What Up, Weekend? 7/28/17

I can't believe I haven't written a real post since the 4th of July!  Sheesh.  There really hasn't been much going on.  I'm way behind on reading blogs, too.  Then I feel weird for wanting to comment on someone's post that's 2 weeks old (or more)!

Pretty sure I missed my Blogi-versary again, too.  

Yup.  

My first post on Blogger was 7/25/09.  I was on Yahoo360 before that, but I was a dumbass and didn't import that blog into Blogger.  Pretty sure I'm not missing anything special.  Those first couple years' worth of posts are horribly pitiful!

I'm linking up with the lovely ladies of The Posse for a happy / gratitude / positive post.  I just love this idea!  

1. Last weekend was the hubby's 50th birthday party.  We had about 10 people come over for burgers & dogs, cake & ice cream.  The weather was insanely humid and we got a couple small rainshowers, but nothing that lasted a long time.  We had our retractable awning out and between that and the garage, we were good.  It was nice having people over. 

2.  When it was just my mom & sister left, Angel decided she wanted our input on the dance she was self-choreographing for comp team auditions this week.  I've always wanted to see a solo done to Lee Brice's 'I Drive Your Truck' so she was trying to figure out a 45 seconds to 1:30 minutes long dance. Of course my sister was showing off her moves and wanted Angel to use some of them!  

 

This is pretty much how we both looked, watching Laurie.

She had some cool elements but was having a hard time transitioning them together.  So she switched over to a cover of Journey's Faithfully and put together a really nice dance in a relatively short time.
    

Gratuitous cat picture. 

Its hard to sleep when there are 2 furry bodies between your ankles!

Daisy finally accepted Rusty into our family and will demand he groom her. 

3.  So I took Miss Angela into the doctor again - she found a lump on her breast, but thankfully it ended up being fibrocystic tissue.  Basically she's lumpy and that time of the month made one of the lumps tender.  She had an ultrasound to make sure it wasn't anything else. Whew!  I sat with her in the waiting room at the hospital where all the ladies waiting to have mammograms and such go.  She sat there and I can always tell when the gears are turning and she's about to make some observation.  But all she said was it was awkward sitting there in her jeans,  but wearing just a gown on top.  I told her I was the one who felt awkward, since I was the only one fully dressed!  

This fish stared at me the whole time we were in the waiting room.

4.  Dance season 2017/18 is officially beginning, kind of!  Auditions for the team are tonight.  I technically don't need to go, but I will so I can be moral support, and also catch up visiting with the other moms.  And maybe see the fresh meat, trying out for the first time.  Last year was funny, because the big girls were all in learning 'the combo", they came running out to grab their tap shoes they were all huffing & puffing & drenched in sweat.  The younger girls all stared with eyes the size of saucers! 

5.  It's official that Nationals will be in Orlando next June!!!  It's there instead of Daytona Beach like we first heard.   The only problem with that is regionals are in early February, which is really early.  Usually we don't start competitions until April.  But sightseeing will happen, oh yes!

Wow, that's about it for now.  

(I'm at work and they kind of expect me to work!)

******************

Let's all take a moment and remember all the sailors who were were on the USS Forrestal CVA59 50 years ago today (since it's the 29th in Vietnam)

Trial By Fire

Generations of sailors will never forget this event, since this video is shown to every group of kids going thru bootcamp as a training film. 

Rest In Peace. 

We have the watch. 

Skywatch Friday 7/28/17

Holy crap - it's been forever since I did a Skywatch post!  

 I took this at the park at the end of my street - I love the shadows!

Also, I found this beauty in my yard and rescued it from a spider web.  It graciously posed for me while I took this pic.  I've never seen such a pretty butterfly in my yard!

Pop on over to the linkup and see some beautiful photos!

Skywatch Friday

Transforming Tues.....errr - Wednesday!

I went to my meeting tonight because instead of going to my usual meeting.  Last night, I went with my sister to look at a horse she was thinking of buying (but she's not - a nice horse, but too small & green for what she wants).  And proceeded to eat bar food for dinner.  Taco Tuesday bar food, to be exact.  A huge ass steak quesadilla with a bucket of sour cream to dip it in.....

That and I'm sure the cake & ice cream Saturday for the hubby's birthday didn't help.  And these things called Bubba Burgers?  With cheddar & bacon mixed into the meat??  Wow.  

This is 2 weeks in a row earning 87 FPs!

I'm very pleased with my activity.  6 out of 7 days over 7000 steps!  Let me tell you, on Sunday after the party, I only got like 2800 steps.  We went out to breakfast, and then parked our butts on the patio, not to move almost all freakin' day!  I even took a nap!  But Friday I'd mowed the lawn so I clocked in with 16000+ steps.  Balance. 

btw - this was awful!  

I make some pretty amazing homemade pasghetti with whole wheat noodles & ground sirloin, etc. so this stuff was blargh.  I sent this pic to the fam and told them I was poisoned and needed to make some of the real stuff for dinner!  

I have a baby shower & 2 grad parties this weekend - wish me luck surviving those!  

Transforming Tuesday 7/18/17

First of all, Happy Big Milestone Birthday to my sweetie!

Last weekend we went for pedicures on our anniversary, then tonight we went out to dinner to the Olive Garden & for ice cream afterwards.  

I think I did a pretty good job controlling myself. I got one of the lighter side menu items, only had one breadstick & 1 piece of fried mozzarella - that was a feat, let me tell you!  I love bread of all kinds, so I told myself I could have 1 piece and I was actually happy with that!  Then when we went to get ice cream, I got a small twist instead of something big & heavy. 

I went to weigh in before dinner.  I was happy with my 1 lb loss.  I made sure to track pretty decently, and I went over my goals steps 5 out of 7 days!   

From the WW app. 

 

ala Fitbit app.

I wish the days lined up, but they're close enough.  

My challenge this week was Sunday.  My uncle passed away unexpectedly and the cousins had a potluck "celebration of life" for him. (It's ok - I got the jist of his opinion of me when he unfriended me on FB for no reason that I know of.  But I went to show respect to my already-ailing aunt & cousins)  I don't know what my problem is, but the only thing I thought about was what I was going to take to said potluck instead of how I was going to navigate it wisely.  I had 3 fried chicken legs, potato salad, coleslaw, fruit & cookies. And the chicken wasn't even that good.  

Funny that this damn bunch of coupons on the table at work bothered me more than the little raspberry & chocolate tarts that had been left there.  I haven't eaten at Burger King in years!  When I got a basic grilled chicken salad and my fingers swelled up from the copious amounts of sodium in it.....never again.  But a mushroom & swiss burger??   Mmmm.  I turned the paper over. 

Gratuitous cat picture.  I'm glad I was done using my pillow for the day!

This week's challenge will be Randy's BBQ birthday party Saturday afternoon.  I'll make sure to have a lot of fruit & veggies to counteract the burgers & dogs he requested. 

Game on!

Transforming Tuesday 7/11/17

(and I didn't even go get a free Slurpee today!)

OK, so I am attempting to make my Weight Watcher accountability posts a regular thing - so welcome to Transforming Tuesday!

I'm tired of how I look & feel.  My heel spur (plantar fasciitis?? idk) has been acting up again, so I do elaborate stretches & foot rolls before getting out of bed in the morning.  My ankles don't like to work right away, either.  

So here we go!

My face is insanely crooked.  This is the best of several pics I took.

Sheesh.

I've been on WW entirely too long to have only lost 39.2 lbs, total since day 1.

I've been on WW more or less continually since 8/08 and even managed to get 2 lbs away from Onederland in 8/13 and it all took a shit.  You can look at my "Work in Progress" tab and see what I mean.  

Ya know what sucks?  Meal planning. And the requisite grocery shopping.  I have Mr. Kinda Picky who is at the mercy of the asshats at work, so I never know when he'll be home from work.  Then there's little Miss Picky who is just that - picky.  And has late dance classes throughout the week.  So I may or may not have people here to eat food with me and who also may or may not eat leftovers!!   Tonight, as I turned over my new leaf (the 2.8 lb gain at the meeting may have had something to do with this), I said screw it all.  I made chicken packets with asparagus or zucchini and when they were done - I ate alone!  Randy got home and they were still warm, so he had one, too.  

On the plus side, because it was meeting night, I didn't snack after work, so I'm sitting here at 9:30pm with 7 points left for the day!

And tracking - damn, I'm horrible with tracking!  I have alarms set on my phone to go off at 8:30am, noon & 9pm but I tend to ignore them.  I need to get better with that. 

Right after work is a bad time for me.  I get home at 4 and I just want to eat everything in sight!  I know I could easily grab an apple or banana or whatever, but I don't.  I get cereal or a granola bar or crackers & real peanut butter, etc.  But if I run errands or whatever after work, I'm fine when I get home!  It's like my eyes see the clock and tell my stupid brain that it's time to eat, even tho I'm not really hungry.   I do that at work, too.  I get there at 7:30am and have a bowl of oatmeal, either with strawberries or PB2.  Then sometimes I have an apple or my yogurt at 10:30 or so.  And even tho I'm still OK, I see it turn 11:30 and I'm thinking I need to go have lunch.  

From the WW app 

from the Fitbit app

this was a lazy week!!  

So.  Here we go! 

Happy Independence Day!

Hope everyone has had a safe & Happy holiday!

We invited ourselves up north (its a Michigan thing) to my sister & brother in law's place on a lake.  They have property alongside 2 of their close friend couples so there were a lot of us up there (and a total of 8 dogs, too)!   

We left home fairly early Saturday morning and got home Monday evening.

It's about a 2 hour drive, so we were entertained by playing Bingo.

 It was surprising hard to find the pickup with bow hunting sticker (I saw a lot of deer stickers, but not specifically bow-hunting that I could tell at 75+ mph) and ever more of shock to not see very many dead deer!  

I don't remember how this joke started, but the only tiome we eat Spam is while we're camping and Randy has to "hunt Spaminoles" so here is one in it's "natural" habitat. 

Got it!

 We were amazed at how many varieties there are!

 It was an utterly beautiful weekend, it was breezy at times, but not hot at all.  Glorious!

 An itsy bitty toad that I happened to see in the grass.  I relocated him to a safer area. 

 Sister Linda & Dave had some "Magic Powder" to put in the fire that turned it colors.  

 Angel trying to walk all 4 of our dogs.  Barney (sister Laurie's dog) is poking up the rear, my Jack is the Beagle and Linda's "Ster Boys", Baxter & Webster are leading the pack.  Webster got the Drama Queen award this weekend.  He pulled Baxter & Angel along.  Then I took the 2 of them while she kept the slow boys and they pulled me along.  Towards the end of the walk, Linda took them back and Webster promptly went to the shoulder of the road and collapsed like he was exhausted!  The little scammer wanted to be carried!

This is the extent of Jack's swimming.  He wades out until his front feet are almost off the bottom and will just stand there and look.  

 Token selfie with the kid. 

So basically all we did was sit around & visit.  Play washer toss.  Take golf cart rides. Take walks.  Take pontoon boat rides.  Sit around the fire after dark and have a few adult beverages & pretty much just enjoy ourselves.  

Angel talked us into going tubing but the lake was packed with weekend warriors (aka people who don't know the lake rules), it was really choppy and the pontoon didn't go fast enough to tube as she would have liked, but at least she got to go.  Laurie & I also took a turn.  I think I pulled something in my shoulder.  Up until this morning it was just aching so bad!  

 The ice cream man stopped by and the dogs quickly learned that he also carries dog treats with him!

 yes, Chuck the Skeleton went along on the pontoon ride.  

Jack was pooped on the way home, but he gets slightly anxious in the car, so I had to document him actually laying down!  I use his harness & leash as a seatbelt of sorts because he won't sit and be still, he stands on the very front edge of the seat and more than once he's ended up on the floor when we've had to hit the brakes.  So this helps keep him ON the seat.  

So we got home around 9 Monday night and were up entirely too early to go see the parade in my hometown.  Randy & I usually help out with radio communications, but since we thought we'd still be up north, we weren't expected to help out, so this was the first time he actually got to watch a parade!!

The best part is the beginning with all the police & fire trucks from Clawson & neighboring Troy with their sirens & lights all going!

Randy took this video. but didn't show Barney sitting by Laurie, howling with the sirens - he's so funny!  Pretty sure the firemen couldn't hear him, but they could see him with his head thrown back, all dramatic!  A lot would laugh & wave. 

We all take our dogs to the parade, and a lot of the groups have figured out that's what people do and will pass out dog treats.  So once we got to our usual spot and sat down, Jack was settled at my feet, watching down the road from the way the parade comes!  Normally he's really protective of me, and will nip at any men who come to close (like politicians to shake hands, etc) but one guy came up with a treat and he was able to pet Jack, too!  My dog accepted a bribe! 

This guy was the main standout - he was so funny!  

It was a fun weekend and Randy & I both happily took naps when we came back after brunch and visiting with the fam at Mom's house. 

Back to the grind tomorrow. 

The Houston Chronicles, part 7 ... 6/1 - 6/3

Sadly, Laura & I decided we were going to leave a couple days earlier than planned.  Gin's boyfriend (who was NOT supposed to be home) was indeed there and was jealous that we were taking her attention away from him.  He had his panties in a twist and screamed at us for making too much noise when he had to get up for "work" (when & if he chose to go in)!!  So our evenings from Tuesday on, consisted of sitting on the couch, on our phones. There was also another female friend who apparently was there a lot of the time and felt no qualms with sleeping in their bed.  She was nice, but all of this meant Laura and I slept sitting up on the couch with the pugs between us.  And those poor little guys didn't take to the heat well and also picked up fleas....so we didn't get much sleep with them panting & scratching & holy crap can they snore! 

On the way down, Randy kept telling me we should stop at his mom's house in Hot Springs, AR since it was close to halfway between Cinci & Houston.  I had told Laura while at the Battleship Texas that if she decided to leave early, I wasn't opposed to it.  Neither of us felt comfortable with being there with Asshole Joe and Laura must have thought about Randy's offer.  She asked if we stopped, would we be able to spend the night and get a good night's sleep?  We both were having bad swollen ankles all the time because of all the walking we did during the day and not being able to lie down at night.  So Randy actually called her for us to make sure it was OK to bring all the critters with us.   She was delighted to have us stop in!

 I talked to Mama Love myself to indeed make sure she was aware of all the extra furry bodies. 

Otis the Magnificent

On the road by 1pm!

Both of us still wearing what we slept in, sorry Mama!

We got to her house 9:30ish Thursday night and the plan had been to take Mom out to breakfast Friday morning, show Laura around Hot Springs a little bit, then head out.  But alas.....as we drove down Central Avenue, I saw the banner for this awesome little event called the Running of the Tubs!  Happening Saturday.  And it's something I'd always wanted to see!

In the West Mountain Tower.

OMG. I was so torn.  I wanted to get home so bad, but I also really wanted to see the Running of the Tubs!  Laura said she was OK with staying, since she was driving.  Randy said we should stay, I even got a random text from Angel saying I'd regret it if we didn't stay!  So I asked Mom if we could stay one more day and she was OK.  Woohoo!  

btw, I'd never been to Hot Springs in the springtime!  I've been there once in July and almost melted into a puddle and every other time it was at Christmas.  So seeing the magnolias actually in bloom was pretty neat. It is beautiful there. 

Anyhooo, the Running of the Tubs.  The most hilarious thing I'd ever seen!  

Central Avenue is completely closed down and spectators are encouraged to dress in bathrobes & slippers & bring their water guns & water balloons.

I had no problem with taking Chuck along.  I figured if people were gonna be there in bathrobes & stuff, a skeleton wearing camo would be no big deal!  

Oh, and the pug in the stroller!   Laura felt safer with Punkin (the blind one) in the stroller since any sort of crowd would be too much for her to handle. She got a lot of attention!

There were 12 teams of 5 people consisting of 4 pushers & 1 bather and their modified bathtub.  Everyone had to wear suspenders & a hat of some sort.  Each pushers also had to carry bathing implements, like a towel, scrubbrush, etc.  The tub was also filled with water and had to have at least 10 gallons left in it when they crossed the finish line. 

The Battle of the Badges was the first heat - the police against the fire department.  Definitely got the most cheers for each heat they ran in!

HSPD won both the Battle of the Badges & all their heats against the other teams!

They had stations they had to stop at and do things, too.  And they may or may not have gotten stopped at this one cross-walk by a "herd of buffalo"

We saw these people walking down the street and we're like WTF is up with them??  They're part of the buffalo herd. 

Probably 20 people or so, dressed as buffalo!  Meandering across the road, as slowly as possible.

FD vs PD

Again, we were on the road by noon.  I was so glad we stayed to watch the Tubs!!!! 

I'm surprised Punkin could hear me chewing over Otis snoring! 

We saw this truck at a TA we stopped at.  Pretty awesome! 

We got to Laura's house in Cincinnati around 1 am.  I didn't even go in the house, just transferred my stuff from her car into mine and left.  I was mildly bummed that it was dark, since I'd seen a little cemetery nearby that I would have liked to explore, but not in the middle of the night!   

I drove for about 3 hours and I was getting thirsty and needed to stretch my legs for a bit.  And do you think I saw any damn big truck stops???  The sketchy one I stopped at, of course, the women's bathroom was out of order.   So I grabbed a drink and tooled on down the road.  I stopped just as the sky was getting light at a rest stop and took a short nap.  Randy was clearly watching the tracker in my car and saw I stopped, since I was just starting to relax and he texted me.    

Hooray!  

I got home shortly after 7am and left everything inside the car, went in and fell into bed!  Randy was off playing radio and Angel was at a friend's house so it was nice & quiet.  

ZZZZZZZ

  It's funny that seeing how other people live can make you really appreciate what you have!  It also makes me self-conscious about how my house smells.  Laura lives in the basement of a house that has a boxer, 8 rats, 4 ferrets & a bearded dragon.  OMG, it reeked!  Then Gin has 2 cats (and uses cheap kitty litter) and a dog who has had accidents more than once in front of the patio door, plus they smoke - so her house reeked also!   When I got home, all my clothes went right into the washer & my sleeping bag & other bags got hung outside & sprayed down with Febreeze.  

With the exception of a couple certain bodies, we had a good time.  

We're definitely not going to wait another 23 years to get together again!