Thoughtful Tuesday: Finish each day

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My hitchhiker

We had a nice relaxing Labor Day weekend at the river. A nice way to end the summer. On our way there I picked up this guy (hmmm, he looks a lot like Mr. Bear).



Since it is monsoon season, we did experience some weather.



Despite the thunder and lightning, it was still warm and we had beautiful hot days to take some boats out and have fun under the sun.

Back to School

It's that time of year where the schools are buzzing. I was a total nerd growing up. Although I always looked forward to summer break, I also loved the beginning of the school year. There is something so exciting about the beginning of a new school year. You get to start fresh in your classes and see friends that you weren't able to see over the summer break. You get to go back to school shopping for clothes and supplies. I love new clothes and for some reason I also love shopping for school and office supplies. There is something about new pens, notebooks, and binders that appeals to me. I like to be organized and the beginning of a school year allows me to start fresh and be organized. Plus, I love any excuse to shop. I have to admit that I still do a little back to school shopping, but I work on a college campus so I operate on an academic calendar and I can still justify it (or at least I try to justify it in my on mind).

Although I do work all year, the campus I work at is very quiet in the summer time, which is often nice after a busy academic year. So when September rolls around, I get to enjoy the beginning of a new academic year. I love when the students return and the campus is buzzing. On the down side, I seem to get another year older whereas the students all seem to stay the same age. Different students but they are still in that 18-22 year old range. Despite that it is always nice to have the students to return and to see the influx of new freshman on campus. The excitement dies down after a week or two, but it is nice to have the academic year cycle.

Bike to work

Being conscious of gas prices and the impact of vehicles on the environment, I have been thinking about riding my bike to work a couple times a week. I had been contemplating this idea for the last couple of months and finally decided that I just needed to go and do it. So last week, I rode my bike to work, twice! It was great and something I plan to continue to do 1-2 times a week. I actually rode my bike to work today!

I am fortunate to live about 5 miles from work and to have a bike path that is near my house and near my work. It takes me about 30 minutes to bike to work, so I leave about 15 minutes earlier than I usually do when I drive. Not only is it good for the environment, it is great for my health and keeps me fit. I get an hour of cardio in when I bike to work just for going to work and not really trying. I am not able to do this every morning at this point, but every little bit helps. Plus, now I can take advantage of my employer's transportation reduction incentive program that pays $1.50 each day I bike to work. So I save money on gas and I get paid. (Sure it is not much, but it is something!)

It is nice and cool in the mornings but I do get a little sweaty so I bring with me a change of clothes. I also keep a towel, baby wipes, deodorant, and make-up in my office to freshen up when I get into the office in the morning. It has worked out really well in the first week. I also keep a pair of shoes at work so that I have one less thing to carry with me on my commute.

There is actually quite a bit of information on the internet about bike commuters that is quite helpful. Here are some great tips I found from the Commute by Bike website (with some of my own commentary):

• Store hygienic necessities (e.g., deodorant, towels, wipes, etc) at the office - less stuff to carry back and forth
  
• Leave a pair of shoes at the office - then you won't have to transport it back and forth
  
• Take all your clothes for the week on Monday - I haven't done this yet but what a great tip especially if you only bike to work a few days. Drive to work on Monday with clothes for the week and you won't have to transport it with you on the days you bike to work.
  
• Always keep an extra set of clothes at the office - I need to do this. You never know when you might forget an essential item.
  
• Pack the night before - This is quite helpful so that you are not rushed and stress in the morning which may make you forget something important.
  

Tuesday Thoughts: Nothing wrong with being a girl

You can be girly and strong
Have careers and go far
And when you get married
Not lose who you are

From the book Just Who Will You Be? by Maria Shriver.

This is a quote to live by!

Rumbly Tumbly Treats Update: Beef, it's whats for dinner

Last week, I made some beef stew after buying some beef on sale. Yay for sales! I had never made beef stew and was really pleased with this recipe. I made this in the crock pot and came home to some yummy dinner. Gotta love having a reason to use the crock pot!



For the recipe check out my food blog: Rumbly Tumbly Treats

The Very Talented Mr. Bear

My wonderful husband is a finish carpenter and a very talented one at that. Often when we are in social situations and we are asked what we do, Mr. Bear likes to say "I cut wood." And indeed he does, but he doesn't just cut wood he creates beauty and art in his work. I have seen him at work and sometimes he looks at a project like an artist looks at a canvas. He has such a great eye for beauty and is very detailed oriented that his work is always very beautiful. I just have to brag about his work because I think he is absolutely awesome and I am just so proud of the work he does. Here is a house he worked on in the past and he was asked to come back to do some additional work just recently.

You can't trust the scale

Weight is just a number. I have learned that that is really true from my experience this weekend. I had to make a visit to urgent care on Sunday because I woke up with pink eye (I had a really eventful weekend!).

Well, as they always do at the doctor's office they weigh you. If you might recall, I was just at my doctor's office last week and I mentioned that I lost a few pounds from my last doctor's visit, which was a nice little bonus. Well, when I was weighed on Sunday morning (at a different doctor's office since this was urgent care) I was 6 pound less. Now that is great, but it is highly unlikely that I lost 6 pounds in the span of 3 days. Not to mention that it is not healthy to lose weight that quickly. Interestingly, I had weighed myself at home that same morning and my scale has me weighing in the middle of the two scales (3 pounds less than Thursday's weigh in and 3 pounds more than urgent care). It just goes to show you that you can't always trust the scale. Not all scales are created equally.

At some point, we all obsess about weight. There are so many weight loss products on the market and our nation is so focused on weight. This experience helped me realize that weight is just a single number and although it is unhealthy to be overweight and obese, we really should not obsess with the number on the scale.

Weight is not the only health and fitness measure.

Weight is only one number and should not be the only measure of health and fitness especially since we see in my experience how inaccurate it can be depending on the scale you are using (you would think doctors offices would have calibrated scales). There are also many factors that weight does not take into account such as height, gender, and muscle mass. Unfortunately, women have a higher percentage of body fat than men on average, so weight can vary among women and men of the same height. Muscle mass should also be considered. Sometimes when you first begin to exercise, you may gain some weight or remain the same when in fact you are losing fat. Some people often experience their clothes feeling looser but the scale not budging. That can often be discouraging but it is important to realize that you are losing fat and the lack of weight loss may be due to increased muscle mass or water weight.

Weight is not the only gauge of health and fitness and should not be used as the only measure. Other measures include BMI, inches lost, body fat percentage, heart rate, strength, exercise levels, blood pressure, etc. It is so important to look at other measurements of health and fitness as well. We are not one dimensional beings and we shouldn't look at health as a one dimensional factor that is measure by a single number. We are multi-dimensional and so we should look at our health in that same way.

Unwanted squatter in our garage

Well, I talked about the good part of the weekend. So as promised here is one of the bad parts of the weekend. On Saturday I found out that we had an unwanted squatter living in our garage. I was in and out of our detached garage on Saturday doing laundry and searching through Mr. Bear's tools to hang up a few pictures on the wall. Well, after several visits to the garage to put away some tools I noticed something furry on one of the shelves. I thought to myself, what does Mr. Bear have in this garage. So, I looked a little closely to the other side of the shelf and it was a possum! Eeek!! It was curled up in a ball sleeping and I supposed I made some noise when I was trying to get a look at what it was when it moved, looked at me, and made a noise. I screamed and ran out of the garage leaving the door opened.

Immediately, I called Mr. Bear (he was working) to let him know. He was on his way home. I found my father-in-law and told him about it. I was so freaked out! I did not like the idea of a possum on our property at all. Well, Mr. Bear and my father-in-law went into the garage and saw the possum. I had them deal with it from there on. We decided to leave the door open and since it is a nocturnal animal, we hoped that in evening it would leave. I did not leave the house the rest of the day for fear that it would be out there.

Early in the evening my father-in-law went in and saw it was still there. He poked it with a long stick and it hissed at him and was pretty angry. So he left it alone, he didn't want to get bit or anythign like that. Later that night, the possum had finally left. We figured out how it could have gotten in. There is a pretty large gap beneath the door that it could have easily squeezed through. Mr. Bear placed a barricade so that it could not get back in. Well, so far it hasn't been back and my father-in-law placed something more permanent on the bottom of the door to keep this from happening in the future. I hope that the unwanted squatter is gone for good and doesn't bring any friends back with it. Yikes, I really do NOT like possums!! They freak me out, I was still freaked out the next day when I had to go in the garage to get the laundry. No pictures for this post, because they just creep me out.

Wings of an Angel made It Time to Shine

We had a very eventful weekend, good and bad. This post will be about the good, tomorrow I'll share with you the bad.

On Sunday, Mr. Bear and I went to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club with his parents to watch the horse races. We had such a blast! It was a beautiful day in Del Mar, the sun was shining and the weather was gorgeous.





Our betting adventures started off not so exciting. After several losses, we got to the 4th race and horse Wings of an Angel started it all. I learned that my sister-in-law, Tricia loved the horse races and used to come to Del Mar when she used to live in the area. Well, Tricia was truly our angel and ended our losing streak. Thanks Tricia!!









For me, the 7th race was most notable when I put down a bet on two horses to win and place, America's Friend and Lightmyfirebaby! I didn't bet big but I won and that was so exciting!! I was screaming and rooting for them to win, it was so much fun.







Mr. Bear's step-father and his friend knew one of the horse owners. It's Time to Shine raced in the 9th race. The owner invited us to the paddock to see the horse before the race started. That was a real treat.





Of course, we placed some bets on It's Time to Shine. And low and behold, It's Time to Shine won!!! We got to go to the Winner's Circle and we were winners!! Wohoo! That was an exciting race.





We celebrated by going to one of Tricia's favorite restaurants, The Beach House, and having lobster dinners.



Lobster is soooo yummy. Dinner was excellent dinner. A great restaurant right on the beach with a gorgeous view. Our winnings paid for our dinner. What a wonderful end to a great day!