I've already gotten started on my Christmas shopping, and it feels good. I picked up some Lisa Frank notepad/pen sets at Target last week to set aside as part of my nieces' presents, and today I got keychain digital cameras for my nephews. My goal is to not have to do any present shopping after Thanksgiving. Ideally I would rather not do any present shopping after Halloween, but knowing my penchant for procrastination, Thanksgiving is a more realistic goal.
March 2007 Archives
We didn't do a lot of celebrating yesterday; we're going to have a family birthday for Mike this weekend when the kids can be there. He requested taquitos for his birthday dinner, so I made a batch when I got home yesterday, and it turned out to be a good thing for me that he had to work late because I was still working on the guacamole and salsa when he got home. He waited patiently until everything was ready, then went upstairs to finish up some work stuff before we went to bed.
For the family birthday I'm going to make lasagna (with ricotta, since that's Mike's favorite), caesar salad, garlic bread, and a lemon pound cake. I've never made a pound cake before, so I'm using my mom's recipe. Hopefully it will turn out as good as hers do.
There are moments when the puppies frustrate me to no end (say, for example, when they squeak insistently to go out like their little bladders are about to pop, but then I end up standing out there for twenty minutes while they leisurely tour our tiny front yard), and then there are the moments when they make me laugh and I forget that I am irritated because we were just outside for the third time in the past thirty minutes. Other moments I just want to grab them up and squeeze them because they are cuteness with whiskers and paws.
Max loves to burrow. Maddy does too, but she's not nearly as dedicated to it as Max is. Max will spend 15 minutes getting her blanket fluffed just right and tucked under her just so. She does this with the sheets if she's on our bed, burrowing under the covers until she's found the perfect spot, then twisting and turning and digging and pulling and tucking until she is nested snugly in a ball in the sheets. Sometimes she skips the sheets and burrows in the pillows instead. (She prefers Mike's side of the bed for this because he has more pillows.) Max slithers in between two pillows, usually knocking one off the bed in the process, then nests until all you can see are two shiny eyes and one black nose peering out at you from a stack of pillows.
Maddy is a vocal dog. She barks more than Max does (at leaves, other dogs, people talking loudly while we're out on the deck, a neighbor who has the unmitigated gall to get out of his car! in front of his house! which, unfortunately - for both him and us - happens to be right next to ours), but more often than not, she makes her thoughts known with other sounds, some of which are next-to-impossible to translate into writing. For example, she complains. Loudly, if it's something she's particularly displeased with. If she's moved from the spot where she's comfortably sleeping, she complains to whoever is moving her, then she huffs as she gets settled into her new spot. When we took her and Max for a visit to my grandparents' house, she complained for the first several miles and probably would have kept it up for the entire trip if Mike hadn't intervened. She also squeaks. If there's food she thinks she's entitled to, if she wants to be picked up, if she needs to go out, or she just wants attention, she'll let you know. Occasionally she'll bark at you if you're not moving fast enough for her liking. And if her vocal expressions don't get your attention, she has plenty of physical ones as well. When I'm cutting up vegetables and her squeaking has failed to make a carrot or tomato migrate down to her, she jumps up and pokes me with her nose. If I'm holding a treat and taking too long to give it to her, she'll do the same thing.
And after typing all this out, it occurred to me that the puppies are quite spoiled.
Happy birthday, sweetie. I hope your day is wonderful, even though you're not feeling well.
Since Mike and my brother-in-law both have birthdays today, we went over to my parents' house last night for a dinner in honor of the birthday boys. Before we left for dinner though, we made time for another Bond movie - The World Is Not Enough (Brosnan) - minus the martinis this time.
We watched Goldfinger and The Living Daylights yesterday, and I like Sean Connery better than Roger Moore (same "70's feel" caveat as before), but Timothy Dalton is now tied with Pierce Brosnan as my favorite Bond. Before starting the movies we picked up martini glasses, a shaker, and some gin and vermouth so Mike could sip martinis while he watched Bond in action. I had a sip of his first one, and I don't think they taste bad, but I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I'll have to try another one when I'm not snarfing down Milk Duds and see if that makes a difference.
On a sidenote, I am both fascinated and confused by the "skin suffocation" death presented in Goldfinger. That was the first I'd ever heard of such a thing. Also, the character names in the earlier Bond movies amuse me to no end. Dr. Goodhead in Moonraker was funny enough, but Goldfinger's Pussy Galore is my favorite thus far. I cracked up every time I heard her referenced, especially when Sean Connery was the one saying her name - something about his accent made it that much funnier.
On Friday I broke down and gave Mike part of his main present (The Best Present Evar = the Ultimate James Bond Collection, volumes 1 - 4) early. He got the first volume on Friday, so we watched The Man With the Golden Gun (Roger Moore) that evening. I gave him the other three volumes on Sunday, and we watched Moonraker (Moore) and Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan). At this point, I like Pierce Brosnan better than Roger Moore, but I can't tell if my opinion is being tainted by the 70's feel of the Roger Moore Bond films or if I just truly think Brosnan is the more appealing of the two.
I have to wait until May to see a neurologist for my constant headaches. I am not a fan of waiting by any stretch of the imagination, but I especially dislike waiting over a month for an appointment when it means I have to put up with headaches until then.
I'm tired and hungry, and today is feeling more blah than yesterday, which is saying a lot. I'm also disappointed because I went to Target yesterday to pick up another part of Mikes birthday present, but they were out of the size he wears, thus temporarily foiling my plan.
I am truly, madly, deeply in love with my new Vans, but we seem to have hit a rough spot in our relationship. After I have worn them for a couple of hours, they start smelling like a skunk. My feet don't smell skunky, but the shoes? Reek.
I only had the time (and energy) for 31.10 minutes / 2.6 miles and sit-ups this morning.
If you have TMJ problems, chewing half a pack of gum one piece right after another is not a good idea. You will more than likely spend the rest of the day in misery, swearing to remember to stay away from gum for the rest of your life.
The entire time I was at work on Friday it was rainy, cold, and overall icky. While I got groceries and picked up the kids for our weekend with them it was still rainy, cold, and icky, and it stayed that way until an hour or so after we got home. Then it got snowy/sleety, cold, and icky. The snow looked pretty in a thin coating on our deck, but I think that's the only place it stuck in our neighborhood.
Our only observance of St. Patrick's Day was the corned beef and cabbage I made for dinner on Saturday. According to the kids, that was the first time they'd ever had that, and their reactions were mixed: H loved the corned beef and potatoes, but hated the cabbage, carrots, and onions (no surprises there), Z said he wasn't too big on the meal because he doesn't like cabbage, N liked it almost as much Mike does, and I'm not sure how A feels about it (I saved him a bowl since he was at work when we ate, but he'd already eaten when he got home that evening).
Over the weekend we finished watching the first season of Buffy and started on the second. I always forget to what degree I love that show until I'm actually watching it. Even though the acting isn't the best in the beginning (see also: Boreanaz, David) the Buffy/Angel relationship never fails to suck me in emotionally. That relationship is a major part of what made seasons 1 - 3 my favorites. As we watched When She Was Bad yesterday I cringed every time she snapped into him and teared up when he told her he missed her, and it's only going to go downhill as we watch the rest of the second season, particularly What's My Line: Parts 1 and 2, Surprise, Innocence, and Becoming: Parts 1 and 2 (some of my favorite episodes, hands down). They were painful to watch when they first aired, and they've been even more painful to watch every time I've seen them since then because now I know how it all ends - I'm no longer able to cling to the hope that the writers will fix it all in the end, that Buffy and Angel will somehow find a way to stay together. Thank God for fanfic.
31.10 minutes, 3.10 miles. I also did sit-ups, leg extensions, and used the leg press.
and I am hating it. I don't like being so exhausted that I can't muster up enough energy to get to the gym in the morning. The past couple of days have been beyond ridiculous, and I'm looking forward to working out tomorrow and Sunday to compensate for the missed days.
There was no gym for us this morning. We went to bed at our regular time last night but were woken up by a panicked phone call from N - a situation had come up that he didn't know how to handle. Even though things turned out not to be the complete emergency we thought they were when we first left the house, it still took us quite a while to unwind and get back to bed when we got home, and neither of us were in any shape this morning to get out of bed and get to the gym by 4. The result: I'm really dragging right now, and I'm fairly certain the late night/no workout combination is responsible. Working out first thing in the morning really energizes me for the rest of the day, and I'm missing that this morning. I like my post-workout mindset much better than I like my no-workout-at-all mindset. I won't be going to be super-early (read: 7pm) because N's got a concert tonight, but I think I'll be going to bed as soon as we get home from the concert.
Krakatoa is at the top of my Villainess "to buy" list.
My sister got a promotion that is putting her farther along the path to management in her company, and I am immensely proud of her. Because of the promotion, she has a week of training at the beach in May, so I am also immensely jealous.
I bought The Best Present Evar* yesterday for Mike's birthday, and I just got an e-mail letting me know it shipped this morning. I'm going to wrap it and give it to him as soon as it comes in because there is no way I'm going to make it through a week and a half without telling him exactly what it is. And for me, the surprise is part of the fun of present-giving.
Nabbalicious has a super-neat pantry, and after reading about it, I'm embarrassed to remember how mine looks right now.
Even though yesterday's weather was fantastic, I thought I had heard wrong this morning when I heard that today's high is supposed to be 80, but apparently that is indeed the case. And to think I decided not to wear sandals today because I didn't know if my toes would be warm enough.
I am not terribly thrilled with our new neighbors. The townhouse to the right of ours was vacant until last month, and the people who moved in have picked up where the neighbors on the left mercifully left off. I understood the noise the week/weekend they moved in. You've got furniture to place and rearrange, boxes to move and unpack, pictures to hang, etc. I did all that (except for the hanging of the pictures - I am not that grown up yet) close to a year ago and the memories are still quite fresh, so I sympathize. I do not, however, understand why they are still thumping and banging and being quite noisy now, almost a full month later. If they had a picture-hanging marathon two weeks ago, why do they need to do another one? How many times can one rearrange one's bedroom in a month? And why must they do all of this (okay, MOST of this) at night? Obviously they do not realize they moved in next to Oscar the Grouch.
* I would elaborate, but he has been known to read here once in a while, so the specifics will have to wait until after he gets that part of his present.
I love the new Neechee shirt, and I really like the graphics on Emily's Ace. The Bad Kittys is neat too, but I'm disappointed that neither of the tank tops were quite what I wanted.
30 minutes / 2.61 miles, and, like yesterday, I'm feeling fantastic this morning. I went to bed a bit late, but since I'm getting into the habit of getting right up when the alarm goes off, there's not really time to talk myself out of going to the gym or to focus on feeling tired. I really like our new routine.
31 minutes / 2.51 miles. I also added in leg extensions and bicep curls this morning. I'm a little achy and a little crampy, but, otherwise, I feel fantastic.
41.11 minutes / 4.06 miles, and it's a good thing I did that earlier this morning, because now I've got a migraine. All of my energy is going into not erping on the keyboard. Bleh.
I've been using vanilla soy milk in my oatmeal for the past couple of weeks, and like the title says - it's not awful, but it isn't life-changing either. I know it's healthy for me, and I'm happy I didn't hate it like I was worried I would, but I wish it were something I was more enthusiastic about. I'd like to be a little more "OMG, it's the best product I've found this year!" instead of "meh."
We went to bed a little later than normal last night, and even though I slept well, it would have been very easy to stay in bed snuggled up against Mike and play hooky from the gym and work. I don't do well with afternoon workouts though, so I pushed myself to at least go in for a little bit and did 16.03 minutes / 1.55 miles today. It's certainly not the 30 minutes I wanted to keep as my daily minimum, but I am happy that I at least went in and did something.
I wasn't thrilled with the way I was before Mike and I started going to the gym regularly again, and now I'm even less pleased than I was before. I don't consider myself fat or overweight, but I'm not at all happy with how flabby my body has gotten over the past few years. The problem is that I want instant results. I'm eating better and trying to work out consistently (just cardio right now, but I plan to add weights back in soon), and I want to see that it's paying off RIGHT NOW. I don't like the stretch marks, I hate the way my jeans fit, and I don't like waiting for results.
Mike and I still made it to the gym this morning, even though we were both dragging.
30.05 minutes / 2.69 miles.
I was poking around DRNA.org earlier to try to find out an update on Dory, and I came across poor little Buddy. He was the same age as the puppykins, and even though his people did everything they could as soon as they knew he had a problem, it wasn't enough. They had to choose to put him down before the paralysis suffocated him. Just reading about it makes my heart hurt - I can't imagine actually going through it with a pet. Jesus.
On a somewhat happier note, I got an e-mail from Dory's foster mom with some pictures of Dory playing with their two doxies, and she said that it was okay for me to send Dory things now and then. I can't give her a home, but it helps knowing that I can send her treats or toys or blankets or whatever and help make her life a little better.
And now I'm going to go hug the puppykins a little tighter.
I noticed a little bit of blood in the sink when I was brushing my teeth this morning, but I didn't think much of it until I noticed an odd sensation a few minutes later, followed by the taste of blood. I guess my nose was bleeding straight into my mouth, because I looked like a vampire that had just fed.
PS: Blood + Listerine is not the best combination evar.
I was taking care of some dishes last night so I'd have a clean work area to make salsa and guacamole for Mike later when I heard a dripping sound. I looked around to see where it was coming from, and it turned into a steady trickling sound just as I looked down to see water steadily flowing out of the dishwasher. Since it wasn't running at the time, I didn't understand why there'd be water coming from it. I grabbed a dishtowel to put on the ever-growing puddle on the floor, and opened the dishwasher to find several inches of murky cinnamon-scented water underneath the bottom rack. I grabbed a cup and bailed a few cupfuls of the water out, hoping that would at least keep the water from overflowing any more, before running downstairs to the laundry room to grab an armful of grub towels. Our kitchen has wood floors, so I really didn't want to leave the water standing there for any longer than necessary. I raced back upstairs to find the water still pouring out, so I put down a layer of towels and went back to bailing. When the water finally leveled out I started feeling around in the murk, trying to figure out where the water came from and why it wasn't draining normally. That was an exercise in futility, partly because I was a little hesitant to poke my fingers into holes I couldn't even see clearly. Finally I got online and looked up the manual for the dishwasher, paying particular attention to the "standing water" part of the troubleshooting guide, where I learned that some dishwashers drain into garbage disposals, and that if the disposal is full or clogged, the dishwasher won't drain. After reading that, I poured boiling water down the disposal and ran it a couple of times before trying the dishwasher to see if it would drain. Thankfully, that did the trick. (Apparently, the disposal didn't like the baked apples I ran through it just minutes before the dripping started, hence the cinnamony water.) I was just wiping up the last of the water when Mike got home, so he'll have to wait till tonight for his salsa and guacamole.
I think it undermines my workout efforts if I keep giving my body crap to work with, so when Mike and I started going back to the gym, I decided that it's time for me to start making healthier eating choices as well. Part of that decision is a commitment to bringing real food with me to work instead of relying on microwave popcorn (Pop Secret's 100-calorie snack bags - I love them, but they're not the same as fruits, vegetables, etc.) to get me through the day. I bought this awesome lunch jar in September, but it sat in one of the cabinets in our kitchen until I pulled it out last Tuesday to use it for the first time. This is only the second week of the healthier eating, so I'm sure I'll be changing things up somewhat as time progresses, but the following is what I'm currently doing:
At the beginning of the week I fix a small container of soy milk to keep in the fridge at work so I can have milk with my oatmeal without having to dragging an extra container back and forth every day, and each morning I make a serving of oatmeal and put it in the largest container. There's an insulated container that can safely hold soup or other liquids, but because of its size I use it to hold a snack mix I make out of whole wheat Chex, Nature's Path Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola cereal, and whatever else I feel like throwing in (last week I added honey-wheat pretzels, this week it's pistachios). I use another container for a bagel, and the smallest container is for whatever else I may need that day. Today it's got chunky peanut butter to go on the apples I brought in, yesterday I used it to hold scrambled egg whites, and last week it held leftover cherry cheesecake. I've also been bringing in fruit (this week is bananas, apples, and nectarines), a FruitaBü, and a bag of Quaker "mini delights."
Mike went with me to the gym this morning, which was a nice change. My iPod shuffled out some good songs from my workout mix so I did 32.11 minutes/3.09 miles before we left, and I feel much better today than I did yesterday. It was easier for me to keep going for the 30 minutes, and I'm more energized post-workout too.
My original plan was to take it easy and just do 20 minutes on the elliptical today since I was dragging. However, when I got to the gym I decided I'd rather make 30 minutes my daily minimum, so I put in 30 minutes/2.56 miles before calling it quits. Mike is probably working late today, so I doubt I'll be going in this afternoon to lift weights as I had initially planned.
Last night was a rough one. I fell asleep quickly after Mike and I went to bed, but I had a hard time staying asleep. Our house was chilly all day yesterday, so Mike turned the thermostat up from 71 to 73. It didn't seem to make much of a difference during the afternoon and evening, but it certainly was noticeable after we went to bed. I woke up sweating several times, in spite of only being covered by the sheet, and around 11:30 I had to get up and get more water since I'd already emptied my glass (I always have a glass of ice water on my nightstand when I go to bed). While I was up, I went ahead and turned the thermostat back down to 71. Who knew two damn degrees could make such a difference? Things were a little better after that, but by the time the house cooled down to a more comfortable temperature, it was time to get up. Thanks to my restless night I got up a little late and was running a tad behind. Mike patiently waited for me though, and we both managed to get out the door only a few minutes late.
This weekend wasn't a particularly smooth one. In hindsight, I should have realized that it wasn't off to a good start when my driver's side mirror fell off while I was in traffic on the way home Friday afternoon. Thankfully I was able to get a replacement from a junkyard on Saturday, and in 30 minutes they had installed it for me for less than half of what my regular auto shop quoted me. I did go to the gym Saturday as I mentioned earlier, but I skipped Sunday, and, again with the hindsight, I wish I'd just pushed myself to go then too. I'm not likely to bounce out of bed and perk my way to my gym clothes in the mornings, but once I'm up and moving, I'm ready to go, and I feel like that would've been the case Sunday if I had just made myself get up when the alarm went off. Hopefully I will remember this for next weekend when I'm trying to talk myself out of the gym in favor of staying in bed and sleeping in. The weekend ended with me feeling like I hadn't accomplished much of what I had planned to, and while I would have thought that feeling would motivate me to get stuff taken care of this week, so far all it's motivated me to do is curl up on the couch with my DS and the puppykins. Too bad I can't clean our shower or wash the laundry like that.
Yesterday the kids' mom called to say she was sick and ask if we could keep the kids another night, so I didn't get a workout in this morning. I didn't go to the gym yesterday either, but I plan to pick back up tomorrow morning. I definitely feel better after I've gone, even if I'm not initially enthused about going. I went to the gym Monday-Saturday last week, and my goal is to go tomorrow-Sunday next week, then pick back up again the following Monday. I'll probably take a day off on the weekends, but ideally I'll be doing cardio every day. This week I'm going in with Mike in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday to lift weights while he's doing his workout.
Dear XM,
In addition to the examples referenced in Tuesday's letter, please add Daughtry and "It's Not Over" to the "not Squizz-worthy" list.
Thanks,
Kate
I was up until 11 last night making a cherry cheesecake for my sister's birthday, and I wasn't too thrilled when the alarm clock went off this morning. I was tempted to just go back to bed after Mike left for work, but I pushed myself and went to the gym. I put in 40 minutes/3.15 miles and felt great afterwards. I was even disappointed because I had to leave when I did. This week has really confirmed that I love going to the gym first thing in the morning. I have more energy throughout the day, and I'm noticing that my mood is better overall.
