Friday, February 29, 2008

plus one, minus one

Hello Everyone!

Last night I picked up another fish - a bottom feeder since my snail isn't keeping up. I've had that type before so I think it should be o'kay. Sad news though - this morning, I lost one of my little fish.

I have a big birthday party to attend tomorrow night. It was my co-worker's 23rd (I know - it's not a generally celebrated milestone) birthday back in January and her parents wanted to throw her a party. It's turned into a 200+ guestlist, complete with party planner, mulit-tiered cake, bouncers, media (she broadcasts on the radio) formal shindig. It should be a lot of fun.

Going bowling with the youth group on Sunday.

Will be very happy when this stupid election is over. Only 3 more days to go...

I think I'll be spending Easter with J and his family. He asked me to join them on Good Friday for their Easter meal and then we'll go to Castle Mtn on Saturday for snowboarding. J is even willing to go back to Calgary Saturday night (since I have church committments on Sunday) and miss an extra day of snowboarding for me. Believe me, he got extra boyfriend brownie points for that! I'm still worried that something might happen while's he snowboarding and he'll rebreak his arm. At least if I'm there, he'll take it easy during the afternoon with me. I send him out on his own in the morning so he can get his fresh powder and then he's more than willing to play with me on the easier runs in the afternoon.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I've got bling!

Well, in my mouth anyways...



Hello Everyone!



Got my crown last night and it feels quite comfortable. You can't see that it's gold (not that I cared about that anyways) and I didn't have any problems eating last night. For those of you who need crowns in the future, ask your dentist about gold vs enamel. With the popularity of cosmetic dentistry, many dentists aren't even telling their patients about the option of gold. Gold is stronger (will generally last a lifetime) and causes less wear on the opposite tooth. It's also cheaper!

Also picked up some more fish last night since I was by the petstore. Hooray for 1/2 Price Fish Tuesday! I got 6 in total and so far things are going well in the tank... I also got Whiskers an igloo to go with her wood tunnel. She's still testing it out but I think it will help to mimic what she misses from the bed. As well, she can hide from Mike in there. She was very much the cutie last night and we had a good cuddle while I was watching tv.

It was rather gray this morning - overcast because a Chinook is going through. I'm wearing a Spring outfit to counter the gray and felt much better as soon as I got it on. The sky has since cleared and it's a lovely afternoon.

Have a lot of things to do around the house tonight. I'll be away from the apartment for most of the weekend (several committments in different parts of the city) so I want to get things done in advance. I've decided to see what it's like to cook without a microwave. Over the past several years, I've been weaning myself off it and I realized on the weekend that I don't use it very often now. So, the microwave is in the back room and I now have a lot more counter space. It's amazing how much room they take up - especially with it needing to be near a power outlet.

Have a great day!

Monday, February 25, 2008

A Sleepy Sunday

Hello Everyone!

We didn't end up doing our youth activity after church so I had an afternoon to relax. Instead of my huge list of cleaning/organizing/household stuff I had to do, I slept.

Watched a bit of the Oscars but decided to do my income tax return. I wasn't sure if I was going to get anything back since I overestimated my school deductions on my federal and provincial forms. I have since updated this information. I get a little bit back but in all honesty, it's going straight to bills. It's going to be a very tight next few months but I revised my budget tonight and I have things under control. There's a couple big debts that will be paid off and I've included a mini-vacation in May: Slush Cup in Sunshine Mountain Resort (big party in Banff to close the snowboard/ski season). I'm going to arrange to take the long weekend off from church for it since J should be back in the snow sometime next month (he's been getting a bit grumpy about being stuck in the city).

My mouth is no longer sore but I'll be glad to get the crown on so my gums can heal properly. Went down to Kensington on Friday night with J for a political pub night. Basically, their riding holds regular get-togethers at a local pub for an informal social time. Spent Saturday making signs for his candidate. When the campaign originally started, I wasn't sure how much I would get involved since I'm not a party member and I've had some issues with their past record. However, I really like their candidate and I think she would be a great additional to government. As well, by making signs, it meant I got to spend the day with J rather all alone by myself. I'll be quite happy when this thing is over - our social life is very limited right now and it's getting a bit stressful for J.

Anyways, even though I'm not tired, I need to go to bed. My fabulous nap has messed up my sleep pattern. Oh well, I'll still have enough time for a sleep cycle or 2 so I'll be rested enough for tomorrow. Have a great night/day!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Ouch!

Hello Everyone!

Had visit one of two to the dentist last night for my crown. He has recommended, based on the tooth, that I get a gold crown rather than a porcelin one. Since gold is better (except for aestistics) and is a bit cheaper, I'm in agreement. They put on a temporary crown and my mouth still feels a bit funny. They had to do some work around my gum (I have overcrowding and a small mouth - no remarks from the peanut gallery! - because my gum had gone over a corner of the original tooth. It's still rather sore although I was able to lightly chew on a bit of pasta tonight on that side.

Whiskers is still giving me attitude and she's had a couple time-outs in her cage over the past several days. I hate doing it to her - she hadn't been closed in her cage in 1 1/2 years. She has room to hop around but there's not enough room in there for proper exercise. She's been a bit calmer tonight so hopefully I'm making some progress. I think the main problem was she thought she was "alpha-rabbit" in this household (they have a hierarchy) and so when I asserted my authority, she rebelled. Mike seems to have adjusted well.

Have a great day!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Feeling happy & healthy

Hi Everyone!

Well, except for the sore throat I'm trying to get over, the above title seems appropriate right now. Since the fall I've been trying to lose weight and I'm now at where I want to be.

How did I do it? I'll admit this time I needed some help. I had put on quite a few pounds over the past year and it was really starting to make a difference, in a bad way. I had no energy, despite all the biking and my clothes weren't fitting properly. I first tried on my own by eating salad but I kept gaining weight. Finally, at 142 lbs, which according to my BMI put me overweight, I went to Herbal Magic. A lot of my weight gain was around my stomach, which for women is one of the most unhealthiest places to gain.

They helped set up a food guide for me with clear descriptions for portion sizes. It involved eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and cutting out a lot of fat. As time progressed, they slowly added more portions until where I'm at now - where I can eat whatever I want. Although I started out with taking their supplements, I stopped after about a month, mostly because of cost, but I still lost weight in about the same target time. This is likely because I bike so much and their programs don't take that into consideration.

I'm now at a healthy 127.4 lb, as of this afternoon and my energy levels are back. My clothes fit better - I'm down a couple sizes but even how the cut of the clothes fit on my body is better. I'm cooking more rather than eating a lot of processed foods. There's a lot more veggies & fruit in my grocery cart and no chips. I still indulge on pizza but not as many slices and I still like my sweets. It's all a matter of balance - I'll now eat one or two cookies rather than an entire row. Yogourt is an everyday staple now.

My target weight was 128 lb although I'll be happy with anything under 130 lb. I still have all my curves, they're just accentuated more. I'll never be "thin" - my body shape and my muscles structure prevent that but I actually prefer being a bit curvy. I was more concerned with my energy levels and health rather than shape.

The nice thing with Herbal Magic is the visits. While I was on the program, I needed to visit the store 3 times a week and bring a record of everything I ate. Now that I'm on maintenance, I visit once a week to make sure I'm still around my target weight. If I get 5 lbs above that, they'll have me start recording my food consumption again and, if necessary, bring me back to a structured food guide. They also look long term - I'll be visiting them for an entire year. If I were to take the supplements, it would have been two years (their "guarantee". Since what I think I needed was some guidance to drop the weight and instruction on proper eating habits, I don't anticipate any yo-yos with my weight.

I know when people hear about weight loss programs, they usually see ads about "I lost 100 lbs on this program" and other enormous weight loss numbers. I lost 14 lbs over a period of 3 months and since I have a small frame, it's quite noticeable. For me, I don't think I could have lost the weight in a healthy manner in this short of period without their help. So, they have my recommendation.

Have a great day!

Friday, February 15, 2008

A Sleepy Evening

Hello Everyone!

I just woke up from a 3 hour nap and feel great. I was rather tired at work so I think my nap was much needed. Will be running errands and doing things around the house this weekend. It's Family Day on Monday in Alberta so I'm spending the day with J, helping him with election campaign stuff and fun errands. I'm hoping to come up with some birthday ideas for him - it's coming up in March and I'm drawing a blank. Any suggestions you might have would be much appreciated.

There's a battle of the wills going on in the apartment. I've decided to put my bedroom off limits to Whiskers & Mike to try to cut down on hair/fur on my clothes and overall to see if I can keep the apartment a bit neater. Mike's been o'kay so far but Whiskers is rather ****ed off at me. She's dug up the carpet that runs under the door. This actually isn't much of a problem since the carpet is a tile style and there's no underlay between the carpet and the cement floor. She loves staying in my boxspring and I'm hoping she'll get used to finding another place "just for her".

J took me to a fabulous tiny French restaurant for Valentines. He was even more organized than I thought - he had to book 1 1/2 months in advance for a table! I would say the entire restaurant could seat 50 people. He used to work with the chef a long time ago and the restaurant had a lot of character. There was a set Valentine's Day menu with four courses. For the first course, I had a vegetable (well, there were 2 main vegetables in the "potage" but I can't remember them - it was green coloured) soup and J had a warm spinach salad. The next course was a melted brie/blue cheese blend on bread. The main course was steak covered by a demi glaze (which looks a bit like gravy but isn't. It's made with the juices rather than pan drippings. It was extremely tasty) served with vegetables. The veggie selection was interesting - did you know you can cook radish? I'm not a radish fan but I did try it and it provided a nice contrast to the other veggies. I even ate the piece of broccohli but that was more to be polite. For dessert, I tried creme brulee for the first time (I think it's a new dessert favourite for me) and J ordered a chocolate pate that was served with strawberry sauce and some other type of dark berry sauce. He was also nice enough to give me the majority of both desserts (since he claimed he was full). The meal was paired with a nice red wine recommended by the chef. When we were done, ,we were both full but not stuffed. It's sometimes touch and go when going to a restaurant like that. I've been to ones in the past were although the portions were proper sizes (Eurpean sizing so it's much smaller than N. American portions), I was still hungry when I left since it takes a couple hours to eat everything. I really enjoy sharing meals with J - he's rather passionate about food and I love hearing him talk about its preparation. For me, generally I couldn't care less about the food, as long as it's tasty, but when you listen to him, it sounds wonderful. He very much takes a European approach to cooking - simple ingredients that don't overwhelm your palate with too many flavours.

I know some people go all out for Valentine's Day but for me, the thought behind choosing the meal more than overwhelmed me. Yes, flowers and chocolate are always appreciated by me but I think they would have gotten lost in comparision to such a lovely evening.

And for my gift? Well, with Valentine's Day being the day before payday, I was definitely on a limited budget. Since J isn't a materialist kind of person, I decided to make my gift. I got a nice box at the dollar store, which he can use for storage and filled it with goodies. I made monster cookies, since he loves Safeway peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and decorated them with red & pink smarties. I also made chocolate cookies (froom the recipe on the back of the white chipets package - very tasty and easy to make) and some heart shaped sugar cookies with pink sugar sprinkled on top. I then filled a mason jar with hershey kisses (so he can have kissses from me whenever he likes "Awww"). I also did up a box and filled it with coupons. These coupons were things like, "coffee in Kensington", romantic things and I added a weekend in the mountains. Since he's usually the one to spoil me with the last item, I wanted to return the favour. He gets a bit grumpy when he's in the city for too long and since we both love the outdoors, it's a win-win situation for all. I had a lot of fun with the coupons and since the items on them will be spaced out over a period of time, it's much easier on the pocketbook. Overall, I had a lot of fun making his gift.

Anways, I should be getting to bed before this weekend screws up my sleep pattern. Have a great day!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Happy Pre-Valentine's Day!

Hello Everyone!

I've only got a few minutes as my work load has increased dramatically. It'll be high until about the middle of April so I'll be able to make a few extra dollars with the overtime.

Have a cold but I'm mostly over it. Was off 2 days from work last week.

Not sure what the plans are for tomorrow - J has something planned that involves dinner. I had lots of fun putting his gift together - will describe it later for you.

Need to get a crown on one of my molars next week and I need another crown on the other side in about 6 months. Just when I get my finances back on track and I'm prepared to put away somthing for savings, I hand over all my money to the dentist. Over the past 4 years, I've spent $4000 on my teeth (not including my upcoming crowns expenses). Moral of the story - go to school and become a dentist. Sure, it has the highest suicide rate among professions but just think of how much money you could get from me! And, by the way, no cavities at my last visit.

Passed my payroll midterm. Although the material is light, I found the exam surprisingly challenging. I write my final sometime around the end of March. Everything is done online so it's a lot more convenient than attending a class.

Furry family is doing well. I think Henry might be feeling ill - I had him in the tank with the other fish but he wasn't swimming around much. He seemed to be hiding a lot so I think the 2 big fish were ganging up on him. I put him in a separate bowl again last night so I'll see if this helps.

Have a great day!

Monday, February 04, 2008

A warmer week!

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. I have a sore throat (I think) from riding in the very cold weather so I'm taking it easy. The weather, with wind chill ranged from -40 on Mon & Tues, -35 on Wed and got up to -20 on Thurs & Fri. I commuted Tues-Thurs and although I took transit on Fri, I rode up to J's place later that night.

Speaking (writing) of J, he managed to break his arm on Monday and had to get a plate put in. He's doing fine and they have him learning some office work. I was rather worried since this was the same arm he broke last year and they kept him in the hospital for a couple days. I was up for visits from Tuesday onward to make sure he was eating well and that he was resting and overall taking care of himself.

This week I need to prepare for my payroll midterm. It's going to take up my evenings and J will be tied up with the (unofficial as of yet) Alberta election. At this point, I don't think I'll be able to see him until the weekend :-( Oh well, he managed to handle my school schedule so I will work around his election schedule.

Will make pancakes for dinner on Tuesday and will attend the Ash Wednesday service. I still haven't decided what I'm giving up for Lent but I think it will be television.

Have a great day!