Crazy Days of Summer with Bonus Mini-Rant

Time is flying. I can't believe how fast the summer has gone. I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post. There have been many teeny victories along the way. On the weight loss end of things, progress has been slow, steady, but very slow. I've decided to do week one of South Beach again to get a handle on my cravings and jump start things a bit. There is only about a week left in the diet bet and I want to win! As of now, I've lost about 2 pounds in the past two to three weeks. Not exactly earth shattering progress. Better than weight gain though. We'll chalk it up to a teeny victory! 

Exercise has been really pitiful. My excuse has been the heat. The real truth is probably closer to heat + lethargy. Tomorrow I'm walking with my friend Amber, who is a fellow "loser" and is great about keeping up with exercise. Having a commitment will keep me on track and get this train rolling again. I'm going to do some walking at lunch this week too provided it's not too terribly hot. Otherwise, I'll work out at the gym or walk the pooch at the park in the evening after dinner. One of my students who is a premed for podiatry met me this week and did an analysis of my athletic shoes (she's also a long-time employee of Fleet Feet) and helped me get things properly laced for my feet. The good news is that I don't have any glaring problems. The odd news is that my heel strike is to the inside which explains why my shoes are always worn on the inside portion of the heel first. She said that my stride is nice and even though, so it's no biggee except that I'll go through shoes faster. In a few weeks I'm going to go get some new kicks from the place she works. Apparently the (ugly) ones I have now are more of a "fashion" shoe than a real workout shoe and she says that if I get something with better cushion I'll have less joint pain in the long run. Well, okey-doke, I like that!

I got my panties in a bunch earlier this week. A woman I am acquainted with made a rude comment on Facebook in response to an article. The comment she left was, "she's probably fat and in tact". Well, that's nice, isn't it?This got me really thinking about how much I really don't like that in addition to the public gay-bashing that's been going around lately that it's still totally acceptable to bash someone for their appearance. I made a comment back to the girl that was sort of lighthearted, "Hey, don't hate on the fatties, I'm one and I'm adorable" hoping to call her attention to the jerkiness of it all but still keeping it somewhat friendly. Her reply was something like, "don't take it personally." Ugh. How can I not? You called someone fat as an insult, I'm overweight, and and implied that because of it she's so gross no one would have sex with her. While I think the author of the article was a jerk too, that kind of banter is pointless and unintelligent. First of all, you just never know why someone is the way they are and making cheap shots about their appearance is immature and ignorant. If she was a person of color or disabled would it be okay to criticize them for it? Of course not. Secondly, suppose said author is a virgin, that's none of anybody's business, and holy crap, who cares? It's not my vagina. Maybe she's picky and that's not a crime. When are women going to stop bashing other women for their appearance and their rumored sex lives or lack of it? Can't we do better than that? My goodness, how many women do we know who have suffered emotionally because they didn't live up to cultural ideals? Oh, I dunno, just about all of us? How many of these women were perfectly fine and beautiful exactly as they are? All of them. Every single last one of them. Can we please stop measuring the worth of a person based on their outside package? I would like to lose weight, yes, but it's to improve my health. Are there things I'd like to have look different than they do right this minute? Sure, but I'm not less of a person because I have some jiggle on my thighs or a wobbly belly. Can we please focus on health and character development? PLEASE! Bigotry is all its forms is just ugly. /rant

The remaining news will be via pictures. :)  

Our first crook neck squash! Kinda looks like a drumstick, but did not taste like chicken at all.

I've been prepping a week's worth of salad on Sundays which has been working out GREAT and is a big money saver. A salad on campus is about $6/day. If I make and take it's under $10 for the whole week. I use store-bought spinach as the base then start piling on the veggies. From our garden - peppers, radishes, pickled banana peppers, radishes, and yellow pear tomatoes. I also pile on some chopped grilled chicken that I cook on the George Foreman grill and top with Greek Seasoning. It's yummy and really satisfying for lunch! 

Mid-week haul from the garden. It's amazing how much a handful of plants can produce.

Coworker tomatoes! My buddy, Elisa, has been bringing in beautiful slicing tomatoes and they have been amazing and sincerely appreciated. From some silly reason we forgot to plant the big guys and just have teeny 'maters in the garden this year.

This map was from my camping trip planning. I'd show you pictures of our trip, but it was a flop and we got rained out and had to head back home before any fun was had. We arrived after dark, put up tents in the dark, then woke to thunder and lightening at 6:30 a.m. Because that wasn't enough fun, my car also decided to die exactly 2.1 miles from my house.  Sigh.

This pretty girl is still up for adoption. She's a big fan of The Bangles and wants to walk like an Egyptian.

This mock cable cowl has been on my needles for a year. I finally finished it!

This is my girl, Singer. She's been mostly collecting dust, but I finally gave her a nice cleaning and got some sewing done. I had a custom collar order that I finished and delivered and I have a custom bag order up next. 

This is me waiting for the bus. Which, for the record isn't so terrible really. It's nice to not have to think about driving sometimes and the people-watching is pretty good. I went almost a week without my beautiful, slightly dinged and dented, 1998 Honda Civic. She's back in action now after $500 worth of repairs. Ugh. 

In a fit of frustration I cut bangs this morning. I'm sick of trying  to pin them out of my face. Also, this is  picture of me and my girl cuddled up on the couch. She's going away to college in 12 days. sniff sniff. I've been making her cuddle as often as possible, which is next to never since she's always out with her friends. I'm really going to miss her. I really does seem not that long ago that she was getting ready for her first day of kindergarten. 

The next week and a half will be busy busy with preparations for Alli going to school and the usual responsibilities. I'm going to do my best to stay organized and on track so I have the energy to tackle it all. I hope all is well in your world and you're feeling fine and dandy!