I talked the other day about a virtual hike, and a few of us are taking the idea and running with it. Or walking with it. We've started a group blog at Walking to Somewhere. I believe EJ and Jean have expressed interest...if you (whether you are they or you are someone else!) want to get in on this, hop on over and leave a comment. If we already know you, we'll just need whatever information Blogger needs to add your name to the list of folks who can post there. If we don't already know you, or you aren't sure we do, please email me at valerierco AT yahoo DOT ca with Virtual Walk in the subject line and give me a heads-up who you are.
We're still talking about *where* we'll walk. We're wondering if the Appalachian Trail might be too big a bite for the first round! :P Maybe try the West Coast Trail? Google it... Suggestions welcome!
If you want to participate, you'll need walking shoes and a pedometer. Mark out a walking route with your vehicle so you know the exact distance it is, then walk it and let the pedometer count the steps. Figure out how many of your steps makes a mile. If you don't have a pedometer (though they're fairly cheap, really...) you'll be more tied to the same route that you've measured out with the vehicle. I plan on counting my steps all day long, not only *the walk* part of it. At the moment, my walk is about 5000-5500 steps and the rest of my day is less than 1000, on average. I haven't figured out the miles that is yet. Too much snow to haul the car out! :P
I'm also thinking of buying Mar's progress bar thingie from Holly Lisle's shop and tucking it in the sidebar at the walking blog, so I can update my mileage there visibly. You don't have to, but you can.
(I'm hoping to make this really a part of my everyday life for years to come. I wish I could sit in a rocking chair and rot, but I'd get too fat rotting so this is it.)
Any other ideas? Considerations? Post them here or over there!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Wow I've been bad at this
How's my life?
Er.
That about covers it.
I got a pedometer last Friday and now I can see how lazy I am. Like I had no other clues. But seriously, around 1600 steps on Monday? That's practically nothing. So I had to check how many steps I get on the treadmill--see, the thing is working already! And that's about 1200 steps a mile, which was about 20 minutes. Sheesh, it's been a L-O-N-G time since I was on the thing. Like a month.
It's a wonder I haven't gained weight, but yay I'm steady at 148. Not that that is where I want to be steady at, but anyway. I've been in the neighborhood for a few months and it beats gaining more.
So the glasses thing--Val's little nightmare. Again the gal disappeared into the back room for a long period of time. Again with the muffled sounds back there. Again with the new arm not fitting. I suspected that would happen. I mean, aren't all the left arms for glasses' style XYZ in the same bin at HQ? Why should one be any different than another? But they seemed downright shocked.
And then she says: do you have any other glasses you can wear? And the response was quick and emphatic. NO! She wanted to send these away to be *fixed*. I suggested they order complete new frames and exchange the lenses when the frame comes. Surely that will work? She agreed. All the reefing and twisting they did to try to make the arm fit--I'm happier with all new frames by this stage. At least I hope I will be.
For the record, black electrical tape holds up the best long term. Don't use duct tape, it ruins the finish (I already knew it would so didn't go that route.) Scotch tape lasts only a couple days. Just in case you cared.
So hubby is currently resting up for his very last day of work at the mines Thursday. He'll be home late tomorrow with his honkin' HUGE tool boxes in the back of the truck. They're putting them in with a forklift. How he'll get them out at GM I don't know. He doesn't think they have a forklift there...
So my life is changing again. Mostly for the good, but certainly we will be adjusting. Back when he last worked here we shared a vehicle and we're talking about doing it again--though now we have two--just to save fuel. His hours are 8-12, 1-5 Monday to Friday. Mine are 9-12, 1-5 Monday to Friday. I would drop him off at work (he's enroute for me, about 2/3 of the way to my job), pick him up to come home for lunch, drop him off, pick him up.
It just means I have an hour to kill in the morning. Last time we did this, I got a Curves membership and used it at 8 most mornings. I let my Curves membership lapse in the fall and I'm not a hundred percent sure I want to renew it.
Meanwhile a new gym opened up in town a few months back and I stopped in today to look around and check out fees. I'm thinking I might get a three month pass and see how it goes. I could do cardio a couple mornings a week and weights a couple mornings, if my neck and upper back are up for it. That'll be the clincher. There is another gym and I've walked in the door a few times over the past seven years, glanced around and walked right back out. Totally uninviting and I have no idea why. Just I'm not going there!
At any rate, it'd be a good use of the extra hour. And unlike Curves, they actually have a shower in the back room so I could do better than a swab before going to work. I can shower pretty quick. And see, I'd be saving money not showering at home...
Yeah, watch me try to convince myself this is a good idea! :P
So back to this pedometer thing. Anyone got one? Do you use it daily? Do you obsess about how different the days are? I've had days from 1600 to nearly 6000. What's a good goal?
Sometimes I read C.E. Murphy's blog and she posted this a bit ago. She's joined the Eowyn Challenge which apparently is a walk around Middle Earth, like Frodo did in LOTR. Problem. I haven't read LOTR, and although I occasionally think I ought to, I haven't really convinced myself yet.
Anyone else looking for some kind of walking challenge? Dunno. Always more fun with companions, even virtual ones.
Oh yeah, FlyLady. Been doing her. Kitchen last week, but I ought to clean the oven, maybe on the weekend. Don't have the energy on a work night. Bathroom week is going fine. I decided to buy myself a new bathroom garbage can today but--um--didn't. Maybe tomorrow. The lengths to which we will go to not wash the one we have.
Blessed the house tonight right after I got home. Don't know how that will work when hubby is living at home. It's hard to clean around someone, and he does have the outside chores so it's reasonable for me to do the inside myself. We share the garden. But his daily chores right now don't take long enough for me to do the blessing. I guess we'll see next week.
That's it.
Er.
That about covers it.
I got a pedometer last Friday and now I can see how lazy I am. Like I had no other clues. But seriously, around 1600 steps on Monday? That's practically nothing. So I had to check how many steps I get on the treadmill--see, the thing is working already! And that's about 1200 steps a mile, which was about 20 minutes. Sheesh, it's been a L-O-N-G time since I was on the thing. Like a month.
It's a wonder I haven't gained weight, but yay I'm steady at 148. Not that that is where I want to be steady at, but anyway. I've been in the neighborhood for a few months and it beats gaining more.
So the glasses thing--Val's little nightmare. Again the gal disappeared into the back room for a long period of time. Again with the muffled sounds back there. Again with the new arm not fitting. I suspected that would happen. I mean, aren't all the left arms for glasses' style XYZ in the same bin at HQ? Why should one be any different than another? But they seemed downright shocked.
And then she says: do you have any other glasses you can wear? And the response was quick and emphatic. NO! She wanted to send these away to be *fixed*. I suggested they order complete new frames and exchange the lenses when the frame comes. Surely that will work? She agreed. All the reefing and twisting they did to try to make the arm fit--I'm happier with all new frames by this stage. At least I hope I will be.
For the record, black electrical tape holds up the best long term. Don't use duct tape, it ruins the finish (I already knew it would so didn't go that route.) Scotch tape lasts only a couple days. Just in case you cared.
So hubby is currently resting up for his very last day of work at the mines Thursday. He'll be home late tomorrow with his honkin' HUGE tool boxes in the back of the truck. They're putting them in with a forklift. How he'll get them out at GM I don't know. He doesn't think they have a forklift there...
So my life is changing again. Mostly for the good, but certainly we will be adjusting. Back when he last worked here we shared a vehicle and we're talking about doing it again--though now we have two--just to save fuel. His hours are 8-12, 1-5 Monday to Friday. Mine are 9-12, 1-5 Monday to Friday. I would drop him off at work (he's enroute for me, about 2/3 of the way to my job), pick him up to come home for lunch, drop him off, pick him up.
It just means I have an hour to kill in the morning. Last time we did this, I got a Curves membership and used it at 8 most mornings. I let my Curves membership lapse in the fall and I'm not a hundred percent sure I want to renew it.
Meanwhile a new gym opened up in town a few months back and I stopped in today to look around and check out fees. I'm thinking I might get a three month pass and see how it goes. I could do cardio a couple mornings a week and weights a couple mornings, if my neck and upper back are up for it. That'll be the clincher. There is another gym and I've walked in the door a few times over the past seven years, glanced around and walked right back out. Totally uninviting and I have no idea why. Just I'm not going there!
At any rate, it'd be a good use of the extra hour. And unlike Curves, they actually have a shower in the back room so I could do better than a swab before going to work. I can shower pretty quick. And see, I'd be saving money not showering at home...
Yeah, watch me try to convince myself this is a good idea! :P
So back to this pedometer thing. Anyone got one? Do you use it daily? Do you obsess about how different the days are? I've had days from 1600 to nearly 6000. What's a good goal?
Sometimes I read C.E. Murphy's blog and she posted this a bit ago. She's joined the Eowyn Challenge which apparently is a walk around Middle Earth, like Frodo did in LOTR. Problem. I haven't read LOTR, and although I occasionally think I ought to, I haven't really convinced myself yet.
Anyone else looking for some kind of walking challenge? Dunno. Always more fun with companions, even virtual ones.
Oh yeah, FlyLady. Been doing her. Kitchen last week, but I ought to clean the oven, maybe on the weekend. Don't have the energy on a work night. Bathroom week is going fine. I decided to buy myself a new bathroom garbage can today but--um--didn't. Maybe tomorrow. The lengths to which we will go to not wash the one we have.
Blessed the house tonight right after I got home. Don't know how that will work when hubby is living at home. It's hard to clean around someone, and he does have the outside chores so it's reasonable for me to do the inside myself. We share the garden. But his daily chores right now don't take long enough for me to do the blessing. I guess we'll see next week.
That's it.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Tuesday/Wednesday January 8/9
A very organized Tuesday in which I remembered to take a lunch to work but forgot to make a mocha. And of course still didn't work out. And the customers rediscovered that we're open again. And the weather, and therefore the roads, were nasty again.
Breakfast: shredded wheat and a banana. BOUGHT a mocha!
Lunch: tuna (cats fought over the juices in the morning, poor things), Wasa crackers, carrots, 2 oranges
Supper: Salad, baked beans. 4 Hershey kisses! :P
After I had cleaned up the kitchen (right down to shining the sink, woohoo!--and the container cupboard is still organized), I tackled the upstairs. Stripped the spare bed and started the laundry. Got all the Christmas decorations out of my closet (again) and packed all the random stacked stuff into them, put them back full.
Ran the beyootifull flylady duster over the upstairs, then the vacuum. Brought the garbage downstairs (mostly a bag of used giftwrap that had somehow been treated like gold, and receipts for Christmas gifts that didn't need to be kept now that they weren't duplicates or whatever.)
It was nice going to bed in a relatively uncluttered room.
Today: still having trouble getting rolling in the morning, so another breakfast of shredded wheat and a banana. I did remember to make (and take) my mocha though. But forgot the lunch. Sigh. I grabbed a sandwich in town (lots of sprouts, that's good, right? :P) I had a few cashews and a piece of chocolate. Supper: a pork chop and fries, salad, 2 banana muffins, and an orange.
I still have the kitchen to tidy, which will only take a few minutes. Flylady wants me to consider my small appliances. I think I'm ahead of her. Cleaned the coffeepot on Monday (it was BAD), did the toaster crumbs last week, and the microwave is good. I even cleaned the glass on the toaster oven recently. So I'm pretending I did today's mission.
Hubby's on his way home as we speak, six days off now, then two more day shifts, then DONE at the mines. Yay! (And the roads look pretty decent today too.)
And the new arm for my glasses arrived again, so we'll go up Friday and hope this one works. Patience.
Breakfast: shredded wheat and a banana. BOUGHT a mocha!
Lunch: tuna (cats fought over the juices in the morning, poor things), Wasa crackers, carrots, 2 oranges
Supper: Salad, baked beans. 4 Hershey kisses! :P
After I had cleaned up the kitchen (right down to shining the sink, woohoo!--and the container cupboard is still organized), I tackled the upstairs. Stripped the spare bed and started the laundry. Got all the Christmas decorations out of my closet (again) and packed all the random stacked stuff into them, put them back full.
Ran the beyootifull flylady duster over the upstairs, then the vacuum. Brought the garbage downstairs (mostly a bag of used giftwrap that had somehow been treated like gold, and receipts for Christmas gifts that didn't need to be kept now that they weren't duplicates or whatever.)
It was nice going to bed in a relatively uncluttered room.
Today: still having trouble getting rolling in the morning, so another breakfast of shredded wheat and a banana. I did remember to make (and take) my mocha though. But forgot the lunch. Sigh. I grabbed a sandwich in town (lots of sprouts, that's good, right? :P) I had a few cashews and a piece of chocolate. Supper: a pork chop and fries, salad, 2 banana muffins, and an orange.
I still have the kitchen to tidy, which will only take a few minutes. Flylady wants me to consider my small appliances. I think I'm ahead of her. Cleaned the coffeepot on Monday (it was BAD), did the toaster crumbs last week, and the microwave is good. I even cleaned the glass on the toaster oven recently. So I'm pretending I did today's mission.
Hubby's on his way home as we speak, six days off now, then two more day shifts, then DONE at the mines. Yay! (And the roads look pretty decent today too.)
And the new arm for my glasses arrived again, so we'll go up Friday and hope this one works. Patience.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Back to routines--Monday, January 7
Oh how my routines have suffered over the past few weeks. I didn't realize quite how bad it was until I went back to work.
First off, there's that alarm thing that is so easy to ignore when you haven't heard it for awhile. Then there's the scramble to cook breakfast, before realizing you don't have time to eat it.
Yes, I took my porridge to work again! Sad but true. Also my mocha.
The first day back wasn't too hectic. I guess that means we did a fairly good job organizing shut down in December. Hubby was home at lunch and I went home and reheated turkey bean soup and made toast. Forgot to take snacks back to work with me, but polished off the last couple pieces of chocolate that I'd left in my microwave (the only place at work I leave food, because it's sealed against critters such as mice.)
Sunday evening I'd been organized enough to put supper in the crockpot, but forgot it in the fridge in the morning. Sigh. Phoned hubby mid-morning and he got it going. When I got home from work we racked three carboys of wine (the two plum and one...rosso?...whatever it is hubby's making...), had salad and our Moroccan-style stew, then hubby headed out the door for his loooooong drive to work.
And I looked around the house and said ENOUGH. Started the dishwasher, hand-washed the stuff that didn't fit. Cleaned off every single counter in the kitchen, including the appliance garage, and wiped them down. And put the mis-placed stuff AWAY. Monday is FlyLady's house blessing day, and my house badly needed blessing. I watered plants (why is that not on her list? Don't most people have plants?), cleaned mirrors and that one interior glass door, dusted the living room and kitchen, removed the last of the juniper bunches, which necessitated moving the couch to vacuum behind it, and the last few remaining Christmas decorations--did the vacuuming, and washed the kitchen floor. The floor hadn't been too bad before the wine siphoning. :P
Oh, yes. And listened to cats snarl and hiss periodically.
Ideally, I'd have cleaned upstairs too, but I was two hours in by then and tired, so I left the rest of the house blessing for tonight. Much of the Christmas decor is randomly stacked in my bedroom still, and the spare bed needs stripped and folded back up, etc. There's plenty yet to occupy me another evening.
I need to remember my goal: get going with FlyLady as often as I stop...
First off, there's that alarm thing that is so easy to ignore when you haven't heard it for awhile. Then there's the scramble to cook breakfast, before realizing you don't have time to eat it.
Yes, I took my porridge to work again! Sad but true. Also my mocha.
The first day back wasn't too hectic. I guess that means we did a fairly good job organizing shut down in December. Hubby was home at lunch and I went home and reheated turkey bean soup and made toast. Forgot to take snacks back to work with me, but polished off the last couple pieces of chocolate that I'd left in my microwave (the only place at work I leave food, because it's sealed against critters such as mice.)
Sunday evening I'd been organized enough to put supper in the crockpot, but forgot it in the fridge in the morning. Sigh. Phoned hubby mid-morning and he got it going. When I got home from work we racked three carboys of wine (the two plum and one...rosso?...whatever it is hubby's making...), had salad and our Moroccan-style stew, then hubby headed out the door for his loooooong drive to work.
And I looked around the house and said ENOUGH. Started the dishwasher, hand-washed the stuff that didn't fit. Cleaned off every single counter in the kitchen, including the appliance garage, and wiped them down. And put the mis-placed stuff AWAY. Monday is FlyLady's house blessing day, and my house badly needed blessing. I watered plants (why is that not on her list? Don't most people have plants?), cleaned mirrors and that one interior glass door, dusted the living room and kitchen, removed the last of the juniper bunches, which necessitated moving the couch to vacuum behind it, and the last few remaining Christmas decorations--did the vacuuming, and washed the kitchen floor. The floor hadn't been too bad before the wine siphoning. :P
Oh, yes. And listened to cats snarl and hiss periodically.
Ideally, I'd have cleaned upstairs too, but I was two hours in by then and tired, so I left the rest of the house blessing for tonight. Much of the Christmas decor is randomly stacked in my bedroom still, and the spare bed needs stripped and folded back up, etc. There's plenty yet to occupy me another evening.
I need to remember my goal: get going with FlyLady as often as I stop...
Friday, January 04, 2008
Happy New Year!
I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but it sure doesn't hurt to take stock of where one has been and put some goals in place.
As far as my health and fitness goes, I weigh about 12 pounds more than I did a year ago, and that makes me sad. It's possible that the mid 130s aren't my premium weight. Except for some tummy flab (name me a real woman who doesn't have some of that!) I feel reasonably fit. Wish I could fit back into the cutest of the clothes I wore last winter, but that's about it. I'm at 148# today, and I'm simply thrilled I didn't gain anything over the holidays!
I guess I was too busy (and too stressed) to do any Christmas baking. I'd also intended not to, but last year I had the same intention and yet in a two-day whirlwind I decimated that plan. This year I just couldn't work around the renovation mess in the kitchen (and didn't even get the tree decorated until the 23rd). Hanna brought a couple kinds of shortbread home (including my favorite, cinnamon shortbread) along with home-made candy. I had a few pieces but found it too sweet to eat in abundance. A good thing!
I haven't been on the treadmill in...three weeks? We've gone for several walks, one cross-country ski day (while the kids snowshoed) and two snowshoeing walks. I've eaten *normal* food, including way more potatoes than is usual for just Jim and I. And still I'm down a couple pounds from mid-December. I guess I just kept active with the cooking and the tidying and all, less sitting around. I can't think of any other reason! (But I'm not complaining.)
2007 held a reasonable amount of stress what with my nephew being deathly ill in April and my mother's stroke a week later, the kitchen renovation which still needs completing, and a flare-up of degenerative disc in the fall. Some of the good things that happened were seeing all my sisters in May, a great trip to Yellowstone to meet up with Bonnie and Mar, lots of camping, having Hanna and Craig move closer to home, and having the whole family home for five days over Christmas.
The renovation stress will remain in 2008 (probably 2009 and 2010 also...) and so will the stress of my mother's health. Her health is certainly deteriorating but she keeps hanging in there, so who knows what time line we're looking at.
Something really positive in 2008 is that Jim will be starting a new job on January 21st, right here in town. No more commuting four hours one way, no more night shifts, no more apartment at the mines, no more being away from home regularly. He'll be working at a GMC auto dealership, Monday to Friday, 8-5 with an hour for lunch. Sure, he is taking a drop in pay but it looks like we should come close to breaking even because of the expenses that will also be dropped (the apartment, the fuel, the boredom fund).
One downside for him is losing the great time off he got at the mines. Less holidays (but every weekend!), and, in fact, no vacation time at all in 2008. I have three weeks so I keep telling him all the cool stuff I'm going to do by myself!
So we are facing 2008 with optimism. It'll be good to have him home, it'll be good to have evenings and weekends together. We're looking forward to getting more involved in music at the church again--and in simply going more regularly together. Jim's looking forward to getting a puppy...and I'm hunting for enthusiasm!
For me, personally, I'd like to find a weight that I'm comfortable with and can maintain. I'd like to keep active, keep degenerative disc at bay. I'd like to get back into FlyLady as many times as I drift away. I'd like to write, revise, and submit novels--more this year than last.
I'd like my life to honor God.
As far as my health and fitness goes, I weigh about 12 pounds more than I did a year ago, and that makes me sad. It's possible that the mid 130s aren't my premium weight. Except for some tummy flab (name me a real woman who doesn't have some of that!) I feel reasonably fit. Wish I could fit back into the cutest of the clothes I wore last winter, but that's about it. I'm at 148# today, and I'm simply thrilled I didn't gain anything over the holidays!
I guess I was too busy (and too stressed) to do any Christmas baking. I'd also intended not to, but last year I had the same intention and yet in a two-day whirlwind I decimated that plan. This year I just couldn't work around the renovation mess in the kitchen (and didn't even get the tree decorated until the 23rd). Hanna brought a couple kinds of shortbread home (including my favorite, cinnamon shortbread) along with home-made candy. I had a few pieces but found it too sweet to eat in abundance. A good thing!
I haven't been on the treadmill in...three weeks? We've gone for several walks, one cross-country ski day (while the kids snowshoed) and two snowshoeing walks. I've eaten *normal* food, including way more potatoes than is usual for just Jim and I. And still I'm down a couple pounds from mid-December. I guess I just kept active with the cooking and the tidying and all, less sitting around. I can't think of any other reason! (But I'm not complaining.)
2007 held a reasonable amount of stress what with my nephew being deathly ill in April and my mother's stroke a week later, the kitchen renovation which still needs completing, and a flare-up of degenerative disc in the fall. Some of the good things that happened were seeing all my sisters in May, a great trip to Yellowstone to meet up with Bonnie and Mar, lots of camping, having Hanna and Craig move closer to home, and having the whole family home for five days over Christmas.
The renovation stress will remain in 2008 (probably 2009 and 2010 also...) and so will the stress of my mother's health. Her health is certainly deteriorating but she keeps hanging in there, so who knows what time line we're looking at.
Something really positive in 2008 is that Jim will be starting a new job on January 21st, right here in town. No more commuting four hours one way, no more night shifts, no more apartment at the mines, no more being away from home regularly. He'll be working at a GMC auto dealership, Monday to Friday, 8-5 with an hour for lunch. Sure, he is taking a drop in pay but it looks like we should come close to breaking even because of the expenses that will also be dropped (the apartment, the fuel, the boredom fund).
One downside for him is losing the great time off he got at the mines. Less holidays (but every weekend!), and, in fact, no vacation time at all in 2008. I have three weeks so I keep telling him all the cool stuff I'm going to do by myself!
So we are facing 2008 with optimism. It'll be good to have him home, it'll be good to have evenings and weekends together. We're looking forward to getting more involved in music at the church again--and in simply going more regularly together. Jim's looking forward to getting a puppy...and I'm hunting for enthusiasm!
For me, personally, I'd like to find a weight that I'm comfortable with and can maintain. I'd like to keep active, keep degenerative disc at bay. I'd like to get back into FlyLady as many times as I drift away. I'd like to write, revise, and submit novels--more this year than last.
I'd like my life to honor God.
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