I am not a poster. I am a crispy critter.

[sionnsar]

Hi sion.
I was just reading about the french suspending officers that beat up a youth....
What are you up to?

Ugh. Well, I am about to go away and work some more on the minutes of last week's meeting.

[Dead Corpse]

Injuries are my number one concern right now. I used to be able to shrug certain injuries off. Getting harder and harder to do.

Gotta hold on to my eagerness. Over doing it at this point would the worst thing I could do. Next year, that'll be a different story... :-)

[Alice au Wonderland]

I'm putting off transcribing the vestry minutes until tomorrow. No sense in upping my blood pressure before I really have to.

[sionnsar]

Vestry minutes! That was my job until a year ago when our senior warden quit and I gave up my position as clerk to become senior warden.

[Alice au Wonderland]

I love my bowflex, with one caveat: I cannot get a decent work out for my abs by doing cruches on this machine.

The idea is to slowly build up to 12 reps at a specified weight and then increase the weight when you can do the 12 reps with ease.

Unfortunately, I can't hold more than 70 lbs (my arms give out and I can't get the straps over my shoulders where they're supposed to be) so I can do 12 sets of 12 reps at 70 lbs and not even feel it.

It sounds like you're into serious weight lifting, so I doubt a bowflex is the right piece of equipment for you.

[Alice au Wonderland]

Me, too. If I strain a muscle or a tendon, it takes forever to heal.

I'm no youngster, either, so I no longer heal like a spider, as my granny likes to say.

[Alice au Wonderland]

Yeah, well, I volunteered to do it, thinking that all I had to do was to take notes, transcribe them, and email the finished product to the office.

Hah!

Now they tell me that I'm supposed to be keeping a log of all of the paperwork (notes, transcribed minutes, relevant papers) and other vestry members call me to refresh their memories re: various points discussed at the meeting! (Weren't they there?! Didn't they pay attention?!)

It's enough to make me pull my hair out (a pretty serious undertaking as it is hip-length hair)!

[Dead Corpse]

For abs, do crunches. Seriously. That is all it takes. When coming up and going right back down again gets too easy, start holding for a count at the top of the contraction. When you hit about 4-5 count, start trying to squeeze your abs harder.

If you can do 4 set of 20 with a hard 5 count squeeze at the top, you'll have some serious abs going.

Some people over do their abs in the misunderstanding that doing ab work gets rid of belly bulge and love handles. It don't work like that. You don't lose fat locally. Your body make use it up at different rates, but just working a flabbly middle will mean that you have really toned muscles under your belly bulge.

Which is where I'm at right now... About an inch of fat in front over slabs of abs. More on the sides and enough on the back of my wasit line to give me "potato butt". It all needs to go. I'll never be under 200 bls again, but I'd at least like to get back into the 220's.

[Alice au Wonderland]

Thanks for the abs info. It's pretty similar to the abs workout found on the NYC Ballet Workout DVD.

I hear you about the slabs of flab, too. Hitting the middle thirties is detrimental to one's overall physical appearance if you don't keep on top of things.

I'm just over 5'7.5" and 179 lbs and would love to get the flab off. I'm tired of things that ought not to be moving independently, doing so!

[sionnsar]

Ugh. It is much simpler for us. The clerk takes the minutes (summarizing points made), writes them up and after approval at the next meeting files a copy in a binder for the future. I added the Treasurer's Report to the binder copy, but it was generally pretty easy. I think once the minutes ran to three pages, but usually it was just one or a bit more pages (at 11 point type). I think maybe once in 4 or so years did I ever get a call about something in the meeting.

How large is your Vestry? We have 9 members.

[Dead Corpse]

I used to heal pretty quick. I could have "stretch marks" on my pecs, thighs, calves, ect... one week, and be right back to working that muscle the next week. "Stretch marks" are where you have done enough damage to the muscle and skin that it looks a bit like what happens to a womans stomach in that last trimester. Sub-dermal tears in the skin and itracellular muscle tears leaking in striated bruise patterns. Looks nasty. Recovery isn't too pleasent either.

Gonna try and avoid a lot of that as I'm just not interested to "get in" to it that deeply this time around. I just wanna lose weight at this point.

[Alice au Wonderland]

Our vestry is comprised of 12 members who serve 3 year terms. A member may serve a total of 6 years consecutively, before they must, according to our by-laws, retire from the vestry for a minimum of one year.

The Rector's Warden, Accounting Warden, and Secretary are all members of the Vestry. I don't know if that's a rule, but that's how it's worked out for the past couple of years.

[Alice au Wonderland]

I didn't get too many stretch marks during my pregnancies and only one is visible to the public (and that, only during the summer). I didn't have to buy maternity clothes, either. Thank goodness for sweatpants with drawstrings!

My only problem is finding clothes that fit properly when I am in shape. I get the typical big shoulders and upper arms from swimming, which makes finding clothes that fit properly all over a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, I know how to sew. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to do it!

[sionnsar]

A member may serve a total of 6 years consecutively, before they must, according to our by-laws, retire from the vestry for a minimum of one year.

We don't have that rule, though we have the three year terms. I've been serving longer than that, but how long I don't know. I don't recall when last I wasn't on the Vestry.

Let's see, when we brought in a new Rector in 2001 I agreed to stay on for stability. So that would have been 1998. Almost 8 years now. And we just brought in a new Rector a couple months ago, so as Rector's Warden I should stay on for a year or two more, at least.

[Dead Corpse]

Hehhe... Zon has a horrible time finding stuff cut for her. She's 5'9", long legs, short waisted. Petite tops fit, but most dresses pinch in at the waist in the exact wrong spot. Same for bluejeans/slacks.

For me... do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dress shirt cut for a 21" neck that also doesn't involve enough fabric at the waistline to fit two of me? I've got a 51" chest which doesn't help things either.

I'm seriously considering switching to a toga or a kilt.

[Alice au Wonderland]

I will pray for you! ;P

I think the one year hiatus rule exists to prevent any individual(s) from spending their entire lives on Vestry.

[Alice au Wonderland]

Has Zon tried empire waisted (a misnomer because the "waistline" starts directly under the bosom) or bias cut dresses?

I found a bias cut dress that fits like a dream. I felt curvy and sexy for the first time in years!

As for you, I vote for the kilt. Kilts...., well, let's say that kilts lead to prurient thoughts.

As for shirts, I recommend buying the right size shirt to fit your neck and then taking it to the tailor's to adjust everything else, especially while your shape changes due to exercise. When your shape stabilizes, you can invest in tailored shirts made specifically for you.

[Dead Corpse]

She loves the Empire style for dresses. I still think she'd look great in a micro-skirt, but that ain't never gonna happen. Bias cut? No clue. She might though, I'll ask her.

One word: Utilikilt. Comes with a "privacy" snap. Nyah-nyah.... no standing under ladders for you.

Yeah... I did that already a few years ago. Seems sucky shelling out the extra dough for Mongo sized shirts only to have half a yard of cloth removed to make 'em fit every where else but still have the neck fit right.

[Alice au Wonderland]

My turn to go, fellas!

Thursday afternoon/evening means piano lessons x 3; swim practice x 3; and bell choir practice.

If I have any energy left, I'll check in later this evening!

TTYL!

[Alice au Wonderland]

In my mind, Utilikilt equals plaid diaper!

Truth to tell, it's not what's under the kilt so much as how good the a$$ and legs look with it.

The sporran, on the other hand....*Alice vaporizes into steam*