In February I joined Curves to increase my activity level. It seemed like a good idea at the time. An all girl “gym” that used resistence based machines for exercise. It’s a very basic set-up. I think it’s a decent service for people who are brand new to exercise, uncertain about how to go about increasing activity levels, or uncomfortable with the idea of a co-ed gym.

I’ve outgrown Curves a lot faster than I anticipated. Although, if I’m really honest with myself, I may have outgrown Curves long before I stepped foot in their nearby location.

Yesterday I came to my senses. I canceled my Curves membership and purchased a pass to the City of Edmonton Rec Centres. Now I have access to far more than limited resistance weight machines. At city facilities I’ll have access to free weights, indoor running tracks, pools, ice rinks, classes & more. There are multiple free swims a day and participation in drop-in classes is free. Unless I want to hire a personal trainer or take a specialized or limited participation (size) class, I won’t have to pay any extra fees.

Most importantly, the city’s rec facilities pass costs about $15 less a month than Curves did.

There are facilities all over the city and, unlike Curves, I don’t need special passes pre-arranged in advance to drop in at any one of them (with the exception of Terwilligar – but let’s be honest, I don’t even know what part of town that is). Not all facilities have the same services or schedules but it’s easy to look them up in the guide book or online.

For the moment I’ll need to drive about town to use the nearest gym. The facilities closest to me (3) are an extra 5-10 minute drive when compared to the nearest Curves. However, the city is in the process of building a big new facility within walking distance from my home (LRT distance in winter – far too cold to walk) which is slated to open in Winter 2011.

I don’t know why I was so hesitant to do this before. Very glad I’ve taken this next step. Onward and downward – on the weight scales – we go!

I’m in need of a new point and shoot camera. Hubs broke mine last year when he was on tour. We bought a replacement camera while on vacation last summer but hubs has taken it with him on his current tour.

While he did leave his fancy schmantzy DSLR camera behind, I don’t have the foggiest idea how to use it. More importantly, I don’t want to be dragging around a backpack filled with lenses, filters, and a bazillion other odds and ends that I don’t know the names of.

What I want is a digital camera that will be smart enough to take a decent picture no matter how poor the photographer’s “eye”. I need a camera that can compensate for my wobbly hands, poor sight, and fits in my pocket or purse.

I don’t want a large body camera with a fixed lense. If I’m going to get something that big then I might as well sign up for a photography course and lug around hubs giant bag o’ camera equipment.

Preferably my new camera will have some sort of facial or smile recognition, a sports feature that would allow me to take pics at football games, a decent zoom (6-10x would be nice) and the ability to film short movies.

So peanut gallery, time to chime in with recommendations (make & model please) so I can start comparing cameras and make a decision. What do you use? What are it’s good points? What’s it’s bad points? What are your favourite features & which features do you wish your camera had?

Thanks.

Looks like there’s a chance my mum & sister may be heading west to spend Christmas with me. Since I’m about to get crazy busy with school again soon I figure I better spend the next few weeks going through the spare room, kitchen, office & basement great room to cull things that we haven’t used in years. I figure I can spend a few hours each weekend until my birthday clearing out odds and ends and then find a way to dispose of them (likely Goodwill or Sally Ann). Won’t promise that the house will be spotless in time for their arrival but should hopefully be able to find the sparr bed, some empty dresser drawers, and (most importantly) be able to move around a bit in my office.

I normally adore reading. Sci-Fi, fantasy, crime, mystery, biography, classics. I don’t really have a favourite genre. I happily read hundreds of books a year. Of course my love for reading is predicated on the fact that the book I’m reading interests me. That the pages it contains call out to my imagination and paints vivid pictures in my mind.

Textbooks, at least the one’s for my classes to date, really don’t fill this requirement for me.

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this but I suspect it’s true for most university students – I’ve never read a text from school from cover to cover. Sure, I read chapters here and there. I skim sections that pop out at me. I’ll hunt down research articles and explore topics of interest. I’ll reference ideas from one text in research assignments for a different class. All the while content with the fact that I have never read a complete text in any class.

This semester worries me. In one class I have the standard text and handful of assigned readings in the form of articles. Class number two is a completely different story. I don’t have all the text for that class yet. One still needs to be shipped to me. The giant pile of textbooks required for the class keeps growing. To date I have 8 of the 9 books. Yeah, that’s right. 9 texts. I have a horrible feeling I’ll need to read more than one of them to pass this class. *sigh*

There goes my perfect “non-reading” record. I have a feeling I’ll be diving into the least dull seeming book beginning this weekend in order to prep for my fall classes.

I registered for my fall classes a few days back and am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of my textbooks. If only I didn’t have to pay a bazillion $$ extra for them. My thankfully my Adult Dev class only requires 1 text since the Aboriginal History (mandatory course to graduate) class has a 4 text reading list.

I have to admit, I’m really leery and uncomfortable with the idea of completing the Aboriginal History course. Partially because it’s mandated. Mostly because of a horrific experience I had in a similarly themed university course in the early 90s. I’d go into details, but I’m trying hard to keep my blood pressure in check these days. Suffice to say it wasn’t the fascinating introductory class to another culture and way of thinking that the syllabus portrayed it to be.

Four classes until graduation. Guess I better knuckle down and get to work soon!

Rain, rain, go away.

Blech!

It’s been raining for days. Raining, of course, is an understatement. Sloppy. Messy. Wet.

And flooding my basement.

Which makes me miserable while Drew is gone. Thank the gawds I have awesome neighbours. The source of the leak(s) has been found and Les will be fixing it as soon as it drys up. In the meantime, I’ve got mopping to do.

I love my old home. Weeks like this, where it’s rained a month’s worth in of precipitation in less than 72 hours, remind me of some of the downsides of owning an older home. My solace, of course, is that owners of newly built homes across the city are facing similar problems tonight.

Misery does love company.

EAVB_EDTOATTYOI

It’s been a while now since I came home from the sempertastic family vacation to find my beloved fur-baby had passed on. Less time since my non-profit organization hosted their first major fundraiser for equality based organizations – we raised $3773 this year. Very happy with the results.

I haven’t fallen off the fitness wagon. In fact, I’ve reached my December 2010 clothing size goals  5 months early. Since I’m still technically classifed as overweight, I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months and hope to reach my new goal by Christmas.

Still not able to run. Doc has banned me from running (again *sigh*) and I’m back to walking and torturous exercises to strengthen the muscles around my patella.

Tomorrow, I put my hubby on a plane bound (eventually) for Kandahar. It’s been just over a year since he returned from his last tour to KAF and the time has just flown by. Most likely because he’s been gone for at least 60% of the time; off on training courses and prepping for this tour.

With that in mind, I thought today would be a good time to post a gentle reminder to all those who call themselves friends and family. The following excerpt is from a post I made in Dec 2008:

There are nightmares that military families live with daily. To address them we set ground rules. The most important one when a spouse (or child, sibling, etc.) is deployed is that you never drop in unannounced for a visit. No matter where you are “in the neighbourhood” don’t ever ring my doorbell without calling first to let me know you’re visiting.

Spouses, children, parents, and siblings all dread the possibility that a padre will walk up the walk-way and ring the doorbell. Normally filling a position of comfort or joy, when a member of your family is deployed the padre is the last person you want to see near your home.

Our shared goal is to make it through the months never having heard a doorbell ring. Don’t ring mine.

Thanks.

Arrived home from family vacation to learn that my oldest and most favoured pet passed away yesterday.

RIP baby girl. I’m going to miss you like crazy. Too young & too cranky to be gone from my world already. Thought we were going to grow old together. The house seems “wrong” without you in the kitchen to greet me when I open the door.

Thanatos Guppy Cheshire Kitty Cat (1995-2010).

In my original plan, I was to reach the half way mark for weight loss at the beginning of September. I hit that milestone yesterday. I’m pretty proud of myself. Some weeks I lost more than others. Some weeks I only managed to lose 0.2 lbs. I haven’t gained or plateaued.

I’m no longer classified as obese by my BMI. In 28 lbs, I will no longer meet the classification for overweight. I think I’ll be able to cross “reaching normal weight” off my goal list by Christmas. Then the new challenge will be keeping it off permanently.

My biggest win?  I reached the first few clothing goals I’d set for myself. I’m down 4 pant sizes and 3 shirt sizes since I started the lifestyle change.  Aside from my favourite geek t-shirts, sports jerseys & my da’s sweater, there are few pieces of my old clothes left in my closet. It’s all been donated or passed on to someone else.

Going shopping for new clothes has been both a treat and an eye opener. I still have so much father to go. Or, not so far if I just raid Drew’s closet. His clothes are starting to fit me now.

I’m still in rehab for my knee and suspect I’ll be working on it for many more months to come. No quick trip to the races for me. I’m all turtle these days.

We’re off on a family vacation in under 2 weeks. Cruisin’ around Alaska. Here’s hoping I don’t eat my way through the buffet line!