Good morning, everyone... It's a fine, foggy morning here today... uggg!!! Do you get the idea that I need my sunshine? LOL What's it like in your corner of the world?
There's not a whole lot going on here, but this past week turned out to be kind of busy for some reason. Wednesday has become our lawn mowing day, so of course, we got that done, but I ended up having trouble with my riding mower and had to do a good part of my share of the mowing with my push mower... oh my, I've gotten out of shape for that, but I guess it's good exercise??
We took a 4-hour cruise out of Port Canaveral on Thursday. We can take a bus over there, so we don't have to drive there and back. It's a gambling boat and we only go every couple of months or so as we're quite stingy with our money... lol We get a nice lunch, have time to sit on the deck and watch for dolphins, other boats, etc. You'd be surprised at the things you see out in the ocean.
Friday, I started working on another pen, but it didn't work out as I had trouble with the machine. I had to get my husband to help me, but we weren't able to salvage that one, so I still had to scrap it and start another. Since I didn't get started with the second one until later in the day, I didn't get it finished, so I had to work on it yesterday as well. The wood I was using was a really hard wood so was quite difficult to turn. Let's not forget that I'm just learning how to do this, so there might have been some "operator error" involved, as well. ;-) Although my husband knows how to use the machinery like he knows the back of his hand, he's never made pens either, so he's not a lot of help on that part.
Anyway, I did get the pen finished yesterday and although it's not exactly the look I was going for, it's beautiful wood and turned out very well. I still have to learn how to do the proper finishes on them... You're supposed to use a glue finish that gets super hard and almost impervious to damage, but I tried that and it didn't work well, so I need to talk to some of our fellow woodworkers and have them explain how they do that. I probably also need to get a different type of glue than I was trying to use... Anyway, I ended up using a polyurethane finish - multiple coats and it turned out well, but it's not as durable.
Amidst all this activity, you'd think I'd have lost some weight, but nope - in spite of staying with a decent diet and even going for a short walk in the evening, along with my other activities, I stayed the same as last week...at least I didn't gain, I'm not sure what's going on. I'm going to have to take stock again this week and see what else I need to change - there has to be "something" because I was losing steadily before we went on vacation at the end of July, then I gained while we were gone, now I can't lose it again, even with better diet and more exercise. I know my anxiety has been higher and I haven't been sleeping the greatest and sleep quality does affect weight.
It's funny (odd) - when I was younger, anxiety/nervousness used to cause me to lose weight (probably because I couldn't eat), now when I'm older, it causes me to gain, even when I don't eat. I'm sure it has something to do with my worn out thyroid and adrenal glands, along with insulin resistance, etc. But - when it all boils down, I'm probably just flat out eating too much of the wrong foods... It looks like it's time to go back to tracking what I'm eating/drinking and see what I need to cut out and/or eat more of... Of course, I know I need more veggies, but because of my kidney stones, my urologist has instructed me to eliminate the ones I like best, such as spinach, broccoli, lettuce, etc... What's a girl to do???
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it... How about you? What's going on in your world? Fall is coming to many parts of the country - I can even feel it here a little bit even though our temps haven't changed much... Let's hear it - how are you doing?
~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~