Feeling the pain of my inability to turn down a challenge

I'm feeling a little foolish this morning. I have a physical reminder of a very silly thing I did yesterday. Somehow, I feel like admitting it to my blogging friends will help a little bit....

So, it all started yesterday afternoon. I teach a piano lesson at my home after school on Tuesday, so I was glad that there was an assembly yesterday afternoon at school. An assembly meant my last class of the day was cancelled, so I had extra time to finish up my end-of-the-day work. That, in turn, meant a little less rushing to get home for the lesson. That would have been great if I had used my extra time a little more wisely. When I got home, though, I realized that I had about 15 minutes of "flex time." So, I sat down in front of the TV to chill for a few minutes. I only get a few channels, so I landed on Oprah.

That is where my trouble started. Oprah had two doctors on as guests. The doctors were going through a lady's home denouncing the evils of the American diet, so I was immediately intrigued. The next shot on-screen was the amazing transformation of the lady after she changed her diet and exercised. She really look amazing. She had lost 45 pounds, and she looked much younger (and I'm sure the fashion makeover and the professional lighting and makeup didn't hurt.)

The doctor then began talking about the danger of belly fat. Belly fat, he said, is caused by stress, and forces your liver to process the fat. This is apparently very dangerous. Then, he started in with the statistics. He gave a magic number for the waist size for women. He said that if a ladies waist is any larger than this, she is in physical danger. I had to know right away whether I was in danger or not, so I grabbed my tape measure. I discovered that my waistline is in the "safe zone." [Whew!]

Next, he started talking about physical fitness and exercise. He said that the average 30-year-old woman should be able to do 45 bent-knee push-ups. By now, I'm sure that anyone who knows me has figured out where this story is going. I simply had to find out whether or not I could do 45 push-ups. So, five minutes before my piano student was scheduled to arrive, I was down on the floor trying it out. Now, I was really proud of myself when I was, in fact, able to do 45 bent-knee push-ups.

Then, I got up and realized how stupid that move really was. You see, I had already agreed to help my friend move last night. The move went pretty well, but it involved more lifting....Let's just say that conducting the afternoon music groups will probably be a little painful today. The fact that I can pat myself on the back for being in the safety zone does take the sting out a little bit. I suppose that's what makes it so hard for me to turn down those challenges, but every time I've had to pick something up today, I've felt the need to curse that character flaw of mine.

Blue eyes vs. brown

I saw this headline on my internet homepage this morning: "Study: Blue-eyed People Smarter Than Brown-eyed."

Since I have blue eyes, I was intrigued. Who doesn't love to prove that they're "smarter?" I read the article, and in case you should feel so inclined, I've provided the link.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293777,00.html

To be fair, though, I should let you know that my second reaction to seeing the headline was, "Really? That was the best way they could find to spend the research money?" I guess that's just one of the many reasons why somebody else is in charge of scientific research.

The last few days of summer vacation

I just returned from the trip to Tucson. I had a wonderful time visiting the family. Chloe is just beautiful, and I had a great time visiting with her and her parents. There aren't too many stories to tell. The flights went smoothly, and the time in Tucson was very relaxing. My sister kept apologizing that we couldn't do anything exciting. Normally, she'd have taken me swimming, hiking up a mountain, or out to visit some of the sites of Tucson, but the baby was only four weeks old on Tuesday (the day before I left) so they couldn't do much outside the house. That may sound boring to some of you, but I found it wonderfully relaxing. I got to hold the baby a ton. It was also really fun to spend some time seeing my sister.


Also, we did get to see one tourist-y place. It's an old west town and restaurant called Pinnacle Peak. We ate at the steakhouse there, and my sis and I got one of those old west costume pictures taken together. I'll post a picture of the ceiling at the steakhouse. Any guest who wears a tie to dinner gets it clipped off by the "sheriff." The tie is then nailed to the ceiling. It was a little comical to see some of the men wearing old ratty ties over t-shirts and waiting for the sheriff to come by. If you're hoping to see the picture of my sister and me, though, you're out of luck. It's not very flattering, and the beauty of having my own blog is that I can choose which pictures I want anyone to see.


I can't post about this trip, though, without posting pictures of my beautiful new niece. I also need to brag a little about her. She just turned four weeks old on Tuesday. While I was visiting, I saw her roll herself onto her side more than once. She also smiles, laughs, and coos.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with baby devlopment charts, these are all things they don't expect babies to do for the first couple months of their lives. In short, my newest niece is not only beautiful, she's a genius.