Technically I ought to have weighed in today for week 11, but I'm weighing myself tomorrow because this morning our houseguest took us out for breakfast. I had the Heart Attack Special: two eggs, four sausage links, hash browns and toast. Oh man, was it good. But before we went I got on my scale at home and estimated my weight loss at one pound. I don't really trust my scale, so tomorrow morning I'll check myself on the scale at the gym; if it's the same, yay. If not, well, I ought not to have eaten so much and I won't beat myself up about it.
Our houseguest was Alan Rosenthal, my host of last month in Seattle. He's married to one of my best friends, Janice Murray, and works for the Evil Empire. They send him down here once in a while, and sometimes he brings Janice but not this time. We had a good time abusing the various mayors of Toronto, his hometown (and I thought of you, Rick), as well as the IOC. We also gossiped about our friends, the recent Worldcon committee coup attempt, and what we're reading. Alan and I like historical mysteries so we suggested series the other hadn't read and agreed Saylor and Davis are running out of steam with their Roman detectives.
This morning I had the day off so I took Alan to Microsoft in Mountain View and then headed over to the nursery to see if they had any dicentra. I found a lovely alba already six inches tall and snagged a white astilbe (Bridal Veil) to mix in with my dark pink dicentra and red astilbes. It's the first interest in gardening I've shown in a while. My tulips and iris are putting out leaves, but none of the daffodils have done much, and the freesia are a long way from flowering. What should be coming up are the daffs, the squill, and the dicentra. My roses look awful. It's all so depressing to me when it rains on the weekend and I can't get anything done without getting muddy and wet. Buying new plants was my attempt to get interested again and stop being such a sissy about the weather. It's not like it's ever any different in February. Next month the wind starts. I'd better just bundle up and go at it.
After that I dropped by Tower and got a copy of Mozart's Requiem, the 1990 Philips recording of Marriner conducting the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields. It's an excellent interpretation. I'm up to eleven CDs for sixteen pounds lost. I'm still behind!
Then I worked out at the gym, running a half mile easily in ten minutes and continuing on for another minute or so. I was really happy because my stamina was excellent and the run was fun. As I lowered the speed so I could walk and get my heart rate down I heard the guy next to me say "Good!" very loudly. I had my headphones on with the music up high so you know he was loud. I didn't look at him because people do not talk to each other at the gym unless they're friends, and I certainly didn't know this guy nor did I appreciate him commenting on my workout.
After ten minutes cooling down I went out onto the floor and worked on a few machines, mostly for my arms. I was out there maybe ten more minutes when I realized my heart rate was much higher than was appropriate for weight lifting, and I was very thirsty. So I walked to the drinking fountain and stood there taking long sips every minute or so. Clownboy showed up again and suddenly said, "If your knees and ankles are hurting, you should walk instead of run."
I looked at him incredulously. He was not deterred. I said, "My knees and ankles are just fine," in freezing tones. He kept talking about inclines while I drank more water. I finally said, "I'm not in the least interested in your opinion," and walked away. First time that's ever happened. I certainly hope it doesn't happen again. I resent being critiqued by amateurs.
At home we got our new internal firewire drive installed and discovered we don't have the serial number for my perfectly legitimate copy of Photoshop 5. How very annoying. John reinstalled 6.0 which is merely a loaner for the duration of my class and I spent the evening turning my splash page into HTML for my final. I mailed the URL to my professor tonight at 10pm and I'm done. I'll go to class Wednesday, of course, but I can't imagine I'll stay long once she reviews my project. It really is virtually perfect. I expect to get an A in the course. And that's it for CAOT 410, Photoshop. CAOT 411, Image Ready, begins the following week.
It's been a good three-day weekend. I've had a nice balance of socializing and hermitizing, getting out and staying in, doing homework and watching old episodes of Buffy and the Olympics. But I've got to start eating more vegetables and less carbs or I'll never lose weight.
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