Puzzles!!!!

So I am a dork and like puzzles. I went to Target Sat and bought a box that had four, 500 piece puzzles in it. Each one kinda goes along with each season, so I started the "fall" one. It's of a barn of a pumpkin patch and I didn't notice until I got home but it has kitties in it, and that makes me happy, hehe. My nephew wanted to help me so badly, he kept asking where each piece fit and then tried to put any piece in an empty spot. Then he wanted me to stop working on it since he was leaving, lol. Here's what I've done so far:

Bike riding

Bike riding with Lori in Citrus Park. I know you can't see the bikes, but trust me they were there.

Windows down, Radio up

Driving around with the windows down and the radio up, with my non-gay "gay best friend", Dunstan. One of the best people I know to hang out with like that :) Also the artist who did my smiley face tattoo!

I still kick ass!!!

Week 2, Day 1: alternating 1 1/2 minutes of jogging with 2 minutes of walking.

Today started week 2 in my jogging training program and it kicked my ass! I was doing pretty good with the 1 minute of jogging but the minute and a half was really hard, I almost didn't think I was gonna be able to do it each. But I did and it felt really really good. Just thinking about how I can go from barely being able to jog 1 minute without stopping to jogging a 5k just feels awesome. I am really pround of myself for keeping up with it like I have. At times it felt really weird, like after the first minute of jogging it almost felt kinda like I wasn't apart of my body anymore and that it just kept going on it's own, like it knew if I really had control over it that I would stop and not do the last 30 seconds. My schedule is so busy that I won't be able to jog again until Friday, but I'm gonna try to get lots of walking inbetween.

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I talked to a guy on yahoo tonight that I met off of plentyoffish.com (POF) and have since deleted him off my buddy list. Within five minutes of talking he wanted to met and he kept talking about cuddling. When I asked if he really liked to cuddle he said yes, that it ties in with sex. Now why would you say that to a woman unless you just want sex from her? I try to stay away from guys who really talk about wanting to cuddle, they seem to be needy. Don't get me wrong, not that I don't want a guy who likes to cuddle, because I LOVE to cuddle, but do you really need to keep talking about it? Or even mention it at all? When trying to get to know someone I'm not gonna even factor that in, that is something for after I get comfortable with him.

Adventures in cooking

I cooked tonight! Something I don't do very often. But I'm trying really hard not to eat out that much so it's something I really have to start doing more often. The meal was steak, mushrooms, and brown rice. The rice was boil-in-a-bag so that was easy, the mushrooms I cooked on the stove with olive oil, and the steak I broiled in the oven. The rice turned out as good as brown rice can, lol. The steak was just ok, I'm not sure why I even tried to cook it, I think it's something left to pros. But the mushrooms actually turned out pretty good, I was rather proud of that. I've tried cooking them before and they always come out just ok. But I now have a full belly, :)

I feel awesome!!!

Earlier I did my first 20 min workout of alternating 60 seconds of jogging and one and a half minutes of walking without stopping or slowing down. It felt so awesome!!! If I keep up on the program I'm doing I'll be on track to do the 5k in Feb. It is going to feel so awesome when I do that. When I exericse like that I can really tell a difference in my mood afterwards. I was feeling a tiny bit down, thinking about stuff that I shouldn't, but once I was done the feelings were gone!!!

It's time for me!!!

It's time to work on me. It's been three and a half months since Paul and I broke up and while I have worked on a few things I'm nowhere close to where I want to be. I've lost about 15lbs since then but I'd like to lose about 15 more, and I think I can do it. I'm doing pretty good on my eating and I'm trying with my exercising. I've started doing the "8 Minutes In the Morning" strength training and so far I've been doing pretty good with it. It's not the same boring 20 minutes 3x a week, so I think I can keep up with it. Then there's my jogging, I would like to be able to do the Gasparilla 5k in Feb. I started the training going pretty good but have been kinda lacks lately. I think part of the problems is trying to jog when the weather is so warm, so I'm gonna try to do more later in the evening.

The next thing I want to work on is volunteering more. My friend April and I are going to start doing Habitat for Humanity on Sat mornings from 8-12 and tonight I'm going to a volunteer information session with the local SPCA. I've been reading a book on Buddhism and part of what I've really liked in the reading is the importance of giving to others, including animals. I've always felt you should help others and have done volunteer work before but nothing in a long time. I really feel that once I start doing these things I will start to feel better and better things will happen to me. I also plan on giving $20/month to charity. Again something I've done before but haven't in a long time. Last month I gave to AIDS Walk St. Pete because the boyfriend of Taylor from the Podcast, "Pod is My Copilot" was trying to raise money for it. I think I'm gonna start asking Podcasts that I listen to choose the charity and challenge their other listeners to donation also. I don't know if that will actually get other people to donate money but it might.

Busch Gardens

Lori, me, and a green Lion

Lori (before she fixed my camera)

Me (after Lori fixed my camera)