bunchofgrapes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bunchofgrapes) wrote2011-02-13 01:24 pm
bunchofgrapes) wrote2011-02-13 01:24 pm
I've Made a List
This is going to be a long post with a lot of randomness. A lot has been going on in the month since I last posted and most of it is good.
Woke up this morning to a boom. The windows rattled and stuff clinked. It was one of those moments when you think, "this can't be good". A couple of minutes later, I hear sirens. A couple more minutes later, I hear the sirens getting closer. A minute later I'm looking out my balcony door to see a fire truck dropping hose in the parking lot, coming toward my house. I see a cop car parked behind my car. Soon these two are joined by four more fire engines, two more cop cars and an ambulance. I step onto the balcony and look to the left, where they are focused on a townhouse six doors down from me. There's a funny smell in the air, like maybe fried electrical, and the Pakistani family who lives there are being herded across the parking lot. My first thought (and judging by the equipment, the firemen might have shared this thought) was that it was a meth lab but there was no fire and whatever it was didn't require tanks and masks. They did evacuate the families on either side of the townhouse though. All of the drama was over fairly quickly, with nothing much to see but some carpet being tossed outside and lots of cute firemen milling around. However, I'm very happy it was uneventful. I have this fear of fires stemming back from when I was in high school.
My mom and my aunt had just picked me up from a Saturday soccer practice and we were on our way home. We hit this massive traffic jam. We could see the black smoke billowing up and new there was a fire but it looked like it was on the other side of the expressway from us. Turns out it was the townhouse/apartment complex we lived in. They were doing some renovating and the spark from a welder's torch ignited the attic. The complex was huge, made of brick and wood, with wood shingles. The shingles acted like tinder and soon just about the entire complex went up. Thankfully, most of the apartments were empty for the renovations and most of the fire was in the renovated section and we were at the farthest end from the fire. But some of the roofs around us caught fire and seeing that much smoke and flame definitely scared the bejeezus out of me.
Ok, now on to the good. I went to the doctor last week. I knew that since November I'd been losing weight but other than going down a size, I didn't know how much. I lost eleven pounds. I thought maybe eight so eleven made me very happy. Part of it has been the recumbent bike but the other part has been cutting out aspartame (I swear I dropped a few pounds right off the bat after cutting the Diet Pepsi), and I've been following the glycemic index (mostly). I have to watch my sugar intake so that seemed to solve two problems plus, it's mostly what I was doing anyway. I've added a lot more veggies and fish (Omega-3 - halibut, cod, king salmon) to my diet, cut the aspartame and started drinking Zevia (it's an acquired taste but I now like it - fave is Black Cherry) as my soda substitute and more water and tea, and I discovered Kind fruit and nut bars, which taste great and have a low glycemic index (not all but several).
I didn't set out to cut out Diet Pepsi. My original intention was to just cut it down from 10 a week to 5. Then 5 became 1 and now it's just occasionally. I thought I'd really miss it but I haven't. I've gone organic or hormone free on just about everything but here I was, still putting this chemical into my body. I'm really kind of proud of myself for doing this because I generally have a problem changing my habits. It's been over a month now and I still have a Diet Pepsi in the cupboard but I have no desire to drink it.
I love cold weather and I love snow. But if it's not going to snow by now, then winter might as well be done. I'm not really looking forward to summer but I can't wait for the farmer's markets. We have some great ones in this area and for once I have a reason to like the summer.
We had some cold weather back in January but nothing as bad as Oklahoma had this week (-31 degrees? WTF?). Still, it was cold enough her to make me worry about Pudgy the stray when it got down to single digits. I added an extra bit of flannel to her box and coaxed her into the back yard where she quickly remembered that was her warm place. She comes and goes during the day but at night she's always curled up in her box.
And speaking of kitties, two of mine are now obsessed with flushing water. Whenever the toilet is flushed Tucker or Sophie or both will run to the toilet and watch the water going down. They are already intrigued by the shower water going down the drain so this is the next step, I guess. Tucker is still doing great. One of my happiest moments was the other day. I was scooping the litter box when he got in and peed. A lot. And quickly. Yes, I'm excited about cat pee but this is a big deal, people!
My parents and I have been doing a movie and dinner on a couple of Saturday nights. They buy the movie tickets (True Grit and The King's Speech) and I buy dinner. One night we were at dinner and my dad asked if I still had hockey tickets because he'd like to go to a game. Now my dad likes hockey like Christ liked sin so it was a big shock to hear him say that. It also made me very happy because one of my wishes was that my dad would go to a game with me. Last week he went with me. The Caps lost but he was really into the game. He was impressed by the speed of the game and of course the hitting and he loved the seats plus all the perks that come with them. Plus he got to meet my boss (she and her husband have seasons tix right below us). My sister was also shocked he went and couldn't believe that he actually enjoyed himself but he did. And so did I.
Last weekend I watched Cloverfield. Not sure if you've seen the movie but there are these nasty parasite creatures that seem to come out of nowhere. As I was watching the movie, I realized that these nasty parasites are like the spammers that keep invading the Jim Brass forum. Honestly, I think I've zapped hundreds of these nasty parasites since the board was reinstated back in November. Apparently, people in Russia and China and the Netherlands have nothing better to do.
I don't make resolutions but this year I decided that I'm taking vacation. We have to watch our overhead spending so I told my boss that this is my contribution for saving overhead. Vacation is already covered in employee benefits and if I'm not charging to overhead then that's a cost savings. She couldn't argue with me so that's my plan. For a while now I've been wanting to go back to San Francisco. Italy just wasn't feasible at the end of April/beginning of May because of work but a shorter trip the last week of April could still be done. So I asked my cousin in Portland if she'd want to go and by the time Sunday rolled around, arrivals and departures were coordinated and tickets were purchased. We still have to decide on a hotel but we have it narrowed down to a nice little boutique in a great location. We really don't have an itinerary - just do whatever we want. But I do hope to meet up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tos_lover while I'm out there.
Well, I think that about covers everything. Of course two minutes after I post this, I remember something I forgot.
Woke up this morning to a boom. The windows rattled and stuff clinked. It was one of those moments when you think, "this can't be good". A couple of minutes later, I hear sirens. A couple more minutes later, I hear the sirens getting closer. A minute later I'm looking out my balcony door to see a fire truck dropping hose in the parking lot, coming toward my house. I see a cop car parked behind my car. Soon these two are joined by four more fire engines, two more cop cars and an ambulance. I step onto the balcony and look to the left, where they are focused on a townhouse six doors down from me. There's a funny smell in the air, like maybe fried electrical, and the Pakistani family who lives there are being herded across the parking lot. My first thought (and judging by the equipment, the firemen might have shared this thought) was that it was a meth lab but there was no fire and whatever it was didn't require tanks and masks. They did evacuate the families on either side of the townhouse though. All of the drama was over fairly quickly, with nothing much to see but some carpet being tossed outside and lots of cute firemen milling around. However, I'm very happy it was uneventful. I have this fear of fires stemming back from when I was in high school.
My mom and my aunt had just picked me up from a Saturday soccer practice and we were on our way home. We hit this massive traffic jam. We could see the black smoke billowing up and new there was a fire but it looked like it was on the other side of the expressway from us. Turns out it was the townhouse/apartment complex we lived in. They were doing some renovating and the spark from a welder's torch ignited the attic. The complex was huge, made of brick and wood, with wood shingles. The shingles acted like tinder and soon just about the entire complex went up. Thankfully, most of the apartments were empty for the renovations and most of the fire was in the renovated section and we were at the farthest end from the fire. But some of the roofs around us caught fire and seeing that much smoke and flame definitely scared the bejeezus out of me.
Ok, now on to the good. I went to the doctor last week. I knew that since November I'd been losing weight but other than going down a size, I didn't know how much. I lost eleven pounds. I thought maybe eight so eleven made me very happy. Part of it has been the recumbent bike but the other part has been cutting out aspartame (I swear I dropped a few pounds right off the bat after cutting the Diet Pepsi), and I've been following the glycemic index (mostly). I have to watch my sugar intake so that seemed to solve two problems plus, it's mostly what I was doing anyway. I've added a lot more veggies and fish (Omega-3 - halibut, cod, king salmon) to my diet, cut the aspartame and started drinking Zevia (it's an acquired taste but I now like it - fave is Black Cherry) as my soda substitute and more water and tea, and I discovered Kind fruit and nut bars, which taste great and have a low glycemic index (not all but several).
I didn't set out to cut out Diet Pepsi. My original intention was to just cut it down from 10 a week to 5. Then 5 became 1 and now it's just occasionally. I thought I'd really miss it but I haven't. I've gone organic or hormone free on just about everything but here I was, still putting this chemical into my body. I'm really kind of proud of myself for doing this because I generally have a problem changing my habits. It's been over a month now and I still have a Diet Pepsi in the cupboard but I have no desire to drink it.
I love cold weather and I love snow. But if it's not going to snow by now, then winter might as well be done. I'm not really looking forward to summer but I can't wait for the farmer's markets. We have some great ones in this area and for once I have a reason to like the summer.
We had some cold weather back in January but nothing as bad as Oklahoma had this week (-31 degrees? WTF?). Still, it was cold enough her to make me worry about Pudgy the stray when it got down to single digits. I added an extra bit of flannel to her box and coaxed her into the back yard where she quickly remembered that was her warm place. She comes and goes during the day but at night she's always curled up in her box.
And speaking of kitties, two of mine are now obsessed with flushing water. Whenever the toilet is flushed Tucker or Sophie or both will run to the toilet and watch the water going down. They are already intrigued by the shower water going down the drain so this is the next step, I guess. Tucker is still doing great. One of my happiest moments was the other day. I was scooping the litter box when he got in and peed. A lot. And quickly. Yes, I'm excited about cat pee but this is a big deal, people!
My parents and I have been doing a movie and dinner on a couple of Saturday nights. They buy the movie tickets (True Grit and The King's Speech) and I buy dinner. One night we were at dinner and my dad asked if I still had hockey tickets because he'd like to go to a game. Now my dad likes hockey like Christ liked sin so it was a big shock to hear him say that. It also made me very happy because one of my wishes was that my dad would go to a game with me. Last week he went with me. The Caps lost but he was really into the game. He was impressed by the speed of the game and of course the hitting and he loved the seats plus all the perks that come with them. Plus he got to meet my boss (she and her husband have seasons tix right below us). My sister was also shocked he went and couldn't believe that he actually enjoyed himself but he did. And so did I.
Last weekend I watched Cloverfield. Not sure if you've seen the movie but there are these nasty parasite creatures that seem to come out of nowhere. As I was watching the movie, I realized that these nasty parasites are like the spammers that keep invading the Jim Brass forum. Honestly, I think I've zapped hundreds of these nasty parasites since the board was reinstated back in November. Apparently, people in Russia and China and the Netherlands have nothing better to do.
I don't make resolutions but this year I decided that I'm taking vacation. We have to watch our overhead spending so I told my boss that this is my contribution for saving overhead. Vacation is already covered in employee benefits and if I'm not charging to overhead then that's a cost savings. She couldn't argue with me so that's my plan. For a while now I've been wanting to go back to San Francisco. Italy just wasn't feasible at the end of April/beginning of May because of work but a shorter trip the last week of April could still be done. So I asked my cousin in Portland if she'd want to go and by the time Sunday rolled around, arrivals and departures were coordinated and tickets were purchased. We still have to decide on a hotel but we have it narrowed down to a nice little boutique in a great location. We really don't have an itinerary - just do whatever we want. But I do hope to meet up with
tos_lover while I'm out there. Well, I think that about covers everything. Of course two minutes after I post this, I remember something I forgot.
no subject
Great news about Tucker. Bodhi is obsessed with the flushing toilet as well.
Time with your dad sounds wonderful!
What did you think of The King's Speech? I loved it. Thought it was damned near perfect and if Colin Firth doesn't get the Oscar something is seriously wrong.
The trip sounds fun. I haven't seen
no subject
And yes, time with my dad is wonderful. I missed out on my dad when I was growing up and while it probably wouldn't have been nearly as good as it is now, I'm grateful for all the father daughter time we have together.
I don't hear from
no subject
no subject
Glad to hear too, that you've got vacation plans--that's lovely that is! And as for the giving up Diet Pepsi--I'm working on that, but with Diet Doctor Pepper. I'm indulging in Honest Tea, particularly the half-tea, Half-lemonade stuff. Yummy!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
BTW, if you haven't gone to the penny arcade museum in San Francisco, you should!
no subject
I'll make a note of the museum. We're going to get a car so we can cross the bridge and hit Sausalito but other than that, we don't really have an agenda.
no subject
Gracious. One has to wonder what in a home would DO that.
no subject
YAY for kitties doing well.
I am so bumbed that winter was not winter this year. This is the weakest winter since I moved here.
YAY for having awesome time with your dad.
That trip is going to be awesome. i am glad you are taking it.
Say hi to tos_lover for me haven't seen her around in forever.
no subject
I am sooo glad to hear that Tucker is still doing well. I know exactly the ecstatic relief from seeing a cat pee when they haven't been going very often!