Oh, So This Is Why People Move to the Suburbs

From our neighborhood association's email list:

Many of you having been emailing me asking about the helicopters and police in the neighborhood and surrounding areas today. What I know is this:

Earlier today the bank inside the Tom Thumb was robbed. The man claimed to have a bomb, but it was later determined he did not. He escaped into the woods around our neighborhood. The police brought out the search dogs and helicopter to canvas the area. Channel 11 had a crew on site and reported at 6pm that the man had not yet been caught, but that the police believed he was still in the area. They were also searching the DART train station. Our neighborhood is the path he would have taken to reach the DART station from Tom Thumb, so that explains why some of you had police and dogs in your back yards. I am sure that by the 10:00 news all stations will be reporting on it, but channel 11 was the only station I saw on site, so you might want to watch tonight to get a more updated report.

PLEASE take this as an excellent example of why we need to keep our doors locked and garages closed, even in the middle of the day. We live in a quiet little neighborhood that happens to sit in the middle of a very urban area that will inevitably have crimes take place in it. We cannot prevent these types of crimes from happening, but we can make the job of the police a lot easier when we make our neighborhood very uninviting to the criminals.

Pan-Pacific Bloggiversary

It's my one year bloggiversary today, and to celebrate I'm GOING TO JAPAN!

Well, not really. I mean I'm really going to Japan, just not for my bloggiversary. But, it is my bloggiversary today. Well, sort of. I mean I used to post in a different place under a different name. But, here I've been posting a year. Well, I know it looks like more than that since I put up those old posts. But, really I guess it's at very least my bloggiversary as Unruly Duckling. Really.

P.S. Squeee! I'm going to Japan!

There's Plenty of Room for Improvement

But still, holy crap! I just "ran" half a mile.

Granted, it was v…e…r…y s…l…o…w…l…y. It took me 8 minutes, which puts my pace somewhat less than 4 mph - slower than many people walk. But I kept telling myself that slow was better than not at all.

Of course there had to be an extremely fit shirtless guy practicing wind sprints on the same block I was huffing and puffing my way down. I kept focused on fighting osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease and managed not to die of embarrassment. Hopefully if I stick with this I'll also manage not to die of lots of other things, too.

Code Talking

The Husband posted this helpful link in the comments below, but here it is in more easy-to-find format.

Code for importing from TikiWiki to Blogger

Where in the World is Unruly Duckling?

In two weeks, barring any major complications, I will be here.



More details to come when it's a done deal.

Taking Care

Now that my mental health is back up to par, I’m realizing how badly I’ve neglected my physical health. For the past five months I have shunned exercise and embraced any type of food-stuff that’s fried, cheesy, or chocolate-flavored. If I continue like this I’ll have to start washing myself with a rag on a stick before next summer.

As much as I hate the idea of being fat, I worry more about diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, and stroke. I’m also tired of being tired. I really want to feel stronger and more energetic. So, while it would be awesome if a better focus on fitness and nutrition suddenly qualifies me to be a Victoria’s Secret model, I really just want to be healthy.

I know what works. A few years ago, I made a very reasonable plan for myself - limit sweets, full-fat cheese and dressing, and fried foods and exercise most days of the week for 30 minutes or longer. I definitely felt better, but I put too much emphasis on how much I weighed. Every time I stepped on the scale and didn't see any weight loss, my day was ruined. It actually made me cry.

Over the course of about three months I lost ten pounds. But it wasn't happening fast enough, so I got frustrated and discouraged and quit trying altogether. If I couldn't be skinny right NOW it didn't seem worth the effort. Of course I've gained back those ten pounds and ten more.

It won't do me any good to focus on that, however. I'm making this about taking care of myself. I assume I'll drop a size or two in the process, but if not I promise not to punish myself for it. What I hope to achieve is to enjoy my body. To be able to hike and ride my bike and feel good doing it.

To reward myself for the effort, my plan is to treat myself to a day at a water park next summer. I love swimming and playing in the water, but right now, wearing a bathing suit all day would be too physically and emotionally uncomfortable to bear. However, even if I do have jiggly thighs next summer, which I assume I will, I will be confident that my body is healthy and strong and I deserve to have fun in it.

I'm sure there will be times over the next year when I'll get lazy or stressed out and will put off exercising or eat too much cake, but the point will be to get back on track with the intention of taking good care of myself for a lifetime, not to punish myself with neglect and contempt.

Bloggy Blast From the Past

With much help from The Husband and Traivor I have imported old blog posts from my original Virtual-Vortex wiki blog, "Le chat étourdi" and then later "The Dizzy Blog." (At least I think I'm remembering those names correctly.) They're mostly posts about my trips to Paris and the UK, with a few ill-informed opinions and links to silly websites thrown in for good measure.

The original images are missing, and I'm sure plenty of the links are broken, but there they are, preserved until the end of the internet.

30th Birthday with a Bang

As has become tradition in my family, we enjoyed an evening of blowing stuff up to commemorate my birthday. But first we enjoyed the similarly traditional Crazy Patriotic Cake of Birthday Excellence.



This cake has four delicious layers, between which are additional delicious layers of blueberry and cherry pie filling. Truly a worthy birthday cake.

Then we commenced to blowing stuff up, such as a monkey race car driver.



And a duckling so unruly it's illegal within the city limits.



We had some mighty fine explosions if I do say so myself.

Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk

On a hot tip from Sealegs I decided to call myself a Wingman after enjoying a wee bit too much wine on Friday night (and much of what was technically Saturday morning). It was extremely awesome, but I certainly paid for the privilege of such awesomeness. They charged $65 for a 15 mile ride - a little more than twice what a cab would have cost. However, I did pay an extra fee for being a short ways out of their service area. Also, after looking at their website today I realized they picked me up after the posted hours of service, so they may have charged me extra for that, too.

It's a great service, however, and under more favorable circumstances it would have been much more affordable. They picked me up within 20 minutes of my request, politely responded to my drunken small talk, and deposited me and my car safely at home at 4 a.m.

Unfortunately, I did not get to witness the fold-up moped action since I needed a ride from the vast, uncharted wasteland of North Dallas, which was too far away for them to speed over on the moped. Instead two Wingmen showed up in a car, and one guy drove my car while the other one followed.

Final verdict - more expensive than a cab, but it's so convenient to have your car the next day, it's probably worth it, especially for shorter trips that don't accumulate extra fees.

Leaning Left

In this rare case I don't mean politically.

I worked hard to fight off a cold all last week, telling myself I just had to stay well through my birthday/house-awesoming party on Saturday night. I guess my brain came to some compromise with my germs because they patiently waited until Sunday evening to attack.

Saturday night was cool and very low key, and despite staying up until about 3:30 a.m., I woke up at a decent time on Sunday morning in a great mood. The Husband and I had a very enjoyable day together. I discovered cheese blintzes with blueberries and sour cream at Cyndi's N.Y. Delicatessen. So Good! We browsed at Half-Price Books, and I bought almost nothing I intended to, but still managed to walk out with an arm-full.

That evening we went for dinner at Shuck'n Jive, an oyster bar, which had inconveniently run out of oysters. The sore throat that had been plaguing me for a week began to reassert itself, and I can now recommend a spicy bloody Mary as an effective sore throat remedy.

However, the relief was short lived, and I spent the next two days snuffling and coughing while I wasted my Fourth of July vacation lying in bed, floating in a Sudafed and Benadryl induced haze. Well, I didn't waste the whole vacation. I roused myself on Monday night long enough for fondue and birthday prezzies courtesy of The Husband.

Today I woke up feeling much better after a good night's sleep, but on getting out of bed I nearly careened into the wall. The whole world seems slightly tilted to the left. It's not too bad overall because I mostly feel better, and the disorientation has me feeling slightly giddy. I'm hoping that one of my ears is just stuffed up and I don't have an inner-ear infection or something equally unpleasant. In the meantime, I'll just lurch around and do my best not to bounce off things.