It ain't over 'til it's over

I'm ready for Christmas to be over on Christmas night, but this year the season is extended until the weekend, when I'll be visiting my son and his family. I made and sent their stockings early, to be hung by their chimney with care. However my new granddaughter has a few little packages here and there that she'll want to eat the paper off of.

And since I've had these extra days before the trip, I had to make Just. One. More. Thing. That's the way we knitters are. Give us a couple more hours and we'll whip out a hat. Or something.

I whipped out a dodecahedron:

And I think it's great! Since this was the first one, I wasn't sure how large it would be. It's pretty big for a baby, but so fun and easy to do that I'll certainly be making more in the future.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I enjoyed our day. His mother took us out to dinner – no leftovers! Yeah! – and we exchanged our gifts. She loves gadgets, so we gave her a Roomba. We love kicking back, so she gave him jeans [it's all he asked for] and she found a great hooded sweatshirt for me – roomy and long. Do you know how hard it is to find really long sweatshirts?

She'd given me one without a hood years ago – the one I wore in my first progress photo for the blog. Since that shirt's seen better days, this one is a great replacement. [I've saved that first one, though, to wear one more time when I reach my goal weight.]

And now that losing quest begins again and anew. Meals at my son's will be healthful and there won't be a lot of snacky stuff around, since they were out of town for the holiday. They have a great neighborhood for walking and/or running, and they live in North Carolina, where the weather usually is temperate even in late December.

When I wrote that first post in 2006, I'd hoped to have reached my goal by 2007. What happened instead is that I lost a good bit, gained a little bit back and have maintained for most of 2007. Lately I've been gearing up for more losses. Sugar is out, as are crappy carbs. I've signed up for another half-marathon, and may end up making it a full. That means regular training runs plus strength training.

Oprah made a motivational video several years ago in which one woman said, "Exercise is a daily thing." She compared it to showering and brushing her teeth – it's not something to think about or decide to do. It's just something she did, every day.

It's a good attitude to adopt. I'm not at goal almost two years after I started blogging, so it's an attitude I must adopt.

Who's with me?