As most of you know (if you didn’t know, where have you been?) Patrick and I sold our car nearly a month ago. Since then, we’ve been commuting by bike everywhere. I ride to work every day and obviously I ride home. At first I thought I was going to hate it. I have actually been enjoying it. (Gasp! Did I just say that!?) It has actually been very convenient and so much easier without the car.

Anyway, I’m still waiting to start losing weight from the riding of the bike instead of the sitting on the butt with the foot on the gas pedal. I can feel my legs getting stronger but I am still holding out for the weight loss. I’d like to see a small difference soon. Well, last night, I got a memo from my body telling me that I need to smarten up about my riding habits.

At 2:30am this morning, I woke up with the nastiest charlie horse I have ever had in my entire life. I used to get these fairly regularly because I used to be fairly active (ROTC, track, etc). Lately? Not so much! Well, I am pretty sure I woke up shrieking “ow ow ow ow ow ow” until Patrick had to get up and pay attention to me. My left calf was like a ROCK. It was so hard and painful. I freaking HATE charlie horses. Anyway, I put some Bengay on my calf and I was massaging it in the bathroom (after it took nearly 5 minutes to get the pain to go away enough to walk) when all of a sudden my right calf starts twitching like it’s about to get a charlie horse. I immediately stretched and cursed my bicycle. I then went back to bed but I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid as soon as my body would relax that my charlie horse would come back (that happens to me when I get those). So I didn’t really sleep last night because I’m paranoid and I hate my calf.

It is now 5:40pm and my left calf is still pretty sore. I rode my bike to work anyway because I can’t stand the MBTA and riding the T is like riding on a germy sweaty bus. NASTY. I did, however, learn today that I need to be better hydrated. If you get thirsty, you are already dehydrated. So I have been drying water like crazy all day. Also, I read that the charlie horses come from a loss of electrolytes in my body… I haven’t been replenishing them because I don’t like to waste my money on things like Gatorade. Well, I had some free Powerade from the dining hall for breakfast and lunch. The good flavor was out (lemon/lime) but the blue kind was there and it made me want to vomit. Lucky me.

For some reason, I thought you would all want to read about my nasty charlie horse and I’m sure you all enjoyed it. Keep your fingers crossed that I won’t get another one tonight… if I do, I’m going to have to cut my calf muscle off my leg because I can’t live like this!!

Wow… that John McCain picture is WAY too big and WAY too scary. But I am going to leave it gigantic just to scare anyone who cames to my blog. Ha!

So… what’s new with us? I got a cortisone shot on Friday for my toe. It hurt like a mother. I’m also a huge baby. But I survived! And my foot feels much better now. I hope I’m cured. We also had a very quiet weekend filled with nothingness. We did buy a pumpkin from Trader Joe’s and made some pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin bread. We’re saving most of it for pumpkin soup and pumpkin pasta. I swear… so much food can come out of a pumpkin. I love it.

This week is a short one for me. Cindy and Bobby are driving down to Boston to visit us for the long weekend. I’m taking Friday off so that we can go whale watching and visit the Science Museum in Cambridge. I’m excited! I haven’t had anything to photograph in a while so this will be great.  You can look out for photos of that as soon as I get home from those days, I’m sure!

Saturday and Sunday, Cindy and Bobby are going to do the tourist thing in the city while Patrick and I run our normal errands and clean the house as usual.  We’re also planning some fun meals for them. Pork tenderloin with the crazy amazing cauliflower recipe from Carlene (thanks!!), thanksgiving dinner (duh!), raclette, pumpkin pasta, etc. We’re pretty excited to get to make some fun meals and we’ll finally get to take some pictures of the meals. I’ll be using the pictures and putting them in a cookbook that I’m giving Christine for Christmas. We also ordered a free-range turkey that we’re picking up from the farmer’s market in Union Square on Saturday morning. Should be fun! We will also be having all our knives sharpened at the same time. JOY! They desperately need a good sharpening.

Anyway… Monday for Thanksgiving we’ll just hang out. I want to go to Sears and look at their Land’s End stuff and Cindy wants to go to Macy’s so maybe we’ll go to the Cambridgeside Galleria. Mostly, we’ll be cooking Thanksgiving dinner and fun stuff like that.

Tuesday… that will be the BEST day. We’re going to the outlets in Stoughton. I’m excited because I freaking LOVE shopping. I’m going to get a bunch of Christmas stuff so that excites me. I’m totally prepared and even have my lists ready. Go me! I can’t believe what a dork I am.

Wednesday, Cindy and Bobby will leave… and I have to go back to work (BOOOOOOOO). But I am a big girl and I will survive. So that will be the end of my fun weekend. However, I am still happy because at least that week will only be a 3 day week and I won’t have to be at work that much. I’m even missing one of the busiest days of the year for our office so that’ll be interesting.

That’s basically all we have going on. I’m looking forward to family coming to visit because that doesn’t happen too often. Keep checking in to find some fun pictures later in the week.

John McCain. Douchebag politician.

John McBain. Douchebag cop.

If you watched the VP debates last Thursday, then you remember when the candidates were asked about the proposed healthcare changes that each party is promoting.  Palin talked about how giving families credits to purchase individual healthcare plans would be a more productive system.  Biden countered that a $5,000 family credit, as proposed under the McCain system, would fall short of the estimated $12,000 it takes to purchase individual family insurance.  The insurance agency would also be deregulated, meaning that insurance premiums would no longer be tax-free for companies who offer insurance to their employees.  Thus, more and more companies would stop offering insurance (well, not for the top executives of course).  Also, current insurance laws stipulate that for insurance premiums to be tax-free the insurance must be offered to those people with preexisting conditions.  Under a deregulated system, nobody with a preexisting condition would be offered insurance because that would affect the bottom line.  So those people who need insurance won’t have access to it at an affordable price.  As a result, nonpartisan research estimates that 20 million more people will be without insurance under the McCain plan (Biden mentioned this in the debate).

Most troubling of all, McCain had this to say about the deregulation of the insurance industry:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation

Hmmmmm…. isn’t the deregulation of the banking systems the very cause of this current financial crisis?  Isn’t this crisis called the worst financial situation since the Great Depression?  How in the hell could anybody now consider the McCain plan to be anything but a disaster for the American public?

Melanie and I listened to the first presidential debate during our car ride to Montreal, and I watched the only VP debate last night.  The debates were to be as expected, lots of big promises and talking around questions as opposed to actually answering them.  Of the two debates, I think the VP debate is more telling.  Firstly, most people who dislike Palin fully expected her to make an ass of herself.  To her credit, she did not.  I still think her tone of voice is better suited to an elementary school teacher than a high ranking politician.  Also Biden made it very clear that on the issues that matter (the wars, the economy, and healthcare) McCain is no maverick, he is lockstep with Bush.  Palin was not afraid to throw Bush under the bus (constantly referred to the “blunders” in Iraq) as if to show that she and her running mate are different from Bush/Chenney, but their ticket is only more of the same.

Apparently the case is closed on the Chinese Olympian’s case of them being underaged.

I went to see the surgeon yesterday and was too lazy to blog about it then. So I’m doing it now. My doctor was early so I was in and out before my actual appointment time. He also looked so generic that I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup if my life depended on it. Turns out that I most likely have cracked/broken cartilage in my toe. Dr. Lookslikeveryoneelseintheworld said that the “click” I hear is my cartilage just rubbing all weird. He said that he wouldn’t consider surgery until 6 months after the accident if it was still hurting. So tomorrow morning at 8:30am, I have an appointment to get a cortisone shot in my toe joint. He said that I should feel funky for a bit and the joint might get a bit swollen but then I’ll feel better. If my toe still hurts in 2 months, he said that I should come back and then we’ll talk about surgery. I’m hoping that it doesn’t hurt in 2 months and I won’t ever go back to see him. EVER.

So that’s the deal. No surgery for at least 2 months. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’m pretty sure our cats would flip out if a bird was that close to the window.

Today is Patrick Deniger’s funeral. Please keep his family in your prayers. Thanks.