I joined a gym and got a personal trainer this week.

The people working at the gym said something like "you are in shape so you shouldn't have any problem toning up"

What they did not realize is that I am just naturally the size of a twig and am completely out of shape.

My trainer worked me pretty hard yesterday - now I can barely bend my legs to sit on the toilet. I need to use my arms to support my weight.

Today we worked the upper body and she just kept saying "wow" when I would tire long before she expected....but she pushed me. It felt good. But, I anticipate tomorrow's pain and burn and I will not be able to use my arms to help support my weight to sit on the toilet.

I may need to get Rob to stop and buy a bed pan or some big people diapers on his way home from work today.

In the summer, I tend not to eat much meat.

The perfect meal is a spinach salad, homemade bread, eggplant Parmesan and spaghetti squash with butter and a touch of nutmeg...

But if you have ever made eggplant parm - it is no easy task.

So I decided to try a dish we had in the rain forest of Argentina...we were told it is a common meal for the native Indians.

I looked all over the internet for a recipe, but no luck. So I am winging it from memory. I will let you know how it goes, and if anyone knows the real recipe - I would love to know!

The ingredients are stacked (starting with tomato on bottom) on top of each other. It was served with a small amount of balsamic vinegar on the plate (there was probably something more than just the vinegar) and topped with a few whole peppercorns.

5-6 thin slices of tomato
thin sliced heart of palm (equal to the height of the tomato)
Avocado slices
Mango slices

In my recipe I used 1 whole (medium) tomato, and 1/2 of all the other stuff. Including 1/2 can of the heart of palm

Once all the items are stacked, it stands about 6-8 inches high. The name of the recipe was translated in English as "the tower of paradise"....but I could be totally wrong since I was enamored with the food and didn't really listen to our server.

Now I am off to grill up some portobellos stuffed with fresh spinach and cheese. Yum

I will admit that our cable bill is one of the most expensive household bills we have.

It's sad. When my electric bill reaches levels close to the cable bill, I freak and run the a/c a bit less. I have even been known to skip coffee to save....the coffee maker, in the process of heating the water, uses more wattage than your furnace!

But every time I think about cutting back on the cable channels, I just can't do it.

Funny b/c we watch TV maybe 5 hours a week.....okay, during hockey season my husband watches more like 20 hours a week.

Yesterday was a rare bum day on the couch with some TV.

I realized that while once the "Hitler channel", the History Channel (at least the HD History Channel) has taken up the market that Discovery, Discovery Times and Discovery Science have abandoned for the stupid reality TV everyone is eating up these days.

I remember when I could actually watch NOVA-like shows on cable! I was so excited that Discovery had television that I liked to watch. Then they moved all the educational TV to the "upgrade" package to include the Science Channel. Discovery was motorcycle, tattoo and other bullshit reality stuff.

The other channel transformations that pissed me off were Court TV and Biography Channel. I remember these channels were the places I could get my fill of serial killers, dead people and mobsters.

Now Court TV is tru TV and I can watch rednecks argue with arresting cops about whether the porch they need to step down from is a milk carton or an actual porch. Or watching people get mangled from some stupid stunt. Biography will offers up some high maintenance, bitchy, bride-to-be drama.

I guess just about every product out there has done this, when I think about it. My nasty love for Chips Ahoy cookies has transformed. I can get extra chips, soft and chewy, colored chips, probably even some with Buffalo Chips - but damn if I can't find the regular count of plain, chocholate chips.

For the time being, History HD is filling my void. The lost tomb of Egypt was a 2 hour special that was followed by a documentary about the Dragon and its existence in different cultures.

I keep having to add channels, to get that 1 channel that fills my need for information. I think maybe they have this all planned out...but by god! I will call it quits when the cable bill is getting close to the mortgage bill.

On another note: I have had some serious dream activity lately (thank you Chantix!)

My entire night seems filled with dream after dream. Normally I have strange, convoluted scenarios that I always make me go "WTF?".

These Chantix dreams have been so different. They are REAL and vivid dreams. There is little to no dream analysis needed. I talk to someone on the phone - I fall asleep - I dream about the person, the scenarios we discuss or what I am thinking about them while awake.

Last night I had a dream about a friend (not a specific friend, one of those faceless people you just know is a friend) that got the lapband procedure done. In her case, however it was not weight related - it was for some other (futuristic) reason and benefit this provided. But her band fell off and she got really sick....no details on her sickness or emotional involvement on my part...I just moved on to the next dream after that.

Last week I talked to an apartment manager who is trying to work with a resident who is months behind on her rent - she had the procedure done and everything went wrong. In a matter of months, she has lost everything; job, health, hair and her ability to be mobile, due to complications from the procedure. Now she faces being homeless.

While the real-life situation is very, very sad, I have no emotional involvement with this woman; it was story. And my dream was exactly that. A story.

It is kinda cool and weird that my reality is so perfectly translating itself into my dreams.

We had three jumpers in our yard yesterday. 

 

Just above my office window, on top of a security light, robins decided to set up camp to raise a family.

 

Yesterday, I go to hang clothes on the line, and low and behold, a little fuzzy headed baby is sitting in the yard.  His wing feathers are sparse so I am convinced he was a premature jumper!

 

I go to get a box and a dish for water and when I approach him, he starts hopping around the yard and mom and dad dive bomb me.

 

Okay, okay.  If I can pick him up, he needs saving.  If he is mobile, he is probably going to be okay.

 

Next thing I know, jumper no. 2 comes barreling out of the nest.

 

Shit, now I have 2 baby robins hopping around the yard.  Mom and dad are doing their best to corral the two babies out of the wide open.  The babies just got a taste for freedom, so nothing mom or dad attempts is working.  They just keep hopping around aimlessly, like chickens without heads.

 

I go to check on the last baby who is still in the nest, and sure enough, he is standing on the edge of the nest, wildly flapping his wings.  For a couple of hours he test this jumping theory…on the count of 1, 2….wait, wait.  On the count of 10….then he would settle his round little body back in the nest for a few minutes.

 

Eventually, jumper no. 3 finds his way out.  All hell has broken loose in the back yard – hopping robins are everywhere!

 

Here is jumper no. 1(in the back) and jumper no. 2.   Jumper no. 2 was pretty active and looks healthy.   But as many middle kids are afflicted with, he really was kind of plain; nothing special stood out about him.

 

Here is jumper no. 1 again.  He is the only one left in the yard today and isn’t flying too well.  He loves to hang out on the bottom fence rail pretty much all the time and waits in this corner until Mom comes to feed him.  He looks a bit scrawny so I hope he stays in the yard until he is looking a bit more healthy.

 

 

 

And jumper no. 3.  He was the first to get out of the yard, and he certainly practiced all day.  He would hop up on the deck and look at the fence, his little wings trembling and his body leaned forward for a minute or so (I think he was doing the – okay, on the count of 1, 2, wait.  On the count of 10 – thing again).  Then he would lunge full speed, wildly flapping and smack into the fence.

 

 

 While I was out taking pictures, I decided to get some shots of the new back yard. (Don't mind the weeds if you can see them, that was my project yesterday but the jumpers were a little skittish about me being around)

 

 

 

 

Amazing that this house used to be the blue string-E machin-E