Weekly Update, 9/9/10 (whoops, a day late!)

It's Rosh Hashanah!  (And there I cluelessly was, wondering about the lack of MizFit post in my reader - d'oh!)   L’Shanah Tovah to everyone celebrating the Jewish new year!  I have to add a pointer to Amy Tenderich's post over on Diabetes Mine today; I liked her theme of "renew, refresh, and reset."  Also, her post last year talked about the Rosh Hashanah tradition of tossing bread crumbs away, which symbolizes casting off your worldly mistakes.  I was wondering if perhaps I could reframe it to help me get a little closer to my "best self" and cast away my nut cache to some hungry squirrels....


I am...

So delighted to have met Debby in person!  Blogger buddy Debby of Debby Weighs In and I have been trying to get together for a meet-up for quite some time now, and thanks to her hard work and travel, we did so this past weekend!  (***squeeeeeee!!!!!***) She joined us for an Opposite Family breakfast, we chatted over coffee, and then she and I headed up to the Kings Mountain Art Fair.

Pubsgal and Debby!

(Pubsgal seriously considers changing her Internet moniker to "AmazonOfTheForestGal"
and hopes she's not so overwhelming-looking in person....)

It was a fantastic meet-up!  I've felt lucky that every blogger I've met "in person" is exactly the way they are online, and Debby was no exception. Debby wrote a great summary of our visit over on her blog ("A Most Excellent Adventure").  Lori commented, “I find it interesting how you can just fall into easy conversation with someone you have never met in real life, but feel like you have known them forever.” And as I responded over there, it was so true! It was like getting together with a friend that you haven’t seen in awhile. Probably because you know more about the blogger’s interests than someone you’re just meeting, so you have a better idea of what would be fun to talk about, or what you’d like to know more about the person from having read their blog.

Speaking of authenticity, we also had a laugh about her brother's (a non-blogger) "and we like your little dog, too!" remark (imagine that in Wicked Witch of the West voice, of course); the context was, how real are these blog people?  With all the stuff you read about, I can see why our non-blogging loved ones may sometimes feel concerned.  I had to admit, I felt a little unsure about the blogger meeting etiquette, and it's not like Internet safety isn't important.  Normally I'd probably suggest a public meeting spot for a first meeting "in person."  But I felt like I had followed Debby long enough to get a sense of the kind of person she is, and vice-verse.  I was more worried about stuff like "Will I serve the wrong thing for breakfast?" and "What can I pull together without having to take a trip to Whole Foods?"  It is a little good-but-odd, though, once your blogging life starts to intersect with your "in person" life...sometimes I get the sense that Mr. Handsome-and-Handy is bemused about the whole thing: who ARE all these people she keeps yammering about?  Well, now he's met one: they are real!  Real nice!  

So done with cookies.  Sunday saw all of the Opposite Family at the fair this time, but we were there for business first: to help sell cookies!

"Come buy a cookie for your little dog, too!  Eeee hee hee hee heeeee!"

I'm happy to report that our school's fundraiser was a success:  volunteers sold all of the nearly 3,700 cookies we all baked!  (The cookies are kept in the community center freezers until showtime.)  The cookies are large enough to feed a family of 4-6, or perhaps one if your face is this size.  After our shift, we enjoyed lunch and took the kids to the "Kiddie Hollow" section of the fair.

They enjoyed making their own crafts and playing games...

Serious Spin Artist at work

...hanging out in the giant tepee and clambering over the redwood stumps...

Things 1 & 2, fiercely on the prowl

and getting their faces painted!

Cheetah Princess of the Forest!

(P.S. - I saw a kid wearing a "Thing 1" shirt at the fair!  I didn't know they made t-shirts that looked like the outfits worn by Things 1 & 2 in Cat in the Hat!)

No, it's not a picture of a dumpster.  

It's the mirror above the outdoor sinks.  

The one on the left had a little label, "Try the other one."  

The one on the right had the label as shown.  

Who's not going to look wonderful after reading that! :-)

(Mr. H&H looks quizzical:"Why is she taking a picture of the mirror? Must be a blog thing....")

SO fighting the lack of motivation.  But as I've learned, the motivation, she comes and she goes...you a lot of times have to just suck it up and get 'er done.  Especially when the running mileage needs to start ramping up.  (Although, have to admit, the endorphins were kicking after yesterday's CardioSculpt class, so maybe it's back on the uptick?)

So cheering on this lady AND this lady, too! Good luck on your charity ride this Sunday, Lori, and your Memory Walk for Alzheimer's, Biz!  Anyone know a "nice biking & walking weather" dance we can do for them?  Apparently "Classical Stretching" is not it, because we're having some truly dismal fog and drizzle this week.  Which explains why they filmed that class on a beach in Jamaica - anywhere else, and it would have started pouring rain, I suppose.

So grateful that the health numbers are good. 7-day average for fasting blood glucose is 105 and 7-day average overall is 109. Weight is exactly the same as last week, within my particular "normal" range.  I can check "make Dr. appointment" off the list (it's set for next month) and "get flu shot" off the list, too.

I want to...

Feel excited about the training.  I'd like to think that I've learned a thing or two over the past couple of years of fun and fitness.  One of those things is that I can't force the motivation and excitement to happen, that those feelings come and go, and if I'm patient and stay relaxed and open about it, they'll come back.  I just hope they hurry the heck up, though, because I'm starting to feel a *teensy* bit anxious about the mileage I have to build up over the next few months.  But I guess that's part of it, though: it's only a few months, and it will pass, and I'll have an adventure and get the t-shirt if I'm lucky and stay healthy.  And then I can take a little rest and plan the 2011 season.  

Keep good numbers. This seems to be going pretty smoothly.  Have to admit, that first year of charting every.darn.thing and intense scrutiny did help retrain me to have better habits.  I think there's always room for improvement, though.  One thing I kind of dropped was aiming for more meatless meals.  Yesterday, I had cheese and eggs but no meat, and a lighter dinner, and my fasting number this morning was especially good.  I don't like to make work for our family chef - it's hard enough cooking to please our herd of cats - actually, cooking for a herd of cats would probably be easier, just crack open a bunch of cans of tuna - and it's easy to have leftovers for lunch.  But maybe on those "fend for myself" nights, remembering that quesadillas are really quite good would be a wise thing.  Or beans, I keep forgetting about beans!

Write a book review for The End of Overeating.  It's an excellent book, and I enjoyed listening to it.  It gave me a lot to ponder, and I can't do justice to it in one paragraph, so I'll be gathering my thoughts and posting about it soon.

Celebrate Thing 1's birthday!  My beautiful boy turns 9 this year!  How the heck did that happen?