Picture Text

I am just doing a test of uploading an image in this post.

I think this picture is so pretty, so I decided to add this one today.

Notice how the text is wrapping to the side.

How about adding a link? This is a site where you can get free images.

Tom, You are NOT My Friend!

For awhile now, I dismissed social networking. I knew it was powerful, but I just didn't have time to figure it all out, and I confess, I still don't have time. However, more and more people keeping telling me how great it is, so I finally took the Myspace plunge today.

I was stumbling around, setting up my site (myspace.com/tammypowley), and I discovered I had some weirdo guy listed as a "friend" already and I was only two minutes into my set up. Panicked, I ripped off an email to a beady list I'm a member of, and then went back over to figure out how to remove this would-be-stalker from my friends' list.

Of course, once I started looking around more, I realized [[blush!]] that this guy "Tom" was the creator/owner of Myspace, so he is immediately added to your friends list when you sign up. Oy!

Do I have a learning curve here or what!?

Help a Girl or Two Out

My bead bud, Margot Potter, writes about more than just beads at her blog, The Impatient Beader. Recently she has a post, entitled "This Is Important Period," about a group of young women that really could use some help from other women.

I don't think I can explain it as well as Margot, who is a wonderful and inspiring writer, so I'm not even going to try.

Go, read, help...

P.S. A BIG thank you to Margot who is gutsy enough to write about this sort of thing.

Good Grammar Day

In my comp I class, part of the curriculum requires that I teach grammar. Now, supposedly at this level, I'm really providing more of a review, but of course, the average person, let alone the average student, generally has a very limited grammar background. So, while I don't spend a huge amount of time on grammar (it is primarily a writing class), I still try to cover most of the basics.

And, grammar is, well...not so fun for most folks. Unless I'm up there doing a tab dance and juggling electric saws, most students get that glazed over look, that "shoot me now!" expression on their faces. Therefore, in an effort to keep them awake, I try to get them as involved as possible. I do my quick and dirty coverage of the rules, but then I try to turn it back on them with handouts or group work.

Today, I tried something a little different. I had group handouts for them, but then instead of just telling them to mark corrections on the handouts, I also required that they find the rules in their grammar book (The Bedford Handbook) and marked those down next to their corrections.

I swear; I got all tingly as I watched them flipping the pages of the book. Yes, they actually had a grammar book open, and they were reading it! They were really getting into it, talking over the rules with each other and on occasion arguing a little when one student didn't agree with another. Now, how could any English teacher's heart not go "pitter patter" when watching that?

At the End of One Tunnel

Ahhh....I'm starting to envision the end of one of my book projects! I can almost see it if I squint hard enough.

I was doing some major stressing for awhile. One night last week, I had this weird dream where huge wooden boxes where falling from the sky. I mean BIG, as in the size of semi-trucks. Bam! Bam! And, as with most weird dreams like this, I woke up as I was running for my life! So, yes, to say that I've been stressed...

But, I really have made progress over the past few weeks. I just got down and dirty and wrote and wrote and made jewelry and wrote some more, and the hard work as paid off because I'm "this close" to being done! In fact, insane person that I can sometimes become when doing this sort of work, I started playing with the idea of adding more projects to the book, but I had to snap myself out of my delirium. There just isn't time, and as it is, I'm delivering more than what the contract requires any way. It's just that once I get going I find it hard to stop. One idea leads to another, and while not all the ideas are great or even good or can even work, at least I get them.

Long Awaited Update

See, this is why I cut back on my pro-blogging jobs. I just don't have the time to blog like I used to :(

Though, that's not necessarily a bad thing; it just means I'm busy doing a lot of stuff, and most of it is work that I enjoy doing. So, here's a quick update.

Writing: I've got one more chapter to finish for my metal clay book. Of course, this is the projects chapter, so that is no small task I'm talking about. The biggest issue with this book is getting photographs taken. My DH has been great about helping, but when I design jewelry projects, I don't always know exactly what the project will be. I have ideas, and I start there, but the creative process can move me around in unexpected areas. Thus, it's difficult to be able to communicate this to someone else who is trying to photograph this craziness. I'm also still working on the bead book too, so I'm teaching during the day and writing like a mad woman every night when I get home. I have one more meeting for the DVD as well where I'll try to do the intro again and actually manage to get three cohesive sentences out of my mouth, and I'm going to do some voice over stuff for it too. Ugh.


School: Loving it still! As a part-time turned full-time teacher, other than the increased pay check, it is really a lot of little things that make me happy. For example, I have an office, so when students need to talk with me, they can come there during my office hours. I have a phone too, so I don't have to worry about trying to call a student who has left a message with the dept. chair. With caller ID these days, it just isn't safe to use your home phone for this kind of thing. When I need to make copies of a handout, I just have to jot over to the print shop and zip, bam, boom, I've got them done. These logisitcal issues were always a royal pain as a part-timer.


Weight: I'm finally back down to my pre-holiday weight. Some of that is due to being very sick for about a week and a half. Though I ate weird and fattening food (like a zillion fish crackers), I didn't have much of an appetite. Of course, now that I'm almost 100% better (got a little ick in the throat still), my appetite is back in full force, so I'm going to have to really watch it. So much writing and also being sick has limited my exercise time.

Do It for the Dogs (and Cats)

I read over on The Naughty Secretary Club's weblog about an animal shelter called A Place to Bark that is run by a fellow crafter, Bernie Berlin. She has been running the place solo for a long while but is now competing for $50,000 as part of America's Giving Challenge sponsored by Parade.

Along with sending in donations via a special badge, you can also host the badge on your blog - unless you have a cheesy freebie blog here at blogger.com because every time I tried to load up the code, I got an evil IE message and my browser crashed. But, if you have a decent blog, I'm sure they would really appreciate more badges as well as more donations.

So, I'm off to donate on the badge over at The Naughty Secretary Club, so pop by there to find out all the details and to drop a little cash down or pick up the code for your own A Place to Bark donation badge.

More Consumption

Part of my web shopping lately has included some new walking DVDs, and I'm amazed to be able to say that I've actually been able to keep up my exercising to a certain extent, even with the new job. In fact, I even managed to get rid of 1/2 lb of the 4 1/2 that I took on during the holidays.

The DVDs are part of a package I got off of QVC: Leslie Sansone "Walk Slim" 5 DVD System with Firming Band. They had a New Year's Day special. For about $25, I got 5 DVDs, some weird elastic band thing, and a little diet booklet. So far, I've done the DVD pictured above. It says it has 1, 2, and 3 mile routines, but really the 1 and 2 are combined to be really 2 miles. They tell you when you've hit a mile, and I guess you can stop at that point if you want. Any way, if you are a Sansone fan already, this is a good DVD. The music is a little more contemporary then some of her previous DVDs, and the tempo is pretty fast, so you get an excellent workout. I started with this DVD since the longest routine is 3 miles but hope to work up to the 4 mile ones soon.

The band DVD I'm not sure about. I guess it would be good for firming, but I'm not big into gimmicky stuff, so we'll see. The diet book includes a10-day menu where you eat three 600 calorie meals a day, and you do the 3 or 4 mile routine every day. She claims in the booklet that you end up almost burning off one of those meals a day. I'm not sure if I buy into that. I could see burning maybe half of that, but more than 300 calories, hmmm...not so sure about that.

New School Duds

One of the rituals about returning to school is getting new school clothes. Starting with the fact that I've only had to look professional a few days a week for a couple of years now and then add to that my small amount of weight loss and then put my new dream job in the mix and you have a totally valid reason for doing lots of Internet shopping for clothes and shoes. I do have a few Burks I can wear on casual days that aren't too Burkie-looking, but that's pretty rare. Otherwise, it's back to the pantyhose, skirts, and heels. But, these days as a fat and 40 year old, I can't wear heels like I could when I was a skinny 20 year old. Luckily, I discovered some of the "kitten heel" designs from Me Too (amazingly comfy). And I also discovered Zappos!

Truthfully, I have seen them on the net before, but never thought to buy anything from them until I saw that they carried Me Too shoes. I've been looking for some navy low heels, and the only place I could find them was Zappos! So, I took a chance. I literally ordered them last night about 10pm. Today when I got home from school, they were magically at my door. Wow! Plus, shipping was zippo, nada, zilch! They even have a 365 day return policy as long as you don't wear the shoes out and you return them in the same packaging. Holy Cow!

[Pictured are Me Too "Agitha" in navy patent leather.]

Happy 2008!

Other than the fact that I've been too busy to blog lately, Blogger.com has decided to force me to use a different log in just about every time I access my account here. Wordpress is looking pretty good, folks!

But, it is a good thing that I gave up my other little blogging gigs because I've been cranking away on the books and now on school stuff to get ready for the big day soon.

Other than writing my fingers to the bones, I've been busy getting organized, and this happens to be my general goal for 2008 (other than continue to inch this weight off...15 lbs down...20 to go). It's not that I'm that unorganized, but when it comes to stuff around the house, I tend to work in organized chaos.

I received a purse organizer from my sis for xmas and that sort of got it going in my closet. That followed with me buying a shoe rack, and wow, it is amazing how much room I have in my closet now. I also tossed out a lot of old clothes. I was brutal. I tossed out anything I hadn't worn for the past year at least once, and I now have two boxes of stuff for the Am Vet's next visit. Of course, that teamed with the new job and the fact that I'm down one size required that I do some clothes shopping on the web. So, I probably replaced everything I chucked out.

The next big house organization is going to be our family room, or as we call it the dog room. It's an 18x24 ft room that opens out to a large porch, and our dogs pretty much hang out there during the day. It's got our one and only working TV, one of my bead work areas in the corner, and furniture that came over on the Mayflower. My husband has resigned himself to the fact that the beads will probably stay, though I'm not sure of this myself and may move them all into my office since I usually am writing as I make jewelry for my site and for my books. Therea are just about beads and jewelry making stuff in almost every room of the house now, and that includes our guest bath, which I've turned into my temporary metal clay studio.

Whether my beads stay in the dog room or not, I'm looking into some craft organizers like the one pictured here from Best Craft Organizer.com. These babies aren't cheap, but boy, they sure look nice and organized! Of course, I've got way more stuff than would fit in something like this, but it's a possible place to start.




Well, I've got to get back to the school stuff. I'm this far from finishing up my last syllabus. Shew! Have a wonderful New Year, and if you are looking for an easy black eyed pea recipe, check out the one I posted last year here at fatand40. I will be throwing mine together tonight so they are ready in the morning for us to nibble on throughout the day.

So Not a Tyra

Today I spent hours and hours shooting for my new DVD that will go with my book Picture Yourself Making Metal Clay Jewelry. I have never enjoyed getting my picture taken, and I have to say video cameras are even worse! We spent at least 3 solid hours working, probably got at least an hour of film, and I would guess that maybe five minutes of that is usable. Luckily, I have a very talented video editor, so hopefully, this poor guy will make me look like I know what I'm doing and not like a babbling idiot.

Granted, I didn't have a specific word-for-word script written, but you'd think I could say two sentences in a row without screwing it up! For all those empty-headed models and actresses out there who I know now aren't as empty-headed as I thought, I have new found respect, and I salute you!

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Hair Today Gone Today

About a year ago, right before the my defense, I had the brainy idea of getting my hair cut, like in a "real" salon, not just my husband giving it a trim in the bathroom. As I had feared, I ended getting a major hatchet job on my hair. It was still pretty long, but the woman layered it rather than give me the simple cut and bangs that I had asked. So, it was a mess.


A year later now, most of it had finally grown out, but it was the point that it needed some cleaning up. Not only do I start my new job in less than a month, but I will be filming my new metal clay DVD next week, so eek! Something had to be done about the mane.


As I was driving to work the other day, I passed by a place called Tease. Hmmm...it's close to where I live. I have to do something, right? The trims from DH just aren't cutting it. So, I braved it and went it. And believe it or not, I managed to find a sweet young woman who actually did what I asked her to do when cutting my hair. In fact, she was leery about whacking off five inches like I asked, but after I assured her a few times that I really wanted it cut, she went for it. She even got the bangs right.


While on the phone, I told my husband what I had done, and he threatened to get a mow-hawk, but when he saw it he was fine. It is still below my shoulders, so it's not like it's really that short, but it looks so much better. I even bought a few things to help with my tangles. I told her how I have a hard time combing my hair after I wash it, and she suggested a few things they had there. They call them "products." I felt so fashionable as I left, my hair finally in control, my little bag of beauty products in hand.

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Reading and Cat Pee

Because my friends know I write and teach English and all that, very often they want to give me some book to read. "Oh, you like to read? Then you'll like this." The problem is, though, I don't really have time to read for pleasure. Yes, I read, but I read because I'm prepping for class or I'm researching something I'm writing about or I'm reviewing a jewelry book. Who has the time to sit around and read any more? :(

Plus, of course, there's the selection of what I read. I'm pretty particular. After graduating years ago with my MA and being forced to read lots of hard-*ss literature, I remember thinking I'd love to sit down and read some trashy novels for a change, but you know what? When I actually tried to do it, I couldn't. They were just so awful to me, that I couldn't suspend myself in the stories any more. So, it was back to the classics.

Any way, recently a friend of mine insisted that I read Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian by Weiss. And, I will admit the book does sound interesting. However, I protested to her that I just don't have time to read for fun right now, especially now with the holidays and the end of the semester and book deadlines out the wazoo. But, she insisted, pressed the book in my hands, and would not let me give it back to her until I was done. And, she did want it back. She even showed me the book sticker with her name on the inside cover.

So, I thought, okay, I spend a lot of time in the vet's office bringing in my cats on a weekly basis, sometimes twice a week, so I slipped it into the pocket of my cat carrier with the idea that I could read a few pages here and there every week while I wait. The other day, I was siting there waiting to bring in one of my cats for her weekly fluids and I pulled out the book and started to read. I glanced down and noticed a small wet spot on a few of the pages. Eek! My cat was so freaked about going (again!) to the vet, she had peed, and it had leaked onto the book. Crap!

See, I told you not to give me books, people! Dang it! So, I went to my often visited www.amazon.com and ordered a new one for my friend. It's going directly to her house too because I'm so busy now I can't imagine how I'll manage to see her before the first of the year. At least now, I have the book and can read it at my leiser, which probably means not until this summer.

Burn Calories Grading Research Papers!

My pound of turkey is already history! I honestly felt like I wasn't as good about the diet thing last week as I could have been. Getting off the wagon for a few days made it very difficult for me to find my way back to my normal eating routine, and that especially included writing down my food, which I totally hate with a passion. However, it really makes a difference for me, so I know I have to do it.

My hope was that I just hadn't gained anything that week, so I was thrilled to find out the pound I had gained the week before was gone the following week. Actually, I was more amazed because along with struggling with my routine, I hadn't been able to exercise as much as usual due to the huge load of grading that hits just about every writing teacher around the end of the semester. As I was lugging home moutains of research papers to grade, I was asking myself, "Is there a better way? Why oh why did I have all my classes do this to me now?" But, of course, that's part of the problem with writing classes; students have to build up to writing the "big" research paper. It's not like I could make it their first assignment. Okay, I could, but that would not be a nice thing to do.

Maybe it was the stress of grading while trying to make headway on my two books that burned off some of the calories, but either way, it was a relief and renewed my faith in the whole system.

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The Results Are In

So, the turkey verdict is...... one pound! My strategy seemed to work for the most part. I ate a real Thanksgiving meal including my favorite green bean casserole, gravy, stuffing, turkey, and even a piece of pie, and I ended up gaining one pound that week.

I know that I really should be grateful, and I am, but of course, part of me is asking myself if it was worth it considering it will probably take me at least two weeks to get this one pound off!

Thanksgiving Day Bummer

Last year at Thanksgiving time, one of our house guests ended up in the emergency room, not due to the food but to other health issues he had. This year, because of a book deadline looming among other things, we opted for a quiet Thanksgiving with no guests and we had hoped no emergency room visit. Alas, poor Nee Nee started having a diabetic episode around 12:15. I had just finished working out in hopes of fighting off some of the dinner I was about to chow down on, when I noticed he was walking around the living room like he had no idea where the heck he was at. This is not the first time this has happened, so we sort of know the drill by now, and we have unfortunately gotten to know the staff at the emergency pet care clinic. You don't even want to know how much it costs. But, what is a cat mommy to do?

He ended up having the stay the night as they pumped him with something to bring him down to normal levels, and as you can see by the picture above, he was home the next day with a not too happy look on his face. He was fine but very needy, making sure that either my DH or I were in the same room as he was all day. I must have picked him up to smooch a hundred times that day, and he just never could get enough.

"That place is a bad, bad place!" he told me.

Turkey Day Tricks

Normally, we have a few guests for Thanksgiving dinner and my DH cooks a fabulous and fattening meal with way too much food that we continue to gorge on for about a week afterwards. However, this year due to our guests having some health issues and me having some work issues (a book deadline that's coming up soon) , it will be just two of us for dinner, and we both want to avoid the Thanksgiving spare tire that normally shows up a few days later. I just spent months getting rid of 15 pounds and I have about 20 to go, so I don't want to undo all my hard work and start at square one just so I can OD-on chery pie.

Therefore, we decided to try to come up with a turkey dinner plan that we could both deal with, which resulted in some pretty tough negotiations around here lately. DH is low-carbing it, so he can eat a lot of foods that I can't and visa versa, but we managed to come up with a compromise that I hope will work for us. My main issue is the amount of food. With WW I can really eat anything, just not large quantities of anything. So, rather than DH make is wonderful cherry pie that I will then have after dinner as well as the next day for breakfast and lunch, I bought us two pieces of frozen chocolate pie pieces. Instead of a huge casserole of green beans (which is a favorite of mine), he's making a smaller version of it. He's opting for faux mashed potatoes for himself (mushed up cauliflower) and I have one small sweet potato for moi.

It will still be a lot more food than I'm used to, but hey, it is a holiday. A pound or so I can deal with. Five pounds, though, means I'm at least set back 5 weeks from where I am now, and that is a place I don't want to go!

May you also have a happy, healthy, and not-too-fattening Thanksgiving!

Back to School Shopping

Because of the new teaching gig starting in a few months and the fact that I'm down a size now and can't imagine myself down another size by the time school starts in a few months, I went ahead and did a little back to school shopping.

I know most women are supposed to love to shop, but I guess I'm not like most women. I love to have the stuff in my closet, but I hate to go out and get it. On-line shopping isn't too painless, so I don't mind that. For example, LL Bean is a pretty decent semi-casual but not too casual place for teacher clothing. I also have luck sometimes with J.Jill, on sale items of course because their prices are normally on the high side. But, I really needed some suit/career type clothing, so I trudged out to Sears the other day.

I pulled out the "new" size I can wear, headed into the dressing room, and was pleasantly surprised that just about all of it was too large. The skirts almost fell off and pants were too roomy, especially in the waist. Could it be I'm really into the next size, at least at Sears?

With this little thrill in me, I headed back out to get the same items one size smaller. As I'm thumbing through one of the racks, a petite woman was also looking and then reached past me for an item, "I need a 4," she tells me. Pop! There goes my little bubble of delight.

New Direction 4 Fatand40

After explaining to a web-friend of mine about all the changes that have happened to my life over the past month or so - good changes, exciting changes, but scary changes as well - she put it like this: "It sounds like you have come to a cross-road in your life."

Exactly!

Here is the short version of what's happened over the past few weeks: I got the job of my dreams, a full-time tenured track teaching gig at a school I adore; I received yet another book deal (in the middle of another book right now already), one I thought wasn't going to start until January but is starting now instead; I realized I'm going to have to cut down on some of my smaller writing jobs, my blogging especially.

Granted, none of this should be that much of a surprise to me. I went back to school so that I could get a job just like the one I finally landed. I sent in the proposal for the book because I knew I wanted to write it. I went into blogging on a lark, thinking it would just be a fun way to earn a little cash but mainly with the idea it would be a good way to promote my other writing work, which it has.

Still, I've had to make some really difficult decisions. I love the blogosphere. I love writing blogs and getting paid to do it, even if it's not a huge amount of money. I love the people I've met and worked with as a pro blogger.

But yet....I know that I want to teach and write my books as well, and I just can't do it all. I also know I'm very lucky to have to make decisions like this, even though, hey, I've earned it. As I explained at one point in my interview for the job when asked if I really thought I was ready to teach full-time: "I went back to school and got my Ph.D. so that I could teach here full-time. Yes, I'm ready, and I want this job."

Though it took years to get here (actually 9, but who's counting?), it still feels like everything is changing for me overnight. So, I'm walking down a new road, but I'm taking very small steps because I'm just trying to get my bearings. I know I'm headed in the right direction though.

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14.5 in 16

Yes, I know. I have been a bad fat and 40 blogger as I've not had time for fun blogging these days, but I have been a good fat and 40 weight watcher. In 16 weeks, I've lost 14.5 pounds and I'm comfortably down into the next size. I still have to weigh in this week, and I don't feel too confident, but I've learned it is really hard to tell sometimes when it comes off so slowly. And, it is coming off, so that is what I have to keep remembering.

I can't say that I've been one of those people who have tried a zillion diets. Most just don't appeal to me because I'm a little bit of a picky eater, but that's what I like about Weight Watchers. You can really eat the foods you want for the most part, even if you are like me and have a number of foods you don't like that are required on most diets - like milk. I can't tell you how many diets I read tell you to drink milk - ick, gag me, barf-0-matica! While WW does suggest you drink it because it's healthy, the reality comes down to the points and what you total up at the end of the day. So, what would I rather drink, milk or a lite beer before going to bed? Errr...nuff said.

I had someone comment awhile back about how she was having a hard time with the WW program, and I agree that the first few weeks are rough. Heck, it just is not easy to watch what you eat - period - the end. But, after the first few weeks, you can get into the groove and find little tricks that work for you, so I hope she stuck with it, at least to get over the two week hump.