Fool's Paradise

I've been a very good, responsible steward of my body, and have not worked out at all until tonight.  It was awesome to be back!  I did a light workout (cardio only--blah) but one that I have a lot of fun with (Hip Hop Abs--love my Shaun T).  I will take it fairly light this week, sticking with cardio and vinyasa yoga, and I'm hoping to get back to my real workouts next week.

I did need the time off, as much for mental reasons as physical.  The fact that it was that traumatic for me to stop made it vital that I stop and stick with it until I felt mentally okay with it.  I reached a point where I really missed the workouts, but didn't feel the sense of despair and panic over the loss.  That's a much healthier brain space for me to be in.

I may have to throttle back the intensity for a while--I will carefully evaluate as I go.  Some of the pain has cleared up but not yet all of it.  I'm a little bummed about that.  My skin has cleared up, and the nasty depression seems to have lifted, so there have definitely been improvements.

I ate basically the same as I normally do and didn't gain weight (which makes me think that I'm definitely not eating enough to build the muscle I'm trying to build, but finding the time to eat more is a bit challenging), and I can't visibly see any muscle loss.  I'm pretty happy about that.  I am a little nervous about resuming next week's full workout, because if I had any strength or endurance losses, I will see them there.  I can build that back up though, so I guess it's not the end of the world. :)

Przemek - 8 days ago

Last Monday I picked up a baby button quail who needed a home.  He came with significant head wounds, so we went straight from the humane society to the vet.  Apparently 'head bonking' (repeatedly jumping up, hitting the head on the top of the cage) is quite common in these little guys, and he was a mess.  I've been cleaning, soaking, and applying Neosporin to his head, and it's healing fairly well.  He has only the biggest, deepest scab remaining, and that appears to be healing well.  Once that's healed up, he will be out of his cage and free with the other birds in the room. I'm so excited for him to experience a cage-free life.  I named him Przemek, after a special family friend, who was also our first non-family animal care provider, house-sitter and babysitter.

Przemek - 8 days ago

We've never had a button quail before, so I've had to do a crash course in learning about them. I was really sad to find out they don't live nearly as long as the other birds in our family. They only live 3-4 years. :(  He's such a cute little guy, and I'm pretty obsessive about good nutrition, so I'm already crossing my fingers that he lives double that.  Of course, I do that with every animal we get, and as the law of averages would suggest, every blue moon one drastically exceeds their life expectancy, but most do not.

Przemek - today

L decided that she needed to adopt more babies. She is down to four rats (from eight--they don't live nearly long enough) and a hamster.  The rats are pretty labor/time intensive, so having four instead of eight has freed up a lot of time and space that she felt the need to fill. Now. She is not patient when she makes a decision like that. She hoards her birthday/xmas money and has tons of money that she is quite tight fisted with, so she got some lovely, enormous cages for the critters, and we picked them up on Sunday. She adopted a bonded pair of albino gerbil brothers (Hikaru and Kaoru) and a dwarf hamster (Excalibur).  We have really enjoyed getting to know them and watching them customize their large homes.  She hasn't yet gotten good pictures of them, but they will be coming soon.

Przemek - today

We picked them up in Madison, so we were able to squeeze in a trip to the Green Owl.  It's been way too long!  We ate from the brunch menu, and oddly enough, as many times as we've been there, we've never gone for their brunch before. OMG! It was all that we hoped for and more.  My only complaint was that I couldn't get one of their amazing desserts to go.  L & I each ordered the breakfast sandwich and split an order of tempeh bacon and a cinnamon roll.  It was a very hard decision. M got the biscuits and gravy.  We'll definitely be going back for Sunday brunch in the future, and since L's dance is on Sundays in Verona, it will work out very well.