16 July 2010

starting another

It's been a while since I've written a blog regularly.

Some status stuff. Hmmm.

I've been looking for a new job for the last year or so. Have found few postings in my field that I'm a reasonable match for. Not sure if that's the state of the economy or my lack of marketability. I went to a career counselor in the winter and she pushed medical or biological professions because they are resistant to the economy.

I was diagnosed with osteoporosis two years ago with a bone scan (DEXA), Jun 2008. At that point I was advised to take calcium and vitamin supplements and change my exercise mode to more weight-bearing types. I was doing yoga, tai ji, walking, and some dumbbell exercises, but switched to more db work and dropped the yoga for a few months, then dropped the tai ji and started doing barbell work in Dec 2008. The barbell work is to improve my muscular strength, which should translate into bone strength as well. I had a repeat DEXA a few weeks ago and that showed, what I think is significant, improvement. The doctors attribute the change to supplementation though mention nothing about the role of exercise, which they advised as well. Meanwhile I have made small improvements in my strength, based on the weight on the bars. Not that I'm interested in looking like a bodybuilder, but I was hoping that I would have something to show for all this lifting work.

I used to do wood carving, but decided that it's kind of a waste of wood to make things that sit on a shelf, so took up crochet, which is something my mother taught me a little of many years ago. Since Dec 2009, I've made a few hats, scarves, some kitchen things as part of a swap, a number of stuffed animals (amigurumi), and a few thread bookmarks. There is a knitting group work at and I have been going to their meetings the last month or so. Last weekend they had a yarn dyeing party and I attended that. Wool yarn absorbs the dye from Kool Aid and the dye "fixes" to the yarn when cooked in a microwave oven. It was interesting and fun to work with the colors.

We have two chickens (hens) in the backyard, well, did until one died recently. Her "replacement" is now eight weeks old, so ready to go outside, but we are still in the process of getting the adult hen, G, to accept being with the little one, P, and not peck her. P is scared of G, for good reason, but she's too big for her cage and needs to get outside in the coop.

We went on vacation recently and M and V are due to return today. I went with on this road trip for the first week, but had to get back to work, so they continued. We drove from the SF area to Canada, with stops along the way and I flew back from Seattle and they continued east to Montana, then down diagonally back. They have to get back today because this weekend M's half-sister in law and her son are coming to visit starting tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. Get post brad, look forward to reading more ;)

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  2. Hi Brad, pleased you are back to blogging/posting!
    We're back from Jakarta and will soon be looking into having some chooks in the backyard!
    I missed them while we were away...too unsafe to have poultry in Indonesia with the bird flu etc.

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