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Human exposure

May 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

So – I’m sort of weird about germs. It’s not germs per se, but I do not like my body touching places other people have been. Like hotel bedspreads. Or movie theaters. It could be 97 degrees but if I’m at a movie, jeans and a hoodie are involved. Period. And flying makes me want to bleach myself.

Dan has pointed out that I work out at a gym and lay on weight benches – which are like the grossest things on earth. I think my gym is MRSA free (a miracle – my gym is sketchy), but I am horrible about wiping down things before I use them.

There is no real point to this – these we’re just things that went through my mind as I was waiting (in shorts!) at the car place. (Oil change and some computer recall thing.) Maybe I need some really long “sitting in public places” shorts.

Filed Under: Everydayness

Figuring things out

May 10, 2013 By 1 Comment

I have been the worst at posting this week (great timing – I joined a local blogging group, they introduced my blog and hooray – the entire from page is Instagrams I haven’t even captioned).

I’ve been working a ton. Okay – not like an actual person who goes to work all day every day, but a lot for me. I have two standing contract positions – one I’ve had for almost 5 years which I really enjoy, and one that I’ve had for around 2 years that I only like. I like that I have it – the money, the time it fills, etc – but I don’t love the work. I’ve been ramping up my freelance work – designing/developing websites. If I get that going, I could give up the contract job I don’t love, but I don’t want to give it up til I’ve built up the other business – so right now it’s just a LOT of work.

But what I’m realizing is that, I think that maybe this is my passion. I am not doing anything amazing – I use CMSes and am not some coding genius (does anyone code by hand anymore?) It is the only think I have ever done in my life (and gotten paid for) where time just melts away. I don’t love every part of it – except I sort of do. Even the parts I act grumpy about. I don’t LIKE running into problems – but when I do, I won’t even realize that it’s been three hours of trial and error – and then it’s fixed and I feel like a rock star. So – I’m excited about all of it, but scared.

It will be nice when school’s out (4 more weeks!) because I won’t be spending hours every day on school stuff. Not that I’m complaining – I love it. But it IS a lot of time. Even if I’m not volunteering – just running over there to get her and sit in carpool line is an hour each day. Dance days it’s closer to two. It will be nice to have an early morning work block without having to pause to run to the bus.

In other news, eating is going well. I may have had half a pizza yesterday. I did not feel as immediately terrible as expected, but I definitely feel ick and know it is NOT something I want to do regularly. I have a new favorite breakfast/snack/dessert – courtesy of Kathryn (of course). You *must* try chilled coconut milk – it is SO good. Yogurt with fruit is something I’ve been missing – not the yogurt per se – but having some fruit with something creamy for breakfast.

My other big meal kick is smoothies. Dan’s too. Our blender is getting old and is not cutting it (16th anniversary next month – and suddenly everything we own is OLD and ick). Last weekend, we went to Costco, and I made Dan walk to the Vitamix presentation, and we watched the whole thing. And my Vitamix will be here on Tuesday. We went with the 6300 – which is only in Costco when the Vitamix people are in town. Costco also sells the 5200 all the time. They are cheaper at Costco – but still pricey. We liked the presets on the 6300, but it’s $120 more and did I want to spend $120 for three extra buttons? (While I am generally the spender, Dan went from “that is too much for a blender!” to “what’s another $120?” in a hurry). We settled on getting a refurbished 6300 for the same price as a new 5200. The refurbs are usually ones people returned during the 30 day trial. They are checked over, the pitcher and tamper are new. Warranty is 5 years not 7, but that’s still pretty great. The biggest drawback – the shipping time is SO SLOW. I ordered Saturday. Why did it ship TODAY?

I am now up WAY past my 10pm computer off time – but it’s for a good reason. It has been the toughest one of my original goals to keep. I’m not horrible about it – but 10:06 becomes 10:13 and soon it’s not really happening. But – I think this little bit of blogging time was much-needed for my sanity…

OH WAIT – I am squatting 90+% of my weight and bending 50%. Yay me! (That is 5 sets of 5 – not a single rep!)

Filed Under: Everydayness, Whole30, Workouts

Some stuff that happened this week…

April 27, 2013 By 1 Comment

There are all these little things that I keep forgetting to post about…

  • Ursula and I made these lasagna cupcakes. They were delicious (but we skipped the chutney). Wonton wrappers are not gluten free, but are fairly insubstantial. I made my portions with only 2 wrappers (the others had 4). We got 15 little cupcakes – and 2 was a nice portion size.
  • U has been packing her own lunches for like two weeks. WIN!
  • I sort of accidentally bought a NWT Lululemon shirt on eBay (one of those “oh, this bid will never win” bids that was higher than I meant to bid). But, it came today and it’s pretty fab.
  • Pork bellies are now curing. Pink salt did not kill anyone in our house. Except maybe botulism (unlikely, as the bellies had been vacuum packed in our fridge til this morning).
  • Tonight I made a mocha-spice rub for our steaks. I used a recipe from Whole30 which is not online, but it was very similar to this one(which I may actually make next time because I would like to add some chipotle). It was seriously amazing – why don’t I always do that? I am the worst with seasoning things.
  • On the topic of tonight’s dinner, purple asparagus is not really purple after you roast it.

Hrm – thought I had many more interesting things to post about than food, since I have not even felt into food this week. After a few meals out, and some blerghy feelings, I am trying to eat super clean the next few days. Which reminds me…

  • The gluten free pizza at Mellow Mushroom is NOT good. I believe the quote from my lunch companion (after tasting it) was “I cannot believe you ate that”. Fuel is much better. But I am not really missing pizza right now, so I am laying low on the GF pizza. (I think GF pizza could break most people of a pizza habit)
Filed Under: Everydayness, EVOOish, Whole30

Lululemon and Me

April 20, 2013 By 3 Comments

A *bad* thing has happened. After much prodding from Kathryn (I swear, she should be in their commercials) I bought a tank top from Lululemon on Monday night. I wore it Tuesday and Wednesday. (Thursday was my off day, Friday I didn’t make it to the gym because I was being stupid but also because I went to the eye doctor and my eyes would NOT undilate). I want to wear it every day. Even if I don’t work out. It makes me look skinny and strong and amazing. I think it is the best shirt ever made. I know it looks boring in the pictures, but it is not. It is awesome.

Since then, I have spent copious amounts of time studying the Lululemon site (consensus: a lot of their current stuff is hideous, but I still want more. Also, I need their pants), reading Lululemon fan blogs (yes, I know! But anyway, the good ones are here and here - it must not be lucrative as Lululemon bloggers don’t seem to own their own domains), and also looking at other workout clothing lines (consensus: some of it is okay but  does not have omega logos on it). I did order some crops from Yogasmoga because they were running an awesome $50 off promotion (which I managed to post all over Facebook and forums, but somehow not here. Also, yes that is a referral link, not that anyone will use it because the awesome $50 off promotion is over).

I think it was better when I only thought of Lululemon as a place that was vaguely creepy (the Lululemon murders) and made sheer pants. It’s like I want to hate but then I see how good I look in the clothes and I cannot look away.

Filed Under: Everydayness

Working out, and other things

April 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

My Whole30 workouts were pretty sad. When I worked out, it was great, but I did not have it together. But – I have turned it around – last week I worked out SIX days. That is (I think) a personal record. I think 5 is probably a better fit – just because it’s hard to fit in everything I want to do. I need to go back in and add some detailed posts, but here’s an overview…

Sunday (4/7) – StrongLifts Day B

Monday (4/8) – WOD with Kathryn

Tuesday (4/9) – StrongLifts Day A

Wednesday (4/10) – Strong Lifts Day B

Friday – Strong Lifts Day A (with Kira)

Saturday – 3.75 run/walk with Ursula (more walk than run – she was tired)

I am feeling awesome – though lifting 4 days in a row was probably not the greatest idea. I am loving lifting – I like having a plan, I like getting in and out and I feel like a “badbottom” (new catchphrase when lifting at the Y).

Food going well – I’m trying to be pretty strict paleo but with a smidge of dairy. Tonight – that was a small amount of a yogurt based salad dressing. I actually felt pretty good after a mountain of gluten free pizza yesterday – but that is not an amount of cheese I want to be eating regularly. I am also in mad love with these Almond Coco Loco Chobanis as a dessert. I need to find a better coconut (flavored) yogurt so I can make my own. But – what I *really* need to do is make some paleo brownies.

Filed Under: Everydayness, Workouts

Updates soo

April 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Power still out from fire drama. I really wanted to post my before and after pics tonight. Maybe tomorrow?

Filed Under: Everydayness

Computer, Easter, Spring Break…

April 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

So, after cleaning and cooking and prepping like a crazy person, Easter dinner at our house went well. Not hitchless, but well (there was some last minute scrambling, like always).

Everyone left, Dan took a nap, U and I decided to chill in pajamas and my computer died. It’s old, it’s been used heavily, I knew it would need replacing soon. But I was not expecting THAT.

Dan has been awesome and is giving me his laptop (same age but has been used maybe 10% as much as mine) – he mostly uses work laptop and iPad. I’ve been able to boot mine in safe mode to get most things I needed. So – it’s fine (his laptop is a luxury – I was in denial of HOW BAD mine was), but it is still taking copious amounts of time to get things moved and set up. There have been tears – just stupid stuff. Google discontinued calendar sync, so I can no longer use it to sync seamlessly between Outlook and my iPhone (yes, I love Outlook. I KNOW!)

On top of all of this, it’s Spring Break, so I am staying busy doing SUPERFUN things with Ursula. Like taking her to play MagiQuest. (She is now a Master Magi and Master Cartographer as evidenced by the photo below). Because that was SO convenient today. Actually, it was fine. Though I am guessing the Great Wolf Lodge guest WiFi is probably not intended for people to download software and configure computers. It was a better use of time that my usual Monday (and Wednesday) carpool line to pickup to ballet waiting to home (that’s a good hour and a half to two hours).

Hopefully Easter pictures will be coming soon. Ish.

Filed Under: Everydayness
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