Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!  On this day, 235 years ago, the United States declared their independence from Great Britain! 

And "we" became a free nation...to which we now celebrate by attempting to blow it up, or rather some of "us" attempt to blow body parts off with the improper use of explosives cleverly hidden in the form of fireworks!  Don't get me wrong, I love watching the big displays (done by the professionals), but what irks me is the people that drive out of the way to go buy said fireworks in towns where they are still legal (all fireworks are illegal in Spokane and if caught with them is a $513 fine) just so they can go to their homes, unfortunately close to mine, and terrify my dog with them!  My poor pooch is terrified of loud noises like fireworks and thunder storms.  I really don't mind the 75 pound addition to my bed during a thunder storm, I understand being afraid of the loud noises, but each and every 4th of July, I cannot move because she is wrapped around my feet in terror!  Have you ever tried to walk with a 75 pound slipper curled around both feet?  Two nights ago, someone in the neighborhood got a little over excited about their ill-gotten explosives and started early...Rosie was under my desk, wrapped around my feet, and shaking in a matter of seconds!  Because my nephew is here (like he has been for the last four summers) this 4th, we'll be going to watch the fireworks show put on by the city at Riverfront Park.  We will not be going to the park though!  We'll go down and park on a side street with hundreds of other people to line the edge of a ridge on the other side of the river (and several miles away from the park).  We had a good "seat" to see the display from last year, but it is a little far away to really appreciate the blasts from.  We will most likely leave slightly before the display is done as to beat the traffic home as well.  This also puts us home to comfort the dog who will be so terrified, she won't even go outside to pee tonight.  I will leave music playing in my office for her, to help drown out some of the terrifying noise, and she will most likely sleep with us tonight...it's sort of "tradition" now!

Well, I really didn't mean for that to turn into a rant, but eh.  Yesterday we went over to my other half's parents house for dinner.  They made ribs...and cornbread, baked beans, and corn on the cob...and bought a giant cream pie for dessert.  Yep, we have told them many, many, many, many times that we are on a low carb diet and can not eat that crap!  To which we get told, "Oh, that's BS....it doesn't matter what you eat"!  Yeah, it's a load of poo...and that load of poo has helped me drop roughly 30 pounds and 4 pant and bra sizes and one shirt size!  Speaking of sizes, I have to go bra shopping again already, the "new ones" I got in May are already too big, yeah!  Hopefully I can find another sale soon...$40 for something that only lasted me a month kinda sucks.  Anywho, because of the sheer lack of anything I could get away with eating that is on our diet (how hard would a green salad have been?), I did "cheat" last night.  I ate a huge pile of ribs, one tiny piece of cornbread, and shared a piece of pie with my nephew (who opted for a Popsicle instead of his own pie slice).  Today, I have a ginormous headache and my gut is in "payback mode" for my eating the high carb foods last night!  No more Phase 2 foods for me for a while!  I plan to drop to at least 265 before I go back to phase 2...which would put me lower than my "lowest" weight, which was several weeks ago...I had a "bounce" in my weights over the last few weeks, but was almost back down when I weighed myself on Friday.  So, no berries, nuts, phase 2 Atkins bars....but I think I'll keep my Mockalua!

We gave Nephew #1 his birthday present exactly 6 weeks early, which is pretty normal for us and him.  We usually give him his gift while he is here visiting us, and the trip itself is usually a large part of his gift, lol.  This year though, he got what is in my opinion, the best gift for him!  We gave him a laptop!  Not a fancy new one...that's just silly, but my other half, being a computer guy, always has "spares" lying about.  So, he refurbished an older IBM Thinkpad and we added age appropriate games and software to it, including a copy of Office 2007 (it's running Windows 7, I think) so that he could use Excel and Word.  He also added Streets & Trips with a link to a map preset to his neighborhood with his house marked on the map!  Of course, more games were added before he got the gift as he played games we had on the Wii (World of Goo) and on my computer (Plants vs. Zombies) and he found new games that he really enjoyed playing.  He is really good at logic based games too!  So, he also has Square Logic (a math game) and Crayon Physics too!  So, with him being busy with his own computer (which also plays DVDs), I had my computer back for a few days...he is back to wanting to play World of Warcraft constantly, so I am back to crocheting and watching television, lol. 


On the bright side, I have finished the head to Nephew #1's Christmas present...he knows what they are getting because he picked out the pattern as well as the color of yarn for his, lol.  I am seriously impressed at how fast this is to put together!  I don't crochet "fast" so it is really nice to have a pattern that works up this fast.  Yesterday I was able to finish the head (I had about 10 rounds already done on it), make a nose, crochet both ears, stuff everything and attach them...and start the body!  I think this pup is going to need a cute little hat...his head is lopsided, lol.