WOW...

I am amazed!

In the month of January:
I had surgery.
I recovered from surgery.
I got braces.
I popped a wire out of my braces two times in 20 days.

AND. . .I still made it to the gym 15 times!

Namaste.

"When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." - Dian Fossey

Where Was It All Hiding?

I am in the process of cleaning out closets, rearranging and reorganizing.

What I want to know is. . .Who snuck all of this stuff into my house?
And. . .Where has it been hiding?

I have piles of stuff to get rid of and two bags of trash to put out tomorrow. . .
And I'm not even half way through what I have targeted.

My garbage man is going to love me!

Namaste.

"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can." - Mary Frances Berry

My Top 10 In Entertainment. . .The Final Post. . .

I've saved these two for last in case I could find a better picture or another guy to be in the Top Ten.
Neither happened - so here they are.






Benjamin Bratt

If anyone finds a better pic of him - let me know and I'll update the blog.












Paul Walker

When I was look for BBratt pics, I stumbled across a posting "Benjamin Bratt vs. Paul Walker - who is better looking?"

I did a search on PWalker and found that he was in a movie that I saw (still need to hear it) on a flight to somewhere (Seattle maybe?) called "Eight Below".

Not bad.





NOTE: I did not take the pictures posted above and take no credit or profit for their greatness.

Namaste.

My Top 10 In Entertainment. . .Continued. . .

OK, no theme today. . .Just two yummies!


Jose Rosete

I first saw Jose in a book commercial trailer on Christine Feehan's website.
Wow-sa.

This is the best pic that I could find, and as I mention about previous members of the Top Ten, the pic just doesn't do him justice!

Apparently, he has been in a lot of movies. . .I may just have to watch a few of them to see if he will remain on future Top Ten lists of mine.





Kian Egan

For those of you who know me well - there are two bands that I just absolutely adore: Blessid Union of Souls (before some band members left) and Westlife. Please meet one of the members of Westlife.

Too bad I cannot add audio - his Irish accent is. . .WELL. . .Enough said.
I choose to conveniently forget that he is a so much younger than me.

(If I could have found a picture of Eddie Hedges before he got a hair cut and left BUOS, I would have been able to have another theme!)



NOTE: I did not take the pictures posted above and take no credit or profit for their greatness (though I would love to get to a Westlife concert and take my own pic of Kian!).

Stay tuned for the last of my Top Ten!

Namaste.

My Top 10 In Entertainment. . .Continued. . .

I liked having a theme yesterday, so I'm going with another one today. . .



David Beckham

Now, I will be very honest here. There have been times when I look at David Beckham and think "Whatever!"

There are other times when I find myself going "Hmmm".

Recently, it's been more of a "Hmmm". . .So, here he is!







Jeremy Bloom

I had never heard or seen Jeremy Bloom before, that I can recall.

As I was searching the web for pictures of My Top Ten, this one jumped out at me. . .So, here he is!








NOTE: I did not take the pictures posted above and take no credit or profit for their greatness.

Stay tuned for more of my Top Ten!

Namaste.

My Top 10 In Entertainment. . .Continued. . .

I'm going with a theme tonight - See if you can guess what that is!

I will admit that I have seen much better views of these two men, primary on TV. . .But this was the best I could find on the web (and believe me - I searched!!!).



Nick Lachey

Gotta include the home-town guy! No list is complete without him.

To see what made me go "Hmmm", please watch one of Jessica's old videos - the one on the beach that Nick stars in. Can I edit her out? PLEASE?






Dwayne Johnson
(AKA. The Rock)

This picture was a major disappointment for me. I have drooled - yes, drooled, over the TV for this man. Yet, the "picture borrowing" opportunities showing off this work of art of a chest/abs were almost nil.

The few ones that did tempt me (other than this very old one, I think from 2001) were very blurry and not worthy enough for this list of mine!

Please Note: His abs got better as he got older, not to mention his shoulder tattoo keeps growing as well. :D




NOTE: I did not take the pictures posted above (except for the one of Nick singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Bengals game - that one is ALL MINE!) and take no credit or profit for their greatness.

Stay tuned for more of my Top Ten!

Namaste.

My Top 10 In Entertainment

OK, I think I've found my Top 10! Yes, I know. . .It took me forever. I ran into some difficulties as there were some guys that I knew belonged here, but I couldn't find pictures that made me go "Hmmm".

In no particular order, here are the first two:


Michael Schoeffling
(AKA. Jake Ryan)

I don't think I'm in the minority when I say that Michael Schoeffling was my first crush. The picture to the far left was the most recent pic I could find from 1991. I believe that the picture with the hearts is from the mid-80s.




Reggie Bush

OK, I may have lost my mind on this one.
I am a football fan and have heard of Reggie Bush. I even watched one of his games pretty intently (vs. My Bengals, of course). It wasn't until I saw this picture that I went "Hmmm". . .

In no way, shape or form does this make me a New Orleans fan!!!!


NOTE: I did not take the pictures posted above and take no credit or profit for their greatness.

Stay tuned for more of my Top Ten!

Namaste.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

Dora Learns Anatomy. . .

Anatomy 101 in Aisle 6. . . (say to the tune of "Clean-up in Aisle 6)

Imagine this:
Nickey took Dora to the grocery store. Suddenly, Dora starts singing "DoDa DoDa" as she played a tamborine drum solo on Nickey's ummmmmmm. . .chest area.

"Mommy, what are those?"
"We'll talk about it at home, Dora."

Then, she started counting Nickey's ummmmmm. . .chest items: ONE, TWO. . .
And pointing at woman's who was walking down the aisle: THREE, FOUR.

"MOMMY, WHAT ARE THOSE?"

Go Dora!!! :)
Guess you had to be there. . .Or hear Nickey tell the story.

Namaste.

Clean Bill of Health

Saw Dr.G today. . .He has given me my clean bill of health!

The tape is all gone.
The remaining pain does not require medication.
The adhesive will be wearing away soon (I hope).
I have worked my way up to 15 minutes cardio.
I have started crunched at 100 (ouch).

Life is good!

Namaste.

Hmmm. . .

WARNING: If you get grossed out easily, you may not want to read this.
I think it's funny, but not everyone shares my sense of humor.


I've had my braces ten days and I've already popped a wire out of a back bracket.

I have approximately 345 days to go before the braces will be removed (I'm not counting or anything). . .
Does that mean I will pop the wire 34 more times?

The one thing I learned about Gall Bladder surgery is: It will stop you up! It was becoming so bad that:
> It became a topic of sisteroo conversation.
> I suspected it was a cause of some weird weight gain.
> I was starting to feel ill (ever see the cartoon about the body parts arguing over who was most important??).

I finally got unstuck after 11.5 days.
> I was relieved.
> I felt better.
> I lost about half of that weird weight gain.

Today, I was searching frantically for the plunger.
You know - the one that has only been used once in ten years. . .
Update: It has now been used twice.

Remember that I mentioned earlier that it hurt my incisions to laugh real hard?
Not anymore! :)

Namaste.

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein

Slowly, But Surely!

I'm slowly working my way back up to full work-outs. Spent 12 minutes on the elyptical today - that's 125 calories (or .8 of a mile)! Taking it slow, but am working back up to my 20 to 30 minute sessions.

Wish me luck!

Namaste.

I Am Loosing It. . .

I have become a loopy dunce.
Really, I have. . .I think.
I am now purging all pain medication out of my body - for a second time.

Point #1: Since the surgery, I have been very careful in the shower not to have too much water force on my incisions. It took me seven, yes - seven, days to realize that my life would be much easier if I changed what jets were being used. SIGH.

Point #2: Yesterday, my lowest incision decided to start bothering me for some weird reason. Today, I decided to wear a dress to work (nobody fell out of their chair on that one, did they?) to avoid the belly button incision / pant line war continuing into today. What did I do? Yep, put on a pair of underwear that stopped directly on my belly button. SIGH.

Point #3: I was writing an email tonight and got into my blog rambling style. If this was just to my family - maybe no big deal. It was not. SIGH.

Point #4: I stopped by Hobby Lobby on the way home from the gym tonight (Scrapbook alert - 30% off all adhesives and 50% off all paper) and had so many packages to carry in that I decided to leave something in the car. What did I leave, you ask? My briefcase. . .You know, the thing that has my glasses, contact case and such in it. So, I sit here with my p.j.s on and nowhere to put my contacts (not quite sure where my spare case is - probably in my briefcase). SIGH.

I'm sure that many of my co-workers could share additional points.
My boss even caught a pretty funny typo in an email that I sent to Japan. HeHeHe.

Oh well, I am just glad that:
a) I recognized that I needed to get out of loopy mode more than I need to avoid what little pain is left &
b) That I am able to find and identify the humor in all of this.

Namaste.

P.S. Did I mention that the dress I wore today was from my Senior year in college? You know - the one that has been hanging in my closet tormenting me - it was my "goal outfit" and yet, I am still going to keep going! :)

"Bad habits are easier to abandon today than tomorrow." - Yiddish Proverb

WOW...

OOPS - Didn't get back from S-town in time to get to the gym (I forgot they closed at 7 on Saturday)...
So, this post is now for Sunday. :)

It's been an interesting week. Thursday and Friday wore me down a bit, but I am feeling better today!

I have been looking for my top 10 guys in the entertainment industry and I'm having a rough time. I did finally find one that made me go "Hmmm....". He's in sports - I believe that is entertainment. So, I will keep my eye out and will continue on my quest to identify my top 10!

Namaste.

Back At It. . .

OK. . .Today is the day that I have taken back my life. I went back to work (let's not talk about the fact that I carpooled so I could still take my meds). I went back to the gym. I drove a car again.

Man am I tired!

Thanks to the divorce and the metal that now calls my mouth home, I am still having issues eating. I am primarily living on soups and yogurt at this point. Yum Yum!

Here are the pictures of my surgery - notice, there are SIX (the count went from five to six when the tape came off) cuts. DocG said FOUR - WHY ARE THERE SIX? I will find out next week when I see him again. My stomach is still swollen in the pics from the gas they used to inflate my stomach cavity. I'm happy to say that it is slowly starting to go down now (you can see a slight difference between the pics which were taken two days apart).




Also - check out the new fashion statement - the blood clot preventing socks. Yes, I have to wear these for six to seven days. I was wearing footies on top of them so that they wouldn't get too dirty.

What fun!

Namaste.

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes." - Eleanor Roosevelt

I Didn't Go To The Gym Today, But. . .

I thought I should post to let everyone know that the surgery went well and the divorce is complete.

I now have four dime-size cuts in my stomach area. I haven't looked at them yet, but will probably take some various pics over the next few days. This has played a pretty major role in my life lately so I think I'm going to scrapbook and journal about it. Sad, I know.

DocG told MommyMarie that sometimes, he goes in to remove a GallBladder and realizes that it really didn't need to be remove. This was not the case for me. My lovely GallBladder was majorly inflamed, though probably not diseased - DocG definitely understood why I was in so much pain and believes that it had to be removed. The stones did exactly as I was praying for - they stayed nice and cozy inside the GallBladder. DocG checked the liver and all of the tubes and I am free and clear with no blockages.

This makes me feel good - I was having some doubts last night: Did I rushed into this surgery without exploring other options? The answer: Nope!

I was home by 1:30pm and have had one pain pill today. I foresee having to have more medication tomorrow as I won't have anymore left-over morphine in my body. :(

I am sore throughout my stomach and my shoulders (side-affect of the gas that is still making itself at home in my stomach cavity). I am not a big fan of the 'liquid' diet requirement - but MommyMarie deemed that yogurt and pudding, in addition to the chicken broth, was liquid enough to qualify! I had just enough energy to loose at Rummy and win at Scrabble (twice)! :)

There seems to be some confusion about what I am allowed to eat this weekend: a) Doc told me low-fat/no-fat for one week after the surgery when I saw him in the office before Christmas; b) Doc told MommyMarie back to normal diet tomorrow after the surgery was over; c) Nurse-aroony said liquid diet today and low-fat tomorrow during the discharge review.

To be safe, I think I am aiming for a hybrid of options a) and c).

Namaste.

It's Been One Of Those. . .

I love my life. I really do. I couldn't be more happier with the changes that I am making, the job that I have, the home that I am constantly remodeling, the loved ones that I adore. Life is good.

I am truly blessed with the amount of people who want to be at the hospital on Friday and with everyone who is brave enough to keep me company while I am recovering.

Having said all of that. . .I will admit that I have not been myself lately. I think the medication is messing with my head. I have found myself not being as positive as I usually am and I have become very moody. . .To be honest, I have been a bitch.

For this. . .I apologize to everyone.

I have stopped taking the medicine and I am now starting to feel more like myself.

I should probably apologize in advance for next week. I will be back on medication and I will be hearing tons of metal mouth jokes. I don't think the two will be a good combination. You think? :)

On another note: My football season is over.
The best article that I could find about the season was on bengals.com.

Namaste.

"Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters." - Margaret Peters