227.4 - Day 2

Still feeling the effects of last night's dinner & dessert. Had my oatmeal this morning though and I'll make sure that lasts through the morning. I have a lunch scheduled with a friend, not sure where we're going but I'll try to order right.Lunch was good. Had a little bbq chicken, a little kahlua pig, some macaroni salad and grilled vegetables. The portions were a good size so I didn't over-eat. Haven't snacked on anything today. Still have my carrots to eat.Didn't eat the carrots. Got home and had 2 tacos and the rest of the cherry tort (there wasn't that much left). Will probably have some coffee and nothing else, well maybe just a little ice cream. 

Day one - 25 lbs to lose

228.8. Nice round number...Too round for me.
Stayed away from Starbucks this morning. That means I didn't get my tall non-fat peppermint no foam latte nor my reduced fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake. It also means that I didn't take on an extra 450 calories that I didn't need.
Ate a Healthy Choice meal for lunch but had a couple of slices of this pepper bread to sop up the gravy from the lunch. If I'm working off Weight Watcher points, that'd take me up to about 14 points for today so far. That should take me to dinner time. Drive time and volleyball game will allow me to stay away from snacking this afternoon.
Did okay until I got home. Then, 4 tacos and some cherry tort later, I'm sitting here feeling really bloated and uncomfortable.

Sometimes Slowing Down Is Fun

I found out the other day that slowing down and taking time to enjoy your surroundings can be a good thing. I ran the Disneyland 1/2 marathon on Sunday and because of sore knees brought on by running San Francisco hills while trying to create a new PR, I was forced to slow down a bit. What this allowed me to do was to stop and take pictures and have my picture taken and to really enjoy the first 4 miles of the run which took me through both California Adventure and Disneyland.

The Princess and the Me

Because I wasn't worried about my time, I was able to share time with princesses which made the run a bit more bearable.

Of course, when I wasn't Poppin out of the race to take some pictures I was wondering witch characters to pose with next.

As I was trooping along, I figured that would about do it for the park so I began running the long, boring part.

That was, until I was able to see myself as others see me and I began to feel the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

One that you see from start to

After all, it's not always about the medal.

Today was some day

I knew from last night that today was going to be a challenge but I wasn't really that concerned because I thought I knew what I was going to have to deal with, a reporter with a hard drive problem, a meeting with the owners about the state of IT at Hutchings, another reporter who was having some setup issues after an attorney knocked her laptop to the floor, and a client's computer that was rebooting periodically and locking up. All do-able. Well, I started at Fry's Electronics to pick up a new power supply for the client since I figured the reboots were heat related. Found one at a good price with a rebate. Nice. Picked up an external connector for the reporters hard drive figuring I'd be able to plug it into another computer and and copy the files off of it.
Well, when I put the new power supply into the computer, it continued to reboot and lock up. Not good. I'll look at it later. Met with the reporter, took her old drive out of the computer, plugged it into another computer, and it couldn't be found. I plugged it into a 2nd and a 3rd computer and it couldn't be found. There were some jobs on that drive that needed to get to attorneys like today. Really not good. It seemed that the only option at that point was to send the drive to a recovery center at the cost of about $1000. Even worse.
I went to the computer store to pick up a new hard drive for her computer and while I was there, I picked up another external enclosure for the drive. When I got back to the office, I put the old drive in the new enclosure and plugged it into a computer. The computer recognized it but then I found out that it was an empty drive. Somehow, all of the files were gone. I had just the day before read about a recovery program Recuva. Had nothing to lose so I downloaded it and ran it against the drive. After about 3 hours, it showed some files that were recoverable. Fortunately, some of those files were the very job files that were needed. Looking better. I was able to recover those files, the reporter was able to finish editing them and out they went to the attorneys. Feeling better.
Now, back to the pc. I tried another power supply and got the same result. Instant reboots. What was going on....Then I happened to notice that one of the internal cables had become unplugged. I replaced it, turn the computer on, and it booted all the way to the desktop. Feeling good, but a bit tired.
Met with the other reporter, the one with the setup issues, took care of those and rescheduled the meeting with the owners.
Feeling like I need to kick my feet up and have a nice shot of tequila.

Well, the day started like crap and ended up at the top. Came out feeling like I really accomplished some things today. I was some day.

At The End Of The Day

At the end of the day, when the kids have gone to bed, and the dogs have finally quieted down, when I have time to sit down and take some deep, calming breaths...

At the end of the day, after dealing with files and viruses, reports and telephone calls, when I have time to sit down and take some deep, calming breaths...

At the end of the day, after the long drives in heavy traffic, and the rudeness of others when everyone is just trying to get someplace, when I have time to sit down and take some deep calming breaths...

At the end of the day, after getting up before the sun, and getting the kids up and ready for school, and packing lunches and the last minute things before I lock the front door and leave, when I have time to sit down and take some deep, calming breaths...

At the end of the day, after realizing that tomorrow will pretty much be the same routine, with different faces and different troubles, but pretty much the same, when I have time to sit down and take some deep, calming breaths...

At the end of the day, that's when I appreciate all that I have and all that I do. That's when I thank God for providing everything I need. That's when I can sit down and take those deep, calming breaths, in love.

Spring Is In The Air

Spring came this weekend. Not just the feeling of Spring, but the Vernal Equinox, the official calendar start of Spring. So, what did we do? Swam, mowed the lawn, BBQ'd, roasted marshmallows over the fire pit, yard work, clean up. Spring cleaning I think it's called, but outside as much as possible.

The dogs thought it was great, since we were able to spend just about all weekend outside with them. Ryan ran them to exhaustion. We just enjoyed having them lay at our feet in the evening.

The other thing we did was to enjoy our flowers. No, not the flowers growing in the ground, but the ones on the trees. The peach blossoms are pretty as are the birds of paradise but my favorite flower in the yard, is the orange blossom. The smell of orange blossoms reaches you from just about any place in the back yard. Of course, since the ranch, it's one of those smells associated with happiness. I love taking a break from whatever backyard activity I'm doing to go sniff deeply from the orange tree.

I Guess I'm not the only one....

The Quiet Sounds of Nature

I had an opportunity this past weekend to fully be involved in my element - nature. I went up to Idyllwild to participate in a men's retreat. Idyllwild is at a little over 5000 feet elevation, so it's pretty high in the local mountains.
When I got there Friday evening, there were patches of snow here and there and it was crisp, clear and smelled wonderful. I instantly found myself relaxing.

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of rain. We were expecting "weather" on Saturday so that wasn't totally unexpected. Te predictions for the weekend were for rain/snow. So far, we had the rain. Soon enough, that rain turned to sleet. It wasn't that windy so it fell softly. I did notice that it was getting colder. Eventually, it did begin to snow. And get colder. And I relaxed more (since I didn't have to be driving in it, I was able to watch and enjoy).

Because of the retreat, we were indoors most of the time, but I was able to get out during breaks and stand in the snow fall. A beautiful coyote passed by outside at one point. Squirrels were scrambling up and down pine trees, and it was quiet. Night came, events were finished and it was late. I walked back to the cabin alone, stopped at the truck to take some pictures. A good 4 inches of snow had fallen throught the day. I couldn't go into the cabin just yet. It wasn't snowing any more, the sky was clearing, it was in the low 30's and it was beautiful. The snow crunched under my boots as I walked. The sound of a creek came from down the hill. There was an occasional crack of a branch, but other than that, not a sound. I walked, I stood, I breathed, I relaxed. Did I mention how beautiful it was?

The next morning dawned clear. I couldn't stay in the cabin any longer than I had to. I had to get out and walk, so I did. The sun was just coming up. Some mountains were in sun, others still in shade.

Animal tracks criss-crossed the fresh snow. Leaves on  trees were covered in white, yet showed the green that they promised would come. There was peace everywhere and the knowledge that all of this beauty; all of this peace; all of this relaxation; came from God.