kablpomo will be a thing
i’ve decided kablpomo will be happening, and it will be a tribute month to charlie. stay tuned for stories.
will kablpomo be a thing
catastrophic events yesterday may keep me from attempting (who am i kidding – i always finish) kablpomo this year. i may try a 30-word story, with a word a day. or i may just think some thoughts every day. we’ll have to see how this goes.
keep my brother your thoughts and prayers.
upcoming thanksgiving
no catvember today! tomorrow is thanksgiving, so i am baking and cooking like a fiend. perhaps tomorrow catvember will resume, or else i will post pictures of my food! OR…i might not post at all. we’ll see what happens!
my other goal for the month of november, which was to get at least 50,000 words in on my devils syrup book, is not going well 🙁
kablpomo??
kaBLAMO is almost upon us, as i was reminded by my sister jane asking for nanowrimo ideas. since i’ve been doing kablpoye, it didn’t dawn on my that kablpomo is creeping up.
so, do i continue on as i’m doing? do i do a theme month? do i do two posts a day? (please, no, not the last one…)
what are your ideas for this year’s kablpomo? i think for nanowrimo (national novel writing month), i am going to really focus on my devil’s syrup book and see if i can get it done.
all good things
so ends another year of kablpomo. i didn’t do half the things i wanted to do for it, but i did write every day, and that is the main point of kablpomo. on top of that, i didn’t forget any days, and i actually looked forward to blogging every day. i think that is a first in the 3 (4?) years i’ve been doing this.
you might not see a lot of me in december, as i will be compiling content for kablpoye (kate’s blog posting year) to celebrate 10 years of blogging (2004-2014, baby!), but i will pop in from time to time and let you know how houseblog and christmas are doing. i’m excited to get my tree this year and decorate. (last year was a bust as far as decorating for christmas.)
for the rest of today’s post: a reflection on houseblog.
my walls are as painted as i want them to be right now, i’ve got pictures up in the main parts of the house, and the garage is clear of stuff so that nate and i can both park in there (good thing, too, with snow coming this week). my living room isn’t quite as big as i’d hoped it’d be, but it’s certainly cozy enough and is set up for some good christmas movie viewing. with the blue grey walls and dark cabinets, my kitchen is as close to my favorite ikea kitchen as it’s going to get, i think. 🙂
the office is kind of boring right now and the bedroom needs some work, but for now it’ll be good enough.
this summer i need gutters for sure, and maybe we’ll start on the basement or deck. either one will work for me. for now, though, i think it’s time for a break and to sit down and enjoy the house.
breakups
this graph is really interesting. a couple of observations:
1. april fool’s day is probably a spoof – note how it goes right back down. i’d bet most of the “breakups” are april fools’ jokes.
2. apparently people don’t want to spend money on their significant others. breaking up 2 weeks before christmas? before valentine’s day? seems like a cheap way to get out of buying a present.
3. SPRING BREAK! who wants to be weighed down with a bf/gf during the trip that could get you the most tail evah! same with beginning of summer vacay – you want to keep your options open!
4. thank goodness christmas day is the least breakup day. at least humanity has a little sense of decency left.
turkey!
turkey was a hit!
pecan pie
i’m cutting it close tonight! i wanted to get some shots of my pecan pie in this post, so that’s why the late post.
after i stopped eating devil’s syrup, i wanted to make a pecan pie. surprise surprise, pecan pie contains corn syrup. in fact, it was created specifically to help SELL corn syrup. (so sayeth the corn syrup people.) wow.
but i did some digging and found this recipe for DS-free pecan pie. i’ve been making it for a few years now. i also have made my crusts with butter and lard now for a few years as well. crisco is all trans fat, and now that the government might ban trans fats, well! let’s say i was ahead of the curve.
this sucker is still in the oven, baking as i type. should turn out just peachy. or pecany.
turkey tuesday
one thing i love about kablpomo being in november is that i can get away with a lot of photo posts toward the end of the month.
while i am not hosting t-day this year (sad face), i am in charge of the turkey. tonight he’s in the sink thawing, and i made a brine for it to go into tomorrow morning. i did this brine two years ago and it turned out EXCELLENT. it’s the pioneer woman’s brine, and while you would think it would turn the turkey sweet from the ingredients (apple juice, brown sugar, oranges?), it did not, in fact, do that. then i roast it according to this food network recipe, and it turns out spectacularly.
yum yum! looking forward to yummy thanksgiving food.
SCALE VICTORY!
scale victory, y’all.
height: 5’9″
bone structure: large
weight: 199.4!
i have lost enough weight where i feel a little comfortable talking about my weight. at this point, i am merely “overweight” and only about 30 lbs. so. that’s reasonable enough.
fall 2010 nate bought a scale. i’d never been a believer in scales, except when i went to the doctor’s office. he was on a health kick, though, and wanted a fancy one. ok. i avoided it for a while, then got on and started weighing myself occasionally. one day in spring 2011, i got on and weighed 268. it was like a moment of clarity – at this point, i realized that 268 was way too close to 275, and 275 was way too close to 300. and 300 was too much. i had to do something. i didn’t really know what.
i’d been corn syrup-free for a year, but that really hadn’t changed my eating habits – just what i ate. i still ate sugar, just not as much and only things made with actual sugar. i grazed after supper all the time. and no real activity.
at the same time, liz had mentioned doing couch-2-5k, and i read through the program. i had never considered myself a runner, even the summer after my first year at csb when liz and i ran every night. but this looked intriguing and relatively easy. so i decided to give it a try. in addition, i did my best to stop eating after supper.
over the summer, i sort of did the third week of c2-5k over and over, until mid-september when my knees started to hurt. but i had lost 15 lbs, just from not eating after supper and doing the piddly third week of c2-5k. but i needed to wait until i saw the doc.
once the doc gave me the ok, i went forward and even took out a monthly membership to the csb fieldhouse. and that’s when i really got going with c-2-5k. the fieldhouse had a track where i could measure exactly how far i ran. i went full tilt starting the beginning of november.
by christmas i’d lost almost 30 lbs. and was able to run a mile non-stop. in march, i finally ran a 5k non-stop. in july, i was down 50 lbs. summer was a little weird with events and stuff, and my weight was a little stagnant until september when i was down 55.
i didn’t count calories. i tried to eat a little less, ate more veggies and fruits, tried to eat less carbs. but stuff happens – i ate my seafood lasagna at ciatti’s over my bday and thoroughly enjoyed it. someone brought cake to work? i had a piece. there’s a brownie at my grandma’s house she offers? yes, please.
but i was pretty much only drinking water and iced tea. still no hfcs. trying to eat a little healthier. and i ran.
and now here i am, below 200 lbs for the first time in probably 14 years. i graduated from high school at 180, yo-yoed through college and left st. ben’s at about 220. when i started hanging out with the gays, i gained 10-15, then another 10 or so when i met nate (date nights…fancy supper). when i got married, i was about 245. somewhere in there, i gained another 20.
when i got bloodwork done at my high weight, my triglycerides were getting close to the warning level. a year after i’d started running, they were so low they couldn’t get a count on them. how awesome is that?
and the nice thing is that as i’m losing weight, i’m also gaining muscle, which means that the last time i weighed what i do, i wore a size or so bigger, so i look like i’ve lost more weight than i have. my legs have muscles! i can see my arm muscles! look at my somewhat visible collarbones! holy cow i can actually SEE my rib bones on my chest! (above the boobies, people.) people mistake me for liz all the time now and vice versa.
but here’s the thing that you have to know: i never had any self-image issues. i never hated my body or myself when i weighed 268. being that size was more of a nuisance than anything else. clothes didn’t fit me the way i wanted them to. some seats got clausterphobic. i actually had my hip fall asleep in a theater seat once. my boobs were ginormous and spendy (large-cup bras cost a pretty penny) and got and in the way ALL THE TIME (well, the boob stuff all still kind of applies…).
and i actually wonder if my weight was a detriment when i was looking for jobs in 2006 – 20 interviews and before getting a job? then in 2012 (after losing 50 lbs) i have ONE interview and get it?
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE. onward and upward, i say! i don’t FEEL different on the inside, but when i see pictures of when i was my heaviest, i say, holy cow. i look like a different person.
everyone always asks what a goal is, right? (although i haven’t had anyone ask me that personally, the loseit subreddit always asks.) BMI tells me the high end should be 168 or so. that sounds reasonable – that’s what i weighed in 11th grade. even if i don’t get to that, i’ll be happy. i’m happy NOW. i was happy at 268! but now i’m happy, healthy, and definitely more comfortable.
(ps – here’s a PSA for c-2-5k. if you are wanting to get in shape and have a penchant for beating self-goals [i was never a team-player, myself], couch-2-5k could be the way to go. check out my post on how to do it.)