Music from my Life

Thought I'd actually post about music, seeing as how that's sort of the theme of my blog. I love music, with two or three exceptions. I don't like rap or heavy metal. Also, not too keen on organ music. Some years ago, probably when I was about 25, so half my life ago, LOL, a friend (Dana, you know who you are!) turned me onto movie soundtracks and electronic music. At that time the local jr. college was doing a Saturday nite show, featuring many cutting edge artists, such as Steve Roach, Vangelis and more. I would tape the program and I got a lot of great music for free that way. What amazes me is how powerful these influences actually were; I just tracked down the music to Western Spaces, an album by Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny and Richard Burmer, that I had listened to way back then. I still remembered the title of the first song on the album, The Breathing Stone. I found that the album had been reissued, but minus Burmer's work. I actually spent a long time online searching for his pieces, so I would have the complete album. The awesome thing about the internet, well, one of them, anyway, is that a lot of the old music is being made available again. I use Pandora.com sometimes and am even able to listen to praise music on their site. They did a lot of research and set up what they called The Music Genome Project and then made it available to everyone. Okay, I can't find Love Song, a group from the very beginning of the Jesus Movement, but hey, it found Karen Lafferty and Keith Green! In this case I actually bought the songs from Amazon.com, an album for $8.99 and then a couple of individual songs for .99 each. Then I downloaded them as MP3's and could listen to them immediately. Very nice! But I do have to get them backed up, or I'll have to buy them again.

The reason I'm worried about getting things backed up is that I just went through a computer crash. Wow, sure found it hard to deal with being without my laptop. But a couple of good things came out of it. I found out why my external drive wasn't working, for free. I also regained a function I'd lost, which allows me to copy pictures more easily. I'm wondering if I got it back because the reload of XP gave me what I think is IE6. If that is the case, Don says IE6 is hackable and I have to upgrade to at least IE7. No one here is upgrading to IE8, it sucks! And, although I had to sacrifice a few documents, I did get back into my Asus EeePC, which I had lost the password to, changing it while traveling caused me to forget what the password was. I also had to reset the connection to our WiFi, which helped me figure out how to connect to it on the Asus as well. The other thing is that Don built an awesome shelving unit and set up the new color printer and my laser printer; the latter is wireless, so I can now print from the living room! I had been emailing documents to Randy or myself, then going online at her computer, opening the darn thing and printing it.

I have a theory. I think cats are secretly IT and computer experts. It started when Tyler was a kitten. She walked over the keyboard and managed to type "TY." Then Skittle typed "puppy." Now here is where it gets really suspicious; one day I was online and had left my computer for a few minutes. I came back as Skittle jumped down and discovered she'd been Googling!

Her results included a number of mathematical equations and a foreign embassy! More recently, she also managed to shrink the browser characters to miniscule, even a magnifying glass wouldn't have helped. It's a plot I tell ya! That's her at Randy's computer, doing who knows what!

New Post for the New Year

Wow, I'm actually doing a post before the first month of the year is over! I've been trying to enforce a decent bedtime for myself, in my quest to overcome fatigue. Not succeeding too well, so far. On Monday I did get to bed by 6:45a, though and rehearsal went better for me.

Skittle has rediscovered the fun of her polyester cube, it has round openings in all but 2 sides and she'll come flying in and leap into it, sometimes skidding it across the floor. Or she'll hide in it and wait for some unsuspecting person to walk by. What's really cute is when she does an 'up periscope' move, popping her head out the top to see where everyone is! I threw my big green kooshie ball at her the other day and she was stalking it from inside the cube, just her paw stuck out to whack it and try to get hold of it. She's not limited to one spot, she takes the cube with, it's hysterical. When she gets bored, we'll put it away for another while, till she finds it fun again. Best $5 investment we ever made!

I have a car again! Well, I paid for it and essentially also paid for the repairs, since I was owed $$ for the septic pumping a couple of months ago. Randy and I will share it. It's old, a '93 Ford Taurus; I don't know how it is that Don & Randy always seem to find Ford Tauruses, but they did again. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it runs and we got its engine mounts replaced yesterday. What Don was thinking was the transmission clunking was literally the engine sliding back when you started up from a stop! He can do a lot of the minor maintenance on it and eventually we'll get the bad rack and pinion fixed. That's making the steering wheel do some pulling to one side right now, but I've dealt with that sort of problem before and so has Randy. I actually think that Don has replaced a rack and pinion himself before, if memory serves me right, but that is always iffy nowadays. The car is silver and has these weird oriental seat covers on the front seats. If the upholstery isn't shot, I'll be removing those. I am planning to go to the Joyce Meyer Ministries conference in Long Beach in March, so I'm happy that I'll have transportation. I'm a little torn between inviting a friend to go with and taking a vacation for the solitude. I will try to have dinner with my Dad at least one night, while I'm there; he lives there in town.

Being mobile feels so good! I can go to B&N if I want, or the library, and I don't have to arrange to borrow the car for my appts. all the time. One car for three adults was hard to manage! This will also stop the need for renting a car so much. If this car still seems unreliable, though, I may rent a car for the convention. Oh yeah, I just remembered that my aunt wants me to visit her in Phoenix this winter, if I can. And my other aunt is wintering in Apache Junction. Hmmm, maybe a road trip is a possibility? Something to think about, anyway.

The last couple of months I've been really busy. Had my 50th and we managed a party one week before the date. Turned out perfect, we had it at a park and the weather was just right, not cold or hot, just comfortable and there was a beautiful lake view there. Little tribute to my Mom with yellow roses on the tables, they were her favorite. My sister did the decorations, made Mom's macaroni salad and brought a big chocolate cake! She also gave me an HD TV for a present. That was literally a jawdropper of a gift! There were about 14 guests, mostly my friends from chorus. We got so busy chatting that I forgot to ask if we could sing something for my sister, she's only heard them sing Happy Birthday, which of course they sang again for me.

On my actual birthday I was in Appleton, WI at Harmony Inc.'s Int'l Contest and Convention. It was the day of the chorus competitions and Randy got the whole place to sing Happy Birthday to me! That's a memory I'll treasure for years to come, that about 1,000 people sang to me for my 50th! Randy said she knew the MC (and the MC was a bass, which Randy is too). We found a fab Italian restaurant a few blocks down the street. I also acted as the chorus' delegate for the meeting and learned what is coming up and in the works for Harmony. I did attend a class for section leaders. I also watched the finals of the quartet competition and all of the chorus competition.

Since then our chorus has done 2 Holiday shows, within one week, which we did last year too and both times it wiped me out. I am just now coming down with the cold Don has had for about a week. Zicam is a big help. There are other performances at retirement and convalescent homes, but I only signed up for the shows, the fibro hits hard and fast of late. I want to take a leave of absence, but Randy is worried I won't come back. She wants me to just drop being the asst. section leader. I'm going to talk to Lisa about it, I'm her assistant and she would have to find someone else. To me it seems logical that I am doing too much if it doesn't take much to push me into fatigue. I have given up SCA because it was hard for me to do the camping and to maintain a persona. I wanted to hang with the bards, but wasn't really a bard myself; I didn't feel like there was a place where I fit.

I also did NaNoWriMo n November and finally finished over the 50,000 words, although it wasn't all from the novel I wanted to work on, since my muse deserted me after one plot twist. I did most of my niece's story and also threw in my sci fi spy story. It was hard because Randy didn't want to see me sitting around at the convention, etc. That was a change, since normally she's very supportive of my writing. But she had bought my All Events Pass and wanted me to take advantage of the opportunity. It was an amazing time!

About 2 weeks ago on Saturday our Skittle girl went missing. She's always such a bright spirit and the house seemed too quiet. Don felt terrible, because he had let her out, but that could have been any one of us. We continued to try calling her over the next few days, I know I felt like she was out there and that hearing us would give her the heart to try and get home. Randy was afraid she was giving up late that Sunday night, so we went outside and sent her love and energy. After that we both felt better. On Monday we began calling the shelters. She and Don had the neighborhood plastered with signs! Randy actually went to one shelter, because one cat sounded as if it might be her. However, it turned out that the cat was a male. She came back home and was about to check one more time in the garage, when Skittle came flying around the corner of the garages! We think she got shut in somewhere and couldn't get out until Monday. She had a scuff on one ear where the fur was worn off, but otherwise not a mark on her. Thank you God! She was as happy to see us as we were to have her back! She was torn between getting pets from Randy & I and eating as fast as she could gobble. The only one who wasn't upset over her going missing was Tyler and she has been snarling at Skittle even more than usual. Too bad Skittle is so observant of cat etiquette, because she could knock Tyler into next week if she wanted to and Tyler deserves it!

At Least My Food is Doing Something Right

Following up on a post from a while back; I learned that my cholesterol is now down to 95! Yay! I may not be losing weight, but at least I'm eating (and getting) healthier. I think the next step will have to be exercise, but every time I start a routine, something happens that interrupts it, a cold or an injury. I will just have to fight my way through.

I found a site for readers over the weekend, weread.com. I've already listed over 70 books!

I hate when technology is stupid! I just wrote an entire post and lost it. The options I had were Save Now and Post. I wanted to edit, so I went back a page and that only went to my blog's main page. Dam!

I did complete the 2 week SBD initial phase and lost about 8 lbs. This past week I seem to have regained 6, so I was really bummed out. I ate my feelings, 2 extra pcs. of KFC chicken, an extra roll, a peanut butter and SF jam sandwich and 2 snack-size Hershey bars worth. Not one of my more mature responses. I WILL lose this weight somehow. I discovered that often I am undereating; many days my calories were in the 650-850 range, when I should be around 1200-1500 a day. Maybe I need to figure things out beforehand, to make sure I get everything I need.

I have been writing, yay! This third children's story is for my sweet niece, Taylor. The two I wrote for a chorus member are on a bad external drive, I may have to pay to get them off. I was so happy about moving all that stuff off the laptop, too! I think that anytime it's something important, I'm just going to have to store it online as well. If I run out of room, I can always set up another account somewhere.

Well, here it is after noon and I'm still up. I think I'll go eat some breakfast and then go to bed. Yes, I am backwards; I'm an ELN (Extreme Late Nighter) who sleeps in the day.

Setting Some Goals

If you know me, you know I have an ongoing weight problem. The most I ever lost was about 60 lbs.when I was in jr. college and then I lost 40 at the beginning of 2003 - the end of 2004, while I was on Atkins. I do have so many medical problems; some of them would be lessened if I could lose weight. I have been bouncing around the lower 200's, 217-227 of late. At only 5 ft., that's a lot to carry around. I have been a member in the past of an online weight loss support group and yesterday I went back there.

This was after I overdid it on my snack food. I have a general food plan and allow myself a daily treat, with the nutritionist's permission. Obviously this isn't working for me, even though I don't have a treat everyday. Earlier I'd had the feeling that I just wanted to eat and eat and I kind of had in the back of my mind that I was not going to stay on track yesterday. I think there must be some issue that makes me run for the food, to bury it again. I've faced a lot of my issues already, this one will eventually be conquered as well. Anyway, I am here to make some goals today, both long and short-term.


Primary Long-Term Goal #1: to get my weight out of the danger zone, which would be 127 lbs. or lower.

Long-Term Goal #2: Establish some sort of exercise routine, 3 days a week to start and then more, up to 5 or 6 days a week.

Short-Term Goal #1: To lose 10 lbs in the next 5 - 10 weeks

Short-Term Goal #2: Really get on the SBD diet, from the 2 week stricter regimen to the long-term plan. Last time I started with the long-term plan because I couldn't get through the 2 week plan.

Short-Term Goal #3: To lose 22-44 lbs before my 50th birthday in November (currently 22 weeks away).


What I'm already doing right: I'm working at getting more veggies and fruit in, by doing V8 Fusion and tomato or vegetable juice, as well as eating the veggies that I do like, such as mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers (often as dill pickles). It also helps if I hide them in another food, for example, in a pasta dish like last night. Fruit isn't really a problem, I had some cantaloupe and red grapes yesterday. Granted, fruits are off limits for the first 2 weeks on SBD. I am using some low fat products, like 2% milk, which really is a bit creamier than 1% or 0% to me.

I refuse to remain a heavy person for the rest of my life!

Post-its*TM Anyone?

I wanted to explain why I've decided to blog more. I'm blogging for the little details. Earlier this month I went to a movie with Don and Randy. Then I got one of those "Getting to Know Your Friends" emails and one of the questions was, "what is the last movie you saw?" I sat and thought about it and realized I didn't even know which movie we had gone to see. I asked Randy what movie it was and she said we saw the new Raiders movie. I had wanted to see that and I can honestly say that I don't remember a single scene from it. I remember Don lending me his jacket because I was cold and my adjusting it to better cover my shoulders; I can remember turning down popcorn from Randy, but I literally don't remember anything about the movie itself!

This memory thing is likely due to the fibro, which magnifies my pain. Some of the pain is from fibro, some is caused by other problems; besides the fibro I have osteoarthritis in my neck and back, as well as the cyst that is displacing the nerve at S1 and spinal stenosis. Oh, and at least one rotator cuff tear, we are setting up a 2nd MRI to check the other shoulder, which also hurts at the approx. same place. The way it was described to me is that the pain engages your brain and you don't take in the surroundings or events that are occurring during that period. This all came to a head earlier this week, when my bff wanted to know why I wasn't returning her calls anymore. So we discussed my memory problems and I told her I'd send her an email, based on my blogging, a minimum of twice a week and call her every week or so. Hopefully this will give the rest of my friends a better chance to keep up on my life as well!

Anyway, I guess I'm consistent in my opinions, because I'll make a comment and Randy will tell me that I've already said that a number of times. Usually I do remember it after she says that. But I'm sure it's as frustrating for her as it is for me and, potentially, for other friends as well. So I'm trying to remember things by writing them down. Thus more blogging and I have a little notebook -plus- I gots post-its!

We finally got ahold of the vet and it turns out that what was described to Randy as pain medication is also an anti-inflammatory. She hadn't been giving it to Skittle because Skittle didn't seem to be in any pain. So hopefully that will make a difference, the poor thing looks like a cartoon character with a bee sting, it sticks out and has an almost pointy look!

Besides running late with Taylor's story, I am just now getting around to a Father's Day gift. I didn't call either, but he keeps forgetting my birthday, so I don't think he'll mind. I got him a little digital photo frame with temp, time, date display and I preloaded it with family photos for him. I know his gf won't let him have pictures of Mom in the house, so I guess he'll have to keep it at work. To me that is just another sign of how heartless that woman is. He had a 26 year marriage with Mom and of course he still has feelings for her, whether or not he has pictures. It doesn't keep him from caring for his gf. He can't bring Mom back and she's been gone for over 20 years now. But it's a part of his life, whether the gf likes it or not. Hopefully that is as acrimonious as I'll get about this situation!

I decided to change my blog's look. Hope you like it. Greens and blues for the summer, besides which, I want it to remind me of my commitment to living green. I was already trying to live green, all three of us have been. We usually only put one barrel of trash out a week. We recycle paper, tin, glass and plastic. We donate our returnable plastic bottles and aluminum cans to the chorus, that program makes about an extra $1,000 a year for the chorus' treasury! I also compost our food scraps. If I were healthier I would probably set it up for worms, but my back barely tolerates the composting I do now. I don't know why, but activities that require me to stand and reach forward really, really hurt my back. I dropped a few things in there yesterday and my back was spasming so bad! It's why I can't do dishes and sometimes it affects me when I do the laundry too.

I'll post again in a few days, hasta la vista....