Sad Days

It's been a difficult month for me.  My brother Mike (3rd oldest) passed away August 3, 2017 in his sleep. 

Looking forward to a break

So when I last wrote, I was between trips - a business trip and a personal trip.  The business trip to CO went well.  The personal trip was SO MUCH FUN!

We went to New York!

All I do is travel...

I have been doing a lot of traveling lately.  Kitty is not pleased

Beach Living

So yeah, it's been almost a year.

And it was a very hard year at that.  I did move to California, and did get my house sold, and for a while everything was new and exciting.  Then I took Kitty to the vet and she was diagnosed with Lymphoma (a type of cancer having to do with the intestinal tract). 

Blessings

I feel the need to record this, and given that no one reads my blog anymore, I feel pretty safe doing it here.

Brief Update

Just so you know, my house sold and I moved to California (not in that order).  There were a lot of blessings and exercised faith involved, but Kitty and I are now ensconced in a nice apartment in Artesia, CA.  It's about an hour to work one way and an hour to my family the other, so it's a nice compromise for now.  I may move closer to work when my current lease is up, though.  Just because it's hard for me to drive for so long in such traffic.  On the plus side, they don't mind me staying late at work until the traffic is better.  I get more work done that way too :)

Moving right along... mostly...

My house is on the market, and keeping everything clean and ready to show is starting to drive me nuts.  I guess I never realized just how sloppy I can be.  Two people have come by to see the house, though, so I guess it's worth it.

My Christmas Letter!

While I'm on a roll, I decided I should probably put this here so it doesn't get lost.  I'm actually quite proud of it. Even if I can't get the pictures to post :(

Three month hiatus

Sure feels like it! I haven't written my blog for over 3 months! So much has been happening, though.

I'm going to Mars!

Or my name is, anyway.  My Boarding Pass (which may or may not display properly)






Want to come with me?
Send Your Name to Mars

14 and counting

So here's my progress update.  Memorial Day weekend I went through all my clothes and even my fabric stash.  Women from church picked through my fabric and took what they wanted, then the majority of the rest of it went to the Drama Club.  Whew!

Went a little nuts pulling things out of the drawers..

Tidying up

I've been reading this book:

I got the Kindle version. 

A little bit of April in my life

So tomorrow is  April Fool's Day.  I will be on alert for all the "George Lucas returns to Star Wars" or even "Moon is going to hit the earth" posts on Facebook.  And be skeptical of them all.

Personally, I'm just glad that spring is finally here.  This was 10 days ago:

A lot of nothing

Pretty sure I've lost all my readers by now....

but that's ok.  I forget that this is supposed to be my journal now.  I do so much on facebook that it's difficult to remember that there are (or were) people who read my blog too.

So the short version would be:

November - a whole lot of putting in extra hours at work and getting ready for December

December - went to Middle Earth (more on that in a separate post)

January - mostly depressed and sad I wasn't in Middle Earth anymore

End of January - went to FanX in Salt Lake City and met  Carrie Fisher!!  Love her!!  Got to be with my family for a couple of days too.  Didn't take many pictures this time.

February - it snowed a lot.  About once a week.  I've only been able to go to one kettlebell class per week because of the weather.

March is coming, and with it Daylight Savings Time and Spring.  Though I'm about convinced that winter is going to last well into March.  I hope my tree doesn't bud early.

Days of Scaring

It's almost Halloween.  Three more days.  I have the Sister Missionaries coming over for dinner (I'm thinking pumpkin chili, I can put it in the crockpot and it will be yummy when I get home, then some quick cornbread and I'm set).  then I can pass out candy to the neighborhood children without being thought creepy or a stalker or something like that.  And this is my costume:

Lady Sith Hameva (she will cut you in half!)

This time she's smiling.  I would be scared if I were you.

I wore this to the ward Trunk-or-Treat last Saturday.  I love it when my costume is so good people can't tell it's me for a few minutes.

This is also the costume I did not wear to SLCC - I figured I would just wear it for Halloween. Except on Friday I'm so wearing my boots.  Those shoes are great, but they don't really go with the outfit.  Not that you can tell in these pictures...

I am strong.

I have a couple fun things that I need to blog about - a meeting in Downtown DC to listen to the Principle Investigator for the New Horizons mission that's less than a year away from Pluto (it was a year when I went).  I went to Salt Lake Comic Con, which was so fun.  Exhausting and fun.  And the inaugural trip of the Museum Group I started with some friends.

However, today I just wanted to pop in, let you know I'm still alive, and show you this:

This was taken today, October 14, 2014.  I started personal training a year ago (a bout a year and two weeks ago).  I am strong.  I am lifting two 20 kg kettlebells - just under 90 lbs.  First time ever.  Ok, second time ever :)

My Precision Nutrition journey has stalled - I got side-tracked by stress about 3 months ago and it took a while for me to recover.  I'm still working on that.  But I have my habits to work on, so we're ok.  I will be making measurable progress again soon.

Now I need to stop being a slug at home and get around to those projects I've been meaning to do.  I had a guy from Lowes out yesterday to measure my back door to get it replaced.  I really want to redo my basement but don't have the means at the moment.  I did, however, finally replace the badly bent bed frame on my bed.  It's taken some time to get used to sleeping flat again :)

I also have several small sewing projects and about 4 major ones that I want to start working on - a new hobbit dress/outfit, a top, a quilt, and a cover for my swing in the back yard.

The new TV season has started, and I've started culling my tv shows.  Realized that I shouldn't be watching Revenge even as I told my nieces they shouldn't be watching it.  Nothing good happens to the people in that show.  And they all behave badly, even the good ones.  Dropped Forever just because their world-building left a lot to be desired.  Added The Flash and Scorpion, though.  Pretty sure The Flash will last, a little worried about Scorpion.  Considering dropping NCIS and the new NCIS New Orleans.  both really good shows, but I'd rather spend my time watching other things.  Like Person of Interest and Chicago Fire.  Did drop Chicago PD, though.  My heart just wasn't in it.  I do know the characters, though, so the crossovers will be ok.

Ok, back to my regularly scheduled work day.  Have fun!

If you're going to San Francisco Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

So I went to San Francisco, California for the last weekend in June, to attend the Evolution Expo started and run by Julie Caitlen Brown (I know her from Babylon 5, Na'Toth).  My nephew Erick joined me.  It was Very Fun.  There weren't very many people there, though.   Here's a brief synopsis:

 Cute bag, huh?

Thursday

• Arrive at airport.  discover Erick will not be joining me until Friday (oops)
• Take shuttle to hotel and check in.
• Decide to take a nap before getting dinner.
• 11 hours later...  I swear there's something in those matressess that make me want to sleep.  Too comfortable.  I should look into buying one for my home (at over $1000 I think maybe not)

Friday

• Decide to see what the Fitness Center is like in this Marriot hotel.  It is fabulous.  I do a complete workout.  My trainer was very proud.
• Have breakfast at the hotel.  Very tasty, but about 5 times what I'd pay anywhere else.  Decide not to go back.
•  Get ready, put on Serenity T-shirt for the first day
• Go get in registration line to pick up my badge and stuff.  Except there isn't a line.  There's one other person, and it doesn't look like the staff quite know what's going on yet.
• Get my stuff and sit down to wait for the dealer's room to open.  Meet Johanna, the other person that was in line.  Have a nice talk about cons and things like that.  Make friends.Dealer's room opens.  We head over, stopping by the dealers booths in the hallway first.  Not many of them.  That should have been our second clue.  The lack of people at the check-in line should have been the first.

The Framed Picture that the dealer wanted me to buy.










 

• Go into the Exposition Hall.  Look around.  There are maybe 12 dealers.  See the Autograph tables all set up with lines and everything.  No one is there.  See the photo booths across the room.  No one there either.  The poor dealers are bored and sad.  They talk to us.  This freaks me out but Johanna runs interference for me.

• Get to go see the brief planetarium show by the local science center.  Decide I really should make plans to go to the Science Center next time.
• Go get my picture taken with Wendy Lawrence, Astronaut.  She was just great.  Later I got our picture signed by her.
• Lose Johanna somehow, so I go get lunch.
• Return and go in to see Garret Wang (Voyager, Ensign Harry Kim).  He was great.  Very funny, some really good stories
• Erick finally arrives!!!!!  We go to the room, he takes a few minutes, then we take him to lunch. 



John Rhys-Davies, of course!




• Return, go see Kevin Sorbo and John Rhys-Davies.  Later get picture taken with John.  He was very sweet.  Very cuddly.

• Go get dinner.  Return and watch The Three Musketeers in the room until Concert Time.
• 10:00pm, go to concert.  Spock's Beard was first.  They were good, but appeared to be mostly instrumental.  We did notice their lips moving, but we didn't hear any vocals.  
• Jefferson Starship!!!!!  They were fabulous.  Even if they did all look like they should be in a retirement home instead of on stage at midnight.  But they were so wonderful.  Grace Slick is A-MAZE-ING!!
• Bed time.  FINALLY!

Spock's Beard

Jefferson Starship!!

Saturday

Erick, Yoda, and me

• Sleep in. Well, ok I'm still on Eastern Time so I still woke up early for me and decided to go do kettlebell swings at the Fitness Center.  Yes, they had kettlebells.
• Walked to Starbucks for breakfast.  It was ok, but seriously, Starbucks is not a good place for breakfast.
• Return to our room for me to change into my Jedi outfit.
• Took Erick through the Dealer's room.  That didn't take long.
• Got my autographs from Kevin Sorbo, Jason Momoa, and John Rhys-Davis.  And Garrett Wang.  So excited
• Went to John Rhys-Davis' panel, then to two of the Hard Science lectures presented by Dr Christopher McKay (no relation to Dr McKay on Stargate Atlantis) and Dr John Jaquish.  Dr McKay runs the rovers on Mars, Dr Jaquish invented a machine that cures osteoperosis.  Amazing.

Dr Mckay

Dr Jaquish

• Returned to the Main Stage to see the last bit of Ty Olsson, who was so funny.  Mostly returned to see Amanda Tapping and Jason Momoa though.  They were fabulous. I love Amanda Tapping; she's an incredible woman.



Amanda Tapping, Jason Momoa, and Ty Olsson who crashed their panel (no one minded)




• Stayed to see Garrett Wang again.  Erick didn't get to see him the first time.

• For dinner walked down to the Jack London Pier.  It was so very nice.  Went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 as well.  That was really good.
• Walked back to the hotel; Stopped at a grocery store so we wouldn't need to run for breakfast in the morning.
•  tried to decide whether or not to attend the costume contest that started at 10:00pm (they had events for the Elite and Gold members Friday and Saturday evening, but nothing for us general peons).  Fell asleep.  Guess I didn't go.  Oh well.  I heard it was fun.

Jack London Square. It was a gorgeous day.

 Sunday

Jason Momoa.  Yes, that's a painting of him as Khal Drogo

•  Sleep in again.  No workout on Sundays.
• Dress in my Witch costume.
• Avoid the dealer's room - well, walk in to show the one dealer my outfit.  She was great, and had a beautiful necklace with a rocket and a Jupiter stone that I bought.  Totally went with my Jedi outfit.  Not so much with my Witch outfit
• Talk to one of the dealers outside the dealer's room.  He thought I looked like I did Wiccan ceremonies.  I told him I just like Harry Potter.
• Go to all the panels on the main stage: Tim Russ and Garrett Wang, John Rhys-Davis, Ty Olsson, Amanda Tapping, Jason Momoa.

• The next panel was brought together by Gene Roddenberry's son, a bunch of people in the space and technology business. One of whom runs a company that's trying to get back to the moon.  I need to send them my resume.

The Roddenberry Panel

Punky Brewster - uh, Mayim Bialik

• Then the final panelist was Mayim Bialik.  Punky Brewster has a degree in neuroscience.  And she currently works on The Big Bang Theory.  She was interesting, but I do believe she's had it too easy.  She thinks getting a job in Hollywood is as simple as asking for one.  After Garrett's stories about how he went to auditions for a year with nothing, I think she has been very blessed.
• Finally done, I changed, then we went for Chinese.  We were two blocks away from China Town in Oakland.  It was so yummy.
•  Returned to the hotel.  Packed, I went to bed. Erick watched another movie.

The last shot of everyone involved.  They did a great job for a first-year con.

Monday

• got up and worked out again.  I miss that Fitness Center.  I want one in my house.
• The rest is pretty standard - we checked out of the hotel and then we got the shuttle back to the airport.  Erick's flight left a lot earlier than mine.

Alcatraz - crossing the Bay Bridge, on the way to the airport

So that was my trip.  Ok, so maybe not so brief.   It was fun though.

June already???

Yikes!  May just kind of disappeared on me!  Hmm, what did I do?

Here's the Rocking Chair I mentioned last time. Kitty has decided it can stay:

Easter weekend I went to see Beckie and her family again (I know, I do that a lot)

Malena and her new doll

We went ice skating at the Olympic Oval in SLC.  The little kids got frames to help them not fall down.  We wanted adult-size frames too!

Jack finding Easter Eggs (I like the light in this picture)

More Easter Eggs!!

Shannon and I went to Hershey Park - my very first time!  It was way fun, even if all the water stuff was closed.  APL and some other local corporations had the park to ourselves.  It was very fun.

We were just tall enough to be able to ride all the rides!!  Of course, I don't really like the crazy roller coasters, and Shannon can't go on them for medical reasons, so it worked out ok.

Back at home Rita's is finally open!  So of course I had to take the Sister Missionaries!!

I like the Mistos, they got Itialian Ice with Gelato on top

So yeah, a lot going on.  Progress is being made on the personal front as well - my doctor is SO HAPPY with me!! If I can keep this up, she'll consider taking me off some (or all) of my medications.  Yay!!!  And apparently my face has changed shape, though I can't really tell just yet.  Not a lot of actual weight loss, but definite redistribution is going on.

Lastly, here's my possessive Kitty.  She likes me to know that I belong to her :)

Yes, that's my leg, and yes, that's the quilt my sister made for me many years ago.  I love it.  Kitty wasn't pleased that I was moving around too much.

I think we are now caught up.  Next trip: San Francisco to Evolution Expo with Erick!!  My nephew - don't get any weird ideas.

Rocking the treadmill

Been kinda busy lately.  Picked up a new treadmill and a rocking chair through MaxSold.com - they do estate auctions, all online.  It's really fun, but also a little dangerous.  I almost got a cedar chest too, but it got priced out of my range.  Then I put some bids on some doll house furniture - I have a nice dollhouse (well, sort of nice - someone was throwing it out and I picked it up) and even some small Disney Princesses to go in it, but no furniture for them.  Someone else wanted them more, though.  I did get some Greek dolls, though.  And I do love my new rocking chair.  It's the old-fashioned kind.  Could use a little refinishing but I find I don't even mind that there's no cushion.  It's my new favorite place to sit in my house.  I really should take some pictures, huh?

I spent Conference weekend helping a friend get to and from the hospital, then another friend - well, maybe it wasn't so much help, but since this is the friend that just lost her mom I did want to spend some time with her.  And we had to see Captain America.  Which was fabulous (see review to the right).  So Sunday I binge-watched Conference.  Not sure I remember a whole lot, so I really do need to read through the conference talks now.  I did like Elder Bednar's talk on the guy with the truck, though.  That was fun.  I know there was another one that kind of struck me as well, but since I wasn't really taking notes (I was knitting) I don't remember.

I had a really good talk with my PT Joni this morning after our session.  We talked a lot about how it's so easy to get discouraged when we are trying to make changes in our lives and it doesn't look like we're making any progress.  I actually haven't lost much weight in the nearly 8 months I've been working out with her, but I'm so much stronger and more able to do things.  Another friend has remarked that my whole complexion just looks better.  The pants I put away last fall (they're not winter pants) are now getting so loose that I wish they had belt loops.  My sewing machine may be getting some tailoring use soon.

Side note - so grateful to my Mom for teaching me how to sew, and even providing me with a sewing machine (20 years ago, for Christmas - still works.  Gotta love Kenmore).

I spent last weekend putting sewing machine to good use yet again making a bridesmaid dress for a friend.  It turned out really pretty, although there was a point I wanted to just chop it all into pieces.  We had several fittings too, as I tried to make the dress she really wanted.  I think she's happy with it, though.

So.  Lifestyle changes.  Bodies don't want to change their comfortable 'set point', so resist losing the weight that they've accumulated over many years.  It will get easier, but it will also take a couple years for it to get easier.  I've been thinking a lot about how easy it can be to use willpower to lose that 20 pounds or whatever, but without the lasting change, it not only comes back, it brings friends. 

At Stake Conference a few weeks ago the talk that really made an impression on me was given.  There are 5 steps:
1) Acknowledgement - you need to acknowledge that there's a problem.  In my case, last September my 'ah-ha' moment finally came, and I accepted the reality of my health or lack thereof and my weight.
2) Will Power - it can get you started, but it's like an afterburner on a plane.  It doesn't last long.  For me, it got me to call Joni and set up Personal Training.  It got me to join the Lean Eating program with Precision Nutrition (at Joni's recommendation). It got me started.
3) Hard Work - with out hard work, there is no progress.  Sad, but true.  Can't just wish for things to happen.  Those pounds are not going to fall off by themselves.
4) Persistence - at some point the will power will burn out and you just have to keep going.  Last week, due to some injuries (I fell on the ice) I wasn't able to work out, and we even decided to skip my PT session.  It was kind of nice to get to work early in the morning, and to get things done.  I got to sleep in a little every day (or at least it felt that way).  If I didn't have Joni to return to this week, I may have taken me a lot longer to get back in the saddle.  But I did, and now I am.
5) Industry - Day by day, bit by bit, or as my friend says, "Every day in every way it just keeps getting better and better"

3,4, and 5 kind of go together in my mind - can't really do one without doing the others at the same time.

Hope and progress

I feel like I haven't been doing a whole lot lately, but somehow I'm always exhausted.  I've been working on going to bed earlier, and the last couple of days I have gotten to bed earlier than the day before, so that's good.  Wednesdays are hard because I want to watch the American Idol kids perform and the show isn't over until 10:00pm.  What, you say, you're going to bed at 10:00pm???  Yes, I'm turning into my Mom.  My goal is to get up between 5:30am and 6:00am so I can work out or do intervals or whatever my workout plan for the day is before getting ready for work, but when I don't get to bed until after 11:00pm that doesn't happen.  I've been so exhausted that my Sunday naps have been 3-4 hours long.  One day it was 6 hours.  As one of my friends put it, I'm running on a deficit.

There is good news, though.  I had my training session this morning (delayed from Tuesday), so we went ahead and did measurements (I always need to do measurements on Saturdays and my PT helps me with that).  This week we also needed to do photos (they're required once a month), so we just did it this morning.  I am measurably smaller.  I keep thinking of one time when I went to visit my sister and her kids were all concerned they wouldn't see me at the airport because I would be so small.  No worries, kids, I haven't lost THAT much yet, and you'll see me in a month, but I will be smaller.  Given that my brother-in-law has workout equipment in his basement, I'm thinking I shouldn't have any trouble doing my workouts there either.  I may still bring my bands, though.

There has been some sadness too.  My friend S's mother passed away last week.  The funeral was on Tuesday, and I went (thus the rescheduling of my PT session).  It was held at the funeral home, and S's uncle, a Baptist minister, presided.  He gave a good eulogy/sermon/talk thing, I definitely felt the Spirit.  There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on death, and the suffering of Job, but he did bring in Christ and the Resurrection at the end, which is always my favorite part.  Without that part, there is no hope.  Without hope, there is nothing, so why bother?  I've been thinking a lot about my Mom this week as a consequence.  There is quite a contrast between my Mom and S's Mom.  S's Mom had been sick for many years with Parkinson's and corresponding health issues.  She lived with S, and S was taking care of her, and she'd gotten so bad that S could barely go to work without something happening.  Her attitude was very dark, and due to her own choices her quality of life wasn't that good.  My mom was only sick that last year, but her attitude was good, and she was surrounded by the people she loved.  Her funeral was packed.  S's mom's funeral was mostly family (and not a big family like mine, about 1/3 the size of mine) and several of S's friends who showed up to support her (including me and C).  Such a contrast, but you know, in Christ, it really doesn't matter.  Both are now in a much better place and no longer in any pain.  And also surrounded by loved ones.

So between my exhaustion and recurring headaches I haven't really done a whole lot lately.  I'm not even caught up on my tv shows, although one is ending in a couple weeks and a couple more are finished until the summer, so that will help.  Haven't even hardly been to the movies, but I did go see Veronica Mars.  I helped back that movie, through Kickstarter, and so took the opportunity to go see it first :D  It was great.  I rewatched the entire series before going to see it too (another reason for being behind on my other tv shows).  I love it so much.

Ok, I think I'm caught up now, and I'm grateful that it's finally spring (6 inches of snow three days ago, but it's mostly all melted now).  Today is the first day of Spring.  Another reason for hope.