What I learned on my summer vacation

Hello my friends, I am back in the big city. Well I got back yesterday late morning but this has been my first opportunity to post.

I've zipped through my bloglines to get an idea of what you've all been up to over the week and cleaned out my email.

First let me get some of the comments/ questions out of the way. Warning I've got a lot to cover today as I've felt a little blogger withdrawal.

A big thank you to Lisa for giving me the "Versatile Blogger" award, I will fill the conditions of that over the next fews day as I have to give it a bit of a think.

Next on to my Dad's cooking, he doesn't necessarily "cook" 3 meals a day. Breakfast for him is toast with cream cheese and breakfast for me was a bowl of Special K. On the first day it was hard boiled eggs.
Lunch tends to be when he cooks so he'll make things like roast (on the weekend), hamburgers, chicken with some type of side dish and veggies. He makes awesome cabbage rolls and a fantastic roast that I've never been able to duplicate. Dinner was always simpler so it could be sandwich or a frozen pizza. I would usually talk him into doing something really simple for dinner as lunches were pretty big. He doesn't think I can cook and I truly believe he thinks I survive on cereal. He thinks my pasta isn't cooked, I think his is overcooked sort of thing.

Now on to my week away- what I learned on my summer vacation.

1. Best laid plans can turn to dust
I didn't workout once while at Dad's, primarily because I had planned for outdoor workouts and I failed to compute wet grass (very slippery) and gravel roads (very slippery). I also didn't write any of my food down. I took this week as a vacation. I didn't go crazy but I just didn't fret about it.

2. I finally understand football
I have tried to understand football in the past but couldn't get my head around it mainly because it seemed like they never get very far with the ball. Last night Dad I watched the tail end of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers vs the Edmonton Eskimos and the whole game of the Calgary Stampeders vs the Saskatchewan Roughriders. This is Canadian football where there are 3 downs as opposed to the American version which has 4 downs. I was totaly into it and actually started to understand some of the strategy.

3. I bonded with cats
I have never described myself as a cat person, it's not that I don't like them it's just I've never really bonded with any. I pet them and listen to my friends talk about their cats. They do make me sneeze if I'm around them too long. I finally met my "siblings" being the 3 stray cats that have moved in under the deck at my Dad's house.

There's a mama cat and two kittens. My dad calls the kittens pooper and dooper. I renamed them. I named the male kitten (I think it's male) Fred because this guy is fearless and pretty friendly for a wild cat. If you had the sliding door open he would be inside in 2 seconds flat. When I scooped him up to prevent further progress into the house he was totally calm and put his nose to mine and would pur. The female kitten (I think it's female) I named Spook. She is far more timid but also very curious as she investigated all around her plus she's grey and white so more ghost like. I named the mama cat Mama Miao. She never let those two out of her sight and would sit very regally. After a week of learning that I could also put food out for them she started to pur when she saw me but would not let me pet her.

I saw the Dad cat once or twice. I think it was the Dad. Fred and Mama have almost identical markings. Spook and Papa Miao look more alike. Papa Miao was a patient as can be when the kittens were climbing all over him but he always kept a discrete distance from us. The kittens were pretty funny when they chased their own tale or each others. I hope one or two are still around when I go out at Christmas.

Cats come and go out there as stupid human owners who can't take care of them dump them in the woods as opposed to taking them to a shelter. You can totally tell the difference between the ones that are wild or who have domestic roots. Maybe the humans are trying to "save" the cats from being euthanised in a shelter but what they don't seem to realize is setting them loose in the woods provides coyotes with a snack.

4. I am on the Stieg Larson bandwagon
I had heard a lot about the books "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" and "The Girl who Played with Fire". I could not but them down. I read them back to back and loved them. I'd like to see the Swedish movies about them before the American re- makes some out. I definitely want to read the third book.

5. I buy too many books
I need to get back into the library as I buy a book, read it once and then never read it again. I'm talking Fiction here not the self help - weight loss stuff because I do go back to those. The library root takes longer especially if it's a newer book. My other thought was the Kindle for the ease of carrying around factor, but I want to take another look at the cost of a book on that and the availability of material.

Now back Operation Hottie, it's 18 days to Vegas. I've had a rough couple of weeks. I did weigh myself at Dad's on his old school scale and it said I was 165. I know this scale was lying but it was fun to see. Yesterday when I got home I was exaclty the same as last Saturday morning before I weighed in at WW, now this was after breakfast as I knew we wouldn't get to Calgary in time for me to weigh in I didn't follow my normal WW schedule. Last week when I weighed in my scale had a 2lb difference to WW's scale which is huge and not normal so I might pick up a new scale today.

18 days - I am going to be 100% focused over the next 18 days, the goal still being to be at my lowest weight so far on the journey before I go. When I come back the focus will be on goal.

I need to go the post office today to pick up a parcel and I think it's the Spirooli Slicer by World Cuisine. I've been intrigued by all these mentions of veggie noodles and if I can make healthy food fun for me then I'm more likely to stick with it.

On tap for today is also some Winsor Pilates, a walk and some yoga.

I'm back on a plane tomorrow heading for site so I probably won't blog again until Tuesday when I'm home.

Alright that's it for today, I missed you guys and I hope you all have a fabulous next few days.

Hugs!!!