10% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There need to be about 50 more !!!'s up there.

So I finally reached the 1st weight watchers goal. The last three weeks have been painful without any change - but this past week I stepped up my exercise (see tomorrow's morning's post) a bit and so I think that is the reason I met (and surpassed) this goal. By losing just 10 percent of your body weight, you can lower your cholesterol and reduce your blood pressure!!

So I just had to tell you all. Now I just need one more 10% and I'll be in the healthy weight range ('cause y'all I was officially obese - according to the BMI charts when I started. Just barely, but I was there - now I'm merely overweight).

2 more pounds and I'll be the lightest I have been in 3 years, friends.

Hope you are all healthy and happy and are sharin' my joy.

Burke Lake Park

We went to Burke Lake this morning. Click here for their website.

It is a nice little park with a huge man made lake. It looks a lot prettier in person than the picture on their website. It has a dirt/gravel path all the way around the lake which is about 5 miles or so. You can bike, run, canoe, kayak, etc. there. There is a playground for kids, and volleyball courts too. Also there is a little fitness trail and a nature trail. It's free for Fairfax County residents.

Almost the whole 5 mile path is in shade. Burke Lake Park is one of the 10 best fitness trails in the nation, According the Hiking Assoc. of America. It was really a nice morning, not too hot outside. There were a lot of a runner there along the path. Harland and I just walked.

I highly recommend it and I bet we'll go again soon.

Rest in Peace, Mouse

Okay we finally got Mr. Mouse. He liked brownies, melted ice cream and crumbs. His love for peanut butter was renowned. It, in fact, was his last meal.

We finally got him with a super mouse trap idea built by my hubby. Three mouse traps in a row, taped together with peanut butter baiting the middle one.

I feel bad about him, but he had to go, and he didn't listen to me. I told him if he stuck around it would not be good for him. Where is the pet psychic when you need her to talk to animals?

The Mouse in my house

Okay some of you know about the mouse. You know, the one a few weeks ago I wished would just go away and not come back? Well, it hasn't gone away. Mouse is still here.

So the apt. people put down poison, in three weeks it hasn't eaten it. I complained and they put down glue traps! which I think are horribly inhumane (in fact many states have banned them). I could not bear the thought of a live mouse being stuck in this thing panicking until we find it then we have to kill it or throw it away alive, which just freaks me out to no end. It's basically torture. Some mice even rip off fur or skin trying to get out or actually do get out ripping things.

But the mouse has to go, they carry diseases and buggies and all kinds of nasty things. And he is living in the kitchen. Every morning I tell him he better leave. But he hasn't listened.

So we set some old fashioned traps. He ate the peanut butter off of them. He just mocks us.

Anyone has any hints? Tricks? Advice? Sympathy?

Exercise Log, Week 1

I'm taking a page from Yarnsticks and keeping a weekly log of exercise on my blog. I'll "label" it so that any time you want to see them all, you'll be able to click on the label below the post called "exercise log" and it will bring them all up. Okay so probably that feature is only helpful for me. In fact, I'm going to try and make this interesting to all, by including little stories... but it still may be boring.

Right now I am trying to get back into running. I'd really like to be able to run a 5K in October. I am hoping to find a local one so that maybe H and I can sign up and celebrate our (3rd) wedding anniversary with some matching race t-shirts. Hmmm. That is pretty dorky... but then... so are we.

So on Day 6 when I was out run/walking I was near the pond near my apartment and there were three Canadian Geese and one was making this pitiful honk every 10 or so seconds. It was really strange. The second time I came by the one goose was still making that honk when a whole flock (small flock maybe 10 at the most) flew down and they all started chatting. The 3 ones that had been alone were smaller, so I'm thinking maybe they were cranky teenagers whose parents had gotten up earlier and left for food or something. This morning they were all in a field nearby grazing on bugs and other yummies, but it was the whole flock.

Day1 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1 minute, walked 2 minutes) X 5, walked 10 minutes
In the PM: 15 push-ups X 3; 30 crunches X 2

Day2 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1:30, walked 2) X3, walked 10 minutes

Day3 - In the AM: Walked 4.7 miles around Burke Lake
In the PM: 15 push-ups X 3, 15 sit-ups X 3, 15 lunges (per leg) X 3, 15 squats X 3 (this I nicknamed as 'SPLAS' - which stands for Situps, Pushups, Lunges And Squats)

Day4 - In the PM: 23 minutes of Ab Yoga

Day5 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1:30, walked 2) X3, walked 10 minutes

Day6 - In the AM: Walked 10 minutes, (Ran Day6- 2 minutes, waled 1:30) X 3, walked 10 minutes.

Day7 - In the AM: Walked 10 minutes, (Ran Day6- 2 minutes, waled 1:30) X 3, walked 10 minutes.

What's going on

1. So we have this loud upstairs neighbor and we can't sleep a lot so we wanted to move, but really, I am so tired of moving I could throw up. I think I have moved almost every year since I graduated college. Ugh. But it looks like I'm going to move again this year. We found an apartment here in our complex that is a bigger one bedroom and on the top floor of another building. So therefore... we are moving in August. It also isn't very much more than what we are paying now, and the layout of the apt. is so much nicer!!

2. I finally am mailing out birthday cards for like the last 3 months. I am so late. I don't know what my deal is, but I buy cards and I never mail them. I am so terrible about it. Also I need to write birthdays down on my calendar. I forgot to do that this year and that may be why. I am terrible about remembering all birthdays.

3. Got some travel books from the library about the Netherlands so I will be reading up on that this week.

And well, sadly that is it.

Have you seen this?

Okay, I admit I may be on the slow end of technology, so maybe you have already seen this, but it blows my mind, really. Photosynth. I can't really explain - other than to say that people who love photographs or computers (or if there are people out there who love both) will be impressed. I also saw a demonstration on some guy's laptop in an online video and it really is amazing how fast it is.



All this from the internet and it seems to load pictures so fast! I of course can not try it at home since we have a Mac... but this looks super cool. Oh and the video says 9 minutes, which seems long - but the last 2 minutes are a commercial... But be sure to watch the first 6.