The Angel Forever

It’s alive again!

Posted on May 7, 2009 8:14 am by TheAngelForever

I am happy to report that I am typing on my own working laptop. JL took my computer to work yesterday and let scans run on the side. No matter what was done, he was not able to make certain things work. In the end, we made sure that all of the last backups had everything that I needed from my computer. At that point, my laptop was wiped clean of everything that was on it. it was a last resort, but it worked.

Lesson to all –> Be sure to back up your important files (especially digital photos) often! We were very lucky that we do this frequently.

Boy is my computer empty, but it works so smoothly . Several key items are still missing, like Microsoft Office since we can not find my CD for it. I feel much more connected today. Clearly the last two days were a sneak preview of what life is going to be like while at Disney World and I am unplugged from the internet world. Of course, at Disney World I will have so much to keep me busy. I will no longer take my laptop for granted and will cherish my time with it. Here it is when it traveled with me to my old room while the boys and I stayed with my parents a while back.

I will definitely not take my laptop for granted again and will most definitely miss it while away, but going to Walt Disney World is worth it!

Categories:
decisions Disney jl losing my mind photos

The Blue Screen of Death

Posted on May 6, 2009 7:17 am by TheAngelForever

Oy! You know it is bad when you see THAT blue screen on your computer. THAT blue screen came to my poor laptop yesterday afternoon. I turned on my computer and everything locked up, so I pushed the button to reboot. When it rebooted the evil blue screen of death appeared. I was not able to boot my computer in safe mode, nada worked.

When JL came home from work he was able to get my computer to boot with a rescue disk into Linux. Eventually he found the Windows Rescue disk and spent the entire evening doing two scan of the drives. Corrupt files from whatever happened were deleted.

This morning everything was complete. My computer now boots into Windows, but things are not working just right. I am sort of able to use the internet (man was I twitching from not having access last night) and Twirl can kind of work. Problem, the windows task bar is not visible and the drag and dropping does not work with anything on the screen. Wait, add copy and paste to the not working list.

I think JL may be taking my computer in to see if anyone at work has some ideas. Not sure what we are going to do if this computer has kicked the dust. I guess that will be figured out later. *sigh*

C’est Moi

Categories:
bad news losing my mind vent

Tuesday Step Tracking – week 1

Posted on May 5, 2009 8:24 am by TheAngelForever

I am going to introduce a new feature here at Chez Angel called "Tuesday Step Tracking." I hope that this will help me to keep on track and get others to join the pedometer club with me.

Last Tuesday my new pedometer arrived at my doorstep. I had been anxiously waiting for it. I wanted to see if it was true. Lots of items I have read stated that the average person with a pedometer walks 2,000 more steps a day. Would this be the same for me? Would this little gadget prove to be a motivator to make me power walk more and get my rear in gear? Here are my results for the first week:

Tuesday, April 28th

Wore pedometer from ~3:30 in the afternoon once it arrived. Full days from this point on.
Did 3 miles Leslie Sansone DVD (45 minutes) 4,083 steps, 39 minutes of aerobic exercise
Total steps for day 5,793

Wednesday, April 29th

Watched The Biggest Loser on DVR and power walked for 51 minutes of aerobic exercise and 6,195 steps
3 Miles of the Fat Burn Leslie Sansone DVD, 38 more minutes of Aerobic and 4,144 steps
Total steps for the day 13,394

Thursday, April 30th

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR (while hubby was sitting and watching) and power walked for 45 minutes of aerobic exercise and 5,356 steps
Total steps for the day 10,311

Friday, May 1st (started the day off not feeling so great – so not a lot of movement)

Completed the entire 5 Mile Slim Down Leslie Sansone DVD, 66 minutes of aerobic exercise and 7,539 steps
Total steps for the day 9,807

Saturday, May 2nd

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR and power walked for 44 minutes of aerobic exercise and 5,257 steps
Total steps for the day 11,060

Sunday, May 3rd

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR and power walked and did Leslie Sansone like moves for 38 minutes of aerobic exercise and 4,065 steps
Total steps for the day 12,154

Monday, May 4th

Completed the entire 5 Mile Fat Burn Leslie Sansone DVD, 60 minutes of aerobic exercise and 6,078 steps
Watched television while power walking, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and 3,159 steps
Total steps for the day 11,489

My goal was to try to hit 10,000 steps a day which is the magic number posted all over the place. As you can see I did this. Of course I never would have hit that goal if I did not put effort into doing the exercise DVDs and/or power walked while catching up on television programs. For me the pedometer has been an eye opener and motivator. I still need to recalibrate it since I am not sure if the mile calculator is correct. If it is, these are the totals for the week (remember Leslie Sansone calculates based on beats per minute to get her mile markers)

1.82 miles (did 3 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
4.22 miles (did 3 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
3.25 miles
3.09 miles (did 5 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
3.49 miles
3.83 miles
3.62 miles (did 5 miles w/Leslie Sansone)

My totals for the week:

Total of 23.32 miles (16 "miles" with the DVDs)
Steps for the week –> 74,008

As you can see the miles will not jive with the Leslie Sansone DVD’s, but those are amazing multiple muscle aerobic workouts, so no worries there (afterall I have lost 25.5 pounds since the year started). Typically I do 5-7 days of those videos, but this week was rough with all of the Disney World preparations.

Next week I will continue to track my steps while at Walt Disney World. I am very curious to see how many miles I will walk there since everything involves a lot of walking. Will post results when I get back. If you would like to join in please link on up in the comments below and tell all of your walking friends about this.

Happy Walking!

Categories:
exercise me moments Tuesday Step Tracking

Shoe shopping x 4

Posted on May 4, 2009 8:38 am by TheAngelForever

While in the middle of three giant loads of laundry and packing it as everything was dried, I suddenly remembered something. We never went shoe shopping this weekend. Sure we each had a pair of sneakers to take along on our Disney World trip, but that was about it for hubby and me. Nothing else really qualified as a comfortable walking shoe.

So, I left the laundry behind to be finished later and we went to the mall. Our first stop was to Pay Less Shoes to get some new sneakers for the boys. Each of them got a new pair of velcro Smart Fit shoes for quick and easy on and off. Next, we tried the LLBean store where JL and I tried on some Keens. They did not have the right size for JL in the ones he liked. When I tried mine on I seemed to be right in the middle of a size and was not spending SO much money on something that was not quite right. After that we tried another shoe store in the mall. I tried on a pair of Teva per my father’s suggestion. Both of my parents have owned them, along with countless friends over the years. I put them on and oh my were they comfortable. Of course, I did not want to rush into things. I waited for JL to try on a pair of sandals and then we went to a department store that had a big shoe sale.

For some reason said store did not have many shoes for women. Everything was dressy, but not casual and comfortable for walking. JL quickly found a bunch of shoes to try on. He even tried on Crocs that he liked a lot. In the end he picked out a pair of sandals that were closesd toed and very different than anything he has ever had.

When we were done there I went back to the shoe store and bit the bullet. I finally bought myself my own pair of Teva shoes. Here they are:

Last night I put them on for a power walk to help break them in. I walked for 38 minutes while watching Pushing Daisies on the DVR. In 38 minutes I walked 4,065 steps. Love my new pedometer and the Teva shoes were VERY comfortable! Here is a view of all of the shoes that we bought while shopping yesterday:

When all was said and done we had accomplished our mission. In fact, this weekend we managed to get a lot done. Almost all of our clothes for Disney World are washed and packed, shoes bought, haircuts for all of us (yes I had mine significantly chopped), traveler’s checks purchased, lists made and brain working at warp speed!

Categories:
decisions Disney photos shopping travel weekend

Laundry and packing galore

Posted on May 3, 2009 6:47 pm by TheAngelForever

This weekend we ran a lot of errands and managed to start packing. Not only did we make lists of items that we need to pack for each of us, but we also began a list of what we hope to see at each of the Disney World parks.

Today, I started the day off by tossing in three monster loads of laundry. It was time to get all of the t-shirts and shorts ready to go. JL helped me to open up our new luggage (early anniversary present from my parents) and I directly deposited items neatly in them. So far, I have almost all of the clothing for the boys in one, and the pile is quickly growing with JL and my items. I figure we will have one suitcase for the boys, one for us, one that will have swim gear/shoes/toiletries, and a last one with diapers/wipes/snacks.

Of course we will need a few carry-on bags. The boys will each a small backpack with their entertainment items like the Travel Aqua Doodles seen here with NHL:

Then we will need a diaper bag for JSL and one other bag with spare clothing and emergency items.

So many things to remember and one brain buzzing a mile a minute! On that note, I am off to work on more laundry and packing. We went out to get more comfy walking shoes and the laundry did not finish itself.