Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Mind over matter?


Recently I saw that Yahoo offered a module that you could put on your home page that would allow you to set a weight loss goal and track your progress. Considering the fact that I am a visual learner AND a geek, I thought this would be worth a try, so I loaded it on my page.

Then, yesterday Spencer and I set out to go on a bike ride. We decided to go slow, but steady around the block. He wanted to go downtown to Rockford, but it is difficult to bike down and back because it is very hilly. Well, hill. One hill down and one hill up. You’d better have good brakes on your bike to get down the hill safely, and more than likely you will be walking that bike back up the hill. I really like walking it, but biking it really isn’t much fun for me.

Did I mention Spencer and I are rather out of shape? We managed to get around our block and then went out again to return a book to one of our neighbors. We were exhausted. Spencer and I made an agreement that we would practice every morning on the stationary bike to get us ready for better bike rides out and about.


Finally, today I was reading one of my favorite blogs and the topic was food and exercise journaling.


So why does it work out this way? In a matter of one week I have had three different aspects of weight loss hit me square in the face. Does this happen randomly? Am I looking for these things? Is my mind trying to affect my body?


Does this happen to you where you find you are bombarded by a specific topic everywhere you turn and you find yourself wondering why?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Holly vs. pond

I have a little pond in my yard. Actually, I should say that the boys in the neighborhood and I have a pond in my yard. Pat put the pond in for me a few years ago.


Ian and I rearranged the little ponds this spring. I have four goldfish in the pond and the neighborhood boys have tadpoles and frogs that they have imported from a “real” pond in the field behind one of the houses.


This year I decided not to put any new plants in my pond. I have one struggling water lily and I decided with the boys being so involved this year, I wasn’t going to invest in plants. Then I remembered what I learned the first year of back yard ponding… feed fish=fish poop=nutrients to grow plants. The problem comes when you decide not to put in plants. Those nutrients have to go somewhere, and that somewhere is algae! String algae. The worst! The filtration system was clogged so bad that the water was barely flowing anymore. I had been suffering through pulling chunks of algae out every so often, but I just couldn’t keep up any more.

Yesterday, I broke down and bought a few plants. So there I was yanking out looooong yucky clumps of string algae thinking, “Where is Mike Rowe when you need him?” I figured it would take a week or so to clear up the algae bloom. I was thrilled this morning to be able to see my fish happily chasing each other around in the clear water. As a bonus, one of my plants flowered this morning!

The frogs weren’t so happy. They all moved back to the “real” pond.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Vacation...not in my opinion!


My son Spencer is constantly scouring the web for fun and exciting things. Honestly, I don't know how he finds some of this stuff. Just yesterday he ran down the stairs with great excitement exclaiming that he had found the perfect vacation spot for us.


"Quick Mom! Look at their web page! It will be awesome!"


So dutifully I click here to see what I am supposed to get all excited about.


I was amused that they are showing "The Abyss" on the DVD player, offer seafood appetizers, and a choice of pizza or 'subs' for lunch.


Sorry Spence, I think I will take a pass on this one and stick to watching Sponge Bob for my undersea adventures.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Beginning

It's a beautiful day. I should be outside. Instead, I decided to start a blog today.

Last night I spent about 5 hours working on "debricking" Ian's mp3 player. Pat got an iPod so Ian benefited from the trickle down electronics effect. The mp3 player lasted less than a week before it broke. Coincidence? You decide.

After scouring the manufacturer's website for help, I finally discovered the users forums. This is where the real geeks stuff happens. Unfortunately, I kept performing searches on what I "thought" my issue was. Things like locked up, won't start, who would have thought that they would refer to that tiny mp3 player as a BRICK! Of course now it all makes sense to me but I didn't realize at the beginning that I was taking on a debricking operation. The great news is that I got it working again.

Well, I am off to my next assignment. My girlfriend just called and told me the much anticipated DSL router just arrived. Just another day in geekdom!