Holiday Wii Fit Challenge

So yesterday J wanted me to play a  game of Raving Rabbids with him on the Wii.  I am embarrassed to say I was short of breath by the time we were done (He likes to do the “running” ones.)  So this morning, I dusted off the Wii Fit and did 30 minutes of exercise this morning.  (31 actually 🙂 )  Now I know the exercise recommendation for someone my size is an hour a day, but we all have to start somewhere.

Anyway, I got to thinking.  I bet there are other people out there who are as out of shape as me and own a Wii Fit.  I figure if we can all do at least 30 minutes a day on the Fit, then we can at least keep the pounds from inching up during the holidays.  At this point, I’m not looking for weight loss (though that’s always nice), I’m just trying to start a routine and thought that maybe some of you would want to do it with me.  You can post your times on your blogs, your facebooks, your twitters, just do something to keep yourself honest.

So here it is:  Monday Nov 29th 31 minutes

 

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Sawyer Sawyer Locke

I found this while I was cleaning this weekend.  Drawn by the girl.

so now I wonder – if underneath all the junk in her room is a hatch.  Maybe I should start checking her math homework for the number sequence.  Hmmm.

And yes.  I do have the Sawyer Song stuck in my head.  Again.

Mama’s Boy Socks

I’ve been making socks.  I actually made these for J quite a while ago but he lost one and was devastated.  Every day when I was knitting he’d ask for a new one, so yesterday I indulged.  They’re basic turkish toe up socks with a short row heel.  I don’t even remember what the yarn is.  I think it might have been the first skein of sock yarn I ever bought.

New BSE and Mammogram guidelines?

Hey look.  Nicole’s writing another post about cancer.  Crazy.

I can’t help it.  It’s part of who I am now and these new guidelines freak me out a bit.

New York Times Article on new BSE and Mammogram guidelines

Here’s a link to the actual task force website.

I’m not stupid.  I understand the math.  And the money.  And the risks. (I did have to sign all those freaking forms, you know.)  The hard part for me is, like most young women with breast cancer, I would be dead if I’d had to wait until 50 for a mammogram.  And you could argue that since I found my lump that I still would have been diagnosed.  But would I?  I have to admit that one of my big fears about these new recommendations is that it will be harder to convince insurance companies to pay for the scans.  AND the new guidelines discourage SBE (Self Breast Exams).  So maybe I wouldn’t have found the lump at all?  I understand that mammograms and BSE aren’t the very best tools, but they’re the only tools we have right now.  Find me a better way to detect breast cancer and I’ll blog about it ad nauseum.  But don’t tell women to stop doing BSEs.  Don’t use unnecessary anxiety and discomfort as a reason turn a blind eye to what’s going on in our own bodies.

You know what causes even more anxiety and discomfort than a mammogram?

Cancer.

I find this all very disturbing.

Zune Shuffle

Two things.

Yes.  I have a Zune.

And I’ve never done the ipod shuffle post. You know, the one where you put the ipod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs.  So here it is.  My musical taste in all it’s weirdness.

1. Gallows Pole – Led Zeppelin.  Reminds me of high school and Laserium Zeppelin.  heh.

2. Goodbye Love – Rent.  Well we all knew I love musicals.

3. Helplessly Hoping – recorded by me and two of my friends actually.  We used my ancient microphones at school.  And yes.  I do have recordings of our trio on my Zune.  I like to listen to us.  Reminds me of fun times.

4.  Missa De Beata Virgine – Josquin Des Prez – I’m a music geek.  What’d you expect?

5. You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette.  I’m officially old enough to admit publicly that I listen to her in all her angsty bitter greatness.  🙂

6. Hotwax – Beck.  Love Beck.  One of my favorite concerts.  Although my friend and I were probably closer in age to the moms in the audience who brought their jr. high kids. “I’m the enchanted wizard of rhythm.”  How can you not love lyrics like that?

7.  Love’s Recovery – Indigo Girls.  Yeah.  Love them too.

8.  The Lowlands of Holland – The Chieftains and Natalie Merchant.  Pretty song.  But not my favorite on the album.  I actually got this cd from a student.  One of the best presents I ever got.  Love it.

9.  I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Feel Get Over You – Colin Hay.  He’s still got it.  Long after “We come from a land down under…”

10. Sissyneck – Beck.  Again.  See #6.

 

So there you go.  A tiny glimpse into what’s on my Zune.

Suicide Pact

I wonder how many google hits I get for that title.

It seems to me that major appliances have a suicide pact.  Like the year our furnace and our water heater died.  At Christmas.  Or when the oven and the dryer went to that big appliance repair shop in the sky.

The brand new dishwasher.  Is fine.  🙂  But the aluminum wiring isn’t.  Next weekend poor husband and father in law are switching out the aluminum for copper.

It makes me afraid for the washer.  Perhaps I can stage an intervention.

Well, clearly you can’t be 7.

Because I’m not remotely old enough to have a 7 year old.  And you look like this in my head.

But you are 7.  And a big first grader.  It’s weird that you spend more time at school during the week than with me and J.  I know you are enjoying school as much as I am enjoying the break, but I still miss our impromptu trips to Georgetown.  And your funny way of telling stories.  I know you are only 7, not going off to college or anything, but you’ll have to forgive Mom for reminiscing about the days when you were my little sidekick.  I love you baby girl, you’re one of my very favorite people.

Happy Birthday L!

 

Way back in the days before technology…

My husband told me this story, so I’m going to try and remember it correctly.

On Tuesday, while I was at Planina, L lined up all the cousins and her brother on the sofa and wanted to take their picture.  She couldn’t find the camera, but was undaunted.  She found her sketch pad and pen, readied herself to draw their picture and said, “No problem!  I’ll just do something that people did a looooooong time ago, way back in the days before technology…”

“You know, like 1982.”

When it rains…

1)  you get to keep your drain.  Really bad rhyme.   I know.  Drain stays till Friday.  I’m back on Levaquin (which the doc stopped a while back to put me on Bactrim) because my infection is resistant to Bactrim now.   Yippee.  I get the overachiever bug.  Anyway, Levaquin is scary expensive, even with insurance (For instance, I’m lucky it *only* costs me $50.) with even scarier side effects (like your Achilles tendon detaching somehow…)  Anyway, I’ve just got to keep in mind I’ve taken more toxic things in my life, like chemo and some really bad stuffed green peppers I made long ago.  I still have 8 pills of Levaquin left from a previous prescription and I’m hoping I can take those (I think he only wanted me on it for 5), so cross your fingers for me that the goddess of cheapness smiles on me and I can use it.

2) Pray for a friend’s mother (who is also my friend) whose Mom is dying.  You are never too old to miss your mother.  Or your grandma.  Or your great-grandma.

3)  Pray for my sister and her husband, for his mother passed away unexpectedly last night.  Death is never easy, expected or otherwise.

4) Pray a bit for me, because tomorrow all their children will be at my house.  I can handle it and it will be fine.  But a little prayer never did anybody any harm.   🙂