It was a gorgeous day - sunshine, blue sky, a few fluffy white clouds, light breeze - and the lake was quite pretty. The city has been working on the walking path around the lake, and we could see many of the improvements that have been made. There are wooden retaining walls up now along some of the steeper parts of the shore, and the path has been widened and flattened in several key areas. It makes walking (or jogging, or riding a bike) much nicer. There are also several new concrete benches which replaced the old wooden benches, and are much more comfortable for sitting and enjoying the view.

Along the way we saw several lovely birds as we walked, many of which sang pretty songs to us. I don't know the names of most of the birds, but one was particularly lovely - all black but for two spots of bright red where the wings meet the body. It was pretty enough just sitting on a branch in a bush singing away, but it was even lovelier when it flew away. There were beautiful grey and white geese, who were actually nice and didn't try to chase us, mallard ducks with their velvety green necks glistening in the morning sun, and four absolutely gorgeous swans! (And yes, I did forget my camera.)

After our walk, mom and I had breakfast at Starbucks, then did our grocery shopping. We were done with our chores by 11:30, and the rest of the day I spent organizing my rubber stamp collection while mom puttered about in the yard. It was wonderful!

Sunday morning, I cut back a couple of the bushes that were threatening to take over the front of the house. Mom and I are planning on taking them out this fall, and replacing them with rose bushes or succulents; something that doesn't require so much care, and won't cover up the windows or get caught in the screens when the wind blows. I did some more work on my stamps, but still have quite a ways to go. I've got them separated into general groups such as Animals, People, Plants, Holidays, etc., but am planning on breaking those groups down a bit. For example, some subcatagories for People could be Angels, Mermaids, Medieval, Characters, Men, Women. Plants could be broken down into: Leaves, Garden, Flowers, Trees. Lord, but I have a ton of stamps! Even after purging, I still have a lot!

Backing up a bit, Friday after work I went to get a pedicure. The place I usually go to was booked (and I'd forgotten to make an appointment), so I tried a new place closer to work. I got in right away, and as I was settling in to the lovely massaging chair, the little Vietnamese girl asked, "When's the baby due?" "I'm sorry?" I wasn't sure I heard her right, what with her accent and all. "The baby," she said. "When is it due?" Ah. I hadn't heard wrong after all. She thought I was pregnant. Shit. It's been a while since anyone's mistaken me for a pregnant woman - I do my best to conceal my blubbery tummy, and can usually get away with it on a good day, but it's been particularly bulbous this past week, and so I guess it was inevitable that someone who doesn't know me would think I was knocked up. Grr.

On a positive note, I didn't get all depressed or embarrassed about the whole thing. I just said, "Oh, no." "No?" The girl asked. "No." I told her. She said nothing more, but quickly went about giving me a very nice, but way too expensive pedicure, and no more was said about it. I used to be a lot more sensitive about that sort of thing: it was embarrassing to be so fat as to be mistaken for a pregnant woman, and it was depressing because I once was pregnant, but have nothing whatsoever to show for that time. I used to let that all get to me, but no more. I'm a lot more comfortable in my skin - as fat as it is - and realize that those who think I'm preggers are usually a lot more embarrassed by their mistake than I ever could be.

Still, it was quite a wake-up call! I really need to add some cardio to my Curves workout to burn off this fat. I can tell parts of me are getting smaller - particularly around my chest, shoulders and upper back - which makes my tummy stick out more. I'd really like to get it off by summer, or at least have it reduced enough to where people won't think it's a baby when it's really fat!