working out for Disney

[Sans Souci]

I have slightly more voice today, but I'm still coughing quite a bit. But I don't have to work tomorrow, so I can stay home and relax. And E gets back from Italy tonight!!! Later than expected, but she'll be home in a few hours!

I hope you had a restful Sunday. E went to Italy? How fun! Was this for a school trip? I must have missed where you said she was going away.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning-

I did a glute and core workout this morning. The upside it was just over 30 minutes, so that's better than the 1 hour 15 minute workouts I was doing last week. I just think I didn't follow the format correctly. The instructions were a bit confusing and then the app stopped counting down the time I had left, so I just did the best I could.

Callie returned this morning. She'd been gone since Thursday, which is normal when the weather gets warmer. I was petting her and when I went to wash my hands afterwards, I saw this teeny-tiny dark speck moving around in the sink. I got my phone out to snap a photo and blow it up. It had legs and I could see it was a tick. The next time she comes around to eat, I am going to put her flea and tick medication on her. I know she doesn't like it, but it's best for her comfort and health. She is currently sleeping off her weekend bender in her little house.

Have a good day.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good morning I haven't worked out YET, but I fixed my bike! I was skeptical because I tried using a conventional wrench and socket wrench to remove the bad pedal prior to the arrival of the new one, but was unsuccessful. I had previously watched a video about doing this kind of repair work and it suggested a pedal wrench with a longer handle (for leverage). I found a cheap one on Amazon and it worked like a dream. It took less than 5 minutes to repair. Now I have to set myself up for success. Good music often gets me through long outdoor runs and walks, but are only good for about 30 minutes of cardio work on a machine. I'm going to need to come up with some good fluffy shows to binge. Still, I'm not used to 45-60 minutes like I'd previously been doing on the bike, so music may work well as I ease back into this with 30 minute sessions. I have somewhere between 1400-1600 songs in my iTunes library. I also recently ditched Sirius to save some money. I developed what I've dubbed "The Ultimate Road Trip" playlist on Spotify that's (currently) equivalent to about 8.5 solid days of music.

My parents are coming into town later this week and we also will have one of Sam's friends staying with us for a couple of days, so I have a lot of cleaning and prep in store over the next few days. I need to come up with some fun things to do with my parents during their visit. So far, the only thing I have is Sunday...which may or may not be all that fun. Sam and her friend are attending a selection event for Team USA's High Performance Program. If selected, they can advance to national and international events. At the very least, she's going to get to work with five members of Team USA (all with Olympic and pro experience), so it should be pretty exciting. I just don't know how much my parents will enjoy watching drills. Still, they normally only get to watch her on YouTube when her games are livestreamed.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Callie returned this morning. She'd been gone since Thursday, which is normal when the weather gets warmer. I was petting her and when I went to wash my hands afterwards, I saw this teeny-tiny dark speck moving around in the sink. I got my phone out to snap a photo and blow it up. It had legs and I could see it was a tick. The next time she comes around to eat, I am going to put her flea and tick medication on her. I know she doesn't like it, but it's best for her comfort and health. She is currently sleeping off her weekend bender in her little house.

It's funny how many animals hate their treatments, but it's necessary. Is the cat treatment topical or something oral that she consumes in her food? Hopefully, she doesn't fight it. Glad she returned. I don't think I could ever do the cat thing, but I see so many people talking about their cats' patterns of coming and going.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Update- I guess I like working out more than cleaning. I had the option of one or the other during my lunch break. I'm easing back into things, but put in a little over 10 miles on the bike, an arm workout with a set of 8lb dumbbells, and a quick ab workout with the big exercise ball. Music was pretty effective, even though I misplaced my good earbuds and was stuck with a set where only one still has any audio. I think tv shows may still be the way. I believe Roku TV has the early seasons of the GBBO that I haven't seen on Netflix as well as the early Project Runways, so that's probably a good place to start.

 

[Songbird76]

I hope you had a restful Sunday. E went to Italy? How fun! Was this for a school trip? I must have missed where you said she was going away.

Yes, it's for school. They go there for a week and stay with host families, and then in September their Italian "twin" comes and stays here for a week. They organize outings and activities. E's group went to Florence for a day and went to the Ufizzi museum, they spent an afternoon in Lucca, and they mostly had afternoons free, so E's host family took her to Piza and she and her friends and their "twins" all went to the beach together one day, etc. When they come here, there's a day in Amsterdam and I told E we should take Arianna somewhere like Utrecht, or Den Haag or something.

 

[Songbird76]

My lungs are sooooo tired from all the coughing. My work is about 4 miles away by bike, but DH brought me there and picked me up yesterday because he was off of work anyway to take E to Arnhem for her Written test for her drivers license. She didn't pass, but that's really common here. People usually have to take it a few times before they pass. They try to trip you up with stupid questions that aren't in the book and have nothing to do with driving, like "What is the maximum number of years a drivers license is valid without renewing?" or first aid questions like "Of you come upon an accident and someone is vomiting, what position should you put them in?" And they also have a danger recognition section where they show you a picture and you have to answer within like 5 seconds whether you should brake, take your foot off the gas, or do nothing different. And it's only a still picture so you can't see, for example, how fast other people are going, or whether their brake lights are on because they are stopped or because they are actively slowing down. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on in only a few seconds with no movement. She actually passed that section just fine, but got a whole bunch of the questions that have nothing to do with actual driving....the things that you can look up if you really need to know them. There's never a situation in which you are driving and have to answer trivia questions about where on your license you can find your social security number. I feel bad for her, but at least she realizes it's not really a fair assessment of her skills and knowledge, so she didn't take it too hard. Anyway, I didn't bike to work yesterday, but today, I went to run errands and did about 7 miles on my bike. Now I'm trying not to cough.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning I haven't worked out YET, but I fixed my bike! I was skeptical because I tried using a conventional wrench and socket wrench to remove the bad pedal prior to the arrival of the new one, but was unsuccessful. I had previously watched a video about doing this kind of repair work and it suggested a pedal wrench with a longer handle (for leverage). I found a cheap one on Amazon and it worked like a dream. It took less than 5 minutes to repair. Now I have to set myself up for success. Good music often gets me through long outdoor runs and walks, but are only good for about 30 minutes of cardio work on a machine. I'm going to need to come up with some good fluffy shows to binge. Still, I'm not used to 45-60 minutes like I'd previously been doing on the bike, so music may work well as I ease back into this with 30 minute sessions. I have somewhere between 1400-1600 songs in my iTunes library. I also recently ditched Sirius to save some money. I developed what I've dubbed "The Ultimate Road Trip" playlist on Spotify that's (currently) equivalent to about 8.5 solid days of music.

My parents are coming into town later this week and we also will have one of Sam's friends staying with us for a couple of days, so I have a lot of cleaning and prep in store over the next few days. I need to come up with some fun things to do with my parents during their visit. So far, the only thing I have is Sunday...which may or may not be all that fun. Sam and her friend are attending a selection event for Team USA's High Performance Program. If selected, they can advance to national and international events. At the very least, she's going to get to work with five members of Team USA (all with Olympic and pro experience), so it should be pretty exciting. I just don't know how much my parents will enjoy watching drills. Still, they normally only get to watch her on YouTube when her games are livestreamed.

YouTube has been really great for learning how to do certain things. I've learned how to make sourdough bread, macarons, do exercises with good form, etc. I was just thinking this morning that I really need to cull my subscriptions. It's gotten out of hand.

I don't know if I could watch someone tryout for something, especially something so high level. I think I'd be so anxious. Hopefully, she will be selected.

 

[Sans Souci]

It's funny how many animals hate their treatments, but it's necessary. Is the cat treatment topical or something oral that she consumes in her food? Hopefully, she doesn't fight it. Glad she returned. I don't think I could ever do the cat thing, but I see so many people talking about their cats' patterns of coming and going.

It's topical. We did have this oral medication that kills fleas and ticks. It's great. It starts killing them within 30 minutes, but it is only effective for 24 hours. This topical med starts working in 24 hrs and lasts about 4-6 weeks. I did get it on her yesterday, thank goodness. Whenever she's gone for a while, she gets skittish around us when she returns, so I wasn't sure if she was going to like me touching her while she was eating.

 

[Sans Souci]

Update- I guess I like working out more than cleaning. I had the option of one or the other during my lunch break. I'm easing back into things, but put in a little over 10 miles on the bike, an arm workout with a set of 8lb dumbbells, and a quick ab workout with the big exercise ball. Music was pretty effective, even though I misplaced my good earbuds and was stuck with a set where only one still has any audio. I think tv shows may still be the way. I believe Roku TV has the early seasons of the GBBO that I haven't seen on Netflix as well as the early Project Runways, so that's probably a good place to start.

I watch "90 Day Fiancé" when I am working out some times.

 

[Sans Souci]

Yes, it's for school. They go there for a week and stay with host families, and then in September their Italian "twin" comes and stays here for a week. They organize outings and activities. E's group went to Florence for a day and went to the Ufizzi museum, they spent an afternoon in Lucca, and they mostly had afternoons free, so E's host family took her to Piza and she and her friends and their "twins" all went to the beach together one day, etc. When they come here, there's a day in Amsterdam and I told E we should take Arianna somewhere like Utrecht, or Den Haag or something.

That sounds like such a good time and It's something I would have liked to have done at that age.

My husband did that when he was in school. He went to France. I think it was a little longer than a week. He said when his host came to visit him, he complained about how small the house was. It's a small island; land is at a premium, you know?

 

[Sans Souci]

My lungs are sooooo tired from all the coughing. My work is about 4 miles away by bike, but DH brought me there and picked me up yesterday because he was off of work anyway to take E to Arnhem for her Written test for her drivers license. She didn't pass, but that's really common here. People usually have to take it a few times before they pass. They try to trip you up with stupid questions that aren't in the book and have nothing to do with driving, like "What is the maximum number of years a drivers license is valid without renewing?" or first aid questions like "Of you come upon an accident and someone is vomiting, what position should you put them in?" And they also have a danger recognition section where they show you a picture and you have to answer within like 5 seconds whether you should brake, take your foot off the gas, or do nothing different. And it's only a still picture so you can't see, for example, how fast other people are going, or whether their brake lights are on because they are stopped or because they are actively slowing down. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on in only a few seconds with no movement. She actually passed that section just fine, but got a whole bunch of the questions that have nothing to do with actual driving....the things that you can look up if you really need to know them. There's never a situation in which you are driving and have to answer trivia questions about where on your license you can find your social security number. I feel bad for her, but at least she realizes it's not really a fair assessment of her skills and knowledge, so she didn't take it too hard. Anyway, I didn't bike to work yesterday, but today, I went to run errands and did about 7 miles on my bike. Now I'm trying not to cough.

I think the lingering cough or nasal congestion after being sick is almost as bad as being sick, especially if it ruins your sleep or makes you sore from all the coughing.

I am sorry about your daughter's license exam. That sounds like such a silly thing to fail someone over. My son didn't pass his first attempt at his license, either. He was just anxious and he struggled with parallel parking. The examiner really nice about it and told him what to work on for the next time. He did and he passed. I failed my first attempt at my license, too. When the examiner got in and had me turn the lights on and off, make sure the turn signals worked, etc. She asked me to honk the horn and it didn't honk, so that was the end of the exam. I didn't even get to drive the car!

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning-

This morning I did a leg workout from YouTube. I was doing a program, but I just didn't like it. Everyone was raving about this program in the FB group. It only happens once a year, so I hung in there, thinking it was going to be amazing. It's not. It's very boring and not very challenging. I think I need to quit this app. I have never been able to stick to a program on it. The problem is, it's like a gym membership that I have to pay a penalty of $70 if I want to quit. Ah, well.

My husband asked me to go to Jersey City tonight with him. I really don't want to. I'm cynical enough to think it's because he doesn't have to cook his own dinner after work and I clean the apartment for him, so that is one less thing he has to worry about before coming to back here. Plus, the weather for walking is going to be "meh". I'll think about it.

 

[Songbird76]

That sounds like such a good time and It's something I would have liked to have done at that age.

My husband did that when he was in school. He went to France. I think it was a little longer than a week. He said when his host came to visit him, he complained about how small the house was. It's a small island; land is at a premium, you know?

I hear that! We're actually not hosting Ariana here for that very reason. Our house is just too small. But one of E's friends lives on a farm and they have a sort of out-building where the kids play DnD together, and there's plenty of room there. His "twin" is female and is a friend of E's twin, so the girls will stay at Rick's house in that bunk house and Rick will stay in his room as usual. But we still want to do some things for Arianna, like take her site seeing and stuff. Her family was so great to E. E was coughing a lot, and the mom was so worried about her and went and got her meds. And she was teaching her how to cook all the Italian food. And she was talking about different things, and mentioned Risotto, and E was like "mmmmmm, Risotto" and the mom goes "OK!! I'll make that for you tomorrow!" and was just super sweet. Arianna has a 7 year old brother who brought E a flower, just because. So we can't put her up in this house because there's no room and because it would be difficult for A with the change in routine, etc, but we still want to treat her as well as they treated E. E had a GREAT time, but she said she was glad it was only a week, because she was starting to miss home. Her friend Rianne cried when they left because she didn't want to go home. She had so much fun there.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

YouTube has been really great for learning how to do certain things. I've learned how to make sourdough bread, macarons, do exercises with good form, etc. I was just thinking this morning that I really need to cull my subscriptions. It's gotten out of hand.

I don't know if I could watch someone tryout for something, especially something so high level. I think I'd be so anxious. Hopefully, she will be selected.

YouTube has helped me learn how to do countless things (or served as a regular tutorial for things I always forget...like how to tether my camera's wifi to my phone). The pedal was such a simple process, but there were two critical things the guy mentioned that never would have occurred to me if I hadn't watched. I always think righty tighty/lefty loosey when it comes to assembly and disassembly. Apparently, only the right pedal on bikes uses that logic and right is determined from the direction the biker is sitting and pedaling.

Thank you! We're all just trying to get used to these things. While this particular experience has legitimate rewards for advancing, I'm really just looking at it as a tool to help make her more comfortable with these types of evaluations and camps. She's going to start doing more and more things like this as she progresses towards recruiting age. It's also good exposure. Obviously, we'll be really happy for her if she advances to the next round, but also trying to wrap my brain around all of the travel. Whew!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I watch "90 Day Fiancé" when I am working out some times.

I always confuse that with Married at First Sight! I haven't watched either one. I tried to get into MAFS for a season because an old work friend's sister was on the show and my friend made several appearances during the season. I just couldn't get into it. Music is working well so far, but at some point, it's going to be all about Paul Hollywood and Michael Kors.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

It's topical. We did have this oral medication that kills fleas and ticks. It's great. It starts killing them within 30 minutes, but it is only effective for 24 hours. This topical med starts working in 24 hrs and lasts about 4-6 weeks. I did get it on her yesterday, thank goodness. Whenever she's gone for a while, she gets skittish around us when she returns, so I wasn't sure if she was going to like me touching her while she was eating.

I was just wondering if they had a feline equivalent to what we give the dog. She has a chewable that covers fleas, ticks and heartworms for 30 days. I'm glad she let you apply the treatment. At least it lasts a while.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Yes, it's for school. They go there for a week and stay with host families, and then in September their Italian "twin" comes and stays here for a week. They organize outings and activities. E's group went to Florence for a day and went to the Ufizzi museum, they spent an afternoon in Lucca, and they mostly had afternoons free, so E's host family took her to Piza and she and her friends and their "twins" all went to the beach together one day, etc. When they come here, there's a day in Amsterdam and I told E we should take Arianna somewhere like Utrecht, or Den Haag or something.

I'm jealous! The Ufizzi is on my list of unfinished business in Florence. That sounds like a great experience!

 

[Songbird76]

I think the lingering cough or nasal congestion after being sick is almost as bad as being sick, especially if it ruins your sleep or makes you sore from all the coughing.

I am sorry about your daughter's license exam. That sounds like such a silly thing to fail someone over. My son didn't pass his first attempt at his license, either. He was just anxious and he struggled with parallel parking. The examiner really nice about it and told him what to work on for the next time. He did and he passed. I failed my first attempt at my license, too. When the examiner got in and had me turn the lights on and off, make sure the turn signals worked, etc. She asked me to honk the horn and it didn't honk, so that was the end of the exam. I didn't even get to drive the car!

Oh, yeah, they make you answer questions here, too and check the tires and such. But here, you take your exam in the instruction car where they have the pedals and such on both sides so the examinor can intervene if it goes wrong. If there's something wrong with the car, you won't be allowed to take your test, but your instructor is in charge of making sure the car is in working order. But this was just her written yesterday. You can't sign up for a road test until you've passed the theory test. Once you pass the theory test, it's valid for a year or a year and a half. You have to schedule your driving test and pass it within that time or you have to retake the theory test. For mine, I had only had 4 lessons when the first Covid lockdown hit and driving schools couldn't operate for like 4-6 months. So I basically had to start over. Then my theory test got postponed during the 2nd lockdown. When I finally got to take it, I passed, but then with all the lockdowns, my driving test kept being pushed back, and I failed the driving test the first 2 times for being too cautious. They were so backed up with people who had had their exams canceled, like me, that it took MONTHS to schedule a new test. They extended the length that the theory test was valid because of the lockdowns, but mine was almost expired when I finally passed my test. If I hadn't passed when I did, I would have had to retake the theory. But we think they basically put those stupid questions in there specifically so more people will fail and have to pay to take the test again. Those things aren't in the theory books and they really don't have anything to do with the driving. You're supposed to be showing you know how to operate a vehicle safely and know the rules of the road, not that you know first aid, or things you can look up if you need them. There's no reason to put those on the test. It's just a money grab. You have to pay 50 bucks to take the written test, and pay a 40 euro fee to prove you are in good health before you are allowed to schedule your road test, which costs another couple hundred euros. I think they also want to discourage people from driving to incentivize other cleaner energy transportation methods, like riding bike or taking public transportation. So they make it really hard to get a license to reduce the number of people who drive, and to maximize the amount of money they make in the process. Someone told me they failed the theory 6 times. Someone else said they failed the road test like 8 times and finally gave up. And my neighbor didn't pass the health inspection so she isn't even allowed to take lessons because she has a health condition that they think could be an issue. I had to get a doctor's confirmation that my diabetis was not so bad that I would be a danger while driving. And Autism is another thing that gets flagged where A will need an extra exam by the doctor to determine whether he is allowed to learn to drive. They may say no. If you have a kidney issue, Autism, Diabetis, Epilepsy, PTSD, a heart condition, or anything wrong physically with a leg, foot, arm, hands, etc...any of those can exclude you. Anything which could make your reflexes slower, or limit your agility can keep you from getting a license.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good morning! Today was my first day of trying to get back to working out before work. I was off to a rough start before the clock even struck midnight! I was fast asleep when K woke me up at about 11:45pm because she couldn't get the printer to work. I'm never pleasant when I'm woken up like that, but it was particularly frustrating because she'd had several opportunities to do this earlier in the evening and was getting a real attitude. Fast forward to this morning...she lent me her backup ear buds that are a 2nd gen sister to mine. They kept pairing to something, but it wasn't my phone or her phone. After several failed attempts, I took them outside to try and get them away from all inside devices when I had a lightbulb moment. I thought of one place I hadn't checked for mine, and eureka...they were there! Mine also hold a charge much better. The buds were at 100% and the case still was at 14% even after sitting in the car for a week without charging.

The workout was nearly an instant replay of yesterday's, except that I did legs instead of arms. I need to figure out my plan for tomorrow. I have to go into the office in the morning and then took off the remainder of the day to clean. There's the option of getting up at 5am to get in the workout, but I'm really trying to ease into this so I don't burn out. We'll see.