Category Archives: Health

I want to be a SAHW*

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

It was tough going back to work yesterday. Mostly all I have on my desk is some file management stuff and bills to pay. So I basically did a whole lot of nothing yesterday.

Immediately after work I went home and changed into my “gym” clothes and headed to the fitness center. I felt awkward going in since it’s been forever since I’ve been in a place like that. It was a good time though, since there were several empty treadmills and ellipticals. I got someone to explain to me how their ellipticals and treadmills worked, locked my swim stuff in a locker and went back out to the ellipticals where I lasted all of 3 minutes at a crawl. It picks your knees up higher than what I’m used to and it was very uncomfortable. I wanted to stay off my heel, but I want cardio, so I hit the treadmill until Kahuna got there. I kept my HR down below 75% max (what my tri-advisor ordered) and did a comfortable high speed walk for 20 minutes.

Once Kahuna got there I changed and met him at the pool where I did a 50m freestyle WU, 100m pull buoys, and 50m freestyle CD. I was pooped and hungry. Can’t wait to do it again tonight. I have a free fitness assessment to do when I get there tonight so depending on what the PT has me do, I may only get in a structured swim. We’ll see. I know I can’t do any hard core exercises since my ab is still hurting every now and again. D*mn adhesions!

Too tired to stitch last night. I did think about it several times, but never got the energy to get it out. I think if I didn’t have to put it away each night because of Harley (oh the joys of puppy mentality) I would have stitched some, but I mostly sat there icing my heel after supper (baked chicken and some left over dressing).

I want to be a *stay at home wife. I loved my long weekend. Was all domestic and all. When people ask what your dream job is, I always say SAHW. I know I have a practically brand new degree, but I’ve been working off and on (mostly on) for 25+ years and I’m ready to stop. I never used to enjoy housework, and I guess you can say I don’t “enjoy” it now, but I don’t mind it so much and I like puttering around the house. I also like the ability to go wherever I want, whenever I want. I wish I could do the grocery shopping during the week, early in the morning. I wish I could go to the fitness center early in the morning, and take some of the classes they’re offering. I wish I could sit and stitch during the day. I just wish my job didn’t get in the way of so many things. I always figured I get into the “career” mentality once I had my degree, but it just isn’t happening. Kahuna has told me I can “retire” when he does, but I worry about that, and trying to live here. I guess this is the downside of a 5-day weekend 😉

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Posted in Fitness, Stitching

What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

I heart 5-day weekends! I know I wrote in an earlier entry that 3-day weekends should be the norm, but man, 5-day weekends are the bomb!

Wednesday was spent doing ho-hum, but necessary, things like laundry, housework and depositing my paycheck in the bank. Kahuna and I headed downtown around 5 to pick up race packages and then we went to this mom and pop mexican food joint that I had been wanting to try. Good eats, followed up by great coffee next door at my fave coffee house. I swear I’ve just about given up on Starbucks after finding this place. Melissa came in later that evening.

Thursday morning the 3 of us headed back downtown after getting up around 5:30 for our pre-race breakfasts. Mine consisted of oatmeal and ibuprofen. I admit to being nervous about eating since I normally go out and do my morning runs on an empty stomach. We parked not too far away from the starting line and by the time we walked over Melissa and I decided to race the 1st race so we wouldn’t have to stand around in the chilly morning. I’m so glad we did, since I got to see Kahuna come in and finish his race (he ran the 2nd one) at a sub-21:00 pace.

The first mile was hard! I remember thinking at the mile-marker that there was no way I was going to be able to finish. It didn’t help much that people were calling out times that were far slower than what I was showing. Right after that was the turning point to head down to the PCH and I remember feeling really good as I ran around that corner. It may have been because I heard Kahuna’s voice and looked up to see him standing all alone cheering us on. That was such a nice feeling. Down, down, down we headed toward the beach. There were a ton of surfers bobbing around and the dolphins were out so it was a nice distraction. And there it was, the finish line! I thought I had finished at 55:20; however, the official times show me at 46:something. Rather proud of myself for finishing and not taking the photographer out who insisted on standing right in my path. Thank goodness he moved at the last minute and I only caught him in the elbow because I was going downhill, there was momentum and I was too pooped to stop! 🙂

After Kahuna finished we walked over to my fave coffee shop to grab some post-race refreshments and walked back to the car. We ended up going out to lunch at Denny’s (thanks again Melissa) because we were all a little pooped. The rest of the afternoon, before Melissa had to leave, was spent trying to nap. That evening Kahuna and I went out hunting for a frozen pizza, a piece of cheesecake and a bottle of wine. Nothing like romantic grocery store fare 🙂

Friday found the two of us deciding to stay put. There’s nothing in any store that I need bad enough to go out with crazy people – my personality doesn’t put up with pushing and shoving and I’d have probably hurt someone. I cooked our turkey breast, dressing, stuffing and deviled eggs that I was supposed to cook on Thanksgiving day and Kahuna tried to go out and do a LSD on the bike, but his legs were still trashed from the day before and I think he was back home in 15 minutes. I did a bit of laundry and organizing in my office and we enjoyed our turkey foods.

Saturday we headed out shopping and bought a new dining room suite and probably picked out new bedroom furniture. We’re probably going to put off buying that until we see what happens with Kahuna going to Iraq and us buying a house.

Sunday was more staying home except for a trip to the grocery store. I did a bit more laundry, bathed the puppies, and stitched for 2-3 hours on French Alphabet Sampler. I put the last photo up on my stitching page at the top. I cannot believe it’s been since February that I worked on it. I plan on continuing to stitch on it until this weekend, then will probably switch over to Justine.

Today it’s back to the grindstone, but I’ve already turned in my request for time off in December. Kahuna and I would like to go back to Disneyland the week of the 10th and I want the week off between Christmas and the 1st.

Tonight starts our working out at the fitness center. I’m planning on getting there before Kahuna and playing on the elliptical (my heel is shot!) and then we’re going to swim. We’re planning on doing this every night this week. Next Monday starts the training program for my first triathlon. I have a 5K scheduled for early February and am wondering if I can beat my 46:something time.

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Posted in Races, Stitching, Training

Here's to 3-day weekends!

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

I need to figure out how to get 3-day weekends every weekend. I can honestly say this was the best weekend I’ve had in a very long time. I don’t know if it was because Kahuna returned on Saturday afternoon, or because of the shopping, stitching, housecleaning, DVD or TV watching I did, but it was great!

Saturday – I got up and started really early on the housecleaning. My kitchen and dining room were in desperate need of a dust and scrub. Kahuna touched down at the airport around 10. He didn’t get home until almost noon, just as I was finishing the kitchen. That’s how bad the traffic was headed north. The puppies were soooo excited to see him! I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with him and doing the laundry he was so kind to bring me, then we ended up going out to dinner at a seafood place just up the road from us. We never can remember why we don’t go there often, because the food is great, until we get the bill! LOL

Sunday – Kahuna went surfing and I went to WW. I gained 4+# but am not surprised. I could not stop eating Friday and Saturday. My leader says my body will probably do that every now and then since I’ve ramped up my exercise. The rest of the day was spent getting the majority of the laundry done while I stitched and watched TV. Since being able to go without my wrist braces during the day, I can stitch comfortably now and thoroughly enjoyed doing so while the puppies took turns fighting over who was going to help me.

Monday – Kahuna back out surfing, I went running. Then I went to the grocery store while he went for a LSD run. After some lunch we headed out. First stop was to get my car detailed. Then we headed out shopping. Believe it or not I needed floss to finish a project, then we went hunting for running gloves, skull cap for Kahuna to keep his nekkid head warm while cycling, a stop at Trader Joe’s for some FAGE (I’d love to say that’s all I bought but I am weak in that store! LOL). On the way home we stopped by the 24 Hour Fitness closest to us and went in for a tour. We (I) were really hooked when we found out they had a saltwater pool that’s open 24 hours. We’re now members 🙂 I’m nervous and excited about that.

I’ve never been a member of a fitness club. I know practically nothing about working out in one and can’t wait to learn. I’ll have about 7 months to get trained by Kahuna, because it looks like they’re sending him to Iraq in June. This is one of the reasons why I decided I wanted to do triathlons. It’s a great social sporting event and I knew I’d make some local friends while staying healthy and motivated while Kahuna was gone. I am hoping membership at a fitness center will help do the same thing. Give me something productive to do instead of sit home depressed and eat the whole time he’s gone.

Reading back over this it sounds like we were super busy, but everything was at a slow, take our time, pace and I really didn’t feel like we were out doing a bunch of stuff. I was rested for work this morning, but still didn’t want to come in.

So, here’s to more 3-day weekends. Hope yours was equally great.

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Posted in Fitness, Stitching

I'm trying to stay cheerful today.

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Today is our son’s birthday. He’s not a little boy anymore, but a man of 23 years. I sent him a card, and tried to call him this morning. He doesn’t have voicemail. Since he moved in April we only ever hear from him if he needs something. Usually money, or something to do with the vehicle that’s still in Kahuna’s name. Anyway, this is the first year that I haven’t given him a gift of some sort, including money. I thought long and hard about it and over the past year we’ve given him a lot of money, so we decided to not gift him. Today, I’m fighting the guilt over that. I don’t know why I feel this way. I cannot remember the last time I got a card from my parents. Or a gift. I do usually get a phonecall, though.

I thought about going out to dinner, by myself, tonight to celebrate his birth, but I remembered I’m swimming tonight and don’t want to have to go home, do hair and makeup, then head out again. Yes, I’m lazy. Actually I’m pooped after swimming.

Speaking of which, I really like my coach. He’s a triathlete. Tuesday night’s swim went really well. I was a bit alarmed at first because he was teaching a 3-4 year old little boy to jump off the side of the pool and swim to the side by instructing him to “chicken wings, superman, rocket ship.” I could not imagine what terms he was going to use with me to get me from one end of the pool to the other.

Anyway, I was first pleasantly surprised to find the pool is saltwater. Then I was relieved to find out I was not going to have to jump off the side of the pool and chicken, super, rocket whatever. When he asked me what I wanted out of my lessons he made me feel a lot more comfortable (not) when he told me he was going to unlearn me from everything I’ve done in the past and teach me the new way of swimming. I swear I swam to Mexico and back. His comments after my umpteenth time to the deep end, where I was treading water for my life, were that I swam really well and have a powerhouse kick, but we need to get rid of that since I’m not swimming a sprint, I’m going for long distance.

The one thing I accomplished was being reminded how to breath. Exhaling under water, inhaling above. There were a few times I got it backward while trying to remember to only kick twice between 3 strokes, and then to make each stroke’s rhythm the same as two, or something like that. (When I tried to dry my hair at home – with my head upside down – water poured out of my nose – TMI?).

I was one tired puppy when I got home, and then of course I had to beat off the puppies with cookies. I barely made it through The Biggest Loser.

Driving home I remembered where the 24 Hour Fitness is that Kahuna and I want to check out. We probably shouldn’t join. It’s by the In and Out Burger and Cold Stone and those other evil type places. I can just see us trying to talk the other out of a double double or single scoop. I wonder if their pool is saltwater?

I get to do it all over again tonight! Woohoo! And then I’m going to go home, try to call Son again, and stitch. Yes, I’m stitching again 🙂

Edit: Of course as soon as I post this message Son calls me.

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Posted in Stitching, Training

Oops, I've been neglecting my blog

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Let’s see. What’s happened since Oct 18?

I’m back to running a bit. My foot still hurts if I abuse it too much, but I’m just sucking it up, treating it after a run and ibuprfen is my breakfast, lunch and supper the day after a run. I’ll rethink what to do about it after Nov. 22.

I’ve been on the bike only the one time, but that’s changing tomorrow. New training schedule posted a bit further down.

This coming Thursday is when I start leaving work at 3:00 (can I get a Woohoo!) and I start swimming that afternoon. Husband is going to be my coach, since I cannot get anyone to take my money.

So, the new training plan looks something like this:

Mon: run
Tue: a.m. strength training; p.m. biking
Wed: run
Thur: a.m. strength training; p.m. swim
Fri: run
Sat: LSD run
Sun: off

After I’ve been doing this for a bit, I may change and add swim to Saturdays as well. Definately will be upping the tempo after the first of the year on the biking and swimming tho, since I’ve decided my first triathlon will be May 4.

I’m still looking for a couple more 5Ks between Nov 22 and Apr 4.

And of course we can’t forget the wonderful state of California being on fire. We never had to evacuate but it was rather hairy Wednesday morning. The dogs got up reeeeally early Wednesday morning and Kahuna came in saying he could see smoke blowing way down the street from us. I tried to go back to sleep after that, but ended up getting up at 2:30, getting dressed and snoozing on the futon in the man room with the TV on. Kahuna got up and dressed not too long after that. I finally felt safe enough to sleep around 12:30 that afternoon. There’s a map on CBS that shows the fire burning to the end of our street.

Other than that it’s been pretty mellow!

Oh wait, one more tidbit. Kahuna has received transfer orders effective January 4 to Miramar Air Base. He’s going to be a air winger again. I have no idea what this means as far as Iraq is concerned but I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t interfere with his Half Ironman coming up in March.

Speaking of Kahuna, I just remembered something else. He ended up getting inked two more places about a week after he had his ankle done. He’s now sporting a very fine looking elf script around same ankle that says something about the ride never ending…it’s a surfer thing. He also got barbed wire around his very buff bicep..opposite side, so he’s balanced.

Okay, that’s all. I think.

Nope, one more thang! Huge milestone met during WI at WW yesterday. Yay, me!

Okay, I’m out of here 😉

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Posted in Races, Training, Weight

Gooooooaaaaaal!

Posted on October 7, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

G.E.A.U.X. LSU! Man, what a football game!

If you’ve ever watched Mexican Football, you’ll understand my title! It’s usually the only word I can understand, and the announcer yells it at the top of his voice for as long as his breath with last.

Today I met my 1st weightloss goal. I lost 4.2 pounds this week to meet my 5% goal! Wikka wikka wheeee! As shown on my Fitness Rewards page (tab at the top of the page) I’m ordering my swim suit today.

Friday, I signed up for private swim lessons at the Y and am waiting on the instructor to call me to work out a schedule. I also had an appointment with a orthopedic sports doctor who is not ready to do surgery on me. He says on a scale of 1 – 10 (10 worse) I’m about a 3 and he wants to try treatment. I told him about my fitness goals and he was very encouraging and told me to keep on keeping on and to stop if it hurts. I’m to return in 3 weeks for him to check on my progress. Honestly, he was more concerned about the oncoming carpal tunnel in both my wrists than the ulnar neuropathy in my elbow and is treating me for that as well.

Today, as soon as I get home from the Commissary, Kahuna and I are headed to our LBS to buy handlebar and seat stuff to rig his mountain bike up so I can learn to ride and shift gears at the same time. I am on a roll people! 🙂

I am having a nice time with my new c25k program, although I’ve walked further and longer than what the schedule has called for. I just have not been able to drop myself down to 10 minutes since I have worked so hard. I cut 59 seconds off last week’s mile. Some time this week Kahuna will pick me up at lunch and we’ll head over to Roadrunner Sports to buy some new running shoes for me.

The other stuff I managed to accomplish this past week was to officially become a member of our local tri club and to suffer from my first bike lust. I’m in love with a pretty little Bianchi I saw at Hi-Tech bikes this past Thursday. Drool! 😛

Have a great rest of the weekend! Oh, and I have pictures of puppies and will download them later today.

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Posted in Goals, surgery, Weight

When w6d2 = w1d2 and a whole bunch of other stuff

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

I’ve had a lot of stuff going on in my head that I’ve wanted to blog about but for some reason just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

First, my heel is feeling so much better. I’ve pretty much figured out that I’m wearing the wrong type of shoe for my foot and for running. I remember when I got them that I told the fitter I needed shoes for walking. I think I remember telling her that I had a high instep; however to be fair to her not everyone knows that a high instep means high arches. I’ve also been wearing an insert and have taken to icing and massaging the area and have been using the time between when my alarm first goes off and the second “snooze” alarm to stretch.

Second, I’ve changed my c25k program. I’m doing the program on the tri board I frequent. It’s a less aggressive program, which is probably another reason why my heel is doing much better. Surprisingly I’m not too upset that this means I still won’t be running much come time for my 5k but it’s not deterring me from continuing on.

w1d1 of this program required me to walk 10 minutes. I cheated and walked longer because I have also signed up for a run challenge for the month of October and I dedicated myself to run/walk 25 miles.

w1d2 required me to walk 15 minutes, but I cheated again. 🙂 Patience is a virtue that I need to work on quite a bit.

Third, I have received the insurance approval for surgery and am meeting with the surgeon this coming Friday. Eek! I’m hoping he can get right on this so I’ll have plenty of time to heal and be able to get right back out there to train.

Fourth, and probably the biggest WOW is that I am going from working full-time to 3/4 time. I have been looking for a job closer to home since I absolutely HATE the 2 hours I lose daily on my commute. What I’ve found is that I’m going to have to take a cut in pay to get one of those jobs and I’ll still be working 9-5. So I asked Boss if I could transition into leaving daily at 3 and keep my job. I really believe in what we do (Plaintiff’s Employment Law) and while there’s a couple more things that I like to complain about where I work, overall it’s a good job. Another employee is being let go and I’m hoping that I can take over some of those duties since they revolve around a program that would look good on my resume. Even doing those duties I still can get everything done in time to leave at 3.

So this coming Monday I’ll start leaving at 4 and then beginning November 1 (when my current train ticket expires) I’ll be back to driving everyday and leaving at 3. I’ll be able to get home by car much faster than by train since there won’t be very much traffic at that time of the day.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I plan on doing with all my free time? I plan on using some of it to get back into cross stitching, but mostly I’m hoping to use it to train for my first triathlon. There’s just never enough time in a day to run, ride a bike, swim and strength train and pay attention to puppies and keep my horrible housekeeping skills honed and love on the Kahuna.

Kahuna is thinking of getting a tattoo today. He’s had a teeny minor surgical procedure that’s keeping him out of the water for awhile so this is the perfect time. He’s also thinking of going to a newbie meeting at the San Diego Tri club tomorrow and I’m hoping to go with.

On the weighloss front I’m still under 10 pounds however since September 11 I have lost 4 1/2 inches off my hips and 2 1/2 inches off my waist. Bring on the baggy britches baby! LOL

Next update should include a picture of my sweet pea Harley Quinn, whom I think I’ve completely lost to Kahuna. Daddy’s Darlin’ is going to be 1 year old on Saturday.

P.S. If any of you have any experience with the Susan Komen 3-day walk I’d love to have your input. San Diego’s 2007 walk is in November, which I’m nowhere near trained to do, but I’m considering putting 2008 on my long-term goals list.

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Posted in surgery, Training, Weight

w5d3 – doing it in the dew

Posted on September 28, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

When I opened the door to head out this morning, it was raining. I immediately turned to Kahuna and said, “It’s raining!” Never once did it cross my mind to not go out, but was wondering if he was going to surf. I had to remind myself a few times that I can’t let the rain stop me on race day, so I might as well train in it. I don’t know if it’s the girl in me that didn’t want to get her hair wet, or the ickiness of my clothes sticking to me, but I cut 36 seconds off my time 🙂 At the almost-home point I found myself mentally planning a 2-mile route that I know I’m going to need sooner rather than later. I even caught myself thinking I should try to run, but smacked that thought down and made myself walk to preserve how much better my heel has been feeling. Finish time 0:27:59. 18.4-minute mile. ~~My butt~~ the part of the human body that you sit on hurts!

Had a very long (for us) conversation with Kahuna last night about me. I told him that all I can think about is starting to swim. I probably have the pool hours memorized for the local Y, I’ve looked at their webpage so often. I’ve also decided to put the job hunting on hold until after my surgery. I can’t in good conscience go to a new employer knowing that I’m going to have to miss work for maybe an extended amount of time not too long after I begin working for them. Sometimes I don’t realize I’ve made up my mind about something until I say it out loud to Kahuna, even though it’s something I’ve thought about for maybe forever.

Right now those thoughts include: Is this my mid-life crisis? Is it all of a sudden going to stop being important to me? It’s so not like me to feel this way, I wonder if it’s going to go away when it stops being “new.” Am I just doing this for the new stuff being involved in something like this allows me to buy? Is it my age that is causing me to care less when I think of putting on a suit and swimming in public? Is there really a bike out there I can ride? Are the end of tri-season bikes on sale yet?

To keep some of those thoughts tamed I’ve committed myself to a couple of challenges on the tri board I visit.

walk or walk/run a minimum of 1.5 miles a minimum 3x a week – or 25 miles – from 1-31 October;
between 28 September and 28 December lose 16.2# and start swimming

Oh, and major accomplishment – since I started this wonderful journey, I’ve cut my body fat by 8%. Measurements on Sunday.

Kahuna has his last triathlon of the season on Sunday, so we’re headed out to grab his race package tomorrow and I’m hoping if we don’t get back too late I can swing by the Y and talk to them about my swimming.

Have a healthy weekend!

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Posted in Training

w5d2

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Back on track and determined to keep at it. My heel did bother me just a little this morning, but once I was warmed up I forgot about it. I didn’t really know how far I’d walked until I got home and mapped it out. I managed to walk through my calf pain the first time, and it didn’t return until the end. My goal was to walk for 30 minutes this morning, but I was thinking my route would be smaller. So, I walked 1.5 miles in less than 30 minutes. 18.6-minute mile. Cool! That still puts me under an hour for a 5K, just barely.

Dr. has decided I need surgery on my elbow. He’s convinced that sometime in my life I had to have hit my elbow and scar tissue is now interfering with my ulnar nerve. He also sees carpal tunal in my future. Getting old sucks! I told him to do whatever it takes to get me healthy. I’m on a roll and don’t want to let anything stop me. He has referred me to a surgeon that specializes in elbows down to fingertips. I’m now waiting to see if military insurance will cover it.

Sweet pea Harley wasn’t feeling well yesterday so I ended up shampooing my dining room and bedroom last night. I’ll take exercise in any form I can get it! She seems to be feeling better this morning, wanting to snuggle and it would have been soooo easy to be late for the train.

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Posted in Puppies, surgery

Oh, what a beautiful day…

Posted on September 23, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Most excellent WI today! My goal was to kick the .2# I gained last week to the curb, and maybe even lose an additional .2# — I managed to lose 3# – yay, me, even if I say so myself!!! However, part of that 3# is probably from all the hair I cut off yesterday. For the first time in 20+ years, my hair is soooo short it doesn’t touch the back of my neck!

There’s an organization in the city where I get my hair cut that makes hair pieces for little girls who have lost their hair due to horrible health issues. The minimum they’ll take is 6″. In order for me to be able to contribute I had to cut my hair a couple of inches shorter in the back than what I had planned on but I figured if I didn’t like it, MY hair would grow back, so I told her to wack it off. When she made the first scissor cut, I thought I was going to hurl! LOL I have to tell you though, except for the fact that it feels unbelievably weird to not have any hair back there, I love it. Kahuna’s comment…”I suppose I’ll get used to it.” He wasn’t excpecting it to be this short either.

I was in such a great mood after that, and the most excellent LSU football game, I went out and spent $400+ on shoes. Kahuna was with me and was even picking them out for me, but the kind he wants me to wear will have to wait until I’m a bit smaller since I was afraid I’d get a nosebleed from the height of the heels 🙂

This afternoon I’m headed to a Boney James concert on the beach. Melissa’s driving down to join us. Smoooth jazz, great friends, beautiful weather and new shoes. What more could a girl want?