Down Again & A Fairy Tale in Reverse...

My bathroom scale was being a friend again this morning.  I stumbled on to it hoping but not hoping; but not sure what to expect.  I tried to clear my blurry morning eyes a couple of times before I was sure of what I was seeing.  Yeah!  I was down two more pounds!  Wow; what a way to start off the morning. 

I promptly went in my closet and tried on those size 12 Calvin Klein jeans that I could just barely squeeze into.  They fit!  I was VERY tempted to wear them today but its “Homeless” Friday.  (Yes, the ultimate version of the casual Friday has been down graded at my work.  We now call it – Homeless Friday’s!)  So instead of wearing the dressy beige Calvin Klein’s, I grabbed a comfortable pair of holey jeans to pair with layer t-shirts.  I’ll save the Calvin Klein’s for Monday.

I had quite the stats for this week when it came to working out but then I did do a century this last Saturday.  But here are my stats—151 miles cycling and 4.6 miles running.  I’m going to try to continue this working out and eating plan; in hopes that I’ll continue to lose.

Now for the fairy tale in reverse? 

My mom has been playing with the idea of renaming her cat from Porsche to Pumpkin.  She has her reasons; besides, the variety of spellings possible for the car.  One of which is that she says she’s always calling her cat Pumpkin anyway.  I rather found it a bit funny at first when she mentioned it because it really struck me like a Cinderella story in reverse.  Yeah, can you imagine going from a Porsche to a Pumpkin? 

But I guess it’s a good thing it’s not a dog.  Because changing names on a dog would confuse the heck out of dog.  Come here Spike!  Come here Squirt!  Or whatever!  At least you don’t have to worry about a cat coming when you call.  Most of the time they just look at you like they are saying “I’ll come when I damn well feel like it.  So hold your horses, will ya?”

Well, this week Porsche/Pumpkin or Ms. Orange Porsche is recovering from having her back claws removed.  Mom thought she better get it done understandably to save on the new living room furniture.  Mom was lucky enough to have sometime off to stay home with Ms. Orange Porsche--- You know, I rather am liking this possible new name.  What do you think, Mom?

Birthday, A New Cat, & Spanish

This last Sunday evening, I took the Popette out for her 79^th birthday.  I took her to a local restaurant to celebrate.  We went to the Oasis Café which was a wonderful treat for both of us.  Of course, in typical Popette style the waitress got more than she bargained for.  It all started shortly after the entrée was placed before the Popette and she asked for a take out box for the “micro- salad” as she pointed at a mix of alfalfa sprouts and fresh greenery crowning her entrée.  The waitress stopped and had that “deer in the head lights” look.  I laughed and told her to keep on her toes with this one while pointing my finger at the Popette.  After that it was a sparring contest of comebacks between the two; the Popette and the waitress.

Photo- The Popette and her painting!

The Popette LOVED her portrait!!  Thank you Colleen for painting it!  Immediately we had it sit up on a chair so the Popette could “admire” herself while she immersed herself in the wonderful entrée minus the “micro salad”.  The food was glorious; such a mix and blends of different flavors that complemented each other that it got to the point where we were savoring every bite.  After the meal, we stretch our legs for a bit by wondering around the Golden Braid Book Store that’s right next door to the restaurant.  What a wonderful evening!

Photo- Mom's new cat; Porsche!

 Here’s Mom’s new cat, Porsche.  I got the photo in the mail with a cute Easter card.  She looks like a cute cat!  But I have to laugh, because every time Mom spells her name it’s spelled a little bit differently.  I told her I never knew there were so many different ways to spell Porsche.  She thinks she should have named her Pumpkin or something else that would have been easier.  Pumpkin, huh?

Last night was my second class of Beginning Spanish.  I feel like I’m learning a lot of words that I can read or write but I REALLY suck at the verbal!  Need to go to the library and maybe see if they have Spanish on discs, or DVD’s or something.  Oh, or possibly a good looking male Spanish tutor!  That could give me the extra incentive. J Anyone have any suggestions or leads, please contact me. I will admit that the other students probably didn’t like me much.  I was the only one that had done all the homework the teacher had given out and I had a list of questions to ask.  Meanwhile, the rest of the students looked lost as I asked the questions.  Yeah, that’s me not winning any brownie points with the other students but on my way to becoming the teacher’s pet.  It reminds me of Junior High only without the acne!

A New Cat & A Month End Report...

Mom now has a new cat whose name is Porsche.  It’s a grey cat and I’m sure that mom will be mailing me a photo via snail mail any day now.  (Mom has yet to managed the feat of attaching a photo to an email.)  Prior to the announcement of the new cat when I would talk on the phone with her she was always mentioning about seeing a cat or kitten at a local pets store.  So last week when she called me mid-morning while I was at work  with an excited voice and said, “Guess what?!??!!”  I guess she got a new cat.  It took a little bit of the wind out of her sails, but she continued on excitedly and told me about the new family member.
 

It was a couple days later that she called me because Porsche was hissing and snarling at her.  She was afraid the cat would bite her in the middle of the night so she was sleeping catless with the bedroom door closed.  My first thought was that THIS was not going to work out.  

I know that there’s an adjustment period whenever there’s a new pet.  I know I had one with my dog Rocky.  I was ready to take him back the first week.  Well, almost the 3^rd day after he had torn into a HUGE stuff animal and I had little bitty styroform balls all over the green shag carpeting.  We were finding those balls for months!  I told visitors that we were fertilizing the living room lawn when they discovered the small white balls.

The last time I talk with Mom, it seemed that her and Porsche have come to an arrangement and are getting along.  But I have a bit of fun when I call mom and ask if everyone is alive and well.

Now for the Month End Report… ( A little bit late but…)

1.)    Saving Money?

Well thanks to the help of selling some paintings, I’ve managed to save more by about 18% which has been nice.  The even nicer park of all this has been that a piece of my work will in the future be displayed in London, England.  Yes, a fellow blogger has purchased a piece of my art work, and I think that’s SO cool!

Here's the artwork...

"Cycle of Red, Yellow& Tyedyed"; A Poured Watercolor on 11" x 11" Paper.

2.)    Uncluttering My Life?

I’ve started forming a large pile to go off to the good will.  I went through a couple of kitchen cupboards and in fact, emptyied out two of them completely.  They were just full of STUFF.  I’ve also been starting to go through all of the warm weather clothes and seeing if I want to keep or put in the pile.  But I’m progressing on this goal a little more this year!  Yeah!
 

3.)    Reaching My Goal Weight?

I’ve rather hit a plateau these last couple of weeks but I’m trying to hang in there and focus.  I still have between those 12 to 13 lbs. to lose.  They seem to be like a parasite that’s hanging on for dear life.
 

4.)    Cutting down on eating out?

UGH!  I’ve been just plain HORRible about this one.  In fact, today for lunch I went through the Wendy’s drive thru and all of the gals working at the restaurant leaned out said hello and asked me how I was doing!  NOT a good sign!  But I will say I’m not on a first name basis yet!  Obviously, I need to work on this one!
 

5.)Do 1 Century Bike Ride this year?

I’m hoping to have the first one be the Willard Bay Super Series Bike Ride that my bike club puts on the 21^st of this month.  If it’s not too windy, it will be a go!  I’m still waiting to hear about RAGBRAI.  The lottery will be announced on May 1^st, and I’m thinking I’ll need to really step up for some riding if I get in that.  I mean 471 miles in a week; O-vay!  That’s a lot of riding.

An Ode to Buddy the Cat

This last week Mom’s Cat, Buddy, passed away.  He was my mom’s constant companion and she loved to spoil him.  Mom has taken it rather hard.  She says she can’t believe how much she misses “his little person” around the house.  He was such great company to her.  Some of you may remember that I did a painting of him as a gift for my mom back around Thanksgiving in 2010.  I called it "Mom's 10 lbs. Butterball".

Oil on 11" x 14" Canvasboard.

I remember when she first got him and took him for car rides.  I was like “Mom, you realize this is a cat and not a dog.  Cat’s generally have issues with motion sickness in the car.”  Mom said to me, “He’s going to be a “Car Cat” if it kills him.”  And that was the end of that discussion.   Buddy actually did end up loving to go with Mom on car rides.  He would either lie in her lap or perch himself in the back window of her car as they tooled together around on the eastern Iowa roadways.  The image of them brings a smile to my face.

A earlier watercolor of Buddy that ended up getting lost in Omaha.

Mom admits that Buddy could be stubborn at times.  (I think it might have been a bit of mom’s German stubbornness that rubbed off on Buddy?)  But Buddy purred a lot to let her know he was contented and happy.  Buddy would crawl under the blankets on Mom’s bed and sleep the whole night through.  He loved to roll around on the cement patio on sunny days and he enjoyed his catnip too.  He had a pretty good life.  I sometimes would tease Mom that she treated Buddy better than she ever treated any of us kids.  I also think that if I ever get reincarnated I want to come back as someone's spoiled cat. 

He was relatively young.  It came as some what of a shock to me because Buddy was only a little over 8 years old.  But I think that it’s always a shock and hard to accept loosing a pet.  Pets are a part of us and a part of our lives.  Then, there’s the wonderful unconditional love that we received from them.  It’s hard to loose that.  I still have my days when I see someone walking a black lab dog that I miss my old dog Rocky who I had for almost 14 years.  It takes time to get over something like that.  All I can say is “Hang in there Mom!”  It gets easier with the passing of time.  Mom- my love, thoughts, and prayers are with you.

Up, Apline Loop, & Cat Sitting...

I grimaced a bit at the scale this morning. It said I was up 1 lb which brings me back to a total weight loss of 19 lbs. I was disappointed because I managed to bike 125 miles this week and I thought I would be down with THAT much cycling. But maybe I need to get out them running shoes too. I do notice that when I run I’m more likely to lose weight. But cycling can be a good calorie burning exercise too and I have been pushing myself to perform a bit better each time I do a climbing ride.



The main problem with my cycling is that most of those rides occur right after work in the evening. Then on the way home I usually grab something to eat. It’s the combo of eating late and eating quick fast food that’s not good. The problems are that I don’t have the time to eat before the bike ride and most times my stomach gets upset if I try to workout right after eating. It’s a catch 22 situation. I really wish I liked salads more that would totally be the solution. I have been forgoing the fast food combos with the French fries. I love going to Wendy’s and ordering the mandarin oranges instead of having fries.


This weekend if Sunday’s weather holds out to be nice and there’s no mudslide on the roads, I’ll be leading an Alpine Loop Bicycle ride. It is some of the most beautiful cycling country with a water stop at Cascade Springs Nature area and a turn around at Sundance. I will say there’s a great deal of climbing on the ride but its worth it and I’ve designed the route so that if its too much for my fellow cyclists they can always turn around and head back down.  I'll take my camera with me and share some photos with you.

Also, this weekend I’m doing a bit of cat sitting; a pair of calico kitties. This is the second time in two months that I’ve been a cat sitter. It’s kind of been fun in that I have the benefit of enjoying being with a pet(s) without any true ownership. Its also nice staying at someone else's place.  It's like a mini-vacation.  Bonus! Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I wanted to wish everyone a very

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

I hope its a wonderful day for you and yours.  Outside of my favorite Holiday of Halloween, Thanksgiving runs a quick second; mostly due to the food.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and the pumpkin pie!  My mouth is just watering at the thought of it all; much to the chagrin of my waistline!  Is there another Holiday that is SO focused on the FOOD?!  I have to THANKFULLY say No!  One more thing to be thankful for.  Though, I will say there's a great deal of candy & cookies involved with Christmas.  Oh boy!  I think I'm definitely going to need to renew my gym membership!   

Here's a recent painting I did of my mom's cat.  I thought it was appropiate because she often refers to her spoiled and some what chubby cat by the name of Butterball.  Here's Buddy better known as Butterball...


"Mom's 10 lb. Butterball", oil on canvasboard 11" x 14".

Now try not to eat TOO much!