Doing good

Dad is doing much better. He even went to the library today, at least to get out of the house for awhile. And after going a couple weeks without cigarettes (he's on the patch), he said he can smell the smoke in the house. This is probably the longest he's gone without a cigarette in his life! Wonder if he'll be able to give it up completely?

Nipper is doing much better. Whatever it was, it was short-term. Perhaps it was something in that McDonald's bag he buried his face in when I put him in the car that one day. I thought it was just some leftover fries, but maybe not.

The water heater got fixed with just a part (a thermo-something or other), so that's a relief.

I started the exercise program at the hospital's fitness center this week. Tuesday was an assessment. It took about nine minutes on the exercise cycle to hit my target heart rate, and I was able to lift 156 pounds 10 times on the leg press machine! I was able to do 64 pounds only about four times on the upper-body machine, though. Then Thursday I started the actual workout. I did about 25 minutes on the exercise bike, then we did some lower body work with an exercise ball, bands and the machines. I felt it a little bit in my thighs the next morning, but it wasn't too bad, really. My workout partner is a woman with blood cancer and is currently in treatment. It's good to have someone there with you, to kind of encourage you on. I'm really looking forward to getting more into this program.

I took my lunch to work every day this week! Along with the exercise, my goal is to cut down on how much I eat out, because it would be healthier than all the fast food I usually go for, plus I can save a little on the gas bill (it's around $2.80 here). Last month was actually pretty expensive with all the eating out and driving around, so I should have started on this weeks ago!

I'm also working on a new project -- designing a Web site for the local breast cancer support group I'm in. It won't be anything real flashy. But I thought it'd be nice for the group to have one as another way to get word out about us and have a way to keep in touch in between meetings. I'm using Yahoo's features -- Geocities for the main, public Web page that will have basic info about the group, and then Yahoo's groups for a members-only area for messages, photos, etc. I've already gotten started, and hope to have a good chunk of it done (if not all of it) for our next meeting in June. The place we meet has wireless access, so I'll get to show everyone what I've done!