I haven’t had too much to blog about lately. I seem to have become summer baby-sitter for the BF’s nieces and nephews. They always want to come over and play with the animals or the Wii. I also took them to the pool for swim lessons this week, fun! I actually got to sit around and read school work without too much distraction, so it worked out. I am trying convince them to go back more often, just so I can get out of the house and away from the internet . . . . But I can’t get in without them as they are part of the club and I can get in with them. However they are on the swim team, so it seems by time their practice is over, they are over the pool. I was never on swim team, but I remember we would stay at the pool all day long.

After being away last week, I finally started the PodRunner thing this week . . . after buying some decent shoes to run in as well. On Friday I’ll be officially done with week one. I could move on to week two at this point, as I did it once before leaving for vacation, but I am just going to wait and stay on a regular weekly schedule. I’ve also been finally giving the Wii Fit some decent attention, using it on the days I don’t run. I want to see what happens if you ever get to the weight loss goal you set for yourself. Hopefully it throws you a party or something. It will probably just say “Great, your no longer fat!”

The fourth is coming up, and living in the Philly area there are fireworks everywhere. We actually have two days of fireworks over in Philly, on the fourth and the fifth. Some of the townships in Jersey have already set theirs off, probably because everyone in Jersey is fleeing to the shore this week/end. I’m supposed to go to a party at Jen’s for the ones on the fifth of July. Should be fun!

Anyway, I didn’t take any photos of me last week while on vacation, except for one. It was hot and sticky and I wasn’t feeling much like being photographed. Plus I didn’t bring my tripod, so it wasn’t easy. I’m probably going back in August and my friend Keith wants to go this time, after seeing the youtube video of The Griffon I plan to take the tripod to get some good night photos in Williamsburg this time.

Because I didn’t take any photos, here are some of me rolling around on the bed. Yeah I know, I didn’t smile. Sorry. I had to adjust the color because for most of them the flash was used, and did my best to match the natural light of the first one. You can see how the hair is coming along.

So this afternoon I finally dragged my butt out to try this ‘Couch to 5K’ podcast run. Oh Ma Gawd! Half way through the man tells me “You should be feeling the affects of the running, but shouldn’t be tired or out of breath.” I was like “all of the above!” I finished it, and worked up a sweat like I’ve never done at the gym on the cardio equipment. I have to say to keep this up I will need better tennis shoes for sure. Running in sketchers doesn’t cut it, even if they are the ’sport’ variety.

The above is another local news bit with the BF. He wasn’t given as much airtime as in the last one, but he’s put together a bit better this time I also have a beef to pick with CBS for the way they edited it as you can’t distinguish between the two farms in it! All the shopping and customers are his farm, the fields are the other farm in the broadcast. Oh and thank you Cathy Gandolpho for not bothering to even say the name of the farm, when in fact you stood in the parking lot to do your live broadcast!

In the future these things will be nipped in the bud. Like it or not, I’ll probably end up working at the farm when school is over. I’ll need a job, I have no clue what my chances of getting one in my field locally are and I’ve been unofficially offered one doing their website, newsletters and other stuff which I actually can do and they can’t. I’d also be able to do educational stuff about the area too for school groups. Who knows, it’s a big farm, I could find a site on it I’m sure.

My next official video blog will be a walking tour of the farm The weather should be nice this weekend so I’ll take all the videos. Next week I’m in Virginia and specifically Williamsburg. My nights are going to be spent at the Quality Inn, not out partying, so I’ll probably be working at night on school work. I’ll edit my blog when I need a brain break. I’ll also be sure to get photos up of Williamsburg and Jamestown while I’m there!

So after posting my horrific first run experience, my friend pointed me to the following website: http://www.c25k.com/ It’s called ‘Couch to 5K in 9 Weeks.’ The idea is over nine weeks any old couch potato can train to run a 5K. Now I have no desire to run a 5K, but the program sounds interesting to me, especially since after that first attempt I realized how horrifically out of shape I really am.

On the site there are 9 weeks of free podcasts to download that basically tell you what to do, ie when to walk and when to run. It’s all set to music too, so that’s even better. I downloaded all the podcasts and have decided to give this program a try. I’ll update everyone on my progress here and how effective it is.

The website also pointed me to another site called Calorie King (http://www.calorieking.com). I had been using MyFoodDiary.com for awhile which I really like. Two summers ago using it and regular exercise I lost a good deal of weight. However lately I find myself only using it to record my weight and not being bothered to input my food, which is bothersome as you have to search for the foods and then scroll through lists looking for what you wanted it to find for you.

The Calorie King website lets you download software (a free 7 day trial) and works almost the same way as MyFoodDiary does, but so much quicker because it’s on your PC. Plus the food part is so more efficient when it comes to searching and finding, and you can download updates to the food database. I like the overall graphical presentation of what you’ve eaten better as well (how much fat, carbs, calories, etc). I’m going to switch over to this and use it as well.

By the end of this summer I plan to finally be done with my dissertation and a fit lean mean machine lol.

So after my attempt at running yesterday, I woke up today and my legs didn’t feel so good. In fact they hurt, a lot, a lot more than they do from using cardio equipment at the gym. That was pretty telling to me. I thought they’d get better as the day went on. Nope! They still hurt. Needless to say I didn’t even attempt to run today, except to run across the street . . . and that hurt a lot.

Last night I watched the Tony Awards on TV. One of the presenters was Alec Baldwin and he brought his brother with him . . . no not Billy . . . Stephen! I was shocked and pretty appalled. They showed a shot of them sitting there and Stephen smiled and waved at the camera. I wanted to throw something at him, and I hope someone at the Tony Awards did . . . and that they hit him in the head . . . hard . . . real hard.

For those not aware, Stephen has become a born again Christian recently, but the insane kind like Kirk Cameron where they feel the need to tell everyone how they are going to burn in hell and it will really hurt. Stephen also got into a war of words with his brother Billy, who stars on “Dirty Sexy Money.” Billy plays a character having an affair with a post-op transsexual on the show, who is played by a real life post-op. They’ve gotten into arguments over gays, gay rights and gay marriage. Yeah you can pretty much guess what Stephen thinks and had to say about the subject. So color me shocked that he had the balls to show up at the Tony Awards, gay central.

I hope Cheyenne Jackson kicked him in the balls.

So I did not go running on Saturday like I said I would. I woke up, walked outside and said “Ew.” It was so muggy and the air was so thick that you could see the haze. I was not about to run in that crud.

I did run tonight, but I didn’t last long at all. I soon remembered and was reminded of why I hated running the mile back in high school. I guess if I run a bit each day, or every other day, I’ll get better. But I don’t want to get shin splints either. Once all my cuts heal I’ll be able to get back to the gym.

I tried to find some new earrings in Philly when I was there Friday, but none of the stores had what I wanted. If they did they had one of the color I wanted at insane prices. I just went online and ordered a bunch of earrings from a reputable site. I ordered 3 teal for one ear and 2 green for the other. I still want 2 more piercings, and almost considered getting them done on Friday. It was so hot though and I was meeting Jen, I didn’t want to risk a migraine from sharp needles going into my ears.

Finally I introduced the BF, quickly, to Singstar tonight. He came in while I was perusing the videos online. He asked what the game was, I told him, then I showed him videos from the star of the online Singstar Scene, one Divalicious. He found it amusing. I didn’t show him the actual game part, cause he’d want to play and the Tony Awards are about to come on. Xanadu baby!

Yesterday I got the BRILLIANT idea to go rollerblading for exercise. I hadn’t used my blades in probably two years, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was in those two years the county had not maintained the sidewalks along our road at all. So basically they had gone to crap, which I soon began to realize was not good for me. I had terrible visions of me stumbling, falling face forward and breaking all the teeth in my mouth.

Well the breaking teeth part didn’t happen. Before I knew it, I was coming down a slope and facing silt and sand which had piled up on the sidewalk. I tried to stop in time, but to no avail. I hit it, then I tumbled . . . . almost into oncoming traffic! I now have skinned up shins and messed up palms. Needless to say I will never again rollerblade around here again!

Of course this accident comes right at the time I had just healed up from other injuries that had kept me out of the gym for nearly two weeks. I’m probably out for another two weeks now. I’m one of those people who refuses to go to the gym with open wounds on my hands cause of the dirty germy equipment. I have for awhile considered trying to jog, which now I might have to do with now gym and only having the Wii Fit for exercise. It’s good for some things, not so much for aerobics though (except for the hula hoop, that is a workout actually).

So today was the day, the Wii Fit came out! I was so looking forward to this. I put a 5 dollar down payment on it at Best Buy to reserve it, and they gave me a little flier to explain when and how to pick it up. In big letters on the flier it says “Available May 19th!” That’s today of course. I must admit at first I found this odd, because videogames normally ship on Tuesdays and come out on Wednesdays. But Best Buy did spend money printing all these reserve card flier things so they can’t be wrong right? WRONG! I get there today and am told “Yeah they don’t actually come out till Wednesday. I don’t know when these cards were printed or why the date was wrong, sorry.”

Uhg, it was like having Christmas ruined! Okay not that bad, but I wasn’t happy. I had such a crummy weekend. I was in a bad mood the whole weekend and spent too much time cleaning the house (which seems to have helped my allergies on the up side). Princess not only felt bad, she had explosive diarrhea, which i woke up to all over the floor this morning! So all I really wanted was to play Wii Fit, and I’ve been denied!

On the upside, since finally taking getting into shape and losing weight seriously about 2-3 weeks ago, I’ve been finally seeing results. I saw a number on the scale today I haven’t seen in about 2 years, and I’m hoping tomorrow it will be even lower. I also noticed today my face actually was looking a little thinner than usual. Woohoo! For my cruise next year I intend to finally be in the shape I’ve wanted to for years Now if only my Wii Fit would get here!

So this Friday “Prince Caspian” hits theaters. I had hoped to start reading “The Golden Compass” this weekend, but instead I pulled out “Prince Caspian” to read. I want to remember the story and see how the movie compares to the book. I’m not sure when we’ll actually see it because the BF will be working late Friday and Saturday, and Sunday is the season finale of “Desperate Housewives.” Oy! I guess it gives me a bit more time to finish it, but I’m already 1/3 through the book. I forgot these are essentially kids books and quick reads.

In other news, I’ve become a cooking monster lately. Yes I have in fact been using that GT Xpress I bought. I’ve made cakes, eggs, calzones and even chicken cordon bleu in it! I love it. I’ve also been cooking up a mess of meat lately, as I’ve been trying to limit the carbs I eat. It’s definately helped me lose some weight, and with the Wii Fit coming next week, I expect to be a lean mean sex machine soon I’ve been cooking steaks (which I’ve never done before and have gotten better at) and even ribs! I have however been bad and started cooking cheesecakes, which the BF seems to be eatting more than I do.

It’s that time of year again! Time to get serious about trying to lose some weight and shape up. Of course this is brought on by the fact that we booked out cruise for next January. We are once again going on Royal Caribbean because we had such a good time on the last one. It’s 8 nights on the Independence of the Seas. Before the cruise this year we’ll be doing Universal Studios in Orlando. I’m so excited and I can’t wait, though obviously I have to. This is going to be my first real cruise, even though it’s my 7th (I think). I’ll have no soaps to watch, no pages I feel I have to get updated and God as I my witness I WILL be done with school! I am expecting a carefree vacation damnit!

Back to the topic at hand. Every time I book a cruise I get on the “get fit” kick, which usually I try to kick up in November (the worst time of the year because of holidays). I’ve actually been doing fairly good about food and getting to the gym, but I have to get a bit more serious and stop cheating with what I’m eating. To help I plopped down a down-payment to reserve a Nintendo Wii Fit. It comes out later this month and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It does strength training, yoga and aerobics as well as “balance games.” I know it can’t replace the gym, but it’s been getting good marks. Plus I know first hand that playing “Dance Dance Revolution” for 30 minutes gives you a damn good workout. So I’m expecting this to be as good if not better. I also know Yoga can be but kicking, but it’s not something I would want to do at the gym in front of others

Lately I have been keeping one of the resolutions I made to myself last year. I think it was last year? I know it was a long time ago for sure. The resolution was to make more me time, especially videogame time. I’ve been pretty good about making time at least every other night to blast the baddies or what not . . . and it feels so good. If I actually had more time I would love to get into online gaming stuff, but I’m afraid I’d just get too addicted and get nothing done. That would be bad!

Meanwhile I’ve also kept up my goal to try and eat better and get back to the gym . . . and the past few I finally started feeling it. The sore muscles! Oh well, no pain no gain!

Finally, I recently indulged in my love for the one and only Wonder Woman and bought a few new figures, as well as this new doll from The Tonner Doll Company. I now have too much Wonder Woman memorabilia to fit on my book shelf in the downstairs guest room lol. I am planning to reorganize it, hanging a lot of the figures up on the walls along with some paintings and pictures I have of Wonder Buns as well. Now if only I could find Wonder Woman bed sheets and a comforter for the bed in there the room would be complete