(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: The "Dude, Where's My Spring?" Edition

Aaaaaand, that about sums it up...

P.S. - I've missed you guys!!!  Will be back soon, I promise!

Weekly Update, 3/16/11: The "Ides of March" Edition

Greetings, all y'all!  Well, it's been an unquiet week-and-a-half in this sector of the Pubsgalaxy, but I'm still here and holding steady with the health & fitness stuff.  And given the alternatives, well, I'm pretty content with that.  Here's the news:

• Stomach Flu & Tsunami Warnings:  Wednesday night was stomach flu night for Thing 2 (wee girlie isn't going to be wanting Shamrock Shakes for awhile), and then at 4:17 a.m. on Friday morning we got a text message with the tsunami evacuation notice.  I was half-expecting it, since we'd heard the news the night before about the earthquake in Japan.  We're far enough up from the beach that we didn't need to go, but given that there's only one route to the outside world for our neighborhood, we went ahead and drove to the kids' school anyway, because we knew traffic would probably be really, really bad when it was time to go to school, and Thing 1 had a field trip scheduled for that day.  After we got there, we got the news that all the schools in our district were closed (even ours, which wasn't being used as an evacuation site), but the road up to it was choked with traffic, so we ended up spending the morning with some school friends, who kindly took us in and made us coffee and pancakes and let us play with their new corgi puppy (squeeeee!!!).  It ended up being, thankfully for us, a non-event.  I sure wish it had also been that for the people of Japan.  I don't usually follow the news much, but I have been following this one, and it's just mind-boggling and heart-breaking.
  
• Big Changes at Work:  I'm still not sure of the full impact, but our smallish company was bought by a really huge company, and our technological distinctiveness is being gradually added to its own.  (Say what you will about assimilation, but I'm sure that this nifty ocular implant is going to come in especially handy. ;-)
  
• Little League Opener:  A very bright note during the past week was our celebrating Thing 1's opening day!  The ceremony was very cool:  all the teams were on the field, the mayor threw out the opening pitch, then each team had each player run the bases as the coach introduced the player.  Thing 1's coach did a really nice job announcing them.  Later in the afternoon, their team played their first game.  Mr. H&H and Thing 2 got to watch; our team got first snack bar duty, so with Thing 1's OK, I went ahead and volunteered, but I missed seeing the game.  Thing 1 struck out on his first time at bat, but he hung in there and at his second time, he got a hit and made it to 1st.  Another player got a home run, so Thing 1 got to complete running the bases and scored for his team.  And their team won the game, which was neat, because I think they have a lot of the newer players; all the kids seemed have a nice time, which is the important thing.  So far, we're enjoying the team sports experience.
  

• Health Stuff:  Weight is up, but less than 1 pound.  I'm still 5 pounds over where I was maintaining before the holidays.  Blood glucose levels are looking good - for the last 7 days, fasting average is 96, overall average is 97.  (I've been good about taking the fasting numbers, not so good at taking post-meal numbers.)  Fitness-wise, I got at least 30 minutes, 7/10 days. (Not counting the hours-on-my-feet day working the snack bar!) Thank goodness for our stationary bike.  I didn't make it to the gym much last week, and with the rain, it's a great option.  This week is looking a bit better for making it to my gym classes, which is good, because I don't get much strength focus otherwise.  (I was looking back over my Daily Mile log, and it's been a whole MONTH since I made it to my Wednesday class! Which has changed names to "Beach Body."  Oy.  This week there was a substitute instructor, and he was very energetic; I liked the way he incorporated a lot of flexibility stuff in there with the strength moves.  (And I couldn't help but wonder what kind of coffee he drinks?  Gotta get me some of that.  Also gotta get me some hearing protection to keep in my purse, because he played his music way too loud.  Eh!  Darn those kids and their crazy loud music! ;-)

Hope everyone enjoys a wonderful rest-of-the-week and weekend!  And happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow - I need to remember to pick up some corned beef and cabbage at Whole Foods tomorrow!  Or at least some corned beef, I can always make Brussels sprouts to go with it! :-)

Weekly Update, 3/7/11: The "Hanging in There" Edition

Well, it was quite the hectic week last week.  Lots of life-swirl, but I'm feeling pretty good about getting through it with mostly-composed spirits.

So how did things go on the health & fitness front?  Just...okay.  I wish I'd gotten more running and strength training in there - I feel like I'm hanging on by my fingertips, and given that I can't even do one pull-up, that's kind of a scary thing.  As you can see, actuals are not exactly what I had on my main plan, but at least I did stuff.

The plus side of the current swirl is that it was kind of nice to not be obsessed with food for a change.  This is where I'd boast about Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and his mad chef skills, but I don't want anyone to hurl while reading this.  Being able to go on healthy eating auto-pilot is helping my blood glucose levels to do well.

So it was nice to finally reach the weekend.  Thing 2 and I got to delight her little shop-a-holic heart and go shopping.  (Mostly errand shopping, but she needed shoes...and what's not to love about getting new shoes?)    The boys got to go to baseball practice - Mr. H&H got to help with practice, and Thing 1 and he got a good workout!  I wish I were more skilled at baseball, but even so, I'd really like to help with one of the practices one of these weekends - not many of the moms help out with the practices, but I think it would be a good thing.

Sunday was drizzly, so it was a flop-at-home day.  We read books and baked cookies (Trader Joe's mix of sugar cookies - not overly tempting, yet satisfied our urge to bake something).  Kind of nice to kick back a little, because with the Little League season starting next weekend, our weekends are going to be off-the-hook crazy until mid-June.

I think I'll close by sharing some photos from our garden.  February was so strange - heat wave followed by cold wave - but no snow at sea-level.  Southern California got our snow, sad to say.  But our plants are doing nicely.  Our camellia bushes usually flower in January, so they were a little late, but we have one that gets light pink and dark pink blossoms - isn't that weird?  My bulbs came up, which was a relief.  I thought the gophers had eaten them all.  We have the ideal climate for calla lilies, and they can get pretty invasive here if you're not careful.

Our mixed-up camellia bush

Isn't this a pretty one?

How could a lovely plant like this be plotting world domination?

Can't wait to see how this one blooms!