Full Plate

Right now life feels like it’s operating at 102% capacity. This is not good.

My work announced lay-offs. While I wasn’t impacted, this is difficult.

Hub’s work has cut back on hours and is bidding for jobs out of state. It could very well be that this fall he could be at home on weekends only – for months. Trying not to worry about that – there’s not anything we can do in any case.

Work has been very crazy, busy, stressful. Mostly good, but some headaches that just aren’t necessary. Some people don’t need t-shirts that say “doesn’t play well with others” cause we already know.

Weather has been hot, muggy, and rainy. Exercise outdoors is a crap shoot.

Having said all that:

I had a nice weekend in the mountains with the family and a lovely anniversary cookout yesterday. Focus has been challenging, but that’s just how it is sometimes.

What I’ve been focused on

It’s easy for me to write here when my focus is exercise and nutrition. While I’m still pretty much on track (food planned & cooked, kettlebells swung this morning), I’ve been putting a lot of mental energy into 1) my dollhouse and 2) making some changes in my house.

We decided to do the roof this year instead of floor (sigh, being practical stinks) but I am doing new curtains and painting.

Oh yeah, I also bought a 23 piece set of china (service for 6 less one coffee cup) off e-bay for $15.50. Why? Because it is the same pattern as my great grandmother's, which I always loved. Which was probably given to Goodwill, along with all her terrific furniture. They fought over Pop's artwork, but I'm sure no one gave a hoot about a bunch of modern furniture from the 1950s. Le sigh.

Weather has been a bit cooler, but we’ve been getting a lot of rain, which has made walking a bit dodgy (grump).

Anyway, I’m doing alright – staying on track in spite of some stress. I’ll try to post more regularly.

Lack of enthusiasm

While I’ve been feeling kinda lackluster lately, things did pick up this weekend. I’m feeling a little more energetic and focused, so that’s good. Sometimes I’m just not, and I guess I’ve just gotten used to that fact.

Hub’s car overheated – it’s the water pump and they have to replace the timing belt - $1100. Ouch. That’s a bummer.

Anyway, sorry for the hiatus – I just haven’t had a lot left over for blogging. But I’m okay and once things settle down at work (hopefully after this week – at least a little), I hope to blog more regularly.

I hope you had a nice Mother’s Day – mine was very good – hub helped clean out the guest room! Woo hoo!

Take care.

What would you choose?

Some background: 15 or 16 years ago I got a mastercard from MBNA. I got it as one of their affiliated cards - it has my school logo, photo, and gives a 1% annual rebate to the Hawaii Pacific University alumni assocition. When MBNA sold their credit card portfolio, my card became Bank of America.

Now, my Hilton is my card of choice - I rack up some serious Hilton points on that baby and we easily get 6 free stays per year, which is awesome. However, there are places (like my dentist) who don't take Amex (sigh). In that event, I use my HPU mastercard. I've had it forever so I want to keep it on my credit report, and it has a large line of credit.

At least it did until I got a letter saying they were cutting my LOC by $12,000. Gee, whadaya think THAT did to my credit score??? Personally, I don't think alienating your best customers is a very successful business model - what bit of my loyality they had is gone.

Which brings me to my question: I am going to start using my Cap1 card and it has the "design your own card" feature - for free! So, if you could put an image on your credit card, what would it be? Hobby related? A pretty scene? Your pet? I can't choose ....

If I put an image on my BofA card it would be "Angry Mr. T". "Don't mess with me, fool!"

The beat goes on

I'm still a bit on the run down side. That plus the rainy weather has me in a very laid back, couch potato kind of mood. That's not necessarily a bad thing - my batteries still need a bit of re-charging, but I haven't abandoned healthy eating or exercise.

The capris I bought 2 weeks ago are too big. Luckily I kept the receipt and they are hanging in the closet, waiting to be returned. The capris I bought 3 years ago are 1) worn out and 2) too big. Luckily I bought duplicates of all 3 pairs one size smaller - which is what I'm wearing now.

I don't have any jeans right now - I've "undergrown" 2 pair now, but the next pair is still about 4 pounds too tight. Soon. :-)

I've been researching mid century interior design and doll house stuff. I am setting my doll house up in the guest room this weekend. The outside needs some repair - once that's done I will begin the decorating i.e. the fun part! I'm very excited!

My husband has also agreed to help me do some painting in our house this fall. Yay!

Good things:

The weather: It was lovely coming in to work this morning. And the next few days it isn’t supposed to be the surface temperature of the sun, so that’s nice. A few thunderstorms are okay by me. Also, it beats down the pollen!

10 minute hair color: If you don’t typically color your hair, you many not understand. But 20 minutes is too much time to waste in the morning before work. But 10 minutes? Put it on your roots, brush teeth, put on rest of hair, wash face, then rinse! Barely adds any time onto your morning routine! And who has time to do that sort of thing in the evening? Not me!

The scale: Last week was one of those weird scale weeks. Friday saw me up 0.8 pounds from the prior Friday. This morning I weigh 2 pounds less than I did on Friday. See? Weird.

Rest: Too many weekends of too much to do lest me so ragged by Friday it was pathetic. Loads of sleep, not doing much of anything beyond the basics (I didn’t even have the energy to sew or do anything fun like that!), and I’m beginning to feel like myself again.

Here’s to having a sane week!

A week full of fail

This week never got off the ground. It was a series of random events, allergies, feeling worn out, and general malaise. This weekend I am doing nothing – well, as little as possible.