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Archives for 2010

Workouts and tempting desserts

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I subscribe to a few magazines – mostly Canadian magazines like Chatelaine and Flare (and hello Canada) and it seems they’re all full of articles about how to get in shape for summer or Bikini ready body workouts and so on.

Of course, in these same magazines, the ones trying to give you ideas like getting rid of belly fat or simple yoga routines that will get you in shape in four weeks, they also have recipes for delicious summer meals and desserts.

It seems like a contradiction doesn’t it. They have drool worth pictures of food and a few pages later they’re showing you how to lose weight. LOL Well I guess it’s nice that they show us how to stay fit if they’re going to tempt us with delicious sounding recipes.

Do you read magazines that tempt and taunt you too?

Putting our dog on a diet

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Last weekend we took our dog, a black Lab, to the vet for her annual check up and shots.

We were a little behind! She was due for her shots and check up in May! Oh well .. we made it there and she had her annual workup and vaccines. We also found out that she’s just a little overweight. Not really bad … she’s 74 lb and compared to most of the labs that we see in our neighborhood she’s smaller in size and bulk than they are!

However the vet was worried that now that she’s going to be three years old and has a couple extra pounds on her that it will get harder and harder for her to take it off. He’d just finished an elbow operation on another dog and he was just trying to be nice as he doesn’t want her to develop joint problems as she gets older.

Hmmm maybe I should look at some apidexin reviews? Put her on a diet?

Actually since our visit to the vet we did start giving her a little less of her food. If it weren’t so hot we’d upping her activity as well.

Have you ever had a dog that needed to lose a little bit of weight? If so – how did you get your dogs weight down to an acceptable level?

I’m so full!

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Man we just had a filling dinner.

Actually the dinner wasn’t that big, it was what we ate afterwords!

On Sunday I had purchased some fresh strawberries and a flan. Then earlier today my husband and I were out shopping and he saw that the store had Tiger Tail ice cream. I hadn’t had that for at least 10 years … maybe 15 … maybe even longer. So of course we bought some.

So after our very simple dinner of BBQ sausages and corn on the cob we each had a piece of strawberry shortcake and a Tiger Tail ice cream cone.

Two desserts!

Not that the dessert portions or even our dinner portions were all that big .. but together? Yeah – filling!

Then to top it off I had some cold brewed coffee waiting so we could have iced coffee. It’s very hot here so I figured a nice cold drink after dinner would be great.

So now, even though we’re both full we’re drinking my homemade iced coffee. It’s delicious – but heavy on an already full stomach.

Oh and as I was preparing our iced coffees some of the coffee spilled out of the mason jar as I was pouring. Spilled … actually sprayed! I had to clean the counter, the Grohe faucet and the sink. Grrrr!

I haven’t had a dinner that made me feel this full in a long time!

What did you have for dinner … and dessert?

Thinking about getting a new cellphone

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I think it’s almost time to look into getting a new cell phone.

I have a Nokia smartphone … from 2006, back when Smartphones were just new. It’s a nice phone and it was free since it was given to me by a local marketing company … but I’ve never been able to get text messaging to work properly on this phone.

I can receive text messages but I can’t send any. I’ve gone over the manual and had my cell phone company take a look and still no luck. The worst thing is that I have a package that includes text messaging and it’s a function that I’m not using since I can’t send text.

So .. now I’m trying to decide what type of cellphone I might want to get. I don’t have a huge need for media browsing or texting – but it would still be nice to have a phone that could do everything just in case I wanted to start using those functions.

Maybe an iPhone? I like the iPhone but I’d worry about my husband loosing it. He lost our first cell phone! I think he left it in a taxi cab. Hmmm maybe if we were to get an iPhone I’d have to look into iphone insurance or something.

Anyway … if anyone has a cellphone suggestion I’d love to hear it. We don’t use our cell phone all that often. We mostly use it to talk on on weekends and to take a few pictures. So something that would fit those basics would be great.

Nostalgic for my old job in the jewelry trade

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Everyday when I watch the news they keep talking about how the price of gold keeps going up and up. It’s something like $1245 an ounce now.

I think I’m starting to wish I was working in the jewelry trade again.

Oh yes, I used to be a jeweler. No – not a salesperson behind a counter. I actually made jewelry, cast gold, cut designs into rings, pendants and bracelets with a diamond cutter, gold plated and so on. My husband was a jeweler (trades person like me) as well.

My sister and I used to work together with our respective businesses. She was and still is a jewelry engraver. So our customers would come in and I’d put a design on their jewelry or make a mold so they could mass produce a piece and then my sister would engrave the finished work once one of our customers clients purchased a piece.

We worked in a building filled with jewelry trades people, from those who specialized in setting stones, to gem sellers who’d open a bag and drop it on a desk letting the loose diamonds scatter, to people like myself who cast gold into pieces of jewelry and so on.

It was a tough business. I loved it and I hated it. During the busy season I’d sometimes work 18 hours a day. I had to because once January, February and March hit things really slowed down and if you didn’t make your money over Christmas you’d be in for some tough times.

Anyone else work in the jewelry trade now or in the past? If so, did you enjoy it?






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