I feel great today!

These were the first words out of my child's mouth this morning when she climbed out of my bed (her alarm goes off she climbs in my bed, we go back to sleep, it's a ritual). I thought to myself I wish I could say the same. Ahh age, it really gets to you after awhile doesn't it? By the time she came back upstairs after eating her breakfast though she was dragging. Too optimistic? I suppose. She had a great day on Monday. Her fav class, art, was Monday (they alternate between art, PE, computers and music) and when I went to pick her up from her after school at gymnastics the main guy was testing her to see where she was at. Apparently the tall skinny no ass kids are ringers for getting onto the teams. She has been asking me about getting on the team. I guess one of the other girls was recently invited to the team and my kids was envious. Big surprise there right?

I had to then explain to her that parents didn't get their children on the team, that the kids had to earn their way up. Since she had only been going sporadically (remember, daddy had those weird shifts) she wasn't advancing very quickly and plus I don't think she was taking it very seriously. Once I explained that though, oh boy look out. Even the teachers came up to me and commented on how much more she was trying. Life lessons huh? I swear we all learn them before the age of 10, most people just don't pay attention.

Monday she was evaluated and she was invited on to the 2-3 level team. She was thrilled! And all about buying the new team leotard. Since, you know, it's all about what you get to buy right? I was very proud of her for reaching her goal so quickly, she'd only been told about having to earn her way up 2 weeks ago. The only down side is that she is going to her grandmothers in San Diego for the entire summer. Last day of school (and her gymnastics) is June 4th. Yes that's right, I gave my kid away for 3 months. I think my hubby is going to have some serious separation anxiety. So I didn't start her out on the team and won't until she gets back in the fall. I did, however, mention to her that she has to perfect her cartwheel over the summer (it's not all that) and then I called her grandmother. Who promptly looked into half day gymnastics camps for her so that she can continue on with her new skills.

Have I mentioned that kids are expensive? And damn, what is up with all of the thousands of different programs you can put them into? I'm really glad neither I nor the hubby are terrorists when it comes to after school projects/sports/what not. These kids can get overinundated so quickly! We've so far had her do ballet (age 3-5 and she performed on stage, big performance), swim (she's a fish so I suspect we'll have her in this again, someday), theater (she has another summer camp for this at her grandmother's), and gymnastics. Now don't judge, we only actually did gymnastics because she was bored with the YMCA afterschool care she was in and the gymnastics was only $30 more a month. Well until she gets on to the team that is. I'm pretty sure that, just like all the rest of the sports, this will cost us more in the end. I tell you what though, if she tells me she's got too much on her plate that's it, none of the sports crap. I see what soccer moms do every weekend and all week nights and I am sooo grateful that my kid does not do soccer. Ick, I hate that sport. The kid has only done one of these activities at any given time too, I don't believe in doubling up. I'm not a stay at home mom you know, I'd go insane. Not with the stay at home mom part, with the insane schedules these kids keep!

There are other reasons

My hubby actually posted a new post to his blog Sunday. It's been decades, I think his last post was April 4th and the post before that was mine. Odd that he is not a big blogger, the man is constantly writing. The spiral notebooks all over the house are full of his scrawlings. Regardless, the topic of his post today was his new job change. No he has not made it out of the corrections officer job he has just switched positions inside the prison, he now works in the law library. The regular shift jobs there are either 'A' or 'B' card. Both are 4 days on, 4 days off. 'A' card is the day shift 'B' card is the night shift. The hubby was 'A' card. 'H' card, however, is the mon-fri 8-5 gig. Being on 'H' card would mean that the hubby would not be able to carpool as he did before (only 1 other person rather than 1 person for every day worked). It would mean that he left the house at a normal hour, 6am, and came home around 6:30 pm. Plus he'd be home weekends (they work one Saturday a month in the law library, no big) and holidays too. Yeah that's right 'A' and 'B' card shifts don't get holidays off, prisoners always need babysitters since they don't play well with others.

The positives in this case outweigh the negatives. It is still at the prison, it is still dangerous, and it is still 90 friggin miles away. His schedule is the same every week though and we have him on weekends and holidays and he gets home earlier, doesn't wake at 3 am and doesn't constantly suffer from sleep deprivation. 4 days off was great and all but more often than not it was during the week and he was home alone. Sleeping. Not much good having half the time off when all you do is sleep now is it? Don't get me wrong, ultimately his goal is to have a regular elementary school teaching job come fall. No more prison crap but in the mean time we get the hubby back so it is a degree of better. I'm all about degrees here people and every little bit helps.

As to why he ended his post with 'There are other reasons' well that's one of our long term goals we've been putting off for awhile. A really long while. We never planned on having just one kid. I was an only child (thankfully no one else had to endure my mother) and the hubby had an older brother. 5 years older to be exact so it wasn't like they were very close as children either. We would have liked to have 2 kids closer together in age but after the kid was born life was insane. Plus, living in So Cal? OMG it was so expensive we never lived in a place big enough for just the 3 of us. It wasn't just impractical it was impossible.

Right now it's only kinda impractical. We made the decision that once the hubby got a job that was relatively normal we'd start trying. If one waits for 'the perfect time' the human race would cease to exist. I am a true believer in this and lordy knows I am not getting any younger. It chaps me that I know people who are totally incapable of taking care of themselves (i.e. over 30 and still living with their parents, kid you not) that have no less than 2 kids. It drives me batty. People like us, college degrees, own a home, moderately successful and yet we have waited almost 7 years (the kid will be 8 this year) because we want to be at least a bit responsible about procreating? The justice in this world, totally non-existent. The hubby is getting tired of me complaining that everyone else is breeding but us. I swear these people in Texas are like friggin bunnies. The last couple we knew that had just 1 kid (and we are the minority) are having another. Sadly this is Little Miss M's parents and she's such a terror I think her parents should be sterilized. Good thing I didn't give them my blog address huh? Oh never mind, not like I say anything on here I wouldn't say to their faces, I'm real nice like that.

Regardless June is the month we are starting on this new adventure. Of a planned pregnancy. Novel! That last one, as wonderful as she is, was not on the agenda and put a big ol speed bump in the hubby's grand plan. OK he's not much of a planner but it really was not was he was looking for at the time. How's that for neutral? My bad, you can just call me speed bump from now on. Lord knows thats how big I get when preggers. I am officially 36 on the 28th of May, that puts me smack dab into 'old' as far as ob/gyns are concerned. They do things like stick needles in your placenta at 20 weeks and all kinds of hideous tests I'll probably opt not to have. Much to everyone's dismay I'm sure. If this plan comes to fruition ya'll will probably get an earful of info you probably just never really wanted to know. Well except for Trailboss and her 2 daughters already moving on to have babies at the same time (how cool is that?). My apologies in advance.

Wish us luck, we're so going to need it...

I am not a Star Trek fan

This is a review, in case ya’ll were wondering. Don't want to pull a fast one on ya or anything...

Star Trek, The Future Begins
I tell you what, I’ve never been a Trekkie. Star Trek has never been my thing which is kinda odd seeing as how me and almost all of the people I hang with (and the one I married) are sci fi geeks. Of the highest order might I add. Dungeons and Dragons (still play it) and all the dorkdom it entails, thank you very much. Star Trek? Never really did it for me so when the hubby said he wanted to see it, even more than the new Wolverine movie (very odd for him) I was like, um ok, whatever floats your boat. I am not a big Marvel fan either so it was 6, ½ dozen the other to me.

I was not expecting to be terribly thrilled with either movie choice so when we were running a bit late and the hubby was getting all uptight about it, like hubbies do, I was like, ‘k whatever. Such a loving wife huh? We weren’t that late though, he got popcorn (a bad addiction of his, he’ll make himself sick off of it before he’ll stop eating it) and sodas and the trailers weren’t even over yet. No big, theaters expect everyone to be running late.

I knew by the end of the opening sequence that this film was another masterpiece from J.J. Abrams. This film is STELLAR, just amazing on so many different levels I wouldn’t even know where to start. Oddly enough I think the Trek fans will like it less than those of us who are non fans. I mean I’ve seen a few of the tv episodes and maybe 1 or 2 of the movies but I was never a Shatner fan. Well that’s not entirely true, I loved what he did as a possum in Over the Hedge. I don’t think they could have picked a better actor for that part. Seriously folks, if you haven't seen him as the dad possum go rent it, it’s damn funny.

Anyway, why do I think the fans won’t like it and the rest of us will? Dude, they played the time space continuum card and basically jacked everything prior to this film. They changed the history of Star Trek and they did it while kicking some serious ass. It was wild, I don’t know how they did it and made it all play out so smoothly but dang it was good. The action is fabulous, it must be seen on the big screen. Fat home tv’s just aren’t going to cut it. You can tell the guys who wrote the screen play for Transformers (Orci and Kurtzman) wrote this one too. It wasn’t a copy of that action but it did have the same flavor and you know, I love Transformers. LOVE IT. Like planning a Transformers tattoo of some sort. Seriously.

The Future Begins starts just before the birth of James T. Kirk and if you were a Trekkie you’d probably know from the get go that they were changing history with this one. It starts off with a dramatic event that didn’t happen to the original Kirk. An ‘alternate timeline’ as it were. You get to see all of the crew when they started out in the academy, when Kirk meets Bones, oh and the humor. Even if you only know a wee bit of the original Star Trek you’ll be able to catch all the little things. The cast they picked did an awesome job following all the character traits of the original actors/characters, oh it is just too cool! And so funny!

No lie people, you must go see this I the theater. Trust me, iz gud, you’ll love it!

Meme me baby!

I know lots of people hate these things but I am abby normal, I love them and find them entertaining enough to pass them on like the swine flu.

What are your current obsessions?
You know I'm mildly ocd and the word obsession may not mean the same thing to ya'll as it does to me. Right now, it's spring so I'm going to go with planting. I don't garden so much as buy plants and plunk. More on that in a later post I'm sure...


Which item from your wardrobe do you wear the most often?
That would have to be my black yoga pants that I got from Old Navy. They have a folding waist band so it doesn't matter how big your belly gets. It's practically maternity wear. Shhh don't tell anyone I said that.

What’s for dinner?
Oy I had the flu Tuesday night so my motivation to make something is somewhat low. I do have chicken though so I was thinking rice with lemon chicken. I'll let you know how that goes.

What is your greatest fear at the moment?
Fear? I try not to do fear, it leads to stress. I hate stress.In this economic state though I'd have to go with both of us losing our jobs. It wouldn't be the end of the world and we would survive but it'd be a pain in the ass.

What are you listening to?
Country (see the list on the side bar) much to the husband's dismay.

If you were a mythological character, what would you be?
Eris, Goddess of chaos. And I quote
"Eris is Discord, and may be called strife and quarrel as well."
Lets face it, it's a girl thing

What are your favorite holiday spots?
For the winter holidays, anywhere with snow. For the spring, anywhere things are growing and green. For summer, anywhere with water. This should all be a given, no?

What are you reading right now?
Nothing, I have yet to get that shipment from Brenda with the Twilight books.

What is your guilty pleasure?
One? Am I supposed to have just one? OK I went to Bath and Body Works yesterday so I'll go with that one. I must have lovely scented lotions and soaps. I really don't care what they cost either.

Who or what makes you laugh?
People make me laugh, I'm not picky and, as a general rule, people are stupid. That means its just a matter of people watching for long enough, you'll get a laugh out of me.

What is your favorite Spring thing to do?
Plant! Didn't I already cover that?

Where are you planning to travel next?
I am like fine linen, I don't travel well. The farthest I'll go voluntarily is Austin. I love Austin.

What is the best thing you ate or drank lately?
Today it was greek food. Recently in the past 30 days? I went to The Chart House with some friends and they had this clam chowder that was to die for.

When was the last time you were tipsy?
I don't get tipsy, I never drink enough to. Alcohol tastes like crap to me. Like licking a magic marker. Never been drunk either. Seriously.

What is your favorite ever film?
I don't have just one.
Transformers rocked and I can't wait until the next one
Serenity, Joss Whedon is god
The newest Star Trek, this will be my next blog post peeps, it kicked ass in a big major way. BIG.

What is the biggest life lesson you’ve learned from your kids?
Take your time. It'll all get done eventually, the important part is the trip there.

What book do you know you should read but refuse to?
Les Miserables

What is your physical abnormity/abnormal physical ability?
I don't have one. Unless you count my brain and that's not a physical abnormality so much as a mental one now is it?

What is your favorite color?
Purple but ask me tomorrow and it may be green.

Can the people outside your car hear the music playing inside your car?
Dude, I drive a Jeep.

And the one I am adding:

Do you think being a blogger has changed the way you write?
Oh my yes. The hubby has actually said my writing has improved. He's a writer so I believe him but I can't see it. Regardless I am still going to continue, wether or not I'm getting better.




The rules of this meme are as follows:
- Respond to and rework the meme.
- Answer the questions on your own blog.
- Replace one question and add one question.
- Tag 8 people.


ps, I didn't delete one question but ya'll can do what you want. As per my norm I am not tagging anyone. I think these things should be enjoyed and there for voluntary. I was raised by hippies, can you tell?

Sleep deprivation?

For the longest time I've had trouble getting to sleep. The hubby doesn't because he's in a constant state of sleep deprivation getting up at 3 am and coming home at 8pm. I have trouble falling asleep and then when his alarm goes of at 2:40am it wakes me up and then I take awhile to get back to sleep. Less than ideal situation for me but this is the job he chose so this is what we get to live with.

For the past 3 weeks I've been spending most of my awake free moments squeezing in everything that one can possibly squeeze in (work, pick up kid, getting hw done with her, and making dinner) plus I've added in as much exercise as I can. We try to go to the pool every single day (this past weekend the kid was too tired so we didn't go) and since the kid can swim very well I can do laps and not stress. Seriously, she's just like her daddy, a long ass fish. Thin as all get out too so when she does finally get out of the pool her lips are blue as a corpse, looks terrible. Or really awesome if you're into that goth look.

After that, late late late into the stupid hot evening, when it gets down to you know, 90 something degrees, I take Jaynie out for our long walk and alone time. Spoiled butt head. I try to do this before 10pm because I know the hubby waits up until I get home and I hate keeping him up too late when he has to wake like 4 hours later. It's a decent amount of exercise but I think it's the running around trying to get everything done that really wears on me.

I used to do all the running around anyway but I was not trying to squeeze in the physical activities too. The combination has made it so that I now take 15 minutes to fall asleep rather than the 1-2 hours. I like it. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up before I have a "I can't keep up" breakdown but in the meantime the sleep deprivation is no longer due to the inability to fall asleep. Twice in one night. Did I mention I now no longer notice when the hubby's alarm goes off? That's nice too. I hate that 2:40am alarm.

How many boxers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

It doesn't matter, a boxer will just play in the dark!



Look out Roxy, here comes Jaynie!


Yeah like she gives a hoot right?


And it's on!

My daddy has these damn books

These books are the bane of the residents of this household. The hubby is a gamer (as in Dungeons and Dragons), actually we both are but he's the DM (dungeon master) so he needs the reference books. We have no less 60 of these monsters stacked all over the house and normally in piles. On the couch, next to the couch in the bathrooms. Don't ask, they drive me and the kid nuts because they blend in to to color of the floor and the couch and we end up kicking them and breaking our toes. When they are on the couches there's no room to sit. This chocolate chair that Jaynie is wedged in is a small chair, big people can't fit in it. My hubby has a waist line almost smaller than mine (yes, I do find that fact annoying) so he fits in it just fine. We never actually gave the size of this chair any thought until we had larger friends come over. Not very comfy looking for them.

Jayne usually likes to get on the couches but he doesn't like having anything up on them. If there's a pillow or a remote control or a piece of paper up on it he'll stare at it until you remove it. He's very indignant about this, the look on his face if you don't immediately remove it is classic. When I took this picture he hadn't even asked for the books to be moved. He wanted up so bad that he just squeezed up there and pretended they weren't there. He tried real hard to not touch them but the chair, it's too small!

More dog you say?

Well that I can do. The hubby and I exist to alternately spoil, entertain, and torment the inhabitants of our home whilst I chronicle it on my blog. Really it's just fodder for the SPCA and CPS though but whats life if you don't live it on the edge? Do you like that picture of the dead Jaynie? On the couch we don't allow dogs on? Except when we get all lax with the rules in the house, which is like always. Lets look at it a bit more closely and try and get an idea of just how toasted this dog is...



As yes, there you go, now that's a good portrait don't you think? It looks as though he bellied up to the bar for one too many drinks doesn't it? Enough so that he really doesn't care daddy is taking a picture of him with his upper lip wrapped upwards towards the sky and stuck to the fabric of my couch. Just tacky no?

Here, lets get a bit closer because you know, we can....


Dogs, we own them just so we can jack with them.

He looks like this (and right now even he's in about the same spot) because this is post evening walk. He and I have been going on a walk every single night and I think I've mentioned the weather thing? Yeah, after the family gets back from the pool I take him out. It's still in the mid 80's and stupid humid out and dang it all if it doesn't kick our butts. He loves it but this is what we get afterwards. One burnt out puppy. It's great.

Play time with Corbin

My poor dogs, they have it so rough. Especially Corbin, he's so small that playing with the big dogs kicks his butt and kinda gets him too worked up. I mean he has to practically walk on his hind legs to get to the big dogs and they tend to ignore him like a gnat. Yeah, rough life. Every once in awhile the hubby gets him all riled up while getting down on his level. The big dogs would never lower themselves to such indignities. Corbin looooves his play time. What I didn't get a picture of (because it's an action and not a still shot) is after they were done Corby was out in the hall and did a sneak attack on the hubby while he was standing in the room talking to me. It was such a funny cat like action. Corbin is an anvil with legs, cat like actions are rare and far between with him. So we're standing there and Corbin comes tearing in full speed and tags the hubby. Hubby looks down at stopped fuzzy-ever-so-sly-anvil and starts to laugh his ass off. That dog is such a funny little idiot, it's terribly endearing.

I think Mother Nature is having menopause issues, as in hot flashes

Per the National Weather Forecast :
Temperatures will be well above average across much of Texas and Oklahoma. The hottest spot will be southern and west-central portions of Texas where record-breaking 100s are forecast.

Holy howdy hello has it been hot around here. I don't know what it's like in ya'lls hometown but good gawd we're dying out in south central Texas. The good news is that, unlike California, we're not too proud to admit we need a/c. The humidity is a lot worse than normal too, more like Corpus Christi or Houston like we're near the coast or something. It makes it hard to breathe it's so nasty. I'm not used to it and none of us are liking it. Big surprise right?

Today it was about 91 degrees, as I type this it is 10:40pm and it's 82 outside but it feels like (I love this option they have on weather reports, 'feels like') 88 degrees. It's almost 11pm!! It's killing me man, I'm not used to this humidity. Feels like freaking Florida. No rain mind you. The air feels so thick though it feels as though it should rain. And yet, no.

The temperature for the next 10 days or so is going to be in the upper 90's. Yes, we expect this weather in Texas. No, we do not expect it so early in the year. We had a very mild winter and all the plants are seriously confused. They are still chugging on along but only really surviving the heat because the water in the air is thick enough for them to live on. Great for plants, not so cool for us. Breathing = hard.

Here at our subdivision we have a basketball court, volley ball court, and 3 pools all in the same clubhouse area. We have been going to the pool every night. There is a basketball pick up game going on every night until the lights turn off at 10pm. I am just waiting for them to have to call an ambulance because someone collapses of heat exhaustion. I'm serious, it's nutters and I can't believe those men can keep it up for the like, 4 hours they play for. I bet they smell awful by the time they get home, ick.

This is Texas

I am quite familiar with snakes, I had one growing up (it died, I was too young and forgot to feed it) and unlike most people they don't give me the heebie jeebies. Most of you regulars probably figured that out by now since that one week where we lost our 4 ft pink snake in the house right? Wild snakes though, whole different story.

I grew up in San Diego, we have snakes down there. We had signs at work where they had lunch tables outside that warned people of the rattlers. The security was out at least once a month in the warmer months with a long claw thingy and a trash can catching the buggers that got too close to our doors or tables. The shipping and receiving guys had a rat snake they caught in an acrylic tank they built (out of shipping scraps) in their office. They didn't touch it ever but kept it clean and well fed. Illegal I'm totally sure and the company never knew about it either. Regardless I don't mess with wild snakes. I have a healthy fear of rattlers since I was a wee one who was taken out on hikes all the time. I'm not stupid, I don't touch ones I didn't raise from a baby and I'd never raise a poisonous snake.

So today I had to go run an errand at work so it's about noon, hot as all hell out (yeah, it's Texas alright) and I come up behind a gold minivan. I look at the back bumper and it's got something hanging out from the interior side of it. Ya'll see where I'm going here? My mind registered it as something odd because it wasn't hanging straight down, it was sort of unwinding. The color made it hard to spot, it was a light gold color that matched the car color so if you didn't register the fact that the shape of how it was moving was snake like you'd have never known it was a snake trying to escape from inside the bumper of a minivan. Got the heebie jeebies yet? Yeah I thought so. It creeped me out too. I wanted to snap a picture but just as I noticed it the light turned green and the snake quickly sucked itself back up inside the bumper. I was bummed I couldn't get a picture, it was just such an odd sight! I wanted to tell the driver but I couldn't get his attention. most probably they would park and that sucker would creep on out and go off into the wild again anyway. I hope.

I couldn't tell what kind of snake it was though since I only got to see it's underbelly. I'm paranoid though and I can't identify snakes worth a crap. If it's brownish, creamish, blackish, or copperish (oh those copper heads are NASTY) I don't want anything to do with it.

So tell me, if you saw something like that falling slowly out of your bumper what would you do? I am familiar enough to not run screaming but I will walk quickly in another direction and not get back in the car without someone going to check it out. Seriously man, this is why I don't own a car with a trunk...

Bernanke says we're going to bottom out this year

And then start the upward climb by the end of the year. That's not bad considering. The sad part is that I called the recession a recession when it happened, unlike CNN who called it a year after it started. I could have told you that we'd bounce back at the end of this year too. Like where the hell have these people been? I am not an economist by any stretch of the means. All I can figure is that they are so paranoid about pissing people off more that they wait to make 'official announcements' until the thing they are announcing has already come to pass. Useless bureaucrats. I know, you all could have told me that one right?

So what can we expect? I'll tell you what, a crush of enrollment into nursery schools starting in, oh about 1-1.5 years. After every disaster, be it natural or not, there is a baby boom. Seriously. It happened after 9/11 too. During 9/11 I was on may way to work (remember west coast) and I was 8 months pregnant. When my kid turned 3 her grandmother decided it was time to send her to preschool. They hubby's mom watched her during the day so she took over most of the decisions to be made concerning the kid. Don't ask, long sordid ordeal ending with us moving to Texas. Seriously folks, I love my mother in law but she took over many parts of my life that did not need to be taken over. I'm just going to leave that alone there.

Regardless, in August my mil decided to enroll my daughter in preschools. Come to find out they are all booked. Every single one. With waiting lists and apparently if you want in you should have got on the waiting list before the child was born. Well of course we didn't know that the mother in law was going to do this and she can't put the kid in anything without us enrolling her anyway, we being, you know, the parents and all. We asked around and come to find out the reason everything is booked is because of the 9/11 baby boom. Right after the disaster people started breeding like nuts and, of course, had to enroll them in daycare. Since the mother in law had taken care of her for her first 2 years of life she didn't know about this population boom. I just happened to be pregnant during a not so natural disaster. Go figure.

So back to the beginning of my circuitous thought process. In the middle of all this financial muck don't be surprised if in, oh about a year or two, we have this glut of little babies and over booked preschools. We are planning on having another once the hubby gets a job with a regular work week. And we plan on hiring a nanny because dang, finding a preschool to take an infant? And the cost? Lordy, it's just easier to get a nanny. Hey at least this time we're planning on having a kid...novel idea huh?

Lifestyle changes

We are all human and as such we hate change. I work in a clinic (big one, like hospital sized) that works exclusively on diabetes and glandular diseases. The diabetics are the smallest percentage of our clients (thyroid being the highest) but are who we see 90% of the time. Lets face it, San Antonio does not suffer from a lack of big fat and lazy. Hell anything to the contrary sticks out like a sore thumb here. I think we've been on the US's top 10 fattest cities for a multitude of years running. #1 for not just a few of them. In fact I think the only reason we are going down on that list is because this financial cycle California's mass exodus moved here. 10 years ago (the CA mass exodus happens every 10-15 years) the Cali's all moved to Washington and Oregon, this time we went east. North was too cold and all the old Californians had raised the housing prices up there in the past 10 years.

Anyway, back on topic and off demographics (all this is true, you can look up the statistics) the diabetics are the ones we see the most of because of one reason, non-compliance. It's like the big bad word here. Being diabetic means you have to change the way you live your life. If you know of someone who died of 'diabetic complications' I'll bet there was at least a 90% chance that the person died because they were not willing to make the lifestyle changes that would result in surviving and living a long life. Seriously folks, no one wants to hear that they need to eat vegetables, cut down on salt and carbohydrates and LORD FORBID exercise. Now talk about a word no one wants to hear. As a diabetic you have to watch everything that passes over your lips, it sucks and it takes effort. Oh no not effort! Effort and change no! Yeah, now you know why we see no less than 3 ambulances here a week. They come in pretending everything is hunky dory, we do their lab work (all in house) and they are near death and we have to have them taken to the hospital (other end of the corner from us) by ambulance. At least 3 times a week this happens. Non-compliance? Yes, just a little thank you very much.

We deal with it often and take it in stride. Really there's not much we can do other than tell them what they should be doing and then treating the big issues as they come up. Lets face it, for all intents and purposes people are stupid and that is what we have to work with. Need proof? Go drive on a freeway during rush hour and there ya go, living proof that morons continue to dominate the earth. There is also this other phenomenon when you come to work here at DGD clinic and I am not sure why it exists but I can totally prove that it does. The saying goes, "Not diabetic yet? Well if you come to work here we can fix that.". We don't actually make every worker diabetic but dang it all if we can't pack the weight on your ass. Now here's the thing, we don't provide food here and I can't imagine the women who work here (yes, mostly female) would be less sedentary if they didn't work here. So I'm not sure why working here makes you gain weight. Everyone here is on a diet of some sort. Sometimes they even do it together.

Go look behind the desks and you'll notice charts with workers names and their weights at certain dates. Chances are that number doesn't go down after a few months either. Mind you 95% of these women are latino so they don't have genetics or lifestyle going for them. The mexican food here is a culinary atrocity. Their beans are all made with so much lard by the time they get to the table there's a pool of liquid lard on top of the beans, its gross. And, true to Texan culture, all serving sizes are Texas sized, way hella too big for any one person. And yet they pack it all down. Just wrong. Someone made a Weight Watchers chili one day and everyone loved it. I tried it, it was good but it was like these people were eating a food they'd never had before. Turns out this chili had real tomato chunks and celery and a bunch of other veggies in it. To me this is normal, apparently not to a Texan. They don't do vegetables here, they do meat and lard beans. Blech.

Now I could blame this for the weight gain of the other women who work here but not myself. I was raised with a different idea of healthy food, you know, like that green stuff? Yeah. Well obviously that was not good enough to avert the evils of DGD and the propensity for all of us to gain weight. It will be my one year mark here May 27th. I weighed myself on one of the scales here 3 weeks ago and just about died. I don't own a scale at home so the only way I ever know my actual weight is when I go to the doctors, which thankfully, has been awhile. I had gained, in this past wee bit less than a year's time, around 20 lbs. No lie peeps, this is tragic. I'm 5'1" tall and 20 lbs does not disperse on this body frame. Tragic man, just tragic.

I went about evaluating my daily habits which, oddly, have not changed in forever and I could not figure out what made this huge difference in a short time span. I wish I could say I was more sedentary than before. Or that I ate more bad stuff but no, nothing. I'm just as lazy as I used to be, the table fare has not changed, I really just do not know. So in a fit of OMG I'M HUGE I cut my caloric intake. By a lot. I was trying to hit a goal of the standard 2000 calories a day and ended hitting about 1500. I couldn't function on 1500 calories and to anyone else out there I wouldn't recommend it, it's not pretty.

After about a week of this I threw in the towel. Now I'm just avoiding fast food and those type things like the plague (no, I didn't get them often anyway so that's not it) and also seriously watching what I eat. Like instead of bread with lunch I'll eat crackers. Lots more fruit and veggies, no desserts. Snacks are not candy (they weren't anyway so again, that wasn't it) and I bought a bunch of munchie things that are healthy so I can munch all day and not have big meals. I have eaten like this for most of my life but I had never followed anything very strictly, never had to. I think it's a mid thirties thing, my body has just changed and now I have to make lifestyle changes. Big ones lest my ass grow out of control like it obviously has for the last year.

Good grief just looking at the people that come in here everyday should put everyone on a diet, it's scary how people do not take care of themselves! Just for the record I have started exercising also. Every night, no matter what the time, Jaynie and I go out and power walk. I say power walk but that's just me, he barely gets a fast pace going. If I wanted to jog he may have to walk quickly. His legs are so damn long even the hubby has trouble getting that dog to lope when he jogs with him. This is why I take Jayne and not the other lazy 2, Corbie's body is barely made for walking and Roxy well, she'd much rather become one with the couch (I'm so with her on this one). Also Jayne will kill anything that comes within a 30 foot radius of us, this is bad normally but at night on a walk, perfect weapon. Loud as a fracking get out too, all sound and fury. Scary as shit if you don't know any better.

The pool has also opened again (yay!) so every free chance we get after I pick the kid up we're going to swim. She's an excellent swimmer since we made her take lessons for a year straight. I don't think any other parent has done that in the classes we have locally. They all figure their kid would learn to swim in 1 month with them taking the kid to the pool once or twice a week. Um, no. After one year my kid was 6 and doing the butterfly, now that is a stroke that would sink me. She knows that was her daddy's stroke that he competed in so she insisted on that being 'her stroke of choice'. Whatever as long as she doesn't drown and I can get my laps in it's all good.

So we shall see if it takes me the same amount of time to take this extra weight off as it did to put it on. At the very least I'm feeling much better physically, which is a good thing. Oddly though I don't think it has to do with diet, I'm pretty sure it's the added physical routine. I hate exercise but I hate diets more. I figure if I do a bit of both something should come of it right?

I'm a sad sad scrapbooker

In honor of it being Scrapbook Expo weekend in San Diego, an event I go to every year with my friend Anna Marie, I am exposing my greatest faults as a scrapper. And coming to terms with the fact that I am poor and could neither afford to fly out to San Diego for the Expo nor go to the classes or buy stuff. *sigh*, life in a recession sucks doesn't it? But that's not a good enough excuse for my present failings since they've nothing to do with money really, it's pure lack of time motivation, and self discipline. Not that any of you have these problems I'm sure but I have a need to come out on the internets and lay it all out for you all.

Originally this blog was started because I am a scrapbooker. You can post a photo of your project on their forums but for detailed instructions people posted them on their respective blogs and linked them. Yeah I did that a few times and I really liked it but somehow sometime scrapping got squeezed out of the time priority. Life became more of a priority and you lucky folks get to listen to my prattling instead. Sorry about that.

A long long time ago I married my husband. It was a long sordid ordeal but I don't need to go into that now. No no, this is about the fact that I am a scrapbooker with and entire room of what not purposed specifically for making said scrapbooks. Did I ever take the oodles of photos from my wedding and do a damn thing with them? No. I made 3 pages with them. They were very pretty, I just never did another. See




And that's all she wrote....
Mind you I can still do the scrapbook, it's not going anywhere. And maybe someday when my child stops tossing my scrapbook room everytime I turn my back I'll have some peace in there to be creative. She may be 20 by the time that happens though so I'm not holding my breath. I can still work on it then though.

In the meantime I was tossing around the idea of making a photobook. I process most of my photos through Costco. You can store your pictures there and order them all on line. Kind of like Photobucket and Snapfish and all the others only at Costco I can pick up my photos really quick and I don't pay for shipping. This past week P Dub ran a contest where you could win 5 photobooks on Snapfish and I entered. I always enter contests but really, when over 19,000 people enter what are the chances of winning? Apparently Snapfish was expecting around 50 people to enter. Boy did they misjudge her popularity, I think we shut down their servers.

On the upside Snapfish decided to step up to the plate and did something very very smart, they gave out a coupon for 50% off coupon good for 2 days (so it didn't go viral). It was supposed to end like today at noon or something. It may still work but at 11:30 I was still adding wedding photos to their website. I hadn't used those photos for my entry so I was cutting it close by doing it all this morning but hey 50% off! I wonder if there was a bunch of people like me deciding at the last minute to create an album and get it for half off. I chose the 8x11 classic book and I think after tax and shipping I paid $20.99. Not bad at all and now I will have a picture book of our wedding! It's not something that I thought I needed but it was something I had been meaning to get around to. Some year. Had Snapfish not run the special would I have done it? Probably not but they said the coupon would only last until noon today so it seems as though I'm one of those deadline people. Big surprise! OK not so much. But it happened and I'm glad of it. I think I'm really going to like it too.

The food tastes in this city are just beyond me

After moving to San Antonio we noticed a few odd things about their cuisine. The primary being, in general, it sucks. I could elaborate but I am just going to stick on one topic today, I'll rant about the rest of the food later. One of the things we loved back in San Diego and, well, any other city in the US, is bagel stores. I think I've mentioned before that we had a slight lack of them here.

Einsteins has yet to open, maybe in June. I have asked others here why there aren't any bagel stores and the answer is always the same. They say the natives only like breakfast tacos or doughnuts for breakfast. No wonder we are one of the top 5 fattest cities in the US. No bagels aren't exactly the diet breakfast but damn they are better than grease in a tortilla or fried dough with sugar.




I figured that since everyone says that no one here would eat a bagel for breakfast that the lone bagel store in this town would be well, not terribly busy. They have no competition and normally if a store is doing well then competition is sure to pop up right? I guess not because in a fit of need (hormone induced I'm sure) this morning I HAD TO HAVE a bagel. So I went to our lone bagel store and damn, they had a line going out the friggin door. So this is what happens when a bunch of other people move into San Antonio right? I mean the natives won't touch them but dang dude, we transplants sure do jones for the good stuff huh?

I'm curious to see how well the new Einsteins does and even more curious to see how long until they open several more stores because I tell you what (shh don't tell the natives), there's a market for them bagels out here....