Finally saw Iron Man 3 with the kids today. It was fun. Really liked Guy Pearce and it was fun how Tony Stark was hardly ever in his suit. I loved how Pepper became more of a character and tough to boot,  and I wish I understood the Extremis (is that what’s it’s called?) drug more. I liked Tony’s anxiety attacks–made him more real. I hope there will be a next one. I would like to see Tony grow some more and see what happens with Pepper.

I have other potential good news, but won’t jinx it by talking about it too early. Hopefully soon.

It is now raining. Pouring. Not usual for us, but it’s great for us. We need the moisture a lot.

I haven’t been eating very well lately. Not enough veggies. Got to try to change that. Not enough tea either. Gotta mend that. Course I did manage not to eat buttered popcorn and drink diet coke at the theater. That’s got to be a plus, right?

Because it’s cold and I refuse to turn the heater on in May, May 19th for criminy’s sake, I started a fire in the woodstove.

Because I haven’t actually left town in seven weeks, and I haven’t seen a good friend in I don’t know how long, I went to Butte today and ran some errands and had lunch with said friend.

Because the dogs are dropping hair like a billion dandelions, I vacuumed the house after the kids went to bed. Well, the lower half. Tomorrow will be the upper half.

Because I forgot to run the dishes and the sink is overflowing, I not only ran the dishwasher, but did a slew of handwashing.

Because it rained for the last three days, I haven’t planted the flowers I bought yet. But things are getting green.

Because I went to Butte today, I saw 5 golden eagles. Huge freaking birds and so lovely.

Because I went to Butte with my son, he talked nonstop for about 2 hours before he got tired. I mean nonstop. NON. STOP.

Because I went into Walmart for some protein powder (which I did not find–why do they put so much crap in it? going to the Health Food Store tomorrow. It wasn’t open today) my son forced me to watch a knife demonstration in order to get a free paring knife.

Because I watched said knife demonstration, I bought knives. I’m a sucker.

What did you do this weekend?

It rained today. Still is raining. Well, it did stop for about an hour, but mostly it’s been raining all day. Girlie had to play soccer in it and frankly it was cold. In the 40s. But we really need the moisture. We’re in a drought and this will help all the fields and the feed for animals. Not to mention we’ve already had fires here. Didn’t do my walking though. Slugged out. More soccer tomorrow and possibly Iron Man 3.

Working on something that isn’t coming together very well. It’s very shiny though. So I keep stirring it to see what will turn up. Trouble is, I have to break outside my own expectations for a particular place. Normal behavior in this place doesn’t apply, nor do typical motivations, or typical laws. It’s upside down in a lot of ways, for a good reason, but I keep falling into traditional mental patterns and I have to get out of that. If only it were that easy.

All the purple has vanished from my hair and I need to put it in again. I’ll try to work on it this weekend.

Doing some research for my current WIP. Not sure if I’m getting anywhere. I’d like to go visit the location.

I’m just not sure what it was that I did do. I did a lot of tinkering on the website, with some help from my web editor who did a tune up on some things, bless her. Makes it significantly easier to do some things. I now have an appearances and FAQs pages, and I they are updated, something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile. I started combing through pages to get some more things updated, though I’m not done yet. There are some consistency things I need to work on that will take more time. I attended my daughter’s recorder recital and my son’s band concert. He wore green: green shoes, green shorts, green shirt, green glasses. Guess what his favorite color is? It rained today a lot, something we desperately need. Soaked the dogs who did not go into their houses while we were at the concert tonight. So now the house stinks of wet dog fur.

Poked at the manuscript some more. But essentially I did a fair amount of website work, and it really doesn’t look like I did that much. How aggravating.

The lilacs have all popped, as have all the trees in town. Smells so amazing outside.

Just saw the news on Grandbury, TX. Oh, hell. What a terrible disaster. Never again do I want to live in tornado country. Feel like I got out of the midwest by the skin of my teeth when I see stories like this.

I was out walking the puppies today (and boy were they rambunctious) and thinking about weight loss. Do you remember Susan Powter and her Stop the Insanity diet stuff? Then there was Richard Simmons. Who doesn’t know him? There was the Jane Austen workout, and oh, what about the guy with the long blond hair hawking all sorts of diet programs and equipment? Can’t remember his name. I think he’s still around. Tony Little? Is that it? Don’t forget Chuck Norris. As for diets, there’s everything from Weight Watchers to Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Ideal Me, Prism, South Beach, Adkins, Mediterranean, Dean Ornish, Zone, Biggest Loser . . . I can’t begin to think how many there are.

What I was thinking about as I was walking was how our sense of foods has changed over the years. Remember when a calorie was a calorie and it was just reduction of calories and exercise? Then we figured out that kinds of calories mattered. Fat wasn’t that good. And then there were all the cholesterol issues caused by the wrong kinds of fat. Somewhere along the lines the question of carbs came up–bad carbs v good carbs v any carbs at all. Then there was “real” foods v manufactured foods, like high fructose corn syrup. Oh, I also forgot the meat v. no meat question. Oh, and all the exercise questions: aerobic v. anaerobic; walking v something more vigorous; how long to do it and how often?

This raised the question for me–every time some of this comes up, it’s right. The science is right for a lot of it, or so we are told. And then the science changes and either we learned something new, or we were wrong before. I wonder how we know if we’re right now? Not that there’s any agreement. On the other hand, losing weight isn’t a once-size fits all answer. Not only are all our bodies different, but our access to foods is different, not to mention what we like and don’t like, what we’re inclined to do for exercise and not, and so on and so forth. In the end, we all have to find something that works for us and then make it work.

I’ve lost 35 lbs (I first wrote lobs, and thought, yeah, accurate that) over the last couple of years. I still have a long way to go. But my goals are always one pound at a time. I’m not entirely sure why it’s coming off to be honest. I’m not doing anything spectacularly different. I gave up aspartame September 1, 2012. That’s meant a pretty significant change to my sweet tooth. I don’t crave stuff as much. I’ve been trying not to answer my stress and tiredness with food. I’ve been trying not to eat when I’m not hungry. So just because it’s a traditional mealtime, i don’t necessarily eat, or rather, I don’t eat a meal. I’ll have a piece of fruit or a yogurt or just enough to keep my blood sugar steady (I’m prediabetic). I’m reducing carbs, but that’s not really all that intentional. I used to crave them more when I drank aspartame. Now I don’t. I’m working on flavors more. I like food and so I am trying to expand my food palette (had some great Morroccan soup and green Vietnamese curried steak for Mother’s Day). I also love salads, so I spend the time to make something tasty. I’ve also been doing a lot of walking. Especially as the weather has improved. And of course, the less I weigh, the easier walking is. Oh, and another thing I’ve done is shift to a lot more real food. Real butter, real sugar, and so forth. I try to keep high fructose corn syrup out of the house and do my best to cook from scratch as often as I can (though don’t get me wrong–hotdogs happen in this house).

What’s funny is that sometimes my mom will call attention to what I’m eating for being fattening or whatever, and I just have to laugh. Right now things are working. Yeah, maybe I could speed up the process, but since this is working, I’m afraid to change, especially since this is a way of life for me and to incorporate bigger changes might mean that I lose the weight and then gain it back. It seems to me my body wants to lose this weight and is helping me. I’ve lost fifteen pounds so far this year, since the end of June 2012. We’ll see if I lose any more before the year’s up. I’m just really happy to not be gaining it back.

Stuffed myself tight as a tick for dinner. Last night of having my folks in town. Probably don’t need to eat for a few days now. But it was worth it.

My dog has a sore in his armpit (front leg). Every time it start to heal over, something happens and he starts licking and it becomes unhealed and open. I bought gauze and vetwrap today, and I can’t get it to stay on. I wrapped it multiple times. I can’t get it tight enough. Maybe if I shaved all the hair off, it could work, but don’t know that I want to do that (even if had clippers). I’m must not sure how to keep it covered so that I can keep neosporin on the wound. Suggestions? I’m going to keep him out of his harness and walk him off leash. Otherwise I think it adds to his discomfort. This has been going on awhile. The vet looked at it and shaved away the close-by hair. I thought it was healed, but apparently not.

I need cotton sheets. I’ve been using flannel for years, even through the summer, but I need cooler sheets. Time to go looking. I know very little about percale or sateen or thread-counts or whatever. I don’t suppose you do? I know, 14 years in Montana and it’s time to have summertime sheets. What am I thinking?

Got my hair cut today. Much of the purple got cut off, so I”m going to have to do some dyeing. Miscon is a week and a half away. Must look my purpley best, right?

I bought this painting by a local artist Jenny Fallein. She’s married to a poet who taught in my department (they’ve decided to move). It’s a big painting. Like four feet by three feet. Here’s a not-so-great picture of it:

Isn’t it lovely? It shifts color when the light changes. I love it. Today I took it in to see about a frame, which was seriously expensive. But it will be lovely. Oh, it’s of the Missouri Breaks.

I also bought a bunch of flowers today and will plant them tomorrow. Pretties to make the yard look nice for people who are looking. Also it looks like the lilacs will bloom shortly and my lilies of the valley are starting to come up. Pleased about that.

I’m having a good time with my parents. It’s really nice to have them here get a chance to spend time.

I also wrote a few words and keep poking at the WIP with a stick. Also shed another pound. Yay.

I’ve not got much news, I’m afraid. School ended, and nothing so far has come from the showing this week. My folks arrived early, so that’s been wonderful. Weather is good. Thought we might get a thunderstorm today, but it didn’t happen. Did take a long walk with the dogs yesterday and today.

I was also mugged by an idea the other day. I thought it would be a short story, and maybe it will be. But then again, maybe it won’t be. It’s very difficult to say at this stage. It’s a story of the dead, but not zombies, not vampire, not ghosts. Yeah, a different kind of dead.

I’m feeling pretty worn out and flat. End of semester/school year blues? Or maybe just the post-showing-hope letdown. Feeling really tired.

I’m getting itchy to go digging crystals at Crystal Park. It’s full of quartz crystals and it’s a kind of treasure hunt. But the road is still snowed in, I think. So maybe in a couple weeks.

It is, in fact, dog shedding time for one of the dogs. The other is waiting to shed until his brother finishes so that they can extend the shedding season. How considerate. I’m seeing some lilac buds on some plants and a lot of leaves on others. Maybe spring is really here.

Roasted a chicken the other night. Turned out really well. Used fresh lemon, rosemary, salt, pepper, and roasted it 300 for an hour and a half, then turned it up to 350. Was juice and tasty and the skin was really crispy.

Want to get some flowers to plant in the yard. Girlie wants to do that, too.

And it is one day more for this semester. In honor of that:

We have another showing tomorrow. Hoping hoping hoping!

It was lovely today. Things are greening and growing. Maybe I’ll get lilacs soon. Oh! and the peonies have poked up.

Not much else that’s new today. Got to laugh a bit and enjoy the company of friends and hug the kids and tease them. All in all, good times. I’ll have a post up on Magical Words tomorrow. Exact URL to follow. It’s about writing. Go figure.

One day down, two days left of this semester. Did my last faculty senate meeting today. That’s six years out of seven that I’ve served. I’m ready for a break. Kind of interested in a different committee though. Might talk to someone about it.

People looked at the house today but have decided to go with acreage I guess. Depressing. But at least the house is clean.

I wrote a page today on the WIP and don’t like it at all. I think it’s going too slow and that my main character isn’t quite right. She’s a bit cardboardy. At least on the page, though not in my head.

I want to go dig crystals, but I don’t know if Crystal Park is open yet. My feeling is that it should be and the roads should be open. We haven’t had that much snow.

I haven’t planned a book club book for May. I wasn’t sure anyone was up for it. Maybe start again in the fall? What do you think? I’m reading Thieftaker right now. Or rather, I started it, but then got caught up in other stuff and now I have to go back to it.

I keep wondering how my house shows in comparison with other houses. I know it’s old–1917. But it’s in really good shape with a lot of the original woodwork and fixtures. Sure, some of my room paints are on the bold side, but the kitchen is only 4 years old. I know we only have 1.5 baths, but I feel like there ought to be more interest. I just wish I could figure out what the deal is. We supposedly aren’t overpriced, but yet we aren’t getting much looks. And we’ve lowered the price.

Emptied off a bunch of my DVR recordings. Decided I was never going to watch this season of Person of Interest. I also deleted my Havens. I like the show but– well, I want to read more and write more.

My folks are going to be visiting for a few days. I’m looking forward to that. At least the house will be clean for them.