Grrrrr technology.. grrrr!

About an hour ago my desktop computer decided it was happier freezing than working and I had to hard shut it down. :( Because of that I'm typing on my laptop and can't seem to get anything done. So, my post is going to have to be quick.

Besides the evils of technology giving me some more gray hairs, today was a good day. I managed to get a lot done including doing a bunch of testing for a job as well as having an interview over IM. :)

The diet went well today and my water intake was perfect. And the good news is that when I weighed in today I did so with a HUGE smile. I have lost weight again, Oh Happy Day! My weight is now 370.1 I am exceptionally happy about that! I believe things can only get better from here on out.

Pounds lost: 18.9 (370.1)

Daily insight: Numbers are only numbers, unless you give them power.

Ounces of water consumed: 80

Steps in the right direction: 68

I’ve.. Just.. Got.. To.. Say.. IT!

O…M…G!

It’s been five days since I last posted and things have been nuts around here. I love saying that because even though you aren’t present to see what I mean, I’m completely serious about it. LOL

I worked a long day for my Dad on the 31^st (We kicked butt, lemme tell ya!) so my sister and I had to cancel our plans for getting together to ring in the beginning of the new calendar year. She and I both wanted SLEEP. But I ended up staying up long enough to say Happy New Year to my sleepy eyed puppy.

The next day I went back to my Dad’s to finish up and was treated to a fantastic bowl of soup for lunch and an amazing treat for dinner! I love working for my parents, they always feed me so good. Hehehe. I still hadn’t brought my desktop in from the car so I didn’t get the chance to post anything.

The next day, Sunday, I needed to get rolling on an assignment that was due on Monday so I spent the day fighting with my voice recognition software until I finally gave in and just typed it all myself. The microphone on the headset is so touchy that if I had to take off the headset to go do something that when I came back I had to recalibrate it so that it could recognize that the word trapeze wasn’t actually trap a disease. SIGH. And once again because I didn’t want to “waste” time hooking up my desktop I used the laptop that doesn’t connect easily to the Internet so I didn’t post. Well, that and when I finally called it quits for the day it was after midnight.

Yesterday, Monday, I was trying to finish what I started on Sunday since I hadn’t managed to get more than 5-10 done and made the mistake of trying once more to use my voice recognition software. After an hour of trying to convince the program that bedding wasn’t betting or wetting or petting I wanted to throw my headset across the room. Needless to say, I need to look into a pair where the microphone stays facing the right way no matter how often I take it off and put it back on. I ended up using the laptop again, but wasn’t able to finish before midnight. SIGH.

Thankfully, my employer gladly gave me another day. Sooooooooo, today I busted them out! But because my arms were hurting from using the laptop I finally got off my lazy backside and brought the desktop back into the house and hooked it up. Viola! I was back in business and cranked the rest of them out as well as two additional 500+ word articles. I was on fire, baby!

I discovered tonight when I was reading over my last blog post that I didn’t note my weight last Thursday. Well, I can tell you that I wasn’t happy with it. I can’t remember what it was exactly, but I know that it showed me that I had gained rather than lost weight. Of course yesterday when I got brave and stepped on again the scale told me something COMPLETELY different. LOL But I’m going to wait until Thursday for my official weigh-in before I enter the number in to the blog.

Ok, I know there was more I wanted to say, but it all slipped out of my ear about 10 minutes ago. I think that’s a hint that it’s time for bed. And.. I’m off!

Pounds lost: 13.7 (375.3)

Daily insight: Never doubt yourself or you’ll just prove yourself wrong.

Ounces of water consumed: 80

Steps in the right direction: 66

Blessed Yule!

What a good day I had today. :) But before I talk about today, I have to talk about what happened last night. The full moon lunar eclipse! Gasp! It was beautiful! It was already a powerful deal with a full moon and an eclipse, but add in the Solstice and it was crazy amazingly rad! Ok, ok.. so I’m still a little excited about it. I can’t help it.

I did a full moon/eclipse ritual and set out a glass vessel filled with fresh water to soak up the power of the celestial alignment. Mother moon, father sun, and the earth in a straight line. Powerful, heady stuff! I once did a blue moon water empowerment and used the water for many things all year including pouring it on a plant that wasn’t doing so well. The plant flourished.

Here are some of pictures I took of the eclipse last night. :)

This is the first picture I took just before it started.

Just the tiniest bit was gone.

Nearly half way gone.

Almost completely gone!

Such an amazing color! There was this huge ring around the eclipse and since my sky had gone miraculously clear I could see all the other stars in the sky shining so bright! It really made the ring stand out. It was spectacular.

This one is my favorite because the Moon had turned this cool black/purple/red/brown color!

I was so jazzed from it that I ended up staying awake until 3am. When I woke up this morning I was like.. wow, I feel so rested! Today was another busy day of preparing for ritual and my Mom and niece to come over to do some print/photo work on my computer. They didn’t get here as early as I expected and I’m sorry to say I bristled under the upset of my plans. But after I realized that Solstice doesn’t have to be performed at a specific time I shut up about it and just enjoyed the rest of the visit.

My Mom, for the first time, made a special point of giving me a Yule gift. She worked really hard on it and I think it’s beautiful! It really means a lot to me that my Mom is making an effort to respect my beliefs and wants to be a part of my holiday. Here’s the beautiful wreath she made me.

My Yule ritual was fantastic and so full of joy and noise and freedom and energy! This is the first time I haven’t had a neighbor above me, below me, beside me or wherever that I feared might here my rite and act like an idiot later. I do have neighbors here but there are rooms between them and I on one side and an open green space on the other side of me. I could raise my voice as I raised power and run through the house yelling “Welcome back light!” as much as I wanted. :D It was a truly joyous experience! I came away from it with such energy that the whole house feels brighter. I am blessed!

Happy rebirth, God! Happy reuniting, Goddess! Much love from your little pagan hearted me!

The diet went pretty good considering the happy madness. I cleaned out my fridge so that should make things sooo much easier when it comes to planning and making meals. I found my cheese sticks that were hiding behind some seriously old OJ. Yay! Water intake was great. I’m looking forward to tomorrow!

Pounds lost: 13.2 (375.8)

Daily insight: Is it wrong to happy dance around the house with wild hair and ribbons and a drum? :D

Ounces of water consumed: 80

Steps in the right direction: 52