Saturday, October 17, 2009
Weekend Update
- Okay, I've given up on catching up. If I remember anything pertinent, I'll add it. Otherwise, this is just going to be recent stuff.
- For five weeks now I've been exercising daily. I'm so proud of myself. Every other day I go to the gym and on the alternate days, I exercise at home. The gym is my favorite. We always go when we're in Italy, and I always just did Callanetics and then a few exercises with dumbbells. But the gym here doesn't have a big selection of free weights. What they have is Nautilus machines. Lots of nice, new Nautilus machines. And then a variety of disgusting cardio machines (heh--actually, they're new, too--I just hate cardio).
Five weeks ago, I went to check out the gym with Carl. It's only a 5-minute walk from the house, but I'd never been before. There weren't many people there, and I got Carl to show me how to adjust the machines he knew how to use. Then on Monday I went back. I remembered how much I love weight training. And it occurred to me that I'm 48 years old. Even if I never touch weights, I'm not going to have skinny arms and legs, and even if I could--who cares? I'm old enough to do what I want. I've been going every other day since then, and despite the fact that it ends up taking me at least an hour and a half, I look forward to it. Yesterday, I didn't even mind walking there in the rain.
I may not have lost an ounce yet, though my clothes do fit better. What's cool though, is that I feel strong, and I love it when I can move the weight peg down a notch. Unsurprisingly, my favorites are the ones where I can move the most weight--the triceps (95 pounds!), the leg abduction (outer thighs--155 pounds!) and the dip machine (shoulders, triceps, and upper back--125 pounds!).
I did start adding a few minutes on the elliptical machine (an effective torture device, if you ask me), but it's been slow going. Took me a while to realize that the blinding headaches it was giving me were due to overheating, so now I make sure I drink a lot of water first and that I get a machine next to a fan, and it's a little better.
I do Callanetics on the alternate days (like today), and that seems to be going well. I haven't gotten bored with them yet, but I've got a couple dozen exercise videos to use if and when that happens. I'm pretty sure it's the Callanetics that made my outer thighs and triceps so strong. - Sorry for going on so long--I'm just really excited about it. And weekends, Carl always goes with me, which is fun. It's nice having a workout partner, and it's always... ahem... inspiring to watch him workout.
- A couple of weeks ago, Carl's new boss S invited us over for dinner. It was very nice--almost too nice. I was a wee bit intimidated by the things like cloth napkins and napkin rings, but they're so friendly I got over that. His wife R is about as shy as I am, so it was a little low-key, but I hope we'll be doing some more things together.
They went away for a week to Garmisch and asked Camden to pet-sit for them. They have four cats and a bird. I can't remember the type of bird it is--it's a small parrot of some sort. He doesn't talk, but mimics sounds, like the doorbell, the microwave chime, the phone, and if you whistle at him, he'll repeat your whistle back to you. He's very entertaining, though R says he can get on your nerves at times. - S is even more into antique clocks than Carl is, so I can see this might be dangerous. The post had its annual holiday bazaar last week (it's early so people can ship gifts back to the States), and there were a couple of antique dealers there, and Carl did buy another clock. This one's about 100 years old, which is pretty cool. What's interesting is that the dealer was starting up an antique clock club for enthusiasts--not just to hang out and talk about clocks, but also to learn some of the repair and maintenance. Seems useful to me, and something he might enjoy. Hope he goes for it.
- Can't believe it's only two weeks until Halloween. I'm thinking we need to start getting more than just two bags of candy a week. Last year, we ran out after about a half hour. It was ridiculous. So we've been buying two of the largest bags we can find every week, trying to stock up, but I suspect we'll need more.
Since it's on Saturday this year, we're hoping Carl's brother and sister-in-law and their girls will be here earlier, so we can carve pumpkins and stuff as well as do the trick-or-treating. They always enjoy it, so I'm expecting to have a good time. Not making caramel apples this year, though, unless somebody can tell me why the caramel keeps sliding off the apples. It's far too frustrating, though I LOVE caramel apples. HELP!! - I've already started Christmas shopping, thank goodness, and discovered the crafts store on post so I can get fabric to make a stocking for Dagny's boyfriend, who's coming to visit at Christmas along with Dagny and Curran. I think I'll have to do it right after Halloween, because time flies so fast after Thanksgiving.
- Went to see the movie Zombieland last night and enjoyed it a lot. I'll try to write up something about it soon--maybe if I hadn't spent so much time writing this....
- Just found out Carl's mom's in the hospital--her husband wasn't real clear on what was wrong other than stomach pain and vomiting, but she said last weekend that she'd been having trouble with her gall bladder, so we're guessing that's what it is. Carl's going there today to take Manfred to visit, and then we'll all go visit tomorrow. Will keep you posted.
Labels: about me, weekend update