It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like Winter

We got our first real snow fall on Saturday. It was coming down pretty steady all day, fluffy-fat flakes of white stuff. At this point, it’s new enough (and late enough in the season) to be pretty.

We didn’t get a huge amount, but enough to cover everything in a blanket of white. A lot of it is gone already, the rest may not last much longer, but I think winter is here.

Sunday morning was actually bright & sunny. Husband and I were sitting in the living room and I happened to look up and see a fox trotting down the hill and across our neighbor’s yard. I was wishing for my camera, but it was down in the basement on my desk. It was a pleasure to see though, and we’ve watched several deer saunter past, close enough that we can see they are wearing their thick winter coats.

November Workouts

Nov 29: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Nov 28: Candlelight Yoga DVD[40 mins]
Nov 24: Lower Body & Abs[40 mins]
Nov 22: Upper Body + Cardio[45 mins]
Nov 20: Fusion Flow DVD[45 mins]
Nov 16: Treadmill walk/Jog[20 mins]
Nov 15: Treadmill walk[20 mins]
Nov 10: Cardio Intervals[30 mins]
Nov 09: Shape Mag Dumbbell Circuit[35 mins]
Nov 06: Treadmill walk/jog[40 mins]
Nov 04: Fat Burning Fusion DVD[45 mins]
Nov 03: Treadmill walk[20 mins]
Nov 02: Fitnessista BootCamp #2[30 mins]
Nov 01: Treadmill walk/jog + Lunar Flow #1[45 mins]

I’m feeling pretty good about November. Last week I was not feeling so great, starting around Wednesday. Went to the doctor on Friday and ended up with a prescription for antibiotics. Felt really crappy on the weekend, but feeling much better now and looking forward to December.

Starting Monday I have 2 weeks of work left, then I’m on vacation until January. Can’t wait!

Play It Again, JavaChick

I forgot my iPhone today, which meant no food pics at work. Then Husband got held up at work and we didn’t get home until around 7 pm, so no workout tonight either. We’ll all have to be in suspense about those Cardio Intervals for a little bit longer.

At lunch time I read this post on Peas and Thank You. Mama Pea was having a rough day, so she recycled a post from a year ago. I got curious, so I had a look to see what I posted a year ago today. Turns out it was my workout summary for January, which looked something like this:

January 2009

Jan 29: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 28: Treadmill Walk + Joy of Yoga[80 mins]
Jan 27: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 26: Yoga[20 mins]
Jan 24: Treadmill Walk + 20 Min Yoga Buns & Thighs[65 mins]
Jan 23: Power Beauty Sweat[20 mins]
Jan 22: Joy of Yoga[35 mins]
Jan 21: Fat Burning Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 20: Kathy Smith Yoga[30 mins]
Jan 19: Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
Jan 18: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 15: Bikini Ready DVD[35 mins]
Jan 13: Slim Sculpt[45 mins]
Jan 11: Fat Burning Fusion[45 mins]
Jan 10: Yogini Workout[45 mins]
Jan 1 - 4: Clearing out spare room, painting, cleaning up, putting spare room back together. Whew! (Missed that the first time around and want to see the results? Click Here)

I had a hard time with motivation in January of last year. Last winter was just a hard one all around; it started early and stayed late.

As Husband complains about the snow and cold this winter, I keep saying that at least it’s been better than last winter. It tends to lose it’s impact what with that being then and this being now. But looking through my posts from February of last year, they were pretty much all snow, snow and more snow.

Granted, it’s just the beginning of February, there’s more snow to come. But here are a few photos that I posted on February 1, 2009…

Hope you enjoyed the rerun and with any luck we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

Snowy Day

It started out like this…

And it just kept snowing all day.

This is the first real snow we’ve had since the beginning of the month though, so we’ve had it pretty easy so far.

The roads were messy, I was glad Husband was driving and that we had winter tires on the car.

Cardio Intervals? Again?

It seems not that long ago that I was looking forward to intervals and feeling happy about it. It was going so well there for a while. Today I was all ‘Intervals again? Didn’t I just do intervals?’

It’s not so much fun because the running is not feeling so great anymore. Again. I may just have to give up on this running thing, I don’t know.

Anyway, today I alternated walking and running intervals, so it was less running; similar to what I did on Monday. I may have to stick with this for a while and hope the running thing gets better again.

Lazy Food Blogger

I was taking pictures all day, but I realized at supper time that it was nothing you haven’t seen already this week. And it’s only Wednesday.

- Yogurt & coffee for breakfast

- Raw veggies & Amy’s Kitchen Burrito for lunch

- After Eights for my afternoon treat

- Tomato & cucumber salad, Beef Curry Hotpot for supper.

It would just be boring to see all that again, right? So to save time (yes Bag Lady, for the piano) I decided to skip it.

However, I did decide that such a snowy night calls for an appropriate dessert; time for Mr. Hot Chocolate Maker to come out and play again.

Off to the piano I go!

The Musical Conclusion – Or Perhaps I Should Say the New Beginning

When last I posted, I was getting ready to head home to Nova Scotia for the Holidays. Of course I was looking forward to visiting with family, but I was also kind of excited because I would finally get to meet my new piano!

We actually had a bit of a rough ferry crossing on the way over – it was very windy. Normally I am quite happy to sit and read for the 3 hour crossing but for the first time I found I couldn’t settle down to that. But, we arrived in one piece and hit the road for Greenwood.

We made a quick stop in Middleton at Husband’s family home, then continued on to my parent’s house for hugs and greetings and lunch and my first look at the Digital Piano. Or the box anyway.

There it is; the new piano, sitting right next to the old.

We had a lot of fun fitting that box into our little VW Rabbit for the trip home, let me tell you. I really should have taken a picture, but Husband was seeming a little cranky about the whole thing so I didn’t want to push my luck. It did fit, but let’s just say it was a very cozy car ride.

We came home on Sunday, Dec. 27, and my [NS] sister came over to Saint John the next day to spend New Year’s with us. Somehow we didn’t accomplish much during our visit, other than a lot of relaxing. I did make a start on clearing space and reorganizing things in the basement, but that was about it.

We dropped Sister off for the 9 am ferry yesterday. It was starting to snow a bit, so on the way home we made a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things since the forecast was saying we were in for a lot of snow.

Then, finally, I got back to work on reorganizing the basement and Husband helped me to put the piano together. Actually, he did most of the putting together, I was mainly there to hold things.

The cats really enjoyed the box that the piano came in.

I really should have got video – Zappa was going nuts in there.

But, with all of our attention focused on the piano, Zappa did not waste any time checking it out either.

Frank did make a few appearances, but I didn’t manage to get him on camera.

Finally, it’s here, it’s all set up and ready to be played. Technically, you are not supposed to set anything on top of the piano (so says the instruction manual), but in an effort to keep the cats from jumping up on it (they are not exactly feather weights, my giant felines), I did set a few lighter things on top.

I have a collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia (my father and my father-in-law both give me collectibles when they come across something they think I will like) that used to sit on a shelf in the spot the piano is now occupying.  A lot of it is going to be packed away for the time being, but I picked a few things for guard duty. There is a set of Coca-Cola coasters (which I bought for myself), a polar bear (from father-in-law), a small bear (which I think came from my Sister) and a clock radio (from my Dad).

I have another polar bear that my Dad gave me years ago. He’s too big to fit on the piano, so he’s keeping the piano books company.

I have to say, after all of that, I did approach the actual playing of the piano with a certain amount of trepidation. It’s been years! I don’t really want to think how many…But I was pleasantly surprised/relieved. I had brought my piano books from home and sat down to give them a try. I am definitely rusty, but it’s not as bad as I thought it might be. People have been telling me that it will come back pretty quickly – Husband too and he’s never even really heard me play – and it looks like they were right. I had one good long session yesterday, but I was at the piano a total of 5 times from the time we had it all set up (around lunch time) to when I went to bed last night. I am having so much fun already!

And as it turns out, we did get a bit of snow…

When we had dropped Sister at the ferry terminal it was just starting, but the snow came down pretty heavy for most of the day.

I took these pictures early afternoon yesterday.

And then I took these this morning…

So far today it has been back and forth between rain and snow. I still have some work to do to get things tidied away in the basement and I’m thinking I’d like to get in some yoga;  exercise has been almost non-existent and I should start easing back into it.

And of course, the piano is calling to me. Tomorrow it’s back to work, but today there is still time to play!

Runaways...

Saturday was a beautiful, warm day. I went out for groceries in the afternoon and felt so light wearing fleece, instead of my winter jacket. Came home and the cats wanted to go outside. Couldn't blame them really - who can resist a warm sunny day after the winter we've had?

I opened the window for the cats and went up the stairs. When I got to the landing, I decided to step out on the front step and watch the cats in the yard. I saw Fred on the opposite side of the yard against the fence. He looked like he was wiggling around against the fence and I was looking thinking: He looks like he's outside the fence...He can't be outside the fence...But yes, he was:



Of course, he took off into the woods so I had to wait for him to come back. As soon as he did come back, I went out with scissors and twine.

From the paw prints in the snow, I'd say that my boys have been sneaking out the back door for a while.



So for now, I've woven the hole closed with some twine. I'm going to have to keep an eye on at as the snow melts, and then we're going to have to figure out how to fix it.



I walked around and found 3 more spots where I could see holes starting. I wove some twine around those too. I'm not very happy - I'm pretty sure this fencing is supposed to last longer than three years. Hopefully we will be able to get it fixed somehow. The whole point of this fence is to give the cats a safe place to enjoy the outdoors; holes in the fence just will not do.

It was quite a nice afternoon...



And then I got up this morning and saw this:







More snow. For the love of Pete. When will it end?

View from my window this morning...

I'm always posting pictures that I take through my living room window. I have a pretty good view really. This morning it was quite pretty because of all the freezing rain we had at the beginning of the week. I actually took one with the window frame to give you a bit of my perspective...



And the rest using the zoom, still from my seat on the couch...







I had planned on today being a walk/jog session, but things didn't work out. Really late getting home from work, hungry Husband to feed, hungry self to feed because I didn't quite pack enough food for my lunch/snacks today. So we opted for dinner as soon as we got home from work and I don't like running on a full stomach. Hopefully I can get the jogging in tomorrow after work, but for today I did another yoga session. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Can't believe it's Wednesday!

There's something to be said for working from home the first two days of the week...I can't believe it's Wednesday evening and I only have two more days to the weekend! Even though I was working while I was at home, it seems like the time went so much faster.

Since yesterday was Pancake Tuesday, we had pancakes for dinner. Pancakes are one of my all-time favorite foods, and we had them with strawberries and Nova Scotia Maple Syrup. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that meal!

Today was actually a beautiful, sunny day. I went out for a short walk down the block this afternoon and it was lovely. It was 2 degrees! Above zero! Of course, there are unbelievable mountains of snow everywhere and the sidewalks are a disaster. Still, fairly warm temperatures in the forecast for the rest of the week so I'm really hoping that winter is winding down.

As for the Fabulous Felines, I dug them a little tunnel and they have bravely ventured out. George went last night while I was on the treadmill, but Frank took the plunge right after work today, so I got some photos.

Snowed in

Quite the storm happened over last night and today. It think it was the worst of the season.



We were supposed to be at the hospital for 8am, to get the blood tests done for our new doctor. We were standing at the window, wondering whether to go, when we saw a snow plow coming. You'd think that would make us feel better about going out, but since the big, heavy, plow was sliding all over the place, we decided to stay put.

I already knew I would be working from home today, since we were supposed to be moving offices today. That got rescheduled too, so I'll be working from home again tomorrow.

The cats weren't going anywhere either...



We did have a good weekend though. Got together with friends Saturday night for a Mexican themed dinner. Sunday relaxed around the house. And it was pretty pleasant to spend today sitting on the couch with Husband, even if we were working. Telling myself that, surely, this will be the last big storm of the winter...

Yeah it snowed. Again.

That dark blue VW Rabbit would be our car, which could not make it up the drive. The car behind it would be our neighbor's car, similarly afflicted.

We came home early ~ somewhere around 3-ish and worked from home for the rest of the afternoon. I was glad we did and avoided the after work traffic because there was definitely some slipping and sliding going on during the drive home.

So Husband and I settled on the couch with our laptops. Normally he would sit at his desk, but he said it was too messy. He had to dial into a conference call for work, and he put it on speakerphone. Have to admit, the droning was getting to me a bit - it wasn't a discussion or anything, it was one person giving a presentation of some kind. It was kinda irritating to listen to. Apparently it was getting to George too, and it made him a little crazy; he got up on the back of the couch and...



Well, picture frames are not supposed to look like that are they?

Ok, so it's just a cheap print that I bought years ago while living in my first apartment. But it's doing it's job, taking up space on the wall until I find the perfect artwork for that spot (someday it's gonna happen, I just know it)...Sigh. I guess if the cat was able to bend it out of shape, we should be able to bend it back into shape.

On the bright side, the days are definitely getting longer. It's now light enough in the mornings that I can drink my coffee by the living room window, watching the deer.



Wasn't it nice of them to pose for me?