Getting off of my rear

It's the only way I can maintain my weight (or lose it). Every time I've gained weight it has been due to inactivity. Mostly because some health issue or other has completely messed up all activity for me. This year was particularly bad because I had sinus surgery in January, finally became healed up enough to exercise again, then promptly did the thumb trifecta (broken, torn ligament, bone bruise--you know, three winners!). Between healing from surgery, casts and the like, I haven't been able to exercise as much as I like (and having two boys, one of whom is too young to stay home alone, yet is too old to stay at child care at the Y makes going to the gym hard during the summer).

Last Week (September 10-15)
Monday: Walked about 2 miles
Tuesday: 5 miles or so on elliptical trainer (1 hour)
Wednesday: 5.30 miles early, 8.77 miles later (so 14.07 miles) about 60 minutes total on Dew
Thursday: 20.24 miles (16.4 mph! Go me!) taking 74 minutes on Dolce
Friday: walked 2.7 miles, soccer practice later
Saturday: coached a soccer game

This week so far (September 17-19)
Monday: 5.32 miles early, 9.66 miles later, 14.98 miles total, about 60 minutes or so and coached soccer practice
Tuesday: knees hurt, rested
Wednesday: 5.31 miles early, 10.15 miles later, 15.46 miles total, about 65 minutes
Thursday:
Friday:

Hopefully, I'll be able to do some more miles on Thursday and Friday. I love cycling, and the weather and my body are both cooperating right now. Maybe it'll stay that way for awhile.

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Happy Birthday to my youngest sister, Maggie! Today's the day! I remember when she was born. It happened while I was at kindergarten. No one else was born while I was at school!

I'm NOT cool

and I don't care.

I am probably the only knitter who isn't knitting or has knit a pair of Monkeys. Nope, I'm knitting 2X2 ribbed socks for The Collar and a pair of vintage socks for me.

I am probably the only knitter who isn't going to join Ravelry. One discussion board and a blog are enough for me.

I'm out of the loop, but I don't mind. My own little world is busy enough! :)

I am going to be away from the keyboard next week. There's lots to do here for various reasons, and I'll give you an update in a week or so.

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This week I've really started exercising again. I have been using the elliptical trainer at the Y and have managed a whopping 27.9 miles on it this week. My goal is to try for a marathon a week. Next week won't work, but after that, I think that I can.

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to try and ride the Dew. My thumb is still weak, and it aches after being out of the splint after an hour. Someday, I will be better.
Have a great weekend!

While the boys are away

I should clean my house. But it's not happening. I seem to have hit a resentful place where I don't want to sort and pick up their toys. Part of the problem is that I want/need to vacuum, and our worthless vacuum cleaner is not working at all. Yuck. Maybe we'll scrape together some moola and buy a new one. That actually might work to motivate me. Instead, I've been knitting, playing on the computer, and getting exercise. I'm doing 10.5 minute miles on the elliptical trainer. Go me!

So, the knitting. I've been working on a washcloth to go with the yellow and white pinwheel one I gave to my MIL, that you haven't seen and that I forgot to take pictures. The pinwheel one I even did a single crochet edging around it, with a loop so it can be hung up. But, alas, there are no pictures because I forgot! The washcloth below is the ball band one from the Peaches and Creme yarn label.

I also knitted soap pouches for my FIL. They work very well hold the soap and as a scrubby/washcloth. I made him two, but actualy knitted four of them. The boys were my beta testers. They work pretty well, and they dry between uses, and you can toss them in the wash when it's time to clean them. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I made up the pattern, so if you want to know what I did, leave a comment and I'll post the so-called pattern. I think that pretty much anyone who knits could figure out my pattern on their own.I'm still working on the pinwheel baby blanket, using leftover wool ease. It's grown a lot, don't you think? I like the contrast between the pink and dark green. My plan is to knit this until I run out of yarn. At that point, I'll decide whether to get more, or quit.
I realize that I am knitting a lot of stuff for babies. Baby stuff is a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn, or single lonely skeins. I might donate the washable blankets to Ronald McDonald House, because when The Wiz was born, they gave us a blanket for him and a stuffed dolphin to Game Boy when we had to stay there. (Yes, the Wiz has expanded our horizens greatly.

Back to knitting. I have a project that I need to start.

Back to school

My spring break is over. :(

Due to last week's clean up event, I have decided that the boys in this blog need nicknames. The initials are so boring!

L is, of course, The Wiz. Eventually, we'll all forget why. Maybe.

M is GameBoy. Not because he plays his game boy constantly, but because he loves to play games of all kinds--Scrabble, Might and Magic, Pokemon, dominoes, etc. and ad infinitum.

B is The Collar. I don't think that needs any explanation.

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Anyhoo, I am back in school. We have all of 5 weeks of classes left after this week. Yesterday, only 8 people showed up to my 35 student class. Grrr. The ones that came were treated to the easiest pop quiz of all time, for extra credit. I had much better attendance at lab this morning, but how on earth do they expect to do well if they skip out after an hour?

GameBoy has a lot of good news. He came in 4th place at the Regional Governor's Cup for Science, tying with a fifth grader from our church. He also earned straight A's on his 3rd quarter report card. Soccer has started, and he's a happy camper.

The Wiz won't be happy because today is SCIG day. We haven't seen his report card yet.

Knitting has been happening. I have finished the front of GameBoy's sweater, and cast on both sleeves. The Collar's sweater back is now about 9" so only another 7.75" and it will be time for the arm holes. Yes! I made a bag from knitted gifts (no picture) and haven't worked on my socks or my shawl.

Running is going extremely well. Today I ran for 32 minutes and managed 2.7 miles. I am improving very quickly. Hopefully I'll be able to get on the bike soon, but the rain will need to stop.

That's the news. It's just boring and quiet around here right now.