New swimsuit! 

Easter basket fun.  

Back AWAY from the Easter Candy!

Returned to Fat Losers about one month ago; was sheepish, crestfallen, but entirely unsurprised to find I had gained back TWELVE POUNDS. Over the winter. While eating exactly like a hypoglycemic NFL linebacker. Then skipped two weeks mainly out of despair, depression, scheduling conflicts, denial, etc. Returned on week 3 to find self two pounds LIGHTER despite eating like a horse. This week found am down another 1.4 pounds, through absolutely no virtue of my own. Huh.

Then in mail today came my Danskin Triathlon training t-shirt. Ordered the size I generally wear but find it is enormous. Huh. Well, shit. Wonder if it can be returned?

Went to water aerobics twice this week, worked my butt off (I hope anyway) and am planning to go to pool tomorrow. And here's why I am planning to go to pool tomorrow:

I'm going to Phoenix in one month! For almost a week! And taking baby with me! So we bought her a little teensy swimsuit today! OMFG it's the Cutest. Thing. Ever. So we have to try it out, right? Shannon has free passes to the local Y... Julianna plans to sit in the bleachers and take pictures. Of me in my swimsuit (also new and would be very fetching if it weren't upholstering my enormous ass). I don't think so.

Delia's never been in a pool before but loves the bathtub. So we will see how it goes! I'll take one of her toys with me and we'll sit in the shallow end -- it is one of those sloped-entry pools so you start right at ground level and it ramps right down without stairs.

So I'm hoping to play with Delia in the water for a bit and then either swim after handing her off to Julianna, or else get dressed and play around with the exercise equipment.

Baby girl up at 4:30 this morning, I got her up and brought her to bed but she wouldn't stay snoozy for long so we got up for good at 5:10 am. I went to bed at 11pm last night. So J and I thought, we'll have a nice pizza and movie night -- ate the pizza -- plugged in the movie -- I promptly fell asleep and woke up an hour later with drool on my shirt, to find J asleep as well. Yep, we're parents all right...

Inspirational Thought

Found this on a website. John Bingham is a runner who evangelizes the art of running for its own sake.

Why It's Worth The Effort

MOST OF THE CHANGES that a more active lifestyle brings are invisible. Sure, in time you may find that your clothes fit a little differently. If you are new to running, you may find that a distance that once seemed impossible now seems easy. If you are more experienced, you may find that your long runs and speed work are yielding tangible results.

But these changes are not the ones that are the most important. The changes that matter most are the ones going on inside, where you can’t see them. I'm not talking about the subtle increases in the strength of your heart or lungs or legs. I'm talking about the very real changes in the strength of your resolve and your spirit.

Each day that you invest in yourself, you are becoming more of what you want to be. By giving yourself permission to dream of new PRs or completing a 5K, you are making sure that there is hope in your life. Instead of looking backwards to the good old days, you are assuring yourself that the best is yet to come.

At the heart of the matter, the real changes are in how you think about yourself. By discovering your limitations and then overcoming them, you can learn to be your own hero. And that, for most of us, is the biggest change of all.

9 months

9 months 

She likes to look out the window at the backyard...

I is a Kollidge Gradyooate

Julianna happened upon this swell college fund thingy which we are enrolling baby Delia in, probably tonight. Prepay at today's prices for college 18 years hence! And there's provisions and so forth if the child opts out of college or whatever. I think it's swell. Here's the website: http://www.get.wa.gov/index.html

Other than that, not a lot going on that is blogworthy. Fighting some doldrums which are sort of typical for me. Seasonal Affective if you must know. But things are good overall and I'll be fine.

TV Meme

From mamacate's site:

1. How much space is left on your TIVO?
We don't have Tivo. We only have expanded basic cable because the cable company made a mistake. We are only supposed to have reception cable.

2. Have you ever bought a DVD of a tv series and if so which one?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a couple seasons so far, and Futurama. Also Ren & Stimpy.

3. What was the last tv show you watched before reading this message?
Can't remember. Some crime thing a la CSI. They all look alike to me.

4. List five shows you won't miss:
Well, I wouldn't say that I won't miss them, because I frequently do. We go through phases of not watching much tv, we watch a show for a while and then sort of drop it, etc. But these are the ones we are currently watching:
Extreme Home Makeover (because I like the fact that they do these houses for deserving people, plus the designers all cry like French soccer players)
Desperate Housewives
Survivor (some seasons)
Scrubs
Everwood


5. List your favorite shows of all time:
Will & Grace (if only just to watch Karen Walker, but I like 'em all really)
The Nanny. Stop laughing! I don't know why I like it but I do. Fran Drescher is pretty fabulous.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mary Tyler Moore
I Love Lucy. I had a postcard of Lucille Ball up in my locker all four years of high school; I still have the postcard.

Boring House Stuff

Boring House Stuff 

We chose some siding and paint colors finally. This online tool gives a pretty fair representation of the colors and siding styles we chose -- it's vinyl, which I'd apologize for more except that a) it's reasonably priced and b) you don't have to paint it, which is time consuming and not cheap and a huge pain in the ass. The downsides, of course, are that a) it's vinyl, and b) you are stuck with the color forever. But if you choose colors that are kinda neato, like for instance we did, then you might not hate it a few years down the line. Every other house in the neighborhood is a varying shade of beige or grey or cream, or creamy greyish beige, or whatever, except a couple that are (gasp!) brown! And one that is a deliciously garish swimming pool blue, and not the sort of minty grandma color but almost robin's egg. Man oh man.

Anyway our house actually has two gables, one above the main part of the house and one above the garage, which would be the left part of this picture instead of the two windows, and the right side has a bay window instead of the two windows shown. We are painting the garage door a color of blue that will closely match the siding. They can't really fully match it as the siding has sort of striations through it so that it's not just a solid color. So I'm almost wondering if we shouldn't paint it either the color of the gables (green) or the trim color ("desert tan"). We will get paint samples beforehand so we can decide then I suppose.

This whole siding thing has been an educational experience. It turns out that buying siding is like buying a car. You may find a decent contractor who just wants to make a decent living, or you may find a real jerk who is out to gouge you. Our first offer was from A Popular Home Improvement Store with the word "Depot" in the name... We only got an estimate as a joke, really, figuring it'd be outrageously expensive. Hunh. Yeah. It was $13,600. The second one was by a guy who did the place across the street -- nice guy, pretty small operation, friendly etc. Uses good materials and does a good solid job. $6,400. Much mo' betta!

Then we got one from a guy who's doing a house down the street here. After making a huge deal about what great guys they are and how they do great work etc etc, they hemmed and hawed and told us they wanted to put their bid in last so they could try to beat everyone else's. Pfft. Real professional! So we entertained his bid of $9,200 (using a crappy grade of siding) and then told him about the other bid. "Oh. Well. That's a good bid," he says. "Gosh now that I have a better idea about what colors and details you guys want etc etc I'll look around and get back to you." Haven't heard from him since. Ha! We wouldn't use them anyway because they pulled the "don't sign any contracts until I get a chance to look them over for you because you are two women and therefore stupid and need looking after" thing (they didn't say the women part out loud but you heard it anyway), plus the fact that they wanted to suck another three grand out of us "just 'cause." And, they are taking forty fucking forevers on the house down the street.

The half-round up in the gables will drive the price up a little but not much, and we also have to get the painting done but he has a fellow who does it for him and it won't cost that much. He's also got someone to do our fence. Yay! We like him a lot, he's a nice guy and just out to make a decent living. We've seen his work and it is good quality. So we're feeling pretty positive overall. He says he can start in about two weeks...