Norwegian Snails

i went to the chiro on Friday and had my neck lined up again. now i can knit again with out pain. that's so great! to celebrate i started on a pair of snail mittens for my friend Rex, but i'm making them into mitts. i think he'll really get a kick out of these. i'm using my brown and tan Pallet yarn from knit picks for the main body and the orange i picked up in Salem for the accent. this mitten is a real blast to knit and it's going really fast. i was up really late last night watching Mirrors, and Terminator till almost 3 in the morning.
yesterday i bakes a loaf of bread for the first time ever and it came out really good. i'm feeling much better now that i know i can bake bread for my family if we run out of bread in between pay checks. now i want to learn to can veggies. that way i can try go grow some veggies like tomatoes and squash, and can them. i really want to make my own spaghetti sauce but i don't think that i can grow tomatoes out here because my apartment is in a really shady spot. i also want a chia herb garden. i'm really wanting to learn skills that most Americana's of my generation have lost, skills that really help with provident living like canning and baking bread and having a garden. i already knit, but i'd also like to be able to sew. but for now i have bread. and thanks to the really great cookbook that Natalie gave me for my birthday a few years ago, everything that i bake is just exceptional.
as far as knitting goes, Aaron's sweater is on hold unfortunately. i really need to make these hand warmers because i can use the extra cash, and he also needs his gloves finished more than he needs a sweater. he has sweaters. he doesn't have gloves. we went out with Alex on Friday to the iep meeting at Dante's school and i had my scarf, ear warmer, and mitts/mittens that i have knit over the last few years. Alex had his alpaca hat and wool mittens i'd recently finished for him and he was using his favorite blanket as a scarf. Aaron had his winter coat and that was it. bare hands. no hat, no scarf. he won't wear any of the former but he *did* ask me for gloves and i only finished one so i really need to do the others and then it's back to the sweater.

Fitness:
weight 193.2
i have not been to the gym more than once this week due to needing to allow my alignment to settle in. but when i did go, i did the following:
20 minutes on the elliptical
Ab Cruncher 2 sets of 50 reps at 75lbs.

i can already feel the difference when i hold Alex who now weighs 36lbs. i also can keep up with Aaron when were speeding through the ridiculously cold weather towards the car or the house. and i can see a small difference in my stomach. i also have to be careful of really greasy or heavy foods now because i've been eating lighter for 2 weeks and the other day i got really queasy and grossed out while trying to eat angel hair pasta with meatballs. the meatballs were store bought and very greasy. i thought i was going to be sick and had to put it down and drink some juice to get the taste out of my mouth. i guess it's turkey meatballs from here on.

1st wave

today was a difficult day all over. i came in to work to find that after a 3 day struggle, my fish finally died. i prayed over it really hard the 1st day and he recovered nicely, was really peppy the next day and back to near death on the 3rd. he fought really hard.
today we also had the 1st wave of the layoffs, and even though i still have my job tonight, i had to watch as several people i have worked with for years were quietly led out of the building, not to return. we lost one of the agents in my department. we lost one of our sales managers, one sales agent, a fulfillment agent, an email/quality agent, and a customer service manager. i left at noon to go to Dante's school for a review of his IEP and i'm sure that several of my coworkers probably thought that i was let go as well after i wasn't in the building when it was all over.
the IEP meeting was good but it further enforced our opinions that his math teacher is an old stick in the mud and set in his old ways. he doesn't get it. so i'm going to have to hold his hand and force him to express himself in ways that dante can understand. he just talks to the kids and expects them all to understand him. he doesn't change his delivery if a child doesn't understand him, and blames it on the child. so now i have to be all over it. but at least the english grade came up and he is no longer in danger of failing.
i went to the chiropractor today for the 2nd time this week. my neck and back were so bad that my hands and arms are going numb and tingling just like the normal symptoms of carpel tunnel. tonight was the first day all week that i could knit at all, and do so with minimal discomfort. Aaron's gloves are still unfinished and the weather had been bitterly cold out here the last few days with highs in the teens and lows in the single digits. when we all went to head out the the meeting today, i had my hand warmers and mittens, alex had his hat and mittens, and aaron had bare hands. his sweater is on hold until after i get his other glove done.

Anniversary sweater is on

i got my order from Elann.com yesterday. i ordered 15 balls of superwash merino yarn, worsted weight in black. Aaron has a favorite sweater from Gap that is too short for him so i'm using the raglan generator that i found on Ravelry to knit him another sweater. i took his measurements yesterday and cast right on. it seems easy enough for now. it's knit from the top down, my first sweater constructed this way and i'll have to see if i can finish it before February 5th.
the sites i searched on the internet said that the traditional gift on a 5th anniversary is wood. what do you buy your husband in this modern time that's made out of wood (that he'll actually like)?? so the sweater will have to do and i hope he likes it because if not i'll be less than happy. My hands have been hurting and swollen lately and i haven't been able to do much knitting so this sweater will require a sacrifice of both my time and the well being of my hands.

Fitness update:
weight this morning: 194.8
no gym today, trying to remember to observe the Sabbath and avoid the gym on my given day of rest. i did work my back and abs on Thursday till i could hardly move. didn't get to the gym Saturday due to the threat of inclement weather.

no more work knitting

the day has finally come. i can't knit at my desk anymore. now what will i do to keep from pulling my hair out on long conference calls to the social security administration?.. to be honest i'm not sure how i got away with it for as long as i did but it really kept me sane and now i really need to hit the gym on a daily basis so that i don't go nuts and kill someone. i don't have the time or patience to deal with people's crap so i'm gonna need an outlet.

fitness update:

20 minutes cardo on olyptical
no weight taken this morning.

1st finished object of the year

these socks have been a love/hate obsession of mine for about 2 years now. i started them in 2007 and for some reason thought it would be fun to knit toe socks. the toes weren't fun and i got really sick of these in no time. after a really long time away i started the second sock, which i now know that i cast on a few too many stitches for, and worked on these for a little bit. i used a 2mm needle and it just took way too long. i gave up about half way down the toe.
the other day i realized that i couldn't find any of my wool socks and that i really wanted another pair. it just made sense to finish an almost finished pair than to start an entirely new pair so i pulled these out of hiding. the toes worked out much better than on my first foot and i had to wing it because i lost my notes. but after making gloves, i realized that the toes didn't have to be a guessing game and they knit up much faster than the first foot. however, the overall sock fits better on the first foot. i lost love for this color, and for the pattern, and over all they are a disappointment. a warm, warm disappointment.

fitness check 1/5/09
weight: 197.2
work out: arch trainer 9 minutes incline 6 resistance 10
ab crunch 50 lbs, 2x12reps
back extension 50 lbs, 2x12 reps
hip abduction 50 lbs, 2x12 reps
free crunches 1 set of 10, 1 set of 6

weigh in 1/3/09

i have just learned a valuable lesson that many of you already know. never weigh yourself at the end of the night before bed. it'll make you want to just die!
today i weighed myself in the morning. results are as follows: 198 lbs. still way too high but not over 200. now i just have to fight to get further away from that number.

new year, new blog

there will be knitting to discuss but i have to try to publicly embarrass myself into dieting and going to the gym as i have now gained an excessive amount of weight over the holiday season. i've never been so heavy in my life where i wasn't at least 8 months pregnant and even my fat clothes are too small now. i bought a gym membership on friday to Planet Fitness and i went today. i signed up for a class on monday and i need to get in there at least 3 days a week. i also have to go online and try to get a diet in place cause 202 is just way too much. i just weighed myself a few mornings ago and i was 6 lbs lower. how did i gain 6 lbs in less than a week!! i got off the Prozac and i haven't lost any weight. i've actually gained. now here's the plan. lets see if i can stick to it.

1. write down everything i eat, drink and snack on 3 separate lists. i need to see which areas are most in need of improvement. probably all of them but one thing at a time.
2. blog my weight weekly and how often i actually got to the gym.
3. hope that not fitting into my largest clothes will be incentive enough to keep away from the sweets. i'm going to allow 1 day a week for sweets. my boss does sundays. because of fasting, i think i'll go with saturdays.

todays weight: 202 lbs
gym: 10 minutes on elliptical machine- fat burning program
50 lbs back extension, 2 sets of 12
50 lbs crunch machine, 2 sets of 12

for the love of chocolate, lets hope this works!