Winter is Back!

I woke up this morning to 4 new inches of snow. I actually had to wear my boots to work again. And the latch on my car door was stuck in the open position, so it would stay closed. This has happened before in cold weather, but it didn't happened when we were have the sub-zero temps, so I wasn't expecting it. I sprayed WD40 in the latch mechanism and connected a bungy cord around the handle and over to the passenger seat. As soon as the car warmed up (about half way to work) I tried shutting the door again and it finally caught. What a pain though.

Sheesh I was so hoping the snow was over with.

New Topic: I have decided that I need to get back on my exercise program. I kind of petered out over the last year. I did so great last year. I lost 30 lbs and over 27 inches. I was working with a group (B100 fit club) sponsored by the local country radio station. But once that ended I lost my momentum. I work better with a group then I do by myself. With the group, I am held accountable if you know what I mean. By myself, I'm not accountable to anyone but myself, so if I don't exercise no one knows. Well, I've fallen back into the same routine as before I lost the weight and gained back about 15lbs. I go home tired and nap on the damn couch. Then I can't sleep when it's time for bed, stay up late and wake up tired again. It's a vicious circle.

I also donated blood last month and got a new reading (non-fasting [NF] of course) on my Cholesterol In January 08 when I lost all the weight, my NF Cholesterol total was 132. So that has definitely gone up. And I pretty positive that means my Triglycerides have gone up too, which was one of the reasons I had originally started my exercise program.

I am determined to do something. So I dug out the book "The Cardio-Free Diet" that we were using with the B-100 Fit Club. And I am re-starting my exercise program. I know when I mention the book on my blog, that the author Jim Karas will get dinged on his blog. I'm kind of embarrassed for him to read this, because I was doing so well before.

I'll keep you all posted with my results.

OH no! More Snow!

We are getting more snow today. Last night the "weatherman" said we would just get a dusting. Well if he considers 2 inches just a dusting then he needs to..... Well I just can't think of anything good enough for him right now, but I will.

I haven't had to shovel snow for about a week now and it has been so nice. Gonna have to do it tonight though. Ohhh! But just remembered that my Thrummed Mittens are now done so my fingers should stay nice and toasty warm while I'm shoveling. Still think I want to make Thrummed Toe covers or something, so my toes done freeze either. Will have to work on that after I get my Color Swap package done.

Edited to add the following:
When I got home after knit on Wednesday, I did indeed have to shovel snow. Especially the crap at the end of the drive deposited by the snow plow. The only part of me that wasn't cold was my hands, because they were protected by the Thrummed Mittens. Now if only I have a thrummed snow suit or something.

Always playing Catch-up

Why does it always seem that I am playing catch-up these days. Things have been happening in my life, honestly. I just haven't felt wordy you know.

My last blog was just before Christmas, so I hope everyone had a great one. I stayed the night on Christmas Eve at my parents house. My Aunt Margaret and cousins Emily and Becky were there too. They had stayed all week. I got a food processor from my parents. The normal sized one. I have a itty-bitty one at home, but I wanted a 'real' one. And I got a beautiful pink shawl/wrap from my Aunt. It is rayon-ish and I wasn't expecting it to be as warm as it is, but I've been wearing it everyday since I got it.

The day after Christmas, we had a huge ice storm and I determined that I really didn't need to go shopping like I normally would. The news was reporting all kinds of slide off and accidents, that I thought it just wasn't work the risk; so you know it was bad. Around noon, I heard spinning wheels out side and figured someone had slid into a snow bank and got stuck. When I looked out the window, it looked as if a Jeep Cherokee and a Semi had a accident. The front bumper on the semi was right up against the back of the Jeep. Then the semi started backing up and I realized that the Jeep had gotten stuck on the ice in the middle of the intersection and couldn't go anywhere. So they hooked up a tow rope to the back of it and the Semi slowly towed it back until it could get on snow and have some traction. When it started going forward again, it was kind of funny, because it looked like the Jeep was towing the semi. They went down the road that way. Although someone should have told the guy in the Jeep that you don't spin your wheels on ice; you just creep.

Then I got sick just as it was time to go back to work. I had an ear infection, bronchitis, and a throat infection. Although it wasn't Strep, it was something similar. I went to work on Monday, but came home at lunch, stayed home on Tuesday, and worked most of the day Wednesday. I only went in on Wednesday, because it was the day before a Holiday and I had to at least work 6 hours or I wouldn't get my holiday pay. But let me tell you, I was miserable! I went to the urgent care office on my way into work and the Dr told me that I needed antibiotics. She said she could give them to me 2 different ways: (1) 10 days worth of pills or (2) a shot there at the office and then 10 days of pills. When I asked what the difference was, she said with the pills alone, I would feel better in about 3 days. If I took the shot and the pills, I would start feeling better in 1 day. Well Geez that was a no-brainer!! I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes at her and said just give me the shot! I had already felt like crap warmed over for 3 days, I couldn't take much more.

Last weekend was my Winter Quilt Retreat. Due to illnesses, there was only 13 of us there. We couldn't cancel either, or we would have lost like 90% of our deposit, which would have been like $900+. People who had put down deposits and then couldn't come, had to forfit their money in order to cover the cost. But I am so glad that we didn't have to cancel it was so fun. I always have a good time when we are there. I finished my Mexican Tiles quilt from my October quilt retreat. Here is a photo:


Ain't it bright? I wasn't sure how the bright fabrics would look, but it turned out quite nice if I do say so myself.

Back in the beginning of December, my friend Nicki gave me a free Lazy Girl Design Pattern for a small bag called Noriko Handbag. It was very pretty and I thought it would make the perfect little sock bag. Anyway, I made it up out of cottons. It would have been better, if I had used lighter weight fabrics. It just didn't drape right. So I decided I would re-design it. Instead of 2 handles, I thought 1 that you could hang from your wrist would be better. And instead of a button, maybe just a loop. So here it what I came up with:

This is actually one I made for Ann at Quilt Retreat this last weekend from some left over border material she had with her. I never did get around to taking a photo of mine. When I first designed it, I made 3. One for myself (brights of course), a brown one for my Frog Pond Christmas party gift, and an extra blue one in case person who got the gift didn't like brown. Christine really liked hers and several other were interested too. So they suggested I make up some to sell at our Knitting Retreat that we will be having this coming weekend. So I took my template and fabric to the Quilt Retreat last weekend and made some up. I ended up selling 3 of them there and Cheryl wants me to make 5 more for her for gifts to her Scrapbook group friends. I need to write up a pattern for it too. I have been carrying mine around with my Pomatomus socks in it.

Also, I just realized that I never mentioned that at the beginning of December I joined a KAL to knit Thrummed Mittens. I have the first one completely done and about 1/3 of the second one done. I really could use them right now as it has been so cold here next to Lake Michigan. Brrr!

This picture was taken before I got the thumb done. I finished it last Thursday, but I just haven't taken a new photo.

Shoveling Snow

The sun may have been shining yesterday when I posted about going home last night and shoveling snow, but it sure as hell wasn't shining when I got home. And my God did it get a lot colder when the sun disappeared. Most of the snow that I had to move was the light fluffy stuff, however the crap deposited at the end of the driveway from the snow plows was all a frozen mess. Luckily they had fully plowed the streets, so I parked along the curb when I got home. I had the snow shovel in the car with me, so I got out and immediately started shoveling. Then I had to slog through the snow to the shed, dig it out and get my regular metal shovel. It was definitely hard work and I didn't get it 100% done, but I got it cleared enough to get the car in the drive. I had to stop, because my fingers had gone numb and they were really starting to hurt badly. I don't know how long it takes for frostbite to set in, but didn't want to risk it.

When I got inside, I made myself a hot cup of tea in one of my favorite "no spill" Starbucks Mugs. I don't think I drank all of it, but I mainly wanted to hold it to warm up my fingers. I sat on the sofa under 2 fleece blankets holding that mug until I felt warm again. Of course as soon as that happened, I promptly fell asleep! I'm trying not to take naps when I get home, because then I can't sleep when it's time for bed.

There was absolutely nothing to watch on TV last night. I take that back, I watched House, then there was nothing. So I popped in a DVD to watch. I borrowed "Pride and Prejudice" from a my friend Carly starring Colin Firth from A&E (1995). I had never seen any version of this movie nor read any of Jane Austins books. When I was in High School, I had to read "Tale of Two Cities", "Oliver Twist", multiple Shakespeare plays, and "Wuthering Heights". I'm sure there were others, but I can't think of the titles just now. Anyway, I wasn't sure I would like it. I watched the first 2.5 hour DVD last week and finished the second 2.5 hour DVD last night. The first 2 hours of the 5 was pretty boring, but I really liked the rest of it. The mother, Mrs. Bennet, was a major Twit though. I just wanted to tell her to shut the hell up when she went into her hysterics. And I wanted to just slap the youngest sister Lydia when she kept harping on how she was the youngest and had married first and therefore was better than all her older sisters who couldn't seem to catch a husband.

Well, if I don't get back to tell you, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. I'm going to be spending the day with my parents.

To Ski or Not to Ski?

That was the question yesterday and the answer was "Hell NO!"

On Saturday I went to my friend McKelle's house. She was having a Christmas Party and needed a little help finishing up the cooking. Since the party didn't start until 6pm and it was kind of nice out, I brought along my cross-country ski's thinking if I had time, I would take a trip around the fields behind her house. Well, we didn't have enough time, because she was expecting 45+ people and so needed to make some extra goodies. And boy were there lots of goodies. One of my favorites was the Brown Sugar Candy that she made from Eric's Grandmothers recipe. YUM! And the BBQ Meatballs.

Since we were so busy on Saturday, I told myself that I would wait and ski on Sunday. Then I woke up on Sunday and looked outside. Yeesh! The wind was blowing so hard and it was soo cold I decided it wouldn't be an enjoyable thing. So the skis are still in the car.

My Mom called while I was at McKelles and wanted to know if anyone wanted any bananas for making banana bread. She came home from visiting our friend Luci in Kalamazoo with 40 LBS of bananas. Yes, I said FOURTY! On Sunday she made 8 (yes EIGHT) batches of banana bread and then gave the rest of the bananas to a couple neighbors.

The weather was just as bad this morning too. I looked out the window to see if the roads had been plowed. It looked like they had been. Wrong! I got stuck trying to get out of the drive way; half in the street half in the drive way. If I could have gotten the car back into the drive way I would have called to say I was staying home, but I couldn't get back in either. Finally, after alternating digging, putting kitty litter behind the wheels and going forward a bit then back, I had to admit defeat and go ask help from Elijah, my neighbor. He brought over a dirt digging shovel, since my snow shovel wasn't getting through the icy stuff under the wheels. One little dig and a shove and I was free. The drive to work down 933 was a piece of cake after that. Of course I have to go home tonight and finish shoveling out the drive way. But the snow has stopped (for now) and I think the sun is shining too.

It Freaking Snowed Last Night!!

Can you believe it?!? I got between 1/2" to 1" of snow last night at my house.
And it was the wet sticky stuff too.
Our controller went home for lunch yesterday and said that in a 4 mile drive he drove through sleet, hail, rain and sunshine.

And the oddest part is that by the end of the week, it is supposed to be back up in the mid 60's.

Added Photos:

These are a little old. I took them when we were putting up the drop ceiling in the basement. Just forgot to post them. This is my brother Ray. Mom was helping too and I took a photo of her, but I must have forgot to save it. I was using the camera on my phone.
I have almost everything moved to the sewing room, just not organized. It's still pretty messy. But I'll try to take photos this weekend to show off.

Snow - Again!

Well, I got about 6 inches of snow overnight last night. Again! And there is more snow today with it turning over to lake affect tonight/tomorrow. Yes, it is very pretty, but Damn! I am so ready for spring. This last Sunday, the sun was shining so brightly. It was just wonderful! Now it's hidden again by the snow clouds.

I was talking to a coworker and commenting on how I wish someone had shot Punxsutawney Phil before he saw his blasted shadow and predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Tom just laughed and pointed out on the calendar, that regardless of what his prediction was, there is always 6 more weeks until spring begins. Because winter doesn't end until March 20th. While, yes that is technically correct, I would have preferred the more conservative meaning of NO MORE SNOW until spring starts.

God has a sick sense of humor

You know the saying "Be careful what you wish for..." well I learned about it first hand this weekend. No it wasn't snow that I wished for, so it wasn't my fault Michiana got socked but good! It started Monday night about 9pm and by Tuesday night we had anywhere from 10-19 inches. I got 13. And it still snowed about another 2 inches overnight Tuesday. The forecast is for another 2-4 inches today. But then it should clear up until the weekend when the next front comes through.

But as I said THAT is not what I wished for. Actually it wasn't a wish at all, but an observation that was misconstrued as a wish. So here is what happened. I heard the neighbor snow blowing the sidewalk outside, so I got dressed and went out to start shoveling. I was kind of hoping he would take pity on me, seeing that I had to shovel, and snow blow my drive. Which he did and which I really really appreciated. So I shoveled the porch, around the car, and made a path for the mailman, which really didn't take as much time as I thought it would. So I made a snow angle, which was really fun. Haven't made one of those in YEARS. Can't imagine what the neighbor thought, because I know he saw me plop backwards into the snow, but hey it was really fun. As I stood there brushing myself off, I had this crazy thought that I wasn't tired out yet and could do with a bit more shoveling, because it's great exercise and I could use some. But since I all the areas around the drive, porch,and trash can were clear I just went in the house and made me some yummy (spiked) hot chocolate. So right here is where the misconstruing occurred. Because at 11pm last night I had to go out and shovel the driveway again. Only this time I had to shovel the WHOLE thing. So OK, I guess in a long about way, the extra snow really might have been my fault.

If yesterday had not been a long holiday weekend, I might have just said to 'hell with it' and took a half day off to shovel out. But the holiday pay policy at work is that you have to be there the day before and the day after in order to get paid. So since I couldn't afford to loose 2-days of pay, I shoveled last night. Just so you know, I wasn't the only one. Another of my neighbors was also out at 11pm shoveling his driveway too.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

Snow, Snow and more Snow! That's what we got last night. According to the news broadcast, I got 7.5 inches of snow. Glad I don't live in Buchannan though, because they got 10 inches!! It took me 45 minutes to shovel the driveway this morning. And another 15 minutes to clear off the car and reshovel the area around the car where the snow from the car fell. Note to self: next time clear off the car first so you don't have to shovel twice!

I made sure I wouldn't get too chilled by dressing in layers. But why is it that immediately after you get all the layers on you realize you have to use the bathroom?? So you have to unpeel and then re-peel. By the time I was ready to go outside, I had already worked up a good sweat.

Just for the heck of it, I'm going to do a little math and figure out approximately how much snow I shoveled this morning. The driveway was 9 bootlengths wide and 46 bootlengths long. Yes I walked toe to heel the whole length/width to figure this out. I had to chuckle when I thought about what the neighbors probably thought when they saw me with my arms out for balance looking like I was trying to walk on a tight rope. So, my boots are about 11 inches long from toe to heel. That makes the shoveled portion of the driveway 99 inches by 506 inches ( 8.25 feet by 42.16 feet). And if the snow was 7.5 inches deep (.625 feet), that means I shoveled 375,705 cubic inches of snow (217.3875 cubic feet). Well, I know I shoveled more, because the snow plow had buried the end of the driveway and I had to clear off the porch, around the car (twice), and a path to the mailbox for the postal carrier. All in all, I am pretty confident I got my exercise this morning! About 7000 calories worth right??

I actually remembered to take pictures this morning, but forgot that I have no way to upload them right now, because I took my computer to work to have one of the techs upgrade it; to Windows 2000.

Hope you are enjoying whatever weather you are experiencing in your part of the world. I love the snow and Christmas never feels right without the snow.

Snow!

I woke up to 6 inches of snow this morning. I just love snow. At least when it first falls. Once it starts getting grungy from all the snowplow dirt, then I want it to go away. But the sun was shining this morning and it was the light fluffy snow. The picture above is actually my car parked across the street at work. It would have been a bigger impact if I had taken the photo at home where the car was still covered with snow.

B100 Fit Club Update: I am a bit behind on the statistics for the Dazzling Divas. At last count we had lost a total of about 83 lbs. There are 8 members on the team. I must have missed it this morning in between the school delay/closing announcements. I had mad cravings this weekend and ended up gaining .4 lbs (damn that new digital scale). That makes a total of 15.6 lbs lost. I also did my bi-weekly measurements, and the news is that I have lost a total of 17 5/8 inches. 10 1/8 inches of that amount was lost from my midriff, waist, and hips. I have slacked off on counting my calories and actually writing down what I eat so that I can track everything better. So, I have decided I must get back into the habit of that. Wish me luck this next week, because starting tomorrow, I have 5 (yes I said FIVE) Christmas parties to go to. There will be 2 catered and 3 potluck style dinners. Tomorrow is my company party and we will be going to Reggios Italian Restaurant. Very YUMMY. I will be going to exercise class before the party starts though. I figure I need all the help I can get.