Plan B it is!

Hubby got the call today! He starts the fire academy at the college
in January.

He got his official "thank you for your interest, BUT..." email from
the place with the paid training, which was Plan A.

So Plan B it is.

(If anyone hasn't got Hubby a Christmas present yet, bunker gear would
be great!)

Can I get an "OH YEAH!!"

13:52

That was Hubby's official 1.5 mile time. Under 14:00. He did it. He
passed all the other parts of the physical test too, for the fire
academy at our local community college.

The bad news: the class is full. Hubby is an alternate. They give
priority to sponsered and volunteer firemen. And for some reason, the
spring semester fills up more than the other semesters. BUT...there
are 4 spots that have not had the required paperwork turned in yet.
If the sponsering people do not submit their paperwork in the next 10
days, Hubby is in.

If they do turn in the paperwork, then Hubby has to wait for the
summer session to attend. But, he does not have to test again.

And of course this is all just a back plan. What we REALLY, REALLY,
REALLY want is for him to be accepted for the position that he
interviewed for.

Either way, I am very proud of him. He has worked very hard and will
be an excellent fireman.

Did I wake you?

I hope the sounds of screaming and the Hallelujah Chorus at 6:30 this morning didn't wake you up. But it couldn't be helped. I FINALLY MADE IT.........

That says: 90.4

Our scale weighs only in kilograms.

For those that can't convert:

ONEderland!

Happy Birthday Hubby

In honor of Hubby's birthday, here are a couple of pictures of him in his birthday suit:

Ain't he sexy?

(See, it's his new suit for his fire department interview. And we bought it on his birthday. So it's his birthday suit. Well I thought it was funny.)

HE PASSED!!!!!

7 minutes and 30 seconds!

Next step: panel interview on 12/4

Next step: Fire Chief interview on 1/9

Today is THE day

Keep your fingers crossed everyone.

Hubby just left to do the physical test for the AFD job.

About Average

The other day Surly Teenager asked me if I was still loosing weight.
I said I was still trying and asked her why she asked. She shrugged
and said she was just wondering.

I continued, saying that I was still trying because I was still fat.
She looked me up and down and said not really. I said well, I'm not
thin yet.

She looked me up and down again and said no, but I was about
average...for someone my age.

I still can't decide if I am supposed to take that as a compliment or not.

It felt a little bit naughty

This morning it was quite chilly. And very windy.

One side of the track we run on has regular old bleachers, the kind
that are open underneath. The other side is built on cement, like at
a big stadium.

We get to the regular old bleachers side and are just slammed by the
wind. It's even colder and it's slowing us down because we are
(trying) running into it. We get to the other side and the wind is
blocked.

We did the only natural thing, so that at least the wind would be at
our backs. We turned around and ran the track in the opposite
direction. We ran against the arrows. We went against the norm. We
"swam" upstream. We didn't conform to society's rules for track
running. We were REBELS.

And it felt good. It felt freeing. It felt a little bit naughty.

And then the wind went crazy and it didn't matter which direction we ran.

Practice Test #2

7 minutes, 40 seconds

Trick Or Treat

My mom won first place for Goofiest Costume at her senior apartments Halloween party.

It Went Well

Hubby's practice for the physical test went pretty well. He was able
to complete the whole test in 8 minutes and 6 seconds. The time limit
is 8 minutes. He would have made it under the time limit, but he got
the jelly legs during the last task - dragging around a 150 lb dummy -
and tripped over his feet and fell down. He got up and finished, but
the delay put him over.

He will go again on November 1 for another practice.

He is feeling quite confident about his written test though. And is
fairly certain of high marks. I don't doubt it a bit. He is super
smart.

Just look at the size of that head!

Scooby Doo - Where Are You?

Oh! There you are....

My nephew's birthday cake.

My sister called yesterday and was telling me about how the bakery advertised the cake could be ready the next day. She went on Thursday to order a Scooby Doo cake to have for Saturday. They told her they had to order the cake kit; which would take a week. After they got the cake kit in THEN the cake would be ready the next day.

So then I had a moment of temporary insanity. I volunteered to make his Scooby cake, if she went to the store and bought the pan and decorating supplies.

I used to have all the decorating supplies - bags of different sizes, couplers and tips galore. I learned cake decorating in Girl Scouts and when I got older I took the Wilton home course of cake decorating. I wasn't half bad at it either. I was especially good at doll cakes. I think it was the ruffles. I like ruffles. I had more than a dozen different kid birthday cake pans. I even made my sister's wedding cake.

But then I just got out of doing them. Sold off the supplies on ebay one year. It's been many years since I did one. It is still fun. But, oh my, I had forgotten how long it can take.

And I didn't lick a single finger, spoon or egg beater - or taste one tiny bite of icing. Not even the chocolate.

AFD

The Arlington Fire Department is hiring. They have their own fire
academy. And it is paid training. And when he is done with the fire
academy he will have an actual job with the AFD.

Tomorrow is step one. The written test.

This should not be any problem. Hubby is super smart; just to be sure
though he bought a practice test with the types of questions they ask
and has been going through it.

After the test he has an opportunity to practice their physical test.
They have 2 other days to also practice their physical test.

This should also not be any problem. The information packet they send
out contains a DVD showing the parts of the test. It even shows
someone going through the entire timed test in real time. The test
consists of a few different ladder exercises, including going up a 70
ft extension ladder (yikes), some stair climbing and some lifting and
hauling stuff. No timed running. And he gets to practice the actual
test.

After he passes the written test he will schedule his physical test.
After he passes the physical test, he will schedule an interview.
After he passes that interview, he will schedule a second interview.
After he passes THAT he will start their fire academy in February.

In the meantime, he is still training for the other physical test, the
one with the timed run. Just in case. The bad thing is going to be
the timing of the two. The timed running test is in December, with
classes starting in mid-January. This means he won't know about the
AFD job BEFORE the other classes start. He will have to pay all of
the class expenses and probably start classes until he finds out.

Cross your fingers for the AFD job. Paid training!

Who Knew

Snails eat cat food

Happy 18th Birthday Surly Teenager

You've grown from a silly, and beautiful little girl

To a beautiful young lady

Who still likes to be silly

Unexpected Perk

Hubby helped a customer, who happens to be in town because she is touring with a show, and to show her appreciation she gave Hubby 2 tickets to her show.

So Friday night I got to go see Mary Poppins! And it was totally awesome; from the house opening up like in a giant pop up book, to Mary Poppins flying, not just across the stage, but out, and up over the audience!

Date night 2 weekends in a row. I could get used to that.

I will never grow up

Friday night Hubby and I took a night off and went out for a "date". Dinner and a movie, the perfect date.

Made even more perfect by it being dinner AT the movies.

Made the most perfect by being a double feature of "Toy Story" & "Toy Story 2". In 3D. With previews of "Toy Story 3".

It was great fun.

And I am not even embarrassed about being spotted by my 7 year old nephew, who happened to be at the same show.

The flu is everywhere

My sister's youngest son has H1N1 (swine flu).

I got my flu shot on Friday morning. So by dinner time I felt fairly crappy. I was nauseated, running a low fever, FREEZING, and achey.

I was in bed by 8:15. I put on my long underwear, warm socks, and threw my fuzzy blanket on top of the regular blankets.

Hubby came to bed around 10ish and made me take some Tylenol. I think I warmed up around 3am.

I slept 12 hours!

Luckily, I feel better this morning (just a little achey) because I have way too much stuff to do.

Healthy Eating

To aid in our attempts at a more healthy lifestyle, we have been
eating a lot of turkey; turkey sausage, turkey bacon, ground turkey
instead of ground beef.

I have also discovered the tastiness of MorningStar Farms. Something
that I never would have thought I would like. They are vegaterian
"not meat" type meats. They have a Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burger,
and a Tomato and Basil Veggie Pizza Burger that I dearly love. They
also have an Italian Sausage, that is an adequate substitute. Hubby
loves their Corn Dogs to an extreme. He was actually moved to tears
of disappointment when we were unable to find them at any store
recently. A search on their website informed us that alas, due to
supplier troubles, they are temporarily unavailable.

Surly Teenager has been less than thrilled with all the turkey and
veggie meats.

I have tried cooking the ground turkey with beef broth to help give it
a more beefy flavor. But she thinks the texture is funky. So now I
usually compromise and do a half and half mix of the leanest ground
beef I can get and the leanest ground turkey.

The other day I was making Mexican Chicken in the crockpot. Surly
Teenager comes in and lifts the lid, kinda sniffing at it. She asked
what was in it. I started naming ingrediants, ending with chicken.
She looked suspicously at the crockpot and said, "Real chicken chicken
or some kind of fake turkey chicken"?

A Dry Morning

For the first time since last Wednesday....it wasn't raining this morning!

So naturally we hit the track.

The days are getting lighter later and it is getting cooler in the A.M. It was great.

AND I'm getting faster. 2 miles in 32 minutes!

A New Record

2.5 miles.

I just finished jogging 2.5 miles.

It took me 47 minutes...but still...2.5 miles!

I got yelled at...again

I know, I know, I know. I am slacking horribly about posting anything.

But nothing much is happening.

Hubby is still doing wonderfully and losing weight. His tooth is slightly better due to all the antibiotics. He goes back to the dentist next week and they will decide if the tooth can be saved or what they are going to do with it.

Surly Teenager is still doing wonderfully and is back to school. All her crazy pills are working beautifully and she is stable and is her lovely, charming self.

Lazy Teenager is still doing wonderfully and working at the same job and having fun living with 2 of her friends. She is going to take her driving test tomorrow.

I am still doing wonderfully and loving having a body bug. I lost 7.5 lbs the first week. Last week I went up a couple of pounds, which is totally expected after a big drop, but still aggravating. I have already started back down in the right direction again, though.

We are just chock full of wonderfullness! No drama here.

And I prefer to keep it that way.

Hubby-Lou-Who

Poor Hubby.

It started as a tooth ache.  By Saturday afternoon, the swelling started, and it turned into an emergency visit to the dentist for antibiotics, pain killers, and a root canal scheduled for Monday morning.

With his face all swollen like that, around the nose, cheekbones, and upper lip, I kept thinking he looked like someone.  I couldn't think of who though.  I kept looking at him and looking at him and looking at him.

Finally it came to me.

Lou Lou Who!

Will They EVER Be Finished?

Back in April,  when I was home sick from work one day, I spied something out the window.  

They were replacing gas lines.

Eventually they moved on to the sewers.  They got rid of the one across the street.  Then started "improving" ours.

Then they never finished the sewer and started on the road.

Then they decided to put in a sidewalk.

And here it is, almost 5 months later, and this is what the front of the house looks like:

Only not as nice and neat because these pictures are from about a week or so ago.  They have cut back more of the grass and dug the street level down deeper.  And cars have been driving on it.  And kids have been messing.  And it has rained several times and made a miniature lake at the bottom of our driveway.

At least they got rid of the 8 ft dirt hill that was there for a while.

When did I turn into a curmudgeon?

I pulled up to the stop sign on the corner by my house and there were all these kids milling around by the end of the driveway.  And in the yard!  And one of them had a puppy not on a leash and was letting it walk around in my grass.  He DID NOT have anything with him to clean up any puppy poop either.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from yelling at them to get off my grass.  And from shaking my fist at them.

Hubby is rubbing off on me.

Hubby Update

I forgot to mention:

8 lbs in one week!

Of course he won't continue to lose at that rate, but what a great jump start!

I've Got A New Toy

I believe I have mentioned how much I like STUFF.

I had been going back and forth about this for a while.  Talked to Hubby about it, because it isn't cheap.  Did a lot of online research.

I finally decided this weekend that yes, yes I really want one.

I've got a bodybugg!  They wear them on the show The Biggest Loser.  It is a "personal calorie management system".   You wear the armband part on your tricep, like so (pls excuse the unmade bed in the background) (and notice my fancy fingers on the camera, I got my first french manicure yesterday):

It electronically reads "things" - I don't remember exactly and I would have to go get the book or look it up; if you want to know that badly Google it - and determines you caloric burn.  It also counts your steps and times your activities.  Then you hook it up to the computer and it downloads all the info to their site.  On the site you track your goals, what you eat, and some other info.  It calculates the number of calories you burn, calories you eat, and gives you the difference, a calorie deficit.  You set a goal, it figures out what calorie deficit you need to meet on a daily basis to reach your goal.

The second box is the optional display.  It "talks" to the armband and displays were you are at, so you can monitor during the day if you need to ramp up your activity to meet your targets for the day.

I wore both this morning while jogging.  

I looked at it before I started, and then purposefully did not look at it again until I had jogged 1 mile.  I knew it would be lower than I liked.  I knew I would go "is that ALL".  And I was right, I did.  But I just kept jogging and told myself that I would just not look at it again until I was done.  And that I would walk some more later this afternoon to increase my burn.

But then I got curious as to how much it changes with more intensity.  I don't jog fast, as I believe I have said before.  So I looked at it, and then went quite a bit faster for a while, looked down and, yes, it increased at a faster rate than just the jogging.  I slowed back down, and thought oh, well.  I'll work up to that level eventually, and just kept jogging.

I had just started my 8th lap - that's 2 miles ladies and gentlemen - when I hear beep, beep, beep, beep.  I look down at my display and it says "MSG!!".  So I press a button and this scrolls across the screen:  "Activity target for the day has been met".  I flipped back to the calories burned and it was much higher now.  I had forgotten.  It "talks" to the armband, but not instantaneously, there is a lag.  And it had caught up.

How cool is that!!

Anything else I do today is BONUS and will offset yesterday, because I didn't do anything.

I think I am going to like my bodybugg.

The Incredible Shrinking Hubby

I added a new weight tracker for Hubby.  He is doing so good!  His starting weight was taken  on June 15th.  That is not his highest weight though.  He was up there with me, where I started at.  But we didn't really start tracking good until this June.

His current pictures, wearing a size smaller pants because his other ones were falling off.

He has always told me how he has walked right past me and not recognized me.  

And I always scoffed.  

But last weekend at Ikea, I looked right past him.  Twice.

The New Deadline

Well we have a date now for the next test.

Wednesday, December 9.

Well Heck

He didn't make it.

They did the run first because that is what most people fail on. They
do it outside on the grounds. So there was some up hill and some down
hill.

His time was 16:27.

The run was in a group, so he did have the other guys to try and keep
up with, and it did help.

Since he didn't pass that part, he doesn't get to try any of the other
tests. But he is sitting in the parking lot watching and timing some
of the guys to see what they are averaging.

Next test: mid December.

He'll be ready to kick it's ass.

Even though he'll probably be the oldest one there. Again.

It's TOMORROW

Wednesday is THE day. Say your prayers, cross your fingers, cross
your toes, put on your lucky underwear, pat your Buddha's belly, rub
your lucky rabbits foot, perform your animal sacrifice...or whatever
it is you believe in, or do for good luck. Hubby goes for the
physical agility test to get into the fall class at the Fire Academy.

The test consists of the following:
1. Putting on a blacked out face mask and feeling your way out of somewhere.
2. Lift a ladder from it's rack, run 90 feet, and return the ladder to
it original place.
3. Hoist a bundle of rolled hose, about 44 lbs, hand over hand, up to
a 4th story window in 1 minute 30 seconds.
4. put on an air pack, lift a hose bundle, run up 4 flights of stairs,
put down the hose, pick up another bundle, and run down 4 flights of
stairs, in 1 minute and 15 seconds.
5. run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes.

Can Hubby do all this? Well, 1 & 2 are no problem. 3 should be ok,
he is really strong. 4 he did a practice run with a 27 lb back pack
on and did it in 54 seconds, so we think even with the addition of the
hose bundle, he should be ok with that one too.

Now, number 5 though. That's going to be the tricky one. We did a
timed test on Monday and he came in at 17:17. At the 14 minute mark
he was almost at 1 1/4 mile, one lap short. BUT, I think it will
depend on how they administer the test. If it is just him running
alone...maybe not. If they put him running with a bunch of other
guys...maybe. That would give him someone to pace off of, and to
"chase".

It is going to be close.

If he doesn't make it, it's ok though. This will at least have given
him a chance to see how they do the test and to see how the equipment
feels. And then he will have another 4 months to get ready to take
the test again for the spring class.

Either way, I am VERY proud of him.

How Cool Is This

Before:

After:

Using:

That is 1 crocheted afghan, 1 comforter, one blanket, one quilt - all double bed sized, and 3 pillows.  (And one Hubby thrown in for scale.)

Losing Steam

This is getting old.  The getting up at 5 a. m. every morning.

Why so early?  

So I can eat something before I workout.  My band is tight in the mornings.  So I get up extra early, eat a piece of low fat toast, with bleh tasting, low everything, peanut butter and drink half a glass of milk.

Then I try and stay awake until 5:45 while I "digest".  I can't work out with stuff sitting above my band.  And it takes time for it to pass.

It was ok for the first 4 or 5 weeks.  The scale was going down.  That makes everything good.  But now the last few weeks.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Not losing a thing.  

Except my motivation.

That snooze button is starting to look mighty tempting.

No More Tonsils

Before:

After:

And, of course, it wouldn't be complete without a Prescription Story to go with it.

They prescribed a medicated "lollipop" that you suck on and it numbs your throat.  Dandy!  But only one pharmacy in the area carries them.  No problem.  I go to the pharmacy drive thru and hand them the script plus my insurance card, since I have never been to that pharmacy before.  She goes away and comes back about 10 minutes later and hands me back my card and says, "you can't get these on insurance because they are a compound."  I have no idea what that means but said ok, thinking I will use my PayFlex card that is for our FSA.  Then I think to ask, "how much are they?"  She leaves and comes back 20 minutes later, to tell me they are about $6 a pop.  That's fine, I'll come back and get them shortly.  I leave to go to the other pharmacy for the rest of the prescriptions.  

That was when I happen to wonder just how many the doctor had written the script for.  I didn't look and I didn't think to ask.  Hopefully it wasn't going to be 20 or so.  No matter, I was paying with my PayFlex card.

I go to the next pharmacy (and you might be asking yourself, at this point, why I didn't just fill all the prescriptions at the one place.  A valid question, to which I don't have an answer.  I have no idea.  It just didn't occur to me.) which I don't use anymore but I decided to this time because it is a lot closer to home, and Surly Teenager was home alone.  Probably just sleeping, but still.

So I go to pharmacy #2 and give them the scripts, and have to come back in an hour.  No problem.

I go home, Surly Teenager gets up and has some soup, drinks some juice and goes back to bed.  

I go back to pharmacy #1.  The doctor only ordered 6 pops, with a refill.  Good deal.  I whip out the PayFlex.  Oh, oops, so sorry, says the clerk.  We can't accept PayFlex right now.  Some problem or another with Mastercard and Visa.  Lovely.  But on the bright side, it should only be a month or so and the problem will be fixed - of which I could care less because I don't use that pharmacy.

Back to pharmacy #2.  The antibiotic isn't ready.  It is a class that is close to penicillin, of which Her Surliness, is allergic, and there could be a reaction.  So they had been trying to get a hold of the doctor for a different medicine.  

Now, you may be wondering why did I not tell her surgeon that she was allergic to penicillin?  What kind of mother am I?  Of course I told them.  It was on her wrist band.  It was on the wrist band I had to wear so I couldn't take home the wrong surly teenager.  We were asked by at least 5 different people, are you allergic to anything other than the penicillin.  And yet, we get a prescription for an antibiotic that is closely related.

Any who, I pick up the pain medicine that is ready. And pull out cash to pay for it.  This completely confuses the clerk.  He says, "but I show you are on express pay".  I explained that at one time, yes, I was on express pay, it was automatically setup to charge the card on file.  The problem being that since I don't use that pharmacy anymore, that was an old card.  It was long expired and I had no interest in setting up a new express pay account.  I just wanted to pay with cash.  Of course that was a major production that took about 30 minutes for them to figure out how to do.

Later in the afternoon, I return to pick up the antibiotic.  I was so sure that by then they would have gotten hold of the doctor, I didn't even call and check first.  They did get ahold of the doctor, they did get an alternate medicine.  Only, they don't normally stock that medicine.  She only had about 1/4 of the prescription, enough to last 2 days, and they are ordering in the rest.  And OF COURSE it was a different clerk, so when I went to pay with cash, I had to go through the whole express pay drama AGAIN.  And I get to go back again and go through it all ONE MORE TIME.

But.  I'll you what.  No matter how annoying it all was, NO - I DO NO WANT GOVERNMENT SPONSORED HEALTHCARE.  I shudder to imagine the unholy MESS that would be to unscramble.  At least with my current plan, I know there is hope to eventually get it all worked out.

I missed this news

I missed hearing about this in the news, so I'm not sure when it happened.

And a follow up statement by Dave Carroll.

Uhhh...Hi

Oh yeah. I have a blog.

As I was walking out the door this morning Hubby said "You haven't
updated your blog lately." And the thought that went through my head
was oh yeah, I have a blog.

I would like to say how exciting and adventure filled my life has
been, and that is why I forgot. But not really.

Surly Teenager is having her tonsils removed on Monday. There's some
excitement for you.

I jogged 1 1/4 miles this morning, Hubby did 1 1/2 miles. There's
some adventure for you.

And that's about all I have right now.

It's Over

The long holiday weekend is over.  Big sigh.  No more holiday weekends until September.  Another big sigh.

Accomplishments for the weekend:

Hubby's shop, is now not only clean, it is organized.  (item moved to the Finished list)

Umm.  I guess that's about it.  That took almost all of Friday and most of Saturday.

Well, we went to the movies today.  Does that count as an accomplishment?

Oh.  Hubby finally bought good running shoes.  He is still getting used to them, but I don't think he likes them like I like my running shoes.  

Let's see.  On our last 2 runs, I switched to running by distance instead of time.  Which basically means a little longer workout, since I run a little on the slow side.  For now.

That's all I've got.

4th of July

Construction Frustration

To the lady in the silver Tahoe, I heartily apologize.

I know how frustrated you were, because I was too.  It was nuts that what should have been a 10 minute zip down the road took over 30 minutes.  It was nuts that they put up the "Lane Closed Ahead" sign without saying WHICH lane ahead was closed.  It was nuts that they put the "Left Lane Closed" (which of course is the lane I was in) sign about 10 yards from where the left lane closed.  AND it was nuts that they also had the traffic lights blinking red at such a major intersection at lunch time, and did not have a policeman directing traffic.

Yes, you were in the wrong to not let me merge in front of you, when everyone else in the right lane was taking their turn and letting one car from the left lane over.

But, I shouldn't have called you that.  You deserved the horn blow, and the wild gesturing, which did NOT include a middle finger.  And you probably deserved some of the things I was shouting at you.  

But I apologize for calling you a fat cow.  I should be the last person on earth to say anything about another persons weight.  According to my BMI, I am still classified as Obese.    It's better than the Super Morbidly Obese (ye gawds how's that for sounding like a death sentence) which is what I was, but still.

I sincerely hope that by not letting me merge, and you thereby getting through the intersection about 30 seconds sooner, that your afternoon was greatly improved.

And Now In Other News...

Lazy Teenagers buys some furniture.

Which may not sound like a big deal, but it really is. Her about to
be roommate has been trying to talk her into Rent-A-Center for
furniture. She told him, "I'm not going in debt!". I'm so proud.
They found an estate sale and Hubby is over there with the truck
helping out.

Surly Teenager goes to the doctor.

Her thyroid is STILL low. They upped her dosage again. We go back in
a month for another blood draw. At this rate she is going to be on
the same dosage as me, only 20 years sooner! We also got a referral
to an Ear, Nose, Throat guy to see about yanking her tonsils. She has
been on antibiotics 4 times this year, so far, and about 5 or 6 times
last year.

Me goes to the doctor.

I got a new bladder control medicine to try out. I don't know how
long it takes for one to get out of my system, and the other to get
in, but so far so good. I also had x-rays done of my knees. And the
official word is....I am clear to run. Yay! I do have arthritis in
both knees, with the left being worse, which is funny because it is
the right on that hurts more. I have little spurs on the back of both
knee caps, top and bottom on one, just the top on the other. The main
problem is that my knee caps are out of alignment. They sit to the
outside. Pateller Tracking Disorder, to be official. He said most
likely, that is what is causing my pain and not even the arthritis.
He recommended knee braces while running, ice, Icey Hot, and
strengthening exercises. Oh and to use my best judgment about not
progressing too quickly.

Hubby and I go to the next level.

On today's run plan, Hubby did the distances, I did the times. I go
slower than he does (see above about not progressing too quickly). We
were both a little concerned about being able to finish. But we both
did it. Yay us!

5 minute warm up walk.

Jog: 1/4 mile or 3 minutes.

Walk: 1/8 mile or 90 seconds.

Jog: 1/2 mile or 5 minutes.

Walk: 1/4 mile or 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

Jog: 1/4 mile or 3 minutes.

Walk: 1/8 mile or 90 seconds.

Jog: 1/2 mile or 5 minutes.

That totals up to: Me: 21 minutes and 30 seconds, with 16 minutes of
it jogging.
Hubby: 2 miles, with 1 1/2 miles of it jogging.

I am pretty damn impressed with us.

That's a Stupid Prize

Because Hubby is SOOOO smart, I probably enjoy it a little too much when he has DUH! moments.

The other day he was talking to a lady and she was telling him about how Marlboro cigarettes was having some big contest on their web site.  She told him that not all of the prizes were great.  One day they were giving away 200,000 ashtrays.  Hubby agreed that was not a great prize.

It was about 5 minutes later that it occurred to him that she probably meant that they were giving away a TOTAL of 200,000 ashtrays, 1 per person, and not all 200,000 to ONE poor guy.

So Tell Me...

how do we avoid running in the heat when it is already 80 at 5:30 a.m.?

Don't Look

I finally changed my weight tracker to accurately reflect my current weight.

I couldn't face changing it back up to 229.2, which is what I topped
out at after the month and a half eating fest with no exercise that I
went on.

As of this morning I have lost 9.7 lbs of what I gained back. I was
at 209. If I did not have that gain and just started jogging, I would
now be below 200.

Big sigh.

This and That

Couch to 5K: week 452, day 73 (at least that is what it felt like
this morning)

5 minute warm up walk. 90 second jog, 90 second walk. 3 minute jog,
3 minute walk. 90 second jog, 90 second walk. 3 minute jog, 3 minute
walk.

Oh what fun it was (not). I managed to get through it though. And no
aneurysm. No real knee pain while I was doing it. But afterwords,
they weren't happy. I iced them for about 20 minutes after we got
home and that seemed to help. I walked a slow mile at lunch today, to
keep from stiffening up too bad. And my knees were not happy about
THAT either. I guess they thought they had had enough for one day.
Now they are just a little achey. Hopefully, it will all be better
tomorrow.

Oh yeah, did I not mention? We have decided to run every morning.
Not just 3 times a week. So we are going to do 4 days of each Plan,
instead of 3, and then move on to the next one. This will get us
through the whole thing a little quicker than the scheduled 9 weeks.
Weeeee!

I have a doctors appointment scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to have
my knees xrayed. I want to make sure that I am not permanently
screwing something up, or setting myself up for knee surgery next
year. And yeah, I maybe should have done this BEFORE we started the
program, but I wanted to make sure I didn't hate it first. What would
be the point of getting a medical clearance to run and then finding
out I didn't want to run after all?

I am also going to see about changing one of my medicines. My bladder
control medicine has the unfortunate side effect of inhibiting
sweating. So I over heat like you wouldn't believe in no time at all.
I can't even mow the lawn in one go. I have to stop 2 or 3 times.
After running, my face is a very bright red, and it stays that way for
over an hour. So I did a little research and apparently they can
prescribe a different class of medicines for it. Instead of an
antispasmodic, which all have basically the same side effects, I could
try a tricyclic antidepressant. They apparently work about the by
calming nerve signals and decreasing spasms in the bladder muscles.

Since I still don't hate it, I thought it would be nice to not have to
worry about dying of heat stroke.

Hubby takes his physical agility test for the fire academy August 5th.
I think he is worried that he can't do it. I'm not worried. He is
actually in pretty good physical shape, even though over weight. We
are eating really well, and he is losing. I think as long as he can
get his endurance up for the running portion - 1.5 miles in 14 minutes
- he will do fine.

Surly Teenager and Lazy Teenager are campaigning for new names. Lazy
Teenager is no longer a teenager and is hardly ever lazy anymore.
Surly Teenager is not really surly anymore, either. Just the
occasional regular type of teenager surly and not the extreme surly
she was before medication. I have not been able to come up with
anything, so if you have any ideas please let me know.

It's Just Not Worth It

While I was jogging this morning (I still get tickeled by putting that.  Me! Jogging! Who'd a thunk it!), on my last set, I started thinking about something other than the usual "Oh God help me.  I think my lungs are going to burst and I am going to have an aneurysm and die.  Well, at least then I would be able to stop.  Isn't it time to stop YET."  I was thinking that it just isn't worth it.  All the pizza, and cookies, and doughnuts (I'm looking at YOU Krispy Kreme with your cream filled chocolate covered EVILNESS) and all the other tasty junk.  That few seconds or minutes of tasty goodness, is just not worth all the time, effort and hard work I have to put in to work them off my butt and thighs.


What was I thinking?!!?

P.S. I actually wrote this at work and emailed it in, but for some reason it never posted.  Now that I copied it and manually posted it, it will probably show up and this will be here twice.

Energizer Bunny

Couch-to-5K: week 2, day 1: warm up walk, jog 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes

That 90 seconds of jogging was the longest 90 seconds I've been
through; it felt like an hour. And that 2 minutes of walking felt
like 5 seconds.

But I did it. Yay me!

My last interval of jogging was very slow. It was probably on the
level of my very first day of 60 seconds jogging. But I just kept
talking to myself. I kept saying "You can do this", "You're almost
done", "You're just like the Energizer Bunny. You can take a lickin'
and keep on tickin'."

It was a while before I realized I had that last one wrong.

And I still don't hate it.

Couch-to-5K: days 3 & 4

OOOPS. I hit enter, on that last one, instead of Tab.

Day 3 was supposed to be Sunday. Hubby was in Abilene, and was going
to do his running there, so I was on my own. When I first got up, I
wasn't going to go. I parked my butt in front of the computer
instead. But then when I was on Facebook, I saw the picture of my new
(expensive!) running shoes and felt guilty. So I went.

Plan: 5 minute warm up walk. Jogging 60 seconds, walk 90 seconds, for
a total of 20 minutes.

Report: It didn't go so well. I started out with that little bit of
left knee pain again. Not very bad, just enough to make me jog with a
limp. This time I could not shake it. No matter how short I cut the
jogging and lengthened the walking, it wouldn't go away. After about
3 or 4 sets of trying to get it to stop, I gave up and just walked for
another 4 laps.

Hubby didn't do his running at all. Bad Hubby.

Monday morning we decided to try going in the evenings because getting
up at 5:30 am bites. But of course Monday night came and went without
going. Things just got in the way and next thing you know it was 9pm.

So I decided no matter how bad 5:30 sucks, that is just how it is
going to have to be.

This morning was day 4. Technically, we were supposed to move on to
week 2, day 1. I felt that since I didn't make much progress on
Sunday and Hubby didn't do it all, we needed a day 4. Thursday
morning will be the new plan.

Plan: same as before; 60 second jog, 90 second walk.

Report: I was right about doing a day 4. Even though my breathing
recovery has gotten much better, I think an increase in the jogging
might have been too much and would have put me off going again. But I
definitly think I will be ready for it on Thursday.

And I think I have solved the knee pain. I have been reading a few
running sites and blogs, and one tiny little change can make huge
differences. Like a different pair of socks, or lacing your shoes
differently or changing your form a little.

So I bought new ultra thin running socks.

Okay, that's not what helped. I think it was my form. I paid close
attention to how I was holding my body. I made sure I was more
upright, I raised my knees a tad bit higher, and lengthened my stride
a hair. I would get a couple of pain jabs with the first couple of
steps, then I would "adjust" and voila, no more knee pain.

It was nice out this morning too. A nice bit of wind was blowing.
Well, it was nice on the one side of the track, when it was at my
back. On the other side, when I was trying to run into the wind, it
was a bitch. It slowed me down noticeably. I felt like Marcel
Marceau doing his Walking Against the Wind bit.

I still didn't hate it. Especially since I lost 5 lbs in one week.

Couch-to-5K: days 3 and 4

The Jiggles

Want to know how flabby and un-toned you are?

Jog.

Everything that is loose will flap and jiggle and sway.

I swear I can still feel the vibrations from my butt cheeks smacking together.

Couch-to-5K:wk1 day 2

Plan: Warm up with 5 minute brisk walk. Jog for 60 seconds, walk for
90 seconds. Alternate jogging and walking for 20 minutes.

Report: I survived day 2. I had a little bit of pain in my left knee
with the first set of jogging. I stopped as soon as I noticed that I
was sort of jogging with a limp. I walked the rest of the 60 seconds
and the regular 90 seconds. When I started the next jogging set, no
pain.

I think it went easier this time than the first time. I still got
lapped by every body there. But I still didn't hate it.

Tip of the day: Breathe with your mouth closed. It will cut down on
swallowing bugs. blech.

On The Run

Yes it's true. I have started running. I guess "running" isn't
exactly correct since what I am doing is much, much slower and no
where near as athletic. Not yet anyway.

Hubby needs to be able to do a timed run for the Fire Academy. So I
decided to train with him. The Couch to 5K comes highly recommended,
so that's the plan we are following.

You start out slow and alternate short bouts of running with longer
bouts of walking. They got the timing just right too. The end of the
running time was pretty much when I couldn't breathe anymore and
started thinking Oh my God, this is the longest 60 seconds I have ever
suffered, please let it be over now. And the end of the walking time
was pretty much when I could breathe again.

So even though I was so slow that I got lapped by a Mom and her 2
little kids, I kept going. And then I got lapped by a really old guy,
but I kept going. And even when I got lapped SEVERAL times by the
young stud with the iPod, I kept going.

And I didn't hate it. I always thought I would hate running. I
always declared that the only way I would be running is if someone was
chasing me with a knife. But not only did I not hate it, I can see
how it is enjoyable.

Once you can do it and still breathe, that is.

Saucy

Oh yeah!

They Must Hate Me Too

I got a call a little bit ago. From Medco. They informed me that due
to the cost of my daughter's medications they require payment before
they can ship.

I said that was just fine. I will go to my online account and make
the payment right now. They said that would be just fine.

I sign in to my account and go to the balances page. Hmmm. Balance due 0.00.

I dig out my prescription card for their phone number and I call the
number. It is one of those voice response systems. I hate those
things. They can never understand what I am saying. And I don't have
an accent. I work my way through a few options to be told that my
balance due is 0.00. I FINALLY get to an option that will allow me to
speak to a Real. Live. Person. Yay.

I explain that I went online to pay for the prescriptions and the
balance says 0.00 and the phone balance also said 0.00. She took some
of my information, put me on hold and comes back about 15 minutes
later. Then she tells me that due to the cost of the medications that
payment has to be made first before the medicine can be shipped out.

I begin beating my head against the nearest wall as I explain AGAIN
that I know that, and that I'M TRYING to pay but my online account
says 0.00 so IT WON'T LET ME PAY ANYTHING, I AM TRYING TO PAY IT, BUT
IT WON'T LET ME. I entered in my PayFlex card information, but IT
WON'T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE IT SAYS 0.00 DUE.

A lightbulb finally illuminated over at Medco and they looked up the
card info and said they are going to forward it to AR, and the pills
will ship out on the 11th.

I should have had them verify the address one more time, but I
couldn't think clearly due to the headache from the wall beating.

I really hate Medco.

Pet Peeve #412

Husbands who don't answer their phones.

You would have thought the lesson would have been learned after the
night the girls and I were broke down in the Jeep. I called and
called and called and left message after message after message.

And it was cold out.

More Ranting

I don't know if it's that I have gotten THAT crabby in my old age, or
things have really gotten that much more inefficient and screwy, but
it seems like lately I'm not happy unless I've got something to
complain about. And there is PLENTY for me to complain about.

Today's Rant: the mail in pharmacy my company uses. Medco. Oh, how
I love to hate Medco. (Almost as much as I love to hate AT&T - but
that's a story for another day.)

My company has used Medco as the mail in pharmacy since pretty much
forever. It is supposed to be more convinient. It is supposed to
save you money. It is supposed to make your life easier. HA!

I used them back in 1996 or so. Lazy Teenager was taking some
medicine, and Medco actually called me, extolling their virtues, so I
thought ok, I will give it a try.

It wasnt' too bad. At first. I think once or twice there was some
delay with getting the prescription from the doctor and it delayed the
medicine getting there before I ran out of what I had at home.
Nothing too major. And it was a bit cheaper than the retail pharmacy.

And then one month, out of the blue....NOTHING. I had sent in a refil
and I got nothing. I called, it's on it's way. Nothing. I called
again, it's been delivered. Uh, no it hasn't. Yes it has, our system
SAYS so. Well, I am standing here looking in my mailbox and there is
NOTHING. Well I can't help you, our information shows it was
delivered; try calling the post office. CLICK.

They hung up on me.

I called back and had to go through the whole story to a new person.
It finally occurred to them to verify the address. They read of some
address on Jamestown, in Irving. Some where that I not only currently
didn't live at, but had NEVER lived at. It was actually an old
address of my ex-husbands. Now how in the hell did they manage to
come up with that address. I have no idea. They had no idea. They
couldn't tell me when or why the address had been changed. All they
could tell me is that's where the pills were.

And their solution to the problem? Well they seemed to think that I
should drive over there and get the pills. HA! I had a different
view of things. After much arguing and being put on hold for long
periods of time, it was finally determined that if I was willing to
pay another copay, they would mark the order as lost in transit and
immediatly ship a new order. I was very happy to do that, as long as
they were willing to refund the first copay of the pills I did not
get. They agreed. And all was well.

Not really. It took 2 months of phone calls to get that first copay
refunded. They jsut wanted to credit my account; which would have
been fine except that after I finally received those pills, I had
immediately canceled the rest of the prescriptions. I was willing to
lose them making my life easier. I started going to the retail
pharmacy. They had to actually send me a check. It was only $20, and
it would have been less agrivating to let it got, but to me it was the
principal of the thing. I eventually got my money.

So. Now it is 2000 something and I am helping my mom with her
finances and her medical stuff. Her company also uses Medco. But I
kept all her prescriptions at the local pharmacy; I wasn't looking to
deal with those bozos again anytime soon. Then her insurance started
REQUIRING her to use Medco for certain of her pills. Ok fine. We use
them. Surprisingly, no problems.

So. Now it is now. Surly Teenager has 5 new medicines. And if you
are not familiar with any of the Crazy Meds, they tend to be
expensive. Especially the new ones that don't have generics for them
yet. So I said ok. Medco. It is significantly cheaper to use them.
No major problems for the last few years using them for my mom. Ok.
I will give it a try. The doctor sent in the prescriptions last
Tuesday.

I get a call this morning from Medco. They want to welcome me back.
They want to thank me for chosing them, for letting them make my life
easier. They want to verify my address.

Are you sitting down? Yes. That is correct - they asked me if the
address at something Jamestown in Irving was still valid or did I want
to use the *my current address* which is the one on my insurance
records.

I formally apologize to the poor Mr. Medco Guy who thought he was
making a simple address verification call, and got stuck having to
listen to the crazy lady rant.

He promised me he was deleting that address.

Graduation Day

Oh Come On People

This video has  made the news.  

People think it is mean.  Seriously people.  Mean?  Go buy yourselves a sense of humor.  It is obviously meant for fun and did not cause any harm.

!Friday!

Yay! Friday!

Just because I am at my desk, I don't actually have to work today, do I?

Hoopty Shopping

Saturday was a whipping.

We decided it was time to get a "new" 3rd car.  If one of our daily drivers break down, it gives us a back-up until Handy Hubby can get it fixed.  Plus, Surly Teenager is going to summer school.  And just to be inconvenient it is not at her home campus, because it is being rebuilt this summer.  And they are not offering bus service.  So she needed a way to get to school.

So we decided to get a throw away, hoopty car; one that we don't care if Surly Teenager accidently squishes parts of it.  And because she wanted to have some say as to what kind of car we got, and she wanted to be allowed driving time, she chipped in her entire savings account.

We started Friday night and then almost all day Saturday driving around looking at one piece of shit after the other.  I don't know if my expectations were too high or what, but man oh man, we saw some trash.  And we were looking in the $1200 - 1700 range.  

Then when we were just about to give up for the weekend, we saw an ad for the PERFECT car.  It was slightly more than what we were originally planning to spend, but after all of the hooptiness we had seen, we were willing to up our budget a bit.   Only it lived over an hour away.  The ad had only been up for 2 hours.  Hubby called and the guy said he had received about 7 calls already, but no one had shown up.  Hubby said we are on our way with cash in hand.  He told the guy how far we were coming, and told him he didn't expect him to hold it for us, but he gave the guy our cell phone number and asked him to please call us if it sold before we got there, so we could at least turn around.  I don't know if he actually did hold it for us, or if no one else happened to call, but it was there when we got there.

And it was just as nice as we hoped it would be:

Its one big boo-boo:

It has other minor scrapes and dings too, but over all it is in great condition.  It is a 2001 Ford Escort, with 81,043 miles on it.  It is an automatic - that was one of Surly Teenagers conditions because she is not interested in learning stick shift - manual locks and windows.  Nice clean interior.

All for only $2000.

Advanced Cat Yodeling

RANT: Customer Service

Case #1: Enrolling Surly Teenager
Surly Teenager was released from the outpatient transitional program
she was attending. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but her
new doctor that will be managing her medicines had a last minute
appointment available on Tuesday morning, and for insurance reason,
she had to be released before she could keep that appointment. So
they moved her discharge date to Monday, but kept the scheduled
meeting for the paperwork, on late Tuesday afternoon.

After her Tuesday morning appointment we go by her high school. I
wanted to get started on her re-enrollment. I wanted to fill out the
forms, give copies of everything, get her schedule straight, all that
could be done, except for the final signing off on everything, because
I wouldn't have the discharge papers until late that afternoon. I
wanted to have everything done and ready, so all that was left was to
send her to school the next morning with the final signed paper.
Because I was scheduled off for Tuesday to take care of these things,
not on Wednesday.

But nooooo. They would not look at one single thing, not pull one
single form for me to begin to fill out. Because I did not have the
discharge paper. And were they going to be there so I could bring it
by that afternoon? Of course not! They were all leaving at the same
time I would be in my meeting getting the form.

Fine.

I get the form and we go to the school the next morning. I am
expecting it to take an hour or so to fill out forms and talk to the
counselor. But noooo. The discharge paper that the program gave me
was not the same type of form that the school wanted. They have to
fax a request to the charter school that the program uses and wait for
them to fax back. I am not allowed to go pick up anything and hand
deliver it. I might change some information or forge something.

So we wait. And wait. And wait. And then, then we wait some more.

Finally, I gave up and just left. I made sure the lady knew I was
leaving and that she had my cell phone number and that she would call
me when she received the paper, because I would come right up.

No call. I ended up missing the whole day of work because I kept
thinking they would call at any minute.

The next morning I decide to take Surly Teenager to work with me.
Then when the school calls with the paper, I will run back there and
go back to work. We stop by the school first, just to make sure they
remember I am waiting for that fax and that they still have my phone
number.

But noooo. Because guess what? They got the fax THE AFTERNOON BEFORE
BUT DID NOT CALL ME. I saw it laying there when she was signing off
on the papers for us to take up to the counselor. It had come in at
1:47 pm, about 2 hours after we had left. AND NO ONE CALLED ME.

* * * * *

Case #2: Our web hosting company
We own a domain. We don't really have any content on it, but we use
the associated email accounts, and host some info for my mother-in-law
and the Abilene Music Teachers Association (or something like that).
We use it mainly for hosting pictures when we sell something on ebay
or Craigslist.

It is set up to bill annually to Hubby's credit card. His card expired
this year and he had to update them with the new expiration date.
Which he neglected to do in a timely manner. They suspend the
account. Which knocked out the emails. Plus, they have 2 different
systems and even though an email change was given in one place, Hubby
didn't know about the second one. So we did not receive one single
notice that said Hey, you need to update your card info, or that said
Hey, your account is about to be suspended. I know that they aren't
required to give such notices, but wouldn't that be considered common
courtesy and just good business practice?

Hubby finally got all the information in all the right places. They
billed us. Two days later they still had not unsuspended the account.
Hubby had to send them an angry email to get the account back to
normal.

* * * * *

And don't even get me started on unethical cell phone company
manager's, who will fudge birthdays, to get a sales commission, and
get an underage teenager in the midst of a manic episode, to sign a 2
year contract so she can have texting, even though she has no credit
history because she has NO JOB, and can't pay their monthly $69 bill.

It is amazing how polite and helpful some people will get when
confronted by an extremely pissed off Mom that is ready to come across
the counter and rip them a new one. They apologize and issue refunds
and everything.

But you shouldn't have to go to that extreme in the first place. What
happened to the mind set of "the customer is always right"?

The Domino Effect

I like rearranging furniture.  All the decorating shows say that the cheapest and easiest way to redecorate is to "go shopping" in your own house.  Move something from one room to another.

I do this occasionally.

What I hate about it, is the domino effect that happens.  And it always does.

We had something sort of like this in our family room with a tv sitting on it.  Surly Teenager asked if she could have it in her room for her aquarium and other stuff.  I said sure. 

And so it began.

The Domino Effect.

It started with the new green wall.  She had been talking about repainting a wall and since we were moving furniture, it would be best to paint first.  We had to move out the stand her aquarium had been on before. It got stuck into a corner of the living room for now.

Then came her new desk.  

The old desk had to be moved out.  It had to go somewhere.  Ok, how about Lazy Teenager's old room.  Only in order to do that, the big desk that is currently in there would have to go somewhere.  Ok, how about in the family room.  Where the thing for the tv was.  Ok, but now I have to move the other piece of furniture that was with it to the other wall for the tv to sit on.  Now the recliners are all wrong and have to go on the other wall.  Only there is a bookcase there......

See what I mean.  The Domino Effect.

Surly Teenager's room is all nice and neat now, with her new wall, and new desk and new (to her) thing for her aquarium.

But the rest of the house?  The rest of the house is now in TOTAL disarray.  

Hubby Guest Post- $18 tool box

I was toolbox shopping today, and I got the best $18 toolbox ever. 

At Lowes I found one I liked for $36.98, but it was dented on the bottom.  It was the old model, obviously everyone kept skipping the dented one, but the new one had a odd looking light grey and blue handle, the drawers were updated with plastic coated rails which I guess made them smoother, but also much harder to open and close.  

The new model was also heavier, but somehow flimsier on the top.  When you picked it up by the handle to top seemed to pop in and out like an old oil can.  To top it off the latches where smaller and weaker than the old ones.  

I hated, however, to pay full price for the dented model, which actually made it hard to open the bottom drawer all the way.  I took a cue from Dave Ramsey, who despite being a millionaire, asks for open box or scratch and dent items when he shops, always asks for a deal.

I took both toolboxes up front and explained I actually preferred the old model, and if they had one that was not damaged I would gladly pay full price, so can I get a discount.  The customer service rep asked the manager, and he said is $18 all right?  Sure, over half off for a dent which I was able to hammer out after removing the drawers?  Heck yes!  I forgot to take a before picture of the dent, and it had been a floor model for a while, it also had a bent eyelet where the hasp closes for a padlock, I was able to straighten that out no problem. 

Taking a cue from my awesome father, I drilled holes and riveted the socket rails into place.  I have my wrenches and screwdrivers in "All Purpose" bags except for the ones that would not fit.  You can get "All Purpose" bags at Wal-Mart for like $5 and they come in 8 or more colors, they rock.  I also swapped the larger drawer and smaller drawer top to bottom.  

More Mother's Day

My other beautiful present.  This one from Lazy Teenager.