New member in the household

We had a fairly interesting Saturday. We started with a trip to the animal shelter where we've adopted Kipper, Patches and Eowyn from and found our new cat, technically a kitten at the moment. Practically the first animal we saw when we walked in the new facilities of the shelter.

Introducing Lycia.10 weeks old, female, terrific marking and fearless, mice and Airedales beware. Be afraid, be very afraid. In the meantime she's pretty much taking over the house though we have started with the house rules no matter how cute she is. Eventually she'll have to earn her keep.

Eowyn has been told not to eat her, so far so good on that front. Patches sees the competition and is trying to "out cute" her, its not going to work but he has nothing to fear, Patches is Patches.

Lycia is quite the camera hog already.

And she knows how to get comfortable for a nap.

If we hadn't arrived when we did she would have been gone soon enough, there were lots of people coming in after us looking for kittens and Lycia was definitely the best as far as we were concerned. We chose the name, the one the shelter gave here was "Wiggles", so we saved her from that burden. Because of her dark gray and black color I looked up some goth names on the web and there was Lycia. We had a couple of other names we liked: Bailey and Delaney (Celtic).

After leaving the shelter we ate at a restaurant on the way to Oxford, stopped and bought cat food, a collar and cat litter then stopped at the our camper dealer for their open-house before heading home for the canine indoctrination. After supper we left for the play. It was very good and a little crazy.

Well, I expect Lycia to be as much a part of this blog as the dogs are. Hope you enjoy it.

Per orders from the NCSBP

That's the "Nerdy College Students for the Blogging of Parents" of which it appears that Ian and Taylor are charter members. If you are keeping up with the comments from previous postings you've read about my first knowledge of it's existence. After reading Taylor's Mom's blog I've determined that the organization's meetings are held in their parent's blog comments boxes. I've heard of people hearing voices in their heads and now the concept has reached the virtual world. Welcome aboard, its a big couch.

Only so much time lately and not enough for the blog. For the last week plus I've been in the newsletter daze. Finished the town's Monday night and have worked a bit on the church's the last couple. I'll finish it this weekend. Lot of website stuff to do also. That's my spare time. Otherwise, watched last Sundays football games, been dealing with some back pain, watched the return episode of "Heroes". Speaking of which, that show fits my blog title - while watching it I'm practically ready to scream for more information about the story and characters but they move things along as though just a little is enough. And they're right, keeps us coming back for more.

Last Sunday while Carol and I were out, Patches got into an open package of coffee pods I'd left out. There must have been 5 or 6. He ate all but one which was moisture stained and there were scattered coffee grounds around. Needless to say he was a little wired the rest of the day. Fortunately he didn't throw up though the next day when scooping the backyard a couple of the pick ups looked dark roasted.

We watched the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" (on Ian's enthusiastic recommendation) last night. Odd, funny and strangely charming flick. Language is on the rough side at times for those of you who uncomfortable about such things but if you can get by that I'd recommend watching it.

Tonight we are going to a play in Portland. I bought the tickets for Carol's birthday. "Noises Off", I've never been to a professional play before so I'm looking forward to it.

Special Occasion

It's not just another day, It's Carol's birthday!!
Have a great day, I love you - you're getting better all the time and I'm forever happy being together with you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Little Sister!

That's my youngest sister Doreen in the picture, taken (more than) a little while ago. Her birthday was yesterday. I actually sent her a birthday card early enough for her to receive it on time. That's quite an accomplishment for me, just check my track record. Suffice to say I am 10 years Doreen's senior, she's just as cute today as when the picture was taken...well, close. And the guitar...Sheryl Crowe has nothing to worry about, Doreen went on to better things, wife and mother of two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Now it's time for "less" of me and I don't mean blogging

The time has come. I've know that I need to make a change. A change in how I decide what to eat. You may think I'm talking about going on a diet. Not quite, this has to be a change of what I choose to eat from now on. I'm not going to go diet crazy, my diet is to be part of my daily life, not a short-term plan to lose a set amount of weight. At 52 years old, taking medicine for high cholesterol, a heavy gut, frequent heartburn, BMI at 27, lower back pain and a possible abdominal wall strain and no magic wand available. The solution is a new thought process and action change.

First I'm working at getting my weight down by 25 lbs, I've started at 205. I'm beginning by learning about calories, reducing calories consumed and increasing calories burned. Pretty basic. Amounts of fat and other factors will follow but calories are my first priority. I don't think I'm reinventing the wheel here, just finding my way to feeling better physically. I'll reassess whether to continue reducing my weight or to maintain once I get there and prove to myself that I won't regress.

According to what I've learned so far, to maintain my weight at 205 lbs I need to consume about 2600+ calories a day. We'll, once I started looking at the food I eat and how many calories each food item provides I found that the basic stuff I eat if I don't over eat and snack unnecessarily I fall over 400 calories short of maintaining 2600 calories. Then add in some vigorous walking or other exercise and I'll actually "burn" off additional calories - great, simple math, just my speed. OK, as my weight drops I'll readjust the the number of calories to maintain and continue to monitor calories consumed and burned. The tough part so far is trying to put together the calorie values of the odds and ends items I eat. Foods that are a combination of items, serving sizes, is something measured in cups, ounces, volume has been the real work. The good thing is it distracts me from thinking about being hungry. Losing the weight fast is not part of the plan, slow and consistent progress is how I want to do it. After five days things are going well. Carol has been a giant help with food values and discussing different aspects of what I'm doing. Watching Ian eat an afternoon dish of ice cream helps make this a challenge.