Quick Entry

I was planning to call it an early night, but I decided to log onto the Loseit.com website to log in my calorie consumption and exercise.  So far, I am still on my double workout routine.  Yep, even in the heat wave we are in, I managed to do my two exercises.

Today was also the day of the professional development my school is providing....never mind.   I was goin to go into details of the program that probably cost...never mind.  I'll just focus on my workout routine. 

I weighed myself today.  I am now down to 210lbs.  I started this summer weighing around 232lbs.

I better go, so I can get to bed to do my morning turtle trot.

My Park

I'm going to have to learn to get used to the new layout of Blogger.  Well, I'm going to try keeping this short.  I haven't been doing much blogging lately.

Today was day two of my new exercise plan.  I did my morning turtle trot for an hour.  I went home, and slept most of the day away.  However, I was pleased that I was able to get on my stationary bike.  Yep, I did another hour of exercise on my bike.  I am please with myself for being able to do about 2 hours of physical fitness today and yesterday.  I burned about 1,100 calories.  It is the first time I think I've ever burned more calories in a day than I took in.  I ate about 900 calories today. 

Other random comments.  I received a message on my cell phone "offering" PD (professional development) for each Friday this summer for 4 hours.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to say no.  So, I'll be returning each Friday this summer until school opens getting "professional development.

Oh, and why is it that some people can be so careless with their dogs.  This morning while I was doing my turtle trot, this guy brought his rottweiler for a walk.  I've gotten so comfortable with having the whole park to myself that I was annoyed that the guy brought his dog to crap all over the place.  The dog did his business about 3 times before the guy went home.  And of course, it was too much for the guy to clean up after his dog.  What annoyed me (other than the guy letting his dog run free off the chain forcing me to keep altering my running route) was that after the guy left, about 3 or 4 minutes later, I started smelling the dog crap as I was running.  

I better go.  I need to call it a night so that I can do my morning run.  I took several photos of the park over the past couple of months, I don't have time to edit the photos and post them (with comments), so I'll just post one photo for now.  The photo was taken from the northern entrance to the park.  I run around the rectangular perimeter of the two baseball fields.

Day Trip - Staten Island

Wow, it appears things have changed.  Blogger has a new look.  Anyway, sorry for the delay with posting.  Yep, I'm on vacation.  And yes, I'm basically doing what I do every vacation.  I sleep.  The only saving grace this time around is that I've been doing my morning jog most mornings.  No, I didn't run this morning.  No, I didn't run yesterday morning either.

Back on track.  I planned an event for my social networking group.  I asked members for a day for the event...I got one reply, so I posted the event for July 14th, thinking at least one person would show.  Well, over the course of a few weeks, another member (who lives on Staten Island), suggested a restaurant that the group would enjoy.  And he said that he was going to join us on the Staten Island exploration.  Well, the day of the trip, I called to confirm a meeting spot.  Unfortunately, Staten Islander was busy.  He told me that his car wasn't working for an appointment that he had to go to...but moments later said he cancelled.  I decided, I would do the Staten Island Day Trip on my own.  Everything went according to schedule.  I enjoyed the ferry ride over.  The ferry ride was free.  There wasn't much to see at the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial.  Snug Harbor was enjoyable for its botanical gardens and wide open feel.  There was a 9/11 educational center located in Snug Harbor.  I thought the educational center should have been located nearer to the 9/11 memorial.  The Staten Island Zoo at $8 was a bit pricey for what was there.  The place was very small.  In my opinion, it wasn't so much a zoo as it was an exhibition of animals and animal facts.  The Staten Island Museum was also small.  However, the $3 price seemed right. Beso's?  It was a very nice restaurant, but it really didn't fit in with the overall theme of the "Day Trip".  It was very pricey!!  But since it was recommended by a member who I thought was going, I included it in the scheduling.  Although it didn't seem to fit, I didn't want to seem like an uncultured cheapskate, so I went to the restaurant.  I paid $30 for a pasta and meat dinner with an extra side order of spinach and two 12oz. glasses of water.  Both the vegetables and the water were extra.  Although the water was free, I had to ask for it.  After I left, I wanted to go to Burger King, but I needed to catch my train.  So, I settled for two donuts and a pint of Haagen Daaz.

I took about 200 photos.  I will post some of them here.  The attached photo above was taken from the Internet.

Shopping

Quick entry.  I need to go to bed so that I have the strength to run in the morning.  Yesterday I didn't run, so today was a return to my turtle trotting running style. 

As most of you already know, school is out here in NYC.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow the other teachers who were packing up during school hours, so I'm not one ... if not the only one who still has to return to school to finish packing up for the summer.  I thought I would only need the two extra days that admin is required to come in. But no, I'm still not ready.  Tuesday will be the fourth day I will be in school packing.  Why the delay?  As much as I said that I wouldn't look at any of the materials that were sent to me, I couldn't resist (for one reason or another).  So what have I been doing?  Sorting and organizing the materials.  This coming school year, I will be teaching 4th grade for the first time.  I've been teaching 3rd for the past few years.  I inherited the materials of a colleague who will be moving up to teaching 6th grade.  The problem?  She wasn't too organized in how she sent the materials to me.  She had several of her students help with the move.  Unfortunately, the timing and method of delivery was off.  One, I was trying to maintain the learning environment until the very end.  Two, I didn't really have  the room for the 4th grade materials because I still had the 3rd grade materials.  The monitors were a bit too eager to help, but they just basically made a mess.  Textbooks were mixed up.  Testing materials arrived in large trash bags.  I really can't function with disorder.  I went through the books and group them according to levels.  I went through the test prep materials and organized it.  Although I'm a bit annoyed that I'm the only one who is still packing up, I am pleased that I went through the materials and organized it.  I've observed that several teachers tend to rush to pack up for the summer, but then rush to unpack in the fall.  And then complain because they can't find anything, or don't realize what they have in terms of materials.

It is getting late.  I will continue this another time...
Next time, I'll summarize my Saturday of shopping and movie viewing.  I bought 4 new paperback novels.  A new pair of sneakers, and some teaching materials from B&N.