I realized back in January that I'm not getting any younger, lighter, or fitter. I can't change the first one, but I had control over the others. On January 21, I started my new life of eating healthfully and exercising regularly. These are a few milestones I've achieved.

1. I turned 51 yesterday. It was mostly a non-event.
2. As of today, I have lost 50 pounds since Jan 21. That represents just over 18% of my original body weight.
3. At the gym today, I wrapped a bath towel around myself, and it went around me with just a small gap at the bottom 3 or so inches. I actually cried with happiness. Silly, I know.
4. I'm comfortably in a size 18W. That's down from 24W, which was a tight fit in January.
5. In 3 weeks, I've increased the amount of weight on my strength training exercises by 10 pounds. My trainer said that's a great achievement.
6. Last summer when I flew to Italy, I struggled to get the seat belt closed, and it was tight the entire flight. Last week when I flew to California, closing the belt was a breeze, and I pulled about 3 inches of "tail" to tighten it.
7. My bicep muscles actually pop when I flex my upper arm.
8. I am awesome. :)

I mailed in my registration for Winchester Con '08 yesterday. Woo hoo!

Anyone else going?

I still haven't made any Supernatural icons. Maybe this weekend.

Being on vacation is better than being at work. Just in case there was any confusion on that point.

Unfortunately, I was back to work from my vacation today. *sigh*

I'll make a lovely posty about my travels in the next day or so. For now, I must go night-night so I can get up and go to work again tomorrow. *double sigh*

Yeah, I'm sure you've all seen/done this one already, but humor me, OK? :)

I ganked this one from skyblue_reverie.

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A.

5) Favorite vegetable?
A.

6) What was the last book you read?
A.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A.

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A.

9) Worst Habit?
A.

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A.

11) What is your favorite sport?
A.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A.

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A.

16) Do you have any pets?
A.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A.

18) What was your first impression of me?
A.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A.

23) Ever been arrested?
A.

24) Bottle or can soda?
A.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A.

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
A.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A.

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A.

30) Do you swear a lot?
A.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A.

35) Do you believe in God?
A.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A.

*squishes f-list*

Hello, my dears! I know it's been a very long time since I've been around, and I have definitely missed you.

I found that I needed to distance myself from LJ for a while because it had become a bigger part of my life than was good. So while I've been gone, I've made friends with real life... can you believe it? And for the most part, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. Hee!

So what's been going on? Well, in brief...

Work continues as usual. I got a new job last summer (same company, different department), and I still have a lot of training to do to really feel like I'm a productive member of the team. The good thing is that I've learned a lot so far, and I'm still collecting my bi-weekly paycheck! heh.

In January I turned over a new leaf re: eating and exercise. To date, I've lost 49 pounds! Yay! I still have a way to go, but I'm thrilled with my progress so far. I feel so much better, both physically and emotionally, and I've recently started buying some new clothes to go with my new body.

Kids are doing well... both now graduated from high school and working; the younger one is also attending community college.

This week I'm on vacation, and I'm thrilled to be spending the time in California with the darling and ever-lovely skyblue_reverie. We've had a corking good time so far, and I still have another day or so before it's time to go home. I'll post a full report when vacation's over.

Yesterday we spent the day with rivers_bend, which was super fun. We saw butterflies and Iron Man and two Supernatural episodes and hung out and gabbed and ate dim sum and pizza (not at the same time... ewwww!) and had the best time evar!

Enough about me for now. How about you... what have you been up to? What's new and fascinating in your lives? Tell me all the news!

*big hugs and smooches*

I iz soooo happy to be here!!! :D *squees and twirls*

Hello, to all my dear f-list friends!

As you may or may not have noticed, I've not been around for the past month or so. Real life took over, and I've been seeing to a variety of things offline: a visit from skyblue_reverie, transition to a new job at work, time with my family, and some in-depth overdue housecleaning and clearing out.

If I owe you email or anything else, please accept my apologies for my absence. I'll be catching up on everything over the next few days, including emails, comments, belated thanks for all my lovely birthday gifts, a trip report from Sky's visit, a general "what's been going on with me" post, and so on.

Hope you've all been well and staying cool if you live in areas affected by some of the recent heat waves. Looks like we're in for another one this week, so take it easy!

It's good to be back... I've missed you all! :D

This made me laugh out loud when I saw it on rivers_bend's journal, so of course I had to be a sheep and play along. :D

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Hello, all my dear f-listers! It seems that my birthday is next Monday, and so here I am shamelessly suggesting that I'd love to get some prezzies! In particular, I'd love Fry/Laurie RPS or any of their characterizations; my faves are Jeeves/Wooster, Tony/Control, and George/Melchet, but I'll enjoy *anything* you'd choose to create for me! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention - slash, please, and I'm of the opinion that there is no such thing as "too pr0ny." :D Original fiction and/or femmeslash are most welcome as well (I think you know which of you in particular I'm speaking to there! )

I'll share that this is a milestone birthday for me... a *big* milestone. Post here with your guess; you get extra points if you guess correctly! :D

And since it's been a few months since I saw this going around and it was fun the last time I played (hi skyblue_reverie! -- from whom I shamelessly ganked this!), I figured I'd add it here: Fuck, Marry, Kill. You get three people and you have to decide what you're going to do with each of them and why. The fuck is a one-night stand; the marriage is sexless; and the kill is, um, kinda obvious, no? I'll start... Stephen Fry, Control, Jeeves. Have fun!

I ganked this little meme from woffproff. Thanks, hon! :D

Kate is my all-time favorite. Huzzah!

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

ETA: ( And for fun, I tried the Classic Leading Man Test, too! )

Title: Jeeves Lends a Hand
Pairing: Jeeves/Wooster
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 2830
Summary: Bertie finds out how handy Jeeves can be.
Disclaimer: Neither of these amazing characters belongs to me; I'm only borrowing them temporarily. Thank you, Plum!
Author's Note: This was written for Third Annual Kink/Cliche Challenge. My prompt was caught masturbating, and I picked my favorite English gentleman and his valet as my fandom of choice. For your reading pleasure, here is where you can find all the challenge entries!

Bounteous thanks are showered upon my fabulous beta guru skyblue_reverie who, as always, keeps the voices on track and the characters themselves. Thank you ever so much, my darling!

( Jeeves Lends a Hand )

Title: Jeeves and the Birthday Celebration
Pairing: Jeeves/Wooster
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 5460
Summary: Happy birthday, Bertie!
Disclaimer: Neither of these amazing characters belongs to me; I'm only borrowing them temporarily. Thank you, Plum!
Author's Note: This started out as rather a different story, but thanks to the insight and good taste of my corking and ultra-talented beta queen skyblue_reverie, it is the infinitely improved work you see before you. Thank you ever so much, old fruit!

( Jeeves and the Birthday Celebration )

Ganked this from woffproff. Hilarity like this doesn't happen every day!

Get Your Sexy Name

Tell me there's a quiz, and I'm there! This one is ganked from the lovely rivers_bend *waves to river*

I figured I'd pull together a post to showcase the banners I've received from various comms and contests. They're all much appreciated, and I'm grateful to all the banner makers for supplying such lovely awards!

( Ooooooh, shiny! )

Ganked from the talented and lovely rivers_bend:

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

(Doesn't that House face look so cute next to the snap dragon? Hee!)

rivers_bend had a pimp post in her journal for freecycle.org, and I thought I would jump on the bandwagon myself.

The idea behind this grassroots effort is explained on their website:
     When you want to find a new home for something -- whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door -- you simply send an e-mail offering it to members of the local Freecycle group.
     Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the gift and to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.
     Our main rule: Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.

( My experience with freecycle )

This was fun! A little meme ganked from skyblue_reverie. *waves at sky*

Title: Random Encounter
Fandom: Boffle
Pairing: Marjorie/Jack
Rating: PG
Word Count: 260
Notes: zekkass challenged me to write a little something Boffle related and said I could use my judgement on who to write about. I hope this meets the challenge! :)

I still owe you some Jack icons, my dear. I should have them done soon!

( Random Encounter )

Ganked from the wonderful zekkass, here's a little meme. Happy, happy weekend to all my darling f-listers!

Comment and..
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll challenge you to try something.
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you.
4. I'll tell you something I like about you.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this in your journal! (Well, you don't have to; that will be totally up to you. )

And I'll add a 9th item... tell me how you are and what you've been up to lately! :D