Happy New Year!!

Sláinte to Mom, Santé to Dad, we miss you both so much.

Na zdrowie to Babcia and Dziadiu, see you tomorrow!

Happy New Year to everyone else!

We're celebrating with cheese fondue and sparkling grape juice (no booze for me because of my friend Wenckebach, and none for Steve because he's allergic to alchohol).

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Big day so far!

The good: I found the DVD player and set up the exercise room! I then hopped on, and completed day one of the 5k plan. It was so easy :) I know I can run 8 or 10 minutes straight, but my heart rate goes higher than I want it to.

The bad: It's our annual cheese fondue night. Must eat more of the fruit than the bread/cheese!

The ugly: Got on the scale for the first time in at least 4 months (since we moved, anyway). Ooooh it's not good. It's better than I thought mind you, I'm 5 lbs less than my highest weight ever. So yes, it's better than I thought, but it's so, so bad! I know the damage, I know what I have done, and not done, to get to this weight, I know what to do to get out of it.

It's begun :)

Ok that was wierd

My daughter comes wandering home at around 3PM (she went out after her shift last night and slept over at a friends house... the last bus to our house is midnight, and a cab ride is $23 before tip) and tells me about the odd things that happened during her shift last night. Some guy walks in to the CD store and says "can you do me a favour?" she says "depends". He says "can you please sing Mr. Sandman for me?". She says, um, ok. "Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream (bum bum bum bum) make him the cutest that I've ever seen (bum bum.. well you know the rest)". She still has man-voice from her laryngitis so it must have sounded pretty strange (at least it sounded funny when she re-enacted this for me). Then this guy says "thanks, I always wondered what that song was about". And leaves the store. Bizarre.

A few minutes later she's closing up and talking to her boss on the cordless while bringing the chalkboard sign in from the street, she hears a crash from the back of the store. He says, "go check it out". She says "I'm scared, it might be a ghost". I'm thinking she might have started the party early.... ;) In fact, the fluorescent light fixture at the back of the store has just fallen down from the ceiling and smashed all over the place. She was just there a minute before. I don't like this one bit.

She goes to shower and get ready for work at her other job, goes to her room to get dressed (her room is the family room in the basement), and I hear a 'poof'. Katie yells up "Mooooom, the fireplace just exploded". HUH??? I come running downstairs, she's in her bathrobe on her bed, laptop on her lap, towel on her head, the fireplace glass is shattered. Thank god it's tempered glass and didn't explode everywhere. She says "you know when you look at something for no reason at all? that's what happened. I looked at the fireplace and the flame was really high (it's a gas fireplace, you can't adjust the flame) and then poof".

She's staying at her friend's house again tonight. She thinks she's jinxed, poor kid!

That's my big news for the day!

Xmas Pics

Taken during the day, so pretty crappy shots! Looked great at night though!

New blogger and some retail therapy

I received a notice upon sign in that 'my new version of blogger is ready'. Not sure how many people read this site, but if anyone is out there knows if this new version is any good or buggy, or whether I must upgrade, please let me know! I hate to mess up something that seems to work 90% of the time.

I went shopping today. First online, bought the 'Firefly' series. Once again, I sink deeper into geekhood. I also bought the first season of Knot's Landing. Oh my god I loved that show! Ah the joys of gift cards! I then physically left the house (my neighbors must have wondered who the heck I was... it's been so long!) to do some very fast shopping with my daughter. She needed new jeans (her two favorite pairs blew a hole in them, not surprising since they are her favorites!). So we hit The Gap and Old Navy. Glad to report I left with 3 items, all for work (I can work in fleece!) with a grand total under $50. Again, gift cards. Love gift cards!

Well the family is home, best get to them!

Hmmm maybe I should post

I've been popping by to visit some blogs to send seasons greetings, and catch up a little. I really would love to be more consistent, but there never seem to be enough hours in the day. 2007 is a new year, with new resolutions, and this will be one of them.

I have re-organized by bloglines, weeding out some I will never have time to read, and have never commented to, so that might help!

Christmas was lovely - we hosted this year as promised. Steve's Mom came to visit for a few days, and it was great! Katie had laryngitis so missed 5 days of work (independent cd store, only 3 of them work at the busiest times, and you need a voice for that, so her boss told her to stay home). She now sounds like she did last Monday - like a man. Hopefully in another couple of days her voice will be back! At any rate, it was great fun.

The snow stayed away, as it has in many communities this year. It just didn't feel like Christmas. But 11PM on Christmas Day the snow fell, and stayed! Weeeeeeeeee!

I'm on holidays through January 8th, getting rested and focused for the new year. First thing on the agenda is to become a runner again. I've been pretty much a lost cause in this department since Mom passed away almost two years ago. Depression has been dogging me, but I'm keeping it at bay as best I can with self-care. Buying my first home this year was a great boon to my moods, though a ton of stress, expense and time sucker. I love my house, and feel a million times better here.

Back to running. The training plan is in place to get me back with one foot in front of the other. I am starting back at the beginning, yes 11 years ago. I can run 5 minutes straight, and repeat enough to get 5k down, but feel I need a week off afterwards. This pains me to no end, but it's the reality that I put myself in. So I will start over safely, each run will feel easy, and I will look forward to the next one. At least that's how I hope it will be! The training plan is 10 weeks to a 5k (with 20 minutes straight). Then the National Capital Race Weekend's MDS Nordion 10k. I'd be thrilled with a solid 10k in May! It would be my longest run in a year!

2007 is the year I turn 40. I guess I'd better think of some goals for that. I did have one 'before 40' goal, to race my first tri, this will not happen. After 3 solid years of bi-weekly swim lessons, I've only been able to swim a few hundred metres, each of these with breaks every 25m. I've given up that goal, and I'm ok with it. I gave it an honest try, but I am not a swimmer, and don't think I ever will be. I hate it if truth be told. I don't regret the lessons, I can now swim, I'm not afraid of the water (though I'm still too afraid to dive), and have the confidence to kayak. I see this as a win.

I'd best wrap this up! Hopefully I'll be more consistent in my blogging!