In addition to the recent acquisition of a new computer (because my old one balked at doing digital art at 300dpi, and I have a book cover commission), we have another new toy in our house at the moment. We affectionately refer to it as 'the leg-winding machine'. It's actually a recumbent bike, recommended to me when I visited the Orthopaedic specialist to find out why my left knee doesn't bend as much as I'd like and both knees seem to hurt after brief walks, standing for a while, sitting for a while, and when I get up after sitting for a while, or a night's sleep. As it happens, I've got Osteoarthritis in both knees - thanks to my Mom and Grandmother, who both had it, and years of being heavier than necessary (ie, being a fatty). The prescription was cortisone injections (which seem to be helping), and no weight-bearing exercise (including walking for excercise). When our lovely Schwinn recumbent arrived, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as the peddles were too long for me, and caused pain in the knee due to over-bending. After a call to the Schwinn folks who, although helpful, couldn't really help, we decided to go to a local cycling shop to see if we could purchase shorter crank arms (the technical term). What we found was even better.  'Crank Arm Shorteners' - primarily used by folks with kids and tandem bikes so that they can alter the stride length to suit a child's shorter legs, but also preferred by people with 'range of motion' issues (that's me!) who find the regular crank arm lengths to be too much. We did some research, and the crank arms installed on most home cycling equipment is designed for folks of an average height of 5'8" - 6" (I'm a 'petite' 5'4", Grahams is 6'3" - yeah, Mutt and Jeff :P ). So, now, I have found an exercise programme I can live with, because I'm not in pain before it's over! I just have a seat and wind me legs whilst I read the paper in the morning, and often, I'll have another go whilst watching telly in the evening. So, I'm averaging 30 - 60 minutes of exercise a day, with an occasional day off. I don't know if I've lost a vast amount of weight yet, although I can report that my trousers are feeling a bit roomier than normal, which I take to be a good sign. I suppose I'll need to start recording weight sooner or later, though; but for now, I'm just relishing the fact that I can do a good cardio workout without hurting during and afterwards!

Well, I've gone and joined Enchanted Folk.  Hello, everyone!  Looking forward to making new friends and keeping up with current friends.