Bingo--It's Time

I blogged yesterday, but I got a little too intense for public consumption and didn't post. The gist is in my comment to Gretchen's post. I also had a great quote from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show on Wednesday night--they were doing a piece on voter fraud and he said "But if you think that voter fraud is the only thing wrong with this election, then you are officially.....adorable." Such a great line. But I digress--today is a new day.

Today is bingo day. ABWA is having our fun night tonight. I sent around a sign up sheet for people to volunteer to do various jobs and lots of people (ok six) signed up to help and then I called out at the meeting, who's coming and a bunch of people (ok five) raised their hands. We'll each have to eat a lot of hot dogs, because we already have a lot of hot dogs left over from Marisa's party last week. It'll be fun. I'm thinking that we play straight bingo every other game and an X, and a 7, then double bingo to keep it interesting. There's going to be some kids there so I wanted to get stuffed animals for prizes for the kids, but the party store had nothing--I got stickers instead. Even a four year old would like a sticker of a spider on his hand. It'll be fun. It'll be fun. It will be fun. There. (If you say it more than three times it must be true, right.)

This morning I was in court when my phone rang. Luckily the Judge was not on the bench and I was not hauled away in chains. Later I checked my message and it was Marisa calling to remind me to met her at DMV to take her drivers test. How had I completely forgotten all about that. It wasn't written in my calender, it wasn't on my food sheet (I have a food sheet so that I only eat what's on the sheet and I write down all the stuff that I'm doing during the day to help plan what food will be the best at what times, i.e., if I have some meeting, I'm eating on the go, etc. BTW, no weight lose this week, but my jacket buttons--wow.), it wasn't in my list of things that I go over in my head in the middle of the night when I can't fall asleep--it wasn't anywhere in my consciousness. I just can't figure out how I forgot about it. Opps--I better get going. It's now.

Lady Plumber

After Marisa reminded me, I finally remembered to call the plumber to come out and fix the kitchen sink. They said the plumber was in the field and that they'd call me. A gal from the office called and was asking me all kinds of questions about the problem that I couldn't answer, so I said the plumber would just have to see when he got there and she said, I am the plumber. Hallalua, hallalua, hallalua, halaalua. I was just so happy that it was a lady plumber. She snaked the sink, she crawled under the house and she saved me money by telling me what I needed to buy, instead of paying a premium to send her out to buy it. I did feel badly when she got spider webs in her hair and I just don't know if I would have cared if a guy did, but I'd like to think that I would.

That Looks Like Raindrops

The good news is that I just won an appeal and it's being published with my name on it. You'll be able to look in old law books some day and see my name in print again (I was published back in '92 also). The bad news is that it's being published because of the dissent (the judge who disagreed with me) and it will probably be cited more for the dissent. The other bad news is that my desk is cleared off--that's very bad--I am much more comfortable buried under a ton of work. Then there's the malpractice case against me--it is going to trial in November--not looking forward to that one at all. It is raining out there--it is just a rainy kind of time.

Ops

It's only 61 shopping days til Christmas--my calender was on the wrong page.

It's a Monday

Time to plan out the week and get organized. I still don't have a Halloween costume for Friday night Bingo (or any of the other things that I need to get organized for Friday). I forgot my lunch today and had to (oh it was so tough to make me) go to the food court to eat a slice of pizza for lunch. I didn't have fries and I walked the long way, but that pizza did taste good. I still haven't worked the library into my lunch time--I'm going to have to plan that into my schedule. I forgot to go vote at the touch screen at the main library on Saturday--boy once I get in the house, it's really hard to leave again. I like being home. I started Bailey's new baby's bib (she has already named her Rayna--at first I thought it was Rayann), but her shower is November 6th--I don't have much time. Some Christmas gifts are coming along fine, others are still in my head and have no reality in matter.

I was over Dad's yesterday--he's tired a lot because his hearts not pumping right, but the doctors have their thinking caps on to figure it out. He's supposed to be going in for more tests in the next few weeks, but he's not allowed to drive very far. He seemed in good spirits, but he thinks that I accused him of calling Bush intelligent--a complete fabrication if I did. (He'll probably e-mail everyone the offending passage, so we'll just say that I did accuse him of calling Bush intelligent and I'll say three Hail Mary's as my penance.) Meanwhile, did anyone see 60 Minutes about Jon Stewart going on Crossfire and being completely serious in his criticism of their extremism vs. substance kind of journalism. He was never serious on 60 Minutes, but apparently was completely serious on Crossfire. An intelligent person with clout calling the Emperor naked. Dad said he heard a quote from Carville that these biased news shows are like the lamppost to a drunk--they're there for support, not illumination.

Fun time USA. Only 88 shopping days til Christmas.

It's Let's Get Mushie Time

Yes, It's Marisa's birthday today--18 years old. To me, she's seemed 18 for a while now. I try to compare her to Adrienne at 18, but she's more like the oldest (that would be me) than the youngest in a family. Don't get me wrong--there's a lot of Adrienne in her. Today I let the dog in before Marisa thought she'd been out long enough and it was quickly overruled. Very Adrienne. (Like I care if that dog is out there shivering, curled up in a ball, huddled next to the door, with big old sad eyes, as if.) Anyway, I'm really proud of her too. I so wish she was going to college, but as has been relentlessly drummed into my head--my wish, not theirs. (That's you too, Steph and Mel).

And the picture of Jackson, throwing stacked toys over his shoulder--I can see all the kids doing that in my mind's eye. Will he talk back to the teacher with impunity as though it is his supreme right to question authority. Remember Risa in First Grade--no fear of her teacher at all. She was put in the corner for talking in class and she was still talking from the corner and she said, you told me that I was going to the corner for talking--of course I'm going to have to talk louder--I'm way over here in the corner. Big dumb teacher. Adrienne and I were trying to repremand her, but I was beaming with pride and couldn't stop smiling. Adrienne was all parent.

And Adam needs new pants--he's grown out of the old ones. He told me his size and that is the size of my first "real" jeans when I was seventeen. I can't believe I used to be that size, but I was. Either he's getting really big, or I have a long, long way to go on this "watch it" (it's not a diet).

Today was the big 1 0--that's ten big pounds that better stay away from me forever. It's funny--I think about food more, but I don't crave chips. I allow myself to eat just about anything, but in smaller portions and when I "cheat" (eat more than I planned), I'm really limited about it. Let's hope this keeps up. P.S. They haven't played the latin tape for two days, but now they've played the same country tape (really bad singers singing "I put Your Picture Away" OMG) both times I've been there. Be careful what you wish for.

It's Let's Get Mushie Time

The Sun is Peeking Through

but the clouds are still on the horizon. There are a few iffy looking spots on the ceiling in the house, so I think I'm going to need to put Adam on the roof to empty out the puddles from this rain. I am so not ready to buy a new roof. Rain, rain, go away.

That was so cool that Boston won, maybe I'll rethink this hate Boston that I have been unreasonably harboring all these years. I might even watch the World Series--stranger things have happened.

I did all my christmas shopping early (I'm done really) and now I keep finding cool things to get for people. I'm already using up all my will power on my "watch it" non-diet, but luckily there's no money in my wallet, so I should be ok. Sorry family--so many cool presents you'll have to get from someone else.

It's lost

I created a post this morning telling you all about the storm watch, trees in Lake Arrowhead, the "latin" tape and a whopping one pound that I've lost in a week, but it's gone. You didn't miss much. The teasers always sound better than the actual story. We had a journalist speak at our Kiwanis club--he's supposed to be a turn around expert for newpapers, but he really didn't say much. It was kind of sad. He said he was going to give us his soap box speech about the importance of the 1st amendment that we probably didn't want to hear and then he said basically (and almost in these exact words and only these words) "the first amendment is important". Yeah, I get that--speaking to the choir, but give me some great arguments, give me some insight of a journalist, give me some horror stories about what we lose when it is threatened. Nothing, just "I know you don't want to hear this (I did), but the 1st amendment is important." I'm not running right out to buy his paper.

The going is slow

Well, it is still raining--day 4 of storm watch. They said on the news that trees are falling up at Lake Arrowhead because the ground is saturated and they've lost so many trees to a beetle infestation and fire, that there's no wind break to save the remaining ones. Everything changes, but it's pretty sad.

One pound is pretty sad too--pretty slow movement on the weight loss path. I'd like to kick it into high gear and starve for a while to see some progress, but I know that won't last a lifetime, so I'm trying to be one with the slow path. I am giving up trying to be one with the latin tape at Curves. Today I wrote a mean note to the manager--I didn't say stomp on that tape or I will get a gun, but I tried to convey my extreme distaste for that tape. 7 out of the last10 times I've been there that damn tape has been playing. They have about 100 tapes, so it is obvious that someone is out to get me.

Last night I switched between Clubhouse (the kid was so cute when his player decided to stay), the Big Loser (I stopped watching before they voted someone off--this is just another survivor), Scrubs (I love that show, but it is so strange) and the baseball game. They had to call out the riot police for Boston's last at bats, because fans were throwing baseballs at the umpires. I really hate Boston, but I have to admit, that was a sweet win for them.

Yep, things are pretty slow around here.

It's Raining and I'm going to Hawaii

It never rains in California--it does now. I think this weekend is the first time it has rained since Melody got here at the end of January. Of course it was time to get my car washed, but we'll let the pollution filled clouds rinse first. It looks like it should be a cold day, but it was warmish this morning. I still wore a sweater and feel like I should be bundled up in vests and sweaters for fall. For once, it actually looks like Fall.

Steph called this weekend and said that she has some flying perks with Northwest, so hopefully she'll be coming for a visit at Christmas time. I had sent her a little housewarming present, but apparently she doesn't have a mailbox, so it'll probably come back and we should use her Mom's address.

Josh came back and fixed my bathroom completely--it's very nice to have a completely fixed bathroom. Ris is supposed to have a barbeque for her 18th birthday on Friday, so I hope the rain is all done by then. Adam got an F in geoscience and when I e-mailed the teacher to see what we could do to help him improve his grade, the teacher was indignant that any breathing person could fail such a simple, simple science class. Of course what is simple for this guy is the next guy's (Adam's) boring last class of the day. Up hill--that's where we're climbing.

Ken (the magician) Fedorka in my Kiwanis club passed away this weekend. His illness was kind of sudden, so we're all a little surprised. He had agreed to be president of our Kiwanis club in two years, so now I agreed to take his place, but that would make me president at the same time as the ABWA convention, so I said I needed to change with JP who's supposed to be president next year. JP said he'd love to switch, because the Kiwanis convention in 2006 is in Italy. I'm glad to switch because the convention next summer is in Hawaii--the club will pay my way. Pretty funny universe. (And Adam won't even get extra credit for recording how strange the universe really is.)

Project Complete--Birthday a Success

I can't press enter after I type in the title or it publishes--who knew? So my Manual on Debt Collection is done. I stopped reading it over and over on Wednesday, so I'm not sure it's any good, but before Wednesday, it was pretty good. I e-mailed off a Word version after I spent about an hour fixing all the little gaffs between word perfect and Word (and going through about 100 help topics to figure out how to make the line spacing 1.5--good grief). I'm done, it's out. I guess I better get to all the other stuff on my desk.

Melody had a pretty nice birthday she says. We had a dinner at the house--a bunch of teenages decended on Adrienne and I, but it was fine. Mike is very nice. Josh tried to fix my toilet (being the apprentise plumber), but unfortunately he tighted something to stop the leak that needed to be loose in order to flush, so it's back to the drawing board. I still forgot to call a plumber.

I'm cross-stitching a puppy out of a book Adrienne and the kids got me last year for Christmas for a gal at work who likes dogs. I only have one color done, but it's starting to look so cute that I'm thinking maybe this making presents for people for Christmas instead of gift certificates that I can't afford is going to work. We'll see. I have about five more projects planned and that doesn't include anything for Jackson which is the most fun to do. I just got a card from Kathy (Lazzano) that Bailey is having a baby next month--they already know it is a girl. That is just not possible. Kathy's going to be a grandmother. So I'm getting out the baby bib cross-stitch book--luckily I have lots and lots of blank bibs waiting to be stitched. TTFN

Project Complete--Birthday a Success

Back to the Center of my Universe these days

No, it's not Adam (although I did just take off for a half an hour just to make sure he wasn't locked out of the house since he wasn't home right after school--he was at baseball--improptu practice). Seven and one half pounds (the center of my universe)--aparently all from my wrist. My watch flops around on my wrist now, but all my clothes are just as snug as ever. I think about food a lot now. I'm very proud at my calorie counting abilities and I've not gone over 1,200 since I started writting it down. I didn't eat the cupcakes that looked soo yummy at the meeting last night and I didn't eat the m&m cookies sitting on the counter and I didn't eat the delicious looking cookies at the meeting last Wednesday and I haven't gone down to buy snacks to eat while I am working on this incredibly boring long endless project (that I now have a three day extention to finish--ugh). Today, I did add a snack to my count, but I'm still well under 1,200. Next week I'm going to add spagetti and a bagel meal which is a little pricey calorie-wise, but my plan is to eat the foods I'll eat forever in moderation--it's going to be fine. (Although my poteshingwa meal has fewer calories than spagetti and I ate that in September and didn't lose a thing, but I'm still trying to blame September entirely on potato chips.) I am toying with the idea of taking Melody's birthday and Marisa's birthday off (and eating a piece of cake), but instead I might just buy units the way polluting companies do. I'll come in under 1,200 for a few days before cake by enough calories so that I can "afford" cake on that day. I've been losing a pound every other day for a little while, so when I hit a plateau, I'll start counting fats. (Did you know that croutons have tons of fat--it's dried bread, but it must be drenched in yummy butter.) I guess it's not a good sign to be on a "watch it" (not diet) and have yummy as your new favorite word.

I'm Freezing

In my old office it was always warm--way too warm most of the time, the office caught the direct sunlight, but I liked it just fine. In my new office, for months now, it has been pleasant--a little warm when I close the door, but otherwise, lovely. Not today. Today for some reason the air conditioner is blasting full blast even though I have the control turned to the "off" position. The maintenance crew guy explained that the other side of the office (near my old office) was complaining that they didn't get enough pressure, so the upped the pressure all around, hence I'm freezing. So I said, make my control work so that I don't get all the air in my office. Do you know that damn thing worked for the three minutes that the guy was here and then stopped. Ugh. So I went into the library, but the computer froze, twice. So I went to my secretary's desk, but she has one of those organic a tis ized something or other keyboards and my nails are so long, I just couldn't get it to work. And her screen looks funny. And I am afterall the Queen of Procrastination. So I'm back in my office trying to keep my fingers warm by playing solitare. I should know that doesn't work, it makes them numb. Deadline is tomorrow. I'd guess that I'm half way done. Tonight I'm giving my Dan and Roseanne speech to an ABWA chapter--that'll be fun. TTFN

P.S. For inquiring minds (Erika) my Dan and Roseanne speech is about estate planning--all the traps that will cost your estate a lot of money using the Connors as my example of everything that can go wrong. They won the lottery, they had a house with a mortgage, a sole-proprietor business, four kids and one is 18 (but they don't trust her as far as they can throw her), etc. Makes for a good horror story to get people thinking about doing estate planning. BTW Have you and Lyle got a Will and a Nomination of Guardian??? That baby's awful cute--I think I could take Elaine...well maybe I better start training now--better yet, don't die for a long time. Yeah, that's the ticket. Sorry, we estate planners have to talk about that stuff.

Are you Gellin?

I always think the next line should be "Like a felon" in that commercial. How politically incorrect would it be for the cute black guy to have that line. Martha Stewart starts prison today--what a crock. We have nothing better to do with our tax dollars then go after such a ticky tack thing. God forbid we actually pay attention to stuff the admin's doing and all the lies that fall off their lips so effortlessly, but I guess lying to the american people's not a crime. Who could we get to pass that law.

Perfection is not for Procrastinators

I am the Queen of Procrastinators. I know this about myself and I plan accordingly. I have a very large project due next week and I've been worrying about finishing it for two weeks now. I actually blocked out three days to work on nothing else and yesterday after putting in a total of about 20 hours on the project I had finished two (what I considered) difficult sections. So I went back to the outline to map out how I would finish what in my mind was three more sections of about the same size. My two (I must say brilliant) sections are actually all part of the first section of four sections in the first section of three sections or about 3% of the work. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to devote 10 hours each to the next 50 subjects left. Today I must master mediocrity and get much farther along quickly. Curse that Catholic School education.

Misunderstood

I'm not liking this key that says you are supposed to tell all the people around you about trying to lose weight. I have gotten way too much advice, number one from people who first need to be told how I'm not going to be eating all those vegetables that are good for me and number two from people who think they know my food choices and therefore have just the diet for me. (Just because I like steak, doesn't mean I'm willing to give up spagetti). I'm pretty good at small portions and I think giving up potato chips and snacks is going to have to do it all by itself. Time will tell.

I'm toying with the idea of riding a bike and it occurred to me that I've never worn a bike helmet. Never. That's how long its been since I was on a bike. So I decided that I'm going to wait until I am so much skinnier, so that I'll have a 50-50 chance of looking cute rather than ridiculous.

A Brief Hiatus for Blog, but Fond Farewell to Chip

Yesterday was just too busy to blog--work, work, work, go visit Dad and get him sprung from the joint, errands, errands, off to Mary's, look at my watch and back to Glendale for YWCA's annual meeting. There was the usual Rah, Rah, Rah for all the great things that get accomplished at the YWCA, but best of all, the horrible debt that crippled us for years seems to be getting settled and under control. The gal whose arm I twisted to take my place, did a great job (I secretly vowed to be the last person standing and clapping at her standing ovation, but it went on so long, my hands hurt.) One disturbing note did come out and it will throw us back into a financial hailstorm. Unbelievable. So I'm rolling up my sleeves and I'll be more involved to see if I can help. Tonight is Kiwanis annual Installation Dinner at Castaways which is a pretty nice restaurant in Burbank. I'm having an apple and cheese for lunch, so I should be able to eat the obligatory chicken they serve at these things. I'm still going down weight wise, but September was a disappointing 2 1/2. October has already beat all of September and it's only the 5th, so I'm taking heart. There was a piece in the Curves newsletter that said the circuit isn't supposed to be a cardio workout, rather weight training at the machines with the running in place as a recovery. Baby steps is my feeling, but I'll need to add more exercise and weight training. I'm also going to read "The Zone." I finished "The Glucose Revolution" but their diet is unworkable for me. I will take some of their tricks and work them into my diet. Did you know that pasta that is less soft is less fattening--takes more time and energy to digest. Sourdough bread is better than white bread--lower GI--takes more energy to digest. So far those are the only food tricks I've been able to glean--oh and of course, try wheat bread. Wheat is way better GI wise than white. A disappointing September has spelled the deathknoll for potato chips--I do so miss them, but I have enjoyed every chip for a very long time. It was a sweet relationship, but a distructive one. And so, we must go out separate ways. Take heart, tasty potato chip; I'll never forget the good times we've shared.

Dad's Fine, but bored

They found a bed and he's in Northridge Hospital, room 4209 (818)885-8500 then dial 0 after the message lets you, it rings for a long time and then ask for room 4209. If there's no answer, then dial all of it again but ask for the nurses station for 4209 and talk to his nurse. He goes down for tests a lot. He has congestive heart failure and he's taking laysick (phanetically speaking) to clear liquids from his lungs. The CT of his lungs was clear (except for a few old scars from smoking). He had a test to see if he had blood clots in his legs, I believe the answer was no. They have him on blood thinner now also. He's not as tired in the hospital as he was at home--which means the laysick is working. They want him to stay in the hospital til Monday, but they'll have to see how the blood thinning is going. On Monday, he's going to have a procedure which stops his heart and starts it again more regulated, but that shouldn't keep him in the hospital longer. That's all the news I know. He seems to like his doctor, but he's bored with the hospital already. I'm going tonight to play cribbage--how is it possible that I don't have a cribbage board--I have to make a pit stop at Toys R Us. TTFN