honor of Halloween. Right now I'm reading Diana Palmer books, although I did by a new book today at Walmart that isn't a Palmer book. It's a romantic suspense book.

A Very Short Weekend

I don't like these 2 day weekends. Maybe the Presidential candidates can promise me a 4 - 8 hour a day work day for the same pay I get now.

Yesterday I had to sew a pillow cover for the puppies' dog bed. They had torn a hole, well three holes, in the pillow and have been having fun for about a month pulling out the stuffing. So, I made a cover for it yesterday out of red and yellow fabric - the colors of the Spanish flag.

Today, the puppies went to their grandparents' house for their weekly visit. I made biscuits and peanut butter fudge, both of which are still in the kitchen. I haven't eaten it all yet - good for me. I took the puppies out when it got warm enough and hooked them up to the tie-out stake I have. I bought cords made for 10 pound dogs so it was easier for them to move around. I stayed out there with them and tried to get them to come to me when I called them. After they had their time out in the sun, I brought them in and gave them a bath. I managed to wrestle PJ down in the baby tub and cut the nails on two of her paws.

And I've been working on my Christmas Wish List. It's been very hard to find items under $10.00. As I've said before on the blog, I make two lists, one for mom and one for my sister and include items of varying prices so they have a choice and don't have to spend a lot of money to get me something I will like. Most of the lists so far include books and dvds. When I get them finalized I'll email them to mom and my sister. Different items on each list so there's no danger of getting two of something.

I also did a bit of Christmas shopping today. While I've been looking at Amazon.com for Christmas Wish List ideas, I found a book for me and a couple of things for Mom for Christmas. I'm having everything shipped to Mom's house because the mail carrier and the UPS/Fedex people never can find my house and my packages end up at the neighbors and I might never get them. I still think the neighbor would have kept my I Can Make You Thin cds if I hadn't made an effort to go look for them.

Archway Cookies Files for Bankruptcy

I was very surprised to see a sign at my local grocery store informing the customers that Archway Cookies has gone out of business. These cookies were one of those products that, as I was growing up, we could only afford as a special treat. Otherwise, we bought the generic brand of chocolate chip and the like. And even as an adult that spending habit continued. I don't think I bought more than a couple of packages of Archway cookies in the last 5 years. I bought a package tonight. It's sad that the company had to file for bankruptcy because the cookies are very, very good. I read that the company started in the 1930s as a mom and pop operation. A true American tale of success only to be undone by rising food and gas prices. Thanks Congress and the Executive branch for helping to create the global food and energy crisis that has contributed to the demise of this American company. The candidates for President talk about job creation here at home to help stimulate the economy. They make promises about what they will do if they are president. Well, judging by what they've done in Congress (or more to the point what they haven't done), I don't think either one of them will do anything but make things worse. I do think McCain will hurt the country less, but I don't have much hope for either one. It's a shame that the candidates talk about creating jobs when they are allowing the jobs we already have to disappear. Talk about being out of touch with the American people.

One More Day

I have one more day off and I'm going to enjoy it. It's been sunny and in the 80s here and I've been out in it. There won't be many of these good days left before winter gets here so I'm going outside as much as I can.

I cut up the cake and found some square gladware containers to put it in. I've been eating the cake according to the I Can Make You Thin rules and it's been going well.

Winnie and I were watching Animal Planet last night and they had some chihuahuas on there. Winnie paid close attention to them. That was cute.

Here's a diet tip for you: get a lapdog. Winnie lays on my lap all the time and keeps me from going anywhere, let alone to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink. And when I am out of my chair, she's in it, waiting for me.

There was a quote on my laptop's homepage the other day that I thought was interesting. Here it is:

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. - Maurice Maeterlinck

A Week

I've been following the I Can Make You Thin plan for a week now! Instead of talking about it, I just did it. Yay for me! Today after work I had to stop at the store to get some milk. I had also been wanting chocolate chip cookies for a few days after reading in a romance novel about a housekeeper and a little girl making cookies. So, I bought some refrigerated cookie dough tonight as well. And I also bought orange sweet rolls in a Pilsbury can and a 2 layer 8 inch chocolate cake from the bakery section of the store - it was marked half off. I know you're thinking that I've blown the diet, but I haven't. I made the cookies, ate just 6 of them and got sick. So, now I don't want the rest of them. I just stuck them in the freezer. Usually I would eat them all and be sick too and then ask myself why I ate them all. So, this is progress. I don't know how to freeze the cake. I want to cut it up into pieces, but I don't have containers that will hold a slice of cake like that. I told my mom that I might just have to squish the cake in the round containers and forget about trying to keep it in picture perfect cake form. I haven't eaten any of the cake yet, which is also great for me. And the sweet rolls are still in the can.

I have Monday off for Columbus Day. I'm excited about my three day weekend. I hope to watch some golf this weekend. I recorded the European Tour event and I think I've mentioned on here that I never watch anything I record so I really want to make a special effort to watch this recording, otherwise it will just sit around collecting dust. And I don't want that to happen. PJ's honorary daddy, Jose Maria Olazabal, should be on the dvd somewhere.

Winnie and PJ got to go outside for a walk this evening. Winnie wanted to go yesterday but we had some rain on Wednesday and I didn't want to take the puppies out if it was still wet and soggy out.

A woman at work opened her home to a Boxer that her kids found and brought home. It's a well trained puppy and it's the 5th dog for this family. She said she was going to have to get a second job to feed him because he eats a lot. She thinks he's been without food for a while. I had several bags of dog food that the puppies would only eat a few bites out of and then never eat any again, so I took it all to work and gave it to my co-worker. I'm all for anyone keeping the pets they find instead of taking them to the pound. The pound told my co-worker that she could bring the dog to them, they would keep it for 5 days and if no one claimed it, they would put it up for adoption and she could adopt him (for a big fee). Well, she's got him now free and clear and if she wanted to find the owner, she could advertise for free on the local radio. And the pound told her that they preferred that the dog have his shots before she brought him to the pound. If she's going to pay to get his shots, she might as well keep him. Plus, a while back, when the pound was under different management, there was a letter to the editor in the local paper recounting a woman's experience with the pound. She too found a couple of dogs on the Interstate and took them to the pound. The pound told her too that she could adopt them after 5 days. Well she and her daughter went to the pound within two days to check on the dogs and the pound had killed them. They didn't even wait 5 days for anyone to inquire about them. I am 100% against our local shelter now because of this and I don't care that the woman who was in charge during this time is no longer there. I can't trust them anymore to do the right thing for those innocent little animals.

American Express Business Card Commercial

I have a bone to pick over this credit card commercial with the guy at the airport who has a credit card with cats on it. My point: If the guy's business was a pet-related one, then that credit card would fit right in with it.

First Two Days of my Little Vacation

Yesterday - went shopping. Bought some clothes, a Christmas present for Mom and Dad, and some odds and ends at KMart for me and the dogs. Today, I dyed my hair, took a nap, rolled up some pennies, sorted some books and put them into plastic storage containers, took the puppies outside for a walk - PJ has outgrown her harness. Luckily I have extras of different designs and sizes so she could still go out. I washed the clothes I bought yesterday and washed my dishes. And I read a book. I usually don't read the new books I buy because I usually read at work and in order to read at work, I have to be able to put the book down after my 15 minute breaks and lunch and get back to work. So, for that reason, I read books at work that I've already read before so I can put them down easier.

I like these days off. I need to take more of them.

AdAware

I downloaded Adaware onto my lap top since I didn't have a malware program other than whatever good my virus software does. I think it screwed up my Internet Explorer settings somehow. I deleted a bunch of crap on my laptop using adaware and then tonight I tried to come here to this create a post screen and couldn't get in because it said my cookies function had been disabled. I didn't do anything to IE and the only new thing I've done to the computer is the Adaware. Must be them. I had to reset my security settings to low to get to post to the blog.

I have four whole days off in a row starting tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm going shopping tomorrow. Usually when I go shopping I end up not buying a darn thing. But this time, I'm telling myself that I'm doing Christmas shopping for Mom and Dad so hopefully I will make the trip worthwhile and buy something.

I've finally turned the furnace on today. I picked up PJ and put her on my lap and her little paws were like ice cubes. So, I wiped off all of the vents, replaced the filters and turned the furnace on. At first, the furnace kicked on at 62 degrees. I left it there for a while but turned it up to about 68 later on. 62 is pretty cold. In the winter that would be freezing. The puppies got warm by laying on my lap when I talked to Mom tonight. They warmed me too.

We had a bake sale at work to benefit a co-worker's retirement party. I made peanut butter fudge and no bake cookies. Both sold out quickly. This one coworker liked the fudge so much she bought about half of the batch.

Announcement

Just so everyone knows, I subscribe to Dish Network because of the Golf Channel. NOT because of this crappy All Barack Obama Channel that has shown up on my program guide. I don't support Obama. I can see how the political spin doctors will claim that all Dish Network subscribers support him though since his channel is being sent out to everyone's tvs. Or at least to mine. I don't know what package it's been included in. Dish Network doesn't allow us an A la Carte option to pick only the channels we want. So we get stuck with whatever they give us.

Long Time, No Updates

Well, the I Can Make You Thin plan has been pretty absent from my days lately. It started with the Ryder Cup. I ate everything in the house because I was worried about the European Team. I'm slowly trying to get back into it. Tonight I went out and walked for about a half an hour. It's getting cooler here now that it's almost October.

More bad news family wise - my grandfather Wolfe passed away on Monday. Mom and Dad went to the visitation last night but Mom wasn't feeling up to going to the funeral today. Not in the missing grandpa way but in the physical, sore feet and legs way. Grandpa's obituary was in the paper today and it noted that there were 19 grandchildren. It's a sad commentary on the family dynamics that I can only identify 12 of them.

I'm looking forward to next week as I've got Thursday and Friday off next week. I can't wait. I haven't had an extra day off (other than Labor Day) since I went to the golf tournament at the end of July.

I've been doing a lot of Sudoku puzzles lately. They are sort of addictive, especially for a numbers girl like me. Hopefully, I can do those puzzles instead of eating.

Busy Day

I did my laundry today and vacuumed some of the rooms in the house. Then I went outside and cleaned out the flowerbed and trimmed some bushes and trees up. I also walked a couple of times today, once after lunch and once after dinner. I did some yoga too. This was on top of taking the puppies to mom and dad's this morning.

I listened to some of the mind programming sessions on my I Can Make You Thin cds. I have one mind programming cd I listen to at night, but it's been a while since I listened to these other ones.

We're supposed to get wind gusts of up to 30 mph or higher tonight until 9pm. There are a couple of trees belonging to the neighbor that have been leaning over my driveway onto the phone line. Maybe the wind will bring the trees on down and dad can cut them out of the way. I just hope if they do come down, I won't end up being late for work.

Sort of Busy, sort of not

I did a few things today, but I can't say I did a whole lot. I went to the store, made some sausage stuffing (I have about 10 one cup servings in the freezer to eat later), made outfits for Winnie and PJ, washed my dishes, and vacuumed my car's floor mat. That's about it.

I had to make the outfits for Winnie and PJ - they are inspired by the European Ryder Cup team flag (golf). Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal are part of the team this year and they will be playing this coming week in Kentucky. Sergio and Jose Maria are Winnie and PJ's honorary daddies. I think the outfits turned out well considering I broke two needles on my machine and stuck myself about three times. Oh, and Winnie bit me when I tried to take the outfit off. I would post pictures of them here, but it took me about an hour to get them posted on my golf blog - blogger is acting up. So, if you want to see Winnie and PJ in their Ryder Cup outfits, check out the Even Par Round blog - link's over in the side bar.

I've been watching a lot of the Military Channel on tv lately. I haven't seen many of those shows before, but I'm starting to run into re-runs so I will probably have to find something else to watch soon. Today I actually watched the Miss Venezuela pageant on some Spanish channel. Pretty hair, pretty dresses, and a lot of crowns. They must really like their pageants in Venezuela. I think I saw on some travel show that they take it seriously down there.

As for the I Can Make You Thin plan, I'm still on it. I did eat a bit too much stuffing today, but I wasn't stuffed. Just somewhere between full and stuffed. I consider that a success. Before the plan, I probably would have eaten one more plateful. And after eating the stuffing, I followed the rules and didn't eat again until I was hungry - or in my case, a weird feeling tummy that felt like food would make it settle. It had been about 5 and a half hours so I considered it 'hungry'.

In Memory

This morning, Steffi, my oldest chihuahua, passed away. She was my dog from the start, laying up against me as a puppy and yelping whenever I left her even for a second. We had 16 years with Steffi and she will be missed.

Back on the Plan

I've been back on the I Can Make You Thin plan for about 6 days now. I couldn't work out any this week because my left knee was bothering me. Then when it got to feeling better, the right one started feeling bad. I finally got to work out today. I have two sort-of goals in mind - thirty days without going off the plan and following the plan 90% of the time. So, we'll see if I can follow through with either one.

I bought the first season of Burn Notice on dvd earlier this week. I've never seen the show but I like the guy who plays the lead character. He was in the Pretender. I found time to watch a couple of the episodes today and it's a pretty good show.

A Big Purchase

Well, I bought a big tv today. It's big to me, but probably small to some people out there. It's a 37 inch Sharp LCD HDTV. West Virginia has a no sales tax week going on this week so I got out of paying about $48.00 of tax by buying the tv today. I've been watching Sergio Garcia, Rafael Nadal and a bunch of other stuff today and boy is it all difference.

I'm still off the plan. Tomorrow, I will be back on it. I go back to work tomorrow and it will be easier.

Steffi still isn't eating anything. I offered her three kinds of meat and catfood tonight and she wouldn't eat any of it.

Off the Wagon

Well, I'm off the I Can Make You Thin plan for yesterday and today. I don't know why either when the plan gives me everything I would want. I think part of the problem was weighing myself. I saw that I'd lost weight and in my mind, I'm now thinking that I'm done for some reason. When the whole idea about this plan is that you're never done because you're creating new habits for a lifetime.

Tomorrow I will probably be buying a new tv. West Virginia is having a Sales Tax Holiday for the first week of September on anything that has the EnergyStar symbol on it. So, I'm thinking about getting a HDTV. The one I'm looking at is 37 inches big and I would be saving about $48 by not paying sales tax. I don't need a big tv since I sit pretty close to the one I've got now.

Steffi hasn't been eating well. Yesterday she didn't eat anything and today she's only had a little bit of catfood. I've tried everything: chicken, turkey and bologna.

I got the new Diana Palmer book this week and I've already read it about three times. It is a much better book than some of the more recent offers from her. But I still have a problem with the main characters coming from abusive or disadvantaged backgrounds. There has to be some other way to create obstacles between the male and female characters than to have the abuse be what keeps them apart.

Two Week Check-in

Today is my every two week weigh-in as part of the I Can Make You Thin system. Good news. In two weeks, I've lost 8 pounds! This is the easiest weightloss plan there is. Everyone should try it. Check out McKenna.Com for more info.

Curse NBC

I can only see rhythmic gymnastics once every four years. Contrastly, I'm going to be bombarded with images of the Presidential candidates and their running mates every single day for the next two months or more. What does NBC do during the rhythmic gymnastics coverage today? They cut away to show Obama and Biden. You know what's worse? The NBC Nightly news is supposed to be on today. Brian Williams couldn't wait two or three hours to put Obama and Biden on his show. This whole running mate thing was on MSNBC all morning long. There really was no reason to interrupt the Olympics on NBC for it. I think they did take the Olympics off MSNBC.

So far, so good

I'm still following the I Can Make You Thin system. A package of chips ahoy soft chocolate chip cookies has lasted me pretty much all week. I've been able to stop at 4 or 5 for a snack and haven't had that "eat them all now and you can start the diet again tomorrow" thought. I'm also doing some yoga most days. I think I'm going to end up taking today off from exercise. It is Friday and I have to celebrate the weekend somehow.

I've had that Leona Lewis song, Bleeding Love, in my head all day today after hearing it on the radio this morning. I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying that cd just for that song. It would have to be just for that song since I don't think I've heard any of her other ones.

The laptop is still working pretty well. I hope it continues.

As for the Olympics, those Chinese gymnasts do look like 12 year olds so I hope the investigation that seems to be in the works will result in some kind of action. Part of the Olympic spirit comes from following the rules and being honorable. I would like to see more rhythmic gymnastics. I don't know when it's on or if it's done. I get stuck watching water polo and of course they have to have boxing on every day for two solid weeks. But then, in a world of violence like we have on Earth, I shouldn't be surprised that there would be so many people wanting to beat each other up.

Quick Update

I'm still following the I Can Make You Thin system. I've been at it for 11 days now :)

I realized last night that I lost some email addresses when I lost my desktop pc. So, along with the screensaver I really liked, I lost those too.

The laptop still hasn't crashed. Maybe using it as often as I do is keeping dust from collecting inside. Who knows.

I've been watching the Olympics whenever possible. I don't know what I'm going to do in the mornings when there's no Olympics on. I guess I'll go back to watching QVC.

My Week

My desktop pc crashed and I think it's for good. I turned it on this morning and after pushing some buttons I got a message that the computer couldn't find the hard drive. I have no idea how I could fix that so I took the pc out of the living room and cleaned off my desk for my laptop. I'm going to loan my flat panel monitor to Mom.

Steffi's eating a little bit these days. Winnie, PJ and Fritz are about the same.

I'm thinking about getting a flat screen hdtv during the first week of September. There's supposed to be a sales tax free holiday for energy star products and that should include some tvs. It would be nice to avoid paying 6% sales tax.

My house is being swarmed by gnats, flies, bees and other bugs. Thanks to dad's peach trees which are shedding their peaches at a very fast rate. They all fall down right next to the porch and the steps and then I and the dogs have to fight the bugs. Today I raked the peaches and dead leaves and stuff away from the porch. Hopefully that will help some.

I've been following the I Can Make You Thin system for a week now. I have some things I need to improve on, but I haven't eaten recreationally at all this week. And I've gotten some exercise. I recorded some yoga episodes from tv to follow along with in the evenings. I also do some walking outside.

I don't know what to think about the mail carrier. For three straight days I didn't get any mail and that's unusual. I usually get at least some address labels from charities wanting me to donate.

Crashed

My desktop pc has crashed again. Usually, I can unplug it from the power source and after a bit, plug it back in and it will work. But that didn't fix it this time. I'm using my laptop tonight to surf the net. I will either have to buy a new desktop or spend the money I would spend on a new desktop and buy a new laptop. Remember, this laptop crashes too. But, knock on wood, it's been on for about 3 and a half hours and it hasn't crashed yet.

I Got My Cds

Well, I got my I Can Make You Thin cds sometime on Friday and I didn't notice because whoever left them at my house, put them on a white fence post and the box was white. I didn't see the box until Saturday morning when I looked out the window. I guess I should say I'm determined and committed to following through with the program. The program contains an instruction to take a 'before' picture of yourself. That would be motivation enough to stick with it for the 90 days I'm supposed to record my efforts in the 'Success Journal'. There's no way I would take a picture like that for nothing. I'd better have a good reason.

I'm watching a lot of QVC and the Olympics lately. But yesterday, I did a lot of little things around the house that needed done. I finally unpacked my luggage from my trip to Akron and cleaned off the porch to the house. It was nice not having to go anywhere yesterday.

Sorry, So Sorry

That's what the post office people said today. They didn't say they would try to find the package. In fact, they expect me to call the mail carrier and try to track down the package myself. That would be fine if I was the one who lost it, but I wasn't. I shouldn't have to do the extra work to find it. Whatever happened to people trying to do their jobs right? Did that go out of style with the people of my parents' generation?

Darn the Post Office!

The US Mail carrier today left a note in my mailbox that said my package was too large to put in the box so she left it at my front door. Well, there was no package at all anywhere at my house. I asked the neighbors and they hadn't seen a package either. So, now I have to go to the post office tomorrow after work and complain.

I have had it with shoddy delivery people. From now on, everything I order will be sent to Mom and Dad's house.

Oh, and there's more bad luck today - I opened a new half-gallon of milk tonight that had a sell by date of 8/15/08 on it, and it poured out like cottage cheese. That was a complete waste. The company was Broughtons, in case anyone was wondering.

Back From My Trip

Well, I got back on Friday evening. Had a lot of fun, saw all my favorite golfers and discovered that Ohio has a lot of plants I'm apparently allergic to. I posted a diary on the Even Par Round blog so if you want to check it out, the link's in the sidebar.

The puppies had fun with dad but there on the last day dad couldn't get pj to eat. She had just decided she didn't want what he was feeding her. She wasn't sick or anything. I tried feeding her bologna and she would spit it out. She just didn't want it. She wanted Steffi's turkey.

On Vacation and Out of Town

As of 4pm this past Friday, I was on vacation and as of about 7am tomorrow I will be out of town. I'm going to Akron, Ohio to see a golf tournament. Monday I will try to go to the zoo up there and check out a mall, but on Tuesday I will be at the tournament watching all the golfers. I'm very excited about my trip. This will be the second time I've gone to the tournament and the first that I've checked out the zoo and the mall. I'm hoping the zoo is open tomorrow. There's nothing on their website that says they might be closed. I'll also be able to try out the Onstar directions thing. While I was at mom and dad's this morning, I got google map directions to and from all the places so with those and Onstar hopefully I won't get lost. I will be out of town until Friday evening. I plan to be back around 9 to 10pm.

Other news: Steffi was up begging for food tonight and she not only ate her turkey, she ate a half a slice of bologna and some cat food. Good for her.

Dad is going to be dogsitting for me while I'm gone this week. The puppies will be so fat when I get home. Hopefully dad can do some things around the house and the farm while he's here. He does have plans to fill in some holes in the driveway.

When I get back from my trip, I'll try to download some pictures and post them here and on my golf blog.

I've been watching a lot of QVC lately. I don't buy anything, but I'm in a shopping mood.

The puppies got baths yesterday and I tried to cut some of their nails. PJ squirmed a lot and Winnie started growling after I got two of her nails. And earlier in the week, they had to go get their booster shots. They somehow acquired tapeworms and had to have medicine and an extra shot for that. We don't have fleas in the house so they must have picked one up on one of their walks outside.

Well, gotta go. I've got some packing to do........

Puppies' Day Out

Winnie and PJ had a lot of fun exploring more of mom and dad's house today. Mom put the gate up to block them from going into the kitchen but let the puppies go into the room where the computer is and into their bedroom where Dad was still sleeping. They barked at him and played and eventually he got up.

I found four of the kids' socks under the couch at mom and dad's today. Three of them didn't match. And I gave dad what I bought him yesterday at Walmart: the movie Anger Management on DVD. He's been looking for that movie for months every time he goes to Walmart and yesterday I saw it. So, I got it for him.

It's been a hot day and I think it's going to be hot all week. I might have to stop at Walmart on my way home tomorrow and get some ice cream. I have some in the freezer but I don't think it will last me all week.

Well, this time next week, I'll be making my final preparations for my vacation: my trip to Akron Ohio to see the Bridgestone Invitational Golf tournament. I'm planning to try to go to the zoo up there on Monday next week.

Ugh

Once again, I've eaten way too much. You would think after a few times like this I would catch on. But no.

I finally got my checkbook balanced. I've been putting it off for a while. Today in the mail I got a survey from Buick to fill out regarding my car buying experience. I'm going to think about it before I fill it out. Other dealerships won't give their salesmen a commission if that survey doesn't have 'fully satisfied' marked on every question. So, it's important to put a lot of thought in the answers.

Steffi pretty much gobbled up some shaved turkey I had in the freezer last night for supper. She had runny poo this morning, which I'm guessing is because of the change in diet. But, if she'll eat turkey, I'll feed her turkey. I bought some more today when I went to the store.

There's a big tv in the family room that dad brought up a while back. Right now, it's only picking up local channels with the use of rabbit ears. Since the puppies have taken over the big bedroom where I used to do pilates, I thought I would hook up my dvd player to the family room tv and work out in there. Unfortunately, this tv doesn't have anything to hook the dvd player up to. It's that old. So, I had to not only move my dvd player into the family room, but the tv it was hooked up to - my little 13 inch tv. Today I bought one of those 10 minute solution dvds for pilates. I tried one of the workouts and it's something that I'll have to practice I think.

Guess what - the Fed Ex driver found my house today. The package had my address on it and it came to my address. But it had some other woman's name on it. It wasn't my package. There's a handwritten number on the package to an antiques shop that's close to where I live. I think I'll call that number on Monday and see if they know who this woman is and if I can leave the box with them.

Off His Meds

Well, today, according to mom, dad went out for hours playing with his 4 wheeler and his lawn mower instead of helping with the kids. And then Jasmine did the unacceptable and dared to fall asleep and Dad came in, woke her up out of a sound sleep by yelling at her and then used very naughty language. I talked to her for a half an hour tonight on the phone and by the end of it she was telling me about her dreams and about the cats.

Dad has gotten crazy since he retired. It's like he doesn't have to conform to society's rules anymore so he doesn't and he thinks whatever he wants and says whatever he wants. He and I were at the dealership buying my car and he saw a short bald man in the hallway - dad said "there's a leprechaun. Rub his head for luck." And he didn't whisper that either. Of course, dad also has to take quite a few different medications for all of his ailments and I'm sure they affect his behavior.

It makes you want to take very good care of yourself so you don't end up with all those medical problems when you get old.

On a different note - Steffi has been begging for food lately. She's been up and active and wagging her tail. I am pretty shocked. Her poo has been runny but she's been eating.

Tonight starts the new episodes of Top Gear on BBC America. They are previously aired episodes from England but they are new to us here in the US. I have my dvd recorder ready to record the new episodes. I had to push an extra button or two because Timmy had gotten ahold of my dvd recorder when he was up here on Saturday.

I went out and walked tonight after supper. I'm trying my best to only eat when I'm hungry - following the I Can Make You Thin system. But it's been a challenge tonight. Part of the reason is this headache I have. I took tylenol and sinus pills so hopefully it will go away. But I always eat when I don't feel well, thinking that food will make the headache go away or whatever's wrong fixed. It's not that logical but a lot of what people think can't be called logical.

I watched the first hour of the Miss Universe pageant last night. I thought Miss USA would have trouble because it didn't look like she was walking all that gracefully during the swimsuit competition. And I was right. I read online earlier that she tripped on her evening gown. I was hoping Miss Australia would win. I liked her. But it was Miss Venezuela who took home the crown. That could also be why I have this headache. Not enough sleep. I don't think I got very much sleep at all last night.

The Onstar people sent me a plastic card to carry around with me. It has my account number, VIN number, and car phone number on it. I plan on using Onstar when I go on my vacation in a couple of weeks. I can get turn by turn directions to the zoo in Akron and to my hotel. I'm starting to look forward to my trip with great anticipation. Mom is too. It will be a vacation away from dad for her since he'll be up here dogsitting.

To Heck in a Handbasket

That's what's happened to the I Can Make You Thin system these last two days. I have been more than stuffed from eating way too much pizza. But I think I'm done now for a while.

Today I had mom, dad, and the kids up for lunch. I went out and got Pizza Hut, but I was good - I only bought one medium pizza, two orders of breadsticks and an order of those new Chocolate Dunkers. So, there's virtually no leftovers. Well, not since I ate the last breadstick and slice of pizza. I still have the chocolate Dunkers. They are good, but they are way too chocolatey. They might make you sick if you ate all of them. The kids are something else. Timmy dropped his pizza on the floor and Fritz ate it. Winnie didn't get as upset today as she did the first time they were here. Dad took Jasmine outside to play and Timmy stayed in the house. He watched some cartoons and played with one of my books. I tried to get the book away from him but he looked like he was about to launch into a royal fit so I let him carry it around. He mostly just carried it. I did manage to get him to sit down for a while and we went through his Winnie the Pooh coloring book and he told who everyone was and spelled out all the words in the book. In an attempt to tire him out I put him on my treadmill and we played. He would walk on it for a while then stop and glide to the end of it. Then I would pick him up and swing him back to the front of the treadmill and he would glide back again. I bought them a couple of cups that had built in straws and lids when I was at walmart this morning. They were only $0.50 each and I had mom take them home with her. She told me that Jasmine spilled a whole cup of tea on her (mom's) the other night. Maybe these cups won't spill too badly.

Better and Worse

Well, things were better tonight when I called mom. She and Dad have apparently asserted their authority over the grandkids. The worse part? That was work. My co-worker has had it worse than me this week, but we're both very, very tired of the bureaucracy. You know the type - you spend three days rehashing something that you spent 45 minutes a month ago doing instead of spending those three days getting more work done. A pox on them all, as they say in artsy theatric productions.

I found a new book to read at walmart this morning. It sounds pretty good but I haven't started reading it yet. I might read it this weekend. It's called Always a Thief and it's by Kay Hooper. I don't know if I've ever read any of Hooper's books before. She apparently wrote some romances so I might have read some of them.

I looked up the Akron Zoo on the web tonight. I'm going to the golf tournament up there at the end of the month and while I can get into the tournament starting on Tuesday of that week, I am also taking Monday of that week off. I thought I could go up early on that Monday and check out the zoo. I shouldn't get lost with my Onstar Turn by Turn directions - LOL. I might get some directions off the web just in case. Don't be surprised if I come back and tell you all that I've applied for a job cleaning out the lion cage or something. At this point, that is preferable to the job I've got.

I invited mom, dad and the kids over on Saturday for lunch. I'm going to get some pizza from Pizza Hut. They have these chocolate dipper things advertised this week in the paper and I want to try them.

Steffi didn't eat this morning but she ate tonight. I tried to feed her extra but she quit early and didn't eat the extra. She did get some catfood this morning, but not her breakfast.

The I Can Make You Thin system was working well until tonight when I got home. I decided to eat a bunch. I'm going to have to start sacrificing some time and going to Walmart to get foods I really want instead of just coming home to the foods I've got. Tonight I thought I would like to have a brownie, or a piece of cake. But I don't have anything like that here. So, I ate two poptarts and I'm starting on biscuits. But I want to get home as soon as I can so I can end my work day. It's a hard choice to make.

Tonight when I got home I had a message on my machine from the DMV. They finally got to my email I sent them about my sticker for my car. The person I have to call back works from 7:30am to 3:30 pm. When exactly am I supposed to call her? At 7:30am I'm on my way to work and I work until 4:00pm. I'm not making personal calls at work. I may have to use my Hands Free Calling thing in my car to call this woman on my way to work tomorrow to tell her that the dealership fixed their mistake.

Headaches and Bleeding Ears

That describes my evening phone call to mom. Jasmine and Timmy were screaming at the top of their lungs for most of the half an hour I was on the phone. They would apparently fight with each other, Jasmine would throw things at Timmy. Then Jasmine knocked over a lamp and mom put her in a time out that did absolutely no good. Jasmine's time out took place on the couch where she proceeded to toss cushions around or something. It was a bit quieter for those few minutes. I am so glad I have dogs and the kids, though they don't realize it, are equally as glad that I'm not watching them. My version of a time out would be on the hard dining room chair in the middle of a room with nothing around them to get into. I would probably make them recite "I will not knock over the lamp" several times too. Where was dad in all of this? He was playing solitaire on the computer in another room.

I'm sure the kids are better behaved with their parents and are just acting this way because they think they can get away with it. Mom and Dad are just going to have to be more firm with them. And I am going to go and hide my mini-trampoline. It will only take one flash of a second before dad gets the idea that the kids can play on it and then he will leave them to it and not watch them.

As for me, I have been doing a bit of yoga in the evenings. Even though according to the food scale I have in the kitchen my old pair of glasses weigh the same as my new pair, I think my new pair are heavier. The weight is probably distributed differently. My face has felt tired these last few days so I took off the glasses and did some yoga. Last night I also had sinus issues so that might have been my problem then.

The I Can Make You Thin system is about 85 to 90% in use right now. The whole premise is that you're supposed to eat like a thin person and I figure about 10 to 15% of the time a thin person might eat when he or she isn't hungry or eat to a point that is more than full. So, I'm doing better than how I was eating before the program and as the guy who created this system says, at any point in your life you are either getting better or worse and you should always choose to get better.

Chaos

Mom and dad brought my niece and nephew up to visit today. Winnie barked and barked and cried and cried. The kids were playing with her toys. Nevermind that she most usually never played with any of the toys the kids had in their hands, as far as Winnie was concerned they were her toys. Whenever the kids dropped one of the toys, Winnie would sneak around and get it and take it off to hide it. PJ was more calm around the kids. She even kissed them some. Jasmine sat down and watched some Spongebob and Timmy was obsessed with my dvds. He's going to think his name is "No Timmy" before too long. But he did spend a lot of time playing with one of the squeaky toys too.

All the dogs are sleeping now.

Car Care

Well, I got up this morning at the regular time - 5am and then after feeding the cat and letting Fritz and Steffi out and back in, I went back to bed. Got back up at 7am, tried to feed Steffi - she wouldn't eat. Fed Fritz, Winnie and PJ and then got started with the car washing. I washed the car, then the tires and wheels. After removing much of the beaded water from the car, I got out the chrome polish and polished up the chrome on the exterior. I'm going to look into dusting the interior and vacuuming the driver's side floorboard. And I have to clean the back glass - the idiots at the dealership don't know how to clean windows without streaking them.

Yesterday, I spent much of the evening at mom and dad's visiting my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. Got home around 9pm and got to bed around 9:30. That's about a half an hour late on my regular routine. Kind of went off the I Can Make You Thin system yesterday since we had pizza for supper. But I still didn't eat until I was stuffed, just somewhere in between full and stuffed. So, that's still an improvement.

I think I may have broken a toe. I woke up yesterday and one of my toes was killing me. But it wasn't swollen, blue, purple or any shade of broken. It's still hurting today. I'm thinking I may have broken it in the past and this wet, soggy weather has just caused some arthritis to set in. I know I haven't done anything lately that would result in a breaking.

I bent one of the nose pieces on my glasses this morning. Yesterday I had a painful indentation on the right side of my nose from where the glasses were digging into me. Hopefully, I can stop that from happening again.

My bank sent me a letter yesterday with my quarterly savings account statement that said essentially that they had apparently sold out to some big company or something. The letter said that because of this they can reduce some of the fees they charge. I would prefer them to keep the fees where they were and increase the interest on my checking and savings accounts.

Soggy

It's been a very soggy Fourth of July here. Raining all day. I went to mom and dad's today with the puppies and I had to stay there until the rain let up.

I got my new glasses yesterday evening. I think I have one ear higher than the other one. I've thought this for a while but with these new glasses I'm even more convinced of it. I may have to bend these little nose pieces around a bit.

The I Can Make You Thin program is a struggle lately. I'm too convinced that it is a rest of your life plan and that makes me think that gee I can eat a little more today and I'll follow the plan tomorrow since skinny people occasionally do eat a bit more than they should. The key word being occasionally. That really shouldn't translate into every day.

A Mixed Bag

Both good and bad today. First the bad: work sucked. Hateful woman at work couldn't find anything wrong with my work so she had to make up a new rule that never existed before. I keep hoping she will apply for another job and leave. I don't mind if she wins the lottery. I just want her to go away. If she leaves and never has another minute of sadness, stress or strife in her life that's great.

Now for the good: Apparently it was the dealership who put the wrong sticker on the plate. I had a message on my answering machine tonight when I got home from work from the dealership. I called them back and apparently they put the wrong sticker on the plate. The woman I spoke to is going to mail me the right sticker. I don't know if my email to the DMV was what prompted this. The plate was mailed to me from the dealership. I was curious about why the dealership would send me my plate, but I just thought they were forwarding it on from the DMV to me. I didn't know they put stickers on the plates before sending them out.

I bought a door mat this morning at walmart to put beside my driver's side door here at the house so I can wipe off my shoes before getting into the car. And I plan on buying brushes to keep in the roadmap slots in the doors so I and my passengers can wipe our feet before getting into the car when we are elsewhere. And no, I'm not obsessed. Really.

And I got my stimulus check today. Yay! I was going to have to write a check for cash later this week but now I can just cash that.

A New Experience

Winnie has been going around whining and today she tore up the foam pad that is her dog bed and she's now laying in the dog carrier. I think she's experiencing the nesting aspect of false pregnancy. These dogs have not been on schedule with that kind of thing, both waiting well into their 10th month or later for their first heat.

Winnie dug and dug on the couch today at Mom and Dad's. While there today, I got mom set up with my XM radio account online. I can't listen online here because I have a dial up connection, but she has DSL and she can listen to the radio. At least for the three month free trial that I have for buying my car.

I'm still following the I Can Make You Thin system. I've been on it 100% this time for about 4 days. I got some exercise today. Thanks to how much I like my car, I now go outside to look at it. While I'm out, I walk around it and get some exercise. I'm talking something like a 40 minutes walk. I listen to the hypnosis cd that came with the book every day. I don't know if I'm being hypnotized or if I just fall asleep. I do always wake up to the cues on the cd, which makes me think I might have been hypnotized. But the man's voice gets louder as he counts you awake, so it could just be that he just wakes me from my nap.

Stimulus Package Money - don't believe that letter they send you that says you should receive your payment on such and such date. I didn't get mine when they said I would and I know of another person who didn't get theirs and it has been a while. As usual, the government is lying to the public. I imagine it's just us non-direct deposit folks who are being discriminated against.

See My Pretty Car

More on the Car

Well, they detailed it yesterday and put that super-protector stuff on it. I hate to say it, but I could have done better I think. They left spots all over it that I had to buff out last night and they put that tire shine crap on the tires and it splattered all over the car. I had to wipe that off too. I had serious doubts that they even did the inside of the car, but after watching an infomercial this morning for a similar product, I think they might have done the interior. There was no shiny, greasy appearance in the car and according to this informercial, there are products out there that don't leave a residue on the dashboard and other surfaces. And I think they left some dirt on the body of the car when they put that protection stuff on it. There was some dirt that I couldn't scrape off with my fingernail. The workers apparently rifled through my car looking for stuff to steal - my insurance and temp tag registration were not in the same position I left them in and the glove box hadn't been cleaned so I know they weren't in there to clean it and just moved the paperwork around. And they changed my radio stations and apparently listened to some weird station on the XM radio. I can just see them playing my radio for the four hours it took to do this work. I would rather they just do the work and listen to their own radio. But at least now I'm done with the dealership. Hopefully.

More bad news: I got my new license plate yesterday and it had a 2006 sticker on it. I can't put that on my car - the police will automatically pull me over and give me a ticket. So, I tried looking up phone numbers for local dmv offices in West Virginia so I could call and find out what I need to do to get a new sticker and the only numbers I could find on their website had 'out of the office' recordings. So, I emailed the Commissioner of the DMV. It goes to a generic inbox, so I'm sure one of his aides or assistants will get the email instead of the Commissioner but as long as I find out what I need to do before driving 30 miles to the nearest DMV office, I don't care who answers me. I do think it's irresponsible and pretty incompetent for them to send me a plate/sticker that's two years old.

This morning I bought all kinds of stuff for my car. I bought chrome polish, aluminim wheel cleaner, car wash and wax, drying towels and washing mitt, and a sprayer for the garden hose. I did have two sprayers but one split open and won't work now. So, I needed another one. If we ever get into a drought, I'll need to put the one I have been using back on the garden hose for the garden. And I filled the car up with mid-grade gas. I'm going to try to put mid-grade in the car every so often. The book that come with the car says you can use mid-grade if you tow things with your car, so I figure about once a month putting mid-grade in it for just regular driving use won't be too bad for the car. I put 10.3 gallons in the car and it cost me $43.25. That kind of hurt, but I did deliberately avoid putting gas in it this week because I didn't want to fill it up and then have the detailers get the car. They might have siphoned some of the gas out. According to the onboard computer I can drive 313 miles on a full tank of gas. I'm calculating the gas mileage the old way - by hand to see exactly what's going on. I don't think the computer will give me good information. And my new goal is to try to let the car warm up for at least two minutes before starting out. My Lumina book said I should let the car idle for something like 5 minutes to get all of the fluids throughout the car before driving off. I didn't see anything like that in my LaCrosse book, but I figure if it's good for the Lumina, it shouldn't hurt the LaCrosse. While I'm letting it idle I can scan the radio stations. I actually used my Onstar last night. I checked to see how many minutes of hands free calling I had to use.

It's nice to be able to move into my car now. I put the plastic milk crate in the trunk - used for holding grocery bags. I put the key and the remote entry device on my old key ring. I hadn't done that yet because I wasn't going to give the detailers my house key, or Mom's for that matter. I have to put my little pink dinosaur in the back dash and some other things into the car that I had in the old one, like my jar of change that I keep for emergencies - but really, I should just have a little bit of change and some dollar bills in there instead. Dad started that jar of change thing years and years ago back when there were payphones everywhere. I don't think I need much change these days.

Car Trouble

Well, the salesman never did come and get my car for the detailing and special protectorant stuff on Wednesday. I called him and he claimed he hadn't forgotten about me and that he would call me after he'd checked with the service department about when my car could be done. Well, he never called me back. So, tomorrow I'll be calling him again. Give him one more chance and then I may have to either find out who his superior is or call the service department and schedule this myself.

Other than that, I love my car. I go out in the evenings to just walk around it and look at it.

More Car Stuff

Today I finally got the Onstar thing turned on. And I programmed in some radio stations. I'll have to try them out during the three months I get XM for free and see if I think it's worth keeping. I turned on the headlights to see what the car looks like with them on. It's such a pretty car.

Last night, we had storm warnings running across the screen and one of the warnings said hail possible. So, I went out and pulled the car up further into the carport in case it did hail.

I've been watching round 1 of Wimbledon all day today. Well, it started at 7am. I had already eaten, fed the dogs, dyed my hair and vacuumed the dining room by then.

Loving The New Car

I'm really liking my new car. I took the puppies to mom and dad's today and I parked the car in front of their big living room window. Every so often I would go to the window and just look out at my car. It's so pretty. I really feel like this is my car. I didn't feel that way with my Lumina. Dad had decided to buy the Lumina and I just got to pick whichever one I wanted from the 5 they had on the lot. Then Dad had to co-sign for me and as I had only been working at my job for about a month, I wasn't really positive that I could pay off the loan. This time, I picked out the car, made the salesman find a red one instead of just taking one of the ones on the lot, and even though I have it on a payment plan, I do have the money in the bank to pay it off if I need to. So, I really feel like this is my car. And I'm very giddy. I'll take some pictures of it Wednesday evening after the dealership puts on that protective coating stuff. It will look all shiney and new after that.

This morning I took mom for a drive in the car and showed her all the buttons and features. We went up to McDonalds and got breakfast. I haven't eaten at McDonalds in I don't know how long. Mom didn't want to get in the car because she would track dirt into it. I had to tell her that the dealership was going to detail it on Wednesday so she could go ahead and get in it and get it dirty.

And just a little bit ago, I tried out a CD in the car. It plays very well. I also sat for a minute in the back seat to see what it was like back there. I think if you are very tall it might be difficult to sit back there, but I come from a medium to short family and I don't really plan to be hauling very many people anyway.

As for me - I have a sinus headache. I took two tylenol and a sinus pill and I still have the headache. I got my hair cut today so I'll be dying it tomorrow.

Off the Program Today

Today, I sort of went off the I Can Make You Thin program - the program where you eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full and eat and enjoy only the foods you really want. I ate about 9 inches of a 12 inch sub this morning after I got back from town. I'm pretty full right now. But I'm trying to avoid eating anything else until I feel hungry again. That's the beauty of this program. It starts all over again the next time you're hungry. It isn't like a calorie or point counting diet where if you go over calories or points by noon, you feel like you've just blown the whole day and you might as well keep eating.

Other stuff going on: Steffi's not doing well. She didn't eat last night and would only eat a little bit of catfood this morning. Her poo was runny and gelatinous. Winnie, PJ and Fritz are all okay. I have Monday off. Sometime while I'm off this weekend I have to dye my hair. I think I'll try to get Mom to cut my hair tomorrow. And I think I'm going to do some pruning of the weeds and bushes that are growing into my driveway. Since I have the new car, I don't want it all scratched up. Dad is supposed to do some of that pruning when he comes up to dog-sit at the end of July.

Darn That Tiger Woods

That man just cost me $25000. How, you ask? Yesterday I bought a new 2008 Buick LaCrosse CX. It's "Scarlett Red" with "Titanium" interior. I wouldn't have been looking at the Buicks if it weren't for all of those Buick commercials I have to watch when I watch golf. And why are there so many Buick commercials out there? Because Tiger advertises them. At least I didn't buy a Lucerne. The LaCrosse is exensive enough for me.

As for the car: I wanted a red one but the dealership only had two silver ones on their lot. When the salesman realized I was going to keep my 1998 Lumina, he figured the only way I was going to buy a car that day was if he could find me a red one (I didn't need to buy one that day if I had a car I could drive). So, he had some guy in the office look for red ones on the internet. He claimed this was the only red one in the state of West Virginia, but when I looked online, I found 4 with one having the paint color I would have preferred: "Red Jeweled Tint". But it could be that those other dealerships hadn't updated their website and that car was already sold. At first, the salesman was showing me the used cars but when he asked me how much I was looking to spend and I said "I want to keep it under $30,000", you should have seen those cartoon Dollar Signs pop out of his eyes. That was a bit funny. He showed me the news ones then, but he kept showing me the Pontiac Grand Prix and I don't really like those. I think the body style is ugly. They had a red one of those. I made the salesman do a lot of walking yesterday. The car lot is stretched out length-wise and he had to walk that whole length a couple of times. But as I don't go carshopping ever, I didn't really know what I wanted and what I was looking for. So, I even took a peek at a Dodge Avenger. Finally I test drove one of the silver LaCrosses and it was very nice. The driver's seat adjusts up and down and front to back. The A/C fan is controlled by button instead of knobs (My Lumina's A/C fan barely works and I have to toggle the knob back and forth a hundred times to get it to work). The radio keeps working even after you turn off the car and pull the key out of the ignition. That concerned me for a bit yesterday until I could read the book. I get free Onstar for a year and free XM radio for 3 months. The radio is set on the PGA Tour network and I haven't gotten the Onstar started yet. The trunk is a little smaller than my Lumina's and the car takes the potholes in my driveway a lot better than the Lumina. Both cars have a V6 engine, but the Lumina's is a 3.1L and the Lacrosse has a 3.8L. When I test drove the silver LaCrosse, I accidentally squealed the tires when I pulled out of a parking lot. It has a bit more power than the Lumina. The LaCrosse comes with two power accessory outlets (at least I have only found two) and my car came with 3/4 of a tank of gas, which probably makes the $25000 I'm spending worth it when you look at the current price of gas - LOL Wednesday, the dealership people are going to pick my car up at work and take it to spray this protectorant all over it. With this stuff on the car I won't have to wax it for 5 years. I thought that sounded great since my Lumina is lucky if I wash it once a year, let alone wax it.

I like the LaCrosse even though it seems that the view out of the back window is more narrow than that of my Lumina. I read in the owners manual that I have to wipe off the chrome every time it gets wet or dirty. Heaven knows what I have to do with the aluminum wheels that they have on it. I'm hoping that protectorant stuff will seal that too and I won't have to do much cleaning. I'm still keeping my Lumina. I have studded snow tires for that car so I figure I'll run it in the Winter and park the LaCrosse. It didn't cost me much more to insure a new LaCrosse since, thanks to dad's handling of my insurance, I am insured to the hilt anyway. And insuring the Lumina with the minimum required by the State of WV only cost me about $290 more on the year. That was a very good deal I thought.

I'm happy that I have a brand new car. I figure I should be able to have one brand new car in my lifetime and then get used ones after that. My Lumina was a gently used one when I got it. Plus, my Lumina has a bad head gasket and according to Dad, the engine could go at any time so I didn't fancy driving it to Akron for the Bridgestone Invitational at the end of July. I'm going back to the tournament again this year. Wednesday night the LaCrosse will really feel like my car because I will be able to move my little stuffed dinosaur into the back dash and put my house key on the key ring. I don't want to do that before the dealership guys pick up the car to do that detailing work. You should never leave personal stuff in the car or your house key on the key ring when you're giving the car and key ring to a dealership, mechanic, or detailing workers.

As for Yesterday - it was the most expensive day of my life. Not only did I buy the car, but I also spent $433.00 ordering new glasses to wear. Mine are all scratched up so I went to the eye doctor and ordered new ones. The ones I'm getting come with little magnets on either side of the lenses and sun glass clip ons that will just adhere to the frames with those magnets. That's really handy. The color of the frames are purple. Not red. It was nice to hear the office girl saying that I needed small frames because I have a small face. That wasn't the case 6 years ago when I last went to the eye doctor. I was fat back then.

Following the Program

Well, so far I've been following the "I Can Make You Thin" program. I listen to the hypnosis cd every day (if you can call falling asleep to it listening) and I'm following the four golden rules. My diet hasn't changed all that much since I was eating mostly what I wanted before. But I am slowly adding a few things in here and there. I bought a Totino's Pizza and ate 1/4 of it for dinner one night - the rest was cut into pieces and put in the freezer. And I now have biscuits and real Parkay margarine in the house. I'm not going overboard with the eat anything you want philosophy until I've followed the rules for a few weeks. This past week I've been wanting poptarts but instead of telling myself that I can't have them on my 'diet', I told myself that I couldn't have them until grocery store day when I would buy them.

Today I've been busy. I went grocery shopping, did some laundry and I cleaned my car up. I'm thinking of buying a new car. Dad and I will be going car shopping next Friday. So, I tried to get some of the dirt, grass and little rocks out of the floorboards and cleaned the inside of the car. I took most of my stuff out of the car in case I do find a car to buy. I really have no idea what car shopping will bring. If it's anything like purse shopping, I'll spend months putting it off because I won't want to spend the money.

Well, it's cooled off a bit toward the end of this week. Thank goodness. I like summer, but it's not summer yet.

I've also made an appointment with my eye doctor for next Friday. I want to get a new pair of glasses. I'm tired of the scratches and smudges on these. If I end up finding a car I want Friday, I will have to get all the paperwork done and the insurance transferred quickly so I can make my appointment. Or else dad will have to leave me at the doctor's and finish everything and then come back for me.

A New Program

Well, I received the book, I Can Make You Thin, by Paul McKenna yesterday. I've read the book about three times and listened to the CD about 4 times. This is the weight loss program that employs the four golden rules: Eat When You're Hungry, Eat What You Want- Not What You Think You Should, Eat Consciously, and Stop When You're Full. McKenna was on TLC a while back and that's where I found him. I think if I stick to this, it will work out well. I started following the rules today. We'll see what happens. I do have a headache. I think it's more because of the heat and the smudgy glasses I'm wearing than the new program.

This heat is getting ridiculous. I'm almost to the point of buying a new car since my car doesn't want to have working air conditioning. Poor Steffi is having a time of it. I drizzle water on her when she pants a lot so she can try to cool down. And I have a fan on her most of the time. Tomorrow might be a problem since I go back to work and I don't like to have the fans on when I'm not in the house. I might have to make an exception. It's supposed to cool down a bit on Tuesday I think.

PJ got scared today. There was a wasp in the house and it was flying around. PJ didn't like it and she would take off running, looking for a place to hide. She got into her carrier at one point. I killed the wasp and after a while, PJ relaxed.

Tomorrow night, Nashville Star debuts on NBC. I don't know if I can stay up 'til 11pm to watch the whole thing. I swear these people who run the networks think we don't have jobs or something. It could be that after the first hour, I decide the show's not worth staying up for.

I've spent the last couple of weeks watching the French Open. This coming week is the US Open Golf tournament which I probably won't watch much of since Tiger will be playing. Granted NBC doesn't suck up to him as much as the other networks but still, there will be a ton of coverage on him and virtually nothing on anyone else. In a couple of weeks Wimbledon starts so I can watch more tennis. I even saw some men's gymnastics today.

What a Week

Wednesday, lightning struck at work. I could hear the lightning crackling as it ran through the ceiling. Thursday, we had no computers so I did as much goofing off as I could and then left at 1pm. I came home and changed into some jeans, got my grocery money and went to walmart to do my weekly shopping. Friday, I went to Krogers after work and now on Saturday, I don't have to go anywhere. Yay.

This morning I took the plastic off the windows, washed the windows with spic n' span, vacuumed the family room, did a load of laundry.

I was hoping to watch the Women's French Open final, but Dinara Safina didn't start too well, so I'm watching golf. I'll keep up with Safina's score online and decide if I want to tune in later.

It's going to be another really hot, sunny, humid day today.

Happy Day

Today I felt like celebrating. It's the end of the month, tennis has been on tv all day, and the day wasn't a total washout - there were plenty of nice breezes and periods of no rain. I overate today and I'm drinking way too much pop, but that goes with celebrating.

I took the puppies out for a walk today. 35 minutes outside. They sniffed everywhere, pranced around the cat. PJ caught a butterfly three times and three times it escaped her. They like their walks. It's too bad I don't have much time in the evenings to take them out during the week.

I think it's finally going to warm up enough during the nights that I can take the plastic down off the windows and start having them open during the day. I need to get the fans cleaned up so I can use them.

This week the new Diana Palmer book was released. Fearless is its name and it's a pretty good book. I like the notion that the female lead had that the male love interest could have actually been the assassin sent to kill her. I'm getting really tired of every female lead of Palmer's books being an abused child with medical problems. Hopefully she will change it up with the next book. I wouldn't want to live in Jacobsville, Texas if all that child abuse goes on.

Sick but Sunny

I have had a cold for the last two days and I feel pretty miserable at times, but I still went outside today and got some sun. I wasn't missing this beautiful day for anything. I've been eating everything in sight because for some irrational reason I think that eating will make me feel better. I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. Usually, I feel really bad just one day and then I get over it.

The Naked Gentleman

I picked up the romance novel, "The Naked Gentleman" at walmart earlier this week and read it. I was thrilled to find out that it had no political intrigue, no dastardly villains set on killing the heroine. It was just a pleasant, fun historical romance novel. No stress involved in reading it whatsoever. This is a very good book and if all of Sally MacKenzie's books are like this, then I'll be reading them all. The one drawback was that there were way too many characters to keep up with. I guess I should have started with the first book of this series, maybe then I would have known who everyone was.

Extended Holiday Weekend

I called in sick today and stayed home from work. So, my weekend has started early. I spent some of the day in bed and my dishes still haven't been washed but I'll get to it. I got the two books I ordered from Amazon.com and read the self hypnosis diet one. I skimmed the eyesight book. That guy writes with a lot of technical jargon. I listened to the hypnosis cd. I need to listen to it repeatedly, read the book repeatedly and try not to go to sleep while the cd is playing.

Tomorrow I go to the bank and the store. I was going to go to the bank next weekend but since I have Monday off too, I thought I would go this weekend while I have more time to be home. It's supposed to be really sunny and warm Saturday, Sunday and Monday so hopefully, I'll get to spend some quality time outside.

Update

Well, I've eaten a whole jar of peanut butter in 3 days. I'm hoping to just get sick of it and not want it anymore. That worked with chocolate. I ate so much hershey kisses and other types of chocolate that now I just look at it and I get sick and that was months ago.

I've been doing pilates lately. I'm trying to get rid of my flabby arms. I'm also planning to get back to the exercise starting tomorrow. Well, that's a little misleading. I went outside today and walked for almost an hour. But as for following the whole diet/exercise plan, that starts again tomorrow.

Steffi has not been eating well lately. Averaging about one meal a day if that. I follow her around trying to get her to eat, whether it's bologna, turkey, chicken, dog food, cat food. Tonight she ate some grilled chicken strips and a little bit of turkey.

Yesterday when I was shopping at walmart, I found a shirt on clearance that had actual sleeves. Not these fake ones where the top of the sleeve comes over your shoulder, but there's no bottom of the sleeve and you are left to expose your armpits if you raise your arm. I didn't know if I needed to wear a small or a medium in that shirt so I bought one of each and brought them home. I didn't want to take time to try them on in the store, especially since you probably can't find a dressing room attendant manning her post at 7am when I was at the store. I found out that I take a small in that shirt so I'm planning to go back to see if they have any in different colors. And I bought a nice Armitron watch that was on clearance too. It's silver with a blue face. I needed a silver watch to go with some of my outfits.

Dad says our local mechanic won't work on head gaskets so Dad thinks I should just nurse my car along for about another year and then just buy a new one instead of spending about $800 or so to pay the dealership's mechanics to fix my car. I don't know. If I can pay $800 to keep my car for two more years or longer, then I have to wonder if that wouldn't be a better plan. It's not as if the car's falling apart (knock on wood). I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Well, wait a minute, my air conditioner cuts out when I accelerate. That's a bit annoying.

I did some internet shopping as well. I got my Bargain Books catalog and inside there were some books on imroving your eyesight through exercises. So, I went to amazon and searched there to see what I could find. I found a book that had some good ratings so I ordered that one and then I've been thinking of getting a hypnosis cd for weight loss. I've watched that think and lose weight infomercial a few times and I think that guy hypnotized me into thinking I needed to buy a cd. So, I checked that out on amazon too. I ordered a book and cd by some guy who Andrew Weil recommends. Weil writes for Prevention magazine so he shouldn't be a quack.

I've also been thinking about getting a workout dvd, but I have to wonder if I would actually watch it. I don't think I'm ready to spend money on that yet.

Healthy Eating Weekend Interrupted

Yesterday Sergio Garcia won a big tournament in the world of golf - so I celebrated with a bunch of food. Today, I went shopping and ate at the Pizza Hut buffet - this was a good buffet with plenty of food to choose from unlike the last time at the bad restaurant. I plan to get back on the diet tomorrow to keep my bagged lettuce from wilting.

Shopping - I bought two pairs of pants and two shirts that were on clearance at Walmart. I needed some new clothes. I bought a new pair of tennis shoes to wear when I go to the golf tournament in a couple of months. And I bought a jar of peanut butter. So, it's not as banned as the potatoes. My theory is that I wouldn't be craving peanut butter if I was getting everything I needed from my diet. I dug my measuring spoons out to try to control the servings. I went to the bank to redo my CD. I got a depressing rate of 2.9% for nine months.

Healthy Eating Weekend is Extended

Since I'm also off Monday and Tuesday this week, I'm doing the healthy eating plan for all four days. I went to Walmart this morning for grocery shopping - their bagged lettuce was all slimy and wilted. I had to go to another grocery store to get it.

I've had the puppies out for a walk a few times this week. PJ really likes to go out and Winnie likes it once she's out. Monday is Homecoming Day - one year ago Monday I brought the puppies home from the seller's house. I think we are going to do a bit of celebrating tomorrow and Mom and Dad's house. Monday is also the day I need to go to the bank to take care of my cd. It matured today and I have ten days to cash it out.

Today I went out and walked outside for an hour. I was trying to get a tan and we don't have many sunny days when I'm off from work. I need to get a little more exercise this evening to try to offset the short little nap I got while I was laying on the couch with the dogs watching golf. The nap was only about 20 minutes so hopefully that didn't derail any weightloss. I'm still losing weight. I've got about 13 more pounds to go to get back to where I was in July 2006. Since November 9th, I've lost 23 pounds. And that is with all the holiday eating and just the usual, falling off the diet wagon eating.

Another Weekend of Dieting

This weekend I added some meat and eggs to the veggie and fruit weekend diet. For breakfast I had a smoothie and some sliced turkey breast. Then I had a snack of carrots and string cheese. Then for lunch I had a bowl of salad with tomatoes, grilled chicken, kidney beans, fat free cheese and some nice wholesome wishbone bountifuls salad dressing. Then I skipped the afternoon snack and ate scrambled eggs with cheese and finely chopped spinach with a side of tomatoes for supper. In the evening is another smoothie.

Observations: I ate about 850 calories yesterday, didn't feel a bit hungry, worked out for about 40 minutes and got an hour's worth of grocery shopping in, and gained weight. I don't know how that happened. Today I'm planning to eat a little more than 1000 calories, haven't felt hungry and have worked out for a total of 60 minutes. The smoothies are better if you put a little diet sprite in them.

As for the past week, I stuck to the regular diet of slimfast bars and canned soup. Instead of a poptart in the evening, I ate an apple. I did manage to lose about 4 pounds I think. That was also with working out every day except Wednesday evening.

I got to see Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer play for a title this weekend in Spain. The Tennis Channel covered it.

Dad says my car's problem is a head gasket. You know, the problem where I have to keep putting water and antifreeze in the car because of some kind of leak. Dad says it can wait until after I go to the golf tournament at the end of July. Sure he thinks it can wait, he's not the one driving to Akron and back.

Glub, Glub, Ugh...

I just ate too much. I ate a big bowl of salad and drank some water and now I feel yucky. Aside from two hiccups (not celery induced) I have stuck to the all fruit and veggie weekend. Last night I ate a bag of popcorn and today I ate some biscuits. The biscuits weren't that good so I didn't eat very many. And I guess you could call it a hiccup when I put some diet sprite in the strawberry smoothie I made earlier today.

I took the puppies out for a walk today. Fritz came with us. He brought in at least three ticks. I don't know what the puppies might have brought in. A tick jumped onto me while we were out but I saw it immediately and got him off. I put some more flea drops on PJ and when I can manage to catch Winnie, she'll get some. Fritz will get some when he comes in. He got another haircut today.

I ordered tickets for a PGA golf tournament that will be staged in late July. I still need to make hotel reservations. I have to wait until I get a prepaid calling card to do that. I don't have long distance service on my phone and I don't want to use my cell phone for that because I can just imagine the hotel person not being able to understand me.

Something Different

I decided sometime on Thursday I think that I needed to reboot. A complete restart on the diet thing. For the last week I had overeaten and eaten the wrong foods. So, Friday night I stopped at Walmart on the way home and bought a bunch of fruit and vegetables. When I say a bunch I mean quantity, not variety. There aren't many fruits and vegetables I'll eat out there. But I had decided to do only fruits and vegetables this weekend and the start my diet again on Monday. So, what did I buy? I bought apples, oranges, watermelon, strawberries, tomatoes, salad mix, carrots, celery, and two cans of chili beans. I'm making smoothies out of the oranges, watermelon and strawberries (I had to buy a blender for that). The smoothies aren't bad but they aren't sinfully wonderful either. But they are the only way I would ever get strawberries into my diet. I won't eat them. Around 9am this morning I decided that peanut butter was either a fruit or a vegetable. I had to have some kind of protein so I ate about three tablespoons of it. For lunch I had the salad mix, some tomatoes sliced up on it, and the chili beans (more protein). Oh, I bought a green bell pepper and an orange bell pepper to chop up and put in the salad. I don't eat those either so I minced them pretty good and stuck them in the beans when I heated the beans up. I just finished another smoothie and there's still dinner and evening snack to go.

Do you realize this will mean that for two days I won't have any chocolate to eat???? Boy am I crazy.

What have I been doing today? Well, I got out at 7am and walked outside for about 20 minutes. Then at 10am, the sun was out, I went out again to try to get a tan. I walked and walked for about an hour. After lunch I went out and washed and waxed my car and I finished just in time because not long after that did it start raining. I watched some tennis this morning and golf's on now. Oh, and I rolled up some more change since I bought more penny wrappers when I was at walmart. And I called the credit card people and activated my new, pretty, credit card. I signed up with an online account for the sole purpose of getting a card that had a pretty picture on it. This one has a Monet painting.

I don't know if the fruit and vegetable weekend will result in any weightloss or anything. But it can't hurt any more than the pizza I ate this past week did.

I'll let you know if I go the whole weekend without quitting or cheating.

This Quiz is Completely Wrong

I don't think there's anything in this description that's me. I got the quiz from Kari over at "I Struggle and Emerge" (Her blog is in the blogs of note section).

Border Collie

The Achiever

You've heard about this "second-place ribbon" thing, but really don’t ever plan on getting one. Not a chance. Highly competitive, you keep one eye on the Best in Show prize and one on the rest of the pack, making sure you're always at least one paw ahead. You love your family and enjoy the company you keep, but you'd trade all of them in a heartbeat for a corner office and some meaty stock options. When you're not licking your professional coat, naked skydiving and triathlons keep you entertained. You idolize the top dog and will do so until you sniff out a way to take over the company and do a little "restructuring." Learn more »

FAMOUS BORDER COLLIES: Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters

LIKELY PROFESSIONS: CEO, Banker, Manager, Astronaut

Work Crap

Here's a work story:

I had some things I had to go over with a co-worker. For an hour and a half I sat there in his office while he did everything BUT discuss those things with me. Then he had the nerve to suggest I ask the boss to stay a half an hour late to go over them. I work 8 to 4 and he works 8:30 to 4:30. I thought "why do you think I would be dumb enough to believe that you might actually do anything between 4 and 4:30?" So, I said no and I went home. And my other co-workers are just as guilty. They see me sitting there in a chair in front of his desk and they still come in and ask him questions and interrupt him. It's ridiculous.

Next time he wants me to look at something, I'm going to give him the same consideration he gave me today. We'll see how he likes it.......

Sleepy Sunday

Another day off the diet and with no exercise. It will be easier to start again tomorrow when I'm at work.

I rolled up some change I had laying around the house. One of these days I'm going to have to exchange my rolled up change for paper currency.

The puppies got a bath today. I tried putting some flea and tick drops on Winnie and she got mad. But later I did sneak some on her.

Didn't work on the new story yet. I might work on that tomorrow too.

Mixed Up

I feel mixed up today. Usually, the puppies visit their grandparents on Sunday and then I go to work the next day. But, today the puppies went to see their grandparents. So, for the rest of the day, I've been feeling like I have to go to work tomorrow when I don't. That sucks.

I didn't get back on the diet or the exercise today. Hopefully I'll do that tomorrow. I even made biscuits when I didn't even want any. I just felt I had to do something with my hands. I ate four and froze the rest of them.

I had started a new story a while back but didn't get far at all with it. I just started writing and didn't have any idea what it was supposed to be about. So, tonight I typed up some character notes. I have them on the laptop which isn't connected to a printer. So, I have to save the notes to a flashdrive and then plug that into my desktop pc and print from there. One of these days I'm going to buy a printer to go with the laptop but I don't know when. I would like to get a wireless printer. Anyway, I want this story to be a murder mystery. Something quite different than anything I've written in the past. I always thought I couldn't write mysteries because I don't read enough of them. But I've been reading the Nero Wolfe books and I want the main character of this story to continue on maybe with other books down the road. With romance novels, the main characters are pretty much limited to that book and don't continue on as main characters in other books. I'm having real trouble composing on the laptop. I like being able to flip back through handwritten pages to see what I've written. On the laptop I have to push the arrow keys. I feel like I have more access to everything if it's on paper. So, I figure I can write it longhand and then type it up on the laptop. If I want to transcribe it in the family room instead of here in the living room, then the laptop and the handwritten pages are portable. I'm hoping the murder mystery plot will help me cope with sucky work experiences. People I can't stand at work, I can take some qualities they possess and give them to characters in the book, then make the characters do things. I will, of course, write nothing about the type of work I do or anything like that. The book is supposed to be an escape from everyday reality so I don't want to keep thinking about work while I'm at home. But, to give an example of what I'm thinking about: Kathie Lee Gifford used to talk about her kids all the time when she was on the Regis and Kathie Lee show and people hated that. So, if I hated that, I would write about a character who talked all the time about her ....... pets, or her plants. That kind of thing.

What did I do today other than work on these notes? I cleaned part of the refrigerator. I brushed Fritz. I washed some towels. Watched some golf. I got to the store and back by 7:40am this morning. I was happy about that. I bought the dremel rotary tool to use on the dogs' nails. I had it on, letting everyone get used to the noise and Winnie came up to sniff it. She got her nose so close to the sandpaper it scared her. I actually got PJ's nails on it for a few seconds and then I got Steffi's nails on it. The nail dust flew up into the air. Why did I go to Mom and Dad's today instead of tomorrow? Because dad had to take my car to get it inspected. On his way back, he stopped and bought a radiator hose to put on my car. I think I wrote previously that there's a leak somewhere. I don't know when he will put the hose on the car. Like I said to dad, he's just so busy not having a job to go to, he just can't find the time.

I was going to record Top Gear today so I would have a couple of episodes to watch in case BBC America decided to take the show off. But I watched golf instead. There should be a couple of episodes on Monday night I can record.

I'm thinking I need to stay up later at night. I've been having active dreams and I want them to stop. So, maybe if I stay up late, I'll be so tired that I won't dream at all.

Glad It's Friday

I'm very glad it's Friday and I have two days off. The week was ok at work until about 2pm today when I got a sucky email. I may have to play my leave the work at work self hypnosis tape I made tonight when I go to bed.

I have lost 3 pounds in the last week, but today I had to go off the diet. I attended a meeting today elsewhere and after the meeting we all went to Pizza Hut. Since I never go to Pizza Hut, I ate. Not as much as I used to though. So, that's good. I didn't work out either. I figured if I was going to go off the diet, then I might as well rest the body too and pick up both the diet and exercise tomorrow. I did take the puppies out for a walk this evening. Dad came up and mowed the grass today and the puppies were able to walk in the yard without disappearing. And the shorter the grass the less likely the puppies will be to pick up ticks.

I've been in the mood to read cookbooks and watch cooking shows. I have to grow out of that or else I'll start buying cookbooks and I don't want to spend my money on that.

Speaking of money, I finally signed up for direct deposit at work. I don't know if it's going to work. I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I get paid. As I mentioned previously, the 911 people are going around giving everyone new addresses. I wanted to make sure my paycheck wouldn't get lost so I did the direct deposit.

Speaking of deposits, my bank has changed their lobby hours. Now they will only have the lobby open from 8 to 4 Monday through Friday and 8 to 12 on Saturdays. I work 8 to 4 throughout the week. So, the only time I will be able to go to the bank is on Saturdays. That sucks because as you know I like to get out and get my shopping done and get home by 8am on Saturdays.

Steffi's feeling mixed today. She had runny poo this morning but she ate all of her breakfast. Then when I got home I found one more spot of runny poo from her and she didn't eat supper. But she did walk all over the yard tonight while I was out with the puppies.

Sunday

All that work yesterday paid off, I lost .8 pounds. After many weekends of either holding steady or gaining weight, I managed to lose. That's good. Today I took it a little easier. I did get on the treadmill twice and I walked in place for about 15 minutes. I did some sit-ups and leg exercises and did some arm exercises. I have to try to get rid of the flabby arm thing.

Steffi wouldn't eat this evening when I offered her bologna so I gave that to Winnie and PJ. Later, Steffi got up and got a drink and then begged for treats. So, I gave her a couple of chicken treats and she ate those so I gave her a couple more. I would have fed her the whole bag if she wanted them but she stopped and wanted to go out to get some catfood. So, I fed her some catfood too. As long as she eats. I didn't feed her a whole lot, just in case she might throw up.

Busy Saturday

Here's how my day's been so far:

Half hour of walking in place in front of the tv this morning right after I got up.
Walmart shopping.
Vacuumed and cleaned the dining room and living room carpets again.
Cut Fritz's hair and brushed him. (I've picked about 6 ticks off of him this week)
Walked outside for 25 minutes.
Ate lunch.
Walked outside for 20 minutes.
Cleaned a bunch of kitchen dishes and utensils and cabinets and drawers - finally cleaning up from when I had the mice problem.

Steffi is once again feeling bad, like she did a few weeks ago. But she did eat this morning.

I haven't gotten any mail in a couple of days. I wonder if the 911 mapping project that's going on (where the 911 people are giving us all new addresses) has changed my address and no one bothered to tell me. I know other people have been having trouble getting their mail.

Outside today I saw fritz toss something up in the air and play around it. I went over to him and saw that it was a squirrel. A dead one. I don't know if he killed it or if he just found it, but it looked like a recent death. I had to put the dead squirrel on top of Dad's stock trailer so Fritz couldn't get him. If I just throw it into the pasture or something, Fritz will go get it.

A Great Sunny Day

Today was really pretty with a lot of sun and good temperatures. I went out in shorts earlier to get some sun, walked around in the driveway for about 15 minutes.

I worked out again today and so far I've stuck to the diet. I don't think the three hours I laid around yesterday did the weight loss goals any good. I haven't taken any naps today.

I've got dogsitters in place for the week of the golf tournament this year. So, I might go to the tournament again.

I also signed up to have the electric bill and the phone bill paid by electronic transfer. The 911 people are in the process of changing all the addresses in the county and I figure when they do all of my mail will get screwed up. I'm going to start having my paycheck direct deposited too.

Yay, it's Friday!!!!!!!

I'm ready for another weekend. I didn't work out tonight, but I did stick to the diet. I stopped at Walmart tonight on the way home and got some eye wash to put in my eye that's been bothering me. It helped for a bit. I'm going to use it for a few more days. It came with a cup that you hold over your eye. Well, I'm having trouble opening up the eye to let the wash in.

Almost Another Week Gone

This has been a long week. I'm glad it's almost over. I've been having problems with my right eye. I either have some kind of bad allergy or I've done something to the eye. I'm trying not to rub it or scratch it or anything. My eye doctor told me once that I should never rub my eyes because it will make the astigmatism worse.

I got back on the diet and exercise program on Monday and I've stuck to it all week. Tonight I was on the trampoline for 20 minutes (with little breaks after every two minutes of jumping). I find that my ankles get pretty tired if I go for more than 2 or 3 minutes so I have to take the little breaks. The breaks are getting shorter in duration than when I first started jumping on the trampoline. So, I'm improving.

I checked the weather forecast and it looks like it's going to start getting warm now. I think maybe next week, I might start taking the puppies outside. I don't know how I'm going to fit that into the evening schedule but I'll have to find a way to do everything.

What happened to the tennis? Earlier, the Tennis channel was showing matches at the Sony Ericsson event in Florida, but it seems like as soon as the players got to the quarters or semis, the Tennis Channel stopped showing it.

I'm reading Nero Wolfe novels right now, waiting for the new Alex Rider paperback to be issued. It comes out I think on April 10th. I'll have to try to find it.