Experiments in Life

After a month of mucking around with our push mower and not getting the grass mowed, I finally broke down and purchased a riding lawn mower. Why not just get my push mower fixed or buy a new push mower? Both of those options would definately be cheaper. However, neither option would give me the satisfaction of sitting on my rear while getting the lawn mowed without breaking a sweat. Granted, I only mowed the front yard last night due to my needing to clear tree bits out of the driveway, but getting that front yard finished in less than a half hour — including weed-eating the portions that I could not get to with the mower — was a thing of beauty.

Okay, today it looks like I’m just pasting links, but this one is totally worth it! I am trying to help celebrate 50,000 hits on the DSN (Deep-Sea News) site. I love this site for all of its nerdiness. So, if the ocean interests you in any way, even just a tiny bit, check out this site. It’s filled with lots of interesting facts and general information,especially the posts on 25 Things You Should Know About the Deep Sea, as well as some really cool pictures.

Did I mention I was a deep sea nerd

Anyway, go and check it out and bring up the hit count!

Go DSN

Deep-Sea News

Some people fight for honor. Some fight for glory. Some fight to save a princess. I am the third kind. I carry a sword. Now it is time to venture into the mystical land of Hyrule once more to battle against the forces of evil, old school.

It took me a while, but I finally was able to get my hands on a copy of the Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition for the GameCube. Now, I have the two NES Zelda games and the two N64 Zelda games for the GC. I was a little disappointed that it did not come with the SNES version of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but since Ashley’s SNES still works, I may see if I can track that down at some point. After an 80’s retrospective conversation with some friends on Thursday night, I felt a need to play some classic Zelda again. I have not played the Wind Waker version of Zelda for the GC yet, but I will probably pick that up this summer to prepare for the upcoming release of Twilight Princess this fall.

Games have come a long way in the past 20 years.

For those of you who like aquariums as much as I do, prepare to drool!

Monster aquarium set to make a splash

When’s the next trip to Atlanta?

And another, and another, and another…

That’s right folks. Yesterday was the dreaded weigh-in day at the gym. To my relief, I’ve lost another 4 lbs. YEAH!!! I’m totally excited about this. I also managed to lose ~1.5 inches on my waist or so. No wonder I can get back into some of my old clothes. Everything else was looking pretty good. I am slowly but surely becoming more symmetrical. Woot! Unfortunately, my body fat percentage went up just a little bit, but it wasn’t much. And the girl weighing me said that that number was prone to fluctuate somewhat anyway, as long as I don’t increase it more than 1% or so. And I was definitely in that range.

So, go me! I’m really trying hard not to brag, but dang it, I deserve to! I’ve worked hard for this. So, with this new weight loss, that brings my total weight loss to 21 lbs. I only have 16 lbs. to go. Maybe I’ll reach that goal by next summer, just in time for swimsuit season (ugh!).

To all those out there struggling with your weight, just hang in there and be tough. There will be hard times, (I hadn’t lost any weight the last two times I weighed over a period of 2 months), but it’s totally worth it when you can fit into those jeans you haven’t worn in a couple of years or more. I’m wearing a skirt I haven’t worn since my husband and I started dating, about 4 years ago!

So, good luck and just keep on keeping on

This public service anouncement has been brought to you by the letter M and the number 10

The number 10 is such an awesome number. I never thought I would see it again. My wardrobe has now expanded somewhat….and without having to spend any money.

Go me

M…what a wonderful letter it is. In fact, it may now be my favorite letter. The letter M makes many fabulous words, such as mother, mango, microbe, maroon…but more importantly, the word MEDIUM!!! Okay, let me explain. Yesterday I bought some new clothes, including some shirts. Well, normally I just go straight to the rack, find the shirt I like and pray that they have it in a large. At the store, I carried out my normal routine and then went and tried on the shirts. As I tried on each shirt, I thought “Hmmm, these look a little big. I wonder…”. Was it possible? Could I really do it? Should I try it? I was very unsure about trying on a medium. I didn’t want to be horribly disappointed if I put it on and it was too small. On the other hand, I had to give it a try because the next size up was way too baggy. I finally worked up the nerve and went and grabbed a couple of mediums. When I put them on, I couldn’t believe my eyes It fit. I could still stand to lose a few more pounds, but it fit…and it didn’t look too bad at all. So, no more automatically picking up a large shirt for me. So to the large shirts out there!

I’m very excited. Especially since I also wore a pair of pants yesterday that haven’t seen the light of day for a few years now. I think they actually sighed happily as they stepped out into the sunlight, for they had only known the darkness of the closet for some time now

Also, today I am wearing a bracelet that is very special to me. I’ve had this bracelet that my brother made for me many years ago. If my memory serves me, I believe I was gone to summer camp when he made it for me. Well, it’s a beautiful bracelet and I have always loved it. Unfortunately, I have been unable to wear it. You see, even when I first got it, it really didn’t fit No matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t fit it around my wrist without possibly breaking it. I played with restringing it on some stretchy string, but decided against that. It wouldn’t be the bracelet my brother made for me then, and he worked hard on it. I couldn’t bring myself it undo it. So, for the past decade or so, the bracelet has been in whatever jewlery box I had at the time. It’s laid there, lonely, but not forgotten. Over the years, I would take it out and try again, always to have to put it back in the box and hope for a day that I could wear it. And today, for some reason, I decided that it was time to try again. Well, I was very surprised and very happy to see that it did indeed fit around my wrist this time. I had finally lost enough weight to get it on. As Jon was fastening the clasp for me, tears started to form in the corner of my eyes. No one has known how long I have waited for this day, not even my brother.

So Stephen, if you’re reading this, thanks for the bracelet. It’s been a long time, but now I can wear it, and I’m going to wear it every chance I get. I bet you didn’t even remember it until now. And I’m sure you never knew how much it meant to me. Well, now you do. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart. I love you and miss you.

Good day everyone…

It’s been a while since I posted, but I’m back with some exciting news…

Well, we finally went and did it….we’ve been talking about it for months now….and the time has finally arrived….we bought a car!!!!! That’s right folks. You are talking to the proud owner of a 2005 Hyundai Tucson. It is a SUV with a ton of space. In fact, it’s the only one of the smaller class of SUVs that Jon fit in. I have been dying to post about it, but wanted to wait until I actually had the keys in hand….and now I do

I was a total baseketcase yesterday while we were waiting to here back from the dealership. You see, I was so picky that they had to bring in a car from another dealership, just to please me No really, they actually didn’t have the model I wanted. They had sold their last one right before we went in to do the paperwork. The Tucson is black with tan leather interior. It has leather seats, a cassette player, and an in-dash 6 disc CD player. I love it!!!

Well, I suppose I’ve rambled on enough about the car. Hopefully we will have some pictures of me and my new car to put up soon

Yes Dad, I fully intend on putting up some pictures, just for you

Well, my Beetle is now officially paid for — I made the last payment over lunch. Now all I need is the title…

Alright, I was going to wait a little while before posting again, but my stupid blog account is down, so I have a little more time now.

Anyway, as Jon saidyesterday, it was a crazy weekend. But, one of the most exciting things for me was getting my rings resized. The plan was to talk to Jon’s dad about gettting a spacer at some point in the future. I really didn’t think I needed one yet. Yeah, my rings were a little loose, but nothing I couldn’t manage. Well, I guess that’s not really true. We were at a restaurant the other night talking and eating dinner. As usual, I was talking with my hands. All of a sudden my wedding rings went flying off my hand, going in two different directions before landing on the table. Needless to say, Jon was not impressed. So, we had the rings looked at. Well, it turns out that not only could I have used a spacer, but I ended up going down two ring sizes on my left hand and one ring size down on my right hand. I was simply stunned. I have never worn such a small ring size in my entire life. I can now wear a ring size of 6 and 7.

Guess the weight loss is paying off in ways I never considered. I only hope the weight loss continues for a little while longer before it levels off. To date, I’ve lost around 17 lbs. or so