Love & a Steady Hand

Flip Flop Flap

Why is Daniel Shore the only one in the media saying this:

"The answer to the flip-flop accusation: Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Show me a politician who has stuck to his position through thick and thin, and I will show you a politician who cannot be trusted to represent our interests in a changing world.'

• Daniel Schorr is the senior news analyst at National Public Radio.

I've been saying it from the beginning. It's like, well, duh!

Four Pounds

Not that I'm counting.

But I've been weighing myself on the scales at the Y and even with my big ole brand new sneakers (cross-trainers? what do you call those shoes you wear to the gym anymore? Surely not tennis shoes, I don't play tennis...), I have lost 4 pounds since last Thursday. Also, I can now walk up the three flights of stairs without having to stop at the top to huff and puff for 10 minutes (I still need to catch my breath, but not for so long).

And I think I am now addicted to the gym. But I am not going at 10 a.m. on a Friday anymore (unless that's the only time that works out, of course), because the place was just crawling with macho little old men!

Picture it, if you will: I am doing the Cybex circuit of weight machines and at each station I check the seat height (because I am pretty short and need the machine seats on #1 for most of them) and each station, the seat is set at #1. Very convenient that, but then I get on, forgetting that I also needed to check the WEIGHT setting and then I feel like an idiot when I can't figure out why the machine will not even BUDGE! These old dudes were cranking out like 200lbs (or way more) on machines where I can't push more than 30! Ridiculous.

One guy, I swear, was some kind of Hannibal Lechter dude. He was built exactly like Anthony Hopkins, same haircut, same freaky cold-looking eyes, tight plain white t-shirt and everything. I kept expecting him to come up and slurp something about fava beans and a nice chianti in my ear.... Creeeepy!!!! I tried to give him a wide berth and just watched while he did like 200 chin-ups without even breathing hard. And he must have been about 70....

Other minor annoyances: I do not like putting down my clipboard (with my little checksheet of settings and weights and reps) and then picking it back up again. I don't really like the clipboards themselves much, AND, I hate the pencils. I really do hate pencils. Very silly, but alas, true. The smell of graphite makes my skin crawl and the choppy way a pencil feels when it's been sharpened badly or very recently... ewwww. I know, I know, too much information. I think I will put a pen in my hip pack where I keep my car key and my walkman and I'll figure out the clipboard thing eventually.

But I am feeling good, and my tighter shorts were fitting really nicely today. So there's four pounds. Hey, only about 90 left to go! Yeee ha!

Now who is going to buy me a new wardrobe when this odyssey is finished? Oh, I just realized, I'll be teensy enough to shop at Plato's Closet with the rest of my fine fashionable friends, so don't worry about it. Hee hee.

The Saga Continues

Have I used that for an entry title yet? Can't remember...

Okay, I am definitely not horn-tooting here, because I have been swinging off the edge of the wagon for a couple of days now with one or two spectacular fast food "episodes," but today ended up being a pretty good day.

I went to Di's house (yay Di!) and we ate salad for lunch. Yes, we did also have shredded chicken sandwiches, but we both had seconds of salad. Ick. I do not care much for salad. And we drank water.

Do not get me started on water. I hate water. Unless it is about 90 degrees and in a bathtub with bubbles in it. Or in a swimming pool... or my washing machine... and Lancaster's water tastes nasty. Ask my mother. She loves water, but she won't drink this stuff! But we did it.

There was a non-diet incident on the way home, which I will not detail, but I had a bad headache and needed caffeine in an extreme way. Also, I just like the sound of "Mocha Moolatte," but that's all I'm saying.

Anyway, Tim made spaghetti for dinner and I had one serving, then went to the gym where I did the whole Cybex circuit with 15 reps on each machine and then walked 2+ miles on the treadmill at a nice steady 3-3.5 miles per hour.

Feeling good. How 'bout you all?
(Cause Matthew is yelling from upstairs and it's my shift!)

Things I am Discovering About Me

Went to a friend's house tonight to help her with some projects -- organizational stuff and hopefully I fixed her toilet and other things like that -- and came home, singing all the way, very happy and feeling successful. And I suddenly realized I was having this great week, and wondered why I was having this great week and then it hit me: what I really need most in the world is to feel needed.

Okay, I also need to be busy and brain-challenged and the exercise is feeling good too, and I'll admit to also needing the semi-regular indulgent afternoon nap and/or midnight bubble bath with a really good book, but what charges me up most, is helping people with stuff.

I have had a good week mainly because I've been DOING that -- fixing my friend's computer, helping her get organized, listening to other friends tell their troubles or triumphs, working with Mara on school stuff... it's been great because I've been in super-hero mode and when I can do that successfully, it's just such a damned rush!

NOT because I like controlling people, not because I think I have all the best solutions, not because I like telling folks where their sofa should be or how to put their cookbooks away -- put your sofa and your cookbooks any damned where you like (A., this part of the conversation is not about YOUR actual sofa, just a convenient example) but if you are stymied about sofa placement or lying awake nights worrying about the chaos of your sewing space, wow, I would LOVE to help you shove your couch all over the living room until it's where you think it looks best, or sit down with you and figure out how best to store your thread and cutting tools.

Because, while I KNOW I don't have all the solutions to everyone's problems (or even the last-word on room design and organization), I am really interested in sharing the process with you. I like being part of figuring things out and making bad, uncomfortable, unworkable, frustrating situations easier. I don't wanna do it for you, and I sure don't think I could run your lives any better than any of you are doing already, but if you've got obstacles in the way -- real or metaphorical -- maybe I could help you take them on.

Or maybe not. It's your call. I'm just here, eager to be of service.

Back in the Saddle Again

Okay ya'll, I am throwing down the damned gauntlet -- which of my fat (and/or fat-ish) friends are joining me on this friggin wagon train? Because I am back on again and here's what I have to tell you about me today:

1. I went to Pizza Hut and ate a big nasty salad, 2-3 bites of noodles with sauce, 1 1/2 pieces of pizza (1 cheese, 1/2 mushroom & sausage)

2. I went to COSI and had an ice-cream sandwich (okay, I did steal about 1/4 of Matthew's, but he should have been paying more attention...)

3. I went to the Spaghetti Warehouse and ate another big nasty salad (2 helpings), a bunch of bread and 1/3 of my giant serving of manicotti. I also helped with a huge piece of chocolate cake, but only about 1/3 of it.

4. I will admit to drinking WAAAAAY too much pop today, so much in fact that I couldn't tell you how much it was -- at least 2 Mt Dews at the Hut, then probably three cokes at the Speg W'house, BUT, I also drank a whole Aquafina and some water at COSI instead of a pop (no stroller to hide it in this trip).

And here's the best part of all:

I went to the Y and walked the track -- 26 laps, which equals 2 miles

AND

I signed up for the machine & weight orientation on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

AND

I bought a new discman (on sale for $20), a fanny pack to carry it in while I work out in future, and a new shiny purple water bottle to set on my counter to help me keep track of how much water I'm drinking during the day (it was also on sale) and another bottle with a better spout for in-the-car, on-the-run drinking, so I won't be buying pop in drive throughs all the time.

SO

Which of ya'll are stepping up, because I say, Tag! You are IT dammit!!

Now somebody tell me I'm fabulous before my smoke clears and I lose my damned nerve and order a cheesecake!!!

Breast Cancer Awareness

Didja ever have one of those friends that you just click with, even if you haven't seen them for years? My friend Deb is one of those people in my life. We were roommates in Russian House in our sophomore year at Wooster (the only roommate I ever chose) and then she transferred and I went to Scotland and it was a couple of years and then my wedding came and it was just like we had never been apart. And then we were busy with graduate school and law school and neither of us had any money for long distance and email was still kinda young them (can you imagine a blog even?) so a few more years went by and then we hang out again for a while after Matthew was born and again, just like no time has passed.

She's getting married in September (yay!) and I'm actually going to the wedding, which is in New York -- local mamas, ya'll are gonna help Tim with my babies, right? And I am thrilled to bits because we are back in touch and I love how cool she is and I get to BE THERE, which rocks my world!!!

But what, you are asking yourselves, does any of this have to do with breast cancer? Well, Deb sent me an email and I wanted to post some info about it on this site. Please check out the following link to help 3M and Post-It continue the fight against breast cancer! All you have to do is enter your name and they will contribute $1 for the first 75,000 names they collect. It looks really awesome and who doesn't know someone who is surviving breast cancer or deeply missed because of it?!? Just check it out.

Also, check out Deb's comments on my "Icky Stuff" post from last week, just so you can see how cool she is! I love her so much!

[[I love all the rest of ya'll too, just in case you were feeling neglected!]]

My Wicked Working Week

Okay, I need to start by sending props to Tym and Kim (oops, Tim and Kym) for taking up all that kid slack so I could concentrate on getting this stuff done and not being crazy anymore.

Second, I need to admit that I am still crazy, but it's less about the house now.

Here's my week in review:

Monday

* Patched the holes/etc. in new window trim in the upstairs bathroom
* Patched the drywall glitches in the same bathroom (above the new tilework)
* Cleaned the oven [that's been on my list for months, it was nasty]
* Re-painted the top of the wall in the downstairs bathroom [to cover the drips that ran down when I painted the ceiling turquoise last summer]
* Measured for shoe mold in the dining room
* Measured for shelves in the kitchen
* Bought stuff for shelves and shoe mold projects
* Repaired the telephone connection in the basement [who were the people who lived here before anyway? Buncha morons!]
* Installed the shelves in the kitchen
* Realized the toggle bolts weren't springing because the screws weren't long enough and went back to Lowes to buy longer screws
* Re-installed the shelves in the kitchen [they are actually safe now]
* Put stuff on the shelves, like pottery and other neat stuff to look at
* Put the first coat of stain on the shoe mold
* Painted the window frame (the one I patched in the morning)
* Changed the vacuum cleaner bag (after I searched for the bags for 30 minutes and found them exactly where I'd left them last time, which was exactly where I'd been looking except they weren't there when I looked this time.)
* Finished knitting Tim's sweater vest at about 2 a.m. [I've only been knitting the damned thing for 8 years! Still need to put the buttons on.]

Tuesday

* Put all tools away properly [probably should have done that Monday...]
* Painted behind the downstairs refrigerator and behind/beside the furnace
* Painted two old shelves to match the paint on the walls in basement [for storage of paint cans out of the way so my shopvac can go where the old paint has been in my tool workspace]
* Found a new home for the screen and storm doors [so I can use their old home for workspace and router-table storage]
* Had a bunch of posters & pictures laminated for the playroom and the kids' room [so when Matthew inevitably pulls them down, he won't wreck them] (Thanks for the posters Mom!)
* Put together my new folding work table (thanks Di, for finding it for me!)
* Put up new pictures in the playroom and cleaned up some in there too.
* Painted woodwork in the dining-room in prep for installing shoe mold

Wednesday

* Put together my new compound miter saw (It's fabulous! Thanks Dad!)
* Folded up and took boxes to the garbage from the basement
* Got all garbage out of the garage for pickup
* Helped Tim & kids clean the playroom [yes, they had already trashed it again]
* Put last coat of stain on shoe mold
* Cut (using the new saw) and installed shoe mold [This is the trim that goes between the baseboard and the floor when you have hardwood floors. Since we pulled up the carpets in the dining room last year, there has not been any trim there and it looked awful!]
* Broke three drill bits and discovered I can hammer very well left-handed
* Smashed my left middle finger once (hammering right-handed)
* Painted picture frames with Mara during Matty's nap
* Patched a bunch of "dings" in the plaster from when we took the wallpaper off the dining room walls
* Sanded the patched places
* Primed and then painted the patched places [and moved back all the furniture]
* Fixed the threshold between the kitchen and dining room [again, a mess because of the carpet removal. There's been a little rug there to keep folks from tripping on the lip of the kitchen floor. But not anymore!]
* Cleaned up the kids' room [which was just a disaster] and put their clothes away
* Hung up pictures & posters in the kids' room [To quote Delaney, "It's lovely!" And I agree!]

Thursday

* Helped Tim "watch" Kym's kids for Jazzercise
* Had lunch out alone with my husband [We read books and ate without speaking much, it was very romantic!]
* Made Mara take an actual nap instead of just an "eye rest" [in theory, this is a rest where she closes her eyes for 20 minutes but does not in fact sleep. In practice it is usually 20 minutes of "Can I get up now?" vs. "Mara just shut your eyes, I'll tell you when. And stop wiggling. And lie down flat. No, close your EYES!"]
* Took a nap with her
* Babysat a friend's kids while she went to an appointment, enjoyed pizza for supper with all kids who ate well and did not bite each other
* Helped a friend get ready for her garage sale, refusing to leave when asked and being very sarcastic and nasty (but also almost indispensibly helpful inspite of nastiness).
* Went to bed about 3 a.m.

Friday

* Had kids for yardsale help-age for a couple of hours
* Returned kids to their mama and hung out at yard sale for a bit
* Made Mara take another nap (napped with her of course)
* Cooked Thai Chicken Pasta for dinner

Saturday

*Bailed on a parade I was supposed to march in for support of library levy [which I still feel like crap about, but I was really tired...]
* Had lunch at a local dive with in-laws. Very much fun.
* Stopped by shoe place on the way home to get Merlot Birks repaired. Found new light blue Arizona's on sale, bought them as belated birthday gift.
* Came home and took a nap (guess what I made Mara do too...)
* Went with dear friend to a very silly movie. Guessed the tricky parts, loved laughing at the movie and whispering in ear of dear friend who was scared by the movie (but not very scared).
* Bragged at dinner that I would not get drunk on a tall G&T.
* Got drunk on a tall G&T and felt embarrassed but still having fun
* Found good books at Barnes & Noble and bought them, also sobered up
* Tried to convince travelling friend to let us road trip and come get her (Sarah, glad you're home safe, we missed you!)
* Infuriated various people with my poor telephone manners
* Went to grocery store and spent 25 minutes choosing shampoo
* Came back and channel-flipped for 30 minutes before deciding to watch a movie we were too tired to finish
* Went to bed and channel-flipped for another hour or so
* Finally fell asleep

I am still tired. Just in case you were wondering. But I feel better about the house. And the shampoo is very nice.

Which Bloom Are You?

Yes, I know, it's another quiz, but I found this one really really funny!

Annoying Stuff

Here are some things that are really pissing me off right now:

Cute workout clothes do not come in plus sizes: It's hard enough to find workout clothes AT ALL in fat sizes, but if you do, they are inevitably prison-garb grey. Because heaven knows we wouldn't want to draw attention to our fat ugly selves. We should work out (like we should eat), in a dark closet, so our shame and grossness does not distract or disturb the happy people who have will power or whatever. ((And don't even get me started on trying to find a sportsbra in a big giant size.)) Ugh.

The newest form of spam, blog comments with poker & porn websites attached: I am spending more damn time deleting crap from our blogs than I am actually getting to blog (or even read the blog itself). If I ever find out that anybody I know is spamming like this for a living, I will kick the ever-loving crap out of you. Get your own website and leave mine alone! I am NOT advertising your junk for free in my comment section and I am also not leaving the comments there so your Google status jumps higher. Ugh again.

Lowest common-denominator-ing: could we just for once, really just once, actually appeal to the best in people? Could that strategy just work??? I really really need it to work, because I am sick to death of the fear-mongering and the "you need a ticket and should also sign a loyalty oath if you want to participate in the democratic process" and the Jesus loves us (and only us!) attitude that is pervading this election year cycle. I really really really need us to all be about something better than that -- not because we are afraid of going to hell, not because God told us to, not because it's going to make us win, but because it's just the RIGHT thing to do. Ugh. In triplicate.