we're still feeling the loss of vagner. it's weird seeing ororo, logan, and rogue in the bedroom with us and knowing that's ALL the cats, coming out in the living room and not seeing him somewhere. but we're fine. occasionally we expect to see him and get struck by him not being there, but for the most part, we're managing to get past it, so to speak. there's been a little weird behavior among the cats. i think vagner was a buffer between logan and ororo because he's been a lot more aggressive towards her of late. rogue has been a touch clingier than usual, which is pretty damn clingy. ororo doesn't seem at all affected, which is sad since she helped raise him. but beyond that, things are pretty settled again.
it has generally been quiet around here, thus the lack of entries, but there have been some bits of good. things are looking up in the ways they need to, for the most part.
one of the biggest things was the in-laws paying off the car. that "frees" $200 a month in our budget. sorta. even though we won't be making a car payment now, there are some other bills that have been ignored that we might be able to start paying now. we are planning to tuck some of that money into savings for things like emergencies, car repairs, and dragon*con spending.
yes, we're finally going to dragon*con again. we've hated missing the last couple of years, so it'll be nice to be back. and i should be able to do a little more now that i'm lighter than i was the last time i visited. i've lost 62 pounds so far, and have another 5 months before con. i can lose another 20 by then as long as i stay focused.
beginning of the year is always tough for me when it comes to losing weight. unlike the christmas holidays, i have trouble with valentine's and easter (i call it scd: seasonal candy disorder), and the cold from winter plus the winter weather really make the munchies a tough one for me. so i seem to always have a rocky time from january through march/april. as the days get sunnier, i start doing better.
and i'm doing really well right now. when i first got started, i could barely do housework. now, i can walk 6-7 miles in a day, and when i go walking, i climb between 20 and 30 flights of stairs. i still get stiff and sore, but i'm a long way from where i was even last year, and i'm pretty proud of my progress. i'm still struggling with portions and snacks, but i'm working on them both. and i feel better than i have in years. and lose it has been an amazing support system and very helpful in helping me stay on track and focused.
so i think dragon*con will be even more fun for me this year since i'll be able to actually DO more and handle more activity. i am sooooo looking forward to it.
hubs has been VERY busy with two of his jobs. he's not had time to accept any work with the catering company, which makes me sad, but he's getting the experience he needs to open a restaurant of his own. he's still not 100% sure that's the way he wants to go, but he'll be ready for it if it is. or he may make it to executive of a restaurant in fifth group, which would be my preference, to be honest. then WE don't have to come up with all the money and collateral to open our own place. anyway, lure has shown faith in him by increasing his days to 4. they went briefly to 5, but saxy had to ask for a day off because el taco also increased his days to give him more line experience. they've been training him for saucier, though not in the traditional sense, he's more like a chef who does prep but covers other stations as needed. and just between those two jobs, i hardly see him, and he doesn't get to practice his cooking much at home.
the executive chef at el taco has also let him know that when they finally get his much delayed performance evaluation done, he will be getting a raise. we don't know how much or when we'll be getting it (they've been putting in a new menu and new equipment and been way distracted over there), but it's nice to know it's coming.
our tax return came in and has been pretty much spent. glasses for 4 people cost a minor fortune. poor saxy is looking at his first pair ever and needs bifocals—he didn't get a single letter on the chart correct. completely floored him. froggy doesn't need a major correction, but that made her glasses the cheapest in the group. taz...i'm not sure what was going on there. he seemed to have trouble doing what he was asked to do, so the doctor got his prescription as close as he could. he'll still see better than he does without them. he picked his own frames from two, one that we liked and one that he was interested in (you can guess which he wanted most). mine, of course, were the most expensive (over $500). apparently my right eye is doing something weird as the doctor kept rechecking it. he also tried to convince me that when i hold reading material so close when not using my glasses, i'm doing it out of habit. so i tried reading, without my glasses, with it further away and, no, it's not out of habit. i couldn't read from further away. *shrug* i'm just glad we sank money into this. my glasses are held together by tape, boyo has needed them for awhile but we couldn't afford them, and hubs works with sharp pointy things. :P
so, things are quiet—no major explosions, crazy drama, or being overloaded or rushed about anything—but things are good and moving forward in the way they should. i'm still struggling to manage some of my time, but other than that, it's nice. really nice. kinda forgot what the quiet but good kind of life can be like. hope we stay here for a bit.
~*~
word of the moment: chatoyant
having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light
