Irritations

There are a few things that are irritating me right now. Not many just a few. Most of them have names maybe I should not mention them. But hey, that never stopped me before.

First irritation is Jezzie. She is a cat. She is a beautiful calico prissy cat. She will let you pet her only when she wants to be pet. She thinks when you are sleeping or reading or on the computer is the best time to pet her. She also has a nasty habit of knocking things off high places when she needs something food, water, attention, you name it. This morning she started the knocking things over bit around 8 am. Granted we are out of dry food there still is no call for creating a racket at that hour.

Second irritation is Celie. She is the cute Yorkie in my life. She thinks kissing me awake is fun. She is also not too happy when the cats get close to having my attention. She will run after them, sometimes biting them in the butt and getting a mouth full of fur. Today she played a new game. She ate my last bite of chocolate. This was only about 1/8 of an ounce. I was worried and looked up the consequences on line. She was not displaying any odd behaviors. Then I went and took a shower. As I was getting dressed she started growling down in the living room. I looked out the upstairs window and everything was OK. Why would she be growling? I went down to investigate and found her shaking, growling, and huddled in a ball on the couch. Then I started to really worry. I called the vet. The vet thought she should come in for observation. While on hold with the vet I learned the source of Celie's upset. Someone sent me a get well balloon when I got out of the hospital. She was terrified. That balloon was so frightening to that little girl she could not control herself. I really did not want to go to the vet for observation. I am having enough trouble observing myself. Bottom line, I decided not to go to the vet. Celie is behaving normally. Why make her throw up and then put her through all that testing and watching. Besides that she is just starting to grow out that silly poodle cut they gave her last time she was in for observation.

Third irritation is me. I am not well yet. I am still dizzy. I am still in pain. I am still not able to work as I need or want to.

Other irritation? I want to be working and am feeling not ready yet. My clients are getting used to me being out. They aren't even getting in touch with me if they cannot make their training appointments.

OK. Thanks. I feel better now. Irritations are aired and now I can be free to go about my lazy day.

Start something new!

Took my sock project to work with me. Left it at work. Did not touch it other than to move it from the car to the office. Now I need a project to work on. I am not happy with anything I am currently working on. I like all of the projects don't get me wrong. They are just complicated. I am in the mood for easy. That is super easy. No lace involved. Yes, I said no lace. Does that mean I can start something new? I think that means just that. New. New yarn. New needles. New attitude. Watch out world April is getting her creativity fired up. Something out of the Spring Knits maybe. Watch for news of the mad knitter who has reached her stepping potential for the day.

Ambition

Ambition. I have it. Boy do I have it. If all it took were ambition then I would be out there right now in this "feels like 37 degree, overcast skies" weather hiking up Mt. Mitchell! Maybe not Mt. Mitchell, maybe just a nice day hike or even a few hour hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway some where. Then I would get into The Fire and do a full body workout followed up by a nice stretching routine. Ambition is a wonderful thing.

Realism. I have that too. I learned that this week. Well, maybe I have been learning it for years but I think I learned quite a bit of it this week. Since I have learned realism I am going for the safer route with exercise today. LAUNDRY That may seem like small potatoes in the fitness realm but in my current state of well-being it is a realistic route. The machines are in the basement. This means multiple trips up and down the stairs. (Remember what those stair climber things look like in the gym?) I am wearing my pedometer again today. The goal is 6500 steps. I'll reach this easy. I am not into the weightlifting during cardio stuff yet. So the clean laundry will stay in the basement until someone who is able to climb stairs and carry heavy loads comes along to take it all upstairs for me.

I tried some functional weightlifting yesterday. I went out shopping. I bought many food and beverage items. I even bought a case of bottled water. Water is heavy when put into containers. Each of these containers on their own would have been easy to transport. This was a case of 24 bottles each holding 20 ounces. No matter how you do the math that case of water was heavier than my 20 pound weight lifting limit. The math I was doing was on how many bottles and how much they cost. Then if we resell the bottles is it a profit or not. Bottom line? The cart became quite heavy. (Yes, I did do that silly move and lift that case from the bottom shelf up to the cart and then realize it needed to go under the basket!) At the 3/4 mark I called Kam to come help me complete the process. The cart was too heavy to push. I thought it would be a piece of cake. Fill this thing on wheels and push it to the finish line. Then ask that the bags all be 20 pounds or lighter. That way I could get them into the car. After all that I planned to drive home and unload the car. Somehow I forgot that the driveway is at quite a steep incline. (I am still needing help holding the car door open so it does not hit me as I slowly ease out of this machine.) Lucky for me Kam the super trainer came to rescue me. She was able to push the cart load of food to the finish line. She was also able to drive us home, my exhaustion level was high and not encouraging of driving a Mustang down I40! Then to make the whole experience a dream she unloaded all the groceries! After a quick lunch I took a nap for 2 1/2 hours.

Which brings me back to realism. Laundry is the big goal today. I get to rest between trips to the basement. Later I plan to go into The Fire and train my clients and run my evening class. I am not sure when the nap comes into play but since I have become attached to it in a better-do-it-or-you-will-fall-over kind of way I am sure nap time will present itself.

yet another beautiful day

It is another gorgeous day here in the mountains of WNC. I have traded in my Tour de France goals for step goals. This makes more sense now that I am working the recovery from surgery angle of health. Yesterday I made it 4300 steps. I was tired. I slept good. I woke earlier than a) I wanted to and b) the usual recovery hour. This was due to the return of the house mate. Somehow Kam can leave the house before 7 AM and I never hear her. She is getting out of bed, taking the dog out, showering, eating, and leaving through the same front door. Then just an hour later doors slam from bedroom to shower, shower to bedroom, and finally out the front door. (OK done ranting!) So, up earlier and feeling a bit battered by a baseball bat around the mid section. )I am really looking forward to those bruises going away. Could be that craving for juice filled with anti-oxidants in it that will help. I just thought it was sugar!) And here we are part way through the next day and I have already got 3044 logged in. Today may actually out step yesterday.

Celie is liking the new stepping thing. She wants to be smelling all the spring smells. I am amazed at how many dead worms and crushed bugs there are in the neighborhood! I am wanting to be noticing the crocus blooms and green sprouts of iris and tulip peaking through the mulch in the neighbor's garden. My garden is also showing some green stuff coming up. It will be quite interesting to see what is there this year. I was given so many bulbs in pots as congratulations and condolences last spring. They all went to the flower garden. I am tempted to put down some good fertilizer. I am afraid though it will smell like dead fish or some other wonderfulness that Celie will just have to roll in and bring back inside! These are the moments that she reminds me she is a dog not just a princess.

The sock is progressing right along. I am decreasing as told. Kam thinks I should have started sooner. She thinks the thing will be too big. I am hoping she is wrong. I have lovely pictures of it. I am just in a bad tech way and cannot seem to get the photos off the camera, or camera phone, and onto the web. There is most likely a book for dummies out there on the subject. I would just rather someone come along and tell me how it is done. Too bad my nephews don't live closer. I am of the opinion that anyone under the age of 16 knows all there is to know about these things.

Happy early spring air to all!

The ambitious slug

Once there was a slug named April. She sat and laid around all day. When night time came she slept. When her partner went off to work she slept for another 3 hours. Even the small dog Celie could not get her to move around and go for walks. Then the weather changed. Celie won and April slugged her way around the block in the sun. After this grand adventure both needed a nap. A new day dawned and April found she wanted to walk further. She and Celie walked all the way to work. There April paid a bill and made a list of items needed from the office supply store. After the office supply store April was worn out and needed a nap. Silly slug thought she would be able to see her clients after all that activity!

Surgery recovery has been a bit slower than advertised. Pain level high and head full of pain meds have made the knitting progress slow too. I have been working on Lakeside in chocolate brown Sock it to Me 4 ply from Elann.com. Now that the fog is clearing I am having more fun with the lace. Still on the first sock but am onto the initial decreases. I think that puts me at about a third of one sock. I thought I would have the pair completed before I was back at work but that is not happening. Saddness. Bright side? As soon as I can go back to work I think this will be something I can work on while doing my cardio knits!

Off to play with some yarn...

Bananas

I love potatoes. They are a fabulous food. Boiled potatoes can be so very many different dishes. Simply add butter and parsley stir and there you have nicely creamy potato chunks. The next day the leftovers are wonderful pan fried. Baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, yum. French fries either baked or deep fried, still tasty. Potato soup, this is by far my favorite soup. I can't think of anything better when I am feeling down or sick than some form of potatoes.

Sadly potatoes are no longer on my menu. I discovered through the long process of elimination dieting that potatoes cause me pain the next day. So what do I do instead of potatoes? Bananas! Yes, green bananas boil up as a nice potato substitute. The bananas must be very very green. If they have started to turn yellow or yellow green they have already developed sugars and don't boil well. These are not plantain bananas they are regular eating bananas that have been picked young and not gassed to speed their ripening process.

How are they prepared? Cut the ends off and slice the skin from tip to tip through to the fruit. Be careful here, bananas excrete a milky juice that stains. Then put in a pot of water. Add about a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of oil to the pot. The salt adds flavor and the oil makes for a nicer clean up, that milky juice turns to a glue on the side of the pan without the oil. The bananas are cooked when they poke out of the ends. This takes 30-45 minutes. Peel the bananas and slice them. Then you can saute with olive oil, onion, and garlic. They are also very nice tossed with a bit of butter, cilantro, salt and pepper.

While bananas are not potatoes they do make potato loss easier to handle.

Haitus

I am back after quite a long hiatus. I found that opening a business will do that for the creative outlets. There was all that fun knitting time for holiday gifts. That paid off too. I think everyone was pleased with their hand knits this season. But then came the up fit.

WOW! What an intense time. I thought I would be able to blog my way through. No way dude! I was spent at the end of the day. My hands were so tired from pulling carpet, painting, laying cork flooring, and what ever else needed to be done on the given day there was no way I could think about typing!

So now I am back. I am working out again and getting some creative time in. I didn't worry about the workout aspect too much until all the construction stuff was complete. Now that I am not knee deep in construction demands I am realizing the need for exercise again. Last week afforded me a couple of workouts and then a few days of nursing a headache. No workouts allowed during headache time. Today I am headache free and planning some solid cardio-knitting. I had to start a pair of tube socks for Kam to accommodate my simple knitting needs. Her feelings will not be hurt by a new pair of socks. And I am able to use up some leftover stash yarn.

One of my favorite clients found this contest site. I went ahead and joined. The challenge is 18 weeks long. I am also going for the BFL Challenge. But that one is only 12 weeks. I am curious how having a surgery during these challenges will effect my outcome. I know I had tried to get going on the BFL earlier. As with most everything else it fell by the wayside while we were opening THE FIRE. But with that surgery, hysterectomy on the 26th of February, I was told I would be released for exercise after two weeks. Now if that means I am back to my normal life~miraculously fabulously great! If that means I am able to do moderate exercise in the form of cardio~great! If that means I can tell others what to do but still need to wait before I am back doing my own routine~oh no! My hope is to go into a 75% living foods diet during my recovery. That will assist my body in its fat burning and healing while not moving. This may be a challenge in itself. I know it is not easy to have a diet different from what the rest of the world is doing when others could be responsible for care and/or feeding.

Goals are good!! I encourage everyone to make some goals now. Create little steps to accomplishing those goals. Bring your life into focus. Make your health a lifelong priority!!