To twitter or not to twitter...

I'm all for technology and new fun gadgets or ideas. But Twitter has me second guessing. I can see the fun of it. Quick, easy updates just to keep people up to date on what we're doing. But I joined another social networking site to do that... at least I think thats why I joined. For some reason I seem to spend way too much time fishing for odd looking fish in weird locations.. but I do try to keep things updated.

At one point I signed on for an account for Twitter, but never went further. Of late I've had 2 friends sign up and add me so they could 'follow' me via Twitter. But I don't Twitter anything. Who needs to know my next goal in life is a cup of coffee... or that I'm about to doze off over my keyboard due to a recent insomnia bout. Sure I can Twitter when away from a computer, but seeing as thats:

A) generally in a store picking things up

or

B) while at a park playing with my son

I just don't see much use of it in my life. In a store my goal is to get in and out and get on with life.... when playing with my son I should be focused on that. Can you hear him in kindergarten?

" JP what does your mommy do"

" she Twitters"

Now I'm not against people that do Twitter or that follow Twitterers. I'm not even against Twitter at all. Sure I can Twitter about my latest cake project, but that always seems more visual to me and most want to see a pic of whatever I'm talking about anyway. I just don't see what in my simple, quiet life is worth twittering about. A few years ago maybe.. now?

well... we'll see.

I'm back

Now that was a long break... no pun intended towards Joe's hip, lol.

I had a long initial post about the injury started, but figured you didn't need to read thru the whole saga. Basically Joe had a very bad break of the femoral head that required a steel rod and 2 very long screws. He was in a combination of 2 hospitals for a total of 16 days and came home on the 7th of February. He's healing great and is expected to make a complete recovery and be back to pre-injury status within another 4-6 weeks. He's using a cane and is able to drive now which is very helpful.

Joe and I are working hard on getting JP back to a normal schedule and normal life. Poor kid was constantly off schedule for about 3 weeks and wow did that show!

I have birthday pictures and a cute video coming soon. I signed up with a remote backup site called mozy.com yesterday and am waiting for the initial backup to finish before I add more pics. Only challenge is that I have about 2 days left for the inital backup, lol.

Just wanted to update a little bit and Peanut and I are glad to be back!

taking short break

Peanut and I will be back soon. For those that don't know, Joe broke his hip on Jan 22. He has a steel rod in his leg and is currently in an inpatient rehab at Helen Hayes Hospital. Needless to say much of my spare time is spent traveling to the hosp and visiting. We are hoping that he is able to come home at the end of next week. I have the story of the first few days to post soon, just need time to touch it up and finish it, lol.

See you soon!

Did you get my ham?

Life in the northeast is fun from time to time in the winter. The last few days we've been in the depths of a bone chilling cold snap. Yesterday morning I believe it just went to -3F. However that was cold enough to 'freeze' our fuel oil in the exposed line. If you're not familiar with this lovely event, it's not exactly as it sounds. The fuel oil doesn't freeze solid. Its more of a gelling effect which makes it hard to draw into the furnace to provide heat. It took a couple of phone calls to Joe until he stoped panicking and listened to what I was saying. All he had to do was take the cover off the furnace and hit a red button to reset the furnace. Luckily that's all it took. At lunch I went and purchased items to insulate our line further, but didn't do it last night because it was dark when I got home.

This morning the temp was a balmy -8F. I heard our furnace go on gasping for the few bits of thickened fuel oil that it could suck in. Our furnace is off our kitchen so I heard this well. After that event I turned the thermostat up to heat a bit more as I was still chilly. Guess what. It had shut down, the line had frozen again. Lovely. Nothing was going to work as the sun wasn't up yet and I had to go to work. My mom stopped by and then went to Home Depot to pick up 2 heating wire kits... one for me and one for her as she had the same exact thing happen to her yesterday. She came back to the office and dropped them off and attempted to leave.

And then came back in. Something was wrong and her steering column locked up more solid then the ice that won't leave us. 5 people (her and I included) did our best to get the wheel to turn and thus her key to start the car. No go. So AAA was called and a tow truck came. At this point Joe was well aware of what was going on.. this is a key point in today's story. Her car was towed to the garage of choice and I picked her up from there and took her home. All the while the 2 of us are fully aware that my house is getting colder and colder and the chinchillas and Peanut were getting colder as well. I finally got home near 1:00pm and the house was all of 46F. I said a quick prayer and pressed the aforementioned red button to reset the furnace. Thankfully it started and soon heat was coming into the rooms. At the same time I had started a strong fire in the woodstove which was helping as well.

Joe called to see what was going on. I told him I had just got home and was taking off my coat. His first concern?:

"Did you go grocery shopping and to pick up more ham for me?"

I then asked if he was insane. Grocery shopping vs. Heat in the house. Which do you think was more of a priority. He had the good graces to laugh and apologize and wisely admit that he should pick it up on the way home, lol.

Christmas 2009

ok, ok.. I know I'm early. But I want to change things a bit this year.

throughout the year I want to pick up gift cards to use for shopping later. I figure I can even pick up specific amount cards to match the budgeted amounts we set. Then next year we go shopping and our fund are all set.

I'm also determined to knit several projects this year. First up is this:

http://www.patonsyarns.com/pattern.php?PID=1461

my boss made one for me and my mom wanted one too. It was supposed to be for this past Christmas, but I never got it started. I"m hoping to get about 3-4inches done a night and have it done within a month. I was up to 3 inches tonight.. but in getting the link for this post I realized that I am using the wrong needle. Instead of a size 10 needle.. I'm using a size 6. Sigh.. time to undo what I've gotten done. Oh well better now then when almost done, lol. At least the work should go a bit quicker with a larger needle size as well.

I also want to make matching ...simple.. sweaters for Joe and JP. I have a beautiful yarn picked out. Lion Brand Suede in a rich, medium blue color. I need quite a bit so I'll be picking it up on sale and with coupons.

I can do this...

Anyone read Stephen Kings book 'Duma Key'?

This post has nothing to do with the book of which I'm 80% done. However the main character often mutters this phrase as part of a healing process.

Today it dawned on me that this needs to be a key phrase in my life with weight loss...

I Can Do This

Years ago I lost about 40lbs by just repeating the word 'No' in my mind. Some days and some temptations that was all I thought. Obviously it didn't work in the end. I've had success taking each day and thinking if I could 'X" amount of time, then I could continue until I reached goal. While I have some success... obviously I'm still trying to reach that goal. My new phrase though has potential. Its a positive, confident statement that's easy to say and remember.

I Can Do This

How many times have you made a grand plan to start a diet on a certain day and planned it out? How successful were you? did you make it to lunch? I generally don't. I've learned that I need to find my start day quietly. I awake each day hoping that that is the day that I start over again and learn to love myself enough to lose the extra weight and get healthy.

I Can Do This

I had such a day on Tuesday of this week. I just woke up and said that I'd have a healthy shake for breakfast... I continued thru the morning as per my Take Shape For Life program. I was doing fine with temptations around me at work. Heck on the way home I picked up some brussel sprouts and shallots at the farmers market on the corner. For dinner I had a delicious dinner of roasted brussel sprouts, shallots and shredded ham. Yes I actually CRAVED a dinner of brussel sprouts. While not a normal dinner.. I do like brussel sprouts, lol.

Today concerned me as its a day off and Joe goes to work at 2:00. So far today I've done just fine. I ran out for some shopping and picked up more veggies. My dinner tonight is going to be eggplant steaks with a garnish of roasted red peppers, chickpeas, olives and feta cheese. One thing I love about the Take Shape For Life program is that it's not an all or nothing plan and feta and black olives are fine. Oh and I'm also going to make a salmon filet I picked up. Yumm Yummm Yumm.

I CAN Do This!!

Peanut's Wednesday Weekly...The Green Bean and Cottage Cheese Diet......

So I have to drop a few pounds. Summer is coming and I'm not going thru it again with the harness bulge I had last year. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to wear a harness and have harness bulges??

Mom went on that corgi.com site she likes so much. There are quiet a few threads about corgis and weight loss. Several times there was mention of green beans and cottage cheese to help lose weight. Mom has started replacing my dinner with this option. Its pretty good so I eat it all. Although I have to admit I am noticing a trend.... tonight there were suspiciously more green beans then cottage cheese... still good so I ate it all. While it can't compare with my yummy raw meat and bone diet, I do get more in this meal so who am I to complain. When in the mood for a snack I just attack Dad's black shoes. Has to be the black ones.. nothing else will do. Mom and Dad don't like it when I do that so tonight they tried putting some tabasco sauce on them. Silly parents... that just made them more yummy.

Exercise is tough. It's an icy/snowy winter so far and neither mom or I feel the urge to walk on the road. For this I am grateful. That cold pavement hurts my feet. We do play more in the house, but it's a small house and I can only get up so much speed. I'm hoping the green beans work quick so I can go back to my usual 2 raw meals a day.

Till next week!!