Alpirsbach

A bit of fun at the brewery in the Black Forest this weekend.

Bad Wildbad

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Today my Dad is turning 80. 

Luckily he is healthy and can fly via internet with people from all over the world and enjoy being the Red Baron or other Aces.

Weekend Excursion

We went to Bieberach this weekend and had three nice visits in the hot pools of Bad Saulgau.

Great Library Design

Library

Grave yard tree

This weekend while idly cruising around on our bikes, we came across this tree. It's even prettier in real life.

Love this shirt

Book T-Shirt

A little bit of fall

Yesterday MyGuy took this picture. Finally colored leaves and sunshine.

And up

74,5 kg today. Dominosteine are going directly to the hips, sigh.

Gym

Got a new training program yesterday, let's hope my knee and ankle like it.

More helmet pics

As you can see we had fun at yesterday's outing with our bikes. Hope we can get a few more rides in this fall.

Weight 12/10/15

Down to 73,8 kg. But if I do not eat more disciplined this will never go down.

More Flowers

Flowers in Bad Krozingen

MyGuy had a lot of fun taking pictures of the flowers in the park in Bad Krozingen with dew still on them.

Sunday

After a nice breakfast in the restaurant Blauer Affe in Ludwigshafen, we walked for a bit along the lake. Luckily in the afternoon it turned nicer and we could go for a bike ride and sit on the balcony soaking up the October sun.

One of these days

One of these days I will overcome my fear of heights and get in a balloon.

Weekend Getaway

This is a view of our favorite weekend getaway bed & breakfast. But this time we also got to see the balloon coming up over Mühlheim, which was exciting.

Blauer Affe

Read about this restaurant in the Slow Food magazine and as it is not far from our place, I am looking forward to trying something new:

Blauer Affe

Weight

21/9/15: 74,1 kg

Attitude

I love how this article presents a way of looking at life as an adventure:

Adventure as an alternative to weight loss

European Week of Sport

Last week was the European Week of Sport. I only realized this on Sunday, but one strength training, yoga, swimming and daily cycled commutes should see me through.

Joined

As we are cycling more now I have joined the ADFC, this is the German cyclist club.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday we enjoyed a couple of pleasant hours in the hot water, here:

Bad Saulgau

Mustard

Yesterday at the evening market we tried some mustard by an almost local company:

Senfmanufaktur Mattes

We tried the Pirate and the Aladin one and bought Aladin and grape mustard. Looking forward to having some this weekend with cheese.

New Look

MyGuy and me after he bought a bike last Saturday on our first outing.

Our town at night

My guy had some fun taking pictures the other night.

Full Moon

Just a few minutes before the moon was really red, an interesting effect.

Alpaca Visit

Sundown near Ueberlingen

A visit to the herb garden center

Another Photo

Flower from Sunday outing

Reading Mojo returned

Still overweight at 75kg, no wonder with all the lovely ice cream and last weeks eating out days.

Still knitting my cardigan and my shawl.

Finally got some reading done: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt read completely and almost done with Bäume reisen nachts. So happy to finally feel like reading again.

Hot hot hot

While we have not managed to break the heat record this weekend it was still quite hot. So not much going on. However I did join the sleeves of my Picea to the body, so hope to finish this some time soon. Because with 38 degree Celsius you need a warm grey cardigan with long sleeves.

Here a pic of the week before:

Summer is here

On the scale: 75,4kg.

Knitting like crazy on the sleeves for my Picea, I would love to finish this. Of course it now is warm and I am not likely to wear it, but I want to start something new and need the needles in this piece.

No reading to talk off.

However I finally got around to throwing out old computer equipment and am happy with that.

Cactii in Germany

Weight Management Rebooted

According to my scales I am at 75,2kg (feels like more), so I need to get back to walking, gym and swimming as well as drinking less alcohol and eating less sweets.

First goal: go for one walk/run this week.

Otherwise I am considering if I need to rip the sleeves of my current cardigan project and add a bit more ease. In the meantime I am knitting the current shawl from Ysolda's shawl club. Sweet!

Short Update

I had given up on the weekly weigh ins for the moment, but now that my job search is coming to a close I will try to put more energy in health issues as weight and sport again.

I am also not reading a lot these days, though I have enjoyed "Small Blessings" and started in on "The Gospel of Loki".

However my new cardigan is coming along nicely and I am enjoying knitting with Diabadu's Cool Merino.

Time flies

Not weighing myself currently, too depressing.

But I undid the cast off on my Fintry and did another ring yesterday and now I love it.

No reading going on these days.

Yesterday we had a wonderful sunny day with lots of chances for MyGuy to take photos and for me to knit.

Poppies already

Calender Week 19

Too little exercise, too much food: 73,4 kg. Oh well.

On the more positive: knitting. I have finished weaving in the ends for my Bergweihnachten and continued to knit on the sleeves for Fintry, so that moves along nicely. However I have also been bad and oredered Wollkenschaf and Dibadu yarn... so I better keep knitting.

Not much reading going on, especially if you do not count knitting books and magazines.

Calender Week 18

Weight at 72,9kg, not bad for the little movement over the last weeks.

Finished knitting my Bergweihnachten, but still need to weave ends in and block it before considering it done. This is my WIP for the HabitRPG challenge for April which runs until end of May.

I finished reading A Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller and it makes me want to grab Tolstoi and see if I can get a handle on it. However I cannot find Anna Karenina which I am sure I own. Oh well, will try to finish a few books that lie around half read.

Calender Week 17

No weigh in, the scale was blocked by a blocking shawl. I finished my Flukra and love it, though I could have made it larger. On to Ostermond socks and then I want to return to my cardigan.

10 years after

10 years ago we got together, today we are married and still happy to be together.

Calender Week 16

Weight is back up at 73,2kg, not a big surprise, too much wine, too little excercise.

Finished the socks for MyGuy's physio, so we can gift them tomorrow. Knitting on Flukra and enjoying it.

Finally started a book again, Aloha Quilt.

Calender Week 15

Good news for my weight curve, after having higher weight all week today I saw 72,7 kg on the scale. Yeah!

I have after several false starts finally gotten a good start on the socks for MyGuy's physio. I am also still enjoying knitting on Flukra, the yarn is so soft and the colors are cheerful. Bergweihnachten is my WIP for the HabitRPG group challenge for April, so hopefully that will get done this month, too.

Not much reading going on, just prefer knitting at the moment.

MyGuy is back at work and so far taking it ok. Let's hope he can keep that up.

I need to get my bike checked, but this weekend it was used bikes at both dealers, so I will try for next week.

Calender Week 14

73,1 kg, ok. Finally I am moving down again. Otherwise knitting on Flukra, started the two sleeves for Fintry and decided to knit socks from the April Wollkenschaf Sockenkalender, aber Ostermond statt dem Muster aus dem Kalender.

Finished Accidental Athlete, not enthused by the book. Pity.

Calender Week 13

Last week without MyGuy. Finally he came home on Tuesday. Yeah!

Weight at 73,7kg is ok, but will need to decrease it, my knees keep aching.

Started Djinn and Golem, great read so far. Otherwise enjoyed more of the universe of Old Man's War.

Calender Week 12

Feeling shitty, so forgot to weigh myself and to take my bell peppers along. gah!

Made nice progress on my Fintry while watching the last ski alpin races of the season. Not much else to report.

Calender Week 11

Yet again forgot to weigh myself. Last Tuesday ended up at 74,4 kg. Drat.

I am knitting on on my Fintry and think it might look ok. The colors are still worrying me.

A visit to MyGuy kept me from doing much else on the weekend, but it was good to catch up in person. Easter cannot come soon enough this year as that will mean he will be home again.

I added some habits to my HabitRPG and hope that will finally get me moving again.

Terry Pratchett

I was sorry to hear that Terry Pratchett, best know for his discworld novels, die at 66:

NYPost

Time to reread some of the DEATH books.

Calender Week 10

Forgot to weigh myself this morning. Cannot be good news with no sport and lots of sweets.

I am reading the sequel to Old Man's war and am enjoying it. I suspect my dad will like them too once I get there again.

I finished the first clue of the Kamelia mystery from Vera Sanon just in time for clue 4 to come out. Now I need to find my 2mm needles for the pick up of the sleeves, but while I have found anything from 2,75 to 5 mm, so far no luck with the 2mm. I have also done my swatch for the Rangel Kal that starts tomorrow and because I needed something brainless I have cast on another cardi in the meantime. However brainlessness was overachieving and I had to rip 297 stitches times 5 as I had used totally the wrong needle size. Duh! Restarted, I love Simply Merino, just hope the colors work out.

Calender Week 9

Weight: 73,3 kg. Surprised but happy. Now I am actually more motivated to go back to working out. Luckily it seems that walking to and from the railroad station already helps with a lot of it. Happy!

Still knitting on MyGuy's socks, but expect to have them finished by next weekend at least as I hope to go to St. Wendel and see him then. The knitting meeting this Saturday was small, but nice and I have made nice progress on the back of the Spring Mystery Camellia. As I am knitting eastern uncrossed and my hands are not used to that it takes longer and more concentration than stockinette usually does. On the other hand it does not row out, so well worth it.

Not a stitch sewn.

Small progress on decluttering, but every little bit counts.

Calender Week 8

No weight (likely still up) as we were away over the weekend. No fitness units either, but at least I picked up walking again to and from the railroad station.

Knitting on some socks for MyGuy and eyeing the newest mystery from Vera Sanon.

No patchwork progress at all last week. Need to get on to it this week.

I finally read An Old Man's War, a book that I have owned since 2007. I am also continuing on with Tiger Queens, might have to read some non-fiction on Ghengis Khan to put this in perspective.

Slow Blogger

As I cannot seem to get to the meetings of the local Slow Food group, maybe I have more luck with this one:

Irish Chain Twist QAL

A bit behind, but I have socks inspired fabric in hand and can start this one:

Calender Week 7

Back to 75kg, drat. No wonder since I have not moved much the last weeks.

For the Sicilian Oranges I have decided on 117 blocks and have cut out the remaining 13 blocks. 100 sewn now.

Cast on a new pair of socks for MyGuy on Valentine's Day, hope to get them finished by next Tuesday, so he can have them when he is away. The brown ones are on hold because they are annoying me.

Read Memories of Running and have now started Winding Ways.

Additional Habit to establish: write down something I am grateful for each day.

Habits

Inspired by a post from A Stitch in Time I have started using Habit RPG. I like the idea, but will have to see how much I am going to stick to it. I have added some stuff that I want/need to do, like finishing Sicilian Oranges with substeps in the checklist, walking and not drinking coke, doing my dishes daily etc. Of course I am still exploring the site, but it looks like fun.

Calender Week 6

No weight this week as I was already in the Netherlands on Monday morning.

No fitness update because the damn cough came back. I want to get out and to the gym, so get lost cough.

I did sew a bit on my Sicilian Oranges, but I am now considering if I want to add another column to it to make it wider. It would then measure 170 * 220 cm. Maybe I will leave it at 153 * 220. I need to cut a bunch more blocks (either 13 or 26 depending on what I decide). I am also still sewing on my Star Struck blocks. And I had this idea spinning around in my mind for green liberated frames on white. I made a few test blocks, but am not sure they are all going to end up in the final quilt.

Started a new pair of socks for ski world championship watching and traveling. Brown for MyGuy.

Calender Week 5

Surprisingly enough I weighted in at 73,8kg this morning. Surprisingly because I had not moved a lot, the sniffles could not keep me indoors, but the coughing was no joke. I am sure my work colleagues were happy when I finally went home on Thursday. Friday I had a fever on top of the cough and stayed home. Still better off than MyGuy as he is now on sick leave for pneumonia for the second week.

Luckily sewing kept me from eating even more sweets than I did. The good thing about this is that I have now 90 of the blocks for Sicilian Oranges, however I am considering making it one row wider than the brothers' quilts as MyGuy is a bit more substantial than those lads. That would mean I need 130 blocks. I have another 14 cut, so might sew those up first. In addition for every two orange blocks I make one for my star quilt. I laid out a couple of blocks yesterday and I am sure now I am not going to put the sashing from Bonnie's book version, I like the interplay of the triangles and the secondary stars too much. Might mean I need more blocks there, I will have to check. And of course with the sewing of those blocks figured out my brain was off entertaining itself with the idea of green frames. I made one test block yesterday and think I need to make a few more to see if what I am seeing in my mind is what I will get.

Not a lot of reading, but I did start three new books and finished one of them last week, Night Broken by Patricia Briggs.

Calender Week 4

I finally finished the Georgette Heyer biography, but now am not finding any book that captures me. However (2/10) read.

I lost another pound and now weigh under 75 kg again (74,7 kg).

Gym got a bit lost due to my cold, but I did take my first few running steps for this year over the weekend. It does not amount to any real distance, but mentally I have a good feeling because I got started. My knees are not too keen on it, but hopefully the weight loss will help with that and I am not going to have to go to the doctors.

I restarted sewing on MyGuy's orange blocks and think of calling it Sicilian Oranges to remind us of our nice vacation there. 64 done, 117 needed altogether, so more than half way there. I have also sewn a few star blocks for my quilt using them as leaders and enders.

7 Continents Reading Challenge

I am also considering taking this one on:7Continents 7Books

Reading Challenge

To keep the reading mojo, I am going to participate in the Lucky No.15 Reading Challenge. This runs from 15th of January 2015 to 15th of January 2016.

Reading at least one book from the following categories:
Here are the 15 categories:

1. Chunky Brick: Grab that book with more than 500 pages that you’d always been afraid to tackle. You know you can do it!
2. Something New: Just purchased a book lately? Don’t let it buried in your stacks, read it now!
3. Something Borrowed: Read a book that you borrowed from someone else. Don’t make the owner waiting forever for you to finish it. (Books borrowed from friends, libraries, or even rental places, are allowed)
4. It’s Been There Forever: Dig your TBR pile and read a book that has been there more than a year. It’s time for you to appreciate it :)
5. Freebies Time: What’s the LAST free book you’ve got? Whether it’s from giveaway, a birthday gift or a surprise from someone special, don’t hold back any longer. Open the book and start reading it now :D
6. Bargain All The Way: Ever buying a book because it’s so cheap you don’t really care about the content? Now it’s time to open the book and find out whether it’s really worth your cents.
7. Favorite Color: Pick a book from your shelf which has your favorite color for its cover! Is it pink, red or black? You decide.
8. First Initial: Read a book that has been written by an author whose first initial is the same with you (Example: My name is Astrid, and I can read anything written by Agatha Christie, Aesop, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc)
9. Super Series: Read one (or more!) books that belong in a series, it can be trilogy, or tetralogy, or anything.
10. Opposites Attract: Read a book that’s been written by a writer whose gender is different from your own.
11. Randomly Picked: Ask someone else (a friend, your spouse, even your kids!) to randomly pick a book from your TBR pile. Don’t complain whatever they choose for you, just read it :)
12. Cover Lust: Grab a book from your shelf that you bought because you fell in love with the cover. Is the content as good as the cover?
13. Who Are You Again?: You’ve never read a book from this author, maybe you haven’t even heard his/her name before. But who knows? Maybe he/she will become your new favorite author!
14. One Word Only!: Read a book that only has one word for its title (number is allowed as long as it’s only consisted of one word, e.g: 1, 2, 11).
15. Dream Destination: Read a book that has setting in a place you’ve never visited before – but would like to if you have a chance. Could be real places or even fictional 

Number 6 might be a bit of a challenge as Germany still has fixed prices for books and I do not normally shop the remainder bins in department stores.

Calender Week 3

I went to the gym twice, actually three times if you count the evening my personal trainer gave me my new training plan. I don't because I did not do the whole plan as I usually do after the trainer session, but instead went home to see how MyGuy's appointment had gone.

I only lost 100gr this week, but at least I did not gain any.

I also managed to read a whole book this weekend. The End of your Life Book Club was a fascinating read, though it increased the list of books I want to read quite a lot. That does not help with my book reduction resolution at all, but oh well. I have some of them in my stacks anyway, so I am starting with those. (book count 1/10)

DKMS

This is the year I am finally going to get registered. I ordered the kit from DKMS today.

Reading

I am in a bit of a reading slump and have lately only read (make that re-read for a lot of them) fitness and cook books. However the unread books are threatening to take over the flat and thus I pledge to not buy any new book until I have read at least 10 of the ones I have. I might have to find some reading challenges to kick me into gear again, but the off side of that is that I always find new books that way.

Exempted are only the ones I have on pre-order at amazon as of today. And if I stick to my two habits for January I get to buy one additional one.

With this said, I better get on with my biography of Georgette Heyer which is the one book I am reading (on the train) right now.

Calender Week 2

Been to two different gyms for a total of three times, been for a lunch walk twice and walked with hubby a few rounds around the block. Walked from and to the workstation to/from work.

Also following my two goals for habit forming for January alright.

Lost 800g this week.

Will continue to try cook more, especially since I bought a whole stack of yummy cookbooks.