Well, it was a week with feasting! Did you manage to squeeze in some exercising or not?

Posted by danielle at 10:11 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Doesn't the title Hairy Mums make you think of old British ladies with hairs sprouting off of their chins?

No? Well, just a thought.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like Friday, does it? Kinda nice that we have 2 more days off in addition to this one to laze around. Pretty dang cool actually. I realized that our last vacation was in May when I went through the commencement ceremonies back in Boston, and that was long enough ago that I was feeling overdue for a few days off.

This photo was from the MN State Fair and was the closest thing I had to Thanksgiving colors. I've always had a fondness for what I call hairy mums. I'm not really sure if they are called that officially, and there is a part of me that doesn't want to know, so doesn't look it up to check. They remind me of fireworks or starbursts. The lilies are really something else too. Aren't they?

Happy Friday!

Posted by danielle at 01:05 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Hope you can easily think of all of the things for which you are thankful.

I've had a good morning so far. I slept in, had a great cup of tea and some pumpkin bread with my toast. I watched a bit of the Macy's day parade and sat outside in the sun and read my newest book for just under an hour.

Now, the family is prepping the turkeys for a 2:00ish meal! Ought to be a good meal.

Thinking of all of you today, because you are part of what I'm thankful for.

Sending hugs across the miles,
Danielle

Updated to add the pictures of the turkey going into the fryer:

Posted by danielle at 01:32 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

It is, as we say in my family, a short week. Meaning, of course, a short Work-week. Yay! I'm taking tomorrow off to fly to my in-laws in Indiana, so today is my Friday, so to speak.

Yes, I said that I'd be flying tomorrow. I'll be at the airport on the busiest travel day of the year. When you see the stories on the news about how long the lines were and crowded the airports were, etc. you can think of me. There wasn't much that I could've done to avoid that. So, I'm just going really early and am going to suck it up and stay cheerful and patient - or at least that is my intention.

I'm looking forward to having my first ever deep fried turkey. I've heard from people how delicious they are, but I've never gotten to try one. So that will be cool.

I also get to meet a cousin by marriage (very young - maybe 6? 7?) for the first time. She sounds like a lot of fun.

And there are the cats. Four or five of them. I'm obviously not doing very well with numbers right now, since I can't remember that either. I wasn't going to take my camera, but you know, with the cats, you just never know what will be photo-worthy.

And speaking of cats, as I write this, a certain Girlie is all tucked in next to me purring. She will have a neighbor checking in on her while we are gone. She should be fine. Lonely, but fine.

I'll have wireless access while I'm there, so I'm not disappearing off of the face of the earth during this trip. See you around the internet!

Don't forget to exercise! I'm taking my clothes for outside walking, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather is decent.

Posted by danielle at 10:30 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Well, I sure didn't post at all last week except for the exercising post. I've been okay, just empty of post ideas.

But here we are, another week has gone by and we are on Thanksgiving week! It will be tough to get exercising in with the holiday and all, but hopefully we can all manage it. Good luck to you, on keeping up with your fitness this week.

How did you do last week?

Posted by danielle at 10:03 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Well, another week has gone by where we've tried to get in some exercise during a winter-like week (I think we are still officially in fall, but it sure doesn't feel like it).

How did you do this week? Better? Worse?

Posted by danielle at 09:55 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

This is the first of the orchid pictures from the exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair. Several are very good, but this one might be the best one. I thought I'd start off with a bang. Hope you get some enjoyment out of it.

Posted by danielle at 10:12 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

My doctor has told me to drink no more than my regular cup of tea in the mornings. This means that on the weekends, I don't get to make a pot of tea and leisurely drink the whole thing. It also means that when I'm cold at work, and it is the middle of the day or afternoon, that I can only drink decaffeinated tea instead of regular tea.

The main problem with decaffeinated tea, as I see it, is that it tastes terrible. It has none of the round and rich-bodied flavor of regular tea. It tastes like Lipton or stale, old tea. It has a similar flavor to when you try to brew a second cup of tea from the same basket of tea leaves - an attempt to be frugal that I only made once because of the terrible taste.

I do have some Wild Berry Plum decaf tea from Republic of Tea, but it is far too fruity for my tastes and doesn't have enough black tea taste. Probably because the decaf black tea taste is so terrible that they've bumped up the fruit flavors to cover it up. I've looked through their catalog carefully for decaf teas, but most of the teas that I enjoy do not come in a decaf version. Again, I'm convinced that the taste must be too wretched for their standards.

Now that we are going into the winter season and a nice cup of tea sounds so much more appealing in the afternoons, it is disappointing to have this realization. I guess I'll have to switch to herbal 'teas' or tisanes and just give up on black tea altogether.

Well, except for my wondrous cup that I get to enjoy over breakfast, of course. mmmmmm teeeeeea. (I say as I sip from my cup of All Day Breakfast)

Posted by danielle at 10:00 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Isn't he just too cute?

We had some special visitors on Halloween.

Yep, Amber, Andy and Jonah came by, with Jonah dressed up as a puppy.

Evidently, the trick-or-treating in their neighborhood was pretty disappointing, so they came over to our neighborhood in addition to going to the 4 or 5 houses in their own.

Jonah was a busy little beaver while they were visiting. He was interested in my Coca-Cola polar bear, in the stairs, in the candy,

and in the Girlie-girl.

She, was pretty cautious and somewhat hissy-pissy toward Andy and Jonah. I know that she probably still remembers being smushed by a toddler who fell on her once. So, I understand her fear of small bodies. However, her hissyness toward Andy was a bit odd. Maybe she associated him with Jonah or something.

Anyway, there was a lot of looking, but no touching. Jonah did really well at not touching her. I was surprised how well he understood our suggestions to just look at her and not touch. He may not speak much yet, but he can definitely understand.

It was fun having them over. I'm glad it worked out that they came by.

And how can you resist an adorable puppy?

Posted by danielle at 10:01 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Last week was quite an accomplishment for SeaQueen! Yay, SeaQueen!

Texas Seestor has also been remarkably good about exercising frequently and is consistently hitting 4 days a week, if not more!

The rest of us are hanging in there too. So, how did you do this week?

Posted by danielle at 09:50 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I don't think I've mentioned here what ended up happening in my quest for a church. First, I tried out a United Church of Christ (UCC) church that is nearby. It was small, but the people were friendly and I liked the minister. However, the choir was about 5 people and didn't fit my desire for a choir with a substantial number of people that could sing songs with separate parts.

The next church that I went to for a while, including Maundy Thursday and Easter services was a good fit. I liked the minister a lot and the choir was big enough and seemed happy with their director and sounded good. But the minister ended up leaving over the issue of whether or not the church was going to be open and affirming. I've been through the search for a minister and the interim ministers that come and preach while the congregation is searching...
...and I just decided that I couldn't go through all of that again.

So, I tried out another church in St. Paul. It has been the church that I've been going to now for a while. I was initially attracted to the friendly and welcoming congregation and minister. I didn't get to hear the choir for a week or so, because they happened to not sing on the Sundays when I was attending. But when I heard them, I could tell that they were a good choir. On one of the Sundays when the choir hadn't sang, I got the impression that the people sitting around me were some choir members. So, I asked them about the choir and they had nothing but good things to say about the director and the choir.

Now, this was all happening just as summer was approaching and the choir was disbanding for the summer. So, when fall came around, I ended up joining the choir.

It has been a really good experience so far. The director is picking out pieces that are within our abilities when it comes to difficulty in singing. She spends quite a bit of time making sure that the nuances of a piece sound really good. At first, I thought that the music wasn't hard enough, but you know, I like this level of music, I've decided. When you are learning a new piece of music per week, it is nice to be able to feel like you've really mastered it. And that instead of having sections of the song where you don't really sing or aren't sure of your part, you know the whole thing really well. That is what used to happen in choir in school, you got to the point where you knew every note and how to pronounce every vowel at just the right volume to sound perfect. But that isn't the sort of thing that church choirs usually have time to work on. Usually, it is a mad rush to learn the basics of the piece and you learn certain key points, but miss out on parts of the rest of it.

My only complaint at this point, is that we sing in a choir loft that is so distanced from the congregation that it is hard to feel like I am connecting with them. Really, if I don't dance around the issue, I'd admit that we aren't connecting with them. At least not emotionally. That is one thing that my last choir director complimented me on. Also, I've had numerous people in my last congregation tell me that they watched me (me!) for facial expressions and to get the meaning of the music. I felt honored and humbled, yet proud (can you be humble and proud at the same time?), that they would do that. I always made a point to look out into the congregation as we were singing (and try not to lose my place in the music) and use facial expression to indicate the meaning of the music, so it was special for me to hear that my efforts were making a difference. And I miss that. There is talk that the congregation will leave the current church building someday (who knows when) and move to a smaller one, because there just isn't enough membership to warrant and maintain such a huge building. If that is the case, I think we, as a choir, will be closer to the rest of the congregation and will be more connected. At least, I hope so.

For now, we just sing with energy and precision (most of the time) and hope that they are hearing the message. I think they are, and well, I know that God hears us, and that, after all, is the point.

Posted by danielle at 04:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Some of you may remember or know that when Texas Seestor and Trainwreck got married a year ago (Happy Anniversary, by the way!) that their wedding reception had a marquee. On their marquee was the title "Must Love Rabbits" which was a play on the John Cusack movie of last year "Must Love Dogs".

You can imagine my delight when I received the invitation for their couples baby shower.

Isn't it great!?

And at the bottom it was listed that they were registered at Bunnies Babies R Us - with the Bunnies crossed out.

It was all very clever and makes me smile, even now, a week or so after I received it.

Posted by danielle at 01:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

When I went to the gyM last night, I'd decided to use the treadmill instead of the elliptical machine. Upon reading Texas Seestor's suggestion, I'd considered using the elliptical machine for 10-15 minutes and then switching to the treadmill. But the way the gym was so busy made me want to get on a machine and stick with it.

Working out on the treadmill went well. I found a good rate pretty quickly and figured out how to walk so that my arms didn't bang into the sides of the hand rails.

The interesting thing, and reason I am posting this, is that the elliptical machine that I'd used on Monday, now had an out of order sign on it! I'm wondering now if it wasn't working properly - and I just didn't have the experience to know it!

Maybe that would explain some of my difficulty!

I'll post some flowers later tonight or tomorrow if I feel like it and if I have the time. Right now, it is too hard to see the photos. I've got light shining at me, and I don't want to move away from it to pick out photos.

Posted by danielle at 09:59 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I thought I'd use this moment to tell you about my gym experience on Monday night.

I changed my clothes at work and felt really dorky, because I realized my gym pants that I'm wearing to and from the gym (since it is cold out) are like high waters. Fortunately it was dark on the sidewalks, so it really didn't matter all that much. I just felt very self conscious about it. But my embarassment was offset by my excitement about going to the gym, so it worked out okay in the end.

When I got to the gym, I was looking for an elliptical machine and wasn't having any luck finding one. But in the time that it took me to sign up for a treadmill and figure out which number was which, an elliptical machine opened up. Joy! I climbed on and got it running, but I couldn't remember my weight - at all - not even a ballpark number. This has happened before, so it isn't all that strange. I think part of me is in denial about my weight. I still want to weigh what I weighed all through high school and college, so when I think about my weight, I think "No, that couldn't possibly be right. I must be forgetting it." It is really goofy, but well, there it is. The machine wouldn't go onto the next step in the programming without a weight entered, so finally I just hit enter a couple of times and it did some default weight setting (150 - which I'm not).

The next obstacle was actually working out. I felt like I was slogging through molasses. I thought that I had the resistance set on a low, and hence easy setting.... but now I'm kinda wondering. I was out of breath really quickly. I think that I'm basically out of shape, is what it boils down to. My heart rate zoomed up pretty fast and I couldn't seem to get it back down, because when I slowed down too much on the machine, it told me it was paused. "Paused! But I'm still moving!" Evidently, I wasn't moving fast enough to satisfy it. I was concerned that I'd end up with a migraine if I didn't slow down, but I decided to keep going, because I didn't have all that much time left on the clock anyway. Plus, I was looking around at the other, very young, very slim, women and they were practically running on the elliptical machines. This prodded me to make an effort to keep going even though my heart rate was kind of high.

And that night I got a migraine. *sigh*

Nothing like a migraine after exercising.

I guess this means that I'm back to the treadmill for a while. At least on that type of machine, I ought to be able to set it slow enough. And this time, I have to remember my iPod. After talking about it on Monday morning, I still managed to forget it at home. Argh.

I'll try again today to get all of my stuff to school - clothes, shoes and music.

Posted by danielle at 09:47 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Lately, I've noticed that my appetite is a bit off. Some of that is due to my sense of taste, which has appeared to be a bit different now that I'm on an antibiotic for my acne. Some of that is due to the queasiness that also accompanies the antibiotic. So, it didn't seem all that strange that I had lost my appetite for my daily breakfast of Cheerios. After all, I eat them plain without milk - just dry. But they've always had a lot of flavor in the past, so the loss of the flavor and my lack of interest in them was dissapointing, but not surprising.

You can imagine my surprise when I opened up a new box today and tasted the full, rich oatey flavor that I remember from the past!

Turns out, I must've been eating a dud box previously. It wasn't my taste buds at all! What a relief.

I guess this means that I can't rely on a decreased appetite to lose weight, eh? ;-)

BTW as part of NaNoBlogPoMo or whatever it is called, I'm going to attempt to write more often this month. I don't know if I'll actually manage every day, but I'm going to try to write more.

Posted by danielle at 09:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack