I got a little down today, but I'm feeling better now. It's a peaceful summer night with all the "peepers" peeping outside. Tomorrow a three-day weekend begins, and our office closes at 3 PM - yea! I have not worked out since Monday - boo! So tomorrow, I'm definitely heading to the gym for some cardio before work closes. I'm going to hit the bike and the treadmill. No weights this week. Oh well, can't have it all.

The vet called me today with Trinka's blood test results. She looks all right for the most part, but her kidneys are starting to not work as well. Nothing bad yet, but the vet wants me to get her started on some kidney-friendly food and see if she'll eat it. She also wants me to bring her back so they can get a urine sample and culture to rule out an infection.

Now those who've been reading since 'way back know that I know a lot about nursing an animal with kidney disease after my beloved, best dog ever Max got really sick with it back in 2002. Fortunately, we're not nearly at that point yet with Trinka. You know, I STILL miss Max. I bet Trinka does too. They were friends.

Labels: doctors, Max, physical fitness, summer, Trinka

posted by Miss Rachel 8/30/2007 08:57:00 PM

. . .

It's hot hot hot. Must be one of the hottest days of the summer. Thank god that there is a breeze. I didn't do much today, except hang out on the internet and drink lots of water. I also talked to my mom, took a nap and read some more of Victory which I plan to finish this weekend. My friend Writer is coming over tonight to hang out and talk.

She's the person who got me to sign up for a MySpace account, and the she later deleted hers. I deleted mine after getting yet another request to be added as a friend to someone I had nothing in common with. No, I do not want to see your naked pictures. I just don't get MySpace, and I'm glad to be done with it.

Labels: friends, summer

posted by Miss Rachel 8/03/2007 07:10:00 PM

. . .

It is a hot summer night, but really quite lovely out on the deck, especially with a glass of cold water in one hand and a cigarette in the other. There are all sorts of peeping sounds outside. I'm tired, but happy. I had a good day at work and a good workout - 10 minutes on the bike and 20 on the treadmill. I ran for a total of five minutes (but not all at once). I'm taking tomorrow off - yea another Friday off! I have stuff I have to do, but I'm really just psyched to have some "me time." Now I'm heading back out to the deck.

Labels: physical fitness, summer

posted by Miss Rachel 8/02/2007 08:42:00 PM

. . .

This weekend Sweetie, Blue and I headed up to Rockport. We left here on Friday morning and got there about noon. That afternoon we went to Old Garden Beach with my mom. It was a nice, warm day and although the water is always cold on Cape Ann, it wasn't exactly icy so we were able to go in and even swim around a bit. Often times I dive in and have to come right back out. The only bad part about the water was that there were a lot of rocks on the floor which made getting into and out of it difficult.

Afterward, we were able to get a free WiFi signal at the condo, so I checked my e-mail on Sweetie's Mac Book.



That evening Sweetie and I went for a long walk on seaside roads. It was a pretty good workout (we walked for almost an hour) and Sweetie wasn't prepared for such a long trek, but he adjusted pretty well and didn't complain. After we got back, we stepped out again to get some ice cream. Well, I got ice cream (chocolate chip with chocolate sprinkles) and Sweetie got a blue vanilla slush.

On Saturday we did something completely different- we sailed on the Appledore III! I credit Sweetie with getting us to do this. My mom said she always wanted to go on it, and Sweetie said why don't we, so we did. It was another sunny day, but after we got out of the harbor we heard the rumble of thunder. Sweetie and I started jokingly singing the Gilligan's Island theme ("a three hour tour, a three hour tour"). The water was pretty calm, and the sight seeing was beautiful, but the thunder started getting more frequent, and the sky to the west started getting darker blue. After a while, the captain got a message from the Coast Guard that there was a strong storm coming and that we should head back. He said if we didn't, he could lose his license. I said, "The Coast Guard? What do they know?" Kidding. Too bad though because our tour was cut short by about half an hour.

Then we went out for a late lunch / early dinner at this good Chinese restaurant. Afterward, I got ice cream again. This time it was Crunch-a-saurus which is a blue vanilla (what is it with this blue vanilla?) with chocolate covered rice krispies. Then we came home and I fell asleep on the couch for a while, and then Sweetie and I headed out to see The Simpsons Movie. It was playing at the Gloucester Cinema which looks like a real dump from the outside, and turned out to be a real dump on the inside too - dirty, messy, unkempt. Fortunately, I didn't need to use the restroom, which would have been a scary prospect. The were a gazillion teeny boppers in the theater with us, but everyone was pretty well-behaved which was a relief. I enjoyed the movie, but it didn't really seem that great to me. It was just a slightly longer and bigger TV episode.

It was a good weekend, but it's nice to be home too.

Watching: The Simpsons Movie (2007) starring Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith.
The West Wing, Season Three.
All in the Family, Season One.

Labels: family, summer, watching

posted by Miss Rachel 7/29/2007 08:41:00 PM

. . .

The Good

I'm almost to my first mini goal!




I had planned to take today and Friday off to do schoolwork, but now that I've dropped my class, I'm just having vacation. Yea!!! The heat wave is over, but it's still summery outside. In fact, if there is a such a thing as perfect summer weather, we are having it now - temperature in the low 80s, sunshine, bright blue sky, a gentle breeze blowing. It's just gorgeous.

The Bad

Too bad the war in Iraq is still raging, and our lousy president is still saying it's the right thing. Yes, I had the TV on, and was watching Dr. Phil, but a special report has come on with him giving a press conference. The press is asking tough questions, some even designed to shoot holes in his policy, but he just won't back down. Worst president ever, certainly of my lifetime, although Sweetie says Nixon was pretty bad. I know it doesn't mean much, but to the people of Iraq, I just want to say, I'm sorry. I didn't vote for this guy and now most of the American people don't approve of him and are against the war. So, for what it's worth, I'm sorry and so are most other Americans.

Labels: fat, summer, the world around us

posted by Miss Rachel 7/12/2007 11:11:00 AM

. . .

We are in the midst of another heat wave. Technically, it's over today, though, because it's not supposed to go up to 90 degrees, but it's still very humid and uncomfortable. And we still don't have an air conditioner. I imagine you are thinking, Miss Rachel and Sweetie don't seem to have many financial worries, why don't they just buy an air conditioner already? Well, we bought two last year, but they turned out to be more trouble than they were worth requiring all this assembly and drilling holes in the windows and such that we just returned them and used the old loud clunker that we found in the basement when we moved here. We can't do that anymore though because last fall when Sweetie was taking it out of the window, it fell outside and crashed to the ground. Fortunately, it didn't hit anything (or anyone!), but it was officially broken and now we're getting by with a fan.

I do want to get an air conditioner again though, and this time I will specifically check what kind of assembly it requires. I want one that you can take out of the box, put in the window and turn it on. And then wait for Trinka to appear and place herself on the bed to cool off. It was so cute how she used to do that. She'd hear me turn on the air conditioner and come running. Poor kitty, stuck upstairs all the time. I wish she'd come downstairs, and she could, especially when Blue is crated, but she won't. Oh well, I've mentioned this before, and we all know, you can't change a cat's mind.

In other news, I made up with my sister. To be honest, I was sick of holding a grudge and being mad at her. As much as what she said was hurtful and upsetting, I was over it and ready to move on. I still felt guilty about being rude to her when she called at work about my mom's illness so before I went up to Rockport last week, when I was on the phone with my mom, I asked to speak to my sister. I said I was sorry that I was mean to her on the phone when she called about my mom's illness, but that I had still been mad at her about what she said about the Self Challenge. And her response was acceptable and that was that. It's good to have that over with.

Labels: family, summer, Trinka

posted by Miss Rachel 7/11/2007 09:12:00 AM

. . .

I had my three month follow-up with my doctor on Friday. It was a good appointment because I was happy to tell her I had lost 5 pounds. She said that was good, and then she also told me that my blood pressure, which wasn't even high to begin with, was even lower (in a good way). She asked me if I was eating fewer carbs, and I said yes (the main changes are cottage cheese for breakfast and no chips with lunch), and she seemed think I was on the right track.

As you know, I have been depressed since going off Effexor in December so I asked her if I could go on antidepressants again. She decided to have me try Cymbalta this time, saying it had fewer side effects. I'm not so sure about that because I don't recall having many side effects with Effexor, but with Cymbalta I'm having feelings of nausea. The nausea doesn't seem to happen only right after I take it; it's on and off throughout the day. Still, I've only been on it a few days so we'll see.

The other thing Cymbalta is doing is taking away my appetite, which even though it may be messed up of me to feel this way, I can't say I actually mind. Many of us who have had issues with overeating know how unusual it is to feel uninterested in eating. And although I am working on cultivating a healthy attitude about food and my body, the part of me that still feels like a "Fat Girl" is finding my lack of appetite to be kind of gratifying.

In other news, it's still hot. Hot hot hot. Sweetie commented that the heat really seems to be bothering me. Hmm... he didn't say I've been complaining, but I guess I have been. The heat combined with my nausea does not make me feel like doing much of anything at home. I feel like it's too hot to read, it's too hot to blog, it's too hot to work on the giant jigsaw puzzle I set out. I just want to sit around. At least there's air conditioning at work.

Labels: fat, summer, the blues

posted by Miss Rachel 6/27/2007 08:08:00 AM

. . .

Summer weather arrived yesterday. Nice and hot, but not too humid. Today it was more humid with a high of 95. Sweetie and I are air conditioner-less, and I have a feeling we're going to miss it tonight. So will little Trinka. I know she wants to go downstairs to cool off, but she just refuses to deal with Blue, even if he's in his crate. I think she doesn't even want him to see her. Oh well, there's not much I can do about the situation. We've had Blue for almost three years now, and if she's not used to him yet, I don't think she's going to change.

Labels: Blue, summer, Trinka

posted by Miss Rachel 6/26/2007 06:35:00 AM

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