Sooooooooo C-c-c-c-ooo-ooo-lll-dd-d-d

When I came to work this morning, it was -2 degrees with a wind-shill of -10 degrees. It is now a balmy 12 degrees with a wind-chill of zero degrees. You've got to love living in Kansas! When

I came to work this morning, it was 13 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska without no wind-chill.

Exercise struggles and bacon...

Okay, I know that the Holiday Season is a hard time for just about everyone when it comes to diet and exercise. That being said, I fell off the wagon and then it ran me over a couple of times. I have put back on everything that I lost in the last couple of months thanks to the gift baskets that have been delivered to my office and all of the family holiday gatherings and (yesterday and the day before) my company Christmas Party. Too much food and drink and absolutely no exercise.

Adding to that, we ordered room service at the hotel for breakfast yesterday morning (the company puts everyone up in a hotel for two nights as part of the festivities), and part of my breakfast was three delicious slices of thick bacon. REAL bacon. Not the turkey bacon that I occasionally buy. It was so good that I bought a package of real bacon on the way home today and had two pieces on my turkey sandwich (along with some potato chips) for lunch. I froze the rest of the bacon so it wouldn't be as tempting, but I won't try to kid you (or myself) into thinking that it will stay in the freezer for more than a week. I LOVE bacon! (and chocolate, and cookies, and many, many other things)

To top all of that off, I somehow hurt my ankle last night. I didn't drink last night, so it's not like I twisted my ankle in a drunken haze and don't remember hurting it. I honestly have no idea how I hurt it. It was fine when I climbed into bed and when I got up at 5:00 this morning to go to the bathroom and get a glass of water, it was killing me. My biggest worry is that I won't be able to exercise for a few days, pushing my lack of regular exercise to three weeks (I only exercised three of the six planned days both last week and the week before), and with three more family dinners (two for Michael's birthday and one for the big family holiday gathering), I'll be doomed.

I'm going to try to do some light yoga tonight to see if I can make it through that. If I can, I'll go to the gym tomorrow night to do cardio and just take it easy. Better to do something than to do nothing...

Keeping busy...

I'm amazed at how staying busy is so soothing. I've been working in the warehouse for most of the morning, and I feel so much better than I did yesterday, or even when I arrived at work this morning. I have been assured by many people that this is a sickness (feeling better while/after cleaning) that only a few are afflicted with, but I think there is something deeper.

Call it one's need for a sense of accomplishment, a need to feel useful, or an innate desire for order in a chaotic world. Call it what you will. I will simply marvel at it.

Random (what else is new...)

Okay, I really don't have anything of importance to share. Life is just ticking along and I'm trying to keep up. Work is crazy-busy. Michael's still looking for a job. Kyle's first report card with actual grades (not numbers representing levels of how well he's meeting the expectations of kids in his grade-level) is coming up soon. The only grade that I remember getting the whole satisfactory grade thing in was kindergarten... Now they don't get letter grades until 4th grade. But, this isn't a discussion of the decline of our educational system...

I've been exercising (when I haven't been ill) and I'm trying to carve out time to read a little more. I just checked "Atonement" out from the library. I started a running log to keep track of the miles that I'm putting on my shoes and I'm obsessively counting calories.

I started to listen to conservative talk radio to get a glimpse of what the other side is thinking. I've only had to resist the urge to scream at the radio a couple of times. Mostly when people call in spouting things that have been proven to be false and act like they are the only ones who can see the truth.

Politically, I describe myself as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I like to think of myself as a pragmatic person when it comes to making decisions like who I'm going to vote for, weighing stances on the issues and not the party or the people who are running for office. I have to say that I have been unbelievably turned off by all of the rhetoric that's being thrown around right now and it scares me that someone who has proven to be erratic (at best) might be the next president.

Okay, off of politics - I know that can be a subject that's difficult for people to discuss or read about with any objectivity...

I guess I better get back to work now. :)

Sleepless nights...

I wish I could say that I'm wide awake because I'm really nervous about the race on Sunday, but that's just not the case. Michael left to go to the lake for Chris's bachelor party today and I have a really hard time sleeping when he's gone. It's absolutely a psychological thing. I know that, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to actually sleep.

So, I'm here on the computer. Rambling...

Kyle and I checked the cucumber plants over when we arrived home today and found five more cucumbers. I've given two away, one is in the frig at work, I threw one out for the birds yesterday, I used two to make cold cucumber soup last week, and I now have eight cucumbers sitting on my kitchen counter. If only the zucchini plants would produce... Oh, well. Getting that bed fixed up for planting again in the spring (with several bags of top soil, some fertilizer, some landscaping blocks, capping off the ridiculously placed sprinkler head, and diverting the downspout for the gutters) will be fun. Maybe with some serious TLC for the planting conditions the plants (other than the cucumbers!) will actually produce something. It will also help if I plant about three weeks earlier next year...

Okay. Enough is enough. I'm heading for the teapot and I'm going to make some tea. That combined with a book and I might be able to doze off by midnight...

So much fun...

Okay, so I don't have a lot of time to post right now, but I have to mention that I just spent the weekend with my friend Mandy in Dallas, TX. SO much fun! She and a few of the people in her intern class at Frito-Lay were kind enough to let me tag along for some Dallas-related fun. More later...

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging...

Oh, yeah. Everyone else has been doing this for a while... Oh, well. Welcome to me! I have a few friends that blog, but I'm not nearly as fun or clever as they are. I will, however, try my best to keep from boring anyone who happens to stumble upon my blog to tears or suicide. That being said, a guarantee nothing...