Hi!

Sorry I haven't been posting recently. I was diagnosed with an immense abdominal mass and had to go into the hospital and have it out. Luckily it was not cancer but I have been recovering ever since and this was the first day I felt well enough to post. Never fear, I am back!

P.S. Yes, I will make a big post about the operation, etc. But that is still in the works. It'll be a good one!

When I first moved to Ashland, I joined Curves thinking that it would be a great way to meet people and also avoid gaining weight. I am one of those people who was thin in my youth but then right around age 30 started having to watch out. LOL. Well, the difficulty with the Curves was that it was not open 7 days a week, and was not open from 1PM to 2:30PM. I tend to get physically motivated around 2PM each day, and having to miss a day screws me up, so it wasn't really working out. So after searching around for a while I found this nice Bowflex unit for sale very cheaply on eBay:



It was new in the box and would pay for itself in 10 months if I quit Curves. So, I went ahead and went for it. Curves immediately affirmed my decision to bail by beginning to vigorously and repeatedly charge my bank account for future unwanted months -- after I had already informed them of my decision to leave. By the time I managed to catch the owner there in person, Curves owed me $85, of which the final installment had been sucked out literally 6 weeks before it'd normally have been withdrawn.

Curves of Ashland, WI still owes me $85. Its owner, Lori, kept saying she'd bring the cash by "today" and even said that 3 days in a row once. I do not know what is wrong with her honestly. It's been nearly a year now. I guess I should just be glad they stopped charging my bank account. Grr!

Er, where was I? Oh yeah...



The Bowflex came with this great chart that provides an exercise routine to follow, which I have been using. Alas it did not come with that handsome man you see in the commercials. My mother claims to have lost interest in getting one herself once she learned that. :-p The calendar to the left is my "good job!" calendar with stars for when I have exercised with the Bowflex. It is supposed to be 3 times a week. Notice there are 2 weeks bare... that roughly corresponds to my Spouse having returned after 4 months away at sea.

Not to fear, I did actually get plenty of exercise during those particular 2 weeks, just not on the Bowflex. (hehe)



Here's the latest addition to our exercise collection: A rowing machine. My Spouse had really wanted a Concept 2 rower but they are pretty expensive and I was forbidden to buy one due to our tight budget right now. Then I discovered I had Citibank "thank you" points accumulated, and was able to get this one for absolutely free. It turns out to be a perfectly serviceable rower... who knew?

I think it is horribly wrong that I was able to get this without even paying shipping, when Citibank is busy getting a big government bailout. However, if it hadn't been for this, I wouldn't have gotten a rower at all, and my Spouse thinks the rower is critical for long term aerobic training, as well as burning calories. For which reason I consider this a Christmas present really, and not for myself!

When I checked out the reviews on this unit everybody said it was really great except for one little problem: anybody under about 6 feet tall will find it nearly impossible to use. I quickly discovered they were right, but I was able to overcome the issue by making some feet extenders from foam to put on the footrest:



These are the prototypes and they work great. I will probably use these for a while and then make something more permanent once the design is finalized.

Now that we have the rower I will alternate between Bowflex one day and rower the next. I will have to show the calender a month from now to demonstrate how successful that was, lol.

Today I went to the dentist and I could FEEL the DRILLING. Now hours later I feel like I've been beaten black and blue with a club, because I was so tense during the hour of the tor... drilling. I will probably really be stiff tomorrow morning! Unfortunately they were using the most heaviest duty painkiller they had and at the highest dosage they could. Oddly enough I don't have this problem on the upper jaw, only the lower jaw. Aren't human bodies odd? I can only imagine what it would have felt like without any dope at all though. Yeeg.