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Did Anyone Get it Right?

Yesterday, I posted a couple of pics of my Dad and challenged fans to try and figure out what’s weird in the pics.

I wonder if anyone did? I hope my Mom didn’t cheat and supply the answer.

Well, here’s the deal. Dad is wearing his favorite baseball cap in the pics. He got it in like 1988 or 1989. The Spadefish was the first nuclear sub my brother, who is now retired from the US Navy, served on.

He wears it a lot, so he decided to wash it. Unfortunately, the bill fell off.

Look again.

As soon as Mom told me that, I could see it. Before she clued me in, I was lost. Actually, I was starting to panic, thinking, “Oh Jeez, his birthday is June 30, not July 30 and I missed it!”

He doesn’t look sad, he just looks Sleepy. (That’s his nickname, by the way. Sleepy.)

I’ll announce the winner in my next post.

Have a happy Fourth of July!!!

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How Observant Are You?

My Mom sent me two pictures by e-mail the other day to see if I could spot anything odd in them. I couldn’t. Of course, she sent them on June 30, the day I had to get three proposals out (for work, not for fun).

Maybe that’s why I didn’t spot the incongruity. I was distracted. Or maybe it just didn’t register. Maybe I’m just unobservant. They just looked like shots of my Dad in his favorite baseball cap to me.

I decided to pass the test on to my Blog fans. The first one to comment and tell me what’s wrong will be dubbed Most Observant ToadMama Fan.

Ready?

Look carefully. The man in the photos isn’t odd, that’s my Dad. Of course, with offspring like me, you be the judge as to whether or not he might be odd.

The picture is sort of small (Mom sent low-res files), but here’s a close-up.

Notice anything weird?

Be sure to comment if you do. I’ll post the answer tomorrow. The winner will be announced on Sunday night, or Monday, depending how early we feel like returning from WV.

Good luck!

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Worth Blogging About

Finally, something worth blogging about. I hit a milestone. Wanna guess what it is?

Oh wait. Never mind. I hate when you have something exciting to share, ask people to guess, and they come up with something way more exciting, which just spoils your fun. (I know Amy can relate to that one!)

It wasn’t a running thing. While I did manage to complete my first jog 10/walk 5 this morning, for the second round, I ended up with jog 5/walk 5/jog 5. I’m getting there. I need to do two of the jog 10/walk 5 rounds in a row. At least I did manage to jog for a total of 20 minutes.

I could get discouraged. But I keep reminding myself how I struggled to even jog for 5 minutes a couple of weeks ago. I’m getting better. Just slowly. It would be so much easier if it weren’t so hot. I think I need to drink more water, too. That’s pretty much all I drink, I just don’t drink enough.

Anyway, no running milestone. But, in addition to the running, I’ve been trying to lose weight. That also affects my energy levels, I think, but I am figuring that out.

I started focusing on the weight thing in early May. I am simply eating smaller portions and trying to avoid junk. By smaller portions, I mean, when I get full, I stop eating. It seems wasteful, but the dogs are usually happy.

I allow myself things like a candy bar, ice cream, popcorn, etc., every now and then. And I try to limit my snacks to fruit or pretzels. It’s easy to maintain this strategy because I am seeing progress. How much progress? That’s the milestone…

Since May 4, which was 59 days ago, I’ve lost 20 pounds! Yep, the big two-oh. That’s 0.338 pounds/day or about 2.35 pounds/week. I’m almost halfway to my goal (I told you I’d packed on some pounds).

At this rate, I might actually be able to rejoin my soccer team in the Fall. Oh yeah, and run a 10-mile marathon. (Ten miles isn’t technically a marathon, or even a half-marathon, but it’s a marathon to me!)

Losing another 30 pounds would be nice. It would make me lighter than I’ve been in years. Just losing another 20 would make me happy. If I can keep whittling slowly away at the pounds like I have been, it might actually happen.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

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Mostly Uneventful Weekend

Not a whole lot happened this weekend. Not that’s worth blogging about anyway. But I didn’t want my faithful fans wondering at my absence, so here’s a summary.

Friday pretty much stunk. It was supposed to be my day off, but I ended up working. And even though Hubby took off early specifically so we could leave by 1:00 p.m., we didn’t get to leave until about 2:30. We hauled the motorcycles along in the trailer, which slowed us down, and had to stop at two different Lowe’s stores to buy a screen door. Then we had to find a place to eat. It felt like it took us forever to get there. But we finally made it around 7:00 p.m. At least it was still daylight, which was nice for a change.

Saturday was a great day. The weather was perfect for a nice motorcycle ride through the countryside. We topped it off with a nice meal at El Puente, the yummy Mexican restaurant in Capon Bridge.

Sunday was our day to goof off. Well, it was my day to goof off anyway.

I read a large chunk of a very good book… Seabiscuit. Yeah, I know I am very late on that bandwagon, but I had no idea it would be so good. I bought it months ago at Ollie’s for $2.50. It’s been sitting on my nightstand at the WV place as my fallback book. Who knew non-fiction books could be such gripping page-turners? I kind of want to see the movie now, but I know I’ll be disappointed. There are way too many character nuances and too much key background info to come across on film. It’ll probably be entertaining though.

When not reading, I did some walking with the girls, which is when I snapped the cool bug pic you see above. I pretty much stick to the roads since it is summertime and I’m scared of ticks.

Speaking of the girls…

Belle has a new nickname. Pigpen.

I realize this isn’t a particularly good picture (blurry). I had to snap it quickly, because she hates posing for pics. But if you look closely, you’ll see the top of her covered in grass seed and her underside covered in mud. My cute little princess of a Tinkerbelle, who we also call Killer sometimes since she’s managed to dispatch both a squirrel and a groundhog, just loves running through tall grass and boggy swampland.

She has so much fun doing it, I can’t get mad at her. Once she dries off she isn’t so bad. Plus, it gave me an excuse to read some more while I sat outside waiting for her to dry.

On a final note… I drug myself out of bed at 6:10 today so I could train before it got too hot. I made the first 10-minute jog/5-minute walk. Then I pooped out and only did 3 jog/2 walk/3 jog/7 walk. But I am still plugging away. As I was finishing, the sun was rising above the trees. Even when temps are in the mid-60s, the sun beating down on you makes quite a difference. I guess I’m just going to have to become a morning girl. Either that, or run at night. I’ll have to see which works best.

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Now I’m Invested

It’s been such a busy week that I forgot to update you on my training progress.

This week was to be my 10/5, 10/5 routine (jogging minutes/walking minutes). Remember, by the end of last week, I’d made it to 5/5, 5/5, 5/5.

Monday started off a bit rough. I didn’t make my 10 minutes. It turned into 8/7, 4/11. But at least I’d managed to jog for 8 minutes. A week prior, I couldn’t make 5. I missed yesterday. But I did get outside today. And, despite the 80 degree temps and blazing sun, I did manage to do the first 10/5. But then I pooped out and only did about a 3/12. It was hot. I really need to get out there either early morning or just before dark.

But I did jog for a whole 10 minutes. You know why? See for yourself.

Yep my new shoes, the Supernova Sequence, have arrived. They worked, too.

Maybe they’ll work even better next time and I’ll be able to do two, 10-minute stints.

I wish I was progressing faster, but at least I am progressing.

And for my photography fans who think the above shot is kind of boring, less artsy than the stuff I usually share, check this out…

Click on the pics and you’ll see the full size image.

Seriously, though. I need to figure out what I can eat for breakfast, at the crack of dawn, that will give me energy but not be sloshing around in my belly and making me barf. All ideas are welcome.