WEDDING BELL BLUES AKA TIME TO GET OFF THE FEED BAG

My, how time flies whether or not you're having fun!

Where did 2008 go?  Mostly to my hips, thighs and stomach, compliments of menopause and shrinking hormones -- oh, and lack of enthusiasm for exercising. Oh, and lack of any real incentive to stay in shape...

Yes, 2008 (well, actually, starting back in July 2007) has been the year (year and a half) of stress eating. If there was an intense emotion to be felt, I stuffed it with chocolate. And then I took a nap. Look up lethargic on Wikipedia, and there's my pic. 

Add to that sad scenario the fact that I sit 8-10 hours a day at a computer at a rather stressful job...

Anyway, the good news is, I've got a wedding in Cincinnati in June that I will be attending come hell or high water, so if THAT isn't incentive enough to get my rear in gear, I don't know what is. Nothing says, "get your ass off the couch and into your workout clothes" like a wedding back in your hometown.  It's right up there with a class reunion, which has, in the past, always done the trick for me where dieting and exercise are concerned.

The bad news is, I've got a wedding in Cincinnati in June that I will be attending come hell or high water. And,  quite honestly, at 52, even class reunions, let alone weddings,  are losing their lure as incentive to get in shape. It just takes so much time and energy...

What's that old song..."If they could see me now, that good old gang of mine...yada, yada, yada." Well, if they COULD see me right this very minute, they'd say, "Holy crap, girl, where's that sexy babe from your blog pic?" Where has she gone, indeed.

"She" is, I guess one might say,  my alter ego --  the thinner, vivacious, devil-may-care me,  who, with a bit of intense coaxing and the promise of an airplane ticket,  can rock, roll and rally for any back-home occasion. I call her Blythe Spirit. I miss Blythe, her energy, her verve, her tan, her sizzle.

Oh, I suspect she's still here somewhere...somewhere between a bag of Strawberry Twizzlers and a box of carmel ice cream drumsticks. Or maybe she's hiding down between the couch cushions as she lounges about watching a House marathon on the USA channel. Or maybe she's holed up in her attic room, in fetal position, underneath that comfy heated throw her friend Angie gave her for Christmas, her two faithful cats by her side.  That's always a possibility.

Come out, come out wherever you are, Blythe...

I know, I know. That Leslie Sansone "Walk Away The Pounds" video I bought for 10 bucks at Wal-Mart (complete with a stretchy resistance band) does me absolutely no good if I don't stick it in the DVD player and follow Leslie's instructions.

Did I mention, however, that I broke my  toe Saturday?  Yup. The  same left baby toe I slammed into the bed corner two years back. Only this time it was the corner of an antique chair up in the attic.  One might think -- knowing my disdain for exercise -- that I did this on purpose to avoid the aforementioned exercise. Perish that thought pal. Trust me, I may be a person of extremes, but not THAT extreme.

Anyway, truth be known,  I don't really think my toe is broken, I think I just jammed the hell out of it -- it is sooooo black and blue -- and shoes are ouchy. My first thought, of course (after, "Oh, Shittake mushrooms, that hurts", was "There goes my exercise plan!"

I know, I know. I can always do the Leslie Sansone video sans shoes...and just be mighty careful. I suppose I'll give it a shot. I have no choice! I'm just going to have to suck it up and work thru the pain.

'Cuz Good Lord, June is just around the corner. Can I do it? Can I morph back into Blythe Spirit in time for the wedding????

Damn the toe, full speed ahead!  I gotta get movin'!

Stay tuned.... 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'M BACK AT THE BLOG!

The burnt pumpkin pie is sitting smoldering atop the oven, I'm snarfing down almond bark-covered pretzels, and the cat is stoned on catnip...that can only mean one thing...

It's Christmas!  

Merry Christmas from The Home Stretch!

After a rather lengthy hiatus caused by a major virus attacking and killing my old my computer, I am, at last returning to the world of blogging thanks to my sexy new friend I Mac...yeah, we broke down and bought Daniel a new computer for Christmas. Speaking of broke, now we are...even more so than we were before.

But the look on our future film director's little face -- we call him Little Spielberg -- when he opened up this very special Christmas present was worth every last dime...which is now what we are down to. 

Hence, "Santa" left John a cheese slicer and, if John ever wakes up from his long winter's nap, he has pledged to  fulfill his Christmas promise to me to  install the dishwasher we recently inherited. The dishwasher's previous owners tell me the machine is noisy, but like I told them, hey, the darn thing can yell my old high school fight song into a microphone outside my bedroom door every morning at 3 a.m. and I won't care as long as it just does the damn dishes. 

Anyhoo, like I said, the look on Daniel's face when he discovered he really WAS  getting an I Mac for Christmas was the best present a mom and dad could receive...it's hard to surprise a 15-year-old at Christmas, but we did it! We had him convinced the old computer was coming back and maybe, sometime down the road, we might be able to swing a Mac Mini...

He took the news of the old computer's return like a trooper, and kept good holiday humor through opening box after box of  really lame Christmas presents like deodorant, shower gel, a shower puff (albeit a manly shower puff), the game Mad Gab (not a lame gift by any means, but I have a feeling Family Game Night may end up taking a back seat to his film making/editing)...you get the pic.

After John unwrapped and "oohed" and "ahhed" over his cheese slicer, and I swooned over my new blow dryer, it was time to clean up the wrapping paper and get on with our day. We sent Daniel downstairs to the basement to retrieve the box of garbage bags off the top of the washing machine (wink, wink) and voila!

There atop the washing machine Daniel discovered three more boxes wrapped in colorful Santa paper -- one very large box (the I Mac); one medium box (the printer) and one small box (the firewire for downloading his movies from his video cam to the computer).

He either exclaimed, "Great Scott! What are those?" or "What the bloody hell are those?" -- I can't clearly recall, I was so excited for him, but i do remember he used his best British accent (he's theatrical like his mother), and he was SOOOO taken aback...

The next best part was that I then got to rearrange my living room to make room for the new computer, which is ALWAYS great therapy for me...

However, I think it was sometime during my muttering "should I put the couch or the love seat against the south wall", then moving the couch to said south wall, and then staring at it in its new location for five minutes only to decide to move the love seat there instead, that John yawned and slipped away into the next room to take a "short break" before tackling the dishwasher installation...

That was four hours ago.

Ahem.

Not that I begrudge the guy a little rest on his day off..I'm just sayin'....

But I digress.

Did I mention yet how much I have missed blogging?  OMG!  And there is so much to blog about on this sexy new I Mac!  Wee dogs!  

Merry Christmas!  And stay tuned!