birthday weekend

Saturday was my birthday. We celebrated by driving to Hobby Airport to pick up my daughters' pet rat, which she sent ahead of her. After we dropped the rat off at home, we went out for sushi.

Sunday we went out for an all you want champagne brunch at a local place called Karls on the Riverbend. Yes it is local, the food is lovely but the restaurant is not on a river, but rather on a bayou extension of Bessies' Creek which is low, muddy and rulet straight. Never mid the food and the abiance were lovely.

All three of my kids called and wished me a happy birthday. Several ladies from the Southern Tier cross country sent me birthday cards, I got flowers from my oldest son, an exquisite book on Pueblo artists and a Tewa horse statue from the painted pony series from my sister, and my sweetie has also ordered me a jersey from the Southern Tier because he says I deserve bragging rights.

Today I had another session with my trainer and did an hour of cardio after. It is discouraging to weigh myself and discover that I have put back on any weight I may have lost on the cross country ride and then some. I am having a really hard time dialing back and tapering off on my eating, and all the good food this weekend only made my lack of control that much more obvious. I have to buckle down and start towing the line. The good news is that the trainer is really working me hard in spite of my protests, and each work out is a little less devastating in terms of pain and recovery. Now I just have to really get committed to a 5 day a week training routing and keep pusing myslef physically so at least if the weight doesn't go off, at least the inches might stay away. It never gets any easier which seems unfair. It sort of seems like I ought to be able to maintain with just steady effort. Unfortunately that isn't the case and it is obvious that I have to keep pushing on the edges of my strenth and endurance.

The sad part of this weekend is that Jason, one of our geriatric cats is fading fast. He has a weakened heart valve and it is looking like he's going into heart failure. His breathing is labored, he is weak and shaky if he stand up, he hasn't eaten for three days and I'm thinking it's about time to let him go. He's 14 years old and we adopted him as a six month old feral cat from a no kill rescue place and has been a part of our life for a long time, but there comes a time........He is obviously uncomfortable however he sits or stands and is fading fast. We'll see what tomorrow brings.