what's happening

We're still adjusting to the changes that September brings.

The kids are clearly used to their new schools now. I can tell this because they both say "awww, I don't want to go to school!!!!" in the mornings. Couldn't they have at least lasted through the end of September before the novelty of school wore off? (Apparently not).

I've been enjoying catching up on some TV shows that our TiVo recorded for me over the summer. Jeff transferred the shows over to the computer using TiVo desktop, so our TiVo wouldn't run out of room. I'm feeling thoroughly saturated with high-quality television right now! I've nearly watched the entire first two seasons of House, and have been catching up on back seasons of The Amazing Race that I never saw because I'm so out of it that I only found out TAR existed in December and only found out about House in April. BitTorrent is verrrry sloowwwwwly downloading TAR 6 for me right now.

I'm getting into the "meat" of precalculus right now. My head is filled with new concepts... functions, difference quotients and other bizarre stuff that seems to have no meaning in day-to-day life. I'm noticing, though, how much better I'm handling this course than I would have ten years ago. Now I understand that this stuff I'm learning will provide a foundation for future learning, which I can apply when I take more computer programming courses. I can learn this stuff, not understanding why I'm learning it, but still feel like there is a purpose in doing so. I'm hoping that once Calum's in school all day I will be able to take more than one course at a time, because it would be nice to be up on campus more, to feel part of the busy university community instead of like a visitor who rushes in and out for an hour three times a week.

I'm working hard, too, on making some lifestyle changes. I have finally joined my local Curves after living across the street from it for over two years. It's good to be doing something to tone up those stomach muscles; I can no longer use "baby flab" as an excuse now that my baby is in kindergarten. I've nearly eliminated all of the foods that I found out I'm allergic to. I need to see my doctor, though, and ask her to refer me to a dietitian so I can make sure I get all my vitamins and nutrients. At the moment, I'm mostly just eating fruit, veggies and lean meats. Can a person get everything she needs with just those things? I don't know. I'm starting to notice that even within my limited diet there are some foods that make me feel tired and wooly-headed. (I'm not complaining, though... imagine what it's like for me to NOT feel tired and wooly-headed all the time after being that way for so many years that it became normal.) I guess I need to continue investigating and cutting back until I can only eat what makes me feel good. The good news is that on Tuesday we ate out for the first time since I got back from Toronto; I had sashimi for lunch, and we went to a thai restaurant for dinner and nothing I ate made me feel sick and tired. I told Jeff that it's high time we started investigating all the local thai restaurants to figure out which one is the best. That said, our bank account balance does not suffer as much if we eat out less.

Time to start my day!