Sunday, June 28, 2015

ARRL Field Day!

Happy Saturday!

Just got home a bit ago from mooching dinner off the people who are actually participating in Field Day out at the NWS office in White Lake.  Randy's out there with the usual bunch of operators.  A couple of us wives pop in for a while but I'm the only one who is a ham, also.  With it being cloudy, windy & rainy, they weren't getting many contacts.

It only got up to like 60 degrees today!  Sheesh!  I had to close the windows.

I saw a nice shelf cloud on my way north on I-75 going thru Auburn Hills.
Randy was busy posting a video of one of the guys operating CW (morse code).  OMG, he specifically requested that red shirt, since several of the other guys were wearing theirs, too.  So they are all twinning!  He's got a grey one for tomorrow. 
 Caught a lovely sunset at the NWS.  The tower on the left has various weather instruments on it and the big ball thingy on the right is the Doppler radar.  The building in front of it with the white dome is where they store the equipment for the weather balloon launches that happen at 7am and 7pm.  
 I drove into rain on my way home, but the sunset behind was stunning! 

We had a busy today -Miss Angela's duet partner had her grad party today, so we went over for a while.  Since it was raining, everyone was inside the house & it was packed!! And hot.  Whew!  We didn't stay too long, since she was going to another grad party and I needed to take Randy his overnight bag and & sleeping bag / air mattress.  I was really surprised when I'd just gotten there and she texted me to ask how long I'd be there.  I'll be there as long as I feel like it!  Then she called and asked if her & Joey could come there.  Sure!  It's nice with her driving, since I didn't have to leave when she was ready to.

The NHL draft was this weekend.  What's up with the Red Wings signing all these guys whose names I can't pronounce???  Svechnikov, Saarijarvi, Van Pottelberghe ??   So glad I'm not an announcer. I can handle Pearson, Holway & Marsh.  I should watch this one of these times to see how its done. I just imagine this being like choosing teams for a dodge ball game or something.  Lets see, DRW, your turn!  Mmm, (looking at a bunch of guys lined up against the wall) we choose Evgeny!  Next turn, oh darn, another team took the guy we wanted, so I guess we'll take Vili, etc.

Why have I just discovered Imagine Dragons??   I just downloaded Demons, Radioactive & I bet my life.  Those are some awesome songs!!  I'd heard them in the past and liked them, but never knew who did them.

Angel is signed up for summer dance classes - surprise!  I'm glad we stopped in the studio and I didn't just mail the check in, since I didn't look close at the schedule the studio emailed out that had the All Star team classes on it.  Whoops!  No real surprise that she made the senior All Star team - most kids who tried out did make the team in some way.  We will have to decide just how involved she's going to be in dance this year.  I'm sure she'll have a lot more homework in college than she ever did in high school - which was very little. Plus working, that's going to be a shock to her!

I showed her where she could apply for any number of part time jobs at PetSmart so she can start earning some of her own dollas.  I just happened to look there, I'm sure most chain stores have such a thing on their sites.  She wants to go to college for a Vet Tech and working around animals could only help. I'm sure the college counselors also have some contacts at places she could check into, also.

Some seriousness for a moment (those do happen!)  I am totally happy for the Supreme Court to pass marriage equality for all peoples.  I know a lot of others are unhappy about this, for a multitude of reasons.  First of all, I really can't see how anyone's personal business is any concern of anyone else - such as who they marry.  If they're happy - Awesome!  As I see it, if you're not a gay person who wishes to marry the person you love - then this law really shouldn't mean anything to you - as it does not apply to you!  So don't worry about it.  And so it may be against what the Bible says.  So is murder.  So is adultery.  So is thievery.  Why aren't more people upset about these things that actually do harm to others??   THAT is the asshattery that's bringing the state of the country down.  
Rant over.

Holy crap - it's almost midnight!  No wonder the one cat just sat next to me and meowed.  She was telling me it was bedtime.  Now the other is stretched out like a big orange cat loaf just out of my reach so I can't pet him. Better him than the dog who was very clingy last night - and had gas badly!  Later!

#TFTLS


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Weigh in & update 6/24

Happy last Wednesday in June!

Was up a smidge (0.4 lbs) at WI tonight, but (don't read the next paragraph if you're squeamish due to TMI) I started new BCPs this month and I've been spotting & bloated, seriously MOO.  Thank the Lord for elastic waists!!  Hopefully next month I'll start to adjust and things will calm down to normal.  At least (knocking on wood) I haven't been emotional, but then again, I swear by St. John's Wort for the safety of everyone around me.

I broke out the Plan & Track book so I can get back doing that. I'm actually using the calendar schedule page and also the shopping list page.  I've been so lousy getting my fruits & veggies in - I mean WHY???  Look at all the good stuff coming into season!!  

I had to double check my logging tonight, since I showed with 3 points left for the day!  I can't remember the last time I had regular points left over!!  But I had my snack at like 2 and didn't want to have anything else until I weighed in at 6.  Then I ran a few errands and came home and dinked around after the meeting, before texting Randy to say I was having a salad, since he wasn't home from work yet (and still isn't at 10pm!) I had some crab meat, shredded cheddar cheese, 2 hard boiled eggs and fat free ranch dressing.  So a total of 14 points, with the glass of milk I had, too.  STUFFED!  Then I took the dog for a 2 mile walk - and we did it in less than 40 minutes!
I'm pretty pleased with the 24 APs this past week.  I'm trying to think of what I did Thursday to have so many, but all it was Miss Angela's dress rehearsal for the recital and we ran some errands before loading up the car with costumes and I sat in the auditorium while she danced her butt off.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was easy - I mowed the lawn and removed an ancient forsythia bush from the yard - sans tools!  This would be more impressive if I'd taken a 'before' shot, but I hadn't planned to remove the entire bush - it just happened!  I went to break off a couple dead branches and even the green ones were just snapping off!  I'll go out this weekend with a shovel and dig out the stump and it'll be just a fond memory (NOT).  I hated that ratty thing.  Now to yank up the other one that the dog keeps getting himself tangled in. And if we cut down the 2 dead trees and 1 almost-dead tree and our yard will be nice-ish!
Anyhoo, that's what I'm concentrating on this week.  Getting in the fruits & veggies and tracking everything in the book (as well as eTools).  I joined a challenge on eTools so that's a little extra motivation / support, too.  

This weekend is the ARRL Field Day, which I don't usually participate in, but Randy does.  He operates from the National Weather Service office so we'll probably go out there to share dinner with him and watch the meteorologists launch the nightly weather balloon.  I'll have to watch out for chips & cookies that always seem to be in abundance out there. 

Well, it's time to get ready for bed and to clean out my knuckles that got scraped up while removing the ratty bush.  Probably should have done a little more than soap & water in the shower last night, so they're looking sort of angry!  Oops! 

#update


Sunday, June 21, 2015

Happy Solstice!

...and Happy Father's Day!  


Just a quick photo dump of what we've been up to recently - so I can get this posted tonight.  I'm just waiting for the washing machine to quit so I can put clothes in the dryer and go to bed!

Dacne recital was Friday night.  Thursday at dress rehearsal we could video / take pics so I did. 

As if I don't already have a zillion pics of her solo! 
 The unenthusiastic ballerina. 
En pointe
Little Swans
 Lyrical
They flip her during the dance.  
This is the hiphop dance they only had about a month to learn, due to their teacher being fired and the new one scrapped the prior song / dance and started new. It was short, but they did pretty darn good!  You can tell Angel by her crazy blonde pony on the left. 

There's the entire queen sized bed and Chester chooses the sliver of edge next to my to lay on. 

These are going to be the centerpiece for Angel's grad party.  Black petunias and orange / white impatiens.  Her school colors are black/white/orange.
 Speaking of.....We found this Coke Zero bottle at Meijers tonight.   
 We couldn't pass up a selfie with a mini Coke can that has our last name on it! 

I'll be back soon with a real post.  Life may possibly be slowing down for a little while - YAY!!!!


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Refocus !

I swear Dez, my WW leader, was in my head tonight!  She talked about how after being on plan for a while, one tends to get complacent (nodding head), kind of slacks off on the tracking (nodding head), maybe doesn't weigh or measure foods like they should (nodding head) and even skips meetings (OK, nope - not doing that!)

And she talked about how June & July are a lot like the winter holidays. June brings graduations (yup), proms (yup), bridal showers (yup), weddings (yup), open houses (yup - ours is in August, tho), family reunions (yup) and July brings the 4th and all it's requisite BBQs (yup)  so lots of chances to really screw things up.

So she suggested to Refocus, meaning really thinking about what you're doing and making good choices, etc.  The problem with me is that I totally forget!  I'll go eat something and then I'll be like "WTF - what was I thinking?"  I do that way too much.  I made a list of stuff I ate this past week that wasn't the best of choices (which mostly didn't get tracked) and I'm embarrassed at how long that list was.

I need to sit my butt down and make a total meal plan, including snacks.  I've not been getting all my fruits & veggies in.  Sure haven't been exercising.  I thought for sure once the kid started driving and I had evenings to myself that I'd be out walking, but for some reason I feel like I'm getting off work, going home, dinner and bed. And I swear I'm not going to bed at 8 pm!  

So I was up .07 lb. Meh.  Does anyone else try to gauge how they feel before weighing in to guess if the scale is going to be up or down?  Is that just me?  I need to get my butt in gear, I was just looking down at my roll.....ugly.
 Activity was pretty average - 20 APs.  You can tell which day I mowed the lawn!

So this is why I won't be missing any meetings this summer!  I want the smiley face charm!  I may be missing one meeting while we're on vacation in July, but that'll be fine.  10 out of 12 meetings.  Mine!
I had to screenshot the notification I got from WW last week - this is funny! I don't know why it still insists my weigh in day is Thursday.  My mobile app is set to Wednesday, as well as eTools.

So tomorrow night is dress rehearsal for Miss Angel's dance recital.  Dinner will either be at 4pm or most likely closer to 10pm.  Yay.  Friday is the recital and we usually hit Wendy's before and in the past we'd go to Red Robin afterward.  Last year, the studio owner got a stack of pizzas and basically had a party at the studio afterward.  If you want to see all her zillions of costumes, I have them posted here on my other blog....  I wish I could say we're done with dance, but we're not.  Summer classes start in a couple weeks, so maybe her ankle will finally heal after she sprained it back in January! She tried out for and made the studio's All Star team and will be competing for them again next year.  Hope she doesn't have culture shock when she starts college classes and actually has HOMEWORK!  Since she sure didn't have much while in high school.

Anyhoo, I still have to go to work tomorrow, so I better get turning in - the next couple days are gonna be long ones!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Dance Pics 2015

I was so happy to see the large white envelope from Northern Lights Photography in the mail today!  We've been waiting for these!  Pretty sure the photographers thought Miss Angela was part fireman, since she was changing in and out of costumes so quickly.   I wanted photos of ALL of her costumes this year, which meant the 3 additional ones from the other team she was on.  She does have one more dance, but it's acro and she just wears black shorts & top so I didn't require a special photo of that. 

I'm loving the ballet costume this year.  It's so elegant.
Ballet - 'Masquerade Suite' 
 Pointe - 'Little Swans'
 Competition Jazz (duet) - 'Cold Hearted'
...with her partner Katie.
 Competition Jazz (solo) - 'Sophisticated Lady'
 Hiphop - 'My Love'
 Lyrical - 'Peace'
 Competition Tap - 'Grown Woman'
 Competition Contemporary - 'A Walk in the Park'
 Competition Hiphop - 'Bounce'
 Competition Jazz - 'She Bangs'
Movement Project Jazz (JamFest National Champs 2015!)
Mal forgot to bring this jazz costume with her, oh shucks!
There were 7 girls in the group all together, but only these 2 from our studio. 
 Movement Project Hiphop
 Movement Project Pom

Since we got the blessing for Angel to dance with DOS for another year, Friday night she attended a clinic with a goodly amount of other girls at the studio and Sunday she will be trying out for the new All Star team.  I'm pretty sure this is a trial thing, they'll be going to 1 or 2 competitions of the same type that the Movement Project went to - of the cheer type.  So they'll be doing just hiphop and pom.  We're pretty confident she'll be making this team, also.  I'd say well over 3/4 of the girls at the clinic are currently on the studio competition team.  

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Congrats UHS Class of 2015!!

Just posting real quick since OMG, this happened Saturday!  

Commencement was held in the Palace of Auburn Hills - so when the principal told us each student (all 400 or so) could bring 50 people and we'd still have plenty of room, he wasn't kidding!



They scrolled all of the yearbook pictures across the Jumbo-tron.  We were happy to catch her since they weren't in alphabetical order.  In fact, names weren't even on them. 
Her mop of blonde hair made her stand out.  She told us where she was sitting so we could get close. 

Marching out of the tunnel to their seats. 

Listening to the speeches.
By the way - the boy who'd been in the accident?  He wasn't allowed to graduate with his class.  Talk about adding insult to injury!  Read about that HERE.  When the Superintendent of Schools got up to speak, she was booed.  And when it would have been Joe's turn to walk, several people yelled out his name.
Crossing the stage. 
 
After they crossed the stage and got the folder, they went along the line of teachers and shook hands / hugged.  Behind where they were sitting, they got their pictures taken in front of the flags and then got their actual diplomas. 
I like how they did the tassel ceremony.  They held the tassel on the right - this represented their sophomore year and there was a story about it.  Then they held it in the middle - that represented their junior year (and story), then they moved it over to the left and that was for their senior year (and a story) 

Hooray! 
They went up to the concourse thru the stands - she came right by us!
So Proud!
With BFF Brittney and Britt's boyfriend. 
 
Aaaw!
We went out to dinner afterward and the waitress was happy to take our picture.