Dogs and Squirrel

Sunday the dogs caught a squirrel in the backyard. Charlotte raced out to save the squirrel and yelled at me to come help. I went out and pulled Astro off of the squirrel and was holding him in my arms while Charlotte held Cosmo off of the squirrel. When I looked for where the squirrel ended up, it was climbing up my leg (I had on blue jeans). Eee Gad. Who'd a thought a little old squirrel would give me such a fright. I had to put Astro down so Charlotte could hold him and I could get the squirrel off of me! While I was passing Astro over to Charlotte, the squirrel climbed up to my stomach. After Charlotte got Astro, I flicked the squirrel off of my tummy with my hands. It flew a few feet from me and landed on the ground and headed to the fence and climbed up the fence and got away. It was a young squirrel according to Charlotte and very stunned and frightened. Both Astro and Cosmo had got the squirrel in their mouths according to Charlotte but thankfully there was no blood on either the squirrel or the dogs. We took the dogs inside and blocked their backyard doggy door. They were besides themselves with excitement for the next 30 minutes or so wanting to go back outside. We didn't let them back outside until they had calmed down a little and we were sure there were no squirrels on the ground.

Another Silly Quiz

Your Life is 46% Off Track

Right now, you're taking things one day at a time. Some things are going well, but you can't help but wonder if you're getting the most out of life. It's time for you to slow down and reflect a little. You can change your life - but it's up to you!

Are You Living The Wrong Life?

Root Canal and Antibiotics

The story of my life the last week ... the affects of a root canal and antibiotics. I had a root canal started on Wednesday last week. Part I of the root canal lasted one hour. It was too complex to finish in one sitting so part II was scheduled for Saturday morning. I was sent off with a prescription for Motrin for the pain and an antibiotic to keep infection away. I was grateful for the Motrin. After the Novocaine wore off, there was pain. The Motrin took 10 minutes or so to kick in but worked like a charm once it did kill the pain.

Part II on Saturday was a long 1.5 hour session in the dentist chair. The dentist asked her assistants to take x-rays so she could be sure not to go past the end of my root canal. Well the assistants took about 7 x-rays before they found the right view for the dentist to see where my root ended. Sigh. I was exhausted and glad when it finally ended. I had more pain after the Novocaine wore off yet again. BUT within a day the pain went away and I was able to stop popping Motrin capsules. Hurray! Finally no pain in that tooth. Ever since the dentist drilled the tooth and put a crown on it the tooth it has been hurting.

The antibiotics have been a pain in the butt and the gut. Those nasty little things did keep any infection at bay but they also destroyed all those valuable bacteria in my innards that keep my digestion going well. I have been suffering from the runs from the day I started the antibiotics. UGH! I don't wish this on anyone. Thank goodness that I only have one left to take and then I'm done. Hopefully my good old bod will then let those good bacteria back into my system and my digestion will go back to normal.

Brown Rice, Brocoli, Carrots, Walnuts, Raisons ... oh my!

C. kindly made me a yummy lunch today that I am munching on right now. The title describes it. I'm drinking a new Crystal Geyser juice squeeze flavor called Pomegranate Lemonade. It is tasty.

The new job is going well. I have been doing lots of reading about satellites and the particular satellite software I will be working on. At the end of today I hit my 2 week mark at Space Systems / Loral. I got my first pay check for last week today. They conveniently have a Wells Fargo bank machine in the main lobby of SS/L so I was able to deposit the check here at work. In the future direct deposit will kick in and I won't have to worry about depositing my check in the bank.

Besides new work the other thing that has been going on lately is visiting the dentist. I got a temporary crown on my tooth about a week and a half ago. The tooth was painful so this past Wednesday I went in to have it looked at. The dentist put a different type of temporary crown on the tooth (acrylic instead of metallic). If the pain doesn't go away in a few days, it looks like that tooth is destined for a root canal. Ug. If so ... it will be my first root canal. So far the pain has not gone away and this is day two. I'm supposed to get the permanent crown on the tooth on Monday but it is looking like I may get a root canal that day instead. I have been popping Advil the past week and a half when the tooth gets painful and happily about 15 mintues after a couple of Advil, the pain is gone. Advil is my friend.

I took my first ever Yoga class last Tuesday. The class is at the Mountain View California Yoga Center. I enjoyed the class (level 1 class) and like the instructor, Lisa, and will give the class another try next Tuesday. I decided to give Yoga a try as I want to be better connected to my body, become more flexible, and learn to deal better with stress. Yoga seemed to be a perfect choice to help me with these things.

Wen tagged me - Fivers

OK ... Wen tagged me to give this a shot ... I'm game.

1. Five favorite days of the year

1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving
3. My birthday
4. Labor day - because that usually means a camping trip!
5. Memorial day - again sometimes means a camping trip!

2. Five things you watched this week

1. The Soprano's season 3 on DVD
2. Export Control training (truly boring)
3. The Yoga instructor, Lisa, at California Yoga in Mtn. View
4. The latest Harry Potter movie
5. DVD about ants and termites (more interesting than it sounds)

3. Five things you don't want to do, but should

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables
2. Desist eating McDonalds french fries
3. Revaluate my investment choices in my 401K
4. Read preliminary design documents
5. Get my toe fungus checked out by a doctor

4. Five things you want to learn

1. JAVA
2. Yoga
3. How to play the piano
4. How satellites work
5. How to put the brakes on while going backwards on roller blades

5. Five animals you've had as pets or who have impacted you

1. Georgie Girl and Timothy, two family cats we had while growing up in Columbus, OH
2. Barney, my first pet I was responsible for, sadly I did a less than perfect job and Barney escaped, got in the furnace duct some how and died.
3. Sappho & Sascha, two python snakes that my partner had when I met her.
4. Kalamozoo, and Punzel, my brother's cats that I loved to visit and cuddle with
5. Cosmo & Astro, our dogs that impact our lives everyday

6. Five favorite pieces of clothing

1. Aslo Hiking boots
2. New 40-50 SPF sunproof long sleeve shirts
3. Stanford Blood bank t-shirt
4. Brown shorts with lots of pockets
5. Blue REI fleece vest

7. Five things you enjoy in the summer

1. the longer amounts of day light
2. warm sunny weather
3. vacations
4. hiking
5. camping

8. Five foods you don't like

1. beans
2. jalepeno peppers
3. humus
4. mushrooms
5. lentils

9. You are given $50,000 to pass out to 5 people in $10,000 cash gifts. Who do you give it to, and why

1. Charlotte, my sweetie, so she can increase her cash reserves.
2. David, my brother, so he and his wife can decrease their debt or start saving for my nephews' education
3. Bob, my brother, to help cover the cost of my nieces' education
4. Cecily, my sister, to help cover the cost of my nieces' education
5. My parents, just to thank them for all the financial support they have given me over my life.
   

10. Five things that are not where they belong

1. The key to my safety deposit box
2. My passport
3. At the moment my eye glasses (they are not on my face)
4. A stack of papers on my desk at home
5. Perhaps my dog, Cosmo (he has a knack at going where he does not belong
   

Five, Ten or Fifteen People you want to complete this:

1. no one
2. no one
3. no one
4. no one
5. no one

I got a job!

Hurray! I got a job. Space Systems Loral offered me a job this week and I accepted. I start on July 16th. My current job ends on June 29th. So I have a blissful two weeks off with no major worries. I need a vacation so this is great.

C. and I will visit Kings Canyon National Park the weekend after my NGC job ends. After we get back we are toying with the idea of a road trip up the northern California coast with the dogs. We haven't done a major trip with the dogs yet but I think it will be fun and educational. We may rent a car big enough to put the dog's kennels in so they can be safe and have more room than the tiny kennels we have in the Prius.

Month of Interviews

This has been the month of interviews. I had 5 last week. One on Wednesday with Lockheed Martin. One on Wednesday with BAE. One on Thursday with Quark. Three on Friday with Lockheed Martin. Quark is pursuing other candidates or in other words Quark is not interested in me. I don't want the job at BAE and I think the chances are slim they would offer it to me. I was just not a good match for the job. I'm still waiting to hear from Lockheed Martin. I felt good about three of the Lockheed interviews and luke warm about one.

I am also still waiting to here from Loral Space Systems since my interview with them on May 16th. I would really like to work there but the longer I don't hear the more I feel like they won't be making a job offer.

I am very tired of interviewing and job searching. I just fervently hope each day to get a job offer. I worry more and more when I don't get any offers. Sigh.

The diet I had hoped to be in the midst of has rather plateaued. I seem to be hovering around 180 lbs. Oh well at least I'm not 186 anymore. I'm hoping once I get a new job lined up I'll have more time and motivation to do the "diet" right (eat healthy, exercise more, no more I feel bummed junk food snacks).

The camping trip to Kings Canyon in July will be a nice break even though I am the campout leader for Loma Prieta GLS. It will be nice to be out in nature with C., get a break from work, and get a break from the dogs.

So the diet begins ...

TODAY.

I am keeping track of my weight lose, exercise, eating habits, etc. using fitday.com. For those curious about checking out my progress day to day I'm keeping a journal at fitday.com. So I'm starting at 185.5 lbs and shooting for 150 lbs on Sept. 9th. Possibly the one thing I like about dieting once I get started is keeping logs and records.

Just blathering

I got a replacement cell phone. No more chew marks on my little Cingular Samsung phone.

I weighed myself and I'm nearly as heavy as I have ever been at 183 lbs. I think I got up to 186 five years ago. This is motivating me a little to be healthier. I had a healthy salad for lunch yesterday and a veggie sub for dinner with fizzy water. However I lacked getting exercise yesterday. Today I had a good lunch and breakfast but gave into a yummy mocha on the way to work. I did take the dogs on a 30 minute walk so got a little bit of exercise.

Job searching carries on. I had a phone interview yesterday with Apple that I believe will lead to a face-to-face interview. I have another phone interview today at 4 p.m. with Mellanox Technologies. And I have a third phone interview on Monday at 8:30 a.m. with another group at Apple. A SWE friend of mine is pushing my resume to hiring managers at Loral in Palo Alto.

At work I am having to work the 2nd shift which I just don't like very much. I am working from noon to 10 p.m. M-F. I miss my evenings with C. We do get mornings now but it just doesn't feel the same as the evenings. Two people at work have recently found jobs. I'm so envious!

One Year Gap

Oh my ... it has been over a year since I got to my poor blog, Cathy's LOGS.

Updates ...

• The household has grown from 2 to 4 as of Feb 2006. 2 furry friends have joined us, Astro and Cosmo, extraordinary basenji dogs! Astro and Cosmo are nearly 1 year and 4 months old now.
• Work is closing down the SJ facility and moving the work to Illinois. As a result, I'm out of a job as of June 29th. If you ask me how I am, I'm likely to bore you with intense details of how much I hate job searching.
• Consumer Report -- We got a brand new 2007 sage (green) colored Toyota Prius in October and a big old King Sized bed in February. Both items are quite luxerious. I am enjoying being able to drive in the car pool lane.
• I have cut down my hiking from once a week to maybe once a month. Instead I do more dog walking, working, or movie watching. I want to get back to hiking but need to decide what to do with the dogs (take them with us on the hike, put them in the pet hotel, find a pet sitter, etc. etc.).
• C. has added another volunteer job to her list. She now volunteers at Sally Leibers office once a week for an hour or two. She also spends lots of time at the dog park with Astro and Cosmo much to their delight.
• My weight is 178 lbs. I want to get back in better physical condition and lose 30+ lbs at a nice slow rate. However ... I seem to be having difficulty find the motivation to do this. I continue to hover around the high 170s. Oh well.

I just put money in the soda machine looking forward to a Mountain Dew and instead a diet iced green tea came out. This is a decided dissappointment when you are looking for a Mtn. Dew.

Cosmo chewed up my cell phone last night. It fell out of my pocket on the couch unbeknownst to me and he found it later and had a chewfest. The front little screen with a nice clock time was punctured but the inside screen still works and the phone works. It just has loads of teeth marks on it. We got insurance on our phones with just this kind of event in mind. Perhaps I swing by the cell phone store after work and see if they can replace it with a new one.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday dear meeeeeeeee!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 45 years old. For more info than you ever wanted to know about your birth date.
You entered: 3/24/1961

• Your date of conception was on or about 1 July 1960 which was a Friday.
  
• You were born on a Friday under the astrological sign Aries.
  
• The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2437382.5.
  
• The golden number for 1961 is 5.
  
• The epact number for 1961 is 13.
  
• The year 1961 was not a leap year
  
• Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/15/1961 and ending 2/4/1962. You were born in the Chinese year of the Ox.
  
• As of 3/24/2006 1:23:57 PM EST
  
  
  
  • You are 45 years old.
    
  • You are 540 months old.
    
  • You are 2,348 weeks old.
    
  • You are 16,436 days old.
    
  • You are 394,477 hours old.
    
  • You are 23,668,643 minutes old
    
  • You are 1,420,118,637 seconds old
    
  
  
• Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.43287671232877 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)
  
• There are 365 days till your next birthday on which your cake will have 46 candles. Those 46 candles produce 46 BTUs,or 11,592 calories of heat (that's only 11.5920 food Calories!). You can boil 5.26 US ounces of water with that many candles.
  
• In 1961 there were approximately 4.2 million births in the US.
  
• In 1961 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
  
• In 1961 in the US there were approximately 1,523,000 marriages (8.5%) and 393,000 divorces (2.2%)
  
• In 1961 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
  
• 
  Your birthstone is Aquamarine
  
• Your birth tree is Hazelnut Tree, the Extraordinary
  
  
  Charming, undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody and capricious lover, honest and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgement.
  
  
  
  
• The moon's phase on the day you wereborn was in its first quarter.
  

You Should Weigh 171

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

Pretty spooky ... I weighed 170 lbs yesterday and 171 only a couple days ago.

You Are Sunshine

Soothing and calm You are often held up by others as the ideal But too much of you, and they'll get burned You are best known for: your warmth Your dominant state: connecting

What Type of Weather Are You?

170 lbs

171.0 lbs

Despite not working out much, I am losing weight. I think it is because I haven't been eating big meals.

173.0 lbs

Finally got to the gym! Had a decent workout.

Work is still busy but I have a couple days vacation tomorrow and Monday. Phew. I'm here at work late trying to finish up my latest assignment before I take off for vacation. I haven't been able to fit in work outs. Phooey.

173.5 lbs

Work is incredibly busy so I sacraficed the work out yesterday but managed to squeeze it in today.

173.0 lbs

173.5 lbs

175.0 lbs

177.0 lbs

177.0 lbs

Worked out at the very end of the day today. It felt good to get right back in the gym after missing day.

I was too busy at work today to fit in a work out. Sigh.

178.0 lbs

Bad day yesterday at work. Today was OK but I'm still recovering from yesterday. It wasn't a very good Valentine's day although dinner out after work was nice. Poor sweetie of mine got an earful on the bad day at work though.

177.0 lbs

179.0 lbs

I led a hike for GLS on Sunday. It went well. The weather was awesome and the scenery was nice. It was a mostly woodsy hike with some exposed parts with nice views of the woodsy valleys. We saw some nice big redwoods in the valley on the Pomponio trail.

177.0 lbs

Ah shot ... puppy class is cancelled tomorrow. The instructor has a back injury and has been forbidden to go back to work this weekend. So the lessons will start hopefully next Saturday (if her back is well).

177.0 lbs

Don't you just hate it when the sunny days fall during the week when you are stuck indoors. Grrrr! I hope the sunny weather holds out for my hike on Sunday and for puppy training class on Saturday.

Its my night to cook. I would like cooking better if I could walk in the kitchen and the menu is all planned out with instructions on how to cook it. It is the deciding what to cook that I don't like so much. The actual cooking isn't so bad once I get started. I much prefer washing dishes. I wonder what the ratio would be of folks who woud rather cook than do the dishes vs those who would rather do the dishes than cook.

176.0 lbs

176.0 lbs

177.0 lbs

Astro and Cosmo

178.0 lbs

Here is a picture of the new puppies on my lap. Astro is the reddish brown and white puppy while Cosmo is the black and white puppy.

177.5 lbs

The puppies are here. They are small and cute cute cute. They wiggle. They bite. They chew. They whine. They sleep. They cuddle. They play. They pee and poo -- the usual puppy stuff.

Cosmo is a bit of a bully while Astro is sweeter. But Astro will let Cosmo know when he is too rough. Astro lay on my lap and slept yesterday while Cosmo found Charlotte's lap. It was amazing how wiggly they were one minute and how still the next when they fell asleep.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the puppies. I worry that I am doing things wrong in terms of training them. I'll hang in there and follow Charlotte's lead on training until we start puppy kindergarten on Feb 11th.

179 lbs

The puppies are coming! The puppies are coming! Cosmo and Astro are on their way. In about 35 minutes they will be getting off the jet and be picked up by Charlotte! When I get home I'll meet them.

180.0 lbs

181.5 lbs

Got myself to the gym today after a lazy weekend. I was going to go geocaching Saturday but it was cancelled and all I ended up doing was running errands with Charlotte and not getting any exercise on Saturday. Sunday was spent getting to Berkeley and watching nieces Eva and Marlena in a gymnastics meet: an afternoon with my butt on a chair. Oh well. I'm back on track today.

Another day of not working out. Uh Oh.

I didn't work out today or weigh in. It has been such a roller coaster week that I decided to just rest today and not push myself to do anything in paritcular.

178.5 lbs

179.5 lbs

Forgot my shorts today so no playing hamster on the treadmill. Running in jeans just doesn't work for me. Instead I took a forty minute walk along the Coyote Creek trail of which part borders my work parking lot. I decided not to weigh myself today after the walk. So tune in tomorrow for the latest weight.

Is TV bad for your mental health? Charlotte thinks so and a book I'm reading thinks so. The book is "Beating the Blues : New Approaches to Overcoming Dysthymia and Chronic Mild Depression" by Michael E. Thase, Susan S. Lang. But I love to watch TV. Is my love of TV making my mental health worse? Charlotte had me tipping towards trying to wean myself off TV yesterday but I'm not quite convinced yet. I keep remembering how much I enjoyed my TV before Charlotte came into my life and how it didn't feel like it was detrimental to my mental health. I find myself imagining ways to watch TV secretly so Charlotte doesn't know I'm doing it. Why do I feel a need to hide it from Charlotte? Maybe because I'm ashamed of my TV watching. I might wander around the internet and see what other opinions I can find on the affect of TV on mental health.

181.0 lbs

181.0 lbs

180.0 lbs

182.0 lbs

Name That Puppy!

We haven't picked out names yet for our puppies. Any suggestions? We have some in mind but could use more suggestions.

181.0 lbs

CCC and I have purchased two male Basenji Puppies due to arrive on Feb 1, 2006. Here they are as of January 8, 2006.

We ended up picking this breed based on

• desire for a dog that doesn't bark a lot - Basenjis don't bark (although they do yodel and whine)
• desire for a clean dog - Basenjis clean themselves a bit like cats do
• desire for a short haired dog
• desire for a unique dog
• desire for an intelligent dog
• desire for a dog that isn't too large
• we liked the pictures of the Basenjis in the books we poured through and on the internet

We got two dogs because there will be times we will be leaving the dogs at home (going to work, hiking at parks that don't allow dogs, etc.) and we didn't want to leave one dog all by his/her lonesome. We picked males because that was what was available from the breeder we choose to purchase them from. The dogs will keep each other company when we have to leave them home alone.

CCC will be roughly 75% reponsible for the dog care and I'm roughly 25% responsible for it -- mostly because I'm off at work 8 hours a day and CCC is home most days and she is the one who really really wanted to have pet dogs and she is more experienced with animal care. She has had many other pets in her life but never a dog.

We have stacks of books from the library about dog care sitting in the living room. CCC is busily reading them and figuring out how to prepare for the arrival of our new family members. I haven't started reading any yet but will soon. We also intend on signing up for puppy training classes.

For those who want to know even more about Basenji's check out the comments on this post with a link to a blog by two Basenjis: Scootis & Squish.

182.0 lbs

183.0 lbs

182.0 lbs

182.0 lbs

182.5 lbs

183 lbs

184 lbs

The holiday damage is ... drum roll please ... 6 pounds. So it is off to the races yet again to shed those unwanted pounds.

It was worth it. The food was delicious on the holidays and I got to sleep in every single day and I didn't feel guilty for indulging. If I am going to indulge, I might as well enjoy it and this holiday I actually did enjoy it for once.

I have been extraordinarily busy at work. I haven't had time to work out or blog until now. I got a bit of a reprieve on having to work so hard yesterday. I was told that my due date for one task was not this Thursday but could extend into after the holidays are over. Phew. That gives me some breathing space.

We went out to dinner last night at an Indian restaurant called Shiva. I enjoyed my dish of butter chicken although it was a bit spicy for me. I'm very sensitive to spicy foods. I ate lots of bread and rice to ease the pain from the spicy food.

178.0 lbs

178.5 lbs

Here is my weight record from 11/3/05 to today, 12/14/05. Went up and down the 5 lb roller coaster.

179.5 lbs

181.0 lbs

You taste like tofu. You are a bit tasteless, but
you feel as smooth as silk. You're good for
the body and are preferred in the company of
hippies and health enthusiasts.


How do you taste?
brought to you by Quizilla

182.0 lbs

Having fun today mucking about with my Blog template. I added links to other blogs I read every so often. I want to figure out how to put my flickr photos on my blog page. I'll go have a read on flickr's pages to search for the answer.

Saturday, C. and I did a movie marathon. We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, followed by Shopgirl, followed by Walk The Line. I enjoyed all three movies but I was mightly restless by the third movie.

Sunday we went to the Gay and Lesbian Sierra Club holiday party. There was a great turn out of 20+ people. A lot of very good cooks attended the party and brought great dishes. It was exceedingly difficult to not pig out on all the wonderful dishes. As a matter of fact, I did pig out. The white elephant gift exchange was a hoot. The gifts were outlandish and we all had fun trading the gifts and laughing at the particularly weird ones. C. proclaimed that the fuzzy "It" was the best one. We ended up with a castenet and gave away a couple of banana split glass bowls.

We got all our presents wrapped last night and put in boxes to be sent to Philadelphia and Cleveland. C. will be taking the boxes to the post office today.

182.0 lbs

181.0 lbs

181.0 lbs

Sending Packages at Christmas

Here are results of my research on sending packages from Mountain View CA to Philadelphia PA of size 10 x 10 x 10 inches and weight from 1 to 5 pounds with a sending date of Dec. 6th. Fed-Ex ground turned out to be the best for packages weighing over 2 pounds while the USPS was the best for packages under 2 pounds. DHL and UPS were both more expensive. In terms of time of delivery, the USPS parcel post was the slowest at 8 days while Fed-Ex ground was the fastest at 5 days and DHL and UPS both came in at 7 days.

182.0 lbs

I gave a pint of blood this morning. The cookies and juice after giving blood were good. I had about four cookies and two cups of OJ. No strenuous exercising for 24 hours. That's cool as I got in my exercise at 7:30 a.m. this morning before I gave blood. Tomorrow I'll hold off on exercising till after 11 a.m.

Not sure if I am going to get a work out in today at work. So I might not have a weigh in today. Probably a good thing since I ate like a piggy yesterday -- the See's candy and M&M's we got for early Christmas presents were hard to resist. Also I was eating to feel better -- I have to come up with a better way to feel better that doesn't pack on the pounds.

Had a nice hike at Coyote Hills on Saturday. It was a very crisp sunny day. Sunday was a lazy day at home spent reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of something or other, watching Tennessee beat Stanford in women's basketball on TV, and doing a jig saw puzzle.

182.0 lbs

181.5 lbs

180.5 lbs

180.0 lbs

180.0 lbs

It was a fun long weekend. Thursday and Saturday were full of family visiting and Thanksgiving feasts (one feast at my brother's house in San Francisco and one feast at Charlotte's parent's house in Carmel). I'm emotionally drained from all the socializing and pining for a day or two all to myself!

Friday we were going to go hiking but it was rainy out so instead we went to see the movie The Whale and the Squid. The movie was good. After the movie we hit the crowded stores to buy some Christmas stuff. Yesterday we went on a long hilly hike. We climbed 2500 feet and hiked roughly 8 or 9 miles. I'm really wiped out physically today from that hike. The long steep hills were what really wore me out. We hiked for 6 hours and 20 minutes. Phew. I loved it but it was tiring.

I now need another vacation to recover from my vacation. Instead, here I am at work. At least my next vacation is only 4 weeks away. I get Dec 23 '05 to Jan 2, '06 off from work.

181.5 lbs

Two thanksgiving dinners coming tomorrow and Saturday nights. Hopefully the big hikes we have planned will help us burn off the calories we eat at the feasts: 8 to 13 miles at Calero County park on Friday and 18 miles on Sunday (Santa Cruz mountains to the beach).

182.5 lbs

Another lame excuse for the weight gain ... I gained muscle not fat!

184 lbs

Eee Gad ... 5 pounds gained in one weekend! :-( :-( :-(

Possible explanations:

• I ate a lot this past weekend -- more than four mile hikes on Saturday and Sunday could burn.
• The time of the month has me gaining water weight -- seems a bit early though at 10 days till my period and 5 pounds seems a bit excessive for a little water weight gain.
• The weight machine was recalibrated over the weekend -- my favorite explanation but I doubt its true.
• I weighed myself after lunch in the afternoon rather than in the morning before lunch -- but I don't think that could account for 5 pounds.

Needless to say ... I'm quite disappointed in this weight gain. Now I weigh more than when I started to try and lose weight ... Grrrrr. I'm exercising regularly. I just have to stop eating so much calorie filled junk food.

179 lbs

180.5 lbs

180 lbs

181 lbs

Time to rethink the weight goal. Its Nov 15 and I'm 181. That means to get down to 160 by Christmas I have to lose (181-160)/(Dec 25-Nov15) = 0.52 lb per day or 3.64 lb per week. I think losing 2 lbs a week is more reasonable. So my new goal is going to be 170 lbs by Christmas.

This test result feels like a good fit to me -- especially the bit about my first date being "walking around aimlessly and talking." I really like that first date. I definitely have a laid back flirting style.

Your Heart Is Green

Love completes you, but that doesn't mean you seek it out. When love comes your way, you integrate it peacefully into the rest of you life.

Your flirting style: Laid back

Your lucky first date: Walking around aimlessly and talking

Your dream lover: Is both enthusiastic and calm

What you bring to relationships: Balance

What Color Heart Do You Have?

180 lbs

I have been trying to lose weight and get in better shape lately with a dim goal of getting down to 160 lbs by Christmas and continuing on to an eventual goal of 140 lbs by whenever. Last week I weighed in at 183 lbs, perhaps the heaviest I have ever been. Ug. I can feel the extra weight when I go hiking and hit those steep hills. It pains me to have regained all the weight I lost several years ago. I guess I'm just your typical yo yo type. I haven't figured out how to get myself to maintain the weight when I reach my weight goal.

This week I have gone to the gym at work every day so far and worked out on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I spend 5 minutes at a walking pace to warm up, run at 5.2 mph for 30 minutes, and spend 5 minutes at a walking pace cooling down. I do a wee bit of stretching afterwards. I probably should do more stretching but I don't. The treadmill machine reports to me that for my efforts I have burned 360 calories and walked/run 3 miles.

I have had a good week at work. I am at the coding stage of my current project and really my favorite thing to do at work is write code. I thought my favorite part would be designing the code but after one experience of that, I prefer writing the code from an exisiting design to doing the design. I think if I wasn't so new at this work, I might prefer the design work. Its just hard to design something when you don't know much about how things work.

This weekend I plan on going geocaching by bike on Sunday in Half Moon bay with my geocaching buddies. Before we start we are having a pancake breakfast at V's house. Yummmm! ccc is joining us for the breakfast but has to work Sunday at noon so will pass on the geocaching. I'm not sure what ccc and I will be up to tomorrow -- Frontrunners, hiking, and/or doing chores are possible things we might do.

180 lbs

181 lbs

181 lbs

182 lbs

183 lbs

Inverness Inn was beautiful and Point Reyes and Tomales bay were great.

We got checked in early on Friday and then took a nap. That night we drove at dusk to the Point Reyes light house. It was foggy and the sun was setting. The crowds were gone and we mostly had the place to ourselves. The path to the light house was closed though so we had to hang out on the beautiful platform above the light house rather than see it up close and personal. We saw lots of nature out at dusk: deer, mice, and a hare. We heard lots of sea lions but couldn't see them because of the fog.

Saturday we slept in. We did a little hiking at Tomales bay state park and hung out on a little beach there for a while. We had dinner out at Barnabys: decent food, slow service -- but we were forewarned about the slow service by a staff member at the Inn.

Sunday we slept in again. We had breakfast in the room and then packed up to check out by 11 a.m. We then headed to Drakes beach and sat on a log watching the waves and people and surfers. We also grabbed some fish and chips at the Drakes beach cafe. It was a nice lazy late morning and early afternoon. We left for home at 3ish.

Inverness Inn is a very nice place to stay. My only regret was we never got around to checking out the hot tub or the swimming pool (our room was right near the pool so at one point we did over hear that the pool was freezing). I would love to stay there for another weekend some day.

you are mediumauqamarine #66CDAA

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Weekend Escape!

Charlotte and I are going to Point Reyes this weekend to the Inverness Inn. We leave tomorrow morning and come back Sunday night. I have tomorrow off from work. I'm looking forward to a somewhat computer free weekend with hiking, swimming, geocaching, reading, and relaxing among the activities of choice. Charlotte might do some painting or drawing while I'm geocaching.

My case of poison oak is slowly healing. I did put some Aveeno cream on my arm this morning as the little spot there was itching awfully. The cream helped.

I did a lot of hiking this past weekend. On Friday I did a little geocaching after work and walked 2 miles to find Sharon's geocaches in Hellyer park. On Saturday I led a 8.3 mile hike for GLS at Joe Grant County Park. On Sunday I went off with geocaching buddies to find caches at Skyline and Long Ridge. I think we hiked at least 8 miles yesterday. My feet are sore today. I had planned to go the gym but I might skip it today to give my body a chance to recover a little more.

The poison oak has gotten worse. Check out the pictures:

http://people.delphiforums.com/CDRDASH/images/cathyspoisonoak.jpg

http://people.delphiforums.com/CDRDASH/images/charlottespoisonoak.jpg

Charlotte and I went to visit her friend, S, this weekend. S lives in the Santa Cruz mountains in a small cottage with a marvelous deck and an awesome view of the Pacific ocean in the distance. We went hiking on the property first. At one point we were bushwacking and went through some poison oak. I tried to avoid it but failed. Alas both Charlotte and I got poison oak. Charlotte seems to have a bit more than I. I have small patches on my hip, elbow, and calf. They don't itch too much so far. Knock on wood.

Charlotte's car is in the shop. Her ignition switch was burned out. Who knew that ignition switches run around $300.00. And who knows what damage was done elsewhere by the switch burning out. Hopefully today the part will arrive and they can install it and do the tests to see what else might be damaged. I really hope nothing more is damaged and the labor costs don't get too steep.

They are building a new office here at work in my part of cube city. I just heard a power drill making noise. I'll be glad when its done and the noise stops. The office is for a new executive. They pulled apart two cubes in the area and are now putting up walls (floor to ceiling) and a door and fixing up the air conditioning etc.

Understanding- Your inner power is Understanding! Lifes many mysteries have become your ultimate goal to work out. You are neither a good or bad person, just very neutral, very stable. You look down on nothing or anyone, merely observe their point of view and make no judgments. You can be seen as very shadowy and uncertain in what you believe in to an outsider, but this isnt always true. You simply dont flaunt your views around. You have a few, close friends who rely on you, and love you for the way your never scorn for the way they live their lives. You are very caring and would make a great mother, seeing you always try to help those who come to you for your aid. You are extremely hard to anger, and yet when you are, your forgiveness is hard to gain. You are loyal, secretive, very quiet and often impassive, with few able to break around the wall that you built to protect yourself. Not everyone acknowledges you even exist, but you dont really care. As long as you have your close friends by your side, you are right to go. Although they might not voice it, many people long to have your ability to accept change as well as what cant be changed. Dont ever let others bring you down, because you are truly special, and those who have the courage to venture passed your walls of silence will only regret not having tried to befriend you sooner.

Boy/Girl who will sweep you off your feet:
The mysterious boy/girl. The one who no one knows much about. You are attracted to him/her by the secrecy around him/her, and he/she loves how stable and unjudging you are.
Your stone/jewel: Sapphire
Your power: Life. The ability to bring those who have died back to life, as well as bring life back into those who have lost all hope.
Your element: Lunar
A quote that applies to you: "Do not be 'against' anything. Being 'against' weakens you. Be 'for' what you want. Being 'for' empowers you."

What's your inner power? (Girls only sorry. Beautiful anime pictures, lengthy results)
brought to you by Quizilla

Another weekend gone.

Saturday Charlotte and I joined a friend for a 3 mile walk at the Baylands before the Bayland's Frontrunner's walk. We walked on the usual path which was marked as closed by the time we finished our loop. So for the second loop, we had to go on the Front Runner's "rain route." On the second walk, Charlotte and I walked very fast. We got challenged by some dudes to catch them if we could so (they were on their way back from the turn around point and we were on our way there) we did. We booked and managed to pass them. We really got some good exercise! After the walk (almost run) we went to the Baylands Brunch. We snarfed down donuts, bagels, coffee, peanuts, and fruit and basically replaced all those calories we just burned. We met some lesbians new to Front Runners and had a nice chat with them. We also got to know some Front Runners that we just never had managed to meet much before: a lesbian couple who brings their little kids with them on most Saturday walk/runs.

Sunday, we slept in. We had some brunch and then went to see the movie Lord of War: a good but disturbing movie about a gun runner. After the movie we did some chores and then headed out for a hike at Rancho San Antonio. We hiked 8 miles. We hiked up to the top of the PG&E trail. Its about 4 miles up 1000 feet of elevation and we hiked fast. We hiked from 2:45 p.m. to around 6:00 p.m. It felt good to get in some more vigorous exercise. That night we had a light dinner at home and watched TV. It was a pretty good weekend.

This past Saturday Charlotte and I walked downtown to get some exercise and check out the Mountain View Art and Wine festival. We walked around for a couple hours looking at booths and munching on various junk food (pastries from the Hong Kong bakery, garlic fries, ice cream, a slice of pizza, and a coke). I got a new hat. Its a white hat with a big brim made to help protect the face and head from the sun. It works well and looks nice. I wore it on the walk home with my old hat lanyard around my neck and the hat hanging down my back. Charlotte found the hat and it was marked as costing $10.00. It turns out it was actually an $18.00 hat that someone labeled incorrectly. They sold it to us for $10.00 since the tag was their mistake.

Sunday, I went off to San Bruno County park to lead a hike for OAW while Charlotte went off to walk in the "Run for the Community" event put on by Front Runners. I headed to a park-n-ride to meet folks for the OAW hike. Alas, not a soul showed up so I was on my own. I had suspected this might happen as no one had inquired about the hike at all. My back up plan in this event was to go geocaching at San Bruno County park on my own. I found four caches: two up on the mountain and two below the mountain. It was a foggy windy day. It was cool sitting at the top of the peak, eating lunch, and watching the fog blow around the peak.

When I got home Charlotte was home. She had a good time at the race and managed to get a T-shirt for me at no extra cost as a friend of ours didn't want her t-shirt so Charlotte snagged it for me. I took a long shower when I got home as while hiking around I brushed up against some poison oak. I carefully took off all my cloths and put them in the washing machine and then cleaned my self up with Tecnu soap followed by a shower. Cross your fingers that I got all the poison oak oil off of me!

After my shower, Charlotte and I watched the movie Cold Mountain on DVD. It was good although a little violent and bloody (its about the civil war). I enjoyed the second movie we watched in the evening more. It was called "Door to Door". It was made in 2002. Charlotte found it at the Mountain View library. I recommend seeing it if you haven't done so already.

The work week is almost over. I'm quite busy at work on my newest assignment. Did I mention that I have been having to work overtime?

This weekend I lead an OAW hike on Sunday to San Bruno County Park. I should probably post a reminder to the list. Charlotte is opting out as she is going to participate in Front Runner's Run For the Community race on Sunday. She should get a nice T-shirt with her friend's Terri's art work on it in addition to the satisfaction that she contributed towards supporting good causes in the GLBT community (I think I missing some letters in there).

Last night I attended the Loma Prieta GLS board meeting. We discussed what we might do if we can't find anyone to be on the board next year. I'm not going to serve again. I'm over extended with volunteer work right now and I need to let something go and GLS is the unlucky candidate. We think that if no one comes forward we will have to let LP GLS go dormant. We'll discuss what that means if we hear from the nominating committee that they had no luck getting volunteers.

Labor day weekend is over. Charlotte and I stayed home most of the weekend.

We did go hiking on Sunday to Wunderlich after a nice brunch at Denny's. We hiked to the meadow and then hiked to the Salamander pond where we stopped to see if we could find some newts. We did. There were lots of them floating on the surface of the pond. We spotted them at first by seeing the algae on the pond move. Then we could peer in the water and see the newt under the motion!

Yesterday we had a dinner party at our place. Four friends came over for dinner at 6ish. We served a very simple dinner of pastrami sandwiches with lots of good fixings (romaine lettuce, onions, tomatos, mayo, horseradish sauce, and several types of mustard). We had some cut up apple too. We served Charlotte's sister's husband's excellent wine. For desert we had ice cream. We had purchased coffee to serve which was my responsibility to make but no one wanted coffee. Oh well.

Saturday we spent almost all day watching movies on DVD or on TV. Sometimes a day of couch potato'ing is fun.

I'm free now! The fire deparment gave the all clear for the chemical spill and we are free to go outside if we want now. That's cool. I can go home on time. I hope the traffic is normal on the drive home and not messed up by some traffic residue from the accident.

I'm trapped at work! There has been a chemical spill at Bernal and 85. Its sulfuric acid I believe that leaked out of tanker truck. We have been advised to stay inside the building until they get the spill cleaned up since breathing acid fumes is not a good thing. They don't know how long we'll be stuck in here.

Ten hour days at work are not my cup of tea. I decided to work 10 hour days the weeks of July 25-29 and August 1-5 so I could take July 29 and Aug 1 off for a camping trip and still get my 40 hour week in. I have determined after today (my last 10 hour day) I am not going to try this again. 10 hour days are just too much for me. It doesn't leave much down time at the end of the day. Next time I need a day off I'll use some vacation instead.

The GLS camping trip in the Eastern Sierra's was awesome. Check out my pictures. Charlotte and I had a great hike from Lake Sabrina to Blue Lake!

Wen asks ...
So, RQOTD: How much PTO/Vacation/Sick leave do you get?

I get ...

Vacation: 10 days/year
Sick: 6.5 days/year
Holidays: 11 days/year

Four of my holidays are for a year end company shutdown for the last week of December.