Since this story broke, my question has always been, “why would the trainer lie about one player and tell the truth about another?” Another I continue to have is what does he have to gain? As I watched the interview on 60 Minutes, I really wanted to believe Roger Clemens, but I don’t think that happened.

When Mike Wallace asked point blank if he did steroids, that’s the one time that Roger did not maintain eye contact. Now is this the only reason I don’t believe him? No, but check out this article on how to detect lies and see what you think. Here’s another page of information about detecting lies just in case you want to know more. Of course I’m probably bias in my opinion so I’m probably looking for signs to confirm my opinion.

Clemens’ interview today did not help much either. Not that I was expecting a polished speech, but his demeanor continues to leave a bad taste in my opinion.

So that’s where I’m left at this point. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his sell of it just isn’t there for me.

My husband suggested writing out my resolutions this year, so here they are:

• Lose the weight that I said I wanted to lose 6 months ago
• Beat Guitar Hero III on at least the easy level
• Get a character to level 70 in World of Warcraft
• Blog at least twice a week
• Complete a 1/2 marathon

My plan is to write quarterly updates about all five. Stay tuned…

I should have known there was going to be an issue when I immediately agreed to split the cost of the guitar and game with my oldest son. My addiction did not start out right away. We had to take turns with 8 people, so I didn’t get to play much. Then I noticed a change when I wanted to play as soon as the kids went to bed. Now it’s a full blown addiction since I’m dreaming about it in my sleep. I know I’ve got issues b/c now as soon as I look away from the screen, things are still moving. There are other signs as well:

• Playing nonstop for 90 minutes (I’m an old lady, trust me that’s a long time to play)
• Telling my husband “Just one more song, I promise.”
• “I’ll go fix dinner as soon as I finish my encore.”

As with any game there are negatives. We don’t have a 2nd guitar yet to play against each other since they won’t be available until the end of January. (We have the Wii.) I would also like to see them make a left-handed guitar, (not in the plans yet according to the web) so we don’t have to switch back and forth just for me. Also just doing the lefty flip doesn’t help when it comes to the whammy bar.

It’s really time for me to go back to work, so I won’t start playing as soon as I wake up in the morning.

After watching this movie, the first thought that came into my mind was, “I’m glad I didn’t see this in the movie theater.”

Let me clarify — I really did enjoy this movie, but there’s no way I could have made it through without rewind. Had I been with my husband at the theater, we would have walked out because of all the questions I had during the movie.

All in all, a good flick, but make sure you’re ready to pay attention. It’s not just a sit-and-get kind of movie. It reminds me of Babel or Crash in that if you miss one thing, you’re not going to understand the end at all.

I was so excited about having the kitchen finished as our major project for the summer. So you can imagine how upset I was when I dropped a wine bottle on the tile, putting a crack in the middle of it. (No, the bottle did not break. Go figure.)

I was glad that my first cracked tile was on a corner, because I was afraid I’d do more damage to others. It really only took a flathead screwdriver and hammer to pop the tile off of the counter. The main trick was to get as many big pieces up at a time and then remove little pieces as necessary. One thing that took a little more care was removing the grout near adjacent tiles. I worked as close to the cracked tile as possible, so I wouldn’t knick the good tiles.

This fix was not hard at all. It just took time and effort to get it done.

While we were at Party City, I came across a bargain find for my Halloween decorations: lawn bags with pumpkin faces. I got two packs of 10 for $2.00 because they were buy one get one free. We were able to create our own “pumpkin patch” while cleaning up our lawn at the same time.

Some of our other cheap finds came from Wal-Mart. We found a hanging spider for $5 and Halloween cups at 5 for $1.

In order to add to my decorations, I’m going to make sure and go after Halloween when they have more stuff on clearance.

From Day 60 to now, there’s been ups and downs, but I’m at the same weight overall. The main thing I’ve noticed is I don’t manage the stress well in my life. It’s not an excuse so much, just a realization that I’m seeing.

Most of my stress is brought upon me by my own expectations. With my new job, I want to make sure I’m doing my best. Putting all of my energy into that makes everything else suffer. Finding balance is the key and at this point, I just don’t have it.

Like anyone with issues, realizing it is an issue is a good starting point. I’m not stress eating as I would have in the past, I’m just not putting my efforts into it like I want. One positive though is that I’ve got a pedometer now and it’s helping me get back on target. Another good positive is a goal of being down at least 30 pounds by the time we go on our spring break trip. For me, I think it’s all about keeping goals.

In the never ending saga of home improvement, our youngest son is getting in on the action, too.

He already had chosen a space theme for his bedding, so my mother-in-law (Jimmie) came up with plans based on that. From there, we began our project and kept within a budget of $200.

• Bed in a bag: $60 — This came from Bed Bath & Beyond and was the main piece we started with for the room.
• Floor Pillows: $20 — Jimmie bought the fabric and made these for the room.
• Valance: $15 — Extra fabric from the bed skirt and some additional fabric to extend it down the window.
• Paint: $45 — The bottom color is washable paint, so it should be more durable in this space. To save money, we purchased a paint that was offering a mail-in rebate.
• Wallies: $25 — It took us a while to figure out what the layout would be for these. In the end we used one wall for the smaller ones and one wall for the larger ones.
• Lamp & Shade: $0 — Jimmie used the bed skirt fabric for this and I painted the lamp a metallic silver.
• Trash bin: $0 — This was also painted metallic silver to match the lamp.
• Wall Art: $0 — My mom gave this to us.

Grand Total: $165

We are all very happy with this project. It no longer feels like things are just mixed and matched. Everything has a place and our son loves being in his “new” room.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite shows on HGTV. They’ll definitely get you inspired to think about sprucing up your own living space.

• Curb Appeal
  Every time I watch this show, I want to go to a home improvement store. One of these days, I AM going to paint the exterior of the house and get new grass.
• Design on a Dime
  This show has great ideas for a great price. It really is a matter of just putting in the effort and taking a risk.
• House Hunters
  Not really a get excited to change stuff show, but very entertaining. I’m always so surprised at how much people can afford for houses. Another surprise is how much people spend on places with one bathroom, no garage, etc.
• Mission: Organization
  People that know me aren’t shocked when I tell them about this show. I love all of the bins and such they suggest for storage. I like their approach of categorizing things by importance and giving away items to charity.

I’ve definitely found a correlation to specific times of the month and weight loss. Moving on, I’m glad to say I’ve had a decrease as of late. My exercise has not been that good, practically nonexistent I’d say, but I’m doing a ton of walking in my new job. I’m thinking about getting a pedometer to track how many steps I’m taking during a work day.

Now that I am in a new work environment, I’ve really got to pay attention to all of the good habits I set up in the summer. My water intake is not as good, nor is my fruit intake. Stress and a hectic schedule always does this to me. If I can be more reflective about it and watch for the patterns, I should be okay.