Saturday, December 20, 2008

Musical confession

I have a confession to make. I downloaded Britney Spears's new album, Circus, from iTunes earlier this week. It's surprisingly good. The title track is catchy and has a good beat. Out from Under and Unusual You are really lovely. I liked Womanizer when it first came out, and was pleased that the other tracks on the album are really well done. The album scored 3-1/2 stars from a Rolling Stone review, with Rolling Stone users rating it higher at 4-1/2 stars. Most of the songs would be great for working out or bouncing around the house while cleaning. I listened to it tonight while I wrapped Christmas presents.

I'm glad to see Britney making some progress in her life. As I wrote about awhile back in my post, Oh Britney, I really wanted to see her take some time off and heal. So, it's good that she's back in the studio and producing something akin to the days at the height of her career.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Sometimes it's right on

This is my horoscope for the week of December 11th. I haven't checked my horoscope forever, it seems, and I was looking through The Stranger, remembering Freewill Astrology and the weird horoscopes that sometimes appeared. So, I searched online for Freewill Astrology, and bravo, there it was.

It's an ideal time for you to throw a party for all the people you've ever been and all the different selves who live within you now. Invite the teenager who once seethed with frustrated potential and the four-year-old who loved nothing more than to play. Include the hopeful complainer who stands in the shadows and dares you to ask for more, as well as the brave hero who comes out every now and then to attempt seemingly impossible feats of happiness. Don't forget any of the various personalities who have contributed to making you who you are. Celebrate your internal diversity. Marvel at how good you are at changing.


This is actually pretty close to how I've been feeling lately. Grappling with the many pieces of me who have come before and those yet to develop. I've been reflecting on my life a lot in the past few months due to the big changes L. and I recently made, and upon reconnecting with some old friends and making new friends. It's interesting that after not seeing my horoscope for probably over a year now, I somehow came across this one at this exact time. Sometimes it is right on.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Oli's first snow

We started getting quite a bit of snow last night, and it was funny to see Oli's first reaction to the disappearance of our lawn and replacement with this cold, fluffy stuff. He thinks it's pretty fun now, so I took a few pictures from last night and this morning.




Friday, December 12, 2008

Something for the Dilbert files

This cracks L. and me up.

L. works at an aircraft supply company as an engineer. Due to the strikes and decreased production at a large aircraft manufacturer in the area, L.'s company has to scale back a bit. This year, the plant shut down the week of Thanksgiving, and will be shutting down the week of Christmas and New Years. People are encouraged to use their vacation time or sick leave to make up the cost of his mandatory time off. This is for the salaried employees. The hourly employees have been on a reduced schedule for some time now, and work only Mondays through Wednesdays at the plant.

In a "festive" effort, employees are invited to come celebrate and decorate a Christmas tree in the afternoon on December 19th. So, the salaried employees are the only ones who would be there since the hourly employees don't work on Thursdays and Fridays now. And they get to decorate in the late afternoon right before the plant shuts down for two weeks. That's going to be one dried out Christmas tree when everyone returns from their mandatory leave. Not to mention, this is quite a way to communicate how little you actually care about morale at your workplace. Classy.

Having to say no

According to a lot of the puppy training stuff I've been reading, having to say "no" a lot to your puppy means that you haven't properly prepared his surroundings well enough. Before your puppy comes home, you puppy-proof the house by putting up things that he shouldn't get into, block off areas where he shouldn't go, etc. If they have an accident on the carpet, it's your fault not the puppy's fault.

To which I say, not always! L. and I have prepared our house for Oli. We have baby gates setup to keep him within the confines of our family room, kitchen, dining room, and hallway. In the family room, we have setup an exercise pen where he can go to hang out in his doggy bed, eat, drink, play, and go potty on his papers. He rarely goes in there to do anything other than eat or drink, but it's there nonetheless. We also have papers laying on the floor outside of the pen in case he is wandering around and suddenly needs to go.

For the most part, Oli always uses his papers or goes to the door to let us know that he needs out. This gets more complicated when the weather sucks (like it does right now), because I don't think either one of us enjoy the prospect of standing out in the pouring rain and wind, but it's not the end of the world. Usually if he figures he doesn't want to go out, he'll run to the papers and go.

Here's where that information from the beginning of this post becomes moot. Sometimes dogs get mad. Sometimes they pee in a no-no spot to let you know that they're mad. Sometimes Oli gets mad when L. and I have to go to work for the day, and we leave him in his exercise pen where he can wander around and play with all of his beloved toys, eat a good snack, and eliminate when he needs to. Sometimes he even gets mad when I work from home, because I know that his tummy is sick and needs to be let out more often throughout the day rather than using the same paper for 5-6 hours.

And sometimes he'll pee while I'm putting his leash on to take him out to eliminate...like today. I'm sure that he's mad because I'm not paying full attention to him. I'm trying to work in the midst of his running around, chewing, and attempts to get my attention to play with him. So, when I got up and carried him to the door, and grabbed his leash, he promptly peed on the carpet. Message received little bugger. We went outside anyway, and we stood there until he peed again.

And there is no way to puppy-proof every single thing. He loves to chew on our clothes, blankets, table, shoes, feet, hands, and hair. I'm going to be in a constant pony-tail until he gets out of this stage. So unless L. and I suddenly become minimalist nudists, shave our heads, and cut off our feet and hands, we're going to have to say no. A lot. Oh, of course we do what the books say - replace whatever he's chewing with a toy, but that only works so much of the time. Other times, he's determined to keep chewing on whatever object he's focused on, no matter how many times you try to give him something else or move him. So, just like most things in life, nothing goes smoothly 100% of the time, especially when it comes to puppies.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Organization

I spent the better part of this evening organizing my Outlook inbox at work. I got the email messages in my inbox down from almost 2500 emails to less than 150 emails. It feels great. I filed a lot of things in various folders, but also deleted a ton of them that I no longer needed. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Oli is a trooper

First an update, then some cute pictures...

In my last post, I was bemoaning the rough day I had with Oli. I'm happy to report that he started doing much better the following day and has been doing quite well ever since. I think that he got over-stimulated by meeting so many people at my work and being in so many different environments the prior day. So, he had a little doggy melt-down and he let me know by acting out. Once he rested up and got back on track, he stopped peeing on the carpet, and instead went to the door to let me know that he needed to go out. See, he's smart like that. He is doing well with the potty training, but he was pissed off and he knew that peeing on the carpet would be a no-no. Dogs...

Anyway, we had a very stressful weekend starting late Saturday night / early Sunday morning. L. and I were playing with Oli, and he was hopping at my feet wanting to be picked up. So, I picked him up and he was happy to just be hanging out in my arms until he suddenly wanted down and started squirming. As I was bending over to put him down, he did this backward lunge thing and broke out of my hands, falling to the carpet. He yelped, and then backed up, and my heart sank to the floor. Immediately Oli was fine, and bounded off to play with his toys, and then took a break for a drink of water. Meanwhile, L. was trying to pick me up off of the floor and calm me down. L. picked up Oli and felt around to make sure that Oli didn't cry out or anything, and he seemed fine. But I was still a mess, worried about internal bleeding or something that we couldn't see right away.

No matter how much Oli continued to play, eat, potty, etc. just like his normal self, I just couldn't be consoled. And then when he went out to the yard to potty, he had some residual matter on his behind which I went to wipe off with a cloth, and I noticed a drop of blood. I immediately called the 24-hour emergency vet and explained the situation. She said that it was likely just from the stress of the fall, and nothing serious, but to keep an eye on it and bring him in if it happened again. I cried all Sunday wrought with fear that I'd done some horrible damage to Oli, and I followed Oli around making sure that there was no more blood. And there wasn't - until yesterday. We saw another drop of blood and couldn't figure out what was going on. So, I called the vet and made an appointment to take Oli in this morning. His second stool sample showed that he has a Giardia infection, which is what was causing the problem. So, the vet gave me some medicine to give to Oli for the next week and instructions about how to clean everything to keep him from re-infecting himself.

Tonight, L. and I washed Oli, cleaned everything thoroughly, and washed all of his bedding in hot, hot, hot water. We're now carrying Oli outside on his leash and putting him down in one spot to do his business so that he doesn't lick the concrete patio (something he loves to do when it rains). And we have to clean off his feet and bottom when he comes back in. We teamed up to give Oli his medicine, which is called Panacur and comes in a syringe (without needle) that we have to squirt into Oli's mouth. This is no small feat to get Oli to open his mouth for this stuff.

But despite seeing the vet today and getting his puppy booster shots, Panacur for the Giardia, a bath, drying with the hair dryer, and a quick snip of scissors to clean up the hair around his face, Oli was just as a happy as ever. Oh sure, he slept a little more today from the booster shot. And he was really averse to the Panacur process. But overall, he was his playful, cute little self.

So, you see where this leads. Last week Oli did really well until an overwhelming day. Then he fell apart for a day. Totally makes sense. So, I'm waiting for the storm tomorrow. I can feel it coming. But I'd rather he be healthy, and I was just so happy that it wasn't the fall that hurt him. It's not like he fell a great distance or onto a hard surface, but as puppy's bones aren't always so strong yet. So, I am very thankful to God that Oli was OK. Nothing was broken, and there was no internal damage. Just the Giardia infection, which it turns out is rather common in puppies, and is something that his littermates were dealing with. Thank God. Now I just hope that he gets over this quickly and feels better!

Here are some updated photos - he is 10 weeks old now.


Oli, guarding his toys at L.'s feet. He is looking at me like, "don't even think about taking my toys mama."



Oli sitting in my lap. Yes, those are flannel sock monkey pajamas that I'm wearing in the picture. Oli loves sitting in my lap when I wear flannel or fleece pajama pants.


Oli taking a bath in our kitchen sink. Not his favorite pastime, but he makes it through. Now the hair dryer afterward...that's another story.


Oli with his toy Madison Moose, AKA Maddy. Maddy receives some rough treatment when Oli is in a playful mood. It's cute because Maddy is about as big as Oli, so he's busy running around with this huge stuffed moose in his mouth.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Rough day

Ugh, today was rough. I worked from home today and Oli was a little hellion...all day long. I took him outside frequently, but despite that he was determined to pee on the carpet in rebellion instead of go to the door or pee on his pads. I practically had to drag him around the coul de sac for one short walk at lunch time. And he was very growly and grumpy all around.

I think that yesterday was too much for him with going to my work and meeting so many people. Tonight I finally quarantined him in his exercise pen for awhile this evening to save my family room carpet from any more damage. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle cleaner. He did alright playing with L. after L. got home from work, but then he got ornery again. So, he's in his crate now fast asleep. I think he got way overstimulated yesterday and this morning when my sister and her dog were around. He hasn't made a peep for over an hour and a half. I'm hoping that some additional rest will help him go back to his little sunny personality again. Tomorrow he'll have to be at home by himself for about 6 hours in his exercise pen, but it will be pretty cushy. He has his doggy bed, toys, food, water, papers, and crate in there. I have back-to-back meetings all day tomorrow, so L. is going in to work early so that he can get home early to let the dog out. Maybe a day on his own will help little Oli recover. We can only hope!

Blog update

So, yesterday I deleted the last couple of blog entries because I was receiving a virus popup when I came to my blog page. My antivirus caught it immediately each time, but still. It turned out that it happened on all of the blogspot blogs that I read, but before I realized that, I'd already deleted my last couple of entries, including the one about getting our new toy poodle puppy, Oli. In any case, it looks like Computer Associates (CA) was coming up with false positives about this particular "virus", so there wasn't actually an issue and I deleted those entries for nothing. But oh well. I didn't want to be causing any issues for anyone who read my blog. Luckily it turned out to be a non-issue.

In any case, L. and I are having so much fun with Oli. I took him to work today and he met all of my co-workers. Everyone agreed that he is a really sweet little dog and I have a ton of offers to walk him and watch him when I'm in meetings. It's quite nice to have such a great group of people to work with, who actually want you to bring your dog into work. I'll do this for awhile until Oli gets a little bit older and can be at the house on his own for a longer period of time. But right now, at nine weeks, he's just too young to be at home while L. and I are at work all day. Come Thursday, I'll have my own office again, so that will make things easier with taking Oli into work. He did really well today, and his potty training is coming right along. He does really well with his papers, and he's figuring out now how to let us know that he needs to go out. We've only had a few accidents with him in the house, and nothing that was too terrible. He's incredibly smart and is already learning how to fetch and recognize his name. I've been reading up a lot on dog psychology these last few weeks to figure out how best to integrate him into our family and train him. There are so many books out there and differing views. Things have definitely changed since the last dog I raised over 12 years ago.

I have to say that having little Oli has really enriched our lives already. We have so much fun with him, and he makes me laugh all the time. I love watching him play with his "uncle" Diego (my mom's toy poodle) and "cousin" Malcolm (my sister's schnoodle). Both Diego and Malcolm play really nicely with Oli, and Malcolm even tosses toys for Oli. It cracks me up to watch a dog playing fetch with another dog. Too cute.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Proposition 8 is hate

On Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Olbermann's special comment was about the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which rescinded the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry. I was really touched by it and agree wholeheartedly with what he said.

After Prop 8 passed, L. and I were talking about how ridiculous it was for people to discriminate in such a way and wondered what supporters of Prop 8 are scared of. Gay and lesbian marriage certainly doesn't undermine my marriage or anyone else's marriage. It should be unconstitutional on the basis that the only reason behind it is religious and breaks the separation of church and state. And as Olbermann points out, it wasn't all that long ago that we redefined marriage so that bi-racial couples could marry, and in our dark past that slaves couldn't marry because they were "property". The fact that marriage is even recognized by the government is odd, in that we shouldn't have a special status based on a religious rite.

But, Olbermann says it perfectly, and I urge you to watch his thoughts on the subject:



Or, if you want to read the text of this, you can check it out on Huffington Post.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

I heart Rachel Maddow

Tonight, when reporting about Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens (republican) - a convicted felon - possibly being reelected to the Senate, Maddow said, "You stay classy Alaska." A great Ron Burgundy reference from Anchorman, as well as a perfect sentiment to convey that whole "what the hell?!?" reaction most people would have to a state electing a known criminal to represent them in the Senate.

Yep, classy. What are people drinking up there in Alaska?

Apology

Monday was such a hard day with the anticipation and uncertainty. I just lost it and had to unload here it before it drove me crazy. In the light of day, I can say that I was definitely too harsh and I feel badly about that, but that's the level of frustration I was at. I would like to apologize to anyone who was offended by my post.

We'll move forward from here and I have faith that our new leader will reach across the aisle to bring the republicans along. At least I hope that's the case. Because we do need both parties to make this whole thing work. I'm just so thankful to be done with the president shrub administration.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

We won!!!

Hell yes, we did! I think that McCain did a nice job in his speech to congratulate Obama. It's time for a change people. Let's be the change that we seek.

Monday, November 03, 2008

What I really think (unedited)

Ok, I'm going to lay it all out on the line right now. It's the eve of our great election here in the U.S. and I just can't contain myself any longer. I'm going to write things here that I would normally reserve for my own self or my liberal friends who would understand me. Nothing held back. No censorship of what I say. Just raw thoughts about what I'm feeling and thinking on this day. And no running my thoughts through the logic-meter in my head. I'm going to make good use of the f-word and everything else. This is baring it all and feeling no regrets, because this just has to come out one way or another...so why not on my blog...

First, fuck the republicans. Yeah, I said it and I meant it. If you're a republican, you're a stupid asshole who deserves the mess that we're currently in. If you're not, then I think you should be exempt from this mess that we're currently in. If you voted for the douchebag, you pay for the consequences. And if you support his next in line, fuck you even more. You'd give the presidency and vice presidency up to the next dickhead in line at Walmart rather than people who have dedicated their lives to the cause. Why? Because they're down home people who talk just like you do? Here's a news flash...our president and the politicians who represent us should sound smarter than us - not just like us. I don't want my president to be someone who I can drink a beer and snort cocaine with, while turning my head the other way and crying for Jesus to forgive me. No! I want someone who knows what they're talking about and who can represent us to other world leaders with the respect that we deserve.

Second, fuck the undecideds. Are you kidding me? You still can't decide who to vote for? It's not like Obama and McCain are twins. They stand for different things, you fuckhead. Get some perspective and take a stand on the issues that matter most to you. If you can't make a decision, then do us all a favor and leave the country to the people on each side who actually give a damn.

Third, people who still support president shrub should be gathered up for mental evaluation. I had an aunt in Germany who swore until the day that she died that Hitler was the best thing to ever happen to Germany. She said, "he brought the country back from ruin and gave us the autobahn." If you still support Bush, you sound just like her crazy rants and deserve the disparaging remarks and looks that come your way. If your beliefs are stronger than actual fact and logic, then you shouldn't be voting or doing anything that might affect other lives.

Fourth, every time we have a republican president (in my life on earth anyway = Ronald Reagan, Bush, Sr., and Bush, Jr.), we seem to have these massive economic troubles with record-crushing budgets and Wall Street meltdowns. Not to mention questionable (at best) military policies, periods of pissing off other nations, and so many news stories of corruption that nothing seems to surprise us anymore. You aren't really republican. Abraham Lincoln would be ashamed to share the same party affiliation with you, because you've turned the republican party into a whore. Pick up a book and learn what republican really meant back in the day. Then take a look at the facts of what's been going on in our country for the last few decades and figure out that people are trying to pull the wool over your eyes while labeling it something that it isn't.

Also, words like democrat, liberal, progressive, taxes, socialism, health case, and welfare, and so on aren't dirty words. I'm proud to be a liberal, progressive democrat who supports paying taxes for all of us to have a good place to live and supports socializing some aspects of our lives in order for other people to have the things that they need. Joe the Plumber? If you're making over $250,000 a year, you're not in fucking need and can afford to pay more to help those who are scraping by. If that includes a small percentage of people who take advantage of the system, so be it. NOTHING is perfect, even your perception of your place in the world. And you'll benefit from the added programs, too, so shut the hell up about your precious tax dollars that you're probably not even contributing anyway.

I am a democrat and I am an American - a proud American. Just because I learn about other places in the world and question what we're doing as a country doesn't mean that I'm any less American. Our founding fathers questioned everything and debated everything. They wouldn't stand for today's zombie-brained republicans to spout ridiculous nonsense as the grounds for things like a war in Iraq and earth-shattering debt. Hell no! They'd pull out their gun and shoot your sorry ass on the debate floor.

So, grow a pair and take a look at what's really going on. Put your specific religious beliefs aside and realize that there is something bigger than you in this world. Support laws that really cause us to be equal and are fair. Then go home and do what is right for you and your family. No one is saying that you have to marry a gay person if you're not gay. No one is saying that you have to have an abortion if you are pregnant. All we're saying is that the freedom and choice should be there for everyone in this country. Don't tout yourself as a freedom fighter if you don't really support freedom for all. In that case, call youself what you are - a bigot, and be proud of that. At least it'd be the first time you'd correctly identified youself in recent history. Figure out what the term "fiscal responsibility" stands for and hold your reps responsible. Bill Clinton may have been a democrat, but he was the first in a long line of presidents to balance our budget and figure out that we need to pay for what we buy - not charge it. Didn't your parents teach you to pay for what you bought? We can't all afford tax cuts when the US isn't even paying what it owes!!!

You know, over the last few years I've had many conversations with liberals and conservatives alike. And you'd almost think that we could come to some common ground. But I'm just not sure that's the case anymore. Call me a pessimist, but I'm just never going to believe that my own religious beliefs should be imposed on everyone else. Because at the same time, I don't want other people's religious beliefs imposed on me. And while this post is clearly not elegant or well-thought out, but rather the ramblings of a poor soul who made the mistake of drinking 1/2 a bottle of French wine tonight, it's still a part of me. I have family and friends who, God love them, are republican and proud. And I'll still continue to love them tomorrow, no matter what happens. And I'm sure they'll continue to love me, too. But we've gotta come to some kind of consensus on this nonsense. I just can't put up with the drama every 4 years. And all I can really think is that my political affiliation isn't really asking you to do anything differently with your beliefs, while your political affiliation is asking me to discriminate against many things. And that just isn't what I learned from my Bible or my life experiences. No, I'd rather leave that judgement up to whatever we find in the end. Because that's just not my job, and it's not yours either. So let's just all try to get along.

Les Misbarack

This is fantastic, even if you've never seen Les Miserables (which by the way, is fabulous):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ijYVyhnn0

Thanks to A. for posting this on her Facebook page!

And this one, which was linked...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_ioftSiJ4

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Come on Obama / Biden!!!

It's time for some real change in this country. I'm pulling for you!!!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

On our way

L. and I were married last night, at Lord Hill Farms in Snohomish, Washington. Although the weather was interesting, it made for some good drama and some lovely pictures. We had close to 175 guests, and it was a truly amazing experience. We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives to come and celebrate with us. I wish that we'd have had more time to talk with everyone individually, but I suppose that's the way things go when you're the bride or groom.

Now we're off to France for our honeymoon for the next two and a half weeks. Another dream coming true...

Monday, September 22, 2008

Fun part of wedding planning

L. and I recently discovered that one of the fun parts of wedding planning is figuring out the alcohol to serve at the reception. Our facility is restricted to wine, beer, and champagne only, so no yummy hard liquor concoctions, but we've had a good time with the other tastings.

After our research, we've decided on the following selections:
Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay, Columbia Valley 2006
Columbia Winery 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale
Redhook's Blonde Ale and Black Hook Porter

The cool thing is that Columbia Crest, Columbia Winery, and Redhook are all local here in Washington. Buffalo Bill's Brewery is in California, so it's the only one from out of state, but it's so good that we just couldn't pass it up for a fall wedding!

We got the Chardonnay and Pumpkin Ale today. We ran out of room in the car, so we'll have to get the Cab Sauv tomorrow. We'll also get the Redhook tomorrow, when they have their Micro Monday special, where you buy one case and get the second case at 1/2 off. Every little bit of money saved helps. L. about died when he figured out how much we were spending on alcohol alone, but it will be worth it. Plus, any leftovers will come back to our house, so we can use the rest at another time.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Mad Men illustrations

If you're a fan of the show Mad Men, check out some illustrations of the show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nobodyssweetheart/sets/72157606178887453/detail/.

Very cool. Love the idea of having some of the scenes as illustrated wallpaper and such. What a great show. It's one of the few things I actually watch that has substance to it.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Good quote

Read on my friend, A.'s status line in Gmail:
"53% of white women are now for McCain. 47% of white women are embarrassed."

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Slip, sliding away

So, I'm done with the 20/20 program now and I need to schedule my last appointment for lab work and final meeting with my 20/20 doctor. Overall, it was a great success. I lost 46 pounds, 40 of which I've maintained.

However, now that the program is over, I am struggling a bit to keep up with everything. I think part of it is due to the fact that the wedding is a month away, so everything seems to be going faster and faster. But part of it is because I'm not really following the lifestyle, so a lot of my cravings and such are back. It's very frustrating. And now my workouts with my trainer are down to once per week, since I decided to hire J. to keep pushing me with the weight training and keep me accountable. But maintaining the other two to three days of working out on my own is difficult.

I felt pretty desperate tonight when I broke into both the popcorn and hot chocolate. We've been eating out a lot, and I'm not making great choices. I really need to get myself back on track. When I make smarter choices, the cravings do start going away and I of course feel better about everything all around. So, I just need to remember that. Tonight, I made a healthy lunch and packed everything up neatly in the fridge. I'm going to try and get up early enough to make some eggs, and toast with peanut butter so that I at least have a healthy breakfast and lunch squared away. And I've got to get the carbs back down to 200 calories a day or less so that I get rid of some of this water weight.

So, tomorrow is a new day and I know that the next few days are going to be a bit miserable again while I work back off of the carbs, treats, and such and I'll need to devote more time to cooking and planning my eating again so that I don't get off track. Here we go again...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Mmmm, cake

If you've never heard of the Cake Wrecks blog, you should definitely check it out. It had L. and I laughing until we were crying. There are just too many to list here, but I think my favorite (to this point, anyway), is this one: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-made-me-laugh-til-i-cried.html. And this one is a close second: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-brides-have-no-budget-or-taste.html.

Enjoy!

Friday, August 29, 2008

GOP desperation

Wow, what a desperate move. McCain chose a lesser-known woman, Sarah Palin, as his VP running mate. And she hails from oil-rich Alaska...such a departure for the GOP (not!). Details at McCain praises VP choice Palin's 'tenacity'.

I was especially charmed with what Mike Huckabee had to say of the choice, "Governor Palin ... will remind women that if they are not welcome on the Democrat's ticket, they have a place with Republicans." Seriously? Is Huckabee that stupid, or rather does he think that women are that stupid? Like I would say, "hmmm...this Palin woman has a vagina...and I have a vagina...so, I guess we must want the same things." It's insulting.

From what I've learned about her (recently), I definitely don't want the same things. She's "pro-life", which is such a stupid term. Like those of us who are "pro-choice" aren't in support of life. Like we support abortion rights because we hope women will terminate their pregnancies instead of supporting abortion rights because we believe that every woman has a right to choose what to do with her own body.

I also found it interesting that Palin has recently been under investigation for a situation where her ex brother-in-law was fired from his job as a state trooper. And her assessment of the indictment of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was, ""very dismaying." She added, "Hopefully though, this won’t be a distraction and get people’s minds off what has to be done in the grand scheme of things."" So you know, just sweep it under the rug and don't worry about possible corruption. To her, it's clearly not important "in the grand scheme of things." Although they are touting her as a change to the status quo, I don't really see how that position is any different than what we've seen from the Bush administration. In fact, that's one of the biggest reasons our country is going down the tubes.

So, so far, I'm not at all impressed with Palin. And on a personal note, she has several kids with weird names. One named Track and another named Trig. What the hell? I wonder what the other three are named. Paw, Branch, and Calc? I could probably search for the answer, but it's just not that important. My estimation is that those kids would probably teased mercilessly with those names, except for the fact that their mom is a governor and as discussed above, probably wouldn't be above having the issue taken care of, if you get my drift. Although, as they discuss in the article, she's "in favor of capital punishment in especially heinous cases such as the murder of a child. ""My goodness, hang 'em up, yeah,"" she said." So maybe she'd let the playground bullies off the hook. There is something so weird about people who are "pro life", yet support capital punishment.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wedding stuff

L. and I are really making some progress on the details of our wedding. I had last week off as a reward for shipping our product, so I used the time to attend various appointments and do research for the last few things we need to take care of.

First up, L. and I met with our friend, A., the jewelry designer and figured out the design for our wedding rings. The wedding bands will be similar in style, even though L.'s will feature some green stones and mine will feature some purple stones (our favorite colors). I'm excited to see how they turn out. A. has done some really amazing work for both of us, so I know that his expertise will produce lovely wedding bands.

Next, we got our engagement photos taken. We chose to take them at the house, since we have a nice yard and it provided a nice backdrop for the pictures. We wore some of our swing-dance attire, so I think they will look great and will be very much "us."

My wedding dress arrived and I went to the bridal shop to try it on. I ordered it in a size down from what I was at when I ordered, and was sweating bullets that it wasn't going to fit since I didn't lose the last several pounds I originally wanted to lose. But, thankfully it did fit, and it fit like a glove. There are only a few alterations to make, and then it will be perfect. I took the opportunity to try on the bridal jewelry I'd been accumulating so that I could make a final decision about what looked best and take the rest back. I even did full wedding makeup that day - well, as close to wedding makeup as I can get by doing it myself. I will be getting a professional to do it the day of the wedding.

I met up with my mom and my wedding coordinator to get all of the decorations for the wedding and reception. We went out to the ceremony/reception location to meet with the facility assistant and do a check-in on the last things we needed to attend to in order to fulfull their requirements. We brought some of the decorations out, and did some planning about how we're going do everything. I'm quite pleased with the result. I really think people will enjoy it, because it's definitely not going to be a typical wedding. The main pieces will be there, but I think we're doing some really cool things and I can say that this place just has an incredible atmosphere.

We also met and booked our cake maker. She's a pastry chef who specializes in French cakes and pastries that she makes from scratch with as many organic and fair-trade ingredients as possible. She came highly recommended and was even featured in bridal magazines, but when we drove up to her house we wondered whether we'd found the right place. Let's just say that her house doesn't really scream well-organized, tidy, and professional food-handler. So, I was coming up with a Plan B in my head as we got out of the car. But, she proved me wrong. We rounded the corner and entered her kitchen, which was stacked with all kinds of professional equipment and was definitely clean. In the center of the kitchen, there was a table set with three place settings of china and crystal where we sat to taste all of her mousses, ganaches, compotes, cakes, and so on. She had containers of fruity items, nutty items, and chocolatey items, and she filled plates with various combinations of flavors to try. We spent over two hours with her, tasting all of her wonderful concoctions. At the end, I really couldn't decide what to pick. We're going to do a very small wedding cake for cutting, but a dessert buffet with various different cakes for people to try. So, she urged me to take several days to let everything settle, then look back at my list of favorite flavor combinations and let her know which ones we decide to go with. This appointment was like nothing else I've experienced. I'm so excited that we were able to get her for our wedding.

I also took care of the packaging for our favors and the paper for our programs. I'm still working out the final design for the programs, and it's proving more difficult than I originally thought. I really want to make sure that we include the words of our songs and readings somewhere in the program, but I don't want it to be cluttered, either. So, I'm trying to figure out a good solution to that.

L. and I took care of the banquet permit so that we can serve alcohol at the reception, and we went to the Snohomish County Courthouse to get our wedding license, which we took with us to our appointment with the pastor who is marrying us. The appointment went really well, and we were both set at ease by Pastor J.'s approach to religion and tolerance. Although he is a Lutheran pastor, he teaches graduate courses in comparative religion and is very accepting and inclusive of other faiths. This is very important to us, since we have a really mixed bag of religious beliefs in our families, and L. and I get really irritated with an overabundance of "God-talk." So, we worked out the flow of the ceremony and got an idea of how he'll approach everything.

Afterward, we started working on ideas for vows and readings. I'm really excited because a good friend agreed to do a reading for us. I just had to figure out what she was going to read. I knew we didn't want any bible passages or traditional readings. So, I started combing the Internet for some more unique ideas. I think we've found the perfect solution with some passages from a couple of books that really struck a chord with us.

We've also figured out the ceremony music, and I think we've got someone who will start and stop the CD at the right places during the ceremony. Overall, we've got a lot of help from family and a few close friends, so I'm really happy about that. Since we aren't having a wedding party, I wanted to include special people to us in the ceremony and reception.

And finally, L. got a suit. I think this was probably the most dreaded part of the whole process for L. - well that, and the expense of everything - but he really likes the one he got. When he put it on, it was like he was suddenly transformed into a "groom." And not only does he look amazing, but he also feels comfortable.

So, that's where we're at. I'm so thankful for that week off from work. It really enabled me to take care of a lot of things. Now we just have to get the beer, wine, and champagne for the reception, finish up paying balances on various services, and then get hitched! That last bit is the most important part, of course. All the rest is just going to be a kick-ass celebration!

Friday, August 22, 2008

For I.D. Freely and CGB

I thought I.D Freely of perpetual self-check and CGB of CGB Shoots His Mouth Off would find this tidbit mildly interesting, because it has to do with weight lifting...

This morning at the gym I did good mornings, and my trainer has been throwing squats in quite a bit. So far, so good. The hardest part thus far is keeping the form correct, especially on the good mornings. My trainer has also increased my weight routines from two sets to three sets, which is surprisingly difficult. You get used to a certain number of sets, and can even increase the amount of reps per set without as much effort as it takes to throw in a third set. I found this very interesting. I'm sure that this is not really new information for either of you, but I am in a state of discovery when it comes to weight training.

That is all...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

September "Vogue"

I just finished reading through the live blog of September's Vogue on Glossed Over. Funny stuff. I especially like the following excerpts:

11:27 a.m.: Oh, it's Candace Bushnell time! Her latest book is about a young
woman trying to make it in the big city. Innovative!
...
12:10 p.m.:
Vogue explains how to "buy wisely." Not to be confused with buying
affordably—one of their picks is a $2,750 vest made of "raw goat's hair and
leather."
12:12 p.m.: Raw goat's hair?
...
2:20 p.m.: Marina Rust
tries an electric-stimulation device that promises to firm muscles and whittle
away inches, for the low price of $180 per 40-minute session. In a shocking
twist, two different doctors think this is a scam!
...
4:14 p.m.:
Speaking of ugly stuff I can't afford, I've reached "Sure Things," a fall
accessory guide. Semantics question: can jewelry really be considered "costume"
when it costs upwards of $2,000? Nicolas Ghesquiere, I'm looking at you.

It's like reading my own thoughts. Although I love flipping through fashion magazines, there are times when I just wonder what planet some of these people are from. For instance, in the last magazine I read (can't remember which one at the moment, probably Lucky or something similarly brain-numbing), there was an ad for Marc by Marc Jacobs clothing featuring a man wearing dresses and handbags. I suppose it worked in that I remembered the ad, but it sure wouldn't make me want to buy anything from Marc by Marc Jacobs line. Very creepy.

Monday, August 18, 2008

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last posted. That's so unlike me. I usually try to post at least once a week. Well, all I can say is that things are going at warp speed now, and the wedding is less than two months away. We've been plodding along at getting the house in order when we're not out in the yard trying to keep the weeds picked, the flowers and lawn watered, and the trees and bushes pruned.

As a reward for shipping a product at work, everyone got to take a week off from work, so I chose this week. I'm going to meet up with my mom and my wedding coordinator for several important wedding-related appointments this week. Things are coming together, and I'm starting to get really excited about everything.

I'm a little bit stressed about the honeymoon plans simply because 1) I know only un peu French 2) I'm not familiar with public transit and we'll be using a lot of it in France and 3) although we have a place to stay for all legs of our journey, we haven't yet planned the various day trips that we'll take outside of Paris. I like to have a lot more of an itinerary than we have currently. So, we have some work to do there.

On the diet/exercise front, I'm almost done with phase 2 of the 20/20 program. Overall, it was a huge success. At the most, I lost 46 pounds, and but I've evened out at 40-42 pounds down total. This is mostly due to the stress (and inconvenience) of the move, unpacking, and various things going on in our lives with our families. I went through a bit of time where I was really disappointed to have not kept it all off, but my trainer and nutritionist have been working with me on being a bit more accepting of the big changes going on in my life and trying not to worry so much about perfection. I'm getting better at it. I'm still thrilled to have lost and kept off 40-42 pounds. Were it not for the move into the house, I think that I would have gone a little bit further, but I'm so glad that we moved when we did because it's taking awhile to get furniture and figure out how we want to use all of the rooms. After I come back from the honyemoon, I'm going to start seeing my nutritionist once a month so that I can keep in control during the holidays. And then after the New Year, I'll really hit it again and get that last 15 pounds off. I know how to do it now, but I do need a little more time to focus on it all again. There are just too many big things going on and coming up in the next couple of months to worry about losing more weight right this moment. It will work out.

Monday, July 21, 2008

I see weeds...

...when I close my eyes. This last weekend, my parents came up to help L. and I with the yard work. We figured out a few more species (?) of plants in our yard, and went to Fred Meyers to get some additional gardening equipment that will make our lives much, much easier when it comes to the yard. L. and my step dad went up to L.'s old townhouse to do some yardwork to make it a little more appealing for prospective renters. It's amazing how out of control a yard can get without a few weeks of care.

While they were gone, my mom and I went to work in the yard here at the house. We started out with an empty yard-waste bin and ended up with an overflowing one full of weeds, pine needles, leaves, and clipped branches off of trees and bushes. It looks amazingly better. We have a couple more areas to finish up weeding, but it's all pretty much done now. We got a couple of soaker hoses, so we need to lay those around some of the plants in the next few days. That will make watering a lot easier than it currently is.

Tonight, we took some flowers and a card over to our next-door neighbor, G. It was a thank you for hauling away some stuff from our yard for us and helping us out by trying to get in touch with the sellers for a few things. He's been so nice. He invited us in, and we chatted with him and his wife, S., for awhile. We were pleased to hear that they are also liberal, so we had a nice discussion about the state of the union. Turns out that several other neighbors are also liberal, but there are a few conservatives around. I guess that makes for a well-rounded neighborhood. We'll all cancel each other out at the polls this year.

Overall, we're starting to get into our groove here. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but that is in part due to an uncertainty about how we're going to use certain rooms. I got some of the bathroom stuff unpacked and put away on Saturday after we made a run to Fred Meyers for some baskets and other organizational items. On Sunday, we ordered a corner TV table for our family room, and once we get that, we can situate it and the bookcases, and then unpack everything in here. The table is off getting finished in the same distressed black that most of my furniture is, so it will be a few weeks until we get that piece. The other room is in serious need of some furniture, but we're going a bit slowly because it's rather expensive to buy good-quality pieces. So, that may need to wait a couple of weeks until the next paycheck and then we'll do a little more shopping and get that room in order. Until then, these two rooms are full of boxes. Upstairs, the guest room is full of boxes of collectibles, but L. is going to put those in the attic. Then we just have to tackle the craft/music room and unload everything in there. Right now it's just a mess of boxes and random crap that has nowhere else to go. All in good time, I guess. At least everything is here, so hopefully we'll get it all sorted out over the next few months and then we won't see boxes again for a good, long time.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Beautiful day in the neighborhood

We met several neighbors last weekend at our neighborhood's 4th of July party. Of course, there were like 30 of them and two of us, so I'm hard pressed to remember all of the names right now, but everyone was really friendly and the kids all seemed nice. Three of the families have been living in this neighborhood since the beginning (in the mid-80s). They told us that our house was actually the model house when this development was built, so that was kind of cool to find out. We had the best fireworks display ever, and we didn't even have to leave our own backyard. There were a few different cul-de-sacs nearby that lit off fireworks, and the effect of the whole thing was a great show.

I really like our immediate next door neighbor. He's the first guy we met, and we see him every couple of days. Today as I was heading to the mailbox, I ran into him again and he asked how we were getting along with everything. I told him that we're getting all settled in and trying to figure out a few things. He mentioned that he would try to text-message the sellers to see if he can figure out anything about the gas fireplace that we still can't get working. He also offered to take a few things with him to the dump next time he goes, since the sellers left a few random things in the backyard, like their broken kiddie pool and gardening equipment. Talk about a cool guy.

So far, we have only one semi-unfriendly neighbor. And I don't know whether they're really unfriendly, or just really shy. Sometimes it's a hard thing to figure out which kind of person you're dealing with. Anyway, the people directly across the street from us have been out in their yard a few times now, and both L. and I have tried waving at them or giving them the head bob of acknowledgement. So far, there's been no reciprocation. The guy even abruptly closed the gate on his fence when L. waved. So, I have no idea what's up there. I like to think that it's because we have the best yard in the neighborhood (even according to our friendly neighbors, this is so b/c the sellers worked really hard on the yard and it shows), and those people across the street are kind of runners up. Their yard is very nice and tidy, but has nothing on our landscaping.

To our surprise, we actually kind of like the yard work even more than working indoors. Every night except last night, L. has been out in the front or back of the house mowing, trimming, watering, and seeding. I came home from training the other night and it was still so nice out, that I promptly pulled out my new gardening gloves and knee pads, and went to town on the weeds in the back yard. I had to call my mom to tell her, and she didn't believe it at first. See, weeding was one of my childhood chores and I hated it. I don't even know if the word "hate" is strong enough to explain the emotion I had when weeding. As an aside, my guess is that if you want your kids to grow up and enjoy something, you shouldn't give it to them as their childhood chore. My sister and I were always mad at each other thinking that the other got better chores. I really wanted to vacuum and she didn't mind dusting, but those weren't the assignments. I was too young to work the vacuum, so no dice on that one. Even today, I enjoy vacuuming but hate dusting. Anyway, back to the point at hand. I was weeding, and it was on my own accord. This is nothing short of amazing, but it's kind of different when you are doing something to your own house and yard. Somehow, I don't mind so much now.

Last night, while L. went to do his radio show from midnight to 2:00 AM, I stayed up and prepared the master bedroom for painting. I taped all of the mouldings, window trim, light fixtures, outlets, and the heater vent. I don't know why, but it never seems like painting is that much work until you actually get into it. It's probably because I'm so anal about the whole thing, but I find that doing good prep work is essential when you're working with colors. The moulding, window trim, and doors will remain the same stark white that they are currently. But the rest of the room is getting a good dose of color. Those who know me, know that I despise white walls. So, I picked out a nice beige tone called Seagull Beach (valspar paint) that has a ruddy tone to it and will look wonderful with our mohogany furniture, plum bedding, and it will really make the white trim, moulding, and doors pop. I'm painting one wall a dusty blue/green shade called Autumn Fog (valspar paint, also) and it will coordinate with the drapes I got in the same shade. The drapes will be on one of the Seagull Beach-colored walls, and the opposite wall will be the Autumn Fog-colored wall, so it will all tie together nicely. I got a lightened tone of the Seagull Beach color for the ceiling, and it will also be the color for the master bathroom (which matches the Italian tile) and in the master bedroom closet. So, tonight I'll work on priming the bedroom (the bathroom and closet will be done another time) and then this weekend we'll do all of the painting. Then we can actually set up our bedroom and stop living out of garbage bags and boxes of clothes and shoes.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Moved in

Well, we're finally all moved into the new house. It was an incredibly busy weekend, and thank goodness L.'s step dad and my sister came to help us with the move. I don't know what we'd have done without them.

Of course, as with any new place, we're trying to figure out all of the kinks like switches that seem to do nothing and various little things that need fixing. Our front door knob kind of imploded inside the door, so L. and his dad spent a good amount of time trying to recover the hardware inside and then put it back together. The sellers did some random things to make the house appear better, but they didn't always do the work well. For instance, they didn't install the towel bar in the bathroom with sheetrock anchors, so that promptly crashed to the floor and will need to be redone. We also had a dickens of a time replacing some light bulbs in a couple of the light fixtures, which are ugly IKEA fixtures that make absolutely no sense. That's high up on the list for replacement.

I picked out two nice paint colors for the bedroom, and we found some curtains and a curtain rod that will go nicely with the furniture in there. We plan to start working on that in the next few days and finish up over the weekend so that we can get the bedroom all put together.

We need to get all of the kitchen stuff put away soon, too, or I won't be able to fit into my new jeans any longer. All of this eating out hasn't been so good for the waistline, so this is my last week of eating whatever. I've kept up with the workouts, and of course with moving boxes and climbing stairs over and over has been good. So, I haven't changed a lot but it's still not a good pattern and I need to get back on board with my diet so that I can get off that last 15-20 pounds.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Moving

It's been a really busy couple of weeks. I've been trying to get my condo all ready to be rented, and luckily I found a great property management company, and they promptly found me a renter. So, I've been busting my butt to get everything packed up. I have movers coming tomorrow morning to move all of my furniture and boxes. I honestly can't believe how I managed to pack this much stuff into a 1 bed/1 bath/den place. Amazing...

It became clear a few minutes ago when I tripped over my bed's footboard that I needed to take a break or risk breaking myself. When I've been working on something like this for such a long period of time, I become prone to accidents. So, it seemed like a good time to write a blog entry especially considering I'll have no internet connection for a week. I called Comcast last week, but they were really booked and can't come until next Wednesday. So, I'll miss a couple of programs I've been following, notably "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Design Star". Oh well. I'll be able to catch up with it all next week. L. and I toyed around with the idea of going with a different company for TV/internet but Comcast is just easier even if they do keep making their guide crappier and crappier every time they claim to "improve" it. I keep hoping that Tivo thing will work out soon so that we can get rid of the "Comcastic" experience, which L. and I both use now as an adjective for things that suck.

Overall, I'm in good shape as far as the packing goes. My bedroom, kitchen, pantry, den, storage, and most of the living room are all packed up. I have a few random things hanging out in the living room, but it's pretty good. The only thing left is the bathroom, and honestly if I don't get that packed up tonight, I may just get up a little early in the morning and finish that bit off or just move it myself later. I'm so tired of packing and repairing and preparing. I can't wait to just be in the house once and for all so I can get back to life as I previously knew it.

Today, I had to hang out at the new house and wait for carpet cleaners to come. Originally, they were supposed to come between 9:00 AM and noon, but surprise surprise, they didn't show up until 2:30 PM. It turned out that the gal who booked my appointment didn't write down the time quote, so they were working me in at the end of the day. Unfortunately, that meant that my previous idea of getting back to Redmond for work in the afternoon and for a workout this evening didn't pan out. So, I ended up taking off the whole day and cleaning the kitchen there instead. The carpet cleaners were really nice, and very apologetic, and they did a wonderful job on the carpets.

And even though I have plenty of things that I need to get done at work, I do feel good about having cleaned the fridge and freezer, microwave, countertops, dishwasher, and sink. The only thing I didn't get a chance to deep-clean was the stovetop and oven. But, considering the heat recently, I doubt we'll be cooking up a storm with either of those two appliances any time soon anyway so I can get to those this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, L. and I won't be having a typical July 4th celebration. L.'s dad is flying in from Montana on Thursday evening, and L., his dad, my dad, and I will all work on moving Lon's stuff on July 4th. We met one of our neighbors, and he invited us to a BBQ that afternoon, so we'll probably take a break to head over there and meet some neighbors. I'm pretty stoked that the neighborhood seems tight like that. Apparently they have a yard clean-up time once a year for the common areas, and they have this neighborhood BBQ every year for the 4th. So, that's pretty cool. I'd like to know my neighbors and be able to count on someone to watch over the house when we're away and vice versa. My sister, L., is coming down on Saturday to stay over and help me finish up any last stuff at my condo and unpack some things at the new place. God bless her soul for giving up a holiday weekend to come down and help us out. That alone makes me feel so much better. L.'s father will be with us until Sunday evening when he flies back to Montana. So, we'll have some good help this weekend to get as much moved and done as possible.

As I sit here on my couch tonight, I realize that this is my last night in my condo. It's sort of bittersweet for me. I'm very excited about the future, and sharing my life and home with my soon-to-be husband. But I will miss my little place in the world here. I've been here for almost three years now, which seems almost a lifetime considering I'd moved every year since starting college before I ended up here. This has been my home, and when I bought this place I knew that it would be a good place for me to build a new life and heal my heart after the divorce. And it was just that. Plus, the location is amazing. I will really miss being 5 minutes from work, and being able to jump on the Burke Gilman trail to head to Redmond Town Center, Marymoor Park, and Bella Botega in a matter of minutes. Redmond has become my town. So, now I'll have to learn all of the cool stuff about Bothell and make it my town. L. and I will be able to do that together, and that's a great thing to look forward to. Tomorrow night will be my first night in my new home with L.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Irritated

Do you ever get in a mood where literally every little thing irritates you, no matter how big or small? I'm in that mood today. I can hardly contain myself it seems. It all comes down to this process of buying the house and the irritation I have over every little hoop. Unfortunately, because a lot of people in the past were not responsible with their mortgages and the mortgage industry itself ran amok, L, and I are having to deal with all sorts of different options to try and buy this house. This is despite the fact that we're actually putting 5% down on the house, both have awesome credit scores, both have very established accounts and responsible payment histories, and oh yeah - no revolving debt. Yet, every day now we're receiving emails and calls from our mortgage broker about new rules from lenders in order to get a loan, and we constantly have to fax information over to her to satisfy these ludacris requirements. It's friggin' ridiculous, and it's enough to have completely dissolved my excitement over even getting the house in the first place. I should add that the whole negotiation process with the sellers in the beginning was ridiculous, too, and we almost walked away before they agreed to give in on something for which we absolutely wouldn't budge in the inspection. So, we were already annoyed over that. Now the loan process just adds on to that initial bad taste we had in our mouths over the negotiation process.

L. and I talked for awhile about everything tonight, and God love him, he tried to calm me down. But when I get into this highly irritated state, there's really no pulling me out of it. When our realtor emailed tonight to let us know that the sellers can't meet this weekend so that we can look over the fixes, learn about how a few of the things work, etc. I about lost it. I feel like we've been trying to work along with everyone this whole time and we keep coming up against a wall and then another wall. And when I get to this point, then I'm just done trying to work with anyone on it. At this point, it's my way or the highway. So, L. may have to go to the house sometime during the week to take a look at things on his own because I already have something going every night after work next week, and we have a family wedding next weekend for which we need to pitch in and do a lot of work.

I tried to take some of my aggression out during my squash game tonight with J., but it only helped temporarily. At this point, I can only hope that my excitement returns after we close on the house. Because as it is now, I'm completely pissed off by the whole process and I'm really regretting the whole thing. Ugh!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Life update and 20/20 recap

Time for another life update. The rollercoaster continues. As I posted last time, we got the house and decided to rent out both of our existing places. This has turned out to be a lot of work. I finally found a property management company that I like, so I met with them this week and they came by today to take some pictures of my place. They're going to do some research about how much other places in the area are renting for, and they'll let me know a good figure to start with. I have a preliminary idea based on their visit today, but they want to be sure.

In the midst of all of this, I got some very bad news about one of my Grandpa M. He had been having some heart problems recently, and they're still trying to figure out what's going on there. He has fainting spells, but it appears that one part of his heart beats too fast while another part beats too slowly. It's very odd. But on top of that, they found out that he has lung cancer. He's in the 10% of lung cancer patients who have never smoked. It was quite a blow. They found something in his pancreas, so they're trying to figure out whether it's cancer, and if so whether the cancer actually started in his lungs or his pancreas. Needless to say, this is all not good news. He's in the hospital now in Spokane under watch for his heart problems. His cancer doctor returns next week and he's supposed to start chemo, but we're not sure how that's all going to happen with these fainting spells and his heart issues. I'm praying that they can figure out what's going on with his heart so that he can start chemo and get better. But I must admit that the diagnosis doesn't look good.

So, I've definitely had a full plate with these issues in addition to work. The product I'm documenting is in ship mode now, so we're all extremely busy getting it ready for prime time and as always, there are last-minute issues to attend to.

This doesn't really help matters when there is a lot going on in both my professional and my personal life. As such, I've really fallen off track with my diet. The sucky part is that I now know better. But I still make bad choices when I get into an emotional state. It's really incredible how powerful emotions are sometimes. When I weighed in last Thursday, I was up almost 6 pounds from my last weigh in, but I had an idea that was skewed a little bit by water weight from the carbs, sodium, and the point I was at in my monthly cycle. That turned out to be true. I'm now only up about two pounds. But it's still not a good thing, and I don't want it to become a pattern.

My dietician gave me a plan to help get me back on track, and I've been trying to adhere to it, but I don't always. Sometimes I'm better than others. I kept up on the exercise, which is good. At least that is something that I haven't fallen off on except for a bit this week since I've been sick and having some allergy troubles plus just plain exhausted. But, I'm on the upswing, so I'll be back in the gym with my trainer on Friday.

The biggest thing that I'm trying to remind myself is that this is how life is sometimes. I'm not perfect, and I can't expect to be perfect. I've struggled with emotional eating all of my life, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. However, this time I do have the support of the people around me to get back on the horse (even if I have to do it over and over again until I stay on), and I am likely making somewhat better choices than I would have in the past. My hope is that in the next week or so, things will even out a little bit all around and I can refocus on my health goals. But right now, there are too many things competing for my attention and I'm just burned out. So, the most I can do is keep exercising, because that does really make me feel better, and I can try to make better diet choices and not beat myself up when I give in on something right now. I know that I'm not going let myself balloon back up, and two pounds gained is still 44 pounds down, which is nothing to sneeze at. So as long as I can maintain here a little bit, I can pick it up with renewed vigor soon. C'est la vie!

Sunday, June 08, 2008

The house

So, we ended up getting the house. We're really excited about it, and now we have a ton to do before the end of the month when we get it.

Here are some details about it:
2-story, built in 1984
3 bedrooms
2.5 bathrooms, including a remodeled powder room downstairs and a remodeled master bathroom upstairs
Huge, well planned and maintained yard
Living room and family room
Open kitchen with dining room

I put pictures up on my Flickr page.

I've already lined up professional movers to move all of my stuff. I live on the third floor of a quaint condo building that has no elevator. After everyone suffered getting my stuff moved in (and that was even without all of the furniture that I have now), I decided that it would be well worth the money to pay professionals to move my stuff to Bothell. We're going to move L.'s stuff, mostly because he doesn't have a ton of things and we're putting some things up on Craigslist to practically give away so that someone takes them and we don't have to move them. It will be a busy month ahead for us!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Life update and 20/20 recap

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. On Memorial Day weekend, L. and I went out with L.'s realtor to look at some potential houses between L.'s and my work places. We ended up finding a really nice house, and making an offer on it. However, we've gone back and forth a few times now with the sellers but I think we may have finally come to an agreement. It's been an emotional rollercoaster. Even though the wedding is only about four months away now, and we've been planning to move in together for some time, it's still a big step and we're finally taking it.

Aside from trying to figure out all of the decisions that come along with house offers, we've been trying to figure out what to do with my condo and L.'s townhouse. We already knew that we were going to rent out L.'s townhouse, but we just weren't sure when that would happen. If the sellers accept our counteroffer from tonight, we'll at least know when we have our new house and that will give L. the timeline to work with his property management company to get some folks in as renters.

My condo wasn't such a sure thing, though. Although it's a great place, and about the best location one could ever ask for, there are a few complications. First, there's an upcoming assessment on the building to replace siding and windows. This is fine, considering the building is 25 years old and it's definitely time for that kind of maintenance. That happens for all houses, not just condos. So, I wasn't really bothered by it except I wasn't sure whether we could take the financial hit in addition to losing money each month for mortgage and homeowners dues. It was all just adding up kind of quickly. But, L. called his CPA today to talk about how much of those expenses we can write off if we decide to rent the place, and it turns out that we can write off the mortgage interest (as usual) and also the HO dues (since they're an expense of renting and we won't be able to charge enough in rent to cover even all of the mortgage payment). So, that kind of tipped everything in favor of renting the place out. The other factor tipping it in that direction is that selling kind of sucks right now, and it may make more sense to hold onto this place for awhile and try to ride out the sinking economy, or at least to reap the benefit of having all of the updated work done on the place if we decide to sell later on. We'll see. Now I just need to call a few property management companies and figure out which one to use to manage my condo. Fingers crossed that it will all work out and I'll get a good renter in here. I'm kind of excited that I can hold onto my place, since I worked so hard to get it and it's one of the things that I'm really proud I was able to do on my own in the wake of my divorce and all of that ensuing mess.

I'm finishing up my final week phase 1 of the 20/20 program. As of weigh in last week, I'd lost 46 pounds. I don't really anticipate losing anything this week, because I have definitely not been on plan with my diet. Not that I've been eating crazily out of control or anything, but I'm definitely not adhering to the optimal percentages of protein, carbs, and fat that make my body run and burn calories so well. Also, I'm sure that I'm not eating between 1200-1400 calories. I'm more in the 1800-2000 range, which would be fine if I weren't still trying to lose weight. The problem is that my stomach has felt like it's been in knots for almost a week due to all of the stress with the house stuff and trying to figure out stuff for my condo. So, I gave in to crackers and gingerale several times to help out with some of that. And yesterday, I did have fries and a McFlurry. I gave into my stress eating, which probably isn't the best thing but it's what I did. As long as I don't do that all the time, it should be OK. Thankfully, I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight, so I'm hopeful that I can get back on track with things soon. I'm happy that I'm at least not going overboard with anything, but it's not optimal and I don't want to waste a bunch of time on my program not eating better. I think now that things have calmed down a little bit and we won't be running around so much after work to make appointments with realtors, etc. things should go back to a little more of a normal schedule. Like my nutritionist and trainer said, right now it's kind of life happening. And there has to be room in everyone's lives for that to happen here and there. So, I'm trying not to stress out about that on top of everything else.

So, next week, I'll go in for updated lab tests to see how everything like cholesterol, etc. pan out after being on the program. In a few weeks, I'll go in for my updated fitness tests to see the difference between starting and now. Should be interesting to see the difference. And I start phase 2 on Friday, but I hired my trainer for that extra day a week so that I can still workout with him three days a week and keep my level of exercise and challenge up. That will be really key in losing these last 20 pounds. I definitely have it in for those last fat cells...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Sasquatch 2008

L. and I headed over to the Gorge on Sunday to see several bands at the Sasquatch music festival. We chose Sunday because it had the most bands that we wanted to see, even though it would have been cool to see a few from the other days of the festival. Originally, we planned to see Tegan and Sara, Rogue Wave, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Kooks, Death Cab for Cutie (DCFC), and The Cure.

We ended up missing Tegan and Sara because we took a little too long in Ellensburg getting checked in at our hotel and having lunch. It wasn't a big deal, though, since neither of us are die-hard Tegan and Sara fans. They would have been a nice-to-see.

We made it there to catch the last part of Rogue Wave, and heard/saw them while standing in line to buy our tee-shirts and concert gear. They sounded really good, and we wandered down to the Easy Street booth to get a CD signed, but were too late. They'd already cut off the line by the time we made it down there, so that was kind of a let down.

The Presidents put on an awesome show, and we did make it to the Easy Street booth in time for them to sign our CD. They seem like really nice guys, and even sung a chorus from one song that a fan said he was bummed that they didn't perfom. Talk about cool.

We then wandered back over to the Wookie stage to find a good spot to see The Kooks. We heard the last part of Mates of State, which was pretty good. I'd never heard them before, but they were entertaining. Unfortunately, they seemed to be having some difficulty with the equipment, which spilled over into the time slot for The Kooks. We waited for some time for The Kooks to come on, but we wanted to get a good spot for DCFC so we left before The Kooks started. That, personally, was the biggest bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing The Kooks, because I've been enjoying their last two albums recently. But, it wasn't meant to be. DCFC was higher on the list for me, and I wasn't about to miss that part of the festival.

DCFC were incredible, as always. I'm always impressed with their music and presence. They always talk about how excited they are to see and hear the other bands at the festival, and I believe them. They just exude the feeling that they really love what they do. They performed their new hit, I Will Possess Your Heart, and it sounded perfect. When L. and I first heard the song, neither one of us were really too sure whether we liked it or not. But it's definitely grown on me and I really love it now. Those are the best kind of songs...the ones that take awhile to develop.

The Cure came on and closed the show. We stayed for some time, despite the fact that it was definitely getting colder while we sat on that grassy hill. I have to admit that I'm not a die-hard Cure fan. I'm one of their "greatest hits" fans, so I wasn't as excited about some of the tunes they played. I was waiting for them to play Just Like Heaven, but it seemed like things were just dragging on and on, so we finally headed toward the car before my fingers froze off. Of course, as we got to the car, we heard those familiar notes and hung out to listen to it from the parking lot. Overall, it was a great day. Even though I got a little bit bored with The Cure and more than a little frozen there toward the end, they did sound really good, even if they look weird (although, they always have). There's something strange about them looking exactly the same for all of these years, but I guess that's their thing. No evolution like bands like R.E.M., but oh well. It was still cool to know that I've seen them live now, after having listented to them all these years. Now, we'll just have to look out for The Kooks and try to actually see them another time...

Week 17 and 18 recaps

Well, after gaining a couple of pounds in my last post about week 16, I'm now down about six pounds again for a total of 44 pounds. However, after a week of professional training (and the extensive buffets that go along with it) and this holiday weekend, I'm not holding out hopes that I'll have lost anything when I weigh in again on Thursday. I tried to be careful throughout the week, even though the buffets we had at the training center were full of lots of carbs and little protein. I did end up losing about a pound and a half in week 18 even though I couldn't be as strict with my diet as I'd have liked.

This weekend, L. and I went to the Sasquatch music festival at the Gorge, and we indulged yesterday during the concert since there was pretty much nothing available that would have fit the bill for my diet. During Death Cab for Cutie, I was uncomfortably full after eating a few chicken strips and about half of my order of fries. I ended up tossing the rest out. Before, I'd probably have scarfed down the whole thing and then some. During the day, I also had some candy, a sandwich, and some fries. And on the way home, I had small McFlurry. So, that was all off plan, but at least it was only one day. We got back to our plan today, so that's good. I realize that this is all progress, and not perfection, so that helps. And there are going to be times where the food options are limited and I have to make due with what's available. There will also be times where we'll indulge, and that's not a bad thing as long as it doesn't become a daily or even weekly habit as it was in the past.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Week 16 recap

I'm late (again) on posting my recap, but it's due in part to some big things going on with some of my family members starting late last week into this week. Everything appears to be going OK with everyone again, and we even had some good news in the family in the form of an addition to our family, which was very exciting. My cousins, R. and A., welcomed their new little girl into the world on Monday afternoon. I haven't seen her yet due to being sick the last few days, but L. and I are going to visit them on Saturday and see the new baby.

Anyway, I weighed in last Thursday and I gained 2 pounds. It was such a frustrating moment. Granted, so far things have been going along pretty well and I've only gained one other week during the whole program. But, still... It's always disappointing to see the numbers on the scale go up instead of down when you've been working so hard at something like this. My nutritionist, C., and I talked things over and she thinks that it is probably water weight due to the point I'm at in my cycle (love being a woman sometimes), the addition of whole grains (which cause you to retain more water than other food groups), and some high sodium foods I've been eating recently. So, I backed off of the grains a little bit this week to one serving instead of two. We'll see if that helps when I weigh in again tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I got sick starting on Sunday evening, so I spent the last couple of days bundled up in blankets trying to keep warm and the other part of my time in the bathroom wondering how there can be anything left in my stomach. Despite that, I've been trying to keep eating healthy and keep my protein levels up. I've also been drinking even more water than I normally do, which is a lot. It seems to be working, because I am doing better. I cancelled my training session on Monday night, but I did make it to training tonight. J. didn't overwork me because he knew that I was still recovering. But I got in a good workout nonetheless.

My guess is that tomorrow's weigh in will probably be a bit of a wash since I've been eating well but not working out or getting in my steps. I guess right now I need to be more worried about recovering than losing weight, but I hate to lose a week to illness.

I have to say that I think I'm at that point where the honeymoon is over and reality is setting in. This is always a difficult point in a process because it's typically where I'd want to give in and grab a doughnut. But I'm trying my hardest to keep my motivation up. I think the hardest thing right now is just that it all starts sinking in that I still have about 25-30 pounds to go (depending on my weigh in tomorrow) and that's still a lot of weight to lose. So, I start kind of beating myself up about gaining the weight in the first place, which is pretty useless. It's not like I can go back in time and change what I did before. I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and move forward with my life. But it is getting hard for that reason, and the frustration level is up in part because of that, which makes me want to cry. At least I still have a lot of support with my 20/20 team, so that's one thing that keeps me going. That and the fact that I've now spent a lot of money, time, and effort to get to this point of 37 pounds down. And if I did that, I can do the rest. It just sucks sometimes, and I'm just having a pity party this week about it all. Hopefully things will start going down again once my body heals from this cold/flu and I get back on track with working out.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Light at the end of the tunnel

Funny statement seen posted on a co-worker's door:
"Due to financial considerations, the light at the end of the tunnel has been temporarily turned off."

It does feel that way sometimes, doesn't it?

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Aaah, Seattle, my home

This week, The Stranger published an article called What I Can Tell You About Seattle Based on the People I've Met Who Are From There (I Live in Brooklyn) by Tao Lin. It's an interesting collection of thoughts Lin has had about Seattle. It's definitely worth a read.

I think one of the funniest thoughts was about sports:
SEATTLE IS SARCASTIC ABOUT SPORTS
When I watched baseball as a child, I always felt strange when I saw the Seattle Mariners on TV. I wasn't sure then why I felt strange, but now I think I know. I think it's just that the blue uniforms they used to have made it seem like they were "merely screwing around." The blue uniforms, in combination with being called the Mariners, made me feel strongly that they actually wanted to be playing Marco Polo in a swimming pool but were forced into professional baseball and so wore blue uniforms to "continue the dream" of "screwing around" in a swimming pool for five hours every day with no responsibilities. Ken Griffey Jr. was a Mariner then and he seemed to be the perfect example of what I just typed about. He seemed to always be trying really hard at being good at baseball which to me only conveyed that he was distracting himself really hard from thoughts about wishing he lived in a special world where each day you woke up, played games in a swimming pool with other adults, ate dinner, played more games in a swimming pool, and went to sleep.


This observation cracks me, and kind of rings true. The old Mariner uniforms (even before Griffey Jr.'s time) looked pretty hysterical. Also, why else would so many people be blase about the Sonics leaving? I don't really know anyone who actually cares about this, despite the fact that the news occasionally shows some basketball fanatic who bemoans the loss. I used to love basketball and followed it pretty closely, but in later years it's just not a priority. And although I used to enjoy college football (and went to games when I was at the UW), I think most professional football is kind of laughable. I can't imagine any reason I'd go sitting out at Qwest field in the rain and cold every year to watch grown men run around in tight pants after a ball. About the only football I actually watch anymore is the Superbowl, and that's more because my family and friends get into it, and it was a good excuse to overeat and drink. This past year with my 20/20 program, it was more a good excuse to hang out with my friends and laugh as they became more and more silly with each beer. Good times.

I also liked the following observation from Lin:

SEATTLE IS ACTUALLY "BETTER" THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN AMERICA
For some reason I never heard Shya—or anyone else I know from Seattle—say anything like "In Seattle I would never be attacked on public transportation" or "If we were in Seattle right now we would not be playing two-person poker on a Saturday night drunk." People from Alabama or Florida or anywhere else seem to always be talking about how Alabama and Florida are a lot better than wherever they currently are, I think because they are trying to convince themselves that they were not "cheated" out of something by growing up in Biflow, Florida. It isn't sarcastic at all when someone from Alabama says they wish they were back in Alabama. But people from Seattle when elsewhere somehow do not ever try to convince themselves of anything, I think because they feel like if they say something like "In Seattle my chicken fingers would never be served raw by accident" it would be like saying "A poodle is a kind of dog" in that it's "an accepted fact" to people from Seattle that Seattle is "better" in the same way that it is "an accepted fact" that poodles are dogs. Someone would never try to say that a poodle is a kind of cat.


This perfectly describes how I feel about Seattle. It's not that I don't enjoy traveling and seeing other parts of the country and the world, but Seattle is just my home. I can't imagine seriously living anywhere else. Oh sure, when I retire, I'd love to have a vacation home in Hawaii or something to go spend a few months out of the year, but I'd never leave this area altogether. Seattle is just where I feel comfortable. It's home.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Week 15 measurements

At the of week 15 (last week), J. took updated measurements for me. So, I had my appointment with my doctor today to go over the results and everything is looking really good. Here's the difference since first starting the program:
Weight (lbs): -39
Blood pressure (mm/HG): -10/-14
Chest girth: -4.75"
Waist girth: -4.75"
Hips girth: -5.5"
Bicep girth: -1.5"
Thigh girth: -4"
Body mass index: -5.95

Woot, woot! I'm disappearing :) I can't wait to see what this will be like after 20 weeks, and even then after phase II of the program.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Week 14 and 15 recap

I missed my week 14 recap due to being quite busy with work and other aspects of my life, so I'm just going to fill in everything for both weeks 14 and 15 now. Since week 13, I've lost another 5 pounds which puts me at a total of 39 pounds lost. I lost two pounds in week 14 and three pounds in week 15. I'm really happy because as I mentioned in a previous post, I was at my sticking point from before, so I was worried that it was going to be a bit difficult to move myself past that previous threshold. But, the weight just came off the same way it has throughout the program so far.

I got potatoes and starchy vegetables back this week, but I haven't even had anything other than some corn in my black bean and corn salsa yesterday. Basically, if I want to have starchy vegetables, I need to make a trade off with whole grains and I'd much rather have the whole wheat bread for a sandwich than a baked potato. That might change eventually, but for now, I'm not too worried about incorporating potatoes. My nutritionist, C., gave me the name of some oven-baked french fries that I can have, but I didn't make it to PCC or Whole Foods this weekend to find them. So, I'll have to try and make it over there sometime this week to see what I find. I know that I need to stay away from french fries in restaurants, since they're all deep fried and definitely not anything resembling a whole potato with skin and hence totally devoid of nutrients. I have noticed that my fat intake inches up slightly on weekends, so I need to watch that. I'm never outrageously over my range, but sometimes I'll go over by a few grams. C. hasn't been too worried about it, but it's something that I want to make sure I keep better track of. At least it's healthy fats like nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc. But you can get too much of a good thing, so I'm putting myself on notice.

Exercise has been going well. My trainer, J., and I have been playing squash once a week and it's really fun. I'm getting a little bit better each time. My IT band issue is getting a lot better. My left leg tends to have more problems than the right, but it's getting slowly better. J. did the foam rolling on me last week and really dug in on an area that was sore. After a few rounds of that, I begged for mercy. It's progress, though. J. has me do a lot of exercises to strengthen my glutes to help with that whole issue, too.

Yesterday, my pedometer tracked just over 20,000 steps, which is the highest count so far. L. and I went for a run/walk along the Burke Gilman yesterday and it was so beautiful out. We wandered over to Marymoor park and then headed back the other direction once we'd walked through the park. Having our headphones and music with us made us able to run a bit farther than we typically do. Usually we set a goal in the distance to run to and then walk, and repeat, but with the music we try to run for a whole song and it typically works. I'm really impressed that my endurance has improved so much. Then we went to the Bellevue Mall to pick up some things for my mom and get Mother's Day stuff. And last night we went to a swing dance. So, that all worked out to over 9 miles of walking, running, and dancing for yesterday. Not bad. Previously my best step count has been just over 15,000. I generally get at least 5,000 a day if not more.

As I was getting ready for the dance last night, I put on a pair of black pants that I had kept after my try ons a few weeks ago, and they just hung off of me. So, I'm starting a new pile of clothes to give away. I still have a pile of things to try and take to a consignment shop, but I'll probably just take everything at one time to sell. It will be a bit more organized that way.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Week 13 recap

I lost 3 more pounds this week, which puts me at a total of 34 pounds lost. I was actually a bit surprised because I kind of took it easier last week while letting my IT band recover from the strain and massage work from the previous week. I kept icing it and took some Ibuprofin to help with the pain. By today, it's feeling pretty good. I have to remember that I need to work in increments and not just increase all of my activity at once because I get excited about doing all kinds of things. Having done squash, running, and dancing all in one week was a little bit much in addition to my regular workouts with J. But, it's getting better now.

I hope to start up with the running again next week. I'm doing squash again today, so that should be fun. I'm sure my arm will hurt all weekend again. That squash ball sure needs a lot of arm power to get around. Also, I'm not the best with hand-eye coordination, so I spend a lot of time thinking that I'm going to make contact with the ball while it just slips right past me. That always looks awesome. I hope no one watches our games or they'd be laughing hysterically.

On the strength training front, the "scary" room isn't so scary anymore. Somehow, having a trainer there making you do the ridiculous-looking exercises makes me feel like less of a loser around all of the huge, serious strength trainers in there. It's that sort of mentality that's like, "he's the one who cooked this whole idea up...I'm just doing it." So, I feel like less of an ass in front of everyone.

I've been using a machine that assists you with doing dips and pull ups, since I'm not quite strong enough to do it all on my own yet. It's incredibly hard, but it feels really good to be getting stronger each time. I've also been doing push ups and pull ups with the help of a bar that you can move up and down to either make the movements a little harder or easier. I can't wait until the day that I'll actually be able to do sets of push ups on the ground and do dips and pull ups with my full weight.

J. has also been mixing things up by adding things like a medicine ball, the stability ball, and the bosu ball to throw off my coordination completely. There have been a couple of funny moments recently with the bosu ball as I just kind of slide off because I literally can't hold this one position the whole time that I'm doing the exercise.

Also, J. has been adding a lot of pyramid rep exercises to really kill me. In my last session, he had me stand on the ball of one foot on the edge of a platform and wrap the other foot behind my standing leg. Then I had to pump my foot up and down off of the platform seven times and then rest for seven seconds...then six reps and six second rest, then five, four, three, two, and one. My legs were on fire by the end of this particular exercise. I was semi-amazed that I didn't have horrible leg cramps that night, since I tend to get them easily, but J. did help me stretch out pretty well after that routine.

This week, on the diet front, I got back whole grain cereals and even some popcorn. You'd be amazed at how small a serving of cereal actually is. I found Grape Nuts, which I used to really enjoy, and the serving is a 1/2 a cup. Granted, Grape Nuts is a very dense cereal, so that goes a long way. But I actually need to do 1/4 of a cup if I want to be able to have another serving of whole grains sometime later in the day. So, I plan on mixing it in with my Greek Yogurt and berries. Yummmmm.

Today, I pulled out a pair of jeans that I have been holding onto for some time...and they fit. I was ecstatic. They slid right on and zipped right up without a problem. What an awesome feeling. Pretty soon, I'm going to really need to get some new clothes because what I have won't hold out too much longer.