February recap

Well it has been a while since I posted last. Not much has been going on. I've thought about posting though.

It is the last day of the month and my weight is 129. So I guess I've lost about 5 pounds since Jan 1. I've had to really up the exercise though. I'm using www.sparkpeople.com to keep track of calories burned and www.nutritiondata.com to keep track of calories eaten. I could use sparkpeople to do both but I like nutritiondata's pantry better than sparkpeople's. It is a little easier to use. So this week I've managed to keep my calories eaten under 1500 each day and with riding, walking and dancing I'm burning an extra 600 calories or so. That should leave me with a calorie deficit of around 1000. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat so I should be losing about 2 pounds a week. So far I haven't been losing at that rate but I've only been tracking calories for about a week now and I think that sparkpeople may be over estimating how many calories I burn riding. I'll probably blow the diet today though as I am eating out for lunch and dinner.

As for walking, I've started walking outside when the weather had cooperated. This has made it easier to walk for an hour. If I do it on the treadmill I get bored and tired and quit. I walked 65 minutes yesterday. Today I've too much to do so I won't get to walk but we are going dancing tonight so that will burn some calories.

I'm still working on an afghan in HPL. It is going slow. It takes a lot of strips to make an afghan. I made some grocery bags from t-shirts the other day. I need to find some more t-shirts (mostly I need to acknowledge that I probably won't wear a lot of the t-shirts I currently have in my closet, and I have a lot) so that I can make enough bags to make it worthwhile to take them to the store with me.

Most of my seeds didn't sprout. I need to replant some. If I wait too much longer, they won't be ready to plant when it is time.

Our anniversary was Wednesday. That is why we are going dancing tonight. 21 years.

I'm bored

I'm so glad that it looks like the writer's strike may be over. There is nothing on TV most nights. I guess I didn't realize just how much TV I watch. Not that there aren't plenty of other things to do I'm just not sure I want to do them. Actually I will be quite busy today. I need to go ride, then Equliates. Ky needs a flapper dress for school on Friday so we have to go shopping after school. Then the GDCTA meeting is a 7:00. So I better get off my but and go ride. I hope it has warmed up some.

I did get some exercise this weekend and rode both days. Got Larry and Ky's state taxes finished. They were really easy. My weight is still hovering around 131. It is being very stubborn. I've done good with eating and staying away from snacks I guess I need to push the exercise more. Getting old sucks because I seem to be sore all the time, especially the muscles around my right hip. Very tight and sore. Well, I've procrastinated enough, I have to go ride. Just a pasture ride today I think.

Gardening

Not much has been going on around here lately. I've misplaced my cell phone which is very annoying. The battery is dead so calling it doesn't help. I'm sure it must be around the house somewhere but who knows where.

Of the seeds I planted last weekend, 5 broccoli have come up.

I went to the dentist yesterday. Everything looked good. I have some periodontal disease and have to go get my teeth cleaned every 3 months. I've gotten where I sort of enjoy it now. I had to have a tooth pulled last spring and the tooth next to it is healing up which is the idea.

I'm pretty much done with federal taxes. I won't mail off ours until April since we owe. I mailed Larry's last week and I need to mail Kys though there isn't much point since she doesn't get anything back (nor did she have to pay anything). I still have to go to the library to get the state tax forms.

I finally installed Family Tree Maker last night and transfered all my genealogy stuff from Legacy. Unfortunately it seems to have lost all the pictures. It has some pretty neat features which will make updating things pretty easy, though. You can press a button and it will search ancestry.com for you and give a list of likely matches which are easy to merge into existing records. I've already found the ship immigration list for when Lawrence's grandmother came from Panama in 1927. Way cool. So I guess my next big project is to start working on genealogy stuff again. I have a lot of information from Lawrence's family that needs to be entered.

HPL Bookmark

Here is a picture of the HPL bookmark made from this pattern:




Instead of using a sport weight yarn I used size 10 cotton thread. It is kind of limp and wants to twist so I've put some stiffener on it to see if that will help. I'll report back here if it works.

Nothing much else is going on here. We've had a lot of rain lately so I haven't been able to ride but today was nice and warm and the ring is in pretty good shape so I was able to ride today. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow but then be warm and clear for a while. I also walked outside today instead of on the treadmill.

I started some seeds yesterday. I don't have a green thumb, but we do manage to get some vegies to grow in our garden every year. I planted 18 broccoli, 36 spinach, 9 lettuce and 9 cilantro seeds in a seed starter in the basement. I don't usually have good luck starting my own vegies from seed but Lawrence did really well with tomatoes last year so I thought I would try again.

Current weight was 130 this morning.

hat and scarf

I finished my latest HPL project, a hat and scarf.



The pattern is here.

My daughter actually liked this one and says she will wear it. It feels good to actually make something that she didn't think looked weird. I'll have to make some more to give away. They are really quick to make. The doubled thread makes the joins easier and less messy. I did make a few modifications because I didn't have enough yarn. The scarf is not doubled and only 3 strips wide instead of 4.