No Disasters, Just Busy and Lazy

I started an entry on March 1st, but I didn't finish it. I had a whole page done, but I just didn't feel like doing any more. A page wasn't enough, and I knew if I put part of it up, I wouldn't get to the second half for God knows how long. That kind of thing annoys the crap out of me, so I decided not to do it to anyone else either.

I'm sitting here with Martha Stewart on the TV. It came on after my Tae-Bo tape finished and started rewinding. Cookie Monster was on as a guest, so I had to watch. I don't think Cookie Monster will be back as a guest. Martha acts like a good host, but you can see that tension in her no matter how she tries to hide it. Or maybe it's just my perception.

Now there's some snake guy on there, and I can't get close enough to the TV or the remote to turn it off. I figure it's good for me though. I'm supposed to have been journaling about snakes every day for therapy to try to rid myself of my snake phobia, but I haven't been doing it. Still, I have been getting better, even without the journaling. I try to talk about snakes every so often and let other people talk about them around me too. Listening to this snake specialist is most likely very good for me too, except for that part about snakes escaping their tank. Gah!

I didn't start writing to talk about snakes though. It just happened to be on, and I have been so easily distracted the past week or so.

Why so distracted? Well, I have had a lot on my mind. There's Girl Scout cookie delivery, exercising, dealing with the frigid cold, staying on my new healthful eating plan, playing the new computer game with John, running errands galore (most put off for far too long by me), being extra hawkish about Hammy and his homework, taking Booie to the doctor and having her home a day and a half this week, cleaning my house for a guest, unearthing the dining room table, grocery shopping (a much bigger job when you put it off as long as I do), installing a bathroom faucet (pain in the ass!) and the usual duties. I finally got the digital camera sent off to the manufacturer to get fixed, and so far so good on warranty coverage for that. It's been there a week now, and still no word on that. I hope I get it back soon. I have a bigger storage card, so now I can take hundreds of pictures before I have to dump them off on the computer.

I haven't had anything particularly unusual or interesting going on, just life is a little speedier right now than normal, mostly because I procrastinated so much on things that everything came to a head at once. Thankfully, John already quit going to band practice on Wednesday nights, even though he will be playing with the band at shows until at least May. Having him home and doing less band-related stuff makes life a lot easier, and we have been doing extremely well together. So no, my absence didn't mean I'm getting divorced and moving back to Nebraska or anything. I'm sure I'd be writing more if I had all kinds of bad stuff going on, because train wrecks are much more interesting that household chores.

The bathroom faucet replacement was more interesting than your standard replacement, mostly because the previous owner and our former landlord is your typical do-it-yourselfer, and did a half-ass job on much of the plumbing under the sink. The whole drainpipe leaked, and the hot water supply shut-off didn't shut off. I did what I could to fix these things, and they are working for now, but I have a much bigger job ahead of me. Nothing is leaking right now, and the water is running OK. It was all such a hassle (previous cheap faucet, crappy previous work, tiny bathroom, pipe conversion) that it took all afternoon to replace a stupid faucet. Two wrenches difficulty, my ass! To top it all off, I had a moron moment and couldn't get the stopper in the sink to work for something like thirty minutes. I finally realized I put the nut on crooked. Once I got it on right, all was well, and we have a beautiful, new faucet that doesn't leak.

Now I want to replace all the fixtures in the bathroom. God only knows how horrible replacing the tub and shower fixtures will be. I already got up a matching hand towel ring and plan to put up other matching towel bars and such. It might be a teeny bathroom, but it will be a pretty one.

John and I decided to do one home improvement project a month. That's a pretty reasonable rate for us. We were both quite thrilled with the results of our project and really look forward to doing more. Doing that kind of made owning our house real to both of us.

Since announcing his resignation to the band, John has been much more attentive and involved in family life. He seems really relieved and looking forward to a better role as husband and father. We have spent more time together, and he's doing more with the kids too. He just seems more interested in us. It's been going so well that counseling this week was unbelievably boring, and the doctor spent much of the time prodding us and asking lots of questions to keep us talking.

For me alone, I'm doing quite well. I started doing yoga regularly. I'm back to running and continuing the Tae-Bo I was doing. I still haven't had word on my heart tests, but I figure that's a good thing. If something were wrong, they would call me right away. I'm glad to be back to exercising again, and the yoga has been very relaxing.

As for my diet, that has changed quite dramatically from this time last month. After my few days of major depression and eating next to nothing, I used that as a springboard to revamp my diet. I'm eating much better and more concentrated on getting proper nutrition. In fact, I've done a little too well and need to increase my calories a bit more than what I've been eating. A month ago, I thought that was impossible.

Those changes have me at a total nine pounds lost (eleven pounds from the high since I started), and I feel a lot better about myself already. I'm actually looking forward to vacation again. I do wish I could speed it up a bit, but that's not going to happen. I'm losing about two pounds a week for the past three weeks, and I can't ask for much more than that. It's better than I've ever done in the past, and I'm happy with it.

When I haven't been doing things or exercising or whatever, I've been taking it easy. I get pretty tired from all the activity, plus, like I said, I don't think I'm getting enough calories. I've been wanting to go to bed before John does, and that never used to happen. There are still improvements to be made. My basement is still a mess, and there is plenty that needs done. None of it really seems worth talking about though. It's times like these when the digital camera would sure be handy.

I'll try to finish my vacation house entry for tomorrow. At least that would be worth a visit more so than this. Good thing I didn't sign up for the ring of journals updating every day for Lent.