New kitties in the Hizz-Owse! I couldn't help it, they were in the paper and free. Pepper needed a friend, and these 2 came as a brother-sister package. He is Guido (bottom), and a big oafy suck. She is Precious, a teeny weeny runt with a HUGE attitude. Oh, don't get in her face or she will PUFF right up, growl and do her best to scare you into next Tuesday. All 10 ounces of her IN YOUR FACE!

Last few days of vacation. Getting a lot done here on the home front, working on some major issues that I won't get into lest I jinx them. I'm superstitious that way =) SEEMINGLY good progress though.

Took Babcha Wadowski out for brunch today; we all went for dimsum. I have to say for 80 some plus yrs old she can pack it back with us young'ns. Good on her, too! Amazing food there, and I was surprised when I googled it to find out how *fairly* low fat the items we like are (depending how much is consumed, she says knowingly). Course not everyone orders weird stuff like tripe or chicken feet (omg, that tripe is delish). Personally, not a chicken feet eater myself. Tried it, and sucking on chicken toes just doesn't do it for me. The skin is all jelly like and weird... I tried pig's feet too, but same deal. What I like are the shrimp dumplings, spinach and seafood dumplings, pork dumplings - all with a generous slathering of hot sauce. We never eat the BBQ buns or deserts; just the baskets of steamed har gau. When I first had dimsum I was so, so not into it. It grew on me, and after repeated visits I've learned what I like and to always, always TRY something because you just never know. Don't get hung up on what it is LOL. So what if your eating chicken toes, who says that's bad?! Or cow's stomach (tripe)?! Who knew it was so tasty !!

Course the downside of these deluctable delicasies is hey, you need to well- not eat the rest of the day because let's face it, that is a crap tonne of calories. So when we got home, I downed a litre of water and went for a 6km walk ('bout 70 minutes) which was FANTASTIC. Gorgeous day for it. They close the riverside roads to bikes and pedestrians only, so I completed a healthy circuit from one side of the river around the other and back home. I need to find my pedometer because I'd like to graduate to the 10,000 steps a day which is about 5 miles or a little over 8km (I can totally do that now). I figured out that the local pool in my area is roughly a 5km walk from my house so tomorrow I will walk there and check out the facilities.

My biggest issue is consistency. I rock, kick ass, take number one, get a gold star and a blue ribbon for starting to eat properly and exercise all the frickin time. But CONTINUING this good behaviour, and not allowing STRESS or mental issues to get to me (note: emotional eater, helloooo) is the kicker. So I returned to journalling and daily meditation and hung up all my "skinny clothes" in the closet so that I can once again wear them. Every day, get the trauma out on paper or say it out loud, just release it instead of EATING it LOL!! Seriously though, nobody wants or plans to gain weight and live in a frickin flesh cocoon. If anything weight gain is a sign of deeper issues right? Nobody says hand me a box of twinkies because I think it looks hot to have a BMI over 30 (which I don't, but yno what I mean). I started purging the house of things I don't need any longer. Items that are remnants of a past that is done and finished. I cleaned and organized rooms that still had moving boxes in them. Still more to go, but the process has begun.

One thing that has become abundantly clear to me when meditating is my beliefs. Everyone has them. We all believe we *can* be or do certain things. We believe we are good at math, or not. We believe we are organized, or not. We believe we are pretty, or not. All these beliefs shape who we become and what we allow ourselves to be, or have. I'll give you a good one I've hung onto forever: starving artist. Artists cannot make enough money to sustain themselves. This is not a truth, it is a belief I hold and why I don't make the effort to paint or draw as often as I should. I tell myself, what for? What will it get me? It's not like I could sell my works. Or have a gallery. On my walks I've started to undo this. I see LOADS of galleries, and communities here within the city that are FULL or artists and studios. Of COURSE I can be an artist, all the while doing what I normally do in my career without compromising anything. In fact, releasing that creative energy helps me see just how talented I am in my own rights. Likewise I believe myself to be "past prime", has been never was, couda woulda shoulda girl. So not true. Again- hanging the clothes up, holding the size 5 dresses I still have up to me and literally thinking today, I could totally get back into these. Hells yeah I can! Because I believe anything is possible. We can be, do, have anything we want. Amen !