Just another Manic Monday

Back in the saddle again

I’ve been seriously slacking off in the exercise department since March. It’s hard to fit it in between my crazy summer work schedule, trying to blog every day, and the fact that honestly I’ve been totally exhausted with just surviving.

But there’s nothing like seeing someone in the office suddenly go through a physical transformation to kick you right in the ass and get you motivated again. One of the other girls, who has always been very physically fit, bumped up her running routine and it’s been amazing how much it has slimmed down her butt and thighs.

So I’m inspired again. Problem areas for me to work on are my lower abs and working on my core strength. Not to mention trying to continue slimming down a little bit more…I think I have about 10 more pounds to go before I’m honestly satisfied with myself. And I need to find another race to participate in before the 8K I’m aiming to run in coming in November.

And in light of this new dedication, you might see a little bit less of me around here. While I love to blog, I also need to take care of myself and make sure I don’t turn into the Fat Chick again. Not to mention the fact that I've thrown out most of my fat clothes so I can't really afford another new wardrobe.

*****

Even I can be bought for the right price

So the dreaded interaction with my in-laws took place yesterday. I hadn’t seen them since January so I pretty much knew that my luck was running out and there was no way I could talk my way out of seeing them this weekend.

Earlier in the week, Joey had decided that we would drive to a restaurant halfway to the in-laws’ house and meet them for lunch. Of course, they picked the one furthest away from us that has the worst food possible. And y’all know how I feel about food. So that instantly put me into a bad, bad mood.

Suddenly we got a phone call on Sunday morning that they had changed their mind – we met at one of my favorite restaurants that’s about an hour from us. Not that the food is gourmet or anything, but it’s good country cooking complete with huge homemade yeast rolls and the best hand-battered fresh fried shrimp you can imagine. I was salivating just thinking about it.

And the best part was that I ate so much that it tuned my hearing out so I didn’t have to listen to an hour of guilt trips and bitching about how we never come visit. I think I'll make that our standard meeting spot.

*****

It’s all about to change

Remember how excited I was about our upcoming yard project? Yeah, shoot me next time I think that one of my subcontractors is actually going to come through for me.

Well, I take that back - one of them is. My friend S, who went to work for a concrete subcontractor, is setting me up with all of the fixings for a beautiful concrete driveway. I think they’re starting in 2 weeks and I can hardly wait to have a nice smooth driveway and not have everyone carrying in little rocks in the treads of their shoes and scratching the crap out of my floors.

Now for the big news…we put down the material deposit for the retaining walls on Saturday. My subcontractor that had priced it for me back in December apparently fired their estimator (something about low-balling bids – what a shock, huh?) and discovered that he was practically giving the walls to us. So the owner came back to me wanting another $8,000 just for the front yard. Our landscape architect tried to find someone else, but the next lowest bid that came in was about double the original price.

Lo and behold, my friend M of cat door fame found a guy working in his neighborhood putting up a retaining wall. He checked some of the guy’s work, brought him by the house to price it, and voila…a price that is almost as good as our original lowball bid. And the best part is that M will coordinate the work, make a few runs by the house to make sure the guy is doing a good job, and not charge us a dime. Then the landscape architect got someone to price the landscaping which came in around the same price as our original subcontractor as well, so I think we'll have at least the front yard done by October-ish.

So, it seems that in a few weeks our yard will look significantly different with retaining walls everywhere and a beautiful new driveway. And we will be massively broke. I think this is a good thing but remind me of this when we’re eating Beanie Weenies for the umpteenth time, okay?