Bit of a quiet week here. Monday Carol and I signed up at a local gym. Tuesday a trainer showed us how to use some of the equipment. Wednesday and Thursday I was off to my practicum. Today we go back and do a cool workout.

I am down to one day left on my practicum, and boy will I be glad it is over. The experience itself was fine, it is the commute that gets old quick. Heading home last night I see a sign saying accident on 635W at Marsh Lane three left lanes blocked. So I stay in my right lane which soon slowed to a crawl. Took me over an hour to get the mile and a quarter. It is not stressful or dangerous (long as you keep an eye out for the angry nut jobs) but boring. Don't take long looking at a cement pillar to wish you were somewhere else!

In about 2 weeks I will have completed 3 of the courses I am doing this semester. I can focus on one course to complete the month of November. I am also trying to decide what courses to take to complete the program (one more semester!!).

At least the weather has been great lately. Balmy highs of 80 something with overnight lows in the 50s. Trees are starting to get some color and some people have put in their pansies.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I am starting to feel like a xerox machine starting every blog the same way.

Last week I had my usual practicum hours (now down to 3 more days!!) followed by the once a month class meeting on Friday/Saturday. I had to prepare a paper and a presentation (which I did not have time to present, unfortunately) for that class and do a great deal of reading. It was mostly interesting stuff so I did not feel too put upon (as a student I have to guard against feeling abused by my instructors).

This week I had a big search assignment due on Tuesday that took up a lot of my time.Then my practicum hours (down to 3 days!! Oh, I said that already??). Today is the first day in over two weeks that I have been able to relax and plan a bit.

I have been getting some exercise on a semi-regular basis lately. Doing 2 laps round the park (~3 miles) as often as I can get there. Just came back from one such trip. It feels great to be able to be active, even just this little bit. I also picked up a new bike last week but have not had a chance to really ride it so far. Carol and I are thinking about doing day trips in the future: drive somewhere cool, spend the night, jump on the bikes and do a tour, come back spend the night, drive home. Sounds like fun!

Tonight we are going to a live show. I am a bit excited about this as I have not done anything in ages. A real show with real people and a real audience! Wow!

The leaves are starting to change color. Not really happy about that, but I do love the colors. Maybe I will make the time to do some photo taking in the next few weeks.

I also need to think about putting in some winter flowers out front. I have not had time to actually do anything with the garden out back. Rather disappointing, but I guess it is what it is. Too much to do, too lazy to make the time to do it all.

I am torn between thinking that September was an excessively long month and the idea that it is over before it started. It was most surely a busy month.

I have 67 of my practicum hours finished with only another 53 to go. The last bit will need to be a lot more focused if I am to accomplish anything useful.It has been a good experience so far, and I am glad I chose the place I did.

This week a friend of Carol's came visiting. She spent Wednesday night here and left Thursday morning. This woman is on a grand tour of North America. She is spending about a month and a half traveling over much of America and parts of Canada. Anyway, this meant a great deal of dust shuffling here before she arrived. On top of that, I had a midterm assignment due in one class, my usual tutoring, and my usual work for other classes. I feel totally burnt this morning.

So, to overcome that feeling, I will be going for a nice long walk.The weather has become fall cool lately so I can tromp around at almost any hour without worrying about heat stroke. Bit too chilly for me but Carol is pleased. I am ready to head further south!

I think I will try and do some gardening this weekend. It is a good time to plant garlic bulbs, so I should go see if the stores are selling any. Radishes, onions, lettuce, all could produce a crop before the first freeze in a bit, I think.

I hit the magic 220 number on the scale this morning. It is a happy looking number, don't you think? I am convinced I feel better energetically and intellectually. I am still on schedule to hit 199 by Jan. 1!

This next week is going to be busy. I have to read a book (The Gifts of Athena by Joel Mokyr--an interesting read for all the economists out there), do a book report, slide show, and presentation (for Friday), read a whole whack of articles for the Friday/Saturday class next week, as well as all the usual assignments.

I have started listening to books on cd during my commute and enjoying it. Yay! for libraries! No way I could afford to do this if I had to buy them.

I came down with a cold last week. Was ill and miserable Friday through Sunday. I have been feeling better the last few days though I am not yet at 100 percent.

On the up side the weather has been awesome. Sunny, warm (low 90s), and feeling like fall. I really love weather like this and wish it would hang around for the next 7 months before getting warmer again. Oh well, guess one has to put up with some cold weather to enjoy the warm.

Met with a literacy student at the library today. This is a volunteer thing that I signed up for way back in November of last year. I think this will be fun and challenging though I don't have as much time to invest in it as I would like.

Classes are keeping me busy. I am finding two of them to be interesting and definitely worth the time/money investment. The third is giving me fits. It is poorly designed, poorly implemented, and I am not sure whether I am coming or going half the time. The actual course material is not difficult, but knowing what I am to do is. If it were possible, I would drop the course and take something else in another semester.

My practicum is going well. I am learning a great deal and finding the staff at the library helpful and friendly. It appears like it would be a great library to work at and a good group of people to work with. The only problem is the commute. Took me over two hours to get there one morning last week. Or was that the week before? The weeks are running together already!!

No weight loss this week. I think being sick made my body reluctant to let go of anything. Still, I have lost 39 pounds in the last 4 months, so I am quite pleased!

Bit rainy last week. We had no damage here, other than a few low spots causing road closures. I was leaving my practicum site and the tornado was rampaging about Dallas, but it was east of me and heading north east and I was heading west so I just kept ona going. Traffic going in on Wednesday was crazy, took me 2 hours for a 1 hour trip. Guess I have to get used to the pokiness of the interstates during not-rushing hour.

The two days of  practicum went well last week. So did the two days of class. Played me out though, not used to 12 hour days after so long with short days. On the upside, I don't have to do the class for a month! Back to just regular busy this week. Silly me, I am already looking forward to the end of the semester! Now I have the Hawkwind song "Hurry on Sundown" stuck in my mind!

Still getting some okra, I think they are cool plants with some pretty flowers. Couple of bigger green peppers coming along as well. I still have not made it out into the garden to get ready for fall planting. Guess I will have to schedule the time for this weekend after seeing what can grow this late in the season.

After the storm, the weather has been nice. Warm during the day and cool at night. Feels great to be in mid-September and still at 90.

I reached the halfway point (39 lbs lost!) with my weight loss yesterday. With any luck I will have lost 40 pounds by Friday which is my 4 month anniversary of starting to lose weight. I have a new photo of the skinnier me I will need to post here when I can. Feels good to be less.

I had a good week. My first day of practicum went well. Traffic sucked big time both ways, but I manged fine. Speed limit in IH35 is 60 for most of it, I managed 5-25 for three-quarters of the home trip. Other than that the day was fine. Had fun, enjoyed the experience, and I am looking forward to what is coming.

Weather has cooled down a bit. Had some rain earlier this week and it is chilly in the mornings now. I suspect our okra will stop producing soon. They have done well though!

I managed to get 6 elliptical miles in 60 minutes yesterday. I have been trying to reach that goal since the end of July! Today's workout was a nice, easy 5 elliptical miles, though that is amusing. Only a month ago that was a killer workout!

Should lose 2 pounds this week. Put me at 33 pound loss since I began in May.

Busy week ahead of me. Two full days of practicum (Wed. and Thurs.) and two full days of classes (Fri. and Sat.). Should be fun though.