PUT IT OFF

I am not at the gym at the moment.  Bill is.  Man, I just hate going to the gym.  I will go but very reluctantly.  I get on the treadmill, punch in the 30 minutes etc and start going and going and going.  Then the mind games start.

First I decide I am not going to look at the timer.  Nope, not looking, not looking and then I can't help it.  Three minutes?!  Thats all?   Achhhh.....then more time goes by and then finally its 15 minutes.  Okay, I think, I just have to do all that again and then I'm done.  And on and on it goes until finally the 30 minutes is over.  I hate it.  But...I have noticed that if I don't go with Bill, he is back home in half an hour.  Now, it takes him five full minutes to get IN the truck and then another five to get OUT and he has to do that four times.  Then it takes five mintes to drive down and five back.  If you do the math I don't believe he IS going to the gym.  And I am noticing a build up of Mcd's little brown bags that hold muffins on the floor. Hmmmmmm.........

Tomorrow night we are having family over for chinese dinner.  We shall be using all stuff we have bought in China for this.  Yesterday we popped out to Jysk's to buy clear plastic table cloth stuff to put on top of the table cloth we brought back from Beijing two years ago.  Don't want soy sauce stains on it.  I just went through the menu and picked out a bunch of awesome food.  Tons of it so Andrew and April won't fight over the leftovers.

About four months ago Bill went into the hospital and we ordered chinese food  (which we always do when Bill isn't here).  There was lots left over. I gave it to Andrew and April.  The next day after work, April arrived home.  A few minutes later she came bounding up the stairs so pissed off she could spit nails.  Apparently after she had gone to work in the morning, Andrew had arisen and eaten up the leftovers.  Jeez!!  She was royally pissed off!!!!  I guess he ALWAYS gets the leftovers and he ALWAYS eats it all and it isn't fair......So this time I will make two batches of leftovers.  One for her and one for him!

CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE THIS IS     (just kidding)

PRICE RELATIVES AT A REUNION   ....   AND LOTS ARE MISSING

THE STORY OF MAUI......KEEP OUT     THIS SIGN, IN VARIOUS FORMS, IS EVERYWHERE

SUNGLASSES TAN

BURGER KING IN LAHAINA.....A TRADITION

THE KITCHEN WE BUILT

I ASKED BILL TO SWEEP......THIS IS HOW HE SWEEPS

MY SISTER, MY BROTHER, MY MOM...A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO

THEY HAD JUST DRUNK BLUEBERRY JUICE AND WERE SHOWING ME THERE  BLUE TONGUES!

Now we are off to shop again.  Need a few more things  TTYL   (Random pics again)

SEA TO SKY....ROAD TRIP!!!

What a beautiful day!!!  I don't think people that don't live here understand.  It just rains so so much here but when that sun comes out and the sky is clear and blue we are truly living an unbelievably beautiful country.

This morning we sat out on the front deck and had our coffee in the warm sunshine.  We could hear the Lynn Valley parade happening and I was so impressed at how much work and effort people will go to to make themselves and others happy.

We decided to throw the dogs in the back of the truck and drive the Sea to Sky highway to Squamish.  What an amazingly beautiful trip.  Its almost distracting enough to make it difficult to drive.  The snow is still on the tops of the mountains, the wild flowers, especially the lupins, are blooming and the sun on the forest makes the pine needles smell.  There are waterfalls everywhere.  We drove up to Garibalde Park.

WE STARTED OFF RIGHT.....PASSED AN OLD SCHOOLY BENTLY

LUPINS (BLUE BONNETS)

ONE OF THE DOGS POOPED...ALL OVER EVERYTHING...CLEANUP TIME

I WANTED TO HAVE A HEALTHY PICNIC....WE STOPPED AT MCD'S SO BILL COULD USE THE LOO, HE CAME OUT LOADED DOWN WITH FOOD...I WAS SO MAD...SO WE SAT STARING AT THIS WHILE HE ATE.  NICE PICNIC

THE VIEW FROM UP AT GARIBALDI PARK

THIS WATERFALL LOOKED MAN MADE...BUT IT WASN'T

FIND THE DOGS!!  THERE IS TWO OF THEM

WE FOUND A HUGE ARIEL WIND BOARDING SPOT

We stopped at Red Robin on the way home for dinner.  Was okay.  Now at home and watching SNL.  Dogs, rabbits, guinea pig all fed and I am off to bed.  I will post a few pics from today.  TTYL

GYM TIME - BLACH!!!

I despise going to the gym.  Despise it.  Its boring, tiring, and I do nothing but watch the clock to see when it can decently be over.  I have tried and tried to find a way to make it fun, interesting or whatever but it just ISN'T!!

Backing up a little here, when we were on our recent trip we would occasionally find ourselves in buses.  Either we were on a paid for shore excursion or on a shuttle bus going into the nearest town/city.  No matter how big or small the bus was, Bill was hardly able to get up out of the seat to exit it.  He would grab the seat back in front of him and hoist himself halfway up and then get sort of stuck, his legs shaking, unable to completely go all the way up.  He would plop down, over and over until he would get enough momentum to go all the way.  This whole process would take soooooo long and would hold up everybody.  The same thing happens when he is getting out of our car.  And its all because his legs are so out of shape.  This is a guy that sits in his chair almost 100% of the time.  He insists on parking as close as possible to the entrances of where we are going....he just doesn't move.  He even made mention to me that he was going to get our doctor to give him a disabled sticker for parking!!!  I put the kibosh on that one real quick like!!

He has improvised and devised all manner of ways to NOT get out of his chair.  He uses his long handled shoe horn, broom, cane, shoe, anything to extend the length of his arm to reach stuff that he is constantly dropping on the floor by his chair.  I have seen him go without salt on his food, not get a coffee refill, go off the laptop because the plug in has fallen and he can't reach it, not answer a phone or a door, not let the dog out for a pee....etc......all because he won't get up out of his chair.

On the way home from where ever the other day I drove straight to the rec centre and made him sign up.  And, to not feel like a total bully, I am going with him.  Achhhh....the things I will do for that man.

But...I did go out and buy a new "go to the gym" shirt to wear with my tights!  It looks great!!!  And a little exercise on my part can't hurt (just bore me to death)!!  We will see!  And we are heading out the door right now to go.  I will check back later!

Well that wasn't too too bad.  Still don't like it but it won't kill me.  I couldn't get the scale to work though, thank god!!  I had forgotten how fast I usually go on the treadmill.  You have to set everything, including the speed, up before you get on.  So I set weight, speed, incline etc...and stood on it, got ready then pushed start.

 Holy Crap! It took off like a banshee and it became evident really fast that I was not going to be able to run 10 mph (my initial guess).  I frantically looked for a stop button before I completely bailed.  Finally I saw the emergency BIG red button and smacked it.  Well, not only did it screech to a sudden halt but an emergency siren went off.  Oh God....how embarrassing. All the staff come running along with the full timers that know what that sound means.  I just should stay outta gyms, thats all I have to say.  Its a sign.  TTYL  (sorry about the random pics today)

A  MOSAIC OCTOPUS ON TOP OF A POST

THREE PICTURES OF MY TWO FAVOURITE STICKS FROM MY STICK COLLECTION

THE CAT THAT LAYS ON THE COUNTER AT OUR VETS....I HAVE YET TO SEE HIM AWAKE

RED DOT MYSTERY

I noticed on one of my ocean scene pictures I took in the Aleutian Islands, that there was a red dot on the lower middle of the picture.  It was teeny tiny and almost not noticeable.  When I started looking though, it was on ALL my pictures, in exactly the same place.  In some pictures it is more noticeable because of the colours in the picture.

Obviously, it must be the light metre or whatever within the camera but what the heck??  So I started to really look at the pictures.  I traced the red dot back to April 5/6.  No pictures up to April 5th had the dot, but every picture starting April 6th did.

So, I looked AT the pictures and saw that on the fourth of April we were heading back from Kamloops.  On the fifth I had taken pictures of the moon.  And the next day I had taken pictures of David and Jen, visiting us from Fort St. John.  I took pictures of them in the kitchen and that is where the dot makes its first appearance.

And then I remembered something.  In Kamloops I had purchased a UV/UB lens filter, a really good one at Future Shop.  It didn't fit.  So the day after getting back, I took it back to the store and bought the right one.  The next day I put it on when Dave and Jen were there and voila!! red dot.  Now I can't get the dam thing off the lens.  I think I will take it to Kerrisdale Cameras and get them to do it.

I really need a lens filter though.  I never use a lens cap, I would just lose it.  In fact I think I have already lost it.  Here are the 4/5/6 pics.  I don't think it will show up on this blog but I will post one pic where I zoomed in on it.  Its on Bill's shirt.

ON THE WAY BACK FROM KAMLOOPS, NO DOT

THE LAST DOT FREE PICTURE I TOOK

THE VERY FIRST DOT PICTURE 

FIRST PICTURE I NOTICED THE DOT IN

THE ZOOMED UP SHOT OF THE RED DOT ON BILL'S SHIRT





And thats more than you ever wanted to know about red dots.  TTYL

JUICING JUICING JUICING

Well this time I am too scared to get on the scale!!!  I just don't want to know.  First thing this morning I hauled out the veggies we bought on Saturday and made the jug of juice.  It feels super good to be back in control of what is going in my mouth.  Not that I like the juice that much.  I think I am going to start leaving out the peppers.

One of the lovely ladies we got to know on this trip approached me  one day.  She is this tiny little woman about fifty to sixty years of age.  She was truly one of the nicest people we met on the whole trip.  She had her ipod in hand and she started showing me pictures of herself two to three years back.  She was huge.  Really huge.  I was shocked!  I could hardly correlate the person in front of me with the person in the pictures.

She told me that she had never told anybody how much she actually had lost in total, but she did tell me how she did it.  She simply started counting calories.  She ate whatever she wanted but didn't go over 1200 calories per day.  More and more this is what I am hearing from people.  They have tossed out all the gimmicks, diets, programs etc...  And really when you look at it whether its Atkins, Low Glycemic, Jenny Craig or whatever...it amounts to the same thing....1000 to 1200 calories, low carb, low fat, low salt, and high in low carb vegetables.  I really appreciated her input and was very impressed with her success.

Went for an awesome walk with April this afternoon on her lunch break.  We walked along the seawall.  The dogs can be off leash if they are behind a fence between us and the railroad.  They have their own little path with occasional water stations.  It was good to catch up with her news and plans etc...  It is so amazingly beautiful out there right now!!!  So many flowers and happy people!

 THAT IS THE LITTLE PATH THAT PARALLELS OUR PATHWAY

 A LITTLE HIDDEN STUMP CHAIR

TAILGATE LUNCH  (FOR APRIL, NOT ME:(  )



Thats it for today!!  I think its time to go get a coffee somewhere and finish the Hunger Games series.  TTYL

BACK AND HAPPY

Well, we are back and I am really happy to be.  The trip was only so so for us but what really made the difference were the people we met.  Looking back on it all now, what really stands out, were the original 40 people that we met on the trip.

On the first day we all piled into a bus and went out to the great wall.  One of the guests got completely lost.  We all sat on the bus for about two hours while they tried to find him.  Those two hours gave us great opportunity to bond and get to know each other.  What an experience!

Even on the river boat we ran into a little trouble with fog and ended up spending an extra 24 hours stranded on the river.  That just gave us extra time to get to know each other.

This time on the cruise it was so awesome to constantly, unexpectedly, run into people you knew.  We all felt very connected to each other and it was like having friends pop up every where we went.  It was wonderful.

I just wish I had been able to blog during this trip.  The internet was pretty unpredictable.  I will post pictures here now and then and I apologize to those that I emailed and am on facebook with...there will be doubles.  But mostly I am going to be moving on now.  Its time to whip the yard into shape, clean some more in the house, reconnect with distant family, lose some weight!!  and get ready for the next trip in July.  We are flying to Heathrow where we have arranged to be picked up and driven to Dover.  We don't have much time between arrival and leaving on the ship.

This time we are on a small ship with Oceana...the Nautica.  We are going up to the Shetlands, Pharoe, Iceland and Greenland.  At the end of the cruise we are renting a car and driving around Ireland for a few days.  Exciting!

 THE SWINGING GALS FROM CHILLIWACK...HELEN AND JUNE

 A LOVELY COUPLE FROM BRITAIN...HE WAS A REAL HOOT!!

 THE OTHER COUPLE FROM BRITAIN.  THE OTHER LADY WAS FROM CALGARY

 SHERRIE AND BILL.....CRAZY GUYS!!

 BARB..THIS IS THE AWESOME LADY THAT RAN WITH ME TO THE STORE UNDERGROUND IN SAPPORO TO GET BILL HIS BEER

 KIM...SHE WAS TRAVELLING ALONE (INTREPID LADY!) FROM CALGARY...SUCH AN INTERESTING AND WONDERFUL PERSON

 HALF THE CREW ON A SAMPAN

 DEAN...ON THE RIGHT....A WONDERFUL PERSON WE GOT TO KNOW..REALLY ENJOYED HIM...HE HAD A VERY DRY SENSE OF HUMOUR WHICH I REALLY ENJOYED

 THE CREW ON A FERRY IN THE GORGE

THIS WAS SYLVIA FROM BRITAIN


I will be posting pics of the people we originally met on the river cruise periodically.  I miss some of them alot.  TTYL