My Flog for January 4 + Stellar Jays, Aerobics, and Bye-Bye Turkey

After quite a sleepless night and early morning wake-upping by the grace of Howard, I fell back asleep for a fitful three hours, and got up just after 9 o'clock, when I dragged myself out of bed and over to the window for my daily Good King Wenceslas thingie. I saw a dull, rainy morning brightened only by a Stellar Jay chittering in a tree nearby. This was a call for breakfast - since he was obviously not going to shut up and fly away, I headed downstairs to the peanut gallery. Well, the peanut cupboard. I hope he and his two friends appreciated my pouring cracked up peanuts and birdseed into the bird feeder - especially since I wasn't the only thing pouring - it was still raining, and I was still in my robe. And it was before coffee.

Because it was raining and I was (am) cowardly, I put all plans for a Breehy outing out of my head. Instead I searched through many VHSes (yes, I still have a VCR) for my Richard Simmons Tapes. (Yes, I still have a few of these.) Sweating to the Oldies was something we used to do way back in the 80's. So I figured, if I could handle 30 minutes of aerobics, I wouldn't feel guilty over no walking, no biking, and two bed-time chocolates that didn't make last night's Flog.

Our old friend Richard didn't look one day older - but the tape itself didn't age well. There was a constant tracking disability that couldn't be fixed, but once I had the first 'song' over, I didn't feel like starting over with a different routine, so figured I'd go through with it.

I realized the stiffest part of me is my neck - that cracked and squeaked, still is cracking and squeaking actually, as I move my head now. I realized how completely unco-ordinated I have become - my feet can do something, and my arms can do something - but not simultaneously. The scariest parts were when everything came to a stop so the group could check their heart rates - and I never ever had one. And the most You Gotta Be Kidding moment was at the end, when 'we' were sitting on the floor with 'our' feet turned into each other, and were supposed to bend 'our' heads over between 'our' knees. Yes. Like that was going to happen.

However, I did make it through to the end, even through the places where the tracking was really bad and I had to imagine the movements. I figured if my feet kept tripping and my arms kept flapping, it amounted to the same thing. In fact, it wasn't too strenuous until I came to the TWIST. That's when I figured I'd need a shower at the end. 

And I must admit, after a shower, I felt pretty good. 

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee (yes, I know, pretty boring, but that's what I GOTTA HAVE first thing in the morning
• Lunch - Pea Soup and Cherry Yogurt. Not mixed up together, of course. First course was Soup. Second course was Yogurt. And a chocolate sneaked in there somewhere.
• Dinner - Turkey Soup and warm Fresh Bread not long out of the oven. Today I spelunked until I found the Turkey Remains from Christmas Dinner, and made a pot of delicious Turkey/Veggie Soup. I also made 6 loaves of bread. That's a lot of breakfast toast for the future. We cut the tiny loaf - being the runt of the litter, it cooled off a bit quicker than its siblings, and I had a slice with my soup, and one slice of  'lassy bread after my soup. Mmmm good. I finished the 3-course meal with the last Black Magic Chocolate - now I know why Howard's stomach wasn't growling like mine before we ate.