About Cerebral Palsy

I know. Cerebral Palsy is probably just slightly less popular a topic than colitis on the "what's wrong with them, I forgot again?" scale.

Do you really want to hear more on my colitis?

Thought not. I've got better stuff to do, too.

Oh, and a life.

I'm working again on my main writing project that lights my fire. Mostly just research and notes until Bruno's back in school (six weeks to go). You know when it's for love not money you can't say no. If your a fiction writer you'll know you fall in and your gone for what seems like forever yet it passes like no time at all.

And Bruno wants to make new videos today which we will probably post later. Taping is time consuming but fun and Bruno always makes us laugh. Laughter is healing (hey, colon, get aboard!) I want to make his summer - what's left of it - memorable and fun.

For anyone following my health status (a few of you said as much) I'm still the colitis queen of the high desert but it's a lot better. The pain scale is down around 3 more often than up around 7.

As for Cerebral Palsy, if you don't wanna hear about it too bad. You came to the wrong blog! (Must be a full moon).

Got C.P. Too bad, too. Get over it, that's life. (How many times do you get to use "too" twice in a short sentence).

I don't cover this part of my life nearly enough. I'm thinking more CP exercise videos out of me are in order. (Lucky You!)

Hope you're healing whatever is hurting you. J too.

Now as for the C.P, crowd. No, we're not the glamorous ones. My guess is, in reality, neither are you.

Me On Life With Cerebral Palsy



CP Star's My Space Intro



Vicki's Story Cerebral Palsy



Cerebral Palsy FAQ



For more of our exercise videos and family videos see the sidebar.

Treadmilling Kittens Video

Bruno coaxes our kitties to get on the treadmill. The Siamese did take the challenge.

Saturday Night Bardelli Style

Under smoke filled skies we played Scrabble all afternoon and until almost midnight last night. There was a lot of laughter and clowning around. It took me back to my childhood and young adulthood as my family was very big into Scrabble. My dad, mom. aunt Gayle, and cousin Jim were hardcore Scrabble players. Many of my other family members were pretty dedicated too. We spent many late evenings playing into the night and sometimes had two boards up and two games going when there were more than five players. (Scrabble is for two to four players but we often played with five). And my Daddy would make a huge pot of his fabulous spaghetti and we'd make pigs of ourselves. We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and relatives would come all the way from Los Angeles and Sacramento for those spaghetti feeds and Scrabble tournaments. Those were the days!

Unfortunately my mom, dad, and aunt Gayle and others have passed and most of my other Scrabble compadres are living too far away. The last time my brother visited, he and my nephew played with us into the night and boy, did we reminisce. He has many fond memories of those times also.

We took a lot of photos last night and some video footage of our kittens playing with a Linux screen saver. I have to upload and edit it. They kept watching the screen saver and swatting the monitor screen. We didn't have dinner (homemade pizza) until after 11 pm.

Jerry always helps Bruno play as we're teaching him Scrabble skills and Bruno won three games yesterday. Jerry says "I'm beating myself at Scrabble."

I slept in Saturday morning until 10:30 am. I had been up late Friday night with ice packs on my front right side and back trying to calm down my colitis. It seems to have helped although the pain isn't completely gone. Oddly enough, I'm down to 120 pounds (minus two pounds) and body fat 22 percent (about the same). I tend to eat less when I have a flare up but it's likely water loss.

The book on the table I was reading between Scrabble plays is "Eating For Life" by Bill Phillips of Body For Life fame. I found a near new copy at our FISH Thrift shop for $5.00 and as I successfully did BFL back in 2000 I snapped it up. I'm bookmarking it a lot and will review it soon. It seems to be an excellent approach to lose body fat, gain muscle, and get fit.

Now excuse me, I have another Scrabble marathon to attend.

Photos of Scrabble and those smoky skies...

Karma and The Devil

Karma

















Chaos AKA The Devil















I wish we had the video camera running last night. The really funny moments are usually when it's put away and by the time you get it out they're over.

A simple cardboard box, one adventurous kitten, and a treadmill set on an incline made for high comedy and belly laughs in our house.

Our black kitten 'Chao's tipped a box over on himself and bounced it up and down the treadmill with flair and drama. We all got tickled to death and howled. Imagine a moving cardboard box - moving in two directions - with no visible mover. Except we saw him and heard him noisily pull it over onto himself.

'Chaos' is also called 'the black devil' because of his antics and because his mother is named Karma. "Carmen and The Devil Walking Side By Side" are the usual lyrics you'll turn up in a search for the song 'The Weight' sung by 'The Band'. I always thought "Karma and the Devil" made infinitely more sense.

Karma is definitely a bigger bitch than Carmen. (And I'm not referring to my cat).

When I got done writing the above, I took a break. When I got back my gray cat "Karma" was standing on my laptop sniffing. Looking for the delete button?

I hope your evening was as fun, enjoyable, and amusing. God bless.

You're Driving Me Up The Wall!

Video of The Bardelli Family Backyard Climbing Wall - Day One

All three of us took turns climbing. We're not done with the wall yet, Jerry's going to add more holds later.

Wordless Wednesday?

I was going to try a wordless Wednesday but my big mouth nixed the idea. Bruno has a half day at school today and tomorrow - teachers conferences. So I'm time crunched. Here's the photos from our weekend I couldn't get up earlier due to internet connection problems...

A Day With The Boys













No Not Those Boys. These Boys...
















Bruno Invents New Uses For An Exercise Step...Now It's A Playstation Platform.

Worshiping at the Church of Iron & Steel Plus a Cheat To Lose Update

Me on One of the Bitch Sisters - Click on any photo to enlarge.
















Stats This Morning: 114.5 pounds, 18.1 percent body fat.

Woo Hoo!!!!!

I do believe this 'Cheat To Lose Diet' is working already. I'm presently on day eight. I did alter it slightly. You're supposed to do 21 Days - 7 low carbohydrate, 7 lower GI/GL, 7 Higher GI/GL - before you have a cheat day. I did five days of low carb then had a Big Mac for lunch and cinnamon toast for dinner on day six. Then day seven - Easter - I went back on low carb and will stay on a few more days before going on lower GI/GL to compensate for the two weirdly scheduled cheat meals.

Actually, a later chapter in the book discusses doing just that after you're past the 21 day priming phase. You are allowed to shift all phases around to suit your personal schedule and lifestyle, be it shifting the cheat day or shifting the order of phases (low carb / lower GI/GL / higher GI/GL). Seeing as I have less weight to lose I probably won't be on the core phase long (core phase is an indefinite program of a one week plan like this: 2 days low carb / 2 days lower GI/GL / 2 days higher GI/GL / 1 cheat day). I might just be on the priming phase (three weeks total, seven days of low carb, seven days of lower GI/GL, seven days higher GI/GL, and one cheat day on day 22). More updates to come.

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Worshiping at The Church of Iron & Steel

Yesterday afternoon we had exceptionally nice weather for March in Northern Nevada. It’s not uncommon to have snow this time of year but it was warm and sunny and divine (well, it was Easter after all). So while the turkey roasted we all went outside to enjoy the day. Bruno and Jerry did some gardening (I didn’t get photos of that yet). Jerry did chores like fixing the water faucets that froze and broke in winter. Bruno played in his playhouse. And I hit the Bitch Sisters.

No, they’re not the annoying next door neighbors. (We have very nice neighbors, fat but nice). The Bitch Sisters are my ancient second hand commercial gym equipment dubbed “The Bitch Sisters” because Jerry says they’re a bitch to move. I bought them on the same weekend about 4 years ago at two separate garage sales. They were in good shape then but since are kind of weathered from sitting outside. Back then I didn’t have a big enough building to house them and now I’ve discovered I like working out in the outdoors on occasion.

I said to Jerry that Thursday evening before I found them, “I’m warning you, I want to get a home gym this weekend when we’re out going to garage sales.”

“Hon,” he says, “in the 8 years we’ve been going to garage sales together I’ve never seen one home gym.” We’ve seen a few weight benches and free weight sets but I had those already.

“So?” I said. “I nearly always find what I want, don’t I.” He remained dubious, until Saturday when he had to haul home both Bitch Sisters, neither of which comes apart except for the Smith machine’s bench is a separate piece. Ha! He should have more faith.

So I donned a ball cap, got a jug of water and lime, grabbed a log book, a towel and my stereo and went out back to workout on the “Bitch Sisters”. They may be old but there’s no waiting, no time limits, and nobody else’s sweat on them, and no membership fees. Bruno and I took some photos. See below.

My workout log:

Front Pull downs – 15 repetitions x 30 pounds, 10 reps x 35 pounds, 12 reps x 35 pounds, 10 reps x 45 pounds, 10 reps x 45 pounds, 8 reps x 50 pounds.

Chest Press – 18 reps x 50 pounds, 12 reps x 55 pounds, 10 reps x 55 pounds, 9 reps x 55 pounds, 9 reps x 55 pounds, 8 x 50 pounds.

Back Pull downs – 12 reps x 35 pounds x 3 sets, 12 reps x 40 pounds x 3 sets.

Butterfly – 12 reps x 40 pounds x 2 sets, 10 reps x 45 pounds x 2 sets, 8 reps x 50 pounds x 2 sets.

Total 24 sets x 4 exercises x 239 reps.

Meet The Bitch Sisters...




































































































Bruno On One of the 'Bitch Sisters' - he actually chest pressed 60 pounds for two reps. Not bad for an 85 pound kid.


































































































Gotta Get Rid of The Tumbleweeds Around The Sisters