We’re on our “annual” trip to my Bluff City hometown, and once again took the route up through the Carolinas and over the mountain. Damn, that is a nice scenic stretch to welcome you home. Someday I’ll actually stop at one of those overlooks and take a picture.

Seems it’s been exactly a year since our last visit, which was unintentional, but just the way things worked out. Likely we’ll be up once more this fall after James’ niece gets relocated from Chattanooga to Johnson City for school. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason she chose ETSU, but I can’t help thinking she’s pulling, well, a me — where there’s a perfectly suitable, affordable college just down the road, but it’s just a tad too close to home. I went the other direction, relocating to Chattanooga. She’s moving from Chattanooga to here, but she’ll be burning up the same asphalt going back and forth for a while that I did. Strange how that trip gets shorter and shorter — note: xmas gift for Rachel, radar detector? =)

Spent a cherished Friday evening with my niece and her facebook hubby, patio Mad Greek, general hanging out, general catching up, then on to random bad-pool at Borderline before we lost them to zombie slayage on the X-box. Strange behavior for me after 20 years of not keeping in touch, I managed to text an old school bud and hang out with him Friday night, too. Not exactly sure how I let myself not do that for so very long. I’m sure it’s a contributing factor to only managing to visit once a year now.

Saturday has been mom day, and overall good. She’s been hovering near the brim of my tolerance on a couple of our usual issues, but I think we’re both managing to keep it reeled in and be on our best behavior with each other. Strangely, it doesn’t seem weird to me that mom and I fight so much, but it would be nice to make it through this visit without one.

She is thinner — and I’m sure it’s her budget/eating habits catching up with her. I can see why Wayne was so freaked. She has a new doctor’s office story, where her BP was actually normal for the very first time, like ever, in my lifetime. This trip we’ve meandered down some back roads and talked about nostalgic things (Johnson City airport, anyone?), made an attempt at finding some new clothes for her thinner frame, and even went out to eat at a place she’d never been. It’s been almost pleasant.

At least until we got home this evening with full-bellies and good-moods, and decided to tackle a little yard-work in the cool evening. When the city recently topped a line of mom’s trees in the front yard they claimed were too near the utility lines, they did such a poor job that she actually went into a pretty deep funk for a while. She devotes so much energy to her yard, that they had might as well have cut her leg off as butchered those trees. We’d only heard tale of them by phone, no pictures, but they were really just as bad as described — so James jumped right in to try to finish the job they city should have done.

That’s when we learned that this yard is actually a cursed, angry beast — it’s hungry, and it wants toes. Mom just about cut her big-toe off a couple months ago doing yard work, and still hungry, tonight the yard tried for James’. It drew blood, but we don’t think anything is broken. With  me in my vulnerable flip-flops, toes just asking to be eaten, and the light fading,  we all decided to retreat to the safety of the house.

Don’t know what tomorrow’s plans are — besides the long drive home. Perhaps we’ll do research on cleansing rituals to help ensure the safety of future toes on the lawn here, or perhaps we’ll just make a trip to buy actual shoes suitable for yard-work. Definitely another lesson for Mom in how to use her new cellphone. Maybe one last attempt at a different store to find mom some pants that fit.

I did discover there’s something called Jake Legg’s Lost State Bus Tours around Johnson City that sound interesting — though I don’t know if they’re really currently operating. It’s a crazy bus that’s been converted to living room seating and tables, offering a couple-hour, humorous “Lost State of Franklin” tour and is BYOB. We also talked about Bristol Caverns, because I haven’t been there since I was a kid, but it occurred to me that I’ve never actually been into nearby Appalachian Caverns, which opened in 1991 after I’d already moved away. If not this visit, maybe later in the fall on the next trip. Definitely want to think about bringing appropriate attire for a wild-cave tour or some hiking next trip, as well. Yay for actually having things to look forward to for a return trip!

Johnson City Airport pics for Joyce & Angela. I cannot believe how much time we spent in the summers in that little room that looks like it was awkwardly set onto the top of the building. I think this was the first time I’ve ever been there since I was old enough to make the drive myself.

July has been a calorie-counting month — mainly on the week days, with our weekends away being harder to log, but nearly the entire month is on the record again. I’m using FatSecret.com to log now, because I’m enamoured of my android phone still, and it connects to a really nifty phone app, which I actually found first. =)

The treadmill desk has meant I’m doing at least 2 miles a day, working on a consistent 4-5, but still finding it difficult to do some things while I’m walking — so I’m doing a lot of just standing while I work, which I guess is still better than sitting.

This is also the end of my 2nd week as a Curves member — though week one was a free trial, and I only just got my computer tracker chip yesterday to really get going. The difference already, previously I was finding it to be really more cardio oriented, because I couldn’t really tell how hard I was working on the machines. Now with the chip, it’s a different ballgame. The thing harasses you if you dont work AT LEAST as hard as you worked last time, and supposedly it begins to harass you if you dont gradually improve. It monitors your range of motion on the exercises, power and reps. I find myself thinking less about keeping my heartrate up on the cardio pads, and more thinking about the next machine and what I need to do. Anywho, it’s essentially a 30-minute circuit training workout, and the computer chip estimates your calories burned — mine last time was over 400 for the half-hour. I’m pretty happy with that, considering how sore my muscles have been from the machines — I am feeling it!

So, with these general lifestyle changes in place — all I have to do is keep on keeping on. Walking every day, 30 minutes of circuit training at least 5 days a week, and monitoring calories. After one more week of Curves, I’m going to try their diet-cycle plan to try to jump-start some real weight loss. It’s a 7-day strict 1200 calorie diet, then 21-day 1500 calorie, then 2-day break. Rinse. Repeat. We’ll see how it goes.

The bright side, in my mind, is that I’m walking every day and I’m doing 30-minutes of circuit training. Even if I don’t change my eating habits, I should be improving. Monitoring to not overeat is a good idea. Monitoring to restrict calories is just a bonus. I’m loving this plan.

Haven’t really wrapped my mind around this weekend fully — maybe because it was intended to be escape and relaxation, and it fairly well succeeded. This particular cabin was a big win, as it was decked out with everything we needed — including a nice den with pool table, gas grill and a hot tub. Great place for three couples and two dogs for a weekend.

I think I totally scored on cooking duty, with sandwich stuff, salad stuff and a potato casserole made beforehand as my responsibilities. Felt like such a slacker, we volunteered to make a Saturday morning grocery run for some beverage refills. The beer might have lasted longer if people hadn’t kept dropping their open bottles into the hot tub — apparently when you’re all steamy and sitting in bubbles (and it’s not your first adult beverage) glasses and bottles are difficult to grip.

It was a bit cooler in Blue Ridge, but still the south, so still miserably humid and in the 90s. A/C in the cabin was rocking, and after dark, the hot tub was more than bearable. Friday night we rocked out the hot tub and ran through the beverage supplies so well that it could not be repeated on Saturday. We made a mild attempt, but Saturday night was made for booze and bad pool… and celebrating engagements. The Sniper-Couple can tell the story best, but the rest of us were just happy to have been there for there for the news.

Prince, I would love to party like it’s 1999. Make that happen for me please.  1999 is the year James and I started going out. That was a pretty good year — which is to say crazy, because only in such a crazy-assed year, when I’d quit a job to play video games, then amazingly couldn’t afford my apartment, then tried living off a friends couch with my possessions in the trunk of my car, then found the cheapest most fun way to spend nights out — “ladies night” at the gay club with Amanda, then landed a job because the guy had seen my underwear shots on teh internets, then hooked up with a different guy at the job “in secret” so as not to jeopardize mah jobz, then gave it all away when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other when we’d go out — even on company bowling night, would I ever have decided on impulse move to another town and live with the guy after just over a month together. Guess it’s cool we ended up married and stuff. Ah, 1999, you are missed.

Instead it is 2010, we are seven years married, and have recently had another one of those big State of the Union relationship talks. The conclusion overall is that we’re still good and heading in the right direction together. Thankfully, we’re not just together because we think we’re too insane for anybody else to want — but it is always funny to realize we both sometimes think that about ourselves. There is, as usual, always room for improvement, but in general we’re happy and still on the same page and path.

I can’t say it hasn’t been weird sometimes, especially lately. There  has been so much talk about kids among our friends and family, and those upper 30 birthdays are running out, so I think the whole “biological clock” thing keeps coming up. We still really don’t want to have kids. We are enjoying spending occasional time with them, as we always have, but more now that time leads to inevitable conversation. I do wonder if, when my time has passed, will I regret not having had children–but I hardly think that’s a reason to do it. I sometimes wonder what our kids would have been like — but as even now I hear the familiar “screaming at the video game on tv” voice of JamesT “enjoying” himself downstairs, I suspect I wouldn’t really want to know. We may be shallow and self-centered, but that’s all the more reason we shouldn’t be held responsible for the care of anyone else.

The biggest issue is, like most of America right now, financial woes and I do mean whoa! On the bright side, this should do wonders for my diet! I need a skill, a motivation, and perhaps a break. Having done really nothing for a living for so long is not much of a marketable skill. There’s no real update here. Same shit….

Oh yeah… I have realized that I do actually want kids, but I need them quick. I need somebody else to hand the phone to when “people” call me with their random computer problems — because I obviously know everything about computers since I have used one every day for years. I couldn’t be happier to remind these people that I’m pushing 40 myself, and thus all my knowledge has evaporated, and here’s a handy 4-year-old I can refer you to. Having a kid would just make them handy when needed for such phone calls. Perhaps there’s a rent-a-child service? Ooh, wait. That’s what nieces are for. I’m looking at you, Sarah! Get ready to be in our “oh noes my internets are broke” speed-dial!

Well, almost two hours later, maybe this entry makes some sense. My head has been bursting the entire time I’ve tried to write it — it’s all part of the “ignore the pain” therapy I learned from sis. Figured it just needed a good braindump to clear it out, but I guess that wasn’t the ticket. Time for a trip to the liquor store I guess.

I am clearly just old. Otherwise I would understand why this 12-year old just stares at me when I ask him a question like I’m not speaking English. Or why the 14-year old wonders why I quit asking after four times, when she actually meant yes even though she said no four times.

Firework shoot jobs are no fun for the under 18 who can’t help, but until they’re old enough to drive themselves to the show they are just going to have to deal with hanging out in the rv grandpa set up for them, in the a/c, with the ps3 and all the snacks. It’s a hard life.

Cowboy Church of Lafayette was the site for Saturday’s wedding of James’ cousin Brandy. The locale was unusual to us, but the ceremony and the reception were just beautiful! Had never been to a ceremony where the groomsmen pranked the groom so well during the ceremony with the “we forgot the ring” gag. Poor Kenneth! =)

The unusualness of the day actually started on our trip up, though. Cashier at the Subway where I was waiting to grab lunch puts up with about 10 minutes of condescension and annoyance from the man with his seven kids which were in front of me, then says “screw this” and walks out.

We joined James’ dad, stepmom and brother for the wedding and hung out with them the whole Saturday. James’ dad has always had a habit of disappearing in his truck for some errand or another at strange times, which we are pretty used to, but we hadn’t expected his need to leave the reception so early. We’d both wished we’d come in our own car so we could have stayed longer — to at last talk to the couple, officially meet the groom, maybe say anything before they moved away to North Carolina on Monday. But anywho…

Maybe my next phone will take better pictures, or next time we’ll take a real camera, but it was weird going to a wedding and reception we didn’t have any hand in — been a long time. Anywho, here’s a bad photo follow-me.

Follow Me: Twitter

• Whoops! Toe socks! http://twitpic.com/1y8svx 1 day ago
• Congrats Ken & Brandy! http://twitpic.com/1y8sbv 1 day ago
• Rain cooled it off. http://twitpic.com/1y8rk4 1 day ago
• No custom shirts 4 the wedding. http://twitpic.com/1y8r2w 1 day ago
• JamesT, suit and horse ass. http://twitpic.com/1y8ql2 3:02 PM Jun 19th via TwitPic
• Cowboy Church of Lafayette. http://twitpic.com/1y8qaq 3:01 PM Jun 19th via TwitPic

Not that it had to be, but deferred to a “boy’s night” out for Bob’s birthday. That’s left me time to finally try out the Skinny Bitch dvd I had only watched before, and to make my own dinner mostly composed of food James won’t eat. =)

Those skinny bitches are pretty funny, but I’m glad I watched the interviews first. They suggest you watch the workout at least once first, because there aren’t a lot of cues, and it can be ridiculous to follow along the first time. These chicks aren’t professional trainers, they make up funny names for their moves, and they screw up — a lot. To me, a near professional workout-slack-ass, it was hilarious to watch, and really made you feel at ease to try it. I mean, you couldn’t be worse than these bitches!  I think my favorite thing about this video is they call an ass an ass –  not a “tush”, not a “back-end”, not even a “glute”; the direction was “step back and grab your ass!” Take that Leslie Sansone and cram it up your back-end! =)

And then dinner… oh my goodness did it turn out well. First, let me say, I am in love with my new cast iron skillet. It was “pre-seasoned”, but I cooked it for a while coated in bacon-grease anyway, as if it weren’t. Hamburgers last night, scrambled eggs with spinach this morning, and now tuna steak with spinach, mushrooms and garlic tonight. Easy and perfect. It doesn’t stick. It heats so evenly. I only have to remember that the handle gets hot, too, but so far so good. Add some couscous with some chicken broth and lemon, and I blew myself away with the deliciousness of this dinner tonight.

Bonus: I knew cast iron was heavy, but so is tri-clad metal cookware in general. I’m going to have to start pumping more iron so I can lift my pots to stuff my face! =) Why does that make me happy?

Some recipes I’ve been trying, and a fudge redo I want to try, but need an occasion so I can share them!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Herbed-Greek-Roasted-Potatoes-with-Feta-Cheese/Detail.aspx

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=417045 – Sweet & Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Cabbage-Slaw-2/Detail.aspx - Apple Cabbage Slaw

Fudge…UNPUDGED!

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Less fun = actually playing DJ Hero
More fun = these crazy song mixes that I am loving

I think I’d rather let somebody else DJ and just dance. =)

Today is actually day one of working at my newly completed treadmill desk setup in the office. There are just a few kinks left to work out, but all minor and generally the same kind you have for any office move — setting up proper task lighting, getting some air circulating, what shoes to wear while you walk all day…

I have two real shoe loves right now: the fitflop and the VFFs. Actually, there’s a clear favorite simply because they’re easier to get on and off, and that’s my fitflops. If you haven’t already discovered these, check out: http://www.fitflop.com/ These are simply the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever had, ever. I couldn’t really tell you much about how good of a leg workout you get from them, but they’re perfectly padded, form to fit your foot, don’t rub, and are just the best things ever. I have three pair right now and love them all.

The VFFs, however, may be the daytime winner for the treadmill desk overall. It’s close, to say the least, but I’ve always liked to just walk on the treadmill barefoot, but regreted the sore feet later. These are just the protection my foot needs, and still feels barefoot.

Even though I just barely went over 2 1/2 miles today, and am now in fact only standing, not walking as I type this, I’m pretty happy with this “walk to work” plan. Most noticable was the lack of desire for that afternoon nap.