Frauds, Bombs, and Hostages

I am beginning to think that I have somehow transported into an alternate true-crime universe. A bold claim I know but wait and you might just agree with me.

Okay, earlier this week a co-worker at the private dining room that I used to work at emailed me and told me he thought that he was going to be out of a job. While I felt bad for him I wasn’t really all that surprised because in this economy companies that have private chi-chi (I never know how you spell that so I hope that you know what I mean) dining rooms are few and far between (even before these economic times they were) and I wondered how long they would be able to sustain it. Anyway, he told me to Google “Stanford” (go ahead Google them, Allen Stanford in particular)to see why. If you did then you know that I went OMG!!! I mean OMG!!! Then, on Thursday, another chef from the kitchen called me and we had a good gossip fest over it all while he filled me in on all the details (that he knew) and some of the background and told me about the swarm of US Marshalls and OMG!!!!! I mean these are things that happen to “other people somewhere in TV land” not to people I know and to a company that I used to work for and know all the players. Just for the record, I never liked Mr. Stanford (apparently now Sir Allen Stanford, soon to be Sir Prisoner No. 1234 if the SEC and the FBI have anything to say about it) and thought that he was a big jerk (I just didn’t imagine HOW big a jerk).

And now today, just a few short days later, my phone buzzes while I am in the movie theatre (thank goodness that I had remembered to turn off the ringer) and then it buzzes again and about 10 minutes later it buzzes again. Now, normally my telephone is pretty darned quiet so I knew that something must be up to be getting so many calls. I surreptitiously checked my phone and as it was a friend and neighbour and then 2 from Prince Charming I just figured that the dog had gotten out or something like that and that the movie was almost over so I would just check after. Thankfully, until just now, it never occurred to me that it might be something like a fire or something else bad like that but guess what it was. No, you will NEVER guess. I mean it. Well, maybe you might, or you might see it on the news (although I don’t really know if it ever got that big). Do I have your attention yet? Is your curiosity piqued?

My neighbour and husband were calling to 1) make sure that I was okay and 2) since I was and I wasn’t at home to tell me that I couldn’t go home. Nobody was being allowed into the neighbourhood because of a bomb threat and hostage situation. I mean, come on, this is Peaceful Happy Neighbourhood of the Lovely Trees not something that you see on Channel 13! So for 3+ hours our neighbourhood was the hotbed of local TV news (pure conjecture here to make the tale more interesting and important). Again OMG!! Instantly both Prince Charming and I had an idea of where the trouble might be (it wasn’t) and thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near our house (my neighbour was trying to check out where it was and told me that my house was out of the action zone) but still, OMG!!! This is the Peaceful Happy Neighbourhood of the Lovely Trees!

Do you think that I brought all of this on because of my vampire blog or because I said that I didn't really have anything happen to me yesterday so I had to write about something from the day before? Do you think that I am somehow attracting exciting things to me just so that I can write about them in my blog? I just wonder what will happen next! It will have to be pretty darned good to top this week I tell ya.

Have a bomb, fraud and hostage-free day!

Ella

Sent Away to Eat Spinach

I have absolutely no idea what to write about today. I know that there must be tons of stuff to write about and yet for the life of me I can’t think of anything witty and urbane to discuss. Could it be that I haven’t done anything exciting today that tickled me enough to write about? That just doesn’t seem possible. Perhaps I had better choose something from yesterday …

Yesterday, my birthday if you remember, I tried to give blood. I hadn’t known that there would be a blood drive but after my Pilates class I noticed that there was a blood drive going on upstairs. I looked at my watch and decided that I had just enough time to give blood before my birthday lunch if I forwent my shower (I decided that blood donation trumped shower). I filled out the paperwork (glad that I had my reading glasses on me … I can’t believe how quickly I have become dependent on them) and went over to the screening area all the while joking with the staff (it is the same people all the time). I was a little worried that my blood pressure would be too high as I had just exercised but I never would have guessed that I would be denied for … anemia! Yes, me, who as a point of pride has never been turned away from a blood donation for low iron was turned away for just that, and not just low iron, actual anemia!! I was floored. I have always tested as having super iron rich blood. I know that many women get turned away from donating because of low iron but I have never been one of them. I asked whether if I had red meat and leafy greens at lunch it would help but they told me that it would take at least 3 weeks for my levels to come back. Three weeks!!

All of this, and my birthday, have inspired me to 1) be diligent about taking my vitamins (I really suck at that) and 2) review and improve my diet to add iron-rich foods (I bought spinach today and some red meat too!). I am due for my annual physical so I will put it off for a couple of weeks and let you know what the result is.

And if there is anyone out there who would like to donate in my place I would really appreciate it. It is a small thing that we can do but you could save someone’s life today.

Have a super terrific and wonderful iron-rich day!

Ella


PS I did a ton of stuff today all boring and time consuming and necessary (except lunch with a fellow coach which was great) but I want you to know that I did actually accomplish my list today including exercising :)

Vampires and Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to Me! Today is my birthday, my 48th, and I am not sure what I think about that. Why does 48 seem so much “older” than 47? I know that when I am 68 I will be smacking myself upside the head for even having a twinge over 48 but, for today, I can reflect on life and getting older.

Perhaps instead of thinking about that I will think about … being a vampire. Slightly off topic you might guess but you will see that it is actually bang on! I have been reading a set of books lately featuring vampires and other creatures. They are actually quite amusing (Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris) and I have enjoyed them immensely. In them vampires have “come out of the closet” because they now have synthetic blood that is basically as good as the real thing so people are “safe” to be around vampires now. Anyway, in the stories the vampires look how they did when they were “turned”. It got me thinking … oh my God! … If I were “turned” now I would have to live with these thighs and these little chicken-finger hanging down flabby arms for eternity (or until I was staked or got caught by sunlight) and that is just too scary to think about. I mean if there was EVER a reason to get in shape I can’t think of a better one than having to live for eternity carrying around this extra 10 pounds and looking at saddlebags in the mirror each day. Go and look at yourself nude in a full length mirror tonight and just reflect on how happy (or not) you would be if you had to live with your current body for the next 100, 200, 1000 years.

And then I think, is it better to get “turned” at 70 or 80 when you might look like a shriveled old thing for eternity but that you actually get to live for eternity or better to get “turned” at 20 looking amazing but not having really “lived” at all. I still can’t decide. I also have to really think about whether I would take the existing 40 or so years that I have left with all the associated aging issues over getting turned (the quotation marks were starting to annoy me) with my current thighs but getting to live for eternity. It is a tough one (I will let you know when I decide).

Megara (my sister-in-law, if you remember) said that she was ashamed of me (life coach) looking at this issue with such a glass-half-empty attitude. She pointed out that even if I had to live with the extra 10 pounds and the thighs and the flabby tummy that I wouldn’t ever have to worry about GAINING weight. I would never actually look worse than I do now. She was right, of course, that is definitely a consideration. That said, this is MY birthday vampire fantasy and I can look at it any way that I want to, being a life coach notwithstanding! And, that said, I will add it as part of my decision equation.

I would love to hear what y’all (a little Texan there for all y’all) think about this most pressing philosophical issue (of today anyway).

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, birthday telephone calls, birthday cards, birthday presents, birthday flowers, birthday visits, birthday lunches and birthday dinners. It was a wonderfully great day made even better by all of my terrific friends and family. Thank you!!!

Here’s hoping that your day was even ½ as great as mine was!

Ella

Time Flies When Your Kids Are Growing Up

It is my son Abu’s 26th birthday today. Happy Birthday Abu!! I am so proud of you!!!

I can’t believe that he is 26, I mean … 26!!! How did that happen? I can still hear him singing his little “where is pointer?” song and being so cute and innocent. I know that during his teen years that it seemed like time was standing still (kind of like you imagine time would be in Hell) but overall these 26 years seem to have passed in a blip. Time is funny that way, don’t you find? Day-to-day or hour-by-hour can seem like an eternity or a heartbeat (depending on what you are doing or how consumed you are with doing it) and a minute can seem like FOREVER when you are doing pushups or “the plank” but when you look at 26 years it seems like no time has passed at all.

I have been pretty darned good today if I do say so myself. I went to step class this morning, did over an hour on the Wii, cleaned up the kitchen, did some laundry, ran a few errands, went through my in box, did some filing, organized my bedroom closet, spoke to 2 clients, read my book, wrote this blog, and the day is only 2/3 done! Yeah me!! I would still like to do a bit more in my office, especially dealing with a few things from my inbox.

I am serious about losing this pound. It sounds silly just saying that but as I explained yesterday, 1 pound to me takes real effort. I have been maintaining my weight (with some fluctuation) for the past few months but I would love to make some more progress before I go to the cottage. I know that my body is changing (even if it isn’t reflected on the scale) so that makes me feel good and I know that this is all more about health and fitness rather than a number on the scale. I keep on looking at my body fat percentage which, unfortunately, hasn’t really shifted like I was hoping that it would. I wish that I could get back to Fitness Ridge because I know that I could make some real progress with just a few weeks there. Oh well I will just keep up what I am doing and know that my body will eventually just get better and better and better. That’s the plan anyway.

Here’s to a wonderful rest of your day!

Ella

Reducing Your Debt ... 1 Calorie At A Time

I’m beat! First it was Pilates, then some Cardio, and finally an hour with Little John. Whew! I tell you, you want motivation to work out and eat right … go on a Carnival Fun Ship out of Galveston!

I’m glad I am finally healthy and in one place long enough to get my schedule back. I feel like I have been off track lately and it is time to get back at it. Pumpkin told me the other day that this blog has also been getting off track lately. So, with only minor references to the Ecstasy, I will attempt to get this blog and my life in order.

Thankfully, I haven’t gained any weight over the past few weeks so I won’t have that battle on my hands also. In fact, I have stayed amazingly steady which is both good and bad. I think that it is time that I got serious about taking some of these extra pounds off though. Therefore, I commit to losing 1 pound by February 28th. This doesn’t sound like much of a challenge but it is to me. This is because I will have to exercise it off and then some. This might be the right time to discuss the Debt, Income, and Expense approach to understanding weight loss (the I learned at the Fitness Ridge Boot Camp). I will go through the basics of it and then will do an example.

Accounting Approach To Weight Loss

1. Take the number of pounds that you want to lose and multiply that number by 3500. This is your DEBT.
2. Divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your weight in Kilograms (approx).
   Multiply your weight in Kilograms by 24. If you are a woman multiply this number by .9 This is to account for women’s slower metabolism (Sad but true).
   The resulting number is your INCOME. This is the approximate number of calories per day that your body expends just for being.
3. Your EXPENSES are the number of calories that you EAT on any given day.
4. Just like in real life there are only 2 ways to reduce your debt. The first is to spend / eat less (than your income) and the second is to earn / exercise more. When eating less please remember that it takes at least 1200 calories for women and 1400 calories for men to stay safe nutrition-wise. You should not eat less than this on any given day if possible.

My Real Life Example

1. I would like to lose 10 lbs. Therefore 10 * 3500 = 35000 (Debt)
2. I currently weight 125lbs. Divide 125 by 2.2 = 56.82 (kg). 56.82 * 24 = 1364 * .9 (woman) = 1228. (Income)
3. Although I would love to say that I eat about 1500 calories per day I really end up eating about 1800 calories per day on average (Expenses). This means that if I don’t exercise at all I will increase my debt by (1800 – 1228) 572 calories every day which means that, if a pound is 3500 calories, that I will gain 1 pound every 6 days if I don’t exercise. That isn’t good at all!!!
4. So what it means is that I have to burn (through exercise) at least 572 calories EVERY day, 7 days a week, just to maintain my weight. And, in order to lose 1 lb in the next 12 days I will have to burn 572 + (3500 / 12) = 873 calories per day (Additional Income) for the next 12 days. It shouldn’t seem daunting but it is somehow.

I know that this way of looking at controlling or losing weight has helped a lot of people understand either why they have been struggling with their weight loss. It also helps one get a really good idea of what they have to do to lose or control their weight. It becomes concrete. It doesn’t allow for excuses. The numbers don’t lie!

I think that I might have my 873 calories for the day already but I think that I might just put down the computer for a bit and go out for a walk (walking or running burns about 100 calories per mile) or do a little Wii-ing. Can’t hurt to get a little head start!

Other than getting some more exercise I think that I will:

• Call the contractor to set up an appointment
• Call my mom
• Apply for NEXUS
• Call Connie re my visa application
• Read my book
• Unpack from the cruise
• Answer a few pressing emails

Nothing exciting or pressing. I will save that for tomorrow.

Until then, have a wonderful day!

Ella

I Think Calling it Ecstasy is a Bit of a Stretch

I missed you! Yes, I did! And I'm glad to be back and blogging again!!


Have you ever been on a cruise? WARNING: If you have, and you love cruising, please skip the next few blogs as I may say a few things that might offend you. In fact, you can count on it.

Oh where oh where do I start? Okay, let’s start with the embarkation process. Prince Charming and I drop our car off in some faraway lot ($45) and line up with our paperwork (they are VERY worried that you have your paperwork IN YOUR HANDS and READY!!) in the looooong line to “embark”. As we are waiting in this long line (actually moving fairly quickly) we started to look around a bit. It was then that we realized that we didn’t really belong in the same weight class as many of the other embarkers. In fact, it seemed more like we had somehow stumbled into a casting call for the next “Biggest Loser” show. It was then that I started to wonder whether they made an adjustment to the total weight allowance for the ship. Oh, the things that you think about in a cruise line's line :)

I wish that I had taken a picture of the stairs and wallpaper in the main stairways, in fact, of the ship in general. It was the second really, really scary thing. The whole décor felt like something out of an off, off-the-strip cheap Vegas casino. Garish and a little bit seedy everywhere we turned. Think cheap Vegas kitsch but not in a good, cool, retro way. The picture below (I got this from Google images) doesn't do it all justice but may give you a little hint. The only cool part of it was that the decks were labeled “The Lido Deck” and “The Promenade Deck” and we had a “Cruise Director” and our maitre d’ had a cool accent and sounded kind of slimy (as you would imagine your cruise boat maitre d’ to sound – I think). Our own "Love Boat"!


In all fairness, our stateroom was a little better than we expected. And, Dewa, our cabin purser (steward?) was quite nice and seemed always available (I think that his job is to stand in the hall just in case someone needs something). He might also be in charge of making the towel animals that adorned our turned-down bed each night (A How to Make Towel Animals class was offered for a small fee … you could also buy a book ... I wasn't really tempted).

At 6pm we made our way to dinner (Wind Song dining room) and met Miyassa our waiter. Miyassa was from Indonesia and I don’t think that he actually understood English. He nodded a lot and liked it when you pointed to the menu item. Maybe it is just that he didn’t understand MY English. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Although the menu was varied and plentiful the food quality was kind of a cross between Luby’s meets iHop meets McDonalds. Whatever we had that night (all nights) was completely unmemorable.

A combination of Dramamine (Gravol for the Canadians), culture shock, and crap dinner sent us running for our stateroom and the official end of Day One at sea. The saga continues tomorrow!

Have a great one!

Ella

Project 365 - February 12th

This photo was just another clue that we were in for a "Fun" few days at sea. You mean that we were on a "Moving Ship"? Whoa! Who would have guessed? Glad we had this warning! Heavens knows what would have happened if they hadn't told us!

Packing for 12

I just had the BEST news! My friend Robocop will be here next week for the 2nd round of astronaut interviews. She is the most amazing young lady with the most amazing husband (2nd only to Prince Charming) and most amazing daughter. It had looked for a while like she was out of the running for something completely out of her control (well, not really, but bad timing more like) when they changed the rules (I know that they changed them for her!) to allow her to do the 2nd interview. I know that this sounds convoluted to anyone that doesn’t know us (and maybe to a few who do) but just know that this is AMAZING, TERRIFIC, WONDERFUL news!

This happening just goes along with my theory that you can “never say never” even when other people are saying “never”. Maybe I live in an optimistic dream world but I really think that living with a “never say never” and “it will all work out somehow” and other clichés like that is the best way and perhaps the happiest. I can’t speak for anyone else but since I took on a sunnier, glass half full (clichés galore in this post!!) attitude towards life I think that my life is better than it ever would have been. Is this true or is this just the attitude talking?
For those of us that believe in the law of attraction it has to be true. It also helps when things might not be going as well as you might hope at the moment. For me, I think that it helps foster a more can-do way of being. Since I believe that we should “never say never” I probably work at things longer than I might of if I didn’t have that attitude. And then when things “turn out” after all is that because I worked longer at them or just because they would have anyway?
Either way, I believe that I do more and enjoy life more than I would if I had a more pessimistic outlook. Do you know many pessimistic people who succeed at most things that they attempt? Do you see that in most optimistic people? How would you consider your outlook on life and what do you think that it has done or not done for you?

I am leaving in a few minutes to drive down to the cruise ship. I have packed WAY too much stuff (I think that I have at least 4 changes of clothes for each day) and I bet that I won’t wear half of it. As it is only 4 days it is silly to have a giganto suitcase with (get this) 8 pairs of shoes! Oh well, they do allow us 2 pieces of 50 lbs each and I am not even coming close to that! Can you believe it? 2 pieces of 50 lbs each for 4 days! My GOD! It made me giddy with packing freedom and, hence, 1 overstuffed suitcase for me. I hope Prince Charming shows a little more restraint so that we don’t have to take 2 cars!

Oh, I think that I just thought of a few “can’t live withouts” to add to my luggage so I should run.

Have a wonderful day!

Ella

PS Megara ... don't think that you can slack off now. I will be watching!