Springtime ! ? ! ? !

I have a love/hate relationship with spring.

I love it because it's warmer, but here in Seattle, we still have a long way to go before we get several days without rain; I love Daylight Savings so that now it's lighter later but it usually takes me a few weeks to get over the hour I've lost; I love everything in bloom, but I have the worst allergies this time of year; and I love the tulips in my garden though I know it marks the beginning of gardening season for me and mowing my lawn on a regular basis.

Yes, I mow my lawn--and it's a back breaking endeavor. It's not like I live on any sort of acreage or anything (LOL, for those of you who've been to my house) but it takes me over an hour and a half to mow, edge and sweep up.

Mowing the lawn is a great exercise, too, though I never know how many calories I've exerted and I'm really big on counting calories. I've been using Weight Watchers's online journal now for three and a half years even though I lost 30 pounds three years ago and have been at my goal weight ever since. I dunno--I guess I just got into the habit of recording everything I eat and every activity I do and I firmly believe that keeping myself accountable keeps the weight off--so I never quite gave it up. It's really a great way to maintain my weight.

The thing that frustrates me, though, is that the online tool is very limited in terms of searching for various types of activity. If, for instance, I want to keep track of how many points (Weight Watchers term) I earned for mowing my lawn, I can look up gardening, but all that's listed is "hedging," "digging," and "hoeing" neither of which come remotely close to the exhausting task of pushing a mower, in my opinion. So I just figure, "hey, whatever". Given the amount of sweat pouring out of me during this 90 minute exercise, I can safely assume I've earned plenty!

Incidentally, they don't offer activity points for having sex either. Maybe that's what they mean by "hoeing"?

Anyway, back to spring. It's lovely here this time of year. The cherry blossoms have been in bloom for weeks now--even though I hate how the pedals scatter all over my car. See what I mean? Love/hate.

I'm looking forward to summer!