Mostly quiet weekend

It seems like things are finally "winding down" to a more normal pace. Yes, there are still house tour things to do - but not nearly as much as there was in August. I spent a good chunk of Saturday making display boards of the "before" photos of the King Estate. But Friday evening we did very little after we returned from my tour of Rudy's office (not much different than it looked in June, although I got to see his actual office this time). I started knitting a cat bed and completed a few minor house tour tasks while we watched TV.

Saturday I began cleaning up my room, then a trip to Staples for supplies and lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (i enjoyed it more than Rudy - I think the messy and enormous burger was unappetizing for him - glad I got the "little" burger). After I finished the display boards and made some food, Rudy and I watched a few episodes of "Firefly" in preparation for the release of "Serenity" next Friday (http://www.serenitymovie.com/). Can't wait!

I made good progress on the kitty bed, and Stewart showed lots of interest in helping me...which is adorable, but a little painful, even after his nails had been clipped.

Sunday, after a nice brunch at Enrico's, I met Brigette to prepare for our training session at the King Estate. All went well, although the training took an hour longer than i thought, so I missed my knitting get together. :-( So I volunteered to host the next one. At least it is only 2 weeks away, it's been too long since I've seen the girls and I'm anxious for them to meet Stewart!

I focused on my knitting last night since I had missed the GTG. I weaved in the ends and added fringe to my scarf. Weaved in the ends on a purse and the cat bed so they are ready to felt. And I got most of the sewing done on my t-shirt. Stewart was keen on helping me again during the sewing. Once he stopped pawing at me, he watched me intently, and then suddenly he was fast asleep. Crazy cat.

This morning - 183.0 lbs and 43.2%. Not bad.

Never mind

I ended up being in the conference room from 1-3, preparing for the 3pm meeting. So it's a good thing I didn't go after all.

The earlier I can get to work tomorrow, the more time I will have to walk. I have a chance to go see Rudy's workplace, including his office between 3 and 5pm tomorrow. It will probably be my only chance to ever see it given the security of his department. In order to leave at 4, I will have to arrive by 8. The only time I can take for lunch is how far in advance of 8 I arrive.

:-)

Progress but one obstacle

So I did make it to payless today, to buy a pair of walking shoes for my lunchtime walks. But with a meeting at 1pm, that I was preparing for until 12:20, there wasn't substantial time for a walk today. But my new shoes are ready and waiting for tomorrow.

Turns out I could have gone, our consultant pushed the meeting back until 3. Oh well. Maybe I can make time for a walk tonight after work.

On the knitting front, I started my first square to donate to www.knitforkatrina.com. The first attempt turned out an inch too wide, but I was halfway done by the end of this morning's bus ride, so starting over won't be painful. And I definitely have plenty of acrylic in my stash that I don't have another use for.

Last night I was so close to finishing my scarf that I couldn't stop until it was done. Still have to weave in the ends, on that and on my t-shirt.

Benchmark

185.4 lbs
43.5 %BF

Still 4.6 lbs below my all-time recorded "high". I'm up about 5 lbs since January, but I probably gained 2 lbs while we were in St. Lucia. :-)

No where to go but down.

I am in need of a plan

I need to stop gaining weight. And I need to lose weight. I have no need to be super skinny...I would just like my bum and various other parts to be smaller.

I will weigh myself in the morning to get a "starting" weight. Although I went to the gym today, so this morning would have been the best time to get a starting number. Oh well. I'm probably not going to start enacting all of "the plan" until Thursday anyway, since I have lunch plans tomorrow.

"The plan" is to walk at lunchtime. Based on my effort at the gym tonight, I can walk about 7,000 steps in an hour. Knowing that I'm not going to get to the gym everyday and pretty soon it will be too dark after work to go for a walk, walking at lunch seems like the best plan. I'll just need to put a good pair of walking shoes at my desk and I'll have to work while I eat lunch when I return.

I've lost weight before. I can do it again. I think now that many of my commitments are lightening up or going away, now is the right time to focus on my goals.

Twice, I have gotten myself down to 150 lbs and promised myself the scale wouldn't ever go up again. Now, I realize that is a little ridiculous...but I am also happy that I'm still not back up at my all time high. I'm not going to make myself any more promises, but I do need to put a priority back on my health.

:-)

We have a clean house

This makes me happy.

My room still needs to be straightened up and there are still items in the guest room that are still in the process of airing out to remove the smells that Nora left behind. But the bedding seems to have come out of the washing machine well and the smell in the room is already less.

A little time left in the weekend to do what I need to do for the house tour a relax a bit.

There is probably something wrong with me...

When I wasn't busy at work on Friday, I was anxious to get home and start cleaning.

Don't get me wrong. I don't love cleaning. But it is nice to finally have a mostly clear weekend to finally get the house under control.

Last night I cleaned the kitchen. I cleaned all the surfaces. I put some of the appliances away that have been sitting out. I scoured everything that didn't move. It was gross and now it isn't.

I began putting things away from the dining room, but then it was bedtime. I also did a little spraying of areas that Nora had sprayed. I'm hoping that by the time I get back to them the "stinkfinder" light won't see them anymore.

This morning I'm in the process of touching up some bad spots on the wall with JC and primer, cleaning the dining room and vacuuming. I hope to get to start the second floor sometime today...but I am trying to be thorough.

What an exciting blog post, huh? :-)

Not really an exciting week. Trying to wrap up House Tour stuff and working on the scarf for me. I balled up half of the wool for the Kitty Pi Bed. It's not cool enough to be really worthwhile for the cats yet, but it looks like a fun knit.

Eating and the TV

So according to a report on the Today show this morning, those of us who grew up eating in front of the television are not as good at paying attention while we eat and knowing when we feel satisfied.

I don't totally disagree, and I would probably argue that my propensity to eat at my desk at work probably has the same poor result.

Just something to think about as I reignite my efforts to eat better (and less) and reinvigorate my exercise routine. Along with an expected return to the gym in the next week or two, I have ordered myself a pedometer. With the bus and regular lunchtime errands, I know that I walk, but I don't know if I walk enough to make a difference. So I hope to use the pedometer to find out what I am already doing and help myself improve.

After the house tour, I expect things to get less busy. It would be good at that point to make an effort to eat at the table with the TV off. A good habit to get into before we have kids...

Return from St. Lucia

We returned safely last night. Our flight was supposed to land a few minutes before 11 and we were home a few mintues after midnight - not bad.

We had a great trip. Photos and more information will come soon.

On the regular-everyday blog-worthy front, I read "Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix", I worked on the short-ribbed scarf for me and I got quite a bit done on another "Sophie" purse. The book was so good I found myself wanting to read that in my down time instead of knitting quite a few times. I won't start the sixth book until the House Tour has passed...those books are just too hard to put down.

Back to reality tomorrow. Got caught up on regular laundry today and got quite a bit of hand-wash stuff cleaned. My bags are unpacked, and I hope to bring the kitchen closer to a state of cleanliness (especially cleaning out the frig) before I give up for the night.

The house is still messier than I'd like, but I'm going to have to work on it slowly for the next couple of weeks in between house tour stuff.

Done!

I think there is an end in sight. I have been literally spending all of my free time working on the house tour since the evening of the 23rd (and I had to do some work while we were at my parent's house). I finally finished the house tour program last night...as long as one of our drama queen homeowners doesn't pull his house off the tour as he has been threatening to do for the past couple of days. *rolling eyes* Thankfully the printer can take the program when I return, so we might just put it on hold until the drama subsides. There will still be some stuff to do for the tour when I return, but the program was my big "job" and most of the other stuff just has to get done before october 1st.
Oh, and to top it all off. Nora has been spraying. And we have been so busy there hasn't been a really good time to clean. Rudy did make a pass with Nature's Miracle on Monday night, and I'm sure we'll spray some more tonight before we leave. We also bought a Feliway diffuser, which is supposed to calm an anxious kitty. But the pet store only had one, and it only covers 650 square feet. So hopefully we can find a couple more when we get back. The first order of business when we return from vacation will be cleaning the house from top to bottom!

So, on one hand I am totally ready for a break and on the other, I would love to have a little "time off" before going away so I could feel like things are a bit more "together".

The good news is that I have gotten the hang of the pattern for the short row ribbed scarf I'm knitting, so I no longer have to look at the pattern constantly. Now that I "get it", it will be a good pattern for knitting on the beach! :-D

Back to work

Thankfully, today didn't seem too long. I started the day with a headache, but my morning coffee helped with that. (Now, I realize that coffee is not really a solution, it's just a band-aid. But until I can get out from under all that I need to do and get more sleep and exercise, it will have to do. Also, I only have on serving a day...I'm not totally overdoing it with the caffeine.)

The best news of the day is that my friend Suzanna's dad is okay! He lives down in New Orleans and he is alright. They still have to figure out the best way to get him out of there, but at least he wasn't hurt in the storm. They will worry about cleaning up the house later...

On the way home from work, I bound off the second sleeve of my t-shirt. A bit of sewing to do, and I have a new shirt! Not sure that it will be ready to take on vaction, but I'll certainly be able to wear it before it gets cold out.

Just a photo of Effie when she was helping me with the Highland Park House Tour Program:
Lately, this is Stewart's favorite evening sleeping position...although sometimes his legs end up more up in the air than this.
A close-up. Isn't he so cute when he's not getting into trouble?

And then I had to annoy Nora with the camera, too.

Did I mention that we just bought a new camera? :-D

Grandparents

I decided to leave work and go to the viewing with Rudy, and I'm glad I did. There is something about being there for a difficult time that makes you feel just as much (if not more) like part of a family than just being there during the happy times.

It is sad that Sara is no longer with us. But she left behind a wonderful legacy of children, grand-children and great-grand-children that she loved very much. She also led a very happy life with many friends, much fun and lots of square dancing!

Personally, I think that she knew that she would be exceedingly unhappy in any condition where she could not continue to live an independent life in her home...and I think she was ready to go. She was too independent to fight to live on in a life that would have been unhappy for her. I think it takes a brave women to know when she is ready to stop fighting.

I never looked closely at the casket. I enjoyed looking at the variety of photos available much more.

Rudy spent the whole way home talking about his memories of living in Mt. Pleasant, and it made me realize that I never really recorded any thoughts about Grandpa Eldon. Although, I must admit that he felt like the grandparent I knew the least. We had a lot of fun together when I was growing up, but I tended to have a preference for my grandmothers growing up - they took me out to lunch and out shopping - more exciting that working on the car when you are a young girl.

But we did have things in common. I remember watching the Reds on TV with Grandpa Eldon and Grandma Lillian, and in later years we watched golf together, when I *finally* became interested in it. The three of us went out golfing together a couple of times. My grandmother prodded me a bit more, since she knows what it is like to be a female golfer...but we all had a great time out on the links and getting lunch afterward.

I remember Grandpa doing his crossword puzzles and reading Reader's Digest in his chair by the front door (I wasn't really involved with that). He also liked to do jigsaw puzzles, which I remember helping with. When the three of us were watching TV, he would fall asleep in his chair and I also remember that when I spent the night, he would take the bed in the other room so I could sleep in his twin bed in the master bedroom and be closer to Grandma.

I remember discovering all kinds of cool stuff with him in the basement. There were pool balls, old vacuum cleaners and many things that I think he planned to fix someday. It was musty and dirty down there, but that was probably the place that the two of us spent the most time. Well, that and the backyard. He was always happy to throw a ball or practice chipping or do anything that was possible to do in their small urban yard...which is probably about the same size as the yard that Rudy and I have now. I hadn't thought about that before...

Enough typing for one night. I want to go work on the second sleeve of my t-shirt.

Note to self - Tara wants an orange felted purse for Christmas. :-)

If only my office policy was online...

So one of the advantages that my husband has is that he works for a university. Meaning that it is a big "company", so there is lots and lots of information online so that the HR and benefits people don't get a constant barrage of phone calls. This means that when there is a death in the family, he can find out about his bereavement leave online.

And I have a paper office manual in my desk drawer, so I couldn't find out about my leave until I got to my desk this morning. Turns out that I can use sick time for "death in the family" leave, which I have plenty of, instead of vacation days (of which I only have two left).

I'm skipping the "viewing" today, because I didn't want to use my last two vacation days and be out of vacation by mid-september. But now that I know I can use sick time I'm contemplating getting back on a bus and going home. I have things to do, but nothing urgent.

I hate decisions like this. It would be easier if I hadn't already sent an email around about being out tomorrow...

I will look at my to-do list, and then decide.

How to use a blog?

I realize that up to this point I have mostly been using my blog as a daily journal. I don't know yet if this a good thing or a bad thing. And I'm wondering if it will become less of that and more of an idea place once I am less super busy.

We'll see.

Sad news - Rudy's grandmother passed away early this morning.

Friday night

The best thing about having a 9am meeting in Greensberg is that my day started at 7:30, so I could take most of a lunch hour and still leave before 4:30. Instead of going right for the express bus, I stopped in Payless and browsed. I have a few pairs I shoes I was ready to get rid of, but not without replacing them first. :-)

I found three pairs of pumps! Two black and one brown. And they were having a "buy one item, get the second half price" sale. So I picked up a purse, too! The good news is that I came home and put four pairs of shoes in the goodwill pile. That's right - a net loss of a pair of shoes. Those Clean Sweep organizers would be so proud.

After getting home, I made pretty good progress in cleaning up the dressing room and bedroom. All of the clean clothes are put away. All of the non-bedroom stuff has been moved to the appropriate room and my suitcase from last weekend is unpacked. Still need to unpack the camping bag and now my office is messy with stuff that was in the dressing room and bedroom. Oh well. I'll get to that room in September...

I need to do more work on the house tour program before I can let myself go to sleep. sigh.

Too much

I can't cover it all, it feels like too much has happened in the past week and I'm having trouble processing it all. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining...there are many people in this world that are much worse off than I am. I'm just in a state where I really need some ME time and some US time with my husband, and I need that AFTER I get a chance to clean the frickin' house. Don't know if it will happen.

The sad news is the Rudy's grandmother, Sara, is not doing well. She had a stroke last week, but she seemed to be doing well afterward and we had planned to visit her this week once she had stepped down to a less intense unit. Unfortunately, she had another stroke early Tuesday morning which had a much more damaging effect. She is in a coma and the prognosis isn't good. So we are playing the waiting game at the moment.

In happier news, we had a nice time at the wedding over the weekend. The bride was lovely and we got to meet a number of friends and family of the Tuckers that we had been hearing about for years. I started knitting a purse when we got in the car on Friday that I wanted to carry to the wedding on Saturday. I had to stay up until 1am to finish, but I got it done.

(the pictures are not yet downloaded to our server, but someday I'll get some pictures of my knitting up here...)

The t-shirt is going well. I'm up to the shoulders and it seems to fit! Also, Mom and I went yarn shopping on Monday and had lots of fun. There is some hand-spun, hand-painted yarn on order for me - can't wait!

I need to go work on the house tour. I can't really relax until my work for that is done...

Poor Stewart

He had to go to the vet today. And so did Nora. I don't want to embarass him, but being put in the cat carrier is so upsetting for him that he poops. It happened the first time we brought him home, and we thought it was just because he was being ripped from his home by strangers. But no, he just HATES the carrier.

Rudy had to do the vet visits alone and clean Stewart up afterward, so it will be my turn next year. I'm thinking we should take Stewart's food away the night before so there won't be anything to come out.

Poor Stewart.

He seems to have recovered, and since he had a bath this afternoon he smells good.

Relief!

Finally found my passport. I was afraid I was going to have to declare it missing and try to get a new one in 2 weeks and 4 days. Not fun. I was seriously thinking about calling in sick tomorrow if I couldn't find my passport tonight.

So first thing tomorrow I'll take my packet to the post office and overnight all of it and a prepaid envelope to have it overnighted back. Hopefully in a week I'll have a passport with my new name, and relaxation can occur.

Took an awesome stained glass restoration class last weekend. Trying to get house tour stuff done. Going to Toledo and Michigan this weekend for a wedding and parent visit. House is still an enormous mess - even more so since I spent 90 minutes looking in nooks and crannies for my passport.

I've started knitting a t-shirt, I've bought yarn to knit my first bear and I'm starting to think about what I might knit as christmas presents. Ribbon X-back is waiting to be frogged again.

Did I mention that the house is a mess? :-)

Oh, and I have no idea what I'm wearing to the wedding this weekend. I might just end up wearing the same thing I wore to the last wedding we went to...since Rudy is the only person who will be there who has seen me in that dress before.

I'm going to work on the t-shirt for a bit and then try to get a good night's sleep now that I have located my passport...

Back from camping, still overwhelmed (and a Stewart Story)

Camping was good, although overall uneventful. In Rudy's words: "We were slugs, with mastery of fire." :-)

Friday, I only left the campsite to go to the bathroom building. I tended to the fire, worked on the blanket and ate. Rudy read LOTR, ate and made a few trips to the camp store. Saturday and Sunday we did a little hiking and we took a quick dip in the lake on Saturday afternoon. Otherwise, we tended to the fire and ate. We nearly polished off two bags of marshmallows!

I also finally wrote a letter to my friend, Eva, in Spain - she sent her last letter in November. I'm feeling better now that the letter is in the mail. She is supposed to be getting married at the end of the year, so I'm anxious to hear how her wedding planning is going.

Although I got a lot of sleep while camping (somewhat interrupted, but lengthy), I came back home and I feel overwhelmed again. There is a lot to do for the house tour, the house is a disaster (Rudy keeps trying to tell me that it isn't, but I'm not convinced) and most of my upcoming weekend will be filled with a stained glass restoration class. Plus, there is plenty going on at work, so I can't always leave after 8 hours. I think at some point I'm going to have to sacrifice some sleep to get it all done. I'm not thrilled about that.
Oh, and to top it all off, I can't locate my passport. It's not where I thought it was or in about ten other places where I've looked. Either I put it in the safe deposit box or I put it someplace really dumb. I'm hoping for the former.

In addition, Stewart prevented me from sleeping for about an hour last night. At 4:37 am he came up on the bed to get attention. He generally starts by climbing over my body. Being a male cat, he is very muscular and surprisingly dense for being a relatively small cat - so we're not talking about delicate steps. He comes up purring and ready to be petted. Lately I have been ignoring him, and after a few minutes he leaves.
I guess I was feeling generous this morning, and I gave him some attention, hoping to convince him to relax and sleep next to me. I'd pet him, and then try to go back to sleep...and then he would nudge my hands and face with his to indicate that I shouldn't have stopped petting yet. :-) I eventually hid my hands under the pillow, and after 40 minutes, he got the hint and went to sleep. 10 minutes later I adjusted my position, and he got up again. Not wanting to start all over again, I went to the bathroom, and thankfully while I was in there Nora showed her face and she and Stewart went off to play together.

At 6am, Stewart walked on me again. This time I did not pet him, and he got the hint that I was not ready to stop sleeping yet. Maybe next week we'll try again...

Feeling better after an overwhelming start to the week...

The good news is that Rudy and I are legally married. :-)

Last week I attempted to request a sealed copy of our marriage record in order to change my name on my passport. I know that I shouldn't have waited until a month before a pending trip, but at the time I changed my name on everything else I didn't know if I would need my passport again before it expired so I just didn't bother.

On Friday I received a letter from the county stating that they didn't have a record that our ceremony was ever performed, although they did have the application that we made for our license. *Sigh* I went to the marriage license office, and after a bit of haggling with one woman (and a few tears shed), I finally got help from a supervisor who got me going on the right track.

Two overnight envelopes back and forth to our wonderful officiant in Ohio, and today I have a triple-sealed copy of our marriage license in my hands. I will have to pay for expedited service, but at this piont getting my passport changed won't be a problem. *Whew* We're legal. No need to plan another big wedding. ;-)

I am still overwhelmed with all of the stuff left to do for the house tour, but I have made good progress this week, and it will get done. It doesn't help that one of our co-chairs seems to be AWOL at the moment...but we will push on without him.

I'm also in a great mood because my first felted bag turned out WONDERFULLY. I'm really happy with it, and having a new purse to carry always brightens my day. When I was out running errands at lunch it was a little hard to convince myself that no, I don't need any more yarn at the moment - but I managed to show restraint.

This weekend we are going camping, to our usual spot. I plan to finish the wedding blanket, and once that is done I will work on Ribbon X-back. I'm about 1 1/2" into attempt #2. I also plan to bring the purple cotton I have and the directions for a wrap sweater from SnB Nation. I need to swatch for gauge and I want to rewrite the pattern so I can knit it mostly in one piece. Same thing with a T-shirt pattern from Magknits.com. I don't think it needs the seams for structure, so I might as well knit it in the round.