What the Junk?!

Warm and even warmer.

So, tomorrow it is supposed to be a high of 91˚.  Yes, in May!  Wowee, it's going to be fun walking tomorrow. :P  Also, we have a annual festival that is at Ballou Park.  I walk through/past Ballou on my daily walk.  The past few walks, I've had to detour as they were setting up.  The festival started today, so I bypassed and walked on the sidewalk out front.  Luckily, the festival doesn't start on Friday until 4 or so.  I didn't have to fight a bunch of crowds.  Tomorrow will be different.  There will be a lot of people.  Luckily, it should only be bad right on that one block and then I'll be past it.  On the way back, I'll pass the park but on the other side of the road.  That is a shopping center and you can imagine that the parking lot is full during a festival.  Tomorrow's walk will be interesting and probably annoying. :P

Today's wasn't so bad, but it was hot and I wss so ready to get a Coke at my turn around point.  I remembered to carry my change with me, but the machine was totally sold out. Phooey!  I didn't get to drink a nice cold Coke on my way back.  Hopefully they'll fill it soon.  

I finished the current puzzle today!  I have to pick out the next one I plan to do.  I'll start it tomorrow.  I also plan to get my pen pal letters written and sent this weekend.  I hope to get to the post office to pick up any that I have and answer them all and mail them all off.  It will be two weeks before I can check my box and answer letters again as we leave for the beach next Monday.  I am so ready to go!

19,169

Yes, I'm less than 100o words from finishing Camp NaNoWriMo! Yay!  I just wrote 1508 words tonight.  I am not sure what that last bit is going to be.  I've hit on all the characters that I wanted to do. I might add to one of the ones I've already done to make it to 20,000.

I worked on the puzzle today. I didn't get a lot done, but I did get some!  I will post that picture at the end of this post.  I walked and it was in the 80's and it was pretty darn hot! Considering it was April and in the 80's. Yikes! lol  I got home and had to sit down and cool off a while.  I worked on the puzzle while I did.  I was working on that for a while and then my friend texted me that if I could wait a little bit to eat, he'd bring half a pizza to me!  I can wait for pizza. :P

He brought it by and I had delicious pizza for lunch.  I wasn't as good as our usual places, but it was not bad at all!  He was even nice enough to bring me a 2 liter of Coke since I'm out of soda at the house.  Watch out world! LOL Good thing I still have plenty of coffee.  I don't run without caffeine. :P

Brrr!

Today's walk was rather chilly! It was only in the 40's today and the wind was blowing. It wasn't so bad when it wasn't windy, but when it was.  BRRR!  I got my walk in though and then came home and put on warm 'at home' clothes which include 'give up on life pants' (sweat pants) lol . I actually turned my heater on in my room for the first time today!  I had brought it in a while ago, but I hadn't turned it on yet.  I finally broke down today and turned it on.

Last night, my friend needed to go to Target to pick up some things and I rode with him.  I saw some gift cards at Starbucks as we were leaving that I'd missed the night before.  He was on a schedule so I didn't get to look at them.  I ran back over there tonight and got the ones they have that I didn't have.  I now have 11 of the holidays cards. I think there are about 50 this year. Yikes! LOL I took a picture of the ones I had so when I get to the regular Starbucks and go in, I will know which ones I already have.  My collection is really growing!

I was going to get a drink at the Starbucks in Target but there was a long line and it's usually only one person working the Starbucks in there.  I decided to hit the drive thru of the regular one. I did that and came home with my delicious caramel brulee latte!  It was so good.  I got home and realized that I needed a few staples at the grocery store, so I decided to go.  I figured wiht it being a little later in the day (after 7) it wouldn't be as crowded and I was right.  I got sugar, bananas, cheese, Coke, ketchup, bread, and 3 froxen dinners. My favorite ones.  They were 2/$5 and buy two, get one free. So technically, 3/$5.  i was lucky with my bread.  Sometimes they won't have any of it as I buy a kind that they don't stock a lot of. It's Heiner's 35 if you are interested.  Each slice is only 35 calories and it tastes like regular bread to me.  They had one loaf and I grabbed it!  

I came home and was sort of slacking off.  I finally opened Scrivener and wrote my NaNo words for today.  I'm now officially over 20000! Yay!  I've done my French and I'm blogging now, so the only thing I need to do is some work in my bullet journal and then I'm going to climb into bed and read.  I'm still reading the book about Marie Hilley.  I'm getting near the end.  I put it on hold for a few days early on in NaNo.  I hope one of my holds at the library show up soon so I'll have something to read when I'm done with it.

I'm almost done with IT, too. I've been listening to the audiobook on my daily walks.  I think I'm going to load the Dark Tower books on my iPod touch to listen to after IT.  I should be finished with IT tomorrow and then I'll re-start that epic journey to the Tower again. ^_^

Friday fun!

So, I did not want to walk today but I did.  It was overcast and the street was wet, but there was no rain.  Well, until I looked out the window right before I was leaving the house.  Guess what? RAIN!  AH!  I was not pleased, but I went ahead and got myself together and went.  It had stopped raining. Yay!  I walked most of the walk before it began raining.  It only rained on me about the last mile so that wasn't too bad.  It was sort of muggy and gross, but I made it home!  I didn't feel like doing my workouts right then even though it's stretch day, so I sat and relaxed for a bit.

My friend texted and asked if I wanted to ride with him a few places and we'd eat.  I said that sounded great as I was not in the mood to fix lunch!  He picked me up and we ate at a local restaurant that we haven't eaten at in a while.  They had hash brown casserole. YAY!  We ate and then went to the Goodwill.  I found a pair of shorts, a pretty sweater type shirt (brand new with the tags still on it!), a cute coffee mug with a fox on it and some sheet protectors.  My friend was nice and bought my stuff.  Oh and I had seen a Domo-kun t-shirt that I liked and he bought it for me too! Yay!  We left there and went to the other Goodwill in our city.  I only found one item there.. It's a lanyard that is made of recycled soda bottles and it's got Coca Cola on it.  I love Coke things and I love recycled things and it was only fifty cents. :D

After we left there, we headed home and he dropped me off.  I came in and put my things away.  I did a few things I needed to do around here.  I just finished my workouts a few minutes ago and my French lesson.  OH! I forgot one thing.  At the first Goodwill, I found a French learning book.  That was pretty cool and I thought it would be a nice addition to my growing French learning!

While we were on Riverside Drive at the restaurant, my friend said one of his friends posted a picture of part of Riverside under water.  As we were checking out, the guy at the register said that part of Riverside was closed due to flooding. I looked later and they had to actually bring a flat bed truck in at one spot to rescue the people in one of the businesses from the flash flooding.  Wow!  I heard it's all gone down now, but I bet the Riverwalk trail is under water in some parts.

The trail we go to in Martinsville flooded some too.  I saw a picture of one of the areas we have parked at to go on the trail completely under water.  Yikes!  It is supposed to rain here tomorrow, but I don't think it's supposed to be as heavy as it was today.  I hope it holds off until after I walk.  I was quite happy today that none of the really heavy rain came until after I got home!  

I feel bad for the people who go to the Festival in the Park.  We have it every year in May. It started today and runs through Sunday.  Hopefully the people will get a respite from the rain before it's over.  Oh! One other thing,  the beach trip is NOT I repeat NOT cancelled. ^________________________^  Things worked out and we are going. YAY!!!! Of course, I'll carry the Macbook with me and post everyday!  I hope to create another photo album after this trip.

Thursday post of doom....

Okay, so I am feeling just bleah and I don't really want to post, but I am going to.  I got up today and I felt like hell. I didn't sleep well and I surely didn't feel like walking.  I went anyway.  It did rain for a short while but it didn't last long and after that, I didn't have to use the umbrella at all.  I got home and decided to skip my workouts.  Then, I got up and did those too!  I put a load of clothes in to wash and my friend texted me that we'd go eat.  I didn't know where, but I am usually up for food!

We went to South Boston, Virginia.  It's about 25 miles or so away.  Maybe more, I'm not sure.  We ate a local pizza place. It was great!  The pizza was delicious.  The crust, the pepperoni, the cheese, yum.  Everything was delicious.  The only thing I'd change about the place is they serve pepsi products.  I prefer Coke when I have a soda.

We left there and went to the Goodwill.  Sadly, it was almost closing time, so we were only in there a few minutes.  We didn't want to hold them up.  After that, we stopped at a McDonald's.  He got some ice cream and I got a caramel macchiato. :P  I ordered and he paid for a small.  I didn't realize until we were down the road a bit that they gave me a medium!  

I came back here and watched an episode of Cold Case Files and read the new Stephen King short story that he has for free on his website: Stephen King .com

It was good as most of his works are.  Now, I'm waiting on a load of clothes in the dryer and I'm going back to the true crime book I started last night. It's really good so far!

 

 

Coffee, how I love thee!

I gave up soda for good in early February.  I did a reset in January and didn't have soda for 28 days.  I drank a lot of water.  In February, I finally decided to give soda a go.  I drank a few sips and it just didn't taste right to me anymore.  This was HUGE.  I have been drinking soda since I was a small child!  I never thought I'd be able to give up, "The nectar of the Gods" as I was known to call Coca Cola!  Well, after drinking that little bit, I felt all out of sorts and bloated.  I don't have that when I drink water!  I knew right then that I didn't need soda.  I was a bit worried about water with certain foods. (PIZZA!) I had pizza and drank water and it was just fine.  I'm a happy camper!  I don't need soda.  It's just empty calories and it's not good for me!  I do need my caffeine though!  Caffeine withdrawal is NOT a nice thing.  I already love coffee and Starbucks, so coffee is my go to.

I have a Keurig (I love that thing!) and I make myself a fresh cup everyday.  Sometimes two cups.  It is so good and so much better for me than soda!  Plus, it's a hell of a lot less calories.  I use a creamer that is 10 calories per little cup.  I use that and honey.  I am trying to cut out added sugar completely.  I really like my coffee with honey.  It's perfectly sweet and it's good!  I  wish more places had honey instead of sugar or those nasty artificial sweeteners.

A friend needed me to ride with her to the hospital in Lynchburg Virginia.  About an hour and a half trip.  I usually have my coffee with lunch everyday and it wasn't lunch time yet, but I wanted coffee! lol  She stopped at the Pilot gas station to fill up and we went in and I looked to see if they had honey.  They did!  Actually, they had a really nice coffee station.  They had plenty of different kinds of creamers too!  I had my coffee and was in a much better mood. :P  We drove all the way up there.  We get out of her car and head into the hospital and she gets a text on her phone.  The person we are there to see is now home. ~_~; I was laughing so hard in the parking lot I almost fell down.  We drove back through Lynchburg and ate lunch at O'Charley's.  The food was great, but the service was not!  My friend treated me to lunch for going with her.  We ended up stopping by the person's house on the way home.  

Anyway, this got on a weird tangent and I started out talking about coffee! Yeah, this blog is aptly named.  What the Junk?! INDEED! :p

Wednesday fun!

What a day!  I am tired!  I've gotten in 35,000 steps and over 15 miles!  I walked from the hotel to the Sky Wheel.  I didn't ride on it today, though. I did go to the Gay Dolphin gift cove!  I thought they would have some iron on patches, but they didn't! :(  I guess I'll have to order some online.  I was sure I'd be able to find a Myrtle Beach one.  Oh well.  I'll keep looking.

I also went to a store called, I Love Sugar. :D  I got a box of mints with "Ann" on them and a package of Charm's candy.  I haven't seen Charm's in many, many years.  I just had to get them.  I visited two Starbucks that I passed along the way.  I was looking for gift cards that I don't have to add to my collection.  At one of the Starbucks, I found a really cool 2016 Chinese New Year - Year of the Monkey.  I'm a Monkey, so that was that much cooler! :)

I had walked over 8 miles before I found a working drink machine.  That was one delicious Coca Cola!  I finished my walk and came back to the room.  My friend and I went out later for dinner.  We ate at a local place that had good reviews.  It's called Burky's and it was great!  It's a burger/hot dog/fry place.  We went to a Target and to Tanger Outlet.  We also went to a local ice cream spot called Painters.  They are popular!  We had to wait in a long line, but they didn't take too long.

We came back here and I realized that I had 30,000 steps.  I thought that I would try for 35,000 for the day.  I made it! :)  I went for a walk on the beach.  That got me to the 35,000 mark. Actually, I'm 35,168 at the moment!  I'm charging the Fitbit now as it's battery is low.

I need to do another picture post, but I might wait until I get home and post them all to Flickr.  I might post some tomorrow if I can get to post before so late!  I am really tired and looking forward to going to bed tonight! :)

Good Grief!

So, I got in my walk and workouts.  It was drizzly when I started my walk, but it cleared up and it was nice for the rest of it.  I had six workouts on today's calendar. Yikes!  I did them though.  I felt good having done those.  I relaxed for a little bit after that and then went to a friend's house for a little while.  I haven't been up there since Sunday.  I stayed awhile and then came home. I got on a clean / fix up / rearrange kick.  I got a lot done, too.  I have one bookcase in my room that is overflowing with books and looks cluttered.  I rearranged it so it looks much better.  I also keep my Coca Cola collection on top of it.  I rearranged it too.  It looks great!  Here are two pictures of the collection: 

Hmmm

I don't have a lot to say today.  I got in my walk and workouts as usual.  I went to a friend's house for dinner.  There was cake again.  ^^;  I cannot resist it!  I really need to give up cake and soda.  I've been drinking soda my entire life. It's going to be difficult to stop drinking it.  I do not like tea, so that isn't an option to switch to.  I have considered trying to make Kool Aid with Stevia and seeing how I like that.  I like water, but not with food.  

I guess I can learn to like it with food. I am sure that if I dropped all my soda drinking, I would kick start my weight loss again.  I've cut down drastically since I began working on a healthier me.  Now, I need to try to cut them out completely.  I'm not sure the world is ready for me without my daily Coca Cola!