Chatty

Another weekend has come and gone. It was as busy as they've all been lately - in a good way. Long bike ride. Time at the gym. Laundry at the laundromat. Some time with friends. A nice dinner to close out "Restaurant Week". A little bit of cleaning. My football team won in the last minute after being down 21-3 at halftime. All things considered - it was a very very full weekend. I very much enjoyed it.

I worked from home this morning. Here's a picture of my simple backyard "office". We had beautiful late summer/early autumn weather here today, the pup sits out there with me and keeps a vigilant eye out for her constant nemesis. Squirrels.

I enjoy autumn.  It has a unique "feel" to it - especially here on the East coast.  I don't enjoy being cold, though, which is one of those paradoxes as part of autumn is that I remember it getting progressively more winter-ish.

I think I've mentioned before that I have a circulation "issue" (Raynaud's Syndrome) that affects my fingers and hands mostly.  It sometimes when it's not even all that cold out, like if I'm just chilly for some reason, or after a long day in a too-air-conditioned office.  I'm told that there is an emotional/physcho-physical component to it and I think that's probably true.  Anyway, it's pesky and inconvenient more than anything dangerous at this point but we're getting to that time of year.

I realize that some people have purses for various different occasions.  I only have a few.  I traded out my summer purse for my fall/winter one yesterday.  It's the same one I used last year, and the year before.  I don't feel any pressure to get a new purse when I very much like the purses I have and they're still in good shape.  A purse if a very personal thing so swapping one out for another is a transition in a way.  Anyway, it's not as significant a sign that winter is coming as the fact Costco already has Christmas stuff up but it's certainly something.

If it's fall then it must be time for football. My team did wonderfully well on Sunday.  Sports Illustrated sports writer Peter King spend some time explaining why this team is so easy to root for (read it here):

But this is why you root for the Bills: Their most important offensive players are everymen, and they can really play. Last year, Buffalo hung up 30 on New England, 34 on Baltimore, 49 on Cincinnati ... lost on a heartbreaking dropped pass against Pittsburgh for what would have been the winning touchdown ... and after starting 0-8, won four of their last eight with nothing to play for.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, the quarterback, a seventh-round pick of the Rams six years ago, played at Harvard and is singing for his supper in the last year of his contract. The winning touchdown pass in the 38-35 win over Oakland Sunday was caught by David Nelson, an undrafted wide receiver who wasn't even a full-time college starter. Their touchdown leader, tight end Scott Chandler, was a waiver pickup from Dallas last December. And their starting running back, Fred Jackson, also undrafted (isn't everyone on this team?), went to mighty Coe College, enrollment 1,300, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There is one key receiver who was drafted -- Stevie Johnson. In the seventh round of the 2008 draft.

Anyway - I expect that they'll need to wake up one of these weeks.  But they've already make it a memorable and exciting season.

Another quick topic - make-up.  I have several friends who transitioned and who now either rarely or never wear make-up.  That's certainly fine - everyone kind of works out where/if it has a place in their lives as time goes on I suppose.  As for me - I still very much enjoy it.  It's part of my morning routine and I haven't gotten tired of it in the least.  I wish I were better at it but left to my own devices I'm thinking I'm doing ok.

I got my 3rd iPhone 4 today.  The first one fell into the ocean over Memorial Day and, despite heroic efforts to save it, she succombed to 5 seconds in salt water.  Well, I've been having trouble with a couple of odd "quirks" so today they just swapped it out for a new one.  No matter how easy they make it seem to back-up and restore it always turns into a labor intensive effort.  All my folders are gone, some of the apps somehow don't get downloaded to the phone, passwords and other "things" need to be re-entered.  Honestly, it turns into a days worth of work to get things back to where they were.

Lastly for today - I started the Induction Phase of the Atkins diet today.  When I've done it in the past for a couple of weeks I've lost 8 or 10 pounds and that's what I need to get down to my weight class.  It's actually a very counter-intuitive diet (and many would say unhealthy) because the key is to cut carbs and eat as much protein as you want.  For example, I could eat a 3-egg omlette and as much bacon as I want for breakfast, have a piece of salmon and a salad for lunch, and a big piece of steak and a vegetable for dinner.  It works, though.

I've learned a  number of things the hard way.  (1) The carb withdrawal headache starts 2 or 3 days into it (2) despite the fact that you can eat as much protein as you want you'll start craving carbs and (3) moments of light-headedness are to be expected.  Anyway, I've made it thru the first day without much difficulty.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow....