Ha! Here’s the secret to get to run different paths in wii fit.  (Copied 3rd comment down on this wiiscoop.com page)

Yes, if you pass your mii guide when a dog comes up behind you it takes you on a different path, different color dogs take you diff places, one takes you through town and past fountrains, one takes you up to the village and through windmills, another takes you over a rope bridge up in the mountain, and another winds up at the lighthouse.

Tried the short run just for kicks and wa-lah!  I got to go someplace new!  Next to try to get up to the windmill path.  (It’s the whole reason I started looking for it.)  Nice little incentive to keep doing wii fit runs.

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The dishwasher is DEAD.

Shopped last night and found a Bosch we liked after playing with it for a bit.  Expensive - but if it lasts longer than my last DW I’ll be thrilled.    Now we eat off paper plates until new one arrives on Wed.  (I’ll do a few dishes by hand - but I don’t have time to do a ton.)

House projects $ now blown - will start saving again to replace kitchen floor.

The last few days I haven’t been able to take the time to exerize much, except at after 8pm for about 10 minutes.  Not being terribly careful about calories and I still am losing a bit of weight.  This is great, but I trying to figure out quite how this all works and if it will keep working or it’s just a fluke because I’m stressed.

So variables I hope to look at:

work out time (Is there an optimal time?

• According to this article there might be.
• It also seems that until I started exercising at least some at night and perhaps the afternoons too, I was having some trouble losing weight.

do I need to have a little something in my tummy?

• Do I need a snack if I feel hungry at all?  I snacked on a bit of roast beef (because it sounded good - hard to resist good deli beef) last night at 8 and exercised for 10 min and lost .2 lbs.  Wii Fit has 2 applicable tips 1) to eat something, esp a banana, if you’re hungry before exercise and 2) eat proteins and sugars after a workout to gain muscle.

I’m starting to think working out in the morning before breakfast is not smart for me, even if I grab a little something to curb the hunger.

Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my face and am fidgetting like crazy… I just found a cute little new love - the MSI Wind (reviews here and here).

My husband kept telling me I “needed” a new laptop.  Quite honestly I don’t want a laptop.  Bulky, heavy, big things that are a pain.  (I have a VERY old one that I have lovingly nicknamed “The Beast”.  I like it, even though its slow.  It’s just too darn heavy to carry around many places.)  So I thought I was safe.  (ominous music starts to play - dum, dum, dum!)

Then I saw the review for this new little guy (that is darned hard to get a hold of now).  Well (blush)….I fell head over heels in love - hook line and sinker.  I ordered one the day after I discovered it - but I’m in line with a few zillion others.  We’ll see when the little guy arrives.  (tapping fingers impatiently)  I’m such a brat today, but it’s all I can think about.

(My husband said that he’s glad he’s got a geek for a wife.)

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The rest of the last week has been tough and yucky.  I suspect it’s my thyroid - since I checked off most every symptom for Hashimoto’s.  Blah!  (Dr. appt Friday.)  So it’s nice to have something happy to obsess over.  Thanks for indulging me.

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Wii Fit Day 57:

Still going with this.  Past the 8 week mark.  Feels more like exercise now that it did when I started.   But doable.  Especially since I get to listen to Japanese lessons during my 10 minute runs.

BMI: 28.12

Weight: 164.7 (down 7.3 pounds from start.  Lightest I’ve been in years.  YAY!)

Work out time yesterday: 10 min (Usually doing 20-30 min.)

Calorie intake in yesterday: No clue - stopped tracking yesterday for the day.  Will start up again today.

Calories burned (approximate):  (Ditto)

Started subscribing to JapanesePod101 a few days ago.  I really missed trying to learn Japanese after I had my daughter 3 years ago. Making my own paper flash cards in Excel.  Today I’m trying out the family MP3 player and will listen as I do housework.  Fun so far - but I suspect I’ll start investing in the card sleeve protector companies soon.  (I have 2 boxes of cards for just a few days work!)

(Yes, I MUST be insane - as I’m darn busy with the camera club presidency.  But I really wanted to do this - even if I have to go slow.)

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Experimenting with eating a bit less so I have to exercise a bit less to get to ~1300 calories for the day.  (Started this a day or so ago, so no conclusions yet.)  Was down to 165.6 (record so far) on 7/8, but went back up a bit the next day.

BMI: 28.49

Weight: 166.9 (down 5.1 pounds from start)

Work out time yesterday: 22 min

Calorie intake in yesterday: 1640

Calories burned (approximate):348

After we lost all our afternoon shade (front tree pruned back severely and neighbor across street cut their front tree down), I decided to ask hubby and my father-in-law to plant another tree in front.  I’ve always drooled over the red maples, and now we have one.  YAY!  (The picture is terrible - if I can I’ll put up a better one later.)

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Still going strong with Wii Fit.  I’ve missed only 2 days total since I started 5/21.  Had an almost 3 pound jump back up in weight last week to early this week.  Last 3 days have done well and am back down 2.5 lbs (despite my hubby making rhubarb pie while his dad is visiting).

BMI: 28.57

Weight: 167.3

Work out time yesterday: 33 min

Calorie intake in yesterday: 1867

Calories burned (approximate): 560

Friday was the last day this weekend that I did wii fit.

Saturday I was up in Watertown all day with some friends from our fiber arts guild competing in the Fleece to Shawl competition.

Today I feel icky.  So I’m laying low and doing what I feel I can to help my hubby get ready for my father-in-law’s arrival today.  We always enjoy having him out to visit, and if I feel better this week should be a great one.

So the low down on the fleece to shawl:

Three members of our 4 person team were half an hour late (I was part of the late crew), but the one who arrived on time and her great British temperment held out that we would actually arrive.  But we got going right away and made up for lost time.

Usually the entries in a fleece to shawl are made by spinning yarn and weaving it.  But this year the 3 teams were wonderfully varied in projects.  We felted, another team spun and knitted a “waterfall shawl” and the other spun and wove.  (I have to admit to missing spinning.)

My team worked together very well and we were proud of our first piece of large felt (nuno felted - onto a piece of silk).  (I’m in the red and white shirt.)

I saw this list on fibergeek’s blog and thought I’d contribute.  Not so sure of the statement made against The Big Read though…

“The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they’ve printed below.” <- this was the statment I couldn’t verify from the Big read site.

But we’ll continue because the rest is fun…

1. Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2. Italicise those you intend to read
3. Underline the books you LOVE.
4. Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

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1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (till book 4 and I was annoyed)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (almost in its entirety.  I saw almost b because I haven’t tracked the old Testament.  But I know I’ve read ALMOST all of it.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (couldn’t get into it)
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Many people hate this one, but I actually liked it.  One of the few tragedies I like.)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (hated it)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (started it a few times, never got into it)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (Again - one of the few tragedies I like)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

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15 - Not as many as I thought there’d be.   But they also left off many I love.

Books I would add to the list that I have read

• Farenheight 451 - Ray Bradbury
• A children’s story - James Clavel (short little book that makes a body question)
• My Antonia - Willa Cather (a little slow, but real)
• The Call of the Wild - Jack London
• Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
• Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer (If Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter are listed, this should be too.)
• Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
• The Art of War - Sun Tzu

And I want to read, and not on their list

• The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett (Was a fabulous old movie, from the days dialog was more important than effects.)

There’s probably more, but I need to get a few things done today.

I’d had the penguin family done for this otedama (Japanese juggling and jacks game) set for quite a while.  But just sat down today to finish up the set by making the bag for it and posting on Etsy.  Thought I should share the cuteness.

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Decided to break up the Wii Fit routine and do some different exercizes.  Normally in the morning I do Yoga (Sun Salutation and Half Moon) to stretch my back, then Aerobics (Super Hula Hoop 6 min, Advanced Step, and 10 min Free Run).  Afternoon 10 min Free Step.  Evening 10 min Free Run again.

But today I skiped the hula hoop and did boxing.  Combined several of the run excercises to get 18 minutes of running (because I wanted to hear the end of Twin Stars Episode 3).  (I want more Twin Stars!)  Then in the afternoon did the longest boxing exercise.  Nice to have a break from the routine.

BMI: 28.64

Weight: 167.8

Work out time:(TBD)

Calorie intake in yesterday: 2011

Calories burned (approximate): 604

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Saturday is the fleece to shawl competition in Watertown.  Most teams spin the yarn and make a shawl by weaving, knitting or crocheting.  The head of our team received permission to felt a shawl this year.  So while the other teams are sweating it out all day, we will be playing in water and soap.  Though, we’ll be scrubbing and mashing wool like mad and I suspect it will be more physical work than carding wool, spinning yarn and weaving was last year.

I’m a bit nervous about taking my camera with our group playing in the water.  But I may wrap my camera in a plastic bag and just take it.   We’ll see…

Okey dokey.  Got the cupcakes done this afternoon.  Even had help (with sufficient leftovers bribe).  Mine aren’t as pretty as Joy’s, but I am happy with them.

I had a bit of trouble getting the cupcake portion the right height so that I could put ice cream in the cup too.  But scooping off the top of the cupcakes, just made for an afternoon munchie for my little helper and me.  So simple and will be so easy to serve. 

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Wii Fit updates may not happen much until Monday since I’m getting ready for guests and the party.

Getting ready for the b-day party this Saturday.  Not only will we get to see friends and family, but the kids are totally excited about making these cupcakes.  Will try to post a picture when I get them done tomorrow.  Not only do they look scrumptious, it will save me time during the party (no getting ice cream out and finding out who wants what, and waiting for it to be dished and delivered).  Throw some on a platter and take to guests.  (Joy, I could kiss you for this idea, but I won’t scare you off from posting more recipes!)

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And for the wii fit update

BMI: 28.87

Weight: 169.1 (Last 2 days gained 2.7 pounds (not too bad considering I usually take on more than this but will see what happens over the next day or so).  Still down 2.9 lbs from start on 5/21.  And I grumbled again at Wii Fit for not  accommodating women’s cyclical weight changes.)

Work out time: 45 min (so far…Will run again tonight.)

Calorie intake in yesterday: 1948

Calories burned (approximate): 640

Calorie intake in today: (TBD)

Calories burned (approximate): (TBD)