Itty Bitty Hooves

Vegies Everywhere

I went over to a friend’s house yesterday and while I was sitting outside having coffee with her another of her friends dropped in. He’s a lovely widower who spends all of his time keeping up his lovely property and planting huge gardens that he can’t use all of the produce from so he asked if Ellen and I would like to come pick some stuff for ourselves. Hey, how can you say no to an offer like that? Free vegies that we didn’t have to work for either… well beyond the picking. So we drove the couple of blocks to his farm and spent an hour gathering tomatoes, zuchinnis, acorn squash, green beans, roma tomatoes, and eggplant. What a haul. I only gathered one bucketfull for myself. It’s just me so I don’t need much, but it’s a lovely variety of vegies. I helped Ellen continue to gather another two buckets for herself for a total of four bushel buckets of the above. Then we sat in Bill’s back porch and chatted for a bit and headed home. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and a very healthy, and good tasting one too.

Running On High

I’m still kind of running on high with the last weigh-in and feeling so good about myself. Now don’t get me wrong, at my weight 25 pounds is barely noticble to anyone else, but boy do I feel it. I even gave myself a little ‘present’ last night for my special landmark by ordering a set of aerobic dance videos to workout to. I really didn’t think of it as a ‘present’ when I ordered them, I just thought wow, yeah, I want a nice aerobic workout that is FUN and that one not only looks effective, it looks like a blast, so I ordered it. Afterwards I felt a little guilty because it was a little expensive (it’s a big set) but then I thought, you know, people talk about rewarding themselves for each ‘goal’ of loss (determined by them) sometimes it may be new clothes, or a day at a spa, or getting their nails done, or hair colored, or whatever, something that makes them feel good for having lost that specific amount of weight–so what’s wrong with the tapes being a reward–it beats shoveling down a piece of cake, lol.

So that’s what it is and now I don’t feel guilty anymore. 25 pounds wasn’t my first ‘goal’ but I won’t let that stop me from feeling good about it. haha

First Twenty-Five

I weighed myself this morning. I should only weigh myself once a week, but I can’t stand the suspense so I do it twice. Even though this isn’t my ‘official’ weigh in day (Saturday), it IS a milestone day! I’ve made it to my first TWENTY FIVE pounds lost! A friend of mine highlighted the significance of it. It sounds like a lot — 25 pounds– but it’s not easily visualized until you think about it. Go to the grocery store (or if you’re like me and get them all the time anyway just go to the back porch) and lift a 25 pound bag of dog food!

THAT’S A LOT OF WEIGHT.

No wonder I feel so fantastic lately… I have a long way to go, but thanks to my friend, Mal, I now have an even better way to visualize what an accomplishment each 10 to 25 pounds is… the local dog food aisle at my grocery store.

Return of the Hairy Beast

Oh, did you get a load of the big mustache on Bob in the wedding picture… that’s coming back. Let me explain. We have a deal. I hate the mustache, and he loves it, so for 6 months out of the year starting on our anniversary he shaves it off and keeps it off, then in October, for the winter, he gets to keep his lip ‘warm’ with that fuzzy, scratchy, irritating mountain of hair. I’m looking forward to winter this year (probably for the first time because I usually hate cold) because it has been a weird and HOT summer, but I’m not looking forward to the hairy beast’s return.

Are You Ready For This?

I scanned an old picture in the computer this morning. I wanted to remind myself of my new goal for weight loss. The picture is from my wedding 25 YEARS AGO. I was a thin woman back then. LOL I haven’t even looked at this picture in years even though the large version of it hangs in our family room. It’s funny how you ignore things you don’t want to see. I don’t have any full body shots of me now, or in recent years… the camera has not been my friend (it tells the truth).

Anyway, are you ready?

Here it is:

That’s my goal weight: 120 (actually it was 118). I’d settle for 120, haha.

How Do They Do It?

SPAMMERS! Ugh. I get so tired of moderating the comments on all of the web blogs, but this one gets hit the most. What is it? How do they do it? It’s generic and you know they’re doing thousands at a time, not one then another, it’s annoying. I keep most of them from ever appearing on the blog by having them put in moderation–sorry for anyone who actually wants to comment, but it’s the price to keep all that spam from ever actually showing up on the blog itself. Still it takes me a half hour to get rid of the junk. It wouldn’t take so long except that I can’t bring myself to do it more than once a week. They must be making money on it, or they wouldn’t bother, but you’d think by now people have become jaded to the links they see like that. I know I do. I certainly don’t bother with them either on blogs or in emails. The email product I use now the most ‘gmail’ (yes, Google still makes great products) is great for their spam filter. I never see them in my actual box and a simple click gets rid of them in the spam folder as well. I wish it were that easy on here.

Ringing In the Twenty Fifth

Bob and I have been looking for a new set of wedding bands for a long time. Neither of ours fit anymore. Besides that, we’d like different styles than the ones we originally had. We’re both thinking that for our 25th anniversary next year it would be nice to find the perfect set. Now that I’m losing weight again, however, it may have to wait a little longer. I don’t want to find the perfect ring and have it not fit again, although going down in size with a ring is easier than going up.

Extra Income

There are lots of home based business for women but many of them limit their thinking to things like makeup and plastic ware. You have to think ‘out of the box’ sometimes to find extraordinary opprotunities. You have to look for the great deals in things that everyone wants, but not everyone is selling. Things like the great fashion jewelry you can sell from home, on line, at flea markets, and craft shows. The options are unlimited and you can do it on your own time, around your own schedule. If you love jewelry and need a little extra income, or a lot, it’s something to think about seriously.

New Furniture

Bob and I went ‘window shopping’ last night. We were walking through the department stores and oogling home furniture. There were some awesome easy chairs. He has a new one but I need a nice new easy chair. Mine is really old, and was second hand when I got it. It’s as comfortable as can be, but showing it’s age, and beginning to creak, and act it as well, so it’s time to look around. We also saw some terrific new breakfast sets. That’s something else I really want to get. Now that the kids are gone the huge table we have just isn’t necessary and I’d like something more intimate for Bob and I. A nice round table with chairs would be perfect, and free up a lot of space in the kitchen, although it’s a pretty big kitchen, still it would make more room yet.

We didn’t buy anything although came close on the easy chair. I don’t want to jump into anything. Furniture has to last a long time with us, and be what we REALLY like, not just ‘okay’. So I’ll keep looking a bit.

Not Smart, but Cute

Oh my goodness this morning I got woke up to a loud raucus racket outside. I thought my daughter had come by with the grandkids and one of them had broken a leg, or arm, it sounded like a child bawling and crying. I ran to look out the window and saw it was one of my Nubian baby goats ‘caught’ in the fence and struggling so I ran outside. Turns out the silly thing wasn’t stuck in the real sense. She ‘thought’ she was stuck. Her head was free but she had her horns hooked through the fence, and instead of putting her head down and pulling them out, she kept lifting ‘up’ and to her, it seemed like she was stuck, and she was bawling to beat the band. Goofy goat. I went in and made her put her head down and she came right out. Looked up at me like, hey, I wasn’t REALLY stuck. Yeah, no kidding, stupid goat. And they say goats are smart… yeah, sure–but they are cute.