@CMorning99 "I did what any rational person would do...went out and bought a lottery ticket " I would have been very shocked with those numbers too. And, like you said, you shouldn't owe state taxes if you weren't a resident there, but, it is California, so who knows. I'm glad Grey cat has perked up a little. Good luck with work and tracking calories this week!

@Avidkeo Sorry your weight was back up. Try to concentrate on the fact that your clothes fit better. The scale will go down soon. Just hang in there.

@shanaber I hope you were able to get out for a run/walk and your arm didn't hurt much. Yeah for a good report from DH's doctor. I'm surprised she hasn't told him to lose weight. Were you with him? Maybe she did and he "forgot" to tell you that part. I hope you can get in the habit of nightly walks with him.

I went out for a run this morning before taking mom to the dermatologist. I got a bit of a late start, so decided to run 2 miles and go a bit faster than I have been running. I was pleased that my breathing was some better - not normal, but better. I also ran the last quarter of a mile at an average pace of 9:32 min/mile. That's pretty speedy for me. The entire run was a 12:13 min/mile speed. I also walked one mile total for warm up and cool down.

Funny story that mom doesn't want me to tell everyone because she is embarrassed. The reason she saw the dermatologist was that she had a "growth" in her belly button that was pretty gross looking and she was scared it was cancer - I was too. Her PCP had looked at it and couldn't tell what it was either, so I don't feel too bad about not knowing. The dermatologist was able to move it around and realized it wasn't attached to her skin. It was just a glob of dirt! She has a very deep inny belly button, but she said she uses a q-tip "every once in a while" to clean it. I told her she was going to have to clean it a little more often. Bless her heart. Anyway, that was great news. The dermatologist did find some places on her face and arm that were pre-cancerous that she froze. So, in the long run, it was a good thing that we went.

The daffodil's are blooming and I saw the first blooms on my periwinkle this morning too. More signs of spring - until it snows Saturday.

@quilteryoyo I had something similar when I pregnant with DD7. It was a spiky thing sticking out of my belly button. I finally pulled it out. So gross haha.

@CMorning99 sad to hear Grey is declining. Hopefully it's something temporary and he will bounce back? Hugs.

Yesterday I decided to make a conscious choice to take a day off of dieting and just eat what I want. It was an interesting experience. I felt awful at the end of the day haha. Too much sugar. Weight today was up but as it was completely expected, I just logged it and didn't care. I'm sticking with daily weigh ins atm because if I did weekly it would just look like it was going up, daily shows the true pattern. It will take a few days for this water weight to drop and maybe it will kick something into happening? I also dropped my deficit from 750 to 500. Maybe I'm not eating enough.

Had call last night. One call out. So normal work today. Only 2 more days then long weekend.

Talked to Mt climb buddy yesterday. Weather looks like rain for Saturday. Might clear Sunday and looking positive for Monday... Fingers crossed

Good morning!

Wednesday and 541 days to retirement

Promotion results should be out at the end of the week. Not holding my breath. And I think I have discussed it before, it probably would just complicate things more since it would maybe trigger a required move. If that happened, I would either need to move or retire earlier than I want. So fingers crossed I don't make it!

Grey cat perked up a bit. He is not back to where he was but feeling better. DH mentioned if maybe he had some sort of cardiac episode. Quite possible since only half of his heart works at this point. We blocked off the hallway to the bedrooms last night so grey cat had his own space with me. I don't know how he felt about it, he didn't meow. He did settle in and find the new cat box and ate all his dinner at 2am...loudly LOL. DH said we should split the house when we are not there, I felt terrible about locking someone out of the living room area where the best nap places are. Finally settled on black cat getting banished to the bedroom half of the house. I did open one of the rooms that has a most excellent people channel and I hope he does not pee on anything.

I tracked my calories again yesterday and was a bit over. I had to estimate as we ate street tacos and I had some red vines. Weight trend is going down again, but too soon tell. I have my calories currently sent at 1550 a day...with exercise according to my apple watch I burn avg 2100 a day. No exercise, 1950.

I have decided that my sergeant that works for me is a tornado. I was glad he was motivated but I am now realizing he is really driven by completion of tasks. Even if he does not have the full answer or right answer. Ne NEEDS to answer the question, send the email, complete a task. Very Type A. Yesterday we got a new tasking in and I said I wanted to walk through it myself. Next thing I know I hear mad typing clicking and he runs off with the answers before I could barely get to the website...and he wanted to go directly to the Commander. Bruh, that is not how this works. Maybe he likes feeling important? Brat.

Woke up early this AM, I am definitely solar powered. I wake up when it reaches a certain brightness, no matter the time. I went for a morning walk/jog. Only 20 mins and 1.5 miles. The longest jog interval was 1 min and by the end my calves were tight LOL. Out of shape is an understatement.

Well, best get back to things here. Have a great one!

@CMorning99 Fingers crossed that you don't get promoted. LOL I don't thinks I've ever said that to anyone before, even though there were those that I thought shouldn't get promoted that did. I'm glad grey cat perked up and separating them seems to be working. Wow. You burn a lot of calories every day. If I don't exercise, my Garmin says that I only burn around .... I can't get Garmin connect to open, darn internet. But, I'm pretty sure on days that I just walk a mile, often I only burn around 1500 calories and exercise days are rarely over 2000. It's frustrating. Sounds like you need to figure out how to channel the sergeant's energy somehow. At least he is trying and not lazy. Nice job on your walk/run. You'll get there. One step at a time.

@noblsheep I hope your allergies aren't too bad. I like that you are looking on the positive side.

@CMorning99 - glad you didn't get promoted and don't have to move but, seriously it is terrible to not be recognized for all you do! I used to hate the patronizing - oh you are doing a great job, you have an excellent review, sorry no raise, no promotion...
I wonder if black cat is picking on grey cat because he senses a decline and wants to be in charge? Do cats do that? I know dogs do sometimes.
I have followed Barkley in the past. It is a brutal race. Did not follow it this year.
Also it is tough making friends as an adult because I think most people have a group of friends they have had for a while and/or are just wrapped up in their own busy lives.

@quilteryoyo - I hate days like that where you are just so busy and your entire schedule gets thrown out. I hope you can get the sage grass taken care of and that the fireman shows up!

@noblsheep - I hope you can get your allergies under control. I have them as well but mostly the result is a runny nose and occasionally a sinus headache. I have never had them affect my appetite though.

I don't believe too strongly in the calorie expenditure numbers our devices give us. I mean I can turn on a workout and sit on the couch and it will say I have burned 200 calories. Without turning on a workout it says 10 for exactly the same effort. Similarly I can do a heavy effort workout or even lifting and moving heavy boxes and furniture without turning on a workout and it shows I did not expend any more than normal, but if I turn on a workout it says I burned 500. These are totally made up numbers for example but the point is the same. The nutritionist gave me a value to work towards (1950 calories/day) and said to eat more on very active (long run, double workout type) days and less on not so active (rest) days. I rarely hit that goal these days, mostly because I am not nearly as active as I was when I was seeing her and especially not now.

Along these lines I came across this article that I thought was timely - it is focused for triathletes but I think it is good information for any endurance athlete (yes, you are ladies).
https://www.feistytriathlon.com/blog/eat

I was feeling pretty down the last few days. I was starting to think about what else I could do if running became something I couldn't do any longer and I couldn't think of anything else I would want to do (this is actually pretty amazing since I had never ever even contemplated being a runner until a few years ago). Getting out for a walk yesterday that turned into a run, helped. Yes, my arm hated me last night but I am ok with it. I just wish the ortho appointment would get here sooner...

I see the cardiologist on Monday and am expecting it to be a 'you're doing great. See you in 6mos' type visit.

DOn't know if I mentioned the 'weird' people who move into the house across the street. Per the new owner they are short term renters, probably until June. There was a woman and a small child, an older man (her father I believe) and a few other people who seemed to come and go. One in a wheel chair and others on bicycles. There were several cars and a very strange large truck that kind of looked like a large horse trailer. Oh and 2 small (nasty) dogs that chased the mailman over to our house where he got away behind our gate while the dogs were trying to bite him. People came and went during the day and over the weekends the large truck would be in and out of the driveway. This last week they were in the garage until very late and the truck would come and back in waking up the neighborhood with its beeping. Now they are gone... no cars, no people, no truck. Don't know if they moved out, went on a trip, or what, but so strange.

Thanks for the well wishes! It's raining today so pollen count is down. Now sneezing less than a million times every hour and can breathe somewhat, life is good again. Still not feeling like eating much, but I'm kind of grazing / eating 6 mini meals and that seems to be working for me.

@CMorning99 Congrats on not being promoted lol. So sorry to hear about your friend.

The ultra community is one of the warmest and coolest bunches I've ever met. One woman in my run club once said her daughter was basically half brought up by race volunteers because she was racing every weekend. Hope you meet interesting people!

@shanaber I agree that movement and getting the HR up is something our bodies definitely need. I don't know if it's too early to be thinking about other kinds of cardio, but cycling and hiking+speed walking come to mind as some pretty enjoyable activities.

@quilteryoyo The monitor sounds annoying (but necessary so...). A doctor once remarked to me that endurance athletes mostly made pretty good patients, since they were already accustomed to managing discomfort.

Good morning!

TODAY is Friday LOL

I was busy yesterday. We are in the records phase of getting someone deployed - there are 49 memos or training certs that need to go into everyone's record. Seriously AF...just so you can CYA if something goes wrong? We now have 15 people headed out in the next month.

I finally got into the military's new medical record system (pretty sure this is the 3rd one in 20 years), and pulled up my referrals. I have one for neurology for a doctor an hour away, seriously how do they pick these doctors? His reviews look good and I don't think I will have to go very many times. The other doctor though for dermatology...I googled him and he is closer but has HORRIBLE ratings. I know these reviews are subjective b/c you don't complain when you had good service LOL. But on one rate your doctor site he had 11 5 star and 11 1 star reviews. The 1 star reviews were all along the same vein of he was an *kitten* and wouldn't listen to you. A couple of other sites had reviews too...overall he had an avg 2 stars. I called our insurance, military is outsourcing our medical, no more seeing military doctors, and asked to switch. They said the provider had specifically put him in there for "special care" and that the doctor is not in the network. They recommended I message my PCM and ask if there is a reason, if not, I can change it. I found another doctor with way better reviews. So now we wait.

Reselling sales has literally stopped. I didn't make a sale for 2 days! WTF?! I know it ebs and flows but with as much as I have and how consistent I am I expect the number of sales to eb and flow...not stop. I told DH if this was my only income I would be worried right now. Other people are making sales still so IDK. This morning as I was leaving I got 1 sale.

I don't know how calories were yesterday. I forgot to look at them at lunch and then when I went back to fill it in, I got frustrated. Pretty sure I didn't over eat.

This AM is proving rough. I am craving sugar. I was reading an article on Hammer Nutrition about how sugar counters cortisol in the body and that is why you crave sugar in times of stress. I had an allergic reaction to something last night. I was just laying in bed and all of a sudden I had hives all around my mouth and 1 side of my sinuses felt like someone had pour cement in them. I took 2 Benadryl and nose spray and that helped, but I am tired this AM.

I did go for a 20 min walk jog again this morning. So many niggling aches and pains. All out of shape aches but still annoying. My inner thighs hurt, my IT band ached, and my arch ached. I noticed it was mostly in my right leg. And my bunions hurt. I need to go do the doc for that...I don't want surgery, just in my records.

Well better get back to killing the forests.

@CMorning99 Sorry that work is annoying for you. I hope all that are deployed come home safely. I didn't realize the AF was outsourcing for active duty folks. I always seemed to get good care from the military hospitals. That sort of sucks. I hope if you have to see the dermatologist you were assigned that he turns out to be just what you need. Hope your reselling business picks back up soon. That's scary about the allergic reaction. I'm glad Benadryl took care of it. Any ideas as to what it could have been? Nice job on your 20 min wog!

@shanaber The seat belt doesn't bother me too much, but it does ride on top of the monitor. I was thinking about putting something between it and the belt. I'm thinking if there was an accident, that would really hurt! Yes, I would be annoyed if I couldn't wear some of my bras ever again too. Like you said, they are so expensive. Yeah for your rest day yesterday and for giving yourself permission to sit down and read a novel for enjoyment. I'm like you and rarely let myself do that, but when I do, it feels so good. I hope you were able to get out for a run/walk.

I played doubles tennis this morning with the talkative group. ..and there was more talking today than usual. While playing, I was asked if I could come into work after I finished, so I worked from 1 to after 3:30. It was still 66°F and clear when I got home at 5 pm, so I went out to enjoy the weather before the snow hits tonight! I didn't want to run a lot, so I did a 2 mile wun. It felt good. I dread tomorrow and Sunday's temperatures. I may have to pretend like I'm a bear and hibernate.

Oh and I'm an aunt!! My brother had his first child today. Baby is in NICU atm but will be OK. Mum is recovering. Long labour that ended in csect. They are in Australia, so it will be a while before I get to meet her. Its very cool!

Hey guys!

Well i made it up, and down the mountain!!

Going up was awesome, I loved it. The climbing was great and I would absolutely do it again.

Going down... Another story. Its really steep with lots of rocks and loose stones. And the soles came off my hiking boots about 1/3 of the way down. This made things a lot harder and it took way longer than it should. But I made it, in one piece and undamaged. Well mostly undamaged haha.

My legs, especially my knees, are in agony. It was 5hrs up, and 4.5 down.

Absolutely worth it. And definitely an once in a lifetime trip!

Good morning!

@avidkeo Congrats on being an Aunty! Best job in the world! Those views are amazing, and the shoes...well they will add a bit of extra spice to your experience LOL. 7 days of working straight will do that too you. We used to do that for military exercises, 13hr days for 7 days straight, 1 day off and then 7 days on. By the 3rd day I was living off of McD's and eating all the candy.

The weekend went well, lawdy I needed it. Saturday was a slow day, I ran up to the ranch to drop some stuff off, get the mail, etc. Nothing exciting. We got the well certs back, we are right at 5 GPM. But oddly in our water test we tested positive for total coliform. I am not 100% what it is, but it is a natural bacteria in the soil and it can be an indicator you have other bacteria in the soil that may contaminate your water. We tested negative for anything else, but it is a bit of a grey mark on your well record. I think there can be a lot of false positives too, our first test did not show it I think. DH was on a cleaning kick on Saturday (not mad about that LOL). We had movie night, wine, Thai, and ALLLLL the salty snacks. Doh. Sunday was another slow day, DH and I did our grocery shopping. He wanted to make some sort of seafood bake, he ended up spending $75 on the ingredients!!!! It was good. He bough lobster tails and we laughed so hard because we were standing over the sink trying to figure out how to eat them without stabbing ourselves. Yeah, we are spoiled and the restaurants always did it for us LOL

Grey cat is hanging in there. There is a definite change though in his behavior. The splitting the house is going ok, I don't think whoever gets the back of the house is overly happy, but I think grey cat likes it because he can eat when he wants. I think we hit a good milestone in black cat's chemo, He is is putting on so much weight, he was emaciated when we started and he has gained probably 3lbs since we started about 10 months ago.

Sales picked up for the weekend a bit. I am about where I was last month at this time. I got a return request, it is actually a bit funny in an eye rolling sense. I sold a brand new sweatshirt. I got a return request b/c there is "horrible smell" and she said it smelled like "body odor and not sure what else" but when she tried it on it "made her puke" and she felt it was "dangerous and unhygienic". The platform she bought it on does not allow returns for size, only for issues. I really really wanted to comment back, "Sorry the shirt didn't fit". I am very certain she is trying to force a return. I don't have a problem with them, it is the sites policy not mine. I offer then on eBay.

This AM I was listening to a youtube lady that does motivation, life coaching and such. She said that all the negative energy we are exposed to in the news and near us will bring us down. We will feel sick, tired, fat, and generally terrible about ourselves. She said more than ever we need to do our gratitude exercises. IDK but that really struck me and I restarted my routine of during my drive in (which is about 5 min) turning off the radio and saying out loud what I am grateful for.

Going to try AGAIN on being more mindful about eating. No more buying candy to have at work to "ration out". I think I did well last week, not enough, but a step in the right direction.

@Avidkeo - congratulations to your brother and sil and to you too!! I hope you get to see the new little one soon!
That hike up the mountain was awesome! Did you go with friends or a group? My quads always hurt after a lot of downhill stabilization and my calves from going up. Hope you aren't too sore today and that you don't get many call outs!
@CMorning99 - glad things are going better on the resale front. Interesting on the return... I think I would figure something less ludicrous as an excuse though 😂
Is there any kind of treatment that can be done for the coliform bacteria?
That is great news that black cat is gaining weight again - always a good sign. 3lbs on a cat is a lot!
@quilteryoyo - is it still cold and snowy or has the weather reversed itself to the opposite pole again?

I had a rough day yesterday and last night. My arm was making life miserable so I took some Tylenol to get through agility class, which worked and we had a really fun class. The Tylenol must have worn off in the middle of the night though and I had the worst time getting comfortable. The overall achiness is back too. Tylenol doesn't seem to help it so overall I was a mess. Today is better and I want to do another of the Base3 workouts from RunSmart. I have to 30 day $1 trial and I am not sure I want to pay for a year of it. I was hoping maybe I would like it enough to motivate me to do more cross training but there is so much of it I can't do, like anything other than a standard plank and even then I have to focus most of my weight on my good arm. They do sets of side and star planks that I just can't do right now. I haven't progressed far into it enough to know if there is a lot I can/can't do but it is kind of depressing especially if my arm is going to take another long while to heal.

In the saga of the weird neighbors... they're baaaack.... The big truck returned today with all of its loud beep, beep, beeping.... Hobbes really hates it and it sets him off barking when he hears it just coming into our cul-de-sac.

@swenson19d - how are those puppies and kitties doing? Has Kevin learned any show tunes on the piano yet?

Good morning folks!

@shanaber Pain is so frustrating. I have so many aches and I don't even want to go bother with the doctor. Mom got so frustrated because they would just throw narcotics at her. I took a tall kitchen trash bag to the pharmacy after she passed.

Well, court was a bust, yet again. The defense lawyer said that LS still had not been seen by a mental health provider and we are right back where were were in Jan with the request he be seen in another county (provider already selected of course) since 1 of the 3 providers in our county adopted mom's dog. The Judge had also not looked at the motion to remove him, interesting he can make a ruling on a motion about him. So due outs for next week are Court check into requested Dr, Defense checks into our county Drs. Court is on Thursday which is usually in person, so I am curious if the Judge is getting annoyed and dragging everyone in.

I finally looked up to see how I ranked in the promotion and I actually scored higher than I ever have. The Commander wants to have a meeting on my "way ahead" even though I told him I am retiring. I don't know if he is really trying to help or just wants free leaders because he won't let it go that I technically have 1 more try (4 months before my retirement date). I told him I need to start making plans.

Still have not heard from the draftsman. My builder (bless his heart) reached out to him and was told he would call me yesterday. He never did. Builder reached out again and and I was promised an email today. Builder did say he had 1 more he knew of, but he is twice as expensive. At that rate, I wonder if it would be easier to build a "semi" custom home on already approved plans...or scrap this whole crazy idea.

I think I had my first anxiety attack the other night too, I was laying in bed and my HR was 90 BPM. I wasn't particularly worried about anything at that moment and I laid there for 20 min deep breathing and doing everything I could think of to slow it down. I looked at my sleep app and it said it finally dropped to normal a few hours later. I don't know why it is so foreign to me that I would be experiencing that. My therapist does not get how I lock it all way. I think a lot of it is how I think of these things, they are problems that I need to deal with...like anything else. At least that is how I mentally deal with it, physically seems to be another area I can't control.

I am still doing my gratitude on my way in: I am grateful for my job and home. I am grateful for the people who come into my life to help me. I am grateful for the opportunities that are coming to me when I retire. I am grateful for the home we will build soon. (some of these things aren't here yet, but going to be grateful anyway).

I did a 20 min walk/jog yesterday. My first bruise showed up on my calf. I always get weird bruises when I start running after a long break. My hip started hurting again already too. I know for a fact it is not inflamed after 3 months R&R. I know it got better when did an core workout every other day for a month...so chalking it up to flabby guts.

Haven't tracked calories all week. Haven't weight. I want to care, but struggle is real.

My space has been taken over by dogs. Every time I set up an area to be my own, DH or the the dogs take it. I bought a giant bean bag ad Kev has claimed it. Which is fine, if he can just use it without me. Ya'll tell me they outgrow wanting to be no more than a foot from me? or one me constantly.

Hope everyone is well. I ate good for two days then didnt lol!

@quiteryoyo You will have to give garmin a few weeks to get a baseline before believing or entertaining anything it says. I felt it was quite accurate with sleep compared to the Apple Watch.