A Heartfelt Plea

Dear St. Anthony,

Do you help Catholics and non-Catholics alike? I sure hope so. I appear to have "misplaced" all my exercise records from the past 8 weeks of the wellness program. I had them Thursday when Andy handed them to me, and now, after a weekend of cleaning up for company, they've vanished.

I need to find these items before 7:30 tomorrow morning, so if you can lend a girl a hand, I'd really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

A lost soul

A Quiz

A (virtual) gold star to the first reader who can correctly name the source of the quotation used for today's Word of the Day at The Free Dictionary (if you're reading this after July 25, you'll need to look at the archived version).

To check your answer, click here.

Sick Day?

Did anyone else experience the no-traffic phenomenon this morning on the way to work? All I can think is that everyone who didn't finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows over the weekend called in sick this morning.

Dog Days, Or, An Excuse to Post a Picture

The Firefox weather add-on I use shows a little icon for each day's weather forecast. Thursday shows a flaming-hot thermometer, signifying "very hot" weather. This got me thinking about the origin of the term "dog days." I had no idea it had anything to do with astronomy and the alignment of Sirius and the sun. I truly thought that it just referred to the tongue-hanging-out-of mouth effect of the summer heat.




photo: Chicago Daily News. (1904). [Two black and white puppies standing next to each other]. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0002055. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. Available from Library of Congress American Memory, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n002055))

Expanding Horizons

Online Social Activities for the Week

Added picture to Facebook profile

Changed blog template and layout

Replaced blog photo

Sprang for a paid wiki (yay--no more ads!)

Uploaded two photos to new Flickr account

Cataloged a few books in LibraryThing

New Look

What do you think about the new look? It's fun to have a piece of my life I can change up when I want without too much trouble or impact. I won't tell you, however, how many hours it took me to modify the colors in the new Blogger template (far more many than it should have).

If I knew anything about Photoshop, I would tidy up my self portrait. Alas, I'm not the expert some people are.

I'll Always be a Texan No Matter Where I Live

Isn't That the Truth?

There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.

- Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, 2004.

Form is Everything

Some (or all) of you may know I'm participating in a 10-week wellness program at work. Thank you, A2 and M, for being so kind as to check up on my progress when we talk. If anyone else is wondering how I'm doing, here's the lowdown:

*According to my fitness coach, Andy, my form on the dumbbell curl is better than 98% of the people in the weight room. Andy doesn't know I own a (purloined) copy of The Weider System of Bodybuilding and that I once received personal coaching at Austin's Gym.

*At week 4, I have yet to lose any weight. I also have yet to gain any weight.

*I meet for 30 minutes one-on-one with the Registered Dietitian this week. I don't think she'll have many words of praise for me when she sees my food journal, even though I "forgot" to record the 3 heaping spoonfuls of Marshmallow Fluff I ate last night.

*I'm at the weight room 2-3 times a week and doing cardio (usually the elliptical machine) 2-3 times a week. Andy said I need to be doing 40 mins of cardio 4 times a week or more if I really want to see any results. If only I had an elliptical machine in my super air conditioned living room...


photo: Chicago Daily News, Inc. (c. 1905). [Photograph of a man with his hands on a weight lifting apparatus]. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0003451. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. Available from Library of Congress American Memory.

Word of the Day

I long ago gave up trying to keep current with the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day that comes to my Yahoo! inbox. Once in a while, however, I still run across an unfamiliar word on my own. Today's word, tchotchke, is a great one.

Turns out, I got my own piece of tchotchke from ALA when Bako brought me back, at my request, a WorldCat stick-on calendar.

Dreaming

I had a roommate in college, the same one who said she was going to choose a graduate school based on whether they would let her wear sweats to class, who would look at the cookbook when she was hungry, as a way of satisfying herself.

Spread out on the bed next to me, and on the stool and floor next to the bed, are the following:

• Baking with Julia
• A Potful of Recipes
• Small-Batch Baking
• Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts
• Quick & Healthy Volume II
• The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts
• Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

Why, then, am I still hungry?