So, what's new?

Ooops.

I've been slacking, as it's been a couple weeks since my last post on here. I just haven't had time. With the end of the semester, regular work hours, Derek's annoying cold, almost-every-day-gym and house-related chores, I just haven't had time to sit down and talk about something random. Or less random, for that matter.

So, yeah, what's new? Well, we have a new christmas tree and, [un]fortunately, it is a fake one. I know I am a horrible person when it comes to poor trees, but there is those real ones really do have something. They really do. Except when they're dry and pretty much dead even before you buy them, which is exactly what they looked like when I went tree-hunting to the local stores. Finally, I caved in and bought a fake one. It's actually pretty nice, 7 feet tall (around 213cm) and pretty damn wide, too. It even looks remotely real, except for the smell: there is, of course, none of that. It took almost a week to assemble, fluff it up and, finally, load with ornaments. The rest of the tree story... is yet to come, at a later date.

We also had snow at some point. Within a matter of one day, or something like that, everything turned white. It was really pretty while it lasted. Again, I took a bunch of pictures which, I suppose, I could stuff in here. There are more, but, like I said, I have been busy. For now, they'll just keep sleeping on my computer. Oops, again. (This is, of course, in case someone actually cares about our street, our house or some random decorations!)

Just about everyone on our street had the icicle lights. Okay.

Then there's Windsor - a really cool half-siamese furry guy. No, no, not a furry; this one is really a furry cat and I have not yet encountered anything [ab]normal about his sexual life. My mother-in-law and I drove all the way to a shelter in St Paul a few weeks back, in search of a new cat for their home. Poor ol' Dude had to be put down after a long struggle with kidney cancer and their other cat, a feral named Izzy, needed a new friend. We went up to pick up some kitten from a pet store, but we actually came back with a seven year old crosseyed aristocrat. Not a bad deal, especially because I fell in love with his slightly ridiculous face. Too bad Kittica is neither sociable nor friendly. Pffft. Ohwell, she gets to live alone, for the time being, at least.

Aren't I purrrty?

Hm. What else? Aha. I had a doctor's appointment a few weeks back, too and I came back perfectly normal. Actually, not just normal, but very healthy. It was a regular checkup with my brand new (err, not new, but actually first) general physician ever. In the US, of course. Oddly enough, I liked the lady. It's pretty odd because I am not your favourite patient/customer/client. I ask questions and demand to have them answered. I also dislike being treated like a child who doesn't understand a thing. I also like to hear the truth and all the details that come with it, regardless of how good or bad it actually is. So this lady here somehow managed to meet my expectations. She also agreed to refer me to the lab with a whole list of things I wanted checked, and this particular thing earned her a few more brownie points in my book. 

I'm still waiting for my full report to be mailed to my address, but I did find out how great I did in 2010. I am no longer anemic (woot!) and my red blood cells count is, pretty much for the first time since I remember, within the range of normal. I have no clue what made the thing skyrocket in the first place, but nobody ever worried about it and, therefore, I didn't particularly care either. It was funny to be suited to live in some high altitudes, that's for sure (does the 7th floor count as one of those?!). My cholesterol was nicely low (woot!) and my triglycerides finally got down to where I want them to be. Take that, bread! You've not been a part of my diet for a few months now and, well, I've been doing fine. We'll meet again on some special occasion. 

One more thing that came back normal was my thyroid (or, well, it was only the TSH hormone that they checked). Damn. Now I can't blame the gland for my fat ass or for, hm, all the bad in the world, or something. Ohwell. What's important is that I'm doing fine and that it will likely get only better.

Yup, that elliptical is still my bitch. We meet almost on a daily basis and I have gotten to the point where our sessions last from 40 minutes to a full hour. It took a while to figure out how to adjust it to some setting which keeps my heart rate up, yet doesn't kill me within seconds, but we've overall been doing fine. I've been steadily increasing both my pace and the machine's incline and resistance and now I average 3.2 to 4 miles of.... spinning the weird wheel, or whatever belts it hides in its butt. Not bad, but there's a lot of room for improvement. The results? Already visible, which is good. I do wish my weight would shed faster, but I knew what I signed up for: I've always had a hard time dropping actual numbers on a scale. It probably happens because I am pretty active for someone this big and I carry, as well as produce, a lot of muscle. I've been strictly monitoring my intake, as well as gym visits and other activities and over the course of 38 days, I've lost 6 centimeters (2.4 inches, for the metric-challenged) in my waist area. Good enough, even though there's a ton to shed. (Yes, please do send me money for a cosmetic surgery that will turn all my loose skin into a set of nice suitcases.)

At the end of the day, my biggest problem is time-management. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. Life would be a lot easier if I started eating regular, everyday American food, premade, boxed, frozen, dehydrated... highly processed and easy to cook. But I won't. I guess I'll just keep struggling to squeeze homemade (by which I mean really cooked, from scratch) meals into my hectic schedule. Without them, I could probably say goodbye to my goals.

Guten Nacht. It's getting really close to my bedtime. (Hm. I should probably improve in the sleeping department, too. Oops. Yeah, I know it's very hard to be perfect. :insert_non_supported_smiley: )

P.S. Food for thought: out of boredom and lack of new exercise ideas, I'm actually contemplating running a 5k... whenever there is one in the area. Uhoh.