Jumping Back to Fitness...

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So, first off, today marks the first walk I've completed in several months, as you can see from the image over there on the left.  The numbers aren't great, because I'm so outta shape from being derailed by my neck issues back in February, but it's a start.  I'd actually forgotten that I told my mom we'd start up my morning-walking-routine today, and first thing when she woke up, she reminded me.  I was tempted to just say screw it once again, and start tomorrow, but I ended up making myself get out there and get it done.  And it feels good.  I always forget how good it feels to get that out of the way, first thing in the morning before I start out my day.  So yeah, that's one bonus that has resulted from my mom's visit here this month! 😄  Although now I've worked off everything I had for breakfast, so I may need to look into eating something else to satisfy my slightly-growling tummy.

The best thing was actually being with her on Mother's Day yesterday, though.  That was a first in several years, and a long-time coming.  I'd missed being able to hug my mom on Mother's Day.  We had a relaxing morning and afternoon, before going out to dinner at a local teppanyaki restaurant, called Shirasoni.  It is amazingly delicious, and the "show" that you pay for is always so entertaining and fun!  We all had a great time, along with my mother-in-law & brother-in-law & Reno.  And now we have lunch for today and possibly tomorrow as well, haha.  Anyway, I hope everyone who reads this had a Happy Mother's Day yesterday and you were able to spend some quality time with your mother as well!

That's all I really have for right now.  My mom and I don't have big plans for today, other than getting a few hours in for work, and hitting the grocery store later, then continuing with our Star Wars binge-watching. (her idea!)  At least until the hubby gets home from work, then we're going to have homemade tacos for dinner and catch whatever shows are on tonight.  Until next time!

Friday of Doom... or Boredom

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Well, it's Friday the 13th.  I hate when the 13th falls on a Friday!  It makes the day seem doomed from the start.  Though nothing bad has happened so far, but I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that. 😶

Anyway... my nerves are still going haywire but I've managed to keep my mind mostly off of that.  The hubby's already home from work, after working a half-day, but I'm not sure if we have anything specifically exciting planned for tonight, or even worth mentioning.  We need to hit the grocery store in a little bit, once we figure out what veggies to have with the pork sirloin tip roast that I defrosted this morning... though we may end up pushing that back to tomorrow night and just going out for a quick bite to eat tonight, maybe to our favorite local pizza place that is conveniently located next to Trader Joe's, which is our usual stop after eating there.  They also have this amazing mini chocolate cake, called a No Name Cake, but it's really just an elaborate Ding Dong (although SO much better) and I LOVE them! 

I talked to my mom today and she's getting excited about her visit out here in just three weeks!  I'm excited too, but that also means that I need to start some major cleaning of the house before she gets here.  Starting with the office, this room is such a mess and I hate that I've let it get this bad.  If we don't get around to cleaning this weekend, I'm going to use every free moment I can find next week, to start the cleaning process.  Well, mostly every moment.  I really hope I'm going to be in a cleaning mood for these next few weeks! 😄😳  Wish me luck on that!

Just Call Me 'Chauffeur'

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So I spent most of today driving my mother-in-law and Reno around our little 'neck of the woods'.  I'm my mother-in-law's usual "driver" when she goes to see her eye doctor, because she usually comes out of there with her eyes dilated and can't drive herself.  I was jokingly called her 'Uber' last time we were there, by another patient.  I'm always mistaken for her granddaughter also, instead of daughter-in-law.  Haha.  Anyway, this time Reno joined us, because he'd been needing to get his eyes checked and so he asked my mother-in-law to make an appointment for him with her doctor.

Turns out he's a bit blind in one eye and as I understood it, they did a minor procedure on it during his visit, so he definitely couldn't drive.  Then we found a coffee shop and hung out for the next 2 hours until meeting up with the hubby over at the Food Truck Thursday event, seeing as this was the last time in a little bit that the lobster truck (Cousins Maine Lobster) was going to be there, and Reno wanted to get some lobster bisque.

Also, I found out that my dad went back to the hospital last night, and I was completely unaware until I get a text message from him this afternoon, starting with "The diagnosis was good..." and I immediately texted him back, saying I didn't even know he was in the hospital!  He'd sent me a text last night but it never came through on my end... Ugh.  I'm just glad he's going to be okay... he had knee replacement surgery back on March 22nd and he almost passed out last night during a dinner date with friends, because of some blood clots in his lungs (relating to the surgery).  I would have been so worried last night if I'd actually received that message.

That's about it for now.  I've had a huge headache all day, so I'm off to relax and maybe fall asleep early. 💤

Happy St. Patty's Day!

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Happy St. Patty's Day from Guinness & I!

Well, first off, happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone who happens to stumble upon this post! 🍀🍻🎉  This is the second year in a row that we have not gone to my mother-in-law's house, to have dinner of corned beef & cabbage, with her and at least one of my brother-in-laws.  Last year, it was because it was the aftermath of our wedding and my visiting family and I were [slowly] traveling through wine country over to San Francisco for the weekend.  This year, it's because my mother-in-law has been my brother-in-law's live-in caregiver after his stint in the hospital and so we weren't sure how he would be doing, so no definite plans were made.  But I have to say, I'm really missing our old St. Paddy's Day "tradition."  We're planning to have pork tamales for dinner instead, with refried black beans and tortilla chips, which I am not so excited about.  Eh.  Oh well, maybe next year life won't throw us so many obstacles and it will work out once more.  I'm not even a huge fan of corned beef, yet I find myself really missing it this time of year.  At least I had a St. Patrick's Day shirt to wear this year, which you can sorta see in the photo above!  Though I still got pinched by the hubby's brother earlier today, because he closed his eyes and claimed that he didn't see me wearing green.  Ha ha. -rolls eyes-

Speaking of earlier today, we went out and saw Tomb Raider in the IMAX theatre.  I wasn't really looking forward to it, because I've never been a big fan of the Lara Croft thing, but I have to admit that I did enjoy the movie, MUCH more than I was expecting!  It had plenty of action and mystery, and even a little glimpse of horror, which took me somewhat by surprise.  The sequence at the end of the film was probably my favorite part, where they're making their way deeper into the tomb, having to figure out the puzzles in the blink of an eye, with their lives at stake.  I was on the edge of my seat almost the whole time, ready to hide my eyes if necessary!

That's about all I have for today.  Hope everyone has had a wonderful day and remembered to drink responsibly, if you're taking part in the celebration of St. Patrick's Day with alcohol. 😉

Return of Food Truck Thursdays + First Vigil

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So today is the day that Food Truck Thursdays starts up again!  I'm so excited!  😁  We started making this a weekly 'tradition' last fall when it was introduced.  It's an event that brings together a variety of food trucks, offering a diverse selection of cuisines, all in one place.  It also inspires a sense of community in a city that could desperately use some positive attitudes and people.  We've grown somewhat close to the host, making sure to take a few moments to talk with him every week and see what's going on in the world of food trucks.  I'm going to start looking forward to Thursday nights once again.  It's also an excuse to not have to figure out dinner, besides what truck I'm going to hit up. 😜

Last night we attended a candlelight vigil for three women who were killed last week in a fatal hostage situation at the Veterans Home of California located in Yountville, which is about 60 miles away from us.  It was the first time I had ever been to something like that and there was a very somber vibe among the crowd.  It's horrible to hear what happened, especially after they had attempted to help the veteran who ended up cutting their lives short.  After hearing some prominent people from the community talk, candles were lit in honor of the victims, and we were instructed to blow them out as one, as a symbol of unity and moving on from this tragic occurrence.  It hit my hubby pretty hard from both sides of the spectrum, from having veterans in his family and having worked previously in mental health institutions, knowing what these women went through and sacrificed in order to help those veterans who needed it.

Today is also the birthday of a friend of mine, whom I met through my forum, so I wish the happiest of birthdays to Shanny. 😀🎈🎉🎂 I'll have to remember to ask her how 35 feels, because I will be there in another few short months! 😳

A Pain in the Neck... Literally

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Today has been... exhausting, to be honest.  First off, we didn't get home last night from the movie until around 1:20am, then stayed up a little bit longer so that Guinness could have some time out of his crate because it was Dozer's turn upstairs.  So it was at least 2am before I finally got to sleep.  I woke up around 7am, but didn't get out of bed until about 8:45am.  But that's not even the reason I've been so tired today.

See, yesterday afternoon, my neck started hurting, just a little at first and gradually getting worse throughout the day.  I had an upset stomach for about an hour before we headed out to dinner, considered canceling the whole night, but luckily, it got out of my system and I didn't have any more problems.  So I get up this morning, with the intention of cleaning up the house a bit, in preparation for my mother-in-law coming over for dinner tonight... yet my neck is killing me, worse than yesterday.  It feels like I have a constant weight on my shoulders, and I'm having to struggle to keep my head up, pushing against all that pressure.  Ugh.  It's not a pleasant feeling, and it completely drained my energy, after only a few minutes of cleaning.  I took a few breaks, but I was determined to at least get the important things done before I quit for the day.  Hopefully the pain will end up going away on its own though, because I really don't think it's serious enough to have to go to the doctor.

Anyway, we're trying out a new recipe for the Instant Pot today, Slow-Cook Cajun Beef and Grits and it's been cooking since about noon.  With all the cleaning and other things on my mind, I completely forgot to eat lunch at all, so I'm pretty starving right now...

Motivation Granted

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So... sometime during the last quarter of 2017, we were on a slight 'fitness' kick, spontaneously purchasing the Bowflex Max Trainer M5 that boasts about a 14-minute workout, and the hubby went off and bought a book with a meal plan & training exercises for losing weight quickly, called The 30-Second Body by Adam Rosante.  We were planning to utilize the advice and training in the book after using the Bowflex workout machine for a while... well, as you can probably guess, that plan didn't work out so much, however much I wanted it to.  First off, the machine is extremely difficult to use, if you're not in the utmost shape... which, let's face it, we are not. 😶 I think the highest amount of time I could spend on it was around 4 minutes, without my legs turning to complete jelly.

Anyway, skip ahead several months to now... I get a call this morning from him, saying that he wants to start using the book NOW, because he's tired of the way he looks.  I've been trying to make this happen for a long time, because losing weight is so much easier (and more fun) when you have someone else there on the same journey to motivate you.  So we're about to head out to dinner and look through this book and start planning.  I'm so excited to get started on this!

Though I really wish my consistent headache that I've had for the past couple days is going to start to dissipate soon, because working out in this condition is going to majorly suck. 😒  I've taken meds for it, and it works for a little bit, but then it always comes back.  Sleeping has been the only guarantee to help so far. 

Enough of the negativity though, wish me (us) luck as we start this new journey!!

Lazy Days of ... Winter?!

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Ever have one of those days where you just want to be completely lazy and not do anything at all?!  That has been my feeling for today.  Of course, I was not able to act on it though.  The hubby wanted to put together the framing for the shelving of his reloading bench, although he's still waiting on some mounting hardware to be delivered (tomorrow), plus buying the pegboard to go behind it, so the finished product will have to wait until then.  (and the picture that I will get)  So after almost getting pelted with a flying piece of wood, that we think might have hit my car instead (no damage, thank goodness!) and handing him screws when he needed them, now I've returned to SWTOR to work on gearing up my lower level characters.

At least for another half hour or so, until I have to stop to get ready for when we have to run a couple errands, before our dinner date at Chili's with Reno and my mother-in-law.  I'm looking forward to that, simply for their chicken enchilada soup that I love so much, and cannot resist ordering every time I'm there.  Aaand now I just made myself hungry. 😋

Funny thing happened earlier also... I recently joined Discord, which is a program similar to Skype, with a focus on gaming, like Steam, where you can add other people that you play with and be able to communicate easier through voice chat and stuff.  I joined mainly because Amanda wanted to use it for communication with the [future] members & staff of the Harry Potter forum that we've been working on.  I got a random friend request the other day from someone and after some messaging back and forth, I realized that it was actually someone I knew.  I'd forgotten that I randomly connected the program to my Facebook account and added a couple people who came up.  I don't know why I connected it to Facebook though, since the photo I use on there (Alexandra Daddario, whom I've decided to use, since she's amazing) is tied to my character on the roleplay forum and will probably end up causing some slight confusion... haha.  Oh well.

First [Almost] Forgotten Entry

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[Struggled with the title on this one, if it's not obvious...]

So I almost forgot to write this post today.  But I suddenly remembered that I hadn't written an entry, while watching The X-Files.  Don't ask what triggered this realization, as I'm sure it was nothing within the show.  But since I'm not really into the show all that much (never have been), I took advantage of this time to write. 😊

As for something to talk about... I don't necessarily have anything.  Haha.  Nothing much happened today, other than having to get up at 4am to make coffee, since the hubby had to leave for work about an hour earlier than he usually does.  I actually woke up at around 3:30am, and was in and out of sleep until I finally got out of my bed.  So I'm reasonably tired right now, and I may fall asleep shortly, in the recliner I'm currently relaxing in at the moment.  It also probably doesn't help that I'm drinking a glass of egg nog (with brandy, rum and whisky), which tends to make me sleepy.   Mmmm. 😍

Random update on dinner last night, it was delicious, and we will definitely be making that dish again (the tilapia).  I've gotten way more into fish over the past several years, ever since I discovered how amazing grilled salmon is.  It just leaves me feeling healthier after eating it.  If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be eating so much FISH now, I would have informed you that you were crazy!  I remember that the only thing I used to like about seafood were the hush puppies, and would only like going to seafood restaurants for that reason. (I still love them btw, although the restaurants out here don't really offer hush puppies with seafood; maybe it's a location thing.)

Yep, that's about it for today.  Boring, I know.  Have a wonderful night, if you've managed to read this far!

Lots of Tofu & "Puppy" Love!

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Well, today started out like any other typical day.  Until around 2:00pm when I received a random text message from my hubby, saying that my dad told him to take me out to dinner tonight... and eat lots of tofu!  I looked down at my phone with what was probably a perplexed expression.  Turned out my dad was included in the message as well and he says his reason was because it's "Good Friday" (which it's not, lol).  My dad can be a bit kooky sometimes, but in an amusing way. 😜  So now I'm waiting on the hubby to get home, then we're going to drive out about 45 minutes south, to get some Mongolian BBQ at our favorite restaurant!  Thanks for getting me out of cooking once more this week, Dad! 😌

Anyway, so after I took an impromptu shower and finished getting ready, I decided it'd been too long since Dozer & I took a selfie together, so I thought I'd share the best one, over there on the right.  He ditched me at first, but I was able to take advantage of him thinking someone was at the front door, which is why he looks so attentive.  Haha.  And that's a little behind-the-scenes tidbit of how I get him to pose so well, sometimes.  Then I just hope that I look halfway decent as well. 😂  Google reminded me earlier that it was 5 years ago today (2013) that we brought Dozer home, at just 11 weeks old and around 30lbs!  Along with photos that I'd taken that day also... it's hard to believe he was ever that small!  Like children, they grow up entirely too fast.  I wasn't sure our house could handle a dog of his size at first, but I wouldn't give him up for anything. 💙 Even if he does wreck our house a bit (it's funny, because it's totally true; we have the chewed wood molding and dented corner walls to prove it). 

Full-view recommended on that picture, btw! (just click it) I edited it with the Prisma app, to slightly resemble a painting, spicing up the photo a bit.  It's definitely my favorite photo app, especially if you have a not-so-great quality photo, it breathes so much life into the picture.

And that's all for today.  I'm off to relax and hopefully finish off the book I started last weekend at the gun show.