Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha

My new neighbor – the Woodpecker. See it and its red head?

Salute to Clara Peller

Really…Where’s the beef?

So not worth the 13 WW points :(

I’m Gonna Have Possum for Dinner

Sorry that it’s blurry, but I was driving and following an exterminator.  Below the Ford logo, there is a line that reads “If we can’t kill it…we’ll eat it.”

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but if they can’t catch it, they won’t have anything to eat.  Am I right?  Or is it “well, I couldn’t catch the ‘coon in your garage, so I went and found me another one that I am gonna fry me up for dinner.

File That Under Duh…En dos Idiomas

Don’t worry, Ricky, I still love you in all your admitted gayness.

Recycled Love

Similar Views, Different Circumstances

Here was my view from my hotel this week.  I was in Chicago for training and we stayed at the Westin River North.  Love. Ly. Wow.  From Keith the Doorman to the toiletries, to the mattress, to the view.  Wow.  It’s between Clark & Dearborn.  For those of you that don’t know the street names as well, but know landmarks – I was across the street from the Marina Towers and House of Blues.  My co-worker had the blue lights shining through her windows.  Me, I was lucky, I had a lovely lovely view of the Loop and river.  Although it was St. Patrick’s Day, the river was its normal pea green (some might argue I spelled “pea” wrong and that in this case it should be “pee”); they had dyed it 4 days earlier for the parade.  No big loss.  I’ve seen it many many times before.

On Thursday morning, I looked out across the river and noticed a homeless man sleeping on Lower Wacker Dr.  Amazing what a few yards make.  Here I am in the lap of luxury, my company paying a pretty penny and there he is, similar view but much different dollar value.  It made me sad to think that so many people that stay in these places never admire the view or even the fact that they have the luxury of staying in a hotel.  Do they see the beauty?

At the same time, I wonder if the homeless person sees the beauty of the city either. Do the circumstances surrounding his situation limit his ability to see the beauty?  Does he perceive the city as beautiful at all?  It made me a little sad.

Boom Boom Boom, Ruff

That’s a line from the song “He’s a Tramp” and below is a scene from the movie. Mom loved this movie growing up. It was at the time of the re-release in the 80’s that she realize how much it had shaped her opinion & taste; we had a cocker spaniel and she despised/despises Siamese cats.

In 1992, I purchased the cross stitch pattern for this. I had just moved to Indy and I figured I could work on it & give it to Mom for Christmas. Ha…yeah, Christmas TEN YEARS LATER. Seriously, it took me 10 years to finish it. I’d pick it up then put it in a drawer. it went on like that for literally a decade. Then, I realized I just wanted to get the darn thing done & out of site!

It now hangs on the wall in my parent’s bedroom. It looks good in there. Definitely better than in a state of unfinish crumpled in a drawer in my house.

Excuse, me…I asked for a LARGE?

Seriously. I asked for a large, not gargantuan.

Guarantee, I have small hands, but come on. I had my hand stretched as far around the cup as possible and you can barely see my hand. No wonder that guy in the commercial with the small hands (that oogs me out) feels like he has small hands…It’s because they make everything gi-normous!!!

Thank God I didn’t ask to have it super-sized…I felt like a little kid drinking from this as it was! I had to use both hands or run the risk of dropping the barrel o’ pop (soda/coke/soft drink).

Blue Broken Heart

My sister is an artist. she is also crafty. In my mind they are not the same. She has talent that requires a fine (or refined) skill. She’s got the eye, but also the ability to guide her hands to create her vision which tends to go toward “artist.” She can also do this with craft projects, but “crafts” seem to be a bit more rough ~ they require skill and artistic inclinations, but just having instructions and a bit of dexterity can get you by.

Me, I tend to be crafty. I need the roadmap if it’s going to be created. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can be very creative when telling stories and the like, but as far as a refined skill required to create something deemed attractive…not so much.

My sister started renting a kiln and creating fused glass items. This is just one of the long list of things my sister can do ~ and do well. We ended up buying her one of her own. She lets me dork around with things when I visit. One of my favorite things that I have made is in the picture. It’s my Blue Broken Heart. She got made when I named it that. It was because I happened to be going through a tough time when I made it & she didn’t want me to be sad. I love the thing. It’s just pretty and looks lovely hanging in my car.

Goals

So, this week, I lost another 3.6 pounds. I am feeling pretty darn good about it. What I found myself doing today was thinking about the different goals that I have set and the manner in which I have set them.

Weight Watchers is big on goals and celebrating.  Even if it’s a weight gain, we celebrate the fact that the person came to the meeting in spite of the gain. We celebrate trying.

Some of the goals I thought of…

1. the 10% goal from WW (6.6 lbs to go)
2. 21 lbs to go to be at the point where I swore I’d never be at, much less over, ever again
3. 37 lbs to reach where I was when I fell off the proverbial wagon last time
4. 56 lbs to get to the weight I want to be
5. 66 lbs to reach the highest weight that Weight Watchers allows for my height range to become a lifetime member.

What I realized is, I haven’t looked at it in terms of time.  I have been moving at a steady clique.  Working toward each of these steps is the goal and I find that I am motivated more by not committing myself to hitting these targets on specific dates, but just by moving in the correct direction.  However, if I keep this pace, I will accomplish all of these goals in 10.3 months.  Only time will tell!

FYI, Kellogg’s is Lying

 

These are not better than Fiber One Chocolate & Oats.

Upcoming Squares!

March > April > May > June!

I CAN’T WAIT for the March pattern!  Only 2 more days…

Chocolate Bunny!

Many people asked how I made the cute & fuzzy bunnies.  So, I made a step by step pictorial instruction on my FB page.  I only had brown washcloths left, so I made a chocolate bunny :)

Happy Spring

OK, it’s ALMOST spring, but the sun is shining & the snow is melting!

  

Rationalization, Justification, Statistical Analysis, and Weight Loss

I can be very good at rationalizing.  I am not the best at stats, but considering where I work & what I do, I have the fundamentals down ~ or I can at least fake it well enough.

One thing that I do know about statistical analysis is that you can rationalize most anything. I see people wasting energy fighting the obvious to try to justify things.  We all are guilty of it though, I am certain.

With my current initiative to lose weight, I have been looking at the numbers and was getting a bit discouraged.  I know I have been doing well, but the road seems so long!(with many a winding turn…great now I have that Hollies song in my head).

So often we are given information and we assume we understand what it’s providing to us, but then when we sit back and take the time to really listen, you realize that the easy breezy cheesy information someone gives you isn’t always really that clear, like with that 5% goal they set ~ what does it really represent?

Is it based off of what I need to lose or is it based off of my total body weight? 

I had to do the math (AIIIEEE!) 

It made me happy when I found out that the 5% is based on my TOTAL body weight, not what I need to lose.  For that, my percent is higher than 5%.  Whatever I can do to motivate myself…

Well, when you look at it that way…gross!

That, my friends, is what 5 pounds of fat looks like.  I have lost about 3X that at this time.  Gooooood riddance! BLACH!  In the end, I will have (hopefully) lost 16 of these, or to put it in another way, 16 of these:

OR… 2 of these:

Ooh, ooh that smell Can't you smell that smell?

In 1988-89 we hosted our 1st international exchange student.  She was from Hamburg, Germany.  Her name was Charlotte Jordan, but she went by the nickname “Tina” because she looked like someone in a movie.  Never heard which movie.  There are a lot of things that remind us of Tina.  Anytime a glass breaks, whenever we see a shirt with a boobenemblem, and when I smell the perfume Joop! le bain.  It’s by far my favorite and I haven’t ever found it here in the US.  When I went to Germany, that was one of my goals ~ find that perfume!  I did at the Munchen airport and I spent my last $20 Euro on it.  Then, when Mom & Dad went to visit the next year, I had them bring a bottle back for me AND when some of my Germans came for a mutual friend’s wedding, they bought me a bottle.  I will smell pretty for a long time.  And I will always associate the smell with Germany and Tina.  Sadly, Tina had a tough time assimilating back into her home after  her exchange experience and over a very short time, we lost contact.  I try every so often to try & locate her.  No such luck yet.  I miss her.

And I’ll have to explain the boobenemblem another time.  It’s a good one.