Just my Dad's 91st birthday...

It has been a busy day and I have had lots of requests for the Chocolate Birthday Pie that I made for my dad for his 91st birthday.

Chocolate Birthday Pie

Almond Crust

1 c. ground almonds

3 T. Splenda (or equivalent Stevia)

3 T. melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter. Mix well.

Press into a pie pan. Bake crust for 8 to 10 minutes - until lightly golden. While the crust is cooling assemble the pie.

Chocolate Cheesecake filling

2 c. lasagna style cottage cheese

3 eggs

1/2 c. full fat sour cream

2 oz (blocks) unsweetened baking chocolate, melted (microwave 60% for 2 or 3 minutes - keep an eye on it.)

1 1/4 c. Splenda (or equivalent Stevia)

Leave oven at 375 F. Move the top rack in your oven to the top or second from the top shelf, and place a flat pan of water on the bottom rack.

Put the cottage cheese, eggs, Splenda and sour cream in your blender. Run the blender, scraping down the sides now and then, until this mixture is very smooth. Add the melted chocolate and immediately blend again. Pour into the pre-baked crust. Place the cake on the top rake of your oven (leaving the flat pan of water in the bottom). Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. (Test for doneness with a toothpick)

Cool then chill well before serving. Serve with whipped cream or no sugar added ice cream.

This is my favourite whipped cream recipe

Whipped Cream

1 c. Whipping cream

1/3 c. Splenda

1 t. Vanilla

Whip the heavy cream until frothy. Add Splenda and vanilla and whip until soft peaks form. Store leftovers in a glass dish.

This is an easy, easy pie to make... and I love the dark chocolate taste of it.

I forgot to take my camera when I went over to see Mom and Dad - so I don't have a picture of him today. I do have a picture of the cooling pie...

It was delicious!

Just the Jar of Inspiration - year 2

I have been thinking about this for about a month now... and, while I have not completed my 'list' of items for the Jar, I have decided on some of them, will shortly get the rest of my ducks in a row, and get things ready for the Jar.

However, what I have decided on is the format.

Yup. Aren'tcha proud of me?

So, without further ado, here it is!

"This year, I would like to do ..."

Here is the list that I have so far:

1. This year I would like to finish 6 quilts. I would especially like to finish some UFOs, but what the heck, if I finish any 6 quilts I will be elated.

2. This year I would like to finish my Christmas shopping list in September, have all my shopping done by the end of October and have the whole pile mailed by the middle of November. How hard could that be? It really just involves getting the list DONE instead of just started in September. And getting it wrapped and packaged early in November.

Of course this does have a little addendum...

3. This year I would like to make some of my Christmas gifts, and I need to have one finished each month from January to October. This is not an impossibility either. However, it does mean that I need to get the shopping list STARTED before September - but I'm good with that. (As long as the list is finished in September!)

4. This year I would like to finish organizing the Guest bedroom. Specifically this means going through the old dresser and getting it organized and then going through the closet. I suppose I should be re-doing the filing cabinet, as I didn't throw out things that I wasn't sure about, I just organized it and got rid of whole sections that didn't pertain. Meh, I'll see how I feel after I do the dresser and the closet.

5. This year I would like to establish good dental habits. (I always brush) and we have a new dentist. So I'm trying to floss every night...

6. This year I would like to walk some distance at least 6 days each week, all year long. During 2013 I walked 1865 km, recording my daily distance on the virtual Trans Canada Trail and writing a little comment about it on facebook everyday.  My ultimate goal (besides the walking itself, which is a goal on its own) is to be able to walk the 22 km to see the Burgess Shale (a fossil site in British Columbia). It is 11 km in and 11 km out - and I want to do that before I die. In 2013, the longest walk I did in one day was 12 km. (After a rest, I'm sure I could have gone farther.) Eventually, I would like to have walked a half marathon.

7. This year I would like to make a New York Beauty quilt. I have taken a Craftsy class called Quick Strip Paper Piecing, and have made 4 of the 16 blocks of the quilt. I would like to make the other 12 blocks and put the quilt together. I have a beautiful wooden quilt hanger and I want to hang that quilt on it. :-)

8. This year I would like to spend some time working on crafts other than quilting. I have some very pretty counted cross stitch wall hangings and a needle point wall hanging. I'm not saying I want to FINISH them in 2014, but I would like to work on them a bit! :-) I also have a cute little rug hooking kit that would be nice to get doing on!

9. This year I would like to get back into the habit of dusting on a regular basis. Don't know why I find it so hard to do (too much junk would be my guess) but I would like to get the habit back. It doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be good enough! :-)

Okay. I'm not finished, I have more to say on this topic - but I guess I need to think about it a bit more... Here are 9 ideas. I need 12 and would like to have a few more... I think I know where I can get some more great ideas though!!! Be back soon!

Continued:

10. This year I would like to try at least 24 new recipes. This means two a month. If they are good I need to add them to my 'Idea' List. (I only shop once a month, so I make a menu once a month and make the shopping list from that. Because I would be perfectly willing to eat the same thing many days in a row, this saves Barry from a bad case of terminal boredom. However, on the day I make the menu, I seem to draw a blank for what we should have for supper on Tuesday evening, the 14th... so I have a list of the things that we like to eat. This year past, I tried many new recipes and some of them made it onto the 'Idea' List - along with a code for the cookbook and the page it was on.) This can also include dessert recipes - it doesn't have to be main meals.

11. This year I would like to try out my new canoe carrier [Barry and I sold our Jeep and bought a pick up truck - so I designed and we built a canoe carrier for the bed of the truck. It is ready to go, but we built it too late in the fall to try it out.] I would like to take the canoe out to a small lake near home (MacElmon Pond Provincial Park comes to mind - although I'm not sure about a "put in" point...) I don't want to travel too far away and I don't want to go to a lake that is too big. I tore my rotator cuff in my left shoulder a year ago in November and it is just starting to feel normal again now... I don't want to hurt it again - it took far too long to heal! But I want to get the canoe out of the garage and into water again!!! :-)

12. This year I would like to make a plan for the organization of the Quilt Studio. I hate the thought, frankly. But realistically I have to make better use of the space I have. I have lots of shelves and some built in cupboards and I'm not using them very efficiently. I have a whole bookcase for magazines (along with some boxes to hold same) and books, and I don't have those very well organized. I need to get it set up better AND I need to put things away as I use them and when I'm done with them...

13. This year I would like to make a cuddle quilt for my quilt guild's charity quilts that uses a pattern I have never tried before. :-)

14. This year I would like to tidy up my bedroom. I went a long way towards doing that when I organized the closet and both of my chests of drawers. The tops of the chests of drawers could use some work, and the shelf beside my bed needs SOMETHING. So I would like to get a handle on that this year.

I think that that is enough for now. This gives me one big thing each month (or in some cases, a small thing to do each month). I could easily add to the Jar if I think of something else that really should be in there. But it gives me enough stuff to get started with! :-)

Just the Jar of Inspiration Revisited...

I wrote the post below as a Note on facebook on December 2nd, 2013:

This year past I had 52 strips of paper in a fancy jar on my fireplace mantel, each with something that I was supposed to do.  My intention was to draw a piece of paper each Tuesday for the year and perform the task.

Some of the things on the papers were chores, like Every day this week before you go to bed, wash the dishes. Some were things like Find a project on Pinterest that you have never done before and make it.

Some were fun things, some were treats, some were good habits that I wanted to start. Some were things I felt I just needed a little nudge to get going on - like organizing my clothes closet or getting the Christmas list started.

I pulled a piece of paper every Tuesday until the end of June. And then things got busy and it fell by the wayside. However, I did a pile of them without pulling the papers - I went through them this evening to see how many I had left and which ones I had done without waiting to get the paper out.

I'm going to list them, just for the heck of it.
44. Go out with the binoculars and look at the stars and planets one clear night this week. What did you see? (We managed to locate Jupiter and its four biggest moons - I was THRILLED to pieces!)

13. Throw out, or give away, three things you haven't used for more than 2 years. (We have a place called Rotary House here, and they accept donations. I have taken several bags of things to them this year - notably, a pair of mirrors for a car to help when pulling a trailer - we have a truck now, and don't need them. When I went through my closet, I got rid of several pieces of clothing, the same when I went through my chest of drawers!)

3. Every day this week, move one thing back where it belongs. (This is an on-going problem for me. Not, unfortunately, cured by this slip of paper... LOL)

38. Make a project that you have pinned to Pinterest this week. It doesn't matter whether it is quilting or not. (Sashiko patterns made their way onto mug rugs)

33. Invite some friends in to play Euchre. (Marion and Steve came over, it was great - it was also quite awhile ago! Must do that again!)

25. Spend an evening with Barry. Watch a movie, talk, plan. (Easy - we do this frequently... and we talk while we walk as well.)

19. Invite Mom and Dad over for dinner one day this week. (Did this the week of their anniversary, except we invited ourselves over there and took dinner with us.)

51. Go to the beach!!! Take a photo. Walk in the water, if you can. (I have several beach albums on fb. This was prompted because the first summer we were actually IN the house, it was a beautiful summer but we were finishing patios and putting in gardens and things and we didn't go to the beach once! I even went to the beach and put my feet in the water while there was still ICE in the Northumberland Strait!)

43. Buy a quilt pattern book for yourself this week. It must have at least two patterns that you intend to use in it! (I don't buy quilt magazines as often as I used to - but this is my steadfast rule - it needs to have at least two things that I like in it!!)

18. Tidy up the shelves in the garage. Make some labels. Figure out how it ought to work. (I have tidied and figured it out. I haven't made the labels yet. I did, however, make labels for the shelves in my closet... does that count?)

31. Go to see a movie. (Despicable Me, Too. It was wonderful!)

20. Work on one non-quilting project every day this week. Pick ONE and work on it. (I worked on a lovely needlepoint kit that I have - I toted it around for a couple of weeks this summer and I made a bit of headway... it takes awhile to get those things done!)

41. Try two new dessert recipes this week. (I did try two new ones - probably not in the same week... I made a new low carb chocolate peanut butter sauce for ice cream that is to die for... and I made a Chocolate pie that is really good - had to do that one twice - I'm sure there was an error in the original recipe)

26. Learn something new this week. Document it. (Sock monkeys - they were great...)

17. Call a friend you haven't spoken with for awhile, just to say hi! (Did that not too long ago!)


So I wasn't perfect with the Jar of Inspiration. However, I certainly did far and away the majority of things on the slips in there... And it did get the closet cleaned out, and instilled one great habit that I have been trying to form for years! (Washing the dishes before bed!) And I did have a paper that suggested I take a walk each day (for 15 minutes, as I recall) for a week - and I have walked 1681 km now (above and beyond the normal steps I would take in the course of a day) so that one appears to have 'taken' too. I have had fun with the whole thing, which was at least part of the point! I have a few things left in the jar - and I'll try to get them done before the end of the year.

There are still things that I would like to do and still things that I feel would be good habits. I'm thinking I will try something a bit different next year. Maybe 12 things that I would like to do - one for each month... And I definitely think that it is important to have something fun/new/adventurous/exciting/caring to do once in awhile!

Just a Sashiko

This whole exercise started on May 1st, 2004. I know that because the paperwork that came with the class that I took was dated. Just above the equipment list was a note that read: At the end of the class, each participant will go home with a nearly completed project. My first project took two days. The first one was May 1st, 2004 and the second one was a Tuesday in the Spring of 2010 at an open workshop day at the Northumberland Quilt Guild... (So she was absolutely right.)

Last spring my mother asked me for a Sashiko. She liked my wall hanging and would like to have one done on blue fabric (which is actually the traditional colour.) Shortly thereafter, I bought some dark blue plain cotton and some actual Sashiko thread at Avonport Discount Fabric. I know that it was made for sashiko because it was with kits of pre-stamped sashiko fabric. All of the writing on the package was in Japanese and the only part that I could read was 100 - which I presumed to say 100% cotton.

In September (her birthday is in October) I remembered her request, found the fabric, the thread and, after a frantic search, my package of papers from the class. I am usually pretty good about taking notes in a class, but this one had been very hands-on... and I hadn't written much on my papers. I had copied a couple of extra patterns, and I thought I remembered most of it. So away I went.

The directions did tell me what I needed and I had everything except a package of dressmakers carbon which I found at Fabricville here in town. I wondered how old it was, when the pattern would NOT transfer... however, once I figured out that I had it upside down, I was far more successful. I got the first pattern (the chrysanthemum, which looks EXACTLY like a fan...) transferred, put the batting on the back, pinned the four corners and away I went.

The next pattern was the Seven Treasures of Buddha - overlapping circles. No problem. I have a mug from a church kitchen that I traded one of my own mugs for because it is exactly the right size to trace these circles with. When I got that pattern stitched, I ran into a hitch... I had forgotten that the pattern really should have been transferred onto the fabric before the batting was attached... darn! This suddenly became much more difficult.

I got the butterfly transferred by, more or less, drawing it free hand, quilted it, and then, with more difficulty, I managed the hemp leaves which are a series of straight lines, which were easier to trace than they were to draw.

Then, because I didn't want to make exactly the same one I had done before, I decided that I would like to do a different pattern - one I had never made - and didn't have the pattern for. Sometimes these brilliant ideas of mine backfire a bit. This was one of those times. So far, instead of taking two days, the wall hanging had taken about a week. I had one part left to do -and I found a pattern that I loved that I had pinned on Pinterest. It looks like a curved Y (sort of) and the curved parts all make interlocking but incomplete circles. I have always had a good eye for patterns and I blithely assumed that I would be able to recreate this, no problem.

Well. I fiddled. I sketched. I got the template plastic and I traced a couple of shapes. After an hour and a half, ON PAPER, I finally managed to recreate the pattern in some sort of reasonable manner. (It only took me about 20 minutes to stitch the pattern once I had it drawn!) And, after only one week, my two day project was ready for binding.

Mom's birthday was Saturday and the Sashiko was finished and wrapped in lots of time. She unwrapped it, held it up and informed me that she loved it, weren't the colours lovely! I suggested that she turn it around, she might like the front even more. (The back is completely plain as it is put on after the stitching is all done.) And when she had done that she agreed that it was beautiful. (She was 87 years old - we'll cut her some slack!) Now that I have Mom's sashiko done, I have discovered a wonderful tutorial on-line that would have been a big help if I had looked at it BEFORE I started. However, you can't have everything!

I have since made three sashiko mug rugs - and I'm getting better at doing them and am enjoying them more and more each time. :-) It is still taking me a bit of time to get the pattern drawn onto the fabric - and I tend to have to replenish it partway through - but I am happier and happier with each one I make.

And on Monday, my friend Barb showed me a book with beautiful patterns in it... LOL Also too late - but a wonderful inspiration! In any event, I am having a lovely time immersed in hand work - not my usual forte - but they are small, portable and now that I have some patterns shrunk down for the mug rugs, easy and quick! Whatever you are working on, I wish you much joy AND completed projects!!

Here's Mom's Sashiko - the pattern that gave me such a hard time is in the upper left hand corner...

Here is a close up of that pattern. The 'fan' is actually a chrysanthemum. :-)

Just normal

Every month I write a page long article or essay on the topic of quilting... And it gets published in the newsletter of the Common Thread Quilt Guild in Ottawa, where I was a member before I moved away... this is the article I wrote for March 2013. I am currently visiting my son, his wife and my two grandsons, so I actually made it to the Guild meeting as a guest this week past. They had the BEST Show and Share I have ever seen... In any event, here's the article:

 

I have been listening to new podcasts this week, while I am away from my sewing machine. I was listening to one that relates to quilting and the interviewer asked the interviewee what she was working on. And the interviewee (whose name I did not catch, but who was a blogger who details her progress on-line) proceeded to talk about the quilts that she was working on. And she sounded embarrassed to admit that she had about 5 quilts in progress AT THE SAME TIME. I thought the interviewer (also a quilter) handled the whole thing very well, because she said to her, "Oh, you are just normal, then!"

I have written musings on this topic before. I think I mentioned the woman in the fabric store who only allows herself to buy the fabric to make ONE project at a time. And her personal rule is, she must finish that project before she goes on to do another. (I have to say, if I worked in a fabric store this would be the only way that I would ever get to take home a paycheck... otherwise I would just sign the thing over, and walk out with additions to my stash...)

I have many quilting friends. And I don't think I know ANYONE else who follows that personal rule. I love to have several projects on the go (as long as they don't get too far ahead of me, of course!) I like to have something that I am binding, something that I am cutting, something that I am planning, something that I am piecing (although that stage usually gets me so excited that I forge on with it and get it quilted and the binding on there) AND something all ready to quilt. (I'm not keen on having something ready to go onto the frame - but I am pretty pleased with myself when I have something ON the frame, ready to go!) I'm also pretty enthused about having something that I am learning on the go too, something new to me... I'm beginning to think about what to do with these one-off blocks...

Each stage in a quilt is different. The nice thing about binding something is that that is a portable project (when so many quilting things are not!) And, of course, when the binding is done the quilt is finished too. (Usually) The nice thing about cutting is that once the pieces go on the design wall, you begin to see how the quilt is going to look when it is all finished. The nice thing about piecing is that it works up so fast and you can see progress happening before your very eyes, and the nice thing about planning is that it is SO exciting!!! And the quilting itself is wonderful (when everything goes well) because you are beginning to finish the quilt! I love all those steps and I feel eager to get on with each one of them. And I might actually get bored with working on the same quilt or project. Sometimes I intermix projects as a reward. Do this boring bag, and you can be rewarded by starting that pretty baby quilt... or make these three blocks, so that you can be rewarded by taking this quilting class and starting THAT neat project! Interspersing steps means that I will shortly have two exciting projects done rather than one that I have gotten slightly tired of working on!

I know that there are people who work so hard on something, or they find it so difficult, or they are so worried that it isn't perfect that they grow to hate a project; and as a result it goes under the bed or in a box and never gets finished. I have never had this happen with quilting. It may be because I don't tend to let projects carry on too long -- so I don't get tired of them. I have made a few projects where I will never do again (stack and whack comes to mind) but I finished them (and gave them away!)

So here's the point of this diatribe: Normal is defined as: conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnomal; regular; natural. By this definition, if you have several projects on the go (and even a few that aren't actually going anywhere) then you are absolutely NORMAL!!

So, I would like to invite you to embrace your normalcy, enjoy your quilting and have fun!!

Just having a baby...

Okay. Technically, I'm not having a baby. My daughter-in-law had the baby. And she had him early this morning and it was VERY exciting!!! I can hardly wait to meet him in person - just a few more days.

But it brought home to me the differences between having a baby NOW and having a baby 33 years ago in another country.

When I was pregnant for my oldest child (the Boy in question) we lived in West Germany. Beloved Dearly was in Canada's armed forces and the Canadian Forces hospital - the MIR (Medical Inspection Room) was considered Canadian soil so that our babies would be Canadian. I think that had only happened about three years before the Boy was born.... My girl friend had a baby who was in the breech position (bum down instead of head first, in case you don't know and care) and ended up having her baby in the German Krankenhaus - and her baby was NOT Canadian - I believe she had the right to chose when she turned 18 years old.

When I went into labour for the Boy (and we didn't KNOW we were having a boy), we were visiting friends. I was 11 days overdue and I felt and looked like I had swallowed an watermelon (and a large one at that!) intact! Around midnight my contractions were 2 minutes apart (and they remained 2 minutes apart from then until the Boy was born!) We had been told to go into the hospital if our water broke, if our contractions were really strong, or if they got closer together than 10 minutes apart. So off we went. I was in the mildest possible labour - but who knew? Certainly not me!

So we spent the night in the hospital, waiting. I dozed off and on, but poor Beloved was required to hold my hand! He tried to eat my breakfast (I certainly wasn't going to be able to) but he couldn't eat it one handed and I couldn't not hold his hand.

The Boy was born at 9:33 in the morning... and Beloved went off to let them know at work where he was and then to call the Grandparents to tell them the news.

This was 1980 - not the dark ages, but I would like to point out some things that I remember. We had a computer. It had NO memory at all. I don't think floppy disks were invented - but if they were they certainly weren't in any one's home... We connected it to the tv and you had to program it using Basic.

Cell phones had not been invented yet. Because we were overseas we didn't even have a telephone in our house. There were no such thing as 'long distance plans'. Canada's phone companies held a monopoly. There was no competitive pricing and long distance was EXPENSIVE. In Germany it cost a lot of money to have a phone put in, so we didn't have one. Neither did any of our friends.

If you wanted to make a long distance call you either took all your German coins (Deutschmarks) and went to the Internationaler Fernsprecher  (as far as I can remember the spelling) (The international telephone booth) and you fed the slot coins. When it beeped, you either fed it more coins or you hung up! Or you went to one of the Messes or the Salvation Army Gift Shop and booked an overseas call. Beloved headed off to the Salvation Army. You wrote the number in a book. The lady at the shop called the overseas operator and booked the call. You waited until they called back to say they had the line. You made your call, the overseas operator called back when you were done and told the lady at the gift shop how much you owed for the call and you paid her - in CASH - Bank cards had not been invented yet!

Beloved called my parents and his parents and told them the news!!


The following words had not been invented in 1980:
Internet
Wifi
Cellphone
Tablet (other than a portable blackboard and chalk!)
 Android (at least not in the context of a tablet)
operating system
facebook
facebook status
notification
laptop
pm (or private messaging)
reboot
chat (in the context of computers)
apps
email

The Boy's second son was born this morning at 0120 in a hospital in a different province. Around 5:30 yesterday evening the Boy sent me an EMAIL to say that they were at the hospital; his DW's (Dear Wife, in case this isn't familiar to you!) water might have broken and they would keep us posted. He had her CELL PHONE and he would send me an EMAIL from it. (Even that sort of blows my mind, really!)

Around 8 pm (I'm guessing at the time, I'm tired now and my brain is not working so well!) I opened FACEBOOK to check on my friend's STATUSes, and discovered that the Boy was using his DW's FACEBOOK account to CHAT with me, over her CELL PHONE... She was definitely in labour, had gone 11 days early with our first grandson and, here we were 11 days early now. He would keep me informed.

I decided that I would turn on my TABLET. It is WIFI and so I would easily be able to carry it around with me. I turned it on, and turned on GMAIL, where I could access FACEBOOK - only to discover eventually (after running back into the kitchen every time there was a NOTIFICATION - which makes a little chiming noise) that I needed to use another APP to read my PRIVATE MESSAGES on FACEBOOK. Once I got the tablet REBOOTED and the new APP open, I was fine. When the Boy sent me a message, it would appear on my TABLET (which has the ANDROID operating system) in real time...

Did I mention that my mind was blown, just a bit?

Anyway. We chatted unil 02:33 (my time) when suddenly he introduced the baby, told me that he had been born very fast, the doctor had nearly missed the delivery, and that his DW and new Son were doing fine.

I reminded him to take pictures. And he told me there was one in my email!! They had taken a picture with the CAMERA in her CELL PHONE and had EMAILED it to me. OMG!

By the time the baby was weighed, it was 03:30 in the morning. I had seen a picture of him, heard how things went as they were happening, had his name and weight, and had reported all the info to Beloved.

Can you imagine? I don't know how long it was before my parents got a picture of the Boy - but it was at least two weeks!!!


Anyway, those are some thoughts on how technology has changed my life. This morning before I left to play cards with my Mom and Dad, the Boy chatted via gmail just to give us an update. And he suggested a VIDEO CALL. We saw our older grandson (not quite two years old - his life is about to make a radical change!) and heard him speak some words! We spoke with the Boy who got 1 hour's sleep last night, but was doing laundry and then going to head back to the hospital for visiting hours and to take the big brother in to meet the new baby brother... As I sat there, watching him talk on the screen of my laptop, like something out a black and white science fiction movie I thought to myself; "What a difference thirty years makes!!"

:-)

Just walkin'

Before we moved away from Ottawa, Barry and I bought a treadmill. It is quite a nice one, and once I got to the point where I could balance on it, I quite liked it.

I don't mind walking... but here's the thing. It is boring. And it takes some time. When we first got the treadmill iPods hadn't been invented yet. (What medieval times did we come from!!! Wowsers!)

In any event. I discovered that I couldn't hear, over the sound of the treadmill, ANYTHING - so listening to an audio book wasn't going to work. Music had to be turned up so loud that the roof tiles were dancing (and the treadmill was in the basement) and I was busy. I wanted to get this walk over with!

At the same time, I had a friend who was taking the Running Room's running course (come to find out, I had another future friend taking it with her.) I couldn't IMAGINE how a running course could possibly work. I couldn't have worked another class or activity into my schedule anyway, but I spoke with my friend about how a running class worked and decided to give it a try on my own.

I liked the idea of doing it on the treadmill because it meant that there was no time getting TO the class. I didn't have to be ON TIME for a class. AND if I had a heart attack jogging, I could toddle (I hoped) over to the phone and call 911 before I collapsed. Same if I twisted my ankle...

Anyway. I was pretty good about going on the treadmill and eventually I got to the point where I could run for 5 km without stopping (I think I did that twice). Then we got ready to move, and the treadmill became a feeble voice in the basement, occasionally calling, but easily ignored.

We moved, finished the basement of the house ourselves, stored the treadmill in the exercise room down there, and I became busy in our new community. Barry used the treadmill and his bowflex religiously for a year or so. And then they began to sit. I joined Tai Chi, which I love. I think it is good for me - it is the only exercise that makes me work my brain as well as my body.

In December, Barry came out of the den and spoke to me, while I had my left hand on the top cupboard door handle. And, without letting go of the cupboard, I twisted around to look at him. And something in my left shoulder made a funny noise. Then I made a funny noise. Mine sounded sort of like 'ouch'.

I took a week off of Tai Chi. And then I went, only to discover that my left arm did NOT want to be held up at shoulder height AT ANY TIME. I stayed for the first hour of the class and then came home. The following week, I stayed home too. And then there was a two week break over Christmas. The first Thursday after that (Yes, there is a point to this!) we had had snow on top of warm ground and then the air temperature had dropped. Barry had gone out to polish off the driveway, and when he came in, he announced that it was VERY slippery.

Our house has a sort of longish driveway, with a ditch on either side of the end of it, (or the beginning, I suppose, depending on which direction you are going!) and a ditch on the other side of the road. We have a full size pickup... which I was not eager to test for ditch-worthiness. (This is the point where the story starts to gain some relevance, by the way!) So, I got dressed in my Tai Chi outfit and I went downstairs to the treadmill and I walked for 55 minutes. I probably should have started with a shorter time, but I would have been at Tai Chi for 2 hours, so I wanted to actually use up some of that time. I went 5 km. (When I came upstairs Barry asked how far I had gone. So for a lark, I told him 1 1/2 km... Before he could get a full on rant going {what were you doing down there for so long if you only went 1 1/2 km} I managed to get him stopped, told him I was pulling his leg and that I had gone 5 km. I was soaking with sweat - I may be out of shape, but it wasn't quite THAT badly out of shape!)

I had been thinking about a facebook friend of mine who has been walking this year past. So I marked on the calendar, the distance that I had walked. I walked on the Friday as well; 3 km. Saturday we went shopping. I have no idea how far we walked, but we were out of the house for hours, and we had cat litter, cat food, $400+ of groceries, had returned two things, visited 7 stores, and I was absolutely exhausted. Sunday I walked. In fact, except for Thursday, I walked every day this week. Thursday I went to Tai Chi. And there is only one jong I can't do. Today my left arm feels better than ever, so I seem to be on the road to recovery!!

Unbeknownst to me, my friend achieved a personal goal TODAY - she walked more than 1000 km over the course of the last year; this was her one year anniversary. She did some incredible number of laps in a domed walking oval in her hometown in Ontario and she has been reporting on her walks, off and on, all year. She had set some goal for her birthday and more than met it.

I do not aspire to walking 1000 km - that goal seems too high for me at this point. But I am proud of my friend and was inspired by her to get going!! I'll let you know how it goes... Tomorrow, if I find time to walk 3 km, I will have completed my first 25 km! :-)