This and That: Part 72

Well, the name of the blog is "This, That, and the Mother Thing" so I'm going to assume that occasionally, I get to write about This and That without having a particular theme.

The Kittens
(((sigh))) It is so nice to have kittens around the house again.  As Conor says, they are our favorite television show.  We will all stop what we are doing (eating, talking, eating) and watch them wrestle across the floor or attack any of the zillion squinkies that have shown up in our house.  Conor (who has lots of thoughts about the cats) says the cats think the squinkies are their mortal enemies.  They carry around the house, drop them in their water dishes, throw them up in the air and swat them, and generally run across the floor attacking them.  All those cat toys and it's squinkies the cats love.

As for the children's reactions, Conor loves the cats and the cats love him.  Christopher does not love the cats and the cats are not all that into him.  Bridget looooooooooooves the cats and the cats are scared to death of her. Indeed, Bridget loves the kittens much like Katie loves the Kittens (a youtube video that explains what I mean). Generally, at any point that Bridget is awake, we'll hear a kitten howl and Bridget will be hugging/holding/loving the cat nearly to death.  Explaining to Bridget that she is hurting the kittens does not seem to help Bridget's ability to control herself.  Time outs also do not work.  Hovering supervision is the only method that works right now and that's not really a practical option.

We also had a bit of a scare with George.  First, we figured out that his leg had been badly broken and poorly healed during his time with his first family.  At one point, the doc thought we might have to amputate it.  And perhaps we will in the future.  But for now, he is managing to run and play and not use it very much.  Yes, he rarely uses it to walk and never to run, and when he does the cat version of the downward facing dog yoga stretch , he basically just sticks his bad paw forward. :-(  But he is happy and we are happy to have him.

Our love for him became even more painfully obvious when we thought we had lost him last Friday.  He apparently took a deep nap somewhere and did not hear our entire family and another adult and child search for two hours for him.  We had already even put out the FB lost pet announcement and the missing posters around the neighborhood thinking he had escaped when I got the mail.  When he finally emerged from that big nap, our shouts of joy and hugs and kisses scared the crap out of him and he ran and hid again.  I was happy to see him; I had been really upset that our little, sweet, ball of gray fur was missing.  It is crazy how quickly these guys come to mean something to the family.

Speaking of Television
And I was, up there at the beginning of this post.  We gave up cable TV several months ago and honestly, have not missed it at all.  When I say "gave up cable TV," I mean we no longer have any channels through cable.  We can pick up a few channels through our antenna, but otherwise, goose egg.  We also gave up our land line.  Why?  How about $150 savings per month, give or take. We kept the highest speed internet access they have. And for $7.99 a month, we've got streaming Netflix so we can watch all the TV shows you've already watched a year or two after you've watched them.  But as working parents, we're not really watching a lot of TV anyway.  And a bonus is that I discovered my local YMCA has WiFi and I can watch Netflix (e.g., Downton Abbey) while I'm on the elliptical.  Which is fantastic, except during the poignant moments when I get teary or the funny parts where I laugh out loud. I should be embarrassed, yet. . . .

Speaking of TV shows, I could use some recommendations for series you particularly like.  Unfortunately, only season 1 of Downton Abbey is on US Netflix and I'm too cheap to get another service.  (Too cheap vs. too poor.  Feel free to make your own call on that one)  And I don't want to watch any series that is too "adult."  I am doing this at the Y, so I would actually be mortified if a naked person appeared on my screen in the midst of my exercising peers.  Even Downton Abbey is a little heavy at 7 am in the bright shining morning. Adult drama a weird way to start the day, but I'm willing to move beyond Shaun the Sheep. So now, while I appreciate my friend's suggestion for her new favorite TV Show, Breaking Bad, there is no way in h-e-double-hockey-stick that I'm watching that at the Y at 7 am.  Feel free to suggest some (other) TV series you really like.

Losing More Weight
Finally, I'm still in the process  of losing more weight.  I took some time off the diet/exercise trail over the holidays and it took a while to get back in the groove.  However, a couple of life lessons here.  I cannot weigh what I want to weigh without exercising and paying close attention to what I eat...FOREVER. (Calorie needs plummet when you get older.  YOWSA!)  I really like to eat.  And those of you who can restrict what you eat to be skinny amaze me.  I am not that person.  And when I say exercise, what I really mean is running or elliptical or swimming or yoga for an hour or more.  I know all the research that says that you only need to exercise 20 minutes or so, but that is not me. Plus, the 20 minutes or so is what you need for heart health.  For weight loss, it needs to be much, much longer.

Also, I finally have confirmation about my suspicions about calories and running.  It's not how fast you run, it's how long you run in terms of miles.  As long as you are not walking (i.e, your pace is under 14 minutes/mile), it doesn't matter if you run 5 miles at a 8 minute pace or 5 miles at a 12 minute pace, you burn the same amount of calories, in my case, 500 calories.  While I'd love if my pace got back down to what it was 10 years ago (and I could add another mile into my hour long run; 100 more calories a day to eat!), I'm happy to be out there running again and getting back into shape.  Also, running on the treadmill has little to do with road running, so get your booty outside and do some miles.

I still have about 10 to 15 more ellbees to go.  I was planning to be there by April 1.  I don't think that's going to happen, but I am still ok with that.  It's finally coming off and I am not suffering too much to make it happen.

So those are the three blog posts that have been rolling around my head this month. I actually hate reading long blog posts, so read one section a day for three days and the writing will be much more Interesting!! and Brilliant!!!  Or not.  :-)