walking the labyrinth

Blarg. I'm totally behind on LJ reading, I've just been a slug lately. You may blame the knitting.

Here is Evan, Born Friday the thirteenth (gotta love that) at or around 5pm. 7lbs 9ounces and 20 inches long.



Mommy is doing well, and the dog hasn't eaten him yet. :P

My sweet beloved indoor kitty (Okay, she's sweet to me, maybe not so much to strangers :P) gave me a freaking heart attack yesterday evening. I ran to the store to grab stuff for dinner and upon returning opened the sliding glass door to the upstairs balcony so the boy could breath (it was 77 inside) and the cat could have her little bit of fake freedom.

A little while later, these terrible terrible sounds start coming from the deck. As if a mountain lion has jumped onto the balcony and is now eating my cat. When I run to the sound, I see my cat 1/2 hanging off the deck (by her back paws like she's going to jump) screaming with rage (at first I think she's having some kind of seizure) When I can't get her to come away from the edge. (I don't want to grab her because I'm afraid she'll fall/jump) I move to the other side of the balcony to see if something is down there.

Sure enough, on the ground are two neighbor cats, staring up with big spooky eyes. (We're talking serious staring contest eyes here) Gordon throws a pine cone at one to see if it will move off a bit, but it just moves back a foot or two and resumes staring.

My cat continues to scream and starts to pee. She is seriously freaking out. A mountain lion mama, returning home to see someone stealing her children could not be more pissed off than my cat is at having these strange cats sitting underneather her balcony.

I finally manage to run outside and shoo the cats about 15 feet farther away and my cat is mollified and walks back inside the house like nothing has happened. WTH

Because, ya know, Katie Couric is just so damn fat.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/couric_watch/katies_extreme_makeover_42842.asp

Thanks to Thing for the link

I actually got to see my seestor this weekend. For those that haven't seen her for a while, she officially (finally) looks pregnant. We were starting to think this whole thing was some kind of elaborate practical joke, y'all know her weird sense of humor. :P

Dad came over on Saturday, and I did my best grease monkey impression and we got my girl all fixed up. The tube to the muffler (manifold I think?) was the easiest thing to replace. 5 bolts off and on. Easy Peasy. The spark plug coil was a little trickier as we had to remove a few more bits to actually get a good angle to get at the spark plug. But that went off without a hitch too. :)

I then changed the oil myself (w00t) and checked my tires and shined her up all pretty like. Luckily no one actually saw me *filling* my front tire at the gas station, as it took me 2 sets of quarters to find the dexterity to hold on the valve and work the handle and keep a good seal.

Happy Happy JOy JOy I will not have to drive the car home tonight over the bridge but can again zip downtown for priority loading on the ferry. Life is good.

It's 72.4 degrees in my living room. I'm wearing jeans & a t-shirt, arm warmers, a long sleeve wool sweater, wool socks & knit hat w/ ear flaps. I'm officially a freak, but almost warm. Thank the gods I'm a knitter ;)

Long time no post. Knit, work, exercise repeat. The only drama has been scooter trouble. My spark plug coil busted. I wired the old cap on while we waited for the replacement part, and then the pipe to the muffler cracked/broke. So I've been driving the car to work this week which is a pain. Hopefully the new muffler will be here by Saturday and I'll be up and running next week.

I've been eating like crap, but keeping up the exercise and haven't gained anything. PMS from hell this week, maybe that's why I'm even colder than normal. Might as well blame it on that I guess ;)

Since I have nothing else interesting to talk about, I've got 4 projects on the knitting needles. Socks for Gramma (1 done, 1 to go) Vintage baby booties (also 1 done 1 to go) Another baby project which shall remain nameless , and a fancy cabled sweater for me (just finished the back) I'm usually such a monogamous knitter, it feels weird to be in the middle of so many things, I never know what to grab.

I finally noticed the option for making galleries. I'm sure it's been around forever but I'm notoriously unobservant sometimes ;) I uploaded a few recent pics. The first four Gordon took on his new phone.

Getting ready to take the dog for our lunch walk. Yessiree, telecommuting rocks.

My new work schedule started this week. It's bliss. I go into the office M/W/F and work from home on T/TH. It's still a little klunky because we don't have the network set up in the new building, but hopefully by July 1st I'll be able to control all my printers and what not from here. Did I mention this was bliss?? after almost 10 years of a 4-5 hour RT commute, it feels amazing to only trek in every other day.

B*L*I*S*S

I like going to the gym at 5am, it's mostly empty and I can stay on the machines as long as I like. I'm home by 6:30 so I can keep my normal work hours. Only when 3pm rolls around I'm already home. Okay, I'll shut up now!!

Still maintaining at 136-7 I have to watch the snacking on my home days, it's so easy to pack my food for work and not give it a second thought. When I'm done I'm done. I have to give it a little more thought here.

Speaking of food, I just had a BLT for lunch... *with* the T. Yes, I've been voluntarily eating tomatos lately. I don't love them, but if they're really red and not too mushy, I can tolerate them. Alert the media to watch for alien pods. :P

Blarg. I'm moved into the new office but I won't have internet access there until the end of the month, so I'm going to get really behind on email, lj and 3fc correspondence. I like the new building though, it's all clean and shiny.

I'm just about through packing for Sunfest, I'm way disorganized this year, even for me. I hope I'm not forgetting something important.

I ran around today running errands, getting pet medicine refilled and buying way too many groceries.

I'm excited that my boi is coming, he hasn't been to a festival in 5 or 6 years. I hope the weather is perfect as predicted, so he isn't scarred by nature ;)

Rejoining at Poulsbo Athletic was painless, they just billed me for the rest of June. :) I made it there 3 times this week, plus Tuesday aquacize. I'm getting used to my new schedule. I still loves my scooter. I rode all last week to the old building, and this week to the new place. I can still make the 3:45 boat home if I leave work by three, so that rocks. I'm just loading on the back instead of the front. (motorcycles get preferred loading, so there's always room for us :) )

Oops, haven't updated in a while.

I ended up getting Gordon's stomach flu early Friday morning. Yucko. The bug set off a migrane, my first in a couple years, that lasted about 48 hours. But by Sunday I was right as rain.

Last Thursday I blew my front bike tire again on the way to the ferry, so this week I've been scootering all week. I was really nervous about getting her up on the stand on the boat, because of the slippery metal floor. Gordon came to the rescue though, and attached a strap to the underside of my seat to give me some much needed leverage. It's still an effort to haul it up, but it's reliably doable now. :D Viva the strap!

Sunday I'm going down to the gym to get us signed up. I'm really excited to have all that equipment to use again. This week I've been walking the dog on my off pool nights to try and keep moving while I'm not biking. I feel so twitchy if I don't get at least an hour of exercise in every day.

I'm starting to pack up my office a little, my department (all two of us, teehee) move to the new building on Monday. I still need to print out directions and do a practice run.

It's June, how strange. :boggle:

Seven more days of bicycle commuting left, probably 6 because I think I'll ride the scooter next Friday and drive out to the new building after work so I don't get lost on Monday ;) We who are entirely lacking in direction sense need things like written down directions and practice days so that the rest of you don't laugh (as hard) at us.

I still have to call the gym and get us reupped. I'm hoping to channel my mother and see if I can get them to waive the sign up fee. ;) fingers crossed.

It's warm and rainy today. I actually love this kind of weather... in moderation. Not quite as much as I did when I was a kid, but warm spring rain still has it's charms.

Gordon is home with the stomach flu again today, but last I heard he was finally starting to feel a little better. Such a miserable business stomach bugs.

I have to start looking for roller blades/skates. Jackie and I want to skate at lunch once we move into the new building. Right now we walk, but the new building is on the Interurban trail, so we're going to inject some danger into the lunch hour (as neither of us have skated since childhood and then only on the 6 wheeled clunky numbers)

okay, back to work with me.

Saturday I had the best margarita at Mama's. It had a brandy float on top, yummers. Then I had my long awaited hair appointment. Ahhhhhhh, much better. (My stylist chick was off galavanting in Europe for 2 months so I was getting really shaggy)

Sunday was pretty productive. Got some decluttering done, which always improves my mood greatly. We put up the coolest video shelves and got rid of two cabinets, which makes the living room look twice as big. I'm really enjoying the open space. (So is the cat who found her favorite toy mouse when I moved my desk) (Yes Gordon, I conveniently skipped the part where I forgot at first to hammer in the support arms and the whole thing came crashing down on you)(whistling non-chalantly)... anyhoo...

Unfortunately my back is still a little cranky about the whole, moving furniture & hundreds of videos thing. I'm doing extra stretching and hoping that it will love me again soon. It seems to be much improved today over yesterday. I'm behind on my BFL lifting because I thought that would be pressing my luck. Hopefully I'll get upper body done tomorrow night, and lower body on Friday.

Last night I decluttered my bedside table and cleaned the shower. Slowly I'm conquering the chaos again. I also got some scootering in. I'm running out of practice time before my commute starts up. I need to be able to get her on the center stand on the first try by then or the motorcycle boys will laugh at me. This would be unacceptable! :P

Not much to report on the weight maintenance front. I'm holding steady on pounds and inches. Three months until I hit my one year goal anniversary. Hopefully I'll have decided on my new tattoo by then. :)

I replaced the tube in my tire and lugged it over to the gas station accross the street and blew it up. She's all back together now. Yay. Now I don't have to ride the bus downtown this afternoon. :P I feel all accomplished n'shit.

I blew out my front bike tire this morning. Luckily I was only 6 blocks from work. I have a spare tube, here but no pump. I'm going to see if the gas station accross the street has air at lunch. (Thanks for the suggestion baby) Not to shabby, it's been months since I had a flat, and the roads around here have tons of glass.

My quads are screaming again today, wussies ;) Upper Body work out tonight.

I did the BFL lower body work out last night for the first time. Just as the upper body workout introduced me to my triceps (which burned for 2 days after the first workout despite the fact that we do specific tricep exercises in aquacize,) the LBWO introduced me to my quads. I thought my legs were pretty strong from all the biking and swimming, but apparently those are no match for lunges.

I've been doing most of the BFL exercises with 5, 8 & 10lb dumbbells, but I had to do the lunges w/o any added weight at all. I look forward to showing some rapid improvement there. :D Luckily I still have a pair of 3lb girly weights in my stash for when I'm ready to add some weight.

Gordon being silly at the aforementioned pancake house


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So this picture of my scooter is now out of date since we installed the trunk of doom on Tuesday, but that's how it goes. ;) The annoying flame decals will be replaced by chococat or emily the strange as soon as I can figure out how to pry them up without damaging the plastic.



When we came back from Oregon last Sunday, we left Grandma's a little late and were starving by the time we got to the Dalles (the first real sized town.) We stopped at a truck stop my Dad said was good, but it was out of business. Then we wandered around town looking for a diner, but nothing was open. Finally we stopped into a fast food place and Gordon asked if there were any breakfast places around. We were directed to the other side of town and (dum dum dum...) The Pancake House. (This of course gave me flashbacks to "The Waffle House" from Dead Like Me.) We arrived. They were packed. (Always a good sign) I had the most delectable banana honey wheat pancakes.
I was amused by the sign over the cash register ( Read more... )

We got the trunk on my scooter last night. It's so big, I love it. I had room for all my aquacize stuff with lots of room to spare. Then I rode her to the pool. It was so awesome. It just happened to be a concert night for the highschool. The auditorium and the pool share a parking lot so there wasn't a space to be had. No worries! I just parked on the side walk by the side of the builing out of the way. I think I'll probably just keep parking there any time the lot is at all crowded so as to save the full parking spots for cars. w00t.

The comedy came when I got home after class and had to put my baby back up on the center kickstand. My arms were like rubber noodles after a hard workout (and I did upper body lifting last night) It took me a dozen tries to pull her up on the stand.

I downloaded and sized pictures of my scooter and from the Oregon trip last night, but I didn't get as far as to email them to myself so I could upload them from work. doh. Tonight, yes tonight there will be pictures.

On the weight maintenance front, although my weight is holding steady in the mid to upper 130's it seems to still be redistributing itself. I've been a pretty stable size 6 for a while, but in juniors I usually get a 7. Now I'm finding that the 5's fit better, I think my booty is shrinking, odd.

My pecs and triceps are barking! My shoulders and biceps and back muscles feel much better, I think because I work those well at the pool, but oh my do I feel the others. I'm excited to hopefully build up my pecs as I'm a little more bony looking in chest than I'd like. It will be sweet to have a layer of muscle there. If the droopy girls perk up a bit so much the better although I'm not holding my breath on that account, lol.

I'm doing the lower body work out tonight.

The scooter has been ridden, alert the media. :P

Granted it was only at about 10-20mph through connecting parking lots, but it's a start. :D

It took quite a while to get it running smoothly, as we couldn't find the alleged screw that adjusts the idle speed, but eventually it was running well and I was zipping around nicely. I'm taking off work an hour early today so I'll be back on the island in time to ride around downtown Winslow for an hour or so before Gordon leaves work. Then he's going to shadow me home, hopefully on a route that avoids the highway. I'm supposed to gradually work up to higher speeds to get the longest life out of the engine, so I'd like to keep it under 45 for a few weeks.

I love my new helmet, it's the loveliest red and fits extremely well. Gordon also picked up some nice armored gloves for me. They're nice and flexible despite being protective. Speaking of armor, my leather jacket is finally starting to loosen up a bit too. I'll definitely have Gordon take a picture of me in all my glory of clashing reds. (Red scooter, red scooter trunk, red leather jacket, red helmet, red gloves... all different shades, lol) Only color blind motorists will have any excuse for not seeing me on the road. To all others I appologize in advanced for any seizures I cause.