19 May 2007

Just a quickie before I head off to work.

I slept in this morning. I slept until 6:45 which, if you have birds you know, is LATE!!! When I finally got up and moving it was getting late but it was such a gorgeous morning I could not miss my bike ride. So I hustled through my chores and headed out.

It was one of those postcard mornings. Brilliant blue sky, white fluffy clouds, the ocean was calm and crystal clear. You know in the hectic day to day I sometimes forget how lucky I am to live in Hawaii. Well, today was one of those days that helped me remember.

Since I was a little tight on time I only did 13 miles (about an hour). I did get 1/2 way up the monster hill that's 5 miles from my house. It the road that goes around the east side of the island and the hill is monstrous.
This picture shows the road. It's a steady climb from sea level up. This picture only shows a small part of the road. It continues up and around the mountain for a few miles. So I made it about 1/2 way up what you can see of this monster before I ran out of time and energy. Luckily the ride down is a lot faster :) Kind of scary actually.

Anyway, that was my morning. I'm off to work for a few hours and then it's some housework - yuck!!!

18 May 2007

Father's Day

Well, Father's Day is right around the corner. It is that season Dads, Grads, Brides, etc. Aside from some graduations, Father's Day is the next big thing.

If you're trying to figure out what to get your father you have got to check out these very cool Fathers Day Gifts. They have baskets for all kinds of Dads, golfing, gardening, fishing, etc. They even have a cool spa package for Dad. Very cool.

I am not good at Father's Day. I lost my Dad when I was 13 so I don't have practice with the day. It was hard when my daughter was little, getting gifts for Hubby, I just wasn't used to it and it was weird to me. So if your Dad is still around, check out the very unique baskets, get him a gift, tell him you love him, and do it for me and my Dad.

The new blog

Okay, finally the new blog is up and running and likely to stay that way. After many false starts, I think I've finally fixed everything - at least for the moment.

I will be using this blog primarily to document my training and weight loss. The new blog will be more about life and stuff. I can guarantee there will be some good posts over there thought not necessarily about training.

So you might want to cruise on over there and check things out. Eventually this blog will be incorporated into the new one but that won't happen for a while.

So that's the latest. Hope to see you over there.

A great week.

It's been an awesome week. I'm working out hard and feeling really good. Vicki has given me a great idea to prevent myself from falling into the workout slump that has been the pattern in the past. I'm going to work on a very conservative running plan and begin running again. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to view it as if I'm just starting and haven't been working out for the past 3 months.

Things are going well. I'm in a good mood because it's Friday. Nala seems to be doing a little better this morning. Life is good.

I'm going to do some posts now to make some money. Hope everyone has a great day and a fantastic weekend.

17 May 2007

Acupunturist

Nala is back from her first visit to the acupuncturist. You can read all about it here.

Golf travel

While I would like to travel to see ancient sites. Hubby's idea of travel is a little different.

He's a big golfer and so wants to travel anywhere there's a golf course. Myrtle beach golf has always been on his list of things to do. When we lived in California we planned all our vacations around golf tournaments. That's what he would do all the time if he could.

Coastal Golfaway offers golf packages that are incredibly reasonable. They have hotel with tee times included. Some of the packages allow you to play more than 1 course. Sweet. In the Myrtle Beach area there are more golf courses than there are hotels to stay. Interesting. I thought Hawaii had a lot of golf courses, I was wrong.

This would be the total dream vacation for Hubby. Hmmm.... Maybe for his birthday in the next year or two I'll take him to Myrtle Beach. He would so love that. I have friends in South Carolina so I could find ways to amuse myself. This is definitely a possibility

I've entered the danger zone

I have a wall calendar that I keep in my workout room. It's big, 27" x 18", and the date boxes are 2.5" square. On this calendar is where I log all my workout stuff. I do my workout then log it on the calendar. I also right down any problems I'm having, sore muscles, back hurts, hip pain, whatever. It's an easy, visual way for me to see where I'm at. It also helps me keep track of my weight sessions and how long I've been doing them since I switch them up every 4 weeks.

By using this system I've been able to spot certain trends. For instance, I have this same pain the 3rd week of every month. I don't know if it's fatigue, overwork, or what, but it happens the 3rd week of every month. I also start to lose it the 1st or 2nd week of the month. Not sure why but those are the weeks when I have my unscheduled breaks. In April that break lasted a week. This month when I saw what was happening (I'm starting to pay attention to the patterns) I was able to stop it and it only lasted 2 days (1 really).

Another pattern I've noticed is after I've been working out strong for 2 - 2 1/2 months the wheels start to fall off the bus. It always happens at the point where I'm feeling really good. Getting up without the alarm. Sleeping like a baby. Pushing myself without killing myself. And finally feeling like everything is working and that I actually may reach my goals. Then for no apparent reason things just go to hell. I don't know why exactly.

I'm at that point now. I'm feeling invincible and starting to really see changes in my body composition. Now is when I have to be careful. I have to keep my workouts up and not let them slide. I have to remain strong. I think if I could get through one such period I'd be fine. So here goes.

My workout was really good this morning. I'm working on chin-ups and oh. my. god. are they hard. My goal is to do 5 perfect ones. For some reason I ran out of time this morning and only got to do 2 sets of my interval training. That's okay. I went for a ride yesterday morning and got some good intervals in. It all balances out in the end.

Got to get some work done. I'm leaving early to take Nala to the acupuncturist.

16 May 2007

So this is annoying.

They are working on the house across the street from me and they are doing a lot of sawing wood. Well, Xena has picked up the noise. She was doing it as loud as she could earlier. This would, of course, cause Nala to bark her fool head off which would cause Xena to get louder because that's how Moluccans are. My house was a pleasant place to be earlier. Hmmm, I wanted a bird why??

It that isn't enough. Rocco howls at sirens. Nala doesn't really howl but tries and it sounds like an animal in agony - it's ugly. Well, they were howling and guess what, Xena has picked it up. So now I've got the 2 dogs and a bird howling at sirens. I tell you, it's great being me.

We have some friends going on vacation and right about now that sounds really good. It would be great to rent Las Vegas luxury condos and just hang out. It's pretty cheap to get from here to Las Vegas. For some reason it's a super popular destination with the locals.

Nala got bite by a bee on her rear leg and it's been swollen for a couple of days now. It's finally starting to go away. Did I mention I'm taking her to an acupuncturist tomorrow?? Her leg has gotten so bad and there's nothing traditional medicine can do for her. I've decided to try something different. I figure it can't hurt and just may help.

Okay, that's all for tonight. I'm going to watch Lost and then go to bed.

I forgot.....

This morning is technically a rest day but I like to do something even when I rest, plus when I get on a workout roll I don't like to skip a day, it breaks my momentum. So I had planned on a bike ride today. It is now light enough out at 5:30 a.m. to ride safely so I decided it's back to it. In a purely inspired moment I got my bike down and ready last night. I haven't ridden in weeks so the tires needed air and the water in the bottles was yucky (that's a technical term :)

So I got up this morning and into my riding clothes. After getting the animals settled I headed out. My first task was to fall in the driveway, scrap my knee and butt, right in front of the elderly neighbor. Once that was accomplished, I headed out with blood running down my leg.

When I set out the sun hadn't risen yet but the sky was light. I'd forgotten how much I love that time of morning. It's cool, because the sun hasn't come up. It's peaceful, because most people are still sleeping. It's pretty, because the roads I ride are mainly flower farms. I had forgotten how I used to look forward to these rides. They were my favorite workouts of the week. Well, I'll be looking forward to them again.

The only bad part was when I became surrounded by dogs. I was riding down the road and as I came around a bend there was a dog lying in the middle of the road and another on the shoulder. Hmmmm. I stopped and the dog stood up with her ears perked up and tail between the legs. Talk about your mixed body language. Hmmm. What to do. I decided to turn around and take another street, I was not in the mood to do battle with dogs. I turned around and there are 2 more dogs in the street behind me. Hmmmm... This doesn't look good. When I started moving the dogs behind me (now in front of me) headed up their driveway and away from me. Okay, that's good. I look back and the dog that had been lying in the road was now headed away from me, towards home I guess. So I turned back around to go the way I was going originally. When I passed the dog that had been in the road, she stopped and looked at me. I said in my best friendly human voice, "Good girl" Well, that got her all excited. She started panting, and wagging her tail, and following me. I cranked it up and took off and lost her quickly. Nice way to get the adrenaline going in the morning.

So that was my morning. I had forgotten just how much I enjoy this ride and I'll be doing it at least twice a week from now on.

15 May 2007

For the Grads, Dads, and Brides in your life.

Until May 17th Americangreetings.com is offering free ecards and printable greeting cards. Usually they charge a small fee for full access to their site, but in celebration of their redesigned website they are offering everything free until May 17th.

They have a great selection of cards for all occasions. They also have a large selection of character cards with folks like Elvis, Care Bears, The Muppets, just to name a few. I'm sure between now and Thursday you can think of people to send these cards to, I know I can. They completely redesigned their site and now have things like easier navigation, a "Find it Quick" feature, and a rating system for the cards. This makes it really user friendly and easy to navigate and find what you want.

Go!!! Check it out!!! Trust me, it's worth the trip :)

Once again things are cluttering up my mind.

I haven't been paying close attention to current events lately because 1) I have a lot going on right now, I'm just too busy, and 2) it's drives me crazy. I'm really beginning to believe that an awful lot of people are incredibly stupid.
But this morning as I'm driving into work and listening to talk radio some things really struck me.

Why are they making such a big deal over Mitt Romney's religion??? So he's a Mormon? So what? I heard someone say that the Mormon religion is a hoax. Isn't all religion basically a hoax? Aren't all religions trying to sell you a bill of goods? IE; their religion is the true religion all others are phony and you will go to hell if you believe in them? Isn't that a hoax of sorts?? So I don't see the difference. Some of the things the Mormons do believe are a little strange, but at least they don't think we have aliens attached to our souls (Scientology). To be quite honest, I'm not a "religious, church going person" but I would much rather our president be a man (or woman though not Hillary) of faith than not. At least if they have a faith they are generally grounded in strong moral values and that's important as the leader of the free world. We saw what happens when the president is fast and loose with the morals (Clinton!). So that's got me puzzled.

Then I heard that Jerry Falwell died. I've always had mixed feeling about Jerry. He was a man of strong faith and I believe he had the best of intentions, but sometimes he was a royal ass. After 9/11 he said it happened because of feminists, gays, and someone else (I forget). If that isn't an asinine statement I don't know what is. But in listening to the story of his death it suddenly hit me. I do believe in God and I believe God gave us free will. I think that people who blindly follow any leader, be they religious or not, will have to answer to God. He gave us free will and I really believe he expects us to question and test things. Listening to the news report of Jerry Falwell's death suddenly made that so clear to me. Our future is not set in concrete, we can change it. I believe we are given a general path to follow but it is up to us what we do along the way - that's our free will.
That was a mini revelation.

Finally I heard a news story where some group or another wants a law passed to make penalties for something harsher. Every time I hear of new laws being passed I think of couple of things. First, how are we going to enforce it? This particular one deals with the usage and storage of pesticides. Are they going to send someone around to every one's home to see how they are storing their pesticides?? Repeatedly, since you use it, buy more, etc?? No! It's completely impractical and unenforceable and therefore a waste of every ones time and money. Then I think, if they can't enforce the laws we have now what purpose does passing a new one serve? Our penal code is so thick now no one can know all the laws in there. We are probably breaking laws everyday and don't even know it. Also, the laws they pass are so stupid. One of my favorites is the blind cord one. I think like 3 babies were killed by getting caught in the cords to the blinds on their windows. So they pass a law to make them safer. Why don't they pass a law that if parents are that stupid they can be forcibly sterilized?? If the parents can't tell that putting a crib near blinds is dangerous they should not be allowed to reproduce again. Okay, done with the whining.

I have been working out like you would not believe. I'm attacking each workout with high intensity and I can really feel it. By the time I'm done I am wrecked. Sore muscles, shaking limbs, can hardly move. Yeah, it feels good. I'm on a mission. I purchased a body fat caliper on eBay and received it yesterday. I immediately measured myself, a couple of times, and kept getting different readings. I'm sure this is because I don't know what I'm doing and the more I practice the better I'll get with it. But all the measurements were within a 5% range so that's good. The bad news is, it's higher than I thought - bummer. I have a Tanita scale but it doesn't have an athlete mode and the more I workout the higher the body fat goes. This morning it said 40% - I don't think so. Anyway, this just gives me something solid to work towards that's not a number on the scale. I'm on it.

Okay, that's all I have for today. Tomorrow I start my early morning biking again and this weekend I begin my running again. It should be fun.

A quick note to say hi.

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I haven't been blogging and I haven't been commenting. I apologize for that. I have been reading blogs but very quickly. I'm trying to get some stuff done.

One of the things is my other blog, Flo's Place. I had to take it down because I had a the wrong plan. So I got a new plan and have been trying to get it up and running and it's not working. There is apparently a small error but I don't know how to fix it. I don't know WordPress but by the time I'm done I will!!

You know, I'm pretty good with computers. I really have a feel for them and find most of the working intuitive. I can pretty well figure out any programs given 1/2 an hour to an hour and if I use it regularly I can find all it's little tricks. But the truth is I hate working with computers. After about 45 minutes it feels like my head is going to explode. I've gotten pretty good at HTML through this blog and I can do most everything I want to with it. Now it's time to move on and learn WordPress. Ugh!!! Someone poke my eyes out with hot pokers.

Okay, hopefully I'll get this worked out and be back blathering away at an alarming rate soon.

13 May 2007

It's Sunday night

and I made it through the weekend. It was fun. The Pet Expo is so much fun because people bring their pets. So we talk to them and meet their pets. It was a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun.

I got to see a few different breeds that I'd never seen in person before. One was an Italian Mastiff, the Cane Corso. Very large dog, very large!!

I'm trying to think what other breeds I saw and I'm drawing a blank right now. Maybe more will come back to me later.

I'm pretty tired so I think I'll call it a night. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...