This afternoon sucked balls.

What was supposed to happen:
Come home, finish the rest of the yard work, tidy up, walk dogs, lounge, Humira.

What actually happened:
I went out to finish clipping all the bushes in the back (which is a huge job, and really needs to be done); only to find that the electric hedge clippers that I'd borrowed from my FiL were busted.  As in, I broken them yesterday.  I thought they'd over heated, but nope, they're actually broken.  So I couldn't finish the yard work.
While in the garage (trying to fix that damn clipper), I noticed a bad, rotting kind of smell.  I started investigating.  I threw all the rags in the washing machine, since I thought they might be the source.  Nope.  I kept sniffing around.  I bent over to look at something and felt the carpet was wet.  (I know, carpet in a garage?  That was my FiL's doing.  He thinks carpeted garages are great.  No clue why, since stuff like this happens...)  I felt more, a large portion was wet.  Then I looked at our water storage shelf and saw that a 2.5 gallon bottle was 2/3 empty.
Of course this happens while Aaron is gone...
So I emptied the shelf, which was really full.  Moved the dog food tub, and dragged the shelf out of the way. That was difficult.  Also, it was super hot in the garage.
Once all the crap was moved out of the way, I went at the carpet with a utility knife.  More hard work.

Here's what it looked like after I got the shelf are carpet out of there.  See how wet it is?

 
Here is the disaster I made of the garage...

The carpet I tossed out.

While doing all this, I also came across a major ant invasion.  ...yay... 

Now for an aside.  Last time there was a major ant invasion in the garage, I grabbed the bug spray and the vacuum.  For some reason the ants where all in the dirty clothes pile.  While trying to vacuum around the clothes, I sucked up a pair of gym shorts... and broke the belt in the rug-beater (I have a Kenmore canister vac).  I found the manual online and tried to take it apart so I could potentially fix it.  But I couldn't get the thing to come apart, like it was supposed to.  Fortunately (I guess) the vacuum also came with a mini-rug beater (to use on stairs, or upholstery etc).

So then I was crawling across the floor (with a lantern) following the ants, using the little vacuum attachment to suck up the ants. Once I found where the trail was coming in, I sprayed the hell out of it.  

Then I realized I needed to drag the rest of the yard waste to the curb.  I dragged the really heavy, full can to the curb, flipped it over, and nothing.  I think 3 leaves fell out.  O_o  I turned it up right, then upside down again.  Nothing.  I left it upside down and slammed it on the ground a few times.  Still nothing.  Then I flipped it on it's side, and started pulling the stuff out by hand.  It was all pokey, and humid.  Ick.  Then I flipped it upside down again.  Still nothing.  Slammed it on the ground and it was still stuck.  At this point, I started to loose it.  I kicked it, and punched it.  That, of course, didn't help.  I put it back on its side and started pulling the leaves and sticks out again.  While doing this, I stabbed the broken blister that was on the side of my thumb.  That started bleeding.  I finally got the stupid can emptied and went back to the backyard.  On the way there, I started sobbing.  And didn't stop for about 10 minutes.

Also, Fiona has not stopped barking.  And Zelda has been whining a lot.  Good times.

In other news, I decided I'm going to do 30 random acts of kindness for my 30th year.  I've started on a few.  Today I paid for the car behind me at McDonalds.  I'll write more on this sometime in the future.  But I just wanted to throw that in.  Everything before I got home from work was fine.

Road-tripping (with Dogs)

Aaron is up in Sonora running the boy scout camp, all Summer.  It's about 120 miles away, or 3 hours, with no traffic or stops.

We (the dogs and I) have traveled up to see him twice now.

I made a lot of mistakes the first time we went.

• We left at rush hour on a Friday.
• I didn't take the girls for a walk first.
• My Adderall wore off part way through.

We left right after I got home from work, and hit the road at 4:10.  We hit major traffic in Fremont.  Then, while we were stuck (the traffic was crawling a long), Zelda announced that she needed to go to the bathroom.  She started whining and didn't stop until I was able to pull off about 20 minutes later.  And then it took her a long time to find the perfect spot.  The whole excursion took up 20 minutes.  Then it took a long time to get back on the road.  By the time we'd been on the road for 2 hours, we'd only traveled 40 miles.  It was a long day.  We were stuck on 680 a long time, then on 580 for a long time too.  

We stopped in Manteca for another potty break.  There wasn't any traffic after that, but I still had to stop a few more times for Zelda to pee more.  That was pretty annoying.  We didn't get to camp til after 10, so I 3 hour trip became a 5+ hour trip.  

The first trip home was more or less the same.  Lots of stops, lots of whining.  It's all Zelda.  Fiona is a great travel dog.  She's quiet, and she stays in my lap the whole time.  Zelda whines, lays down, gets up (has jelly legs) whines, lays down and repeat (ad infinitum).  It's frustrating.  Anyway, the trip back took about 4 hours.

Last week we went up again, this time on July 3rd.  Still a bad travel day.  But this time, we didn't leave until 6:30, in hopes of missing most of the traffic.  Also, I got a sedative for Zelda.  We still got stuck in traffic, but not nearly as badly as the previous week.  The trip still took 4 hours.  But the sedative seemed to help some.

Today's trip home was much better.  Zelda slept most of the time, and we made the trip in 3.5 hours.  

Zelda at a happier moment.

Fiona's standard riding pose.

Zelda sat in the from seat for about a minute while we were stopped.

Blog dump

I've been meaning to write for a while, but things keep coming up.

Aaron:
He's been at camp for about a week now.  Things have been going ok here.  Things at camp have been hectic, and crappy.  I miss him, but I'm doing ok.  I don't mind being alone too much.  He's been good about calling every day, which helps a lot.  I'm going up to see him this weekend, hopefully it's not awful.

Work:
Work is going very well.  I got a raise today!  And starting next year, I'll be getting 120 hours of PTO (I'm getting 96 right now).  Plus I'm feeling more caught up, so things are less stressful.  I really enjoy my job.  I like that I'm along most of the time.  Also, I can go exercise on my lunch, and come back all sweaty and gross, and I'm only offending myself.

Health and Wellness:
Dr Hensley (my shrink) ok'd me to get back on Adderall until I get pregnant.  That has made a HUGE difference.  I'm not having trouble keeping my eyes open in the morning, and I have energy.
Last week, I did really well at exercising.  I ran MTWF. I walked on Thursday, and did a stair workout on Saturday.  This week has been slower going.  I did a long walk yesterday.  Today I only did the dog walk.  I haven't been sleeping well for the past few days.  So I was tired, and just didn't feel great.  I'm not sure I'll get much of an opportunity to run the rest of the week.  Tomorrow will probably be my last chance, since it's supposed to be super hot (around 100 for the next 5-6 days!).  I may ride the stationary bike to get some exercise.
I've been counting calories as well.  (Another good thing about Adderall is that I'm not very hungry most of the time, as opposed to before when I was always starving).  I'm down about 4 lbs so far.  That is a very encouraging start.  14 more lbs to get back where I was.
I've also cut way back on Diet Coke.  I still love Diet Coke.

The Rest:
I made Zelda a new dog coat yesterday.  Well, I did most of it yesterday.  I finished it today.  I still want to put a couple of patches on it.  I'm going to try to make a matching one for Yoie, if there's time.
I've been working on making the lawns look nicer.  Lots and lots of water.
Sunday was our 8th anniversary.  It was lame, since we didn't spend it together.  Also, he didn't get me a card or anything.  I sent him one.  Oh well.
I went to church on Sunday, and stayed for all three hours.  Yay me.

A crown fit for a Rachel

I noticed a few months back a hole in the back on my top molar.  I had a dentist appointment sometime in May.  The hygienist said everything looked good, aside from that cavity and we set up a date to fix it: June 10th.

From June 6th to June 9th, we were in Las Vegas for my birthday.  I'll do a post about that later.

We came home early on June 9th (Sunday), and slept most of the day.  In the evening we went to Aaron's grandma's house for popcorn (a family tradition).  I was eating popcorn and playing cards.  I did a tongue sweep and something felt weird.  Upon closer inspection, I'd broken off a good portion of my first molar on the lower left.  It looked awful, but didn't feel like anything.

I was really glad I already had a dentist appointment for the next day.  My doctor looked at it, and said it didn't look good, and took an x-ray.  He said I was really lucky, the nerve was really close to being exposed, which would necessitate a root canal.  Since it didn't, I could get by with just a crown.  I've never had a crown.  I've had dozens of fillings, and one pulled wisdom tooth but that's the end of my dental adventures.

He explained that my tooth would be ground into a little numb, and then a crown would be glued over that.  It wouldn't feel different than a normal filling.  They started, and then had to stop because I could feel it. More Novocaine.  Started again, I could still feel it.  More Novocaine.  Started again, I could still feel it.  This time he told me to tell him when I could feel the shot.  (Really, at this point, I couldn't feel anything, except one spot when he'd drill).  He poked and injected, and then found the spot, the one last bastion of un-numb territory,  After than, everything was fine.  More drilling.  Then the gooped on the plastic temporary filling, and I was free to go, for 3 weeks.

My crown will be a metal with porcelain overlay.  The total before insurance comes to $900, my portion is $450.  Not terrible, but bleh, I hate dental work.

Blog dump

Here is what I've been up to for the past month or so:

Aaron got me into Game of Thrones.  It's so good, but difficult to watch, at times.  I tried to read the books, but they're a little more intricate than books I like, a la J R R Tolkien.

I flew out to Virginia for a week, for my sister's graduation.  Really, just to hang out and have family time, since the graduation was only a day.  I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and my sister.  And also my dad.  It was weird, because it was like being a real family again.  We hadn't all been together since my wedding, 8 years ago.  It was fun to just sit around and talk.  My parents were discussing me going back to school to finish my degree.  My dad has tentatively offered to pay for an online school.  But I need to look into it.  And I need to talk to SJSU and see if my credits are still worth anything.

I also did something kind of crazy for my impending 30th birthday; I got my nose pierced.  I was thinking about getting a tattoo, but I wasn't ready to take the plunge.  I like it, it's really cute.  It hurt, quite a bit, but it was so quick; my eyes welled up, but that was it.  Rebecca was supposed to go with me, and maybe get a cartilage piercing.  But I knew she'd chicken out, so I went without her.

I've been eating like crazy.  I'm a couple days "late".  Late has to be in quotes, since my cycle doesn't have a set length.  I tested a couple days ago, and it was negative.  It's really frustrating. But I guess we've only really been trying for six months, I just expected it would happen quickly.  Anyway, I think I'm just PMSing. But I really need to start moving more and eating less.  I'm still just so tired all the time, it's hard to exercise, or do much of anything, really.  I miss Adderall a lot.  I have an appointment with my shrink in a couple weeks, so we can evaluate how I'm doing.

I had my dentist appointment.  I need one filling.  No big deal.

We finally got smartphones!  Aaron, my dad and I all had olde tyme phones.  I didn't think it would be a big deal, but I've been having a lot of fun with it.

Last Saturday Aaron and I saw Star Trek.  This is worth mentioning because we rarely go to the movies, because I don't like movies, and I get really agoraphobic in movie theaters   But the movie was so good!  I liked it even better than the first one.

When the cat's away...

Aaron's gone over night for... Scoutaree?  Camporee?  Camporama?  Some sort of overnight with the troops in is district come and do games and such.  So I've had all day to myself, I planned to do all sorts of things, but didn't do as much as I'd hoped.
I slept in til 10, which was nice.  I don't get to sleep in much.  I made some oatmeal and watched Project Runway.
Then I got the great idea to try a new recipe.  I saw a recipe online for a pizza crust made with cauliflower.  I knew if I didn't do a test run, Aaron would never try it.
Here's what  I did, I took pictures, because that's what's you do.

Start with a cauliflower and chop into florets.

Use the food processor to rice the florets

Here is the riced cauliflower

Cook cauliflower for 8 minutes

Next was the hard part, squeezing out the excess water.  This is hard because that water is f-ing hot!  I didn't get all the water which caused issues later.

The next step is to mix in 1/2 cup of mozzarella, an egg, a teaspoon of herbs.

Mix, mix, mix

Pat into a disc.  Here's the other part I messed up.  I made my disc regular pizza thickness, but it really needed to be very thin.

Next you par bake it for 15 minutes.

Add toppings.  I made a magharitta pizza.  The original recipe was for bbq chicken which might have been better.  As the bolder flavour would have covered up the cauliflower flavour a little.

All done!

It fell apart.  

The flavour was ok, I think if I made the adjustments I noted above it would be better.  The taste was a little weird, the crispier edges were very good.  I'll likely try it again.

I also did some laundry, washed and line dried the bed linens.  I went to the store.  I was looking for 3 things: cow milk, cereal and sprinkle cheese.  We have plenty of soy milk, but Aaron won't drink that.  I got a lot of other stuff, of course.  Took the doggies for a walk.  Took a nap.  Exercised, showered, ate dinner.  Aaron called me from the camp office.  That was nice and unexpected.  

My diet was been going well.  I've lost a couple pounds already, I think that's mostly due to cutting out sugar.  I did have diet soda yesterday, but none before or since.  Tomorrow will be more difficult.  It's french toast day, and we're going to two birthday things tomorrow.  I guess we'll see how it goes. 

Weighty Issue

I knew I was gaining weight.  My usual weight is 142.  Today I bit the bullet and weighed myself, after avoiding the scale for weeks.  157.  I can hardly believe it.  It's been 10 years since I weighed this much.  My highest was 163.

I think there are a few factors at work here.  The first was getting off of Adderall.  One of the main side effects of Adderall is weight loss.  The second factor is depression.  It's been pulling me down a lot lately.  To the point where I don't want to do anything.  After work I sit on the couch and watch a lot of tv, or play on my tablet.  The third factor is a combination of the first two: fatigue.  I'm so tired all the time.  I just want to sleep.  I think it's probably a vicious cycle.  I'm tired, and depressed so I don't exercise.  Not exercising makes me gain weight, which makes me more tired, depressed and fat.

My clothes are all tight, some flat out don't fit anymore.  My underwear and bras are tight.  My rings are snug.  Even my sweatpants are tighter.  My mother in law patted my belly last week because she thought (and hoped) I was pregnant.

Here's the plan:
This first week(starting tomorrow) is detox.  No sugars, no diet soda, and as few processed foods as possible.  I'll be eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, tofu, eggs, salad and oatmeal.  This is going to be hard, I'm super addicted to candy and diet coke.  That's why I think it's essential to cut them out for at least the first week.  I'll also be counting calories
I'm going to start moving a lot.  I ordered something from tv.  I've never done that before, but I got Hip Hop Abs.  Not because I want great abs (well, I do, but it's not a priority), but it actually looks like fun; something reminiscent of Zumba.  That will be 6 days a week.  I'm going to try to do some two-a-days too.  Probably jogging, hiking, stationary bike, and yoga.

My goal is to be at least 10 lbs lighter by the time I got see my family in a month.  My longer term goal is to be 20-30 lbs lighter by labour day.  I'll be weighing in every Wednesday, including tomorrow, just to get in the habit.  I'll maybe post a new picture in 2 or 3 weeks.