Almost Spring

Finally, it is starting to warm up here.  Mother Nature is bringing Spring to us.  Admittedly, I had my doubts when the Cherry Blossoms bloom date was pushed back - three times.  The Cherry Blossoms are suppose to pop this weekend.

One daffodil has popped by the shed, the rest have little buds in them, it won't be long now - Spring, yay!  I haven't blogged this winter, didn't really have much to blog about.  I don't like winter, it is a shut in season for me.  The only events are Thanksgiving and Christmas, and as the years pass, they become less of an event.  This would probably be my blog all winter..."went to work, came home, worked out, ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed" as a daily blog.  The changes to that would be on weekends when I did household chores or during the week, being bad and skipping workouts when I was too exhausted.  Otherwise, gratefully, all has been well.  Work is doing great, hit my one year anniversary February 26th at The Small Business Administration - a great yay there! 

We've been very busy at work with Hurricane Sandy hires.  Our group works Disaster Assistance to homeowners and businesses.  Since I am in Human Resources (HR) of the Disaster Assistance group, we support the employees who go into the field.  In this case, the field being New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, and smaller areas of other states that were affected by Hurricane Sandy along the east coast.  We had over 800 temporary hires.  Temporary hires are for less than 90 days.  Hiring began the first week of November and sending folks to training (mostly on how the hardware and software systems work, along with policies and procedures).  These were all sorts of people - the unemployed, the retired, and those wanting to help who signed up for 30+ days (taking Leave of Absence/LOA from their full time jobs).

From an HR standpoint, these folks are temporary, they do not get benefits.  They do get paid.  One requirement was availability to work on site (in these areas, which may be away from their home) for an indefinite period of time (less than 90 days) and work up to 12 hour days, six days/week.  The turnover was tremendous.  I remember one person resigning because she was unable to secure childcare for that long.  Why accept the job?  Overtime was paid over 40 hours/week, which the majority, most were working 50-60 hours/week.  SBA (Sm. Business Admin.) folks are directed to a disaster site after FEMA has processed their disaster assistance applicants.  SBA is different in that they offer LOANS, which must be paid back at a below market interest rate over an extended period of time.  There are still Hurricane Katrina loans being paid back. 

Again, from the HR perspective, my job was to ensure these folks were on the payroll and getting paid.  As I mentioned, the turnover rate has been high.  These temporary hires are experience loan processors (mostly from the finance industry), lawyers, bankers, realtors and construction workers with the ability to assess property damage to determine the amount of the loan being applied for.  This was tough work for these temporary hires, being away from their families through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and for some New Years and even now, there are still people in the field wrapping things up.  They are lending a sympathetic hand and ear to those who have lost everything or almost everything.  Disaster victims are devastated by their loss, more bad news, when not qualifying for a loan can be detrimental under these circumstances.  Kudos to those employees in the field, having to face it all.

I was getting the temporary new hire's paperwork one week and seeing the same individual resign a few short weeks later saying they were unable to give their time 50-60 hours/week indefinitely (max <90 days).  The hiring has stopped.  I'm working on these hires coming to the end of their tenure, processing separation paperwork, final pay, etc.  It's been a very busy and interesting time at work.  Thankfully, disasters are not the norm.

I'm still on my journey to lose weight.  I've resigned at my age, I now have the body type that will have a weight issue for the rest of my life, unfortunately, it is hereditary.  I've fallen off the wagon a number of times.  I keep getting back on.  I know the results don't come unless I exercise and eat healthy.  I've had those results, I want them again.  Spring is coming and time for me to get out and start walking.  The days are getting longer again.  I have a short window before the heat starts up and soon it's 100 degrees, when I sweat just going from the air conditioned car to the air conditioned house.  My plan is to get plenty of outdoor walking and other activities in before that weather hits.

Another sign of Spring has shown his face, Chippy the Chipmunk, who lives in our yard.  He leaves remnants of his visits everywhere - holes the size of my fist in my garden, in the front area garden where the hostas are, the side of the garage, where there are more hostas, and he's even been in the planters!  John has threatened to charge him rent.  Here's Chippy sunning himself on the back deck Saturday morning, the nerve!

Spring is my favorite season, everything comes to life again including me!  Here's the Forsythia bush next to our deck/patio, it is just starting to bloom.  It gets huge when in full bloom, such a beauty.

I was at the local grocery store, Giant, and found some Hyacinths (is that plural?).  They are so fragrant, I had to buy them.  I now have them in my kitchen, smelling beautiful, waiting for the final frost, before planting them.  John and I are talking about what to put in the garden this year.  Green Beans were the Epic Fail of last season.  He feels they may have been placed in the shade, and they didn't get enough sun to grow.  The corn didn't do too well either.  I suggested lettuce, which is suppose to be easy to grow.  One thing about lettuce that I know is that it has to be planted early.  I'm going to have to do some research.  I don't think we've had our final frost (usually planting in the Mid-Atlantic is suppose to occur after Mother's Day - that's my planting marker).

Finally, I had sight of more good news, I hope it's happening in your area too.  The price of gas is dropping!!!  Some places hit $4.00/gallon this winter.  I think the highest I paid was $3.89/gallon.  Yesterday, I paid $3.66 for regular.  I know some of you are getting gas even cheaper.  Yay for the summer blend and lower prices!

I try to remember to turn on my cell phone camera should something catch my eye.  Yesterday, while running errands, the message on the back of this truck caught my eye.

These days, I'm all over comfort!  I'll try to be a better blogger, certainly more frequent.  Get comfortable and stay with me.  I enjoy your visits and comments.

Been Awhile

Time is getting away from me.  What happened to August, it's past the halfway mark?  I noticed on Facebook my grandmother friends are remarking how their grandchildren will be back in school in just a few short weeks (one friend in Florida says school has started there already).

I missed spending summer outside this year, it was too awful hot for me.  I heard on the news tonight that today being 93 degrees was the 48th day this summer of 90+ degrees.  We had a nice Wednesday this week without humidity. I spent it at the grocery store chasing down the 24 oz Diet Cokes that John likes.  Chasing being the operative word.  They were out.  I was told to call daily to see if a delivery arrived - really?  Yes, I did.  They had Sprite, Coke, Coke Zero, but NO Diet Coke!  Delivery is expected Saturday.  The Store Manager now remembers my name, ugh!!!

Last weekend I had a wonderful mini-reunion with high school classmates.  Some were from the class behind mine, so I only knew two ladies, one was the hostess.  The others I met for the first time.  Yes, that's me, front and center. I don't know why they put the fat girl out front, ugh!  Three of us have started our own weight loss challenge.  One is already skinny, I guess that's how she does it.

It was such a short visit, we all had a wonderful time, it's never long enough.  I'm going back to Maryland (where I graduated high school) the end of September to visit with other classmates from my class.

My garden is almost done for the season.  The tomatoes were the only crop that did well.  The green beans died (early July).  I previously posted the picture of the only three beans that sprouted.  Here are the grape/cherry tomatoes that haven't stopped growing yet.  First, the clean to be eaten bunch (which I noticed I need to remove a few softies).

Today John was out garden picking and threw these into a bowl to be washed, which I found when I arrived home.

The grape/cherry size are delicious!  I've been adding them to my nightly dinner salads.  I haven't tried the regular sized ones yet.  I have two that I placed on the deck table to get sun and ripen because they couldn't be supported by the vine.

Then there's what is still left on the vine (both regular and grape/cherry sizes).

Sadly, there's not much left on the vine.  Good news/bad news on the corn.  Good news is the corn sprouted!  Bad news is that it didn't grow much.  We believe this about all we're going to get for the season.  This is the first year we planted anything but tomatoes.  It was an experiment, we learned what we need to do for next year's crop.

Work has been slow, and I'm worried.  In previous jobs, slow meant possible layoff.  I've been asking around the office if this is usual or unusual.  I'm told that this is usual until disaster strikes.  Remember, I work for the Office of Disaster Assistance in the Small Business Administration.  It has been over 2500 days since Hurricane Katrina, which was considered the biggest disaster in their recent history.  Needless to say, time is running out for one to hit, I hope no lives are lost.  Property can be replaced, lives can't, people matter in my world.

To pass the time during this lull, I've taken some (free) online classes offered.  There's a certificate to print after completing and passing each class.  I did all the classes and wallpapered my cubicle.

Goodbye July 2012

This month is either the worst July in weather history or the second worst (July 2011 being the worst), depending on which weather person is talking.  Either way, it's been hot, humid and very dry.  We've had 23 days this month of 90+ degrees.  Of those 23 days, seven have been triple digits.  Adios July, with that heat, it convinces me August HAS TO BE cooler.

One of my work buddies is also struggling to lose weight.  She brought in this endorsement from Dr. Oz's website.  Always the skeptic I am, I did a little research.  A product called Raspberry Ketones is indeed endorsed by Dr. Oz to assist in speeding up the metabolism.  I went online and to our local GNC store. I purchased a small supply, they seem to give me some energy and curb my appetite, so far, so good.

We continue to water the garden 5-6 times a week due to lack of rain.  However, tonight we got a quick 7 minute rain shower with hail.  Tonight, Mother Nature finally helped out with watering - notice, a few more cherry tomatoes.  The white specks are hail.

As you can see, it poured steadily for awhile (click picture to enlarge :)

Moments later, the sun is back out and everything is soaked and steaming.

The corn is growing fast, amazingly fast, almost as tall as the arbor.

Still getting more orange-ish/red cherry tomatoes, green ones not turning - yet.

Finally, I've been glued to the TV since Opening Olympic Ceremonies on Friday.  I loved the UK Industrialization theme they opened with.  The skit with the Queen jumping from the plane and landing Opening Ceremonies was brilliant, especially because she played along with it.

Off to watch the USA get more Gold medals, USA has to catch China and less than 14 days to do it!

Lookin' Good

Hallelujah!!!  We have orange-ish tomatoes!!  It looks like the small ones are turning first.  If the smaller ones turn first, they will be easier to consume, as there are more smaller (cherry) tomatoes than the larger size (actually medium) tomatoes we planted.  Ain't they purdy?

 

I also found more corn beginnings.  Thanks Happyone for your input on the corn (and thanks for the smile too :)    John agrees with you.  Hopefully, we'll get a little crop this year out of this experiment.

Peeled back a leaf and discovered the beginning of corn on another stalk also.  Yes, I'm still smiling at these little pleasures Mother Nature has given me.

Out of the four stalks of corn, three have these corn seedlings.  Maybe corn by end of next month?

Quickie

I'm trying to stick with posting a little more often (and probably shorter posts), so here's my Quickie post.  For that promise to myself, you'll probably get some boring stuff here.  Ya never know as they say, "one man's trash is another one's treasure".  You might find these posts entertaining.  If not, come back, guarantee to change, hopefully often.


Last night, before going to bed, I headed to the bathroom for my nightly dental care (toofie brushing :) and one last tinkle.  As I sat down on the throne, look what I stared at - YIKES!!

Okay, so I cropped this picture to make it bigger.  I also dropped the phone book (weighs about 5 pounds) on this spider, it was pretty BIG, honest!  It was at least as wide as a ping-pong ball, that's big enough for me as spiders go.  I was able to scrape it up and flush it down the toilet - ewww, right?  I found one of these about two months ago in the bathroom too.  It met the same fate in the same process as this one (minus the picture taking).  I hate spiders.  My vacuum cleaner is my weapon of choice.


Prior to heading to bed, I watered the garden, and it's growing!  This (spiral stock?) popped up since Sunday's pictures - really!  I think this is the beginning of my corn.  Oh I hope, hope, HOPE it is!!  I've never grown corn before.  Anyone out there in the know about garden corn, feel free to comment and let me know, please.  I'd appreciate your input.

Finally, as I dug around where I thought there was only ONE green bean, I found two more.  This isn't the best picture, I know.  Can you see all three green beans (click picture it will get larger)?

Isn't always the little things that bring a smile to our face?  Hope you found something to smile about today.  A smile goes a long way, share one, I just did.

Emotions

Thank you Vee for goading me into this return to the blogging world.  I am overcome this weekend with emotions of yet another shooting tragedy.  My heart goes out to the families of the victims.  It has been somewhat heartwarming to hear those who gave their life to save others.  Disheartening to hear the youngest victim, a six year old girl.

My best friend, Colleen, visited this weekend from Annapolis, Maryland.  I was excited to see her again.  It rained here most of the weekend.  Colleen arrived about 11am Saturday morning.  I had a couple of options of activities.  She said "I'd really like to stay here, talk, and catch up".  I was happy with that as well.  I had been grocery shopping after work on Friday and picked up a fruit platter.  I'm still sticking with my healthy living (more about that later).  We munched on cantaloupe, melon, watermelon, and pineapple.  We decided to hold off on the wine until we returned from dinner.

The afternoon passed quickly as we caught up.  I was surprised that my thin friend had lost more weight.  I was worried and asked if she was okay.  She mentioned she was concerned about her cholesterol.  She took her physician's advice and dropped another ten pounds, she's now down to 130 at 5'8".  I shared with her my frustrations of being on the plateau.  I shared my small victories.  I also shared the results of my doctor's visit the beginning of July, high glucose and cholesterol levels, everything else was fine, except of course, the weight.

The doctor recommended I sign up for the weight loss program offered by the local hospital for $800.00.  The doctor said this usually is not covered by insurance so it would be an out-of-pocket expense.  I explained that I have recently returned to work, that money was not available.  In my mind I was thinking "if I paid the $800 and didn't lose the weight, would they give me a refund?".  I don't think so, nor would the hospital weight loss clinic.  At work two weeks ago, they had a luncheon health clinic with My Weight Doctor as guest speaker.  Same cost for weight loss program as the local hospital, about $800.  Colleen mentioned she'd given up bread and watched her carbs.  I've changed my food journaling site to Spark People, it has given me more tracking options for diet and exercise.  I will not give up my journey to weight loss and a new healthy lifestyle.

Colleen and I lost track of time, we decided that we really should have dinner.  I love the Ruby Tuesday salad bar, we had gone there last time she visited.  "Would you like to go back to Ruby Tuesday for their salad bar?" I asked.  She agreed so off we went about 4:30pm.  We were seated at the table, in this area was only another table of customers, the place was mostly empty.  Nice and quiet to continue our catch-up chat.  We both made three trips to the salad bar.  I know it sounds like a huge amount of salad.  It was filling, keep in mind, their salad plates are a bit larger than a bread plate.  After about an an hour, there was a line going out the door, and the parking lot was almost full, when we left.  The word is out on Ruby Tuesday's salad bar I think.

The garden is growing!  I have green (not red yet) tomatoes.  The corn is growing tall too.  Large cornstalks, no sign of corn yet.  I was shocked to see a green bean.  It is only one, but I thought that green bean planting was a total loss.  I didn't know one plant equaled only one green bean.  Those who are not bloggers, clicking on the picture makes it "full size", in case you have trouble seeing these.

and here's the ONE green bean

The tomatoes have grown past their circular cages, the plants almost reach the top of the arbor.

I fear the same may happen as last year.  All the tomatoes turn red at the same time.  I'll have more tomatoes than I can eat or give away.  That's really the fun of playing farmer, sharing the crops!

The rain finally ended early afternoon and Colleen left about 1pm today.  We made promises to see each other again soon.  She has a beach trip planned with her in-laws in a couple of weeks to a beach I use to frequent near Virginia Beach, called Sandbridge.  Colleen has never been to Sandbridge.  I told her I'd be in touch with her when she returned to hear about her trip.  Maybe the four of us can make plans to go next summer if she and her husband like Sandbridge.  Shortly after Colleen left, I had another visitor.  Can you see the eyes and ears peeking out from under the patio table - it's our yard rabbit!

John will be home Friday from his most recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina for work.  It's been a difficult summer, since he's been there most of it.  John left July 9th this trip, another three week trip.  He has been on work travel for two weeks in May and three weeks in June also to Charleston, South Carolina.  He's tired of traveling, living in a hotel room, and eating in restaurants.  He's scheduled to be assigned to a new project out of Norfolk, Virginia starting in August, at least he'll be a little closer to home if he has to travel.

My job is doing just great, I still love it.  They had a company picnic with a dunk tank on Friday, July 13th.  Managers cooked hambugers and hot dogs, everyone brought a dish or contributed to the purchase toward items.  The managers volunteered to sit in the dunk tank while employees bought tickets to take "shots" trying to dunk the manager.  Proceeds went to Feds Feed Families charity.  Here's the food line.

The storm that hit our area June 29th caused the whole area to lose power, along with 2 million other folks.  We were out of power for 27 hours, not too bad considering others were out almost two weeks.  We also have a generator, purchased after the hurricane a few years ago when we lost two refrigerators full of food.  This time when the power went out, John had the house wired.  I had internet, we watched TV in the garage with an oscillating fan going.  It was hot, triple digits.  I'm grateful we were as bad off as some.  Here is a neighbor's house, they weren't so lucky.

Everyone had some small damage to their trees.  The county debris removal trucks were busy for a few weeks around here.

And finally, in these past couple of weeks of triple digit temperatures and high humidity, I pass our neighbor's house twice daily.  No one is ever enjoying this swimming pool, maybe I should.

Hope you are staying cool and enjoying your summer too.

Hot Hot Hot

The calendar says Summer arrives on June 20th not June 10th, it's here early.  This was taken this afternoon.  The top number is the outside temperature.  The lower number is the indoor temperature.

Hot inside and out, the air conditioning has been running all day.  I know it's going to be a miserable muggy night trying to sleep.  Guess we're paying the piper for the beautiful weather in the 70s we had last week.  I have to believe this humidity that arrived today will be gone with the Tuesday showers they're forecasting.  As I mentioned previously, we got our garden planted Memorial Day weekend.  Not what I wanted but better than none.  I had asked John to build a planter box (thanks for the idea Vee).  The garden area if you recall from last year's tomato plants, was very small.  We discussed adding more to the garden this year than tomatoes.  We ended up settling for corn and green beans from seeds.  Here's what the garden looked like last year, all tomatoes.

As you can see, it was just too crowded.  I thought this space plus the planter box would be ideal.  The planter box never got built.  "Maybe next year, I'll build it" is what I heard.  We planted four tomato plants, four corn seedling spots and one green bean "bush" seedling.  Here's what it looked like after planting Memorial Day weekend.

Not  much to see right?  I've been watering and nurturing these plantings.  Here's what they look like today, just two weeks later.

It's a little hard to see the four corn stalks on the left of the tomato plants and there's a green bean "bush" to the right.   I hope these close ups help.

I can't believe the growth in only two weeks, I'm thrilled and excited!  This is the first time either of us have planted from seeds (corn and green bean bush), so hopefully, we'll get a crop!


Work continues to be great, sometimes slow to the point of maddening, that happens in most jobs, I think.  A new employee started this past Monday with the benefits group.  They are now a group of four.  I walked the last walk in May for Health and Fitness month, there were only four of us left at the end of the month.  It started getting warm, hard to walk in the heat, at least for me.  The Zumba classes have started Wednesdays.  I'd rather come home and get on the elliptical than have to sit in traffic for being 1/2 hour later and sweaty sitting in traffic because of Zumba.

We had some nasty thunderstorms roll in, I took these pictures from the office.  Thankfully, no power loss and no damage, just a summer thunderstorm that passes quickly, scary nonetheless.

I've decided to take another stab (probably wrong use of the word) at seeing a doctor about my weight, nutrition, etc.  I have an appointment the 5th of July at 9:30am, there goes celebrating the 4th of July!  The 6th of July will be my three year anniversary of quitting smoking - yay me!  It was one of the hardest things I've accomplished.  I was a chain smoker for years.   Sometimes I feel I traded one health issue for others.  I was a little heavy when I quit smoking.  I've put on 100 pounds since then.  Since the weight gain, I've cut out processed foods, diet sodas, changed from white rice/bread/pasta to whole wheat, I drink enough water to float a battleship and began exercising a year ago.  I've lost 14 pounds, not a lot to show for the effort, at least I don't think so.  My mother was heavy and warned me that I would "get fat" when I got older.  Take comfort you mothers out there - you ARE ALWAYS right!


My weight problem started when I entered menopause at 44 years old.  My mom had just passed away, I didn't know what menopause was, I found out quickly.  The hormone pills my gynecologist gave me to help with the hot flashes and other symptoms were determined to cause cancer.  The doctor told me to quit taking them.  I never had a weight problem in my life before then.  I'm 5'5" and usually weighed between 140-150, which varied between summer and winter for years.  All of a sudden, wham, here comes the weight gain in my late 40s.  I kept saying it was because I was getting older, never paying much attention because I knew it would fall off the following summer - it didn't.  It got worst after I quit smoking after 30 years, I was 53 years old.  I knew I had to watch what I ate, I did for the most part.  I didn't do much exercising then.  Looking back, I wish I had.


Now that I have good insurance again with this new job, I'll try the medical community once more.  I was referred to a doctor who was suppose to be accepting new patients.  When I called to make the appointment, I was informed the doctor I was referred to isn't accepting new patients, but her partner is (imagine that?).  So, here I am trying again to get medical help and advice.


In the meantime, I looked up low glycemic foods on the internet.  Low glycemic foods are suppose to help lose weight.  There goes my whole wheat waffles with lite syrup on Saturday mornings - they made the "no-no list" along with our Friday night pizza - UNLESS, I have thin crust with only cheese toppings and limit my serving to two slices.  I can live with that, we only have it once a week usually anyway.  The good news, the Lean Cuisine entrees are acceptable on their list.  I have several Lean Cuisine favorites, which I have a couple times a week.  In the summer, I eat salad for dinner about four times a week.  For lunch, I take my lunch to work every day.  Usually a turkey or chicken sandwich with a tablespoon (yes, measured) of light mayonnaise on whole grain bread and some lettuce.  I include a half sandwich bag of grapes and either an apple or an orange with Lipton diet green tea, which is suppose to "boost" my metabolism.  I haven't felt any boost, I'm sure I'd know it if I did.  I'm upset I can't have pineapple or bananas anymore, they made the sugary fruit list :(   Bananas, really???


So, thank you all for the support and encouragement while I continue to battle the bulge.  It is truly appreciated.  Your words of encouragement and support MOTIVATE ME TREMENDOUSLY!!  Those who have been down this path, certainly know what I'm dealing with.  Those who haven't consider yourself lucky and stay healthy.  I can think of better things to do than count calories and carbs!  I don't mind exercising anymore.  I've incorporated it as part of my new lifestyle and become use to the routine of exercising.  Believe me, this isn't easy, IT IS A NEW LIFESTYLE!