What Goes Around

That's jump training! I just finished my last P90X workout of the year with the mother of all X workouts, plyometrics. It feels good to be done with it. I have the tail end of a cold and I am hoping that I sweated out the remains of it. I ended the workout with a papaya protein shake made by my dearest husband. Thank you Steve. And Happy New Year!

Continuing with my "P" theme for December, I come to what might be my last post of the year (who knows). So "phosphorescence" is the title of my post today. In our house, we have 5 tube-lights that are out. I know most people in other parts of the world, don't use tube-lights in their house usually. Maybe in a kitchen or bathroom. We have them in every room in our house. And now 5 of those rooms are without. The kitchen has no other light. One bathroom has no other light. The other bathroom has a small light. Our bedroom has other lights. And the front room has other lights. The kitchen and the bathroom are the biggest problems, but the others bother me too. So why don't we do something about it? Good question. For one, we hate calling an electrician over and over again. Every couple of weeks a light will go out and it seems silly to call the electrician. Although half of the time it isn't the bulb but some faulty wiring. And the other th...

That is Post P90X. My post is on post. So it has been hard getting into a good routine for my post P90X life. Christmas is a busy time. I have worked at the Red Moon Bakery at the mall this week. Just had my last shift today. There is a gym at the mall and they did a performance several times this week. I watched them and thought to myself, "There is no way I could do what they are doing without looking like I am dying." I think I am more of an old woman's trainer. After watching the workout performance, which included kick-boxing and aerobics, I decided I felt fat and I should eat a cookie. So back to the bakery stand I went and ate a butter cookie. Tomorrow I will get back to my post P90X life.

An Aussie friend just asked me by text message if the bakery I work at sells fruit mince pies. I wrote her back that a tart is 50 ruppees. She called me laughing because in Australia they have a weird meaning for "tart" and that is a woman who goes out with too much make-up, or a prostitute. So she thought it quite amusing that I said a prostitute was only 50 ruppees. A few years ago another friend was speaking at a ladies luncheon at a church. The little schedule they hand out said that there would be "pasties" for dessert. You never know what you will get when working at a bakery.

My mom sent me a package a while ago that was just food. Packaged food items like mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and a box of Turtle Cookies. We have friends visiting so I thought I would make the cookies to eat with them. So I got out my oven for the first time since we moved here in September. It is a small toaster sized oven that fits nicely under our cupboard. I followed the directions to the best of my ability and made a nice smear of cookies. They are suppose to be bar cookies. First is a layer of cookie goop and then some carmel and then another layer of goop. I got it all together and went to put it in the little oven. But the pan wouldn't fit. It was just a bit too big for the over. Well layered cookie bars are hard to transfer to a new pan, so that process ruined the lovely layered effect. So I scooped out the goop and put it in a bread pan. The bread pan only fit half of what the original pan held so I decided to make two pans full. I cooked it for the sp...

The apartment below us is being remodeled. The way they do that here is to use a sledge hammer and break the cement and brick walls down and then build new ones. The breaking of the walls is what is happening these days. If you can imagine constant pounding on brick walls below your feet, you are begining to know how I feel all day long. It actually sounds like it is coming from my bedroom right now. We have had this happen many times before. Our old house had the neighbor rebuild their house for a year and a half. After that, we had to go to counseling for stress. Then another neighbor decided that their house needed a face-lift. ARGHHHH! All day long, except for lunch break, we have banging. When I try to take a nap it feels like a massage bed that you get at cheap hotels. I remember our family vacations when I was a kid. After the long drive, my dad would sometimes put the quarter in the bedside machine to give him 10 minutes of a shaky bed. Sometimes he let us enjoy the...

Well it finally happened. I got poked. I think usually it is more of a grab, but for me it was just a poke. Still not sure if it was an accident or on purpose. I've been told that it is always on purpose, but I am still not convinced. Yesterday I took a friend to the very crowded, Monday Market. Lots of pushing happens. Ladies in burquas push just to move down the lane. And mix in with that a motorcycle, some school kids, and men. We are all trying to find good deals on cloth, fuzzy sweaters, and shoes. I told my friend that she should hold her hands up around her chest just as a layer of protection. Sometimes people take the opportunity of a crowd to reach out and touch someone, so we both were walking with our arms kind of clutching our purse straps. And then it happened. The poke. A beggar man had his palm out for money and reached up to poke me on the shoulder. Only he didn't hit my shoulder. He hit a softer spot of my upper body that I was trying to protect....

Micah is an artist and a thinker. I love how this comic captures his processing the death of Great Grandpa Harvey who passed away this week.