Healthy Living and Chocolate!

Here's the Super Bowl Sunday lasagna meal. I forgot to take a picture of it when it came out of the oven . . . it looks the same only not so raw! Since I make up my own recipes most of the time, I wasn't sure if I should put raw vegetables into my lasagna or saute them. I opted to saute them. They turned out nicely. Since my oven is not a high end oven, it doesn't cook evenly and therefore I was concerned that raw vegetables might still have some "crunch" to them after the cooking. I didn't want to be in the kitchen all night long waiting on vegetables to cook so I just expedited the process. It turned out tasty!

Last night was Day 2 of the Jillian "shred". (In reality I've done the program 3 times now, but I'm only counting my consecutive days now!) I came home from work and jogged the dog. It was a very nice run and after we finished I felt like I could have gone for another mile or so. That was encouraging.

Even with the exercising and the diet changes, I'm still loving my chocolate. Although it's few and far between these days. Heavy sigh!

Add Another One to the Pile

I finished my "I Am Woman" quilt this morning and took it off the longarm. I still need to color in the lips and shoes, trim it up and add the binding, but for the most part, it is completed. As B. would say "you can add it to the pile". I told him I wanted to sell it, but again he says "no". We'll see. Maybe I'll look for a show that I can enter it into. It's not my best work, but it was fun.

I think I'll take a short break soon and take the dog for a short jog just to see how the legs work. I'm excited and motivated about everything right now. Since tonight is Super Bowl Sunday and I don't really care about that (shame on me!), I think I'll continue on with my quilting agenda. I will try to finish piecing the new couch quilt tonight.

I'm going to make scones and lasagne rollups tonight. I guess I better get started on my projects. So, alrighty then, I'm off.

Mission Accomplished!!

Yesterday was the day. The last day of January 2009 and I still had not run my 5k. That all changed at approximately 8:08 a.m. There were 3,000 of us gathered in the cold (yes, for Houston it was COLD) waiting for the gun to go off or whatever the trigger mechanism was. The P.A. system was so bad we never heard the instructions or the gun. I was excited and nervous and I just wanted it to be over. So we took off and for the first mile it was like a pinball game, dodging people and going around walkers in the middle of the street. That part I really didn't get. Why would you start at the front if you were planning on walking from the get go? Once we started running the weather was actually perfect. I was chasing a girl in a turquoise sweatshirt with her name on the back of it. She was my rabbit. We were running approximately the same time. There was a marker at mile one with our time and when I saw it, I could not believe my eyes. It was something ridiculous like 13:50 and I said no way. Then I remembered my chip time and I looked at my watch and it was 10:40 or 10:50. Yay! I was doing fine. I kept looking for the mile two marker and it never appeared. I thought, Man, we had to have gone at least two miles already hadn't we? And then my rabbit stopped and started walking. I looked at my watch and we were at 22:00 minutes. I can't believe I did this, but I stopped and started walking. It was just a short distance. Maybe the length of a house, but I broke down and walked. B. was waiting for me at one spot and I was walking. I asked him to jog with me and he did for a couple blocks. My rabbit was still in front of me the same distance as before, so I was okay. We passed the Toyota Center and went a couple more blocks and then a few more blocks the other way. We entered the parking garage and went down hill. Not fun for a person with bad knees. It wasn't too bad, though. Then we turned the corner and it was another long downhill. Yikes, when am I going to see the stadium. And then there it was. The "Finish" line right there at Center Court. I sprinted past the runner in front of me and managed to eek out a 35:45 time. I forgot to stop my watch until a few seconds later, but I was happy. They were telling the runners who had finished to sit in the seats so naturally I thought the awards ceremony would be inside. It wasn't until the stadium was almost empty that I realized I was supposed to go outside. Oops. B and I checked the times posted outside and man was I happy to see my name second from the top in my age category. I didn't see the page break and was a bit disheartened to realize that they had me posted as finishing second to last in my age category. Yikesers!!! My chip time was faster than the lady in third to last so I gave myself credit for third to last place. Yay me! I kept checking the times on-line yesterday and nothing was posted. This morning, however, the times were posted and lo and behold, I finished 14th out of 21 runners. They list me as finishing 15th, but my chip time is better than the person in front of me, so I'm cutting in line. Sorry lady. My goal now is to shave a minute off my time each race. I think my February race will be the Conoco Rodeo 5k on February 28.

Since yesterday was the last day of January and I hadn't fired up my longarm machine at all in January, I loaded a quilt on there and started the quilting process. I should have it finished today and I'll take it off the machine and it'll be ready for some binding. That was also fun. Overall, Saturday, January 31, 2009 was a very good day!!!

Finally . . . A Day Off

Wow! What a month it has been. There is nothing easy about doing a year end tax accrual, but this year was especially tough for me. Yikes! I felt totally inept as a tax person. I was responsible for the three foreign tax accruals. Considering the fact that I've never done a foreign tax accrual and I seriously could not understand the model I was working with. It was a very bad combination. The time constraints in doing a tax accrual are a couple days so it was very hectic. Some days I felt like a complete idiot. Odd thing, though, I was confident enough to know that I am not an idiot and I felt almost like it was time for me to put up my mechanical pencil and calculator and start having fun with my fabric. It kept me going.

So, after a horrendous three week run, I had today off for my 9-80. Actually, my 9-80 is next Friday, but my co-worker could not take off today, so we traded weeks. I am preparing for my 5k run next weekend so today I ran 2.3 miles. On Sunday I will shoot for close to 3 miles. We'll see how it goes. My pants are fitting a little looser so I'm liking that! My nephew, D, is getting married June 13 and my niece, E, and another nephew, J, are both getting married on June 6. Too many weddings in such a short time. I'm trying to get slimmed down for a good wedding photo. Ha!

I spent a little bit of time today playing with my fabric. The new couch quilt is coming along nicely. What'dya think? Hopefully, I'll have it loaded on the longarm either tomorrow or Sunday. Yay! My first quilt of 2009. B has been busy building me this great thread cabinet. It'll hold an unbelievably large amount of spools or cones of thread. The shelves tilt so that the thread is easy to remove from the spindles. I love it!

Fried Brains

This is my first year end with the new company and man, what a year end it has been. The brain starts out fresh each morning (well as fresh as it can be on less than 8 hours of sleep) and then by the time the day ends, the brain is fried. As the day winds down, it gets harder and harder to focus. All I want is to go home and yet I have not completed the task at hand. Such were the events of this past week. Due to time constraints and a lack of familiarity with the accrual models, it took me a long time to digest the intricacies of the model. I am still lost on some aspects of it and I am now going through the workpapers and referencing them and writing notes on what it all means. Each day I wonder what my life would have been like if I'd chosen an artistic path instead of the path I chose. I think that no matter what the job, some days are just going to be hard. It gets tough when those days turn into weeks, but I think I'm on the downside of the bad times now. Tomorrow is my 9-80, but I will be going into work. I don't plan on working hard, but I know that things can change in a heartbeat and I'll have to rev up the engine and go back into concentration mode. I haven't worked this hard in a long time, but I'm hoping that my efforts now will make life less painful next year.

Consequently I haven't been able to do any sewing this week. I did try out a new method over the weekend after watching an episode of Fons and Porter on Saturday morning. Joyce Drexler from Sulky demonstrated how to make scarves out of water soluble interfacing (?). I had some in my stash so I did a small sample piece to see how it would turn out. I love it. I want to make me a scarf for real this weekend. I will need to do a lot more sewing than what I did for my sample, but I'm up to the challenge.

Bad Day in Bedrock

Today should have been a really good day. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and starting piecing a quilt. I watched a really fun quilt show on PBS at 8 a.m. and then doggie and I went for a 2+ mile jog. We came back, had breakfast and then took a nap. I took the dog for a walk and then we were invited over to our doggie playdate next door. Doggie was so excited. He loves going over to play with the two chocolate labs next door. The problem today was that there was an extra dog in the backyard that attacked our dog and put his head in a vise grip. B. had to pry open the other dog's mouth to get our dog's head out of it. End result was doggie went to the emergency clinic and had a gaping wound in his head and ear stitched up. Bill was also bit and we're hoping that there is no bacterial infection that occurs. Say a prayer.

On top of that my boss calls and tells me that I should go into work tomorrow (Sunday). It appears that I did a poor job with the project I struggled with for three days. Yikes. I feel like an idiot and I'm not happy with myself. Oh, well.

Here's a couple pictures of today's project. I'm liking the way it's turning out.

A Hard Day's Work

Yikes! Today was a tough one. It's always the forms that get you. It's not the knowledge of how something works or should work, but it's the forms and presentation that are hard to manage. I'm working on a Canadian tax provision and the provision itself was not hard to do at all. Getting the information into all the forms that must be submitted to Canada and Switzerland, however, is another story. Again I say, YIKES!!! It was a 12 hour day today and I'm sure it'll be a long one again tomorrow. The person who did this last year no longer works for the company and let's just say her workpapers are a little lacking. After I finish this puppy I have another Canadian provision for another company with a lot more activity and a Venezuelan provision. HELP ME!!! It's all right except for the fact that the turn around on these provision is a day or two and since it's my first time doing them, it's definitely a challenge. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it was a hard day's work.

I'm anxious to get back to my sewing. Maybe after I eat I'll go sew a seam or two just to feel like I've accomplished something. The little table doily was made by my SIL. I think it looks great.

Beginnings

Today is the beginning of the 4th day of January of the new year. It's always a season for beginnings. I'm working on my first quilt of 2009. It's going to be a scrap quilt made from the leftovers of E's quilt. I think that I'll keep this one and actually use it on our new leather couches. It'll be the perfect colors for the brown leather.

I've been up since 6 a.m. working on my transfer pricing stuff. I'd like to get it done, but I think that I will spend the day sewing instead. Too many things to accomplish. Doggie has been at my side all morning and he just informed me a few minutes ago that he wanted to do something different and go outside. While I was out there, this is what I discovered in the garden. Aren't they beautiful?!

Well, it's time to get the day started in earnest and go jogging with the dog. Yesterday B. joined us and we did a nice trek through Bellaire. Every day's an adventure. This is my month to run a 5k so I better get with it. I made it the 30 days with no soda and as much as I wanted one yesterday I did not give in. January is the no sugar month. That's ridiculous of course, but I'm going to try to cut out as much processed sugar as I can in my diet. Since I like sweets, I will start there and see what happens. Wish me luck.

Skate Time

What a fun day it was today. I was at work doing my thing when my boss called me and told me to "go home"! How nice. It was only 9:15 a.m. and I was not wanted. Hmm . . . was a pink slip involved with this command??!! I said "oh, no, I'm here now; I'm staying". But then I realized that today was the last day I'd get to see my brother and niece so at 10 a.m. I was out the door. Yay!

It was off to the Galleria for some skating fun. Oh my. I haven't skated since before I had knee surgery which puts it in the pre-1990 era. After sitting on the sidelines for a good half hour, I decided I had to try. I just had to. So off to the ticket booth I went and down to the stinky skate rental place after that. Man, that place stunk!!! Anyway, I snapped the skates on and proceeded out to the rink. It was rocky and unsteady for the first lap around and then they called for everyone to clear the ice. Yay! I made it one round and I got a break - I got to sit down again. After we were allowed back out onto the ice, they had us reverse directions. Yikes. But, I kind of got the hang of it after awhile. I didn't fall - that was good. And I had fun out there. So, knock that off the list of things to do in 2009. I went ice skating after a good 20+ year layoff. Maybe I'll do it again before the year ends. Who knows?

Lunch was at Barnaby's on S. Shepherd with brother, niece, nephew and fiancee, and B. It's been a good day so far.

A New Year

Today's the beginning of 2009. I'm barely awake, but I'm taking notice of all my firsts for this year. I've already won my first games of Minesweeper and FreeCell. I know, the important things! I'm getting ready to have my first jog of the year with doggie. Everything can be looked at with fresh eyes today. I hope that it can continue throughout the year.

Yesterday was a work holiday for me, but three of us went to work and stayed the entire day. My brother, J and my niece, A, came up with B. and had lunch with me. They then went shopping at First Colony Mall where my niece apparently had a really good time. I met up with them at 4 p.m. where we finished A's shopping at "The Bath Junkie". She mixed up two special flavors, one for her Mom and one for her brother's fiance, J. It was a lot of fun. We came home and walked the dog and then left again and went to D&J's and had a delicious grilled chicken and vegetables dinner. They went to Discovery Green to ice skate and ring in the new year, but I was beat and needed to come home. I know B. would have liked to have gone with them, but I was my usual stick-in-the-mud!!! The MS is tiring and sometimes it's hard for me to hang in there. I will try to do better this year.

2009 is going to be a busy year for us as there are at least two nephews and one niece getting married this year. I just found out that my sister's son, J, is getting married May 30, my niece, E is June 6 and my nephew D is sometime in the fall. There's also my nephew, T, who may be getting married this fall. They are engaged, but no date is set. Yikes! My sister says "that's a lot of wedding quilts to make!!!". Yes, that is. I don't know if I'll get any of them done. I need to work on G&E's quilt so it'll be ready to enter into the IQF this year. Maybe if it gets accepted, I can get my family to come down during the festival and see it hanging!!! That would be awesome.

Well, doggie's been patiently waiting for me, so I guess it's time to get our new year started. May everyone's year be blessed.